It's been a while (6 months!) since my last update, but I've made a lot of progress in some of my goals, mainly the financial ones!
Financial
2/11: 75% of the way there! Woo Hoo!
6/11: Savings account balance: $3175.48 Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to wait until September to officially set a new savings goal, but with automatic savings I should be at around $3500 even by then :)
*I almost forgot about my bank that I mentioned in the "Making Savings Fun" post, we've raised about $54 in change lol
12/11: On December 1st I broke the $5000 mark in my savings account!
Have a "no-spend weekend" every month.
2/11: I started off well, but I didn't plan ahead so some weekends I needed to buy groceries, ran out of supplies around the house, or was too lazy to cook.
6/11: Honestly I haven't been thinking about this goal at all, but in reviewing my bank statements it looks like I've been unintentionally meeting it. Every month it seems i hit a period where I go about 10 days straight without spending money, now if I can keep stretching that...
12/11: Goal #fail. I forgot about this one.
2/11: Doubled it starting February 1st!
12/11: *NOTE I did increase my contribution amount in July.
2/11: About this one...I discovered online shopping over the Christmas holiday and spent more than I should. Everything I put on my credit card in November and December I paid off by the end of the month...but I didn't increase the total amount I paid each of those months so the balance remained pretty stable. On the bright side, I've revved up my monthly payment since the new year (and contributed part of my tax refund to the credit card) so I'm on-track to meet my goal, probably even hit it earlier.
6/11: I haven't used my credit card at all since the last update, and with the amount I'm paying monthly my bank's paydown estimator shows that I can pay it off in February 2012. 7 months ahead of schedule!
12/11: If you've been reading the blog then you know that at the beginning of November I had a $0 balance on my credit card!
Set a wedding budget (and date) with an action plan for saving the money to pay for it by January 1, 2011.
2/11: I'm a slacker, haven't gotten to this yet.
6/11: I've decided to postpone this one. My main focus now is keeping the relationship strong, ring shopping (exciting!), and saving as much money as I can. Once I'm officially engaged then I can start the planning.
12/11 My, my, my! So much has changed since 6/11! I got engaged in August, then in October I finally created my wedding budget/cost estimate. I haven't set a plan to find the money to pay for it yet, but I have ramped up my savings each month. I'll talk more about my savings in another post.
Personal Growth
Read 1 book a month from now until December 2011.
2/11: So far, so good! For February, I'm reading "The Millionaire Next Door."
6/11: Fail. For some reason it took a lot for me to get through "The Millionaire Next Door." I didn't finish it until the end of March. I've started 2 books since then but I'm nowhere near close to finishing either of them.
12/11 I've only read about 3 books since my last update. I just started reading
The Real Cost of Living: Making the Best Choices for You, Your Life, and Your Money, so my mini-goal is to finish reading it by the end of the year.
Identify 1 skill that I have and create an action plan (certification? Books/other resources? Practice?) with a timeline to develop it.
2/11: I've narrowed down a few ideas/skills, done a ton of research, and came up with some action steps, BUT I haven't set it to a timeline yet.
6/11: When I originally set this goal, my intent was to develop a skill to turn into a side hustle or make me more marketable for a career change. But over time I've started to enjoy my current job more and realized that there are more personal aspects of my life that need to be developed, so now I'm choosing to focus on my health, motivation to finish things that I start, and developing a selfless attitude. I have a fitness plan, but with the other two areas my approach (for now) is to just be aware of my behavior in daily situations and modify my actions as they occur.
12/11 My focus has not changed much since June. I am currently involved in a holiday health challenge with a family member, and have done some sort of charitable donation each month since August.
I'm thinking of creating a new set of goals for the New Year. I'll be sure to share those in January!
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