Goals

Well, I am a believer that in order to go forward and make progress in life we must have goals. I set goals in my running to try to run faster. I had a goal to complete the Kansas City Marathon and to run it faster then I ran my first marathon. This goal has been sidetracked due to injury and it is time for a new goal in the running department. Currently I am working on letting my ankle heal. Hopefully by September I will be able to begin running again. Once I am out the door running again, I will be able to figure out future goals. Until then, I want to make sure I give my ankle enough time to completely heal before trying anything.

Another area of my life where it is important for goals are my finances. Will I save money if I don't have a goal to accumulate a certain amount of wealth? Probably not. Therefore, I need to set out a group of goals and track my progress each month. Here they are:

1. My current net worth is $2,222. Long term I want a net worth of $1,000,000. Short term I have a goal to end the year with a net worth of $5,000. In five years (December 31, 2012), I would like to have grown my net worth up to $50,000.

2. I currently have an emergency fund of $2,000. I want this fund to grow to about $5,000. Not sure on a timeline for this goal but I have to believe the sooner the better. By the end of the year I would like to see closer to $3,000 in this fund.

3. I have credit card debt over $3,000. I want this paid off. By the end of this year I would like to have less then $1,500.

4. I want to pay my car off in 3 years. I've paid on the car for almost a full year so this really only gives me 2 more years to pay off the rest of the loan. We'll see how this following year goes.

5. I want to purchase a home. I am currently a renter and would like to be in my own home putting money towards the mortgage instead of in my landlords pockets next year. If this is unrealistic then I will shoot for the year after as a definite deadline.


I believe this pretty much covers all of my financial goals. In my next post I will discuss how I plan on working towards the attainment of these goals! Stay tuned!