We wish our readers a Happy New Year and a prosperous new year. We hope you have had some time to reflect on the year that has ended and you are excited with the promise to what the new year can bring. We hope on New Year’s Day you are not waking up from having too many adult beverages on New Year’s Eve. Finally, we hope you are not waking up to a mountain of debt and financial challenges. Reading blogs like this one may help on the last point.
For me, the New Year brings a clean slate and hope for a better future. It has a way of cleansing the negative aspects of the year, giving us inspiration for things to improve. It is a new beginning, much like the change of the seasons. A time filled with hope for the new and unexpected.
We don’t create New Year’s resolutions
Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe in setting goals. We set them every three months, on an annual and 3-year basis in our household. I consider it my magic genie, all I have to do is write down these goals, put some energy and motion behind them, and they tend to manifest. Granted, not everything comes true. If everything did, maybe your goals are not a stretch or aggressive enough.
We don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I mentioned we do set annual goals; however they might fall from a calendar perspective in April or August. They usually do not occur on the New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day schedule. It really depends on what else is going on in our lives at the time.
We set quick and actionable goals
Our focus is on accomplishing short-term goals on a 3-month basis. This keeps us focused on what is important now and not necessarily for the next year. We do have some overall strategy of what we want to accomplish in the long term, but working on the short term seems to yield us better results.
I have found when our goals and dreams are too far into the future, it is difficult to stay motivated. Saving $4 on latte for 35 years is too difficult for me to do without losing interest. Working a side gig, saving aggressively, and getting things done in a 3-month window gives me results I can measure. Not only that, it helps me stay motivated, giving me the encouragement to continue when things get difficult.
Regarding saving for retirement accounts, we measure our progress on a yearly basis when we rebalance, and occasionally check our payroll stub’s year to date contribution for feedback on our progress. That works for us.
2016 will be a great year for us. We wish the same for you!
By the time you are reading this, we may have already moved to our new home. We are less than a week away from being completely debt free. This includes all consumer debt, the house, and a gaggle of rental properties. It has been a long journey for us and we are looking forward to 2016.
We see much more travel in our future. In February and possibly July, we will enjoy a 7-day cruise. I have several work and personal related trips on the drawing board right now. We will also plan to camp at least 20 nights this year.
We are past the point where we need to work. We are working now to hit a couple pension and insurance milestones that will set us up for life. These goals are both less than a year away.
I would like to thank our readers, commenters, and fellow blogging friends for following us. We wish you a Happy and successful New Year. Take care!