This post combined my normal balance sheet post with a midyear update toward all of my 2012 personal finance goals. Here is my YTD balance sheet:
You can also view my balance sheet for each quarter since September 2010.
Overall I’ve been making good progress toward my financial goals (as you’ll see below), but I haven’t been achieving my personal goals related to health or the blog.
Finance
#1: Save $5,000 toward new car
I’ve managed to save $3,221 this year toward a new car, which is 58.6% of my goal for the year. I feel comfortable with this amount. My cars has shown a few issues over time, but with $4,221 saved (started the year with $1,000 saved) and I am confident that if my car were to have a major issue I could go and purchase a used 2005 Ford Focus or something. Losing my car will no longer be a financial emergency.
#2 & 3: Save $5,000 toward wedding and $5,000 toward honeymoon
I’ve combined these two wedding-related goals and have managed to saved $5,500 toward them, which is 55% of my goal for the year. I would like to be further ahead on this because the wedding isn’t going to be cheap, but I just haven’t gotten there.
#4: Save $5,000 to contribute to my Roth IRA
I made a $2,000 contribution and have saved an additional $265 for my Roth. This goal is technically below the 50% mark at 46%, but I am fine with this because I’ve also started contributing to my Roth 401(k) at work. I have $1,276 in my Roth 401(k), which puts me well over the 50% mark if you combine the two. I still plan on making the full $5k contribution to my Roth IRA, but I just wanted to clarify that I’m not concerned about being below 50% for this goal.
#5: Save at least $10,000 toward a house
I haven’t managed to make any progress toward saving for a house. I was hoping that I could complete my other goals by August and then really work toward saving for a house, but I’m not sure if that will happen.
#6: Earn an average of $1,500 per month in side income
My side income was doing well, but has had a few setbacks in the past couple of months. I think that has contributed some to my lack of progress in net worth. I continue to work on this as much as I can.
Blog-Related
#7: Publish an average of 5 posts per month
I’ve been doing great keeping up with this except for last month while I was on vacation in Italy and Switzerland. I plan to keep this up and exceed this number in the future. Ideally I’d like to be posting 10-15 times per month.
#8: Monetize my blog
I haven’t done a great job of monetizing the blog. I still have a way to go before there is real potential here.
Personal
#9: Lose 52 pounds
I’ve utterly failed at this, losing only 8 pounds for the year. While 8 pounds is obviously better than zero, it’s nowhere near the 26 I should have lost by now to reach my goal. With my wedding a year a way, it’s time to really focus on this one. If I can lose an additional 20 to 25 pounds by the end of the year I’ll be very satisfied.
#10: Track and report on my progress every month
I’ve done a great job of tracking my progress and keeping myself responsible. I’ll keep this up for the rest of the year because it helps. It helps the most when I’m failing because it reminds me of my goals and where I’m slacking.
Overall, while I’m not surpassing my goals like I was last year, I’m making good progress overall toward my financial, personal and blog goals. There’s still work to do, but it’s all good stuff.
