Goals

These are the personality traits I need to develop if I am going to accomplish my goals.   These have always been a problem for me.  I am thinking of this now because I probably shouldn’t have taken the trip to Cancun.  I was able to go for fairly cheap and it had been a long time since I had traveled internationally but since I’m not actually making much money now I probably should have waited until I could better afford it.  I don’t have much patience in delaying things I want to do.  I could be semi-retired by now but every time I work and save up some money, I end up quitting and living off my savings until there gone.  If I could just change this habit I believe I could be retired in 5 to 10 years and not have a job to quit.

These traits are a problem when it comes to losing weight as well.  I want to lose weight but I don’t want to quit eating junk food and I only exercise when I feel like it.  When I do manage to eat better and exercise the weight doesn’t seem to come off fast enough and I end up going back to my normal habits.  I’ve managed to lose 20 pounds or more 3 times but it was always accomplished by situations that I can’t replicate in my daily life.  I just need to keep my future goal in mind and keep after it every day.

One of my goals for this year is to avoid any new debt other than my student loans.  One of my credit cards has offered me 3.99% for life for a balance transfer with a max fee of $75.  My Grad Plus student loan has an 8.5% rate.  I haven’t done the math yet but by transferring $4900 of the student loan balance to the credit card I should be able to make up the $75 transfer fee fairly quick.  Since this would actually still be student loan debt even though it is on my credit card it is in keeping with my goals in my mind.  What would you do?

My first goal for the New Year should probably be to stop procrastinating since I’m not getting around to posting this until January 3rd. Since I’m returning to school my financial goals will be limited but I’m making some non-financial goals as well. I had a pretty good year in 2007 financially. Some of my 2007 financial achievements are listed in this post “Saving On Minimum Wage.” Since then my total contribution to my IRA is $1250 and I paid over $2000 total on my private student loan to completely pay it off.

Here are the goals for 2008:

1. Don’t incur any debt other than student loan debt. -This shouldn’t be a problem.
2. Improve my blogging- Since I’m returning to school it will be easier for me to access the Internet. I plan to establish a regular M-F posting schedule and do some other things to improve my blog.
3. Lose 20 pounds-This may have been a goal last year also but I weigh the same as I did at the beginning of last year. I just have to start using the fitness center and cut back on the junk food.

Those are my main goals. There are plenty of other goals I’d like to accomplish in 2008 but these goals come first.