My 2009 Goals

Did you know the number one New Years resolution last year was to get out of debt or save money? It’s New Years Day, have you made any resolutions yet? I have.

Sometimes I get ahead of myself and try to do it all in a year by setting 50 resolutions; usually this ends up with me getting nothing accomplished and giving up about half way through January. One thing working on our debt reduction in 2008 has taught me is that sometimes you’ll have a bad day or month and that’s ok. In the end if you are going to succeed you have to realize that and get over it. I’ve set some goals this year with the realization that there will be times I won’t reach them; at the end of 2009 it’s not about walking 10,000 steps every day it’s about setting healthy habits and reaching that goal more days than I miss.

So here are my 2009 goals

Financial
As evident from our Budget we have some big savings goals for 2009

~ Reduce our monthly spending by 5% ($250) Making our total expenses column 60% of our income
~ Save $4,000 for a car
~ Save $5,000 in an emergency fund
~ Save $12,500 for our retirement
We were going to set this goal for $10,000 but I would like to push us a little more. I have no doubt we can hit 10K, but trying for the 12.5 mark will be a fun challenge.

*If we hit all of these savings goals we’ll have put a total of $21,500 away in 2009.


Personal
~ Read 50 Books in 2009
~ Reduce our material possessions by 30%


Health
I have an overall goal of getting healthier and hopefully losing some weight in the process. Rather than setting a broad goal of “losing weight” I’ve set three obtainable goals.
~ Walk an average of 10,000 steps a day
~ Exercise 3 times a week
~ Use Sparkpeople.com at least five times a week


So there they are my goals for 2009. It looks like a lot but reaching each of them will only require small changes in our lifestyle hopefully making it easier.

What are your goals this year?