A goal really doesn’t mean much if you don’t measure yourself against it. I think that this is what often differentiates those “New Year’s Resolutions” from real goals. So in my traditional fashion, I have to evaluate the progress I made in 2012 against the goals I had set out for myself. Below are my original goals and how I managed to do.
Finance
#1: Save $5,000 toward new car
I was able to fully meet my car savings goal and in October I purchased a used 2003 Infiniti G35. The car had a hefty amount of miles on it (140k+), which made its price align with my savings. I’ve been very pleased with the move and the car is a fantastic upgrade from my 1999 Ford Escort.
#2 & 3: Save $10,000 toward wedding/honeymoon
We saved more than $10,000 toward our wedding during the year. In addition to our own savings, we received some money from our parents, and we have also spent a decent chunk on deposits for photographer, venue, DJ, caterer, and wedding coordinator. At this time I believe that we’ve saved enough for the wedding and at most we may need to throw a couple of thousand extra at the wedding but it shouldn’t be anything major.
#4: Save $5,000 to contribute to my Roth IRA
Not only did I save the $5k toward my IRA, but we also made the $5k contribution toward my fiance’s.
#5: Save at least $10,000 toward a house
This was definitely a stretch goal and it ended up being too much of a stretch for us to achieve. However, in September we had had nothing saved toward a house and at that time I had hoped to get $2,000 saved by the end of the year. We ended up saving $4,000 by the end of the year, which gives us some great momentum going into 2013!
#6: Earn an average of $1,500 per month in side income
I did even better than expected during 2012! I was able to bring in just over $2,000 gross per month from my side business. This extra income is key to use achieving our financials goals.
Blog-Related
#7: Publish an average of 5 posts per month
Some months I hit this goal and other months I failed hard. But in the end, when it comes down to reaching my financials goals or blogging about them, I have to choose reaching my financials goals. It’s tough to juggle my day job, side job, and personal life. Sometimes I have to force myself to stop working and enjoy life.
#8: Monetize my blog
I actually did well with this goal for the first few months, but then I made the decision to remove ads from the blog. Until I have the traffic that will bring in large sums of money I don’t really want to clutter up the website with a bunch of ads.
Personal
#9: Lose 52 pounds
I did extremely poorly against this goal and my efforts are going to have to be a lot more consistent during 2013 so that I can fit into my wedding dress…err…my wedding vest.
#10: Track and report on my progress every month
Some months I talked about each goal, and others I didn’t. When my weight loss wasn’t going as well as expected I kinda stopped talking about it. But I always kept the sidebar tracking updated each month.
At the beginning of the year I expected my savings goals to help bring me to $65k net worth and I made it. This number includes my fiance’s Roth IRA, but I think it’s still valid for two reasons:
1. We contributed $5k to it this year, so it’s really only a $10k addition from our combining finances.
2. We saved $10k toward our wedding that is now being cancelled out when calculating our Net Worth (Wedding Savings = Wedding Liability).
I’m currently working on putting together my goals for 2013 and am looking forward to sharing them with you shortly. Let me know in the comments how you did during 2012 and what your expectations are for 2013.
