Insane Random Ramblings

Well all of the hype about the New Year is finally over. That means another year of setting resolutions that we may or may not meet. In any event, here’s my list in no particular order:

1. Graduate from school. I only need 2 classes so I should be done by summer. My advisor messed up my requirements and I can’t get one of the classes that I need or I would be done in the spring. Either way, I’m done this year.
2. Lose 1 pants size. Here I go with this again. I really do think this is doable. I plan on being a size smaller by the end of June. My ultimate goal is 2 sizes smaller but I’ll take 1 size per year.
3. Save $1400. Not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things. Since I spent most of my cash on school, I need to build the reserves back up. Most of this money will come from savings. Some of it will come from my slush fund. I always over-budget things like home insurance, so once the bill is paid, any extra money goes into the slush/savings fund.
4. Pay between $310-475 on my car. I didn’t even come close to this goal this year. I plan on paying a small amount each month just on the principal of the car.
5. Write more. A lot more. I have 2 stories that are brewing and I want them done this year. Once they’re done, I’ll assess where I’m at and decide whether I want to continue writing or not.
6. Bump my 401k by at least 1% this year. When I get my raise, I’ll add the money. My goal is to raise my contributions by 1% per year until I max out.
7. Pay off my credit card by December. The bill is less than $1k but with so many other places that my money is going, this may be a stretch. 0% interest really helps.
8. Work towards my net worth being 10k. My net worth was 7k last year but I spent my cash, the economy tanked and I didn’t do an update after March. This is the year I get back on track.

There you have it. Not too lofty but very challenging. Here’s hoping everyone makes their 2009 goals!

Well the year is rapidly drawing to a close. This is a update on how I did with this years resolutions.

1. Yes/No - I did save the amount that I wanted but I had to later spend it for school.
2. No - I won’t graduate in 2008.
3. No - I was supposed to pay $469.08 off of the principal of my car. I didn’t even come close to that amount, it was more like $75. I also have no idea why I made it such an odd amount.
4. Yes - did get a new job in March of this year so I was right on target with that goal.
5. No - I didn’t increase my net worth to 10k. Part of it was because I spent almost all of my available cash, but the economy tanking had a lot to do with it as well.
6. Yes/No - I did lose a pants size, that’s the yes. But there’s also a no because I didn’t get to the size I wanted. I wanted to go from a 14 to a 12. However I started at a size 16. I didn’t realize this until well after the fact. Anyway, I did lose a size and get to a 14 so I did make some progress.

Not a total failure but not where I wanted to be either. I do know that I will work much harder to make my 2009 goals come true. I’ll be posting the new resolutions tomorrow.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Tomorrows post will be where I ended up in 2008, which isn’t very pleasant. Then on New Year’s Day, I will post my 2009 resolutions. Now I need to spend the rest of today drafting all of my numbers and figures. What fun, not!

I make resolutions every year and don’t meet them all. I try to make 5 but I usually only accomplish one. Last year was 1 out of 5 and that was my weight loss goal to lose one pants size. I’m trying that again this year as well along with 5 other ones I wrote about in my post 2008 New Years Resolutions. I don’t generally fail in January though. But I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen this year.

The specific goal is graduating college this year. I dropped my class this semester because it was way too much work. I was hoping to pick up 2 classes in the summer and 2 in the fall in order to get done this year. I just looked over the summer schedule and there’s only 1 class I can take. All of the classes I need to graduate are offered but they’re only available during the day. I work full-time so I can’t take day classes only night ones.

I’m not surprised that there aren’t a lot of classes offered at night. I mean who really wants to be stuck in a classroom at night during the middle of summer? I seriously doubt if I’ll be able to graduate now. I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle 3 classes in the fall. That’s assuming that 3 will be available at night that I can take. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Elizabeth over a Table4Five.net has a blogroll going to encourage bloggers to work towards their New Years’ Resolutions. This way we can cheer and root for each other to reach our goals.

If you get a chance, check it out and join the fun!

Well I finally decided to write down my resolutions. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Save $500. Yep this was a resolution for this year but I had to pay for school so I used that money. This $500 can be cash and/or savings bonds.

2. Graduate from school. I need 4 classes and I want to do everything I can to finish by this December. The only way I won’t graduate is if classes are unavailable, I’ll find the money any way I can.

3. Pay at least $469.08 off of the principal of my car. If I pay this amount each year I can cut my car payment from 5 years to 4 years. I’ll pay a little each month and use a portion of any income tax money that I may get.

4. Get a promotion or a new job by March. I’m waiting for a promotion but if it doesn’t materialize by the end of the month I’ll start looking outside of my area. I should mention that my “promotion” has been in the works since late October so I’m tired of waiting.

5. Work towards my new net worth goal of 10k. I won’t reach that this year but I want to make some progress towards it. Right now I’m at 7k but I have to spend some of my savings on school so it will go down by the end of the month.

6. Lose another pants size by the end of the year. This was the only goal I actually met and maintained last year so I want to do it again. My ultimate goal is 2 sizes smaller but I’ll be happy with 1 size smaller.

Here’s hoping everyone meets their resolutions this year!