For my 2012 goals, I made way too many goals and only did well in two areas. I did great with my financial goals, good with my blogging goals and massively sucked with my personal goals. Why is it so hard to put myself first? I’m sure I’m not the only one who has this problem.
This year, I’m going to take a different approach to my goals. Instead of making a ton of lofty goals, I’m going to make less and include a plan to achieve them.
Goal #1 Save up the cash for a Second Car
I had been debating which financial goal to tackle first and it came down to saving for a second car and saving for a bathroom makeover. They were both driving me nuts, but my husband’s mention of having no way to get to work if something happened to our other car made it the winner.
While I would still like to get the bathtub swapped out this year, it’s a secondary priority. We can still save a little toward it, but the second car comes first.
My honey’s mom sent us $500 worth of Home Depot gift cards for Christmas this year (woohoo!). We’re going to use those to buy a lawnmower and grab a few small things we need from Home Depot, then the rest will be saved for the bathroom makeover.
The other Christmas money we got will be put toward the second car instead of more presents like we used to do.
My parents are going to be giving me their extra car, sometime this summer I believe. It has a ton of miles and seems to eat up a lot of their money, so I’ll use this as a trade-in (if they don’t mind) toward a newer car with less miles.
Goal #2 Minimize, Digitize, Organize and Go Paperless
I’ve been trying to be more minimalist forever now, but never seem to get there. We were pretty bad off (had tons of stuff) before I started, so I guess I’ve made a lot of progress. I’m just really bad at finishing things; I start new things all the time, but that’s usually all I do.
This year, I would like to at least tackle half of this stuff. I think that itself would make a dramatic change and motivate me to continue the process.
Books: I’m hoping to sell off most of our books and use the money to purchase ebooks of the ones we read over and over again. My husband has a nook and I have an iPad, so it just makes more sense. I love holding a physical book and getting swept away, but it gets easier reading ebooks the more you do it.
Movies: I’m looking into Apple TV, but I’m not sure how to get our movies into Itunes from my PC. Then, what happens if I have to reformat my computer? Does Itunes keep a back-up of stuff we add on there or do I have to back it up myself? That would be a lot of gigabites if I had to back them up. Anybody done this with a PC?
Photos: We rarely look at any of our photos, they just sit in a box in the closet. I would like to scan them and then just make a photo book with mini pictures. They would still be on the computer for when we want to browse through them and I would like to scan them at a high enough quality that they could be reprinted if we ever wanted them. We have probably around 1,500+ photos, so it will take a long time. Anybody know what to scan them as to get the quality high enough to print?
Papers: I save everything! It’s crazy. All the stuff our daughter makes, cards from people, paperwork and pretty much anything that invokes a memory. I need to get all this stuff scanned and organized so that I can find it when I want to. I really suck with digital information, I can’t seem to come up with a system and go through all the older stuff from previous attempts.
Goal #3 Take Time For Myself
I’m pretty sure this one is going to mean that I don’t turn on my computers/iPad until I’ve gotten personal priorities out of the way. This will be the hardest of all my goals for 2013. I’m always online, even if I don’t actually get anything done. I always get so busy with other stuff that I keep putting off things I need to do for myself and fun time. Whats fun time? It’s that bad; I don’t even remember what I used to do for fun.
Not that I don’t enjoy blogging, but there’s so much to it that I’m always behind. Then I put off doing other stuff because I can’t help trying to at least catch up. Forget getting ahead.
Things I would like to do for myself include:
- Getting back into exercising. I feel so awesome when I get regular exercise. Plus, I need to lose a little weight.
- Taking the time to get cleaned up even if I won’t be leaving the house that day. The great thing about blogging is that you can work in your pajamas (or even naked) if you wanted to…but I’m taking it to extremes.
- Reading for fun. There are so many books I want to read, but I never seem to have the time. I love reading and getting lost in a book, it’s like being in a whole other world.
- Give painting another go. I have everything I need to paint, including like 200+ acrylic paints. But I never take the time to do it anymore, I used to and it felt great and was a lot of fun.
What are your goals for 2013?
I like your simplified goal list and I hope you are able to achieve everything on it.
I personally think you should reconsider adding this goal (Figure out what I want to do with my life. So far, I just go through the daily stuff and have no clue what I really want) back on your list. I feel it is really important to have life direction and without it you are just biding time.
Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted..Using Coupons to Save Money
Thanks Glen. I totally agree with you, but I just don’t know how to figure it out. Last year I was totally stumped.
Jen Perkins recently posted..Potentially The Best Christmas Gift Ever: Mini Survival Kits
Good luck with your goals! I definitely need to start taking better care of myself and I’ve been slacking with this.
Michelle recently posted..$1,193 in Extra Income, Life and Picture Updates
Thanks Michelle. I don’t know why it’s so easy to put everything else first, but it’s just not right.
Jen Perkins recently posted..My 2012 Goals—Failure or Success?
When you figure out Apple TV and the best way to scan all your photos please make blog posts about them!
Sure thing Cat, I’ll do my best to remember. Feel free to send me an email down the road if I forget.
Jen Perkins recently posted..January 2013 #Giveaway
Don’t you just love gift cards! You have a great list of goals for the year. We haven’t really put anything concrete on paper yet. We do know that we want to aggressively start investing in our retirement funds with the extra cash we have in 2013.Good Luck with your goals. Mr.CBB
Canadianbudgetbinder recently posted..Market Value, Appraisal Value, Assessed Value….How did they Value my Home?
Good luck plumping up your retirement funds this year, Mr. CBB.
Jen Perkins recently posted..Potentially The Best Christmas Gift Ever: Mini Survival Kits
My understanding of iTunes is that it only sees video files in the mp4 format. So if you have avi movies (like pretty much all of mine are), you are out of look with iTunes.
I have a hacked Wii that lets me stream files from my PC, although it seems to choke on higher frame-rates. The other option would be an Xbox 360. Used ones are about $150 and have a built-in media center that I believe works with Vista and later (or XP MCE).
Edward Antrobus recently posted..December 2012 Net Worth Update
Well that’s kinda discouraging, lol. We do have an Xbox 360, maybe I’ll have to resort to that idea if I can’t find a way around it. Thanks Edward.
Jen Perkins recently posted..My 2012 Goals—Failure or Success?
For print quality, think 300 dpi (web resolution is normally 72)!
eemusings recently posted..The elements of a perfect bank
Thanks eemusings, I’ll give it a shot.
Jen Perkins recently posted..Potential Savings Goal: Bathroom Makeover
My resolutions are more a commitment vs. goals for 21013. I decided to make some changes and just get more committed to change this year.
krantcents recently posted..My 2013 New Year’s Resolutions
That sounds like it might be a better approach…maybe I’ll try it next year if this year doesn’t go so well. Good luck with your 2013 comments KC.
Jen Perkins recently posted..Potential Savings Goal: A Second Car
I have an ambitious plan for this year, so I’m a bit afraid that I’ll fall into the same trap you did last year. I do like to aim high though!
I like the idea of digitizing paperwork. I’m thinking of doing it for my few remaining paper bills so that I don’t need to file them anymore.
Good luck on your goals!
Alex recently posted..My favourite experiments so far
Thanks Alex, good luck with big plan for this year. Very hush, hush.
Jen Perkins recently posted..January 2013 #Giveaway
Yea, going paperless was huge for me. Not for any amount of savings these companies gave me but just in terms of organization. I have a terrible habit of keeping papers around until they are “addressed” and being the slacker that I am, that leads to tons of paper build up.
Good luck in 2013 on your goals!
Andrew @ Listen Money Matters recently posted..Budgeting for Dummies, the Complete Guide
I save everything, it’s not as bad as the “hoarder” people, but it’s gotta stop.
Jen Perkins recently posted..Potentially The Best Christmas Gift Ever: Mini Survival Kits
#2 is a great goal! You should make sure you upload your most important scans somewhere online, like a private folder on your website, or have a backup hard drive, just in case. I am aiming for an empty inbox this year, with all the emails tagged and organized. It takes time but feels great!
Pauline recently posted..It happens to the best!
I’m too paranoid not to back stuff up now. I lost most of our family pictures a few years ago and never, ever want that to happen again.
I was planning to back everything up on both of my computers, external hard drive, jump drive (I think I’m the only one that calls them that anymore), and DVD-ROM—just to be safe.
It sounds excessive, but after losing 6 years worth of photos and other information…I’m okay with sounding crazy.
Good luck with the inbox, I’m still working on mine. I suck with getting to emails and organizing them.
Jen Perkins recently posted..My 2012 Goals—Failure or Success?
Let me know if Apple TV ends up being worth it. I’d really love to cut out Comcast.
My Money Design recently posted..Using the Power of Mathematics to Avoid a Bad Interest Rate Swap Agreement
Will do, if I go with it.
Jen Perkins recently posted..Potential Savings Goal: Bathroom Makeover
Good luck with your goals! I’m interested in what you end up doing with your picture goal…I have one that’s similar.
As for the rest of mine, they’re probably of the mainstream variety: career and health at the top of the list! Health first of course..
Digital Personal Finance recently posted..Using RedLaser to Save Money
Well good luck with your goals, even if they are mainstream.
Jen Perkins recently posted..Potential Savings Goal: A Second Car