If you’re new here, every month I share how I’m doing with my goals for the year. This includes personal, blogging/business, and of course financial goals. This post holds me accountable to the goals I set every year, but more importantly, it helps my readers to see that having financial goals in place are the key to succeeding with money. If you need help setting financial goals, make sure you read this post here on the steps to setting financial goals. 

Blogging

My big goal this year is to double my income from 2015. That will put me at a full-time blogger level, which will be an amazing feat if I accomplish it! 

Contribute 25% of income to business emergency fund. (I use Capital One 360 for my business emergency fund) – (Done this month.)

Attend 2 Conferences –

• FinCon16 – tickets already purchased.
• Still to figure out another one to attend….

Have signed contract with literary agent by December 31^st. 

Release one eCourse by October 1^st.  (This will be a little different than originally planned but still keeping my target date of October 1st.)

Have an average of 500,000 PVS a month by December 31^st.

• PVS for February 2016: 319,486 (Due to a Pinterest algorithm change there was a significant drop in PVS in February but they seem to be going back to normal now. 🙂 If you’re interested in how I use Pinterest to keep my PVS up, this post here has all the details. )

Make One Media Appearance – TV or Radio

Speak at at least one event

Increase Facebook followers to 10,000 by April 1st.

Increase email subscribers to 15,000 by August 1st. 

• Current number: 8,472 (I cleaned my email list in February so that’s why it went back down. )

Read at least 5 books on business/blogging

What I want to read: 

• Lead with Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis
• Ask: The Counterintuiti​ve Online Formula to Discover Exactly What Your Customers Want to Buy…Create a Mass of Raving Fans…and Take Any Business to the Next Level
• Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula To Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You Love, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
• Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World
• See You at the Top
• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
• The Compound Effect
• Blog at Home Mom: Balancing Blogging and Motherhood
• Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Personal

Continue using the Tupler Techniques every day. (These are found in the book, Lose Your Mummy Tummy) – I haven’t been doing these as consistently as I need to be. 

Complete P90X by December 31^st – Haven’t started on this one yet….

Read at least 2 books just for me.

• The Better Life: Small Things You Can Do Right Where You Are
• Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World
• The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness
• My Other Ex: Women’s True Stories of Losing and Leaving Friends

Marriage Goals

Write one love note to Pat a month. (Done for this month)

Plan at least one date night every 6 months. (Done for this month 🙂 )

Read at least 3 books on Marriage:

• 52 Ways to Wow Your Husband
• 31 Days to a Happy Husband
• The 4 Seasons of Marriage: Secrets to a Lasting Marriage
• The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts
• 100 Ways to Love Your Husband: A Life-Long Journey of Learning to Love

My husband is going to kill me for posting this one… 🙂
 

Mothering Goals

My mothering skills have truly been put to the test this last month. My husband has been working out of town…well out of the state rather, and so everything has fallen on me to do and my goodness. Y’all, if you’re a single parent or military spouse, you deserve a medal! I for real don’t know how y’all do it. I’m a bumbling crazy person without my husband. 

Spend at least 30 minutes every day playing with my children. (Not as consistent as I wanted to be with this this month due to everyone getting sick and then potty training Collin. Funny note: I’m totally the opposite of a helicopter mom, but since I’m potty training Collin for about 2 days I was literally on top of him watching his every move so I could rush him to the potty at “go” time. And Conner goes, “Mommy, what are you doing? You look silly – can you go away now so we can play?” I was apparently cramping their style….)

Write in Motherhood gratitude journal every day. (Done for this month)

Plan a date night with my boys once every 6 months.

Read one new book every month with boys. (Done – the boys’ preschool allows them to check out books from their library to take home. So we read Joey Goat this month and our amazing neighbors donated all their old kids’ books to us….I think we may be set for life. 🙂 )

Read at least 1 book on Parenting/Motherhood.

• The 5 Love Languages of Children
• Raising Your Spirited Child
• Making Children Mind without Losing Yours
• Love Rebel: Reclaiming Motherhood

Spiritual Goals

I’ve been struggling with my daily Lenten goal of praying the Rosary, but I have been enjoying the concentrated time spent in prayer. 🙂

Complete 1 Bible Study. (I’ll be completing the Lenten Study through Blessed is She.)

Volunteer once at our church. 

Read Bible Daily through Blessed is She. (Done for this month)

Read at least 2 books on Christianity.

• 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration
• How to Listen When God Is Speaking: A Guide for Modern-Day Catholics
• Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux
• The Temperament God Gave You: The Classic Key to Knowing Yourself, Getting Along with Others, and Growing Closer to the Lord
• Cheerful Chats for Catholic Children: Short Stories for Catholic Children with a Moral and a Prayer following each Anecdote.
• The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time
• Catholic Family Handbook: Time-tested Techniques to Help You Strengthen Your Marriage and Raise Good Kids
• Chiara Corbella Petrillo

Financial Goals

My husband and I are currently debating whether or not we want to change our 3 month EF goal to 6 months for this year and hold off on paying down the mortgage. I think we’ll have our 3 month goal met by the summer and I think we could totally make a 6 month one work…but we’ll see. 🙂

3- Month fully-fund emergency fund by December 31st – goal is $10,500. 

• Current Balance: $7,892.83

Pay mortgage principal down by $10,000 by December 31st.

• Owed on mortgage as of December 2015 is: $33,835.25
• Current Balance: $32,376.94 

Read at least 1 Financial book:

What I Want to Read: 

• The Money Saving Mom’s Budget: Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year
• Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After
• The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents are Going Broke
• Debt-Free Living in a Debt-Filled World: A book to encourage, educate, inform, and inspire.
• Soldier of Finance: Take Charge of Your Money and Invest in Your Future

What I Have Read:

Smart Money Smart Kids by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze – This is literally the only book that I read this month. It was such a crazy month that I barely got anything accomplished…but…if you need a great book to help you teach your children about money, this is it. It walks you through each stage in your child’s life while they’re under your care and even helps you with the whole paying for a wedding thing. 🙂

How are you doing with your goals so far this year?