Goals, Goals, Goals...

I haven't always set goals. There were days in my life when I just went with the flow and used the mantra, "What will be, will be." You can read how our life worked on this mantra here.:-)

 Goals help focus me in a direction. They give me a challenge to aspire to meet, but there is a problem. They stress me out:-) Goals not only give me something to work towards, but they also create an expectation within myself to meet said challenge. I'm competitive in nature, and I would rather not lose at my own game;-)

Here are last year's goals Alex and I set together. The last update is from September. 

1. Get PMI taken off of our Home Loan -Done in February!

 2. Pay off Alex's small student loan ($641.00 to be exact)-Done in June!

3. Save enough money to replace Jolie's car by November 1, 2013 in cash! I was able to add to this fund in September, and we are up to 47% of our target at the moment.  If I add in the value of our car, which we will either sell or trade in, I am up to 67% of our target.  Not bad!  Accountability sure helps the results;-)  Hopefully next month I'll have good news too~ 


 We conquered the first two pretty quickly, but the third goal was boisterous to say the least.  I got frustrated with it, and I just quit on it for a while. Life happened, I threw my hands up in the air, and I believe my exact words were, "Goals are stupid!"

It is not true.  Goals are not actually stupid.  They simply place the expectation in front of me, so I am more prompted to take actions to move myself in that direction.

So here we go for 2013!  I need a challenge, I guess;-)

1. Save enough money to replace Jolie's car by August 1, 2013 in cash!
Currently, this fund is at 59%.  If you look up above, you will notice it is actually 8% lower than in September.  Yep, that's right!  I borrowed from the car fund for various car repairs on both vehicles.  Life happens.  Sad face, but it is true. Only 41% to go!  We'll be positive~

2. Go on one family vacation for at least 5 days out of the state of Kansas paid for in cash!
We didn't go on a vacation last year, and Rowan noticed.  We're going-somewhere!  Anywhere but here would be fine by me:-)  

3. Read 23 books from January 1 until December 31!  
This is very attainable, and I love to read as long as I have something good on hand;-)
 
That's it!  I'll update monthly for accountability.  That helps me know I'm being monitored;-)