Progress with 2009 goals
I haven’t done an awesome job with my weekly accountability goals the past month, but I’ve been 75% there. It occurred to me while reading on the airplane that I’m yet to really go back and check on the goals I put down in late December to see how things are going with the BIG picture. Its easy to get focused on the week to week and lose sight of the big picture….so I checked in and here are my observations:
* My non-business related goals are going pretty well. We took a family vacation to Orlando and we put a deposit down for a 5-night trip to Jamaica with one of my girlfriends and her family (Beaches all-inclusive family resort – cannot wait!). I looked into guitar lessons and I’ve found some affordable lessons with the local community college, but the time conflicts with my hubby’s work schedule. I’m determined to get started on lessons though before the end of this year and just need to find an affordable way to get it done. Hmm…maybe I should try Craigslist!
* My REI goals are going ok, but not stellar. We haven’t done our first wholesale deal yet BUT we have a mentor in this area and we’re making offers every week to lock in our first, second, third wholesale deals. We have one rental property (goal is to have 2 by end of year) and we have rehabbed a property that we’re working to sell currently (we want to do 2 of these this year too). We haven’t secured any private money investors yet, but that’s in progress too. I originally thought we may get started on doing some short sales this summer, but I’m not looking to do that until we’ve successfully wholesaled some deals. We can only focus on so many things at once.
* Personal (not business) financial goals are going really well — we’re on target to only have our mortgage debt remaining within a couple months and have a fully funded emergency fund before the end of the year. We’ve been at this point before, but our emergency fund was spent on replacing the car that was out of commission and then we added new debt (tsk, tsk) to furnish our house when we purchased a couple years ago. We’re following the Dave Ramsey plan…so we’re currently on Baby Step 2 and will have Baby Step 3 completed by end of year. It’s because of this that we’re comfortable making the plans for the awesome Jamaica vacation for early next year which will be a bit of a celebratory thing for us — plus a 10 year anniversary gift to ourselves 
. If (actually WHEN) business financial goals are making good progress, our personal finance goals will be accelerated in a major way so I’m really excited to watch God work as we stay focused and take steps forward.
Our plan is to review against our overall goals on a quarterly basis, but I really want to ensure that my weekly goals are lining up and supporting the overall goals. If you haven’t checked in on the progress against your goals yet, I strongly encourage you to do a quick check too!
Related posts:
- REI Goals for 2009 – and happy new year!
- Determining your goals – 7 questions to ask yourself
- Dreamboard done!
- Optimum balance
Category: Goal setting, Inspiration
I”ve got to get me that Dave Ramsey book. I actually ordered it from amazon about a month ago but the retailer had a fight with amazon and canceled all orders. doh!
I should get that book too. Paying off debt is on the top of my list to accomplish. We are also making a dent but we’re not close to completing. It will be done in 2 years though : )
Keep at is Shae!
Eileen
Yeah, its an excellent one. I go back and re-read some of the chapters every once in a while!
Ditto to Dave Ramsey! He is awesome!
I like the idea of guitar lessons. I was thinking of taking up a different instrument myself – I played the trumpet in high school, but I’m leaning towards the flute.
Ingrid, I played clarinet for 8 years and playing the guitar is like taking a trip to a foreign country and not speaking a word of the language. That makes it exciting and frustrating at the same time. I tried self-teaching via DVD last year and it was a flop so I’m going to get some real help this year!
Great to hear about your progress, Shae! I hear you on the different systems – I tried to learn them all once, got burned out and decided to just focus on a few. There is a lot of hype about short sales – I know people who do them and that’s all they do, it does take time and lots of patience
Thanks mobilehomegurl! Yes, its easy to get burned out on all the education and various systems….you can start to suffer from analysis paralysis. What I’ve realized is that people have success with ALL of the various ways of doing REI…but they specialize and become experts at one, two, MAYBE three methods and then focus and kick butt.
I’m going to have to jump on the bandwagon and get the Dave Ramsey book, too.
Congrats on the vacay- I think it’s really important to reward yourself every once in awhile for a job well done.
You guys are kicking butt- keep up the good work.
Thanks for the encouragement, Steph! Oh, and Steph I think you’ll really enjoy Dave’s writing style too. He can be slightly obnoxious but I think he’s hilarious and can appreciate his no nonense/pull no punches approach.
[...] $450 which will mean that we have officially paid off all personal debt other than our mortgage. Right on time as scheduled! [...]