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 

Contribute 25% of income to business emergency fund.  – (Done this month. )

Attend 2 Conferences –

• FinCon16 – Done! Best time ever! It was my first time visiting the west coast!
• I’ve decided to only attend FinCon this year – I really wanted to attend Business Boutique again but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me this year. 

Have signed contract with literary agent by December 31^st.  I have decided that it’s in my and my family’s best interest to not pursue this one this year. As much as I’d like to be traditionally published, it doesn’t make sense for the stage of life I’m in currently. 

Release one eCourse by October 1^st.  DONE!!! Real Life Money Plan live! Click here to see it! 🙂 

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

• PVS for October 2016: 78,584 When I say that I want to cry I’m not kidding. At the beginning of this year I was close to having 600,000 PVS a month. Oh how the mighty have fallen….

Make One Media Appearance – TV or Radio – You can listen to the episode that I was on here – I’m towards the end of the show.  

Speak at at least one event – Okay, so I’ve been approved to speak next year at one of the conferences that I’ve been dying to attend. I can’t announce which one  it is yet, but I’ll definitely let you know as soon as I’m allowed to spill the beans! 🙂 

Increase Facebook followers to 10,000 by July 31st. Still haven’t achieved this one yet…

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

• Current number: 15,422 

If you’re interested in learning more about blogging and seeing my income reports from the blog, sign up here and I’ll send out once-a-month blogging advice with my income report. 🙂

Read at least 5 books on business/blogging

What I want to read: 

• Lead with Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis
• Ask: The Counterintuitive 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

 Charlotte turned ONE! 🙂

Personal

Continue using the Tupler Techniques every day. (These are found in the book, Lose Your Mummy Tummy) – Still struggling to make these happen every day.  

Complete P90X by December 31^st – Okay so clearly I’m not going to make this one happen…so I’m working on another goal because I seriously have got to get my body moving more…as we learned on Halloween when I was winded after going up a steep hill. lol

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 

Another cake smash photo…(her big brothers smashed her finger in their bedroom door – that’s the reason for the bandages.)

Marriage Goals

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

Plan at least one date night every 6 months. 

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

Mothering Goals

Spend at least 30 minutes every day playing with my children. I was very inconsistent with this one….

Write in Motherhood gratitude journal every day. (Done.)

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

Read one new book every month with boys.  (We read Stella the Dog)

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  

Apparently Conner was the only one happy about going trick or treating. Oh and his red “race car” outfit is an awesome hand-me-down that our wonderful neighbors gave us. It was their son’s when he was Conner’s age. 🙂

Spiritual Goals

Complete 1 Bible Study. (Done) – I’m working on my 4th one this year! It’s a self-paced study. 

Volunteer once at our church. (Done.)

Read Bible Daily through Blessed is She. (Done. )

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

The boys dressed as St. Maximilian Kolbe for All Saints Day!

Financial Goals

 We’re still trying to figure everything out as far as how money is going to be working in our home. Hopefully we’ll get this figured out soon as we haven’t really saved much towards our roof yet. 

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

• Current Balance: $10,985.80

New goal:

• Save $4,000 for a new roof by December 31st
  • Current Balance: $700.00

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

• Owed on mortgage as of December 2015 is: $33,835.25
• Current Balance: $28,747.26 

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 read:

Soldier of Finance: Take Charge of Your Money and Invest in Your Future by Jeff Rose – I had a love/hate relationship with this book. I hated that he mentioned that “credit cards are a necessity” because my family is living proof, that no, no they are not a necessity (you can read more about us not having any credit cards here). But I did love the way he broke down how to achieve your financial goals. He did it in a way that I had never heard anyone else talk about before – maybe because he was using his military background to speak from, but regardless, it was great advice and that advice alone is a reason to read this book. 🙂 

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