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Goals Post: 2009 Results and 2010 Goals

December 31st, 2009 at 08:19 pm

Goals & Results for 2009

1. Find a job in accounting (new career field) and study for the CPA exam. Well, I have a tax-season job at H&R Block, and I've passed 3 of the 4 CPA exams. Still need a "real" job, but I've made definite progress.

2. Work to further develop my Money & Happiness class. I did this a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped.

3. Lose weight. Alas, no. I did lose weight the very beginning of the year, but I've put it back on again during the past month that Henry has required daily radiation treatments. Start all over again. At least it was stable most of the year.

4. Have at least $10K in savings (ideally $12K) by September 1. Well, I actually got it up to $12K by June...and then all the big expenses started coming: Henry's medical bills, major car repairs, and my CPA exam & preparation fees. I'd hoped to be able to have a cushion to live off of, but right now my credit card bills exceed the amount I have in savings, so I'm in debt for the first time in 15 years (not counting the mortgage) and terribly fearful of going deeper before I land a real, self-supporting job.


Goals for 2010
1. Finish the CPA exam and the EA exam. Find a real self-supporting accounting job.

2. Continue regular exercise with an eye towards weight loss. I walked 285 fitness miles in 2009...hoping to increase this to 365 in 2010. Also need to add in strength training at least twice weekly.

3. I will focus on eating fewer prepared foods and smaller portions with an eye to both losing weight and trimming my food budget.

4. Do my own "happiness project" to combat the depressive tendencies that come with long-term unemployment.

Posted in Goals | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Goals Post: 2009 Results and 2010 Goals”

  1. fern Says:
    December 31st, 2009 at 11:36 pm 1262302616
    1262302616

    I find that posting here several times weekly is very therapeutic and gives me a feeling of purpose, even if I'm not making money here.

    I am also working very hard to exercise regularly, my target being 225 minutes weekly (that's 45 minutes 5x a week). Not belonging to a gym or having indoor exercise equipment makes that a big challenge in winter, but I do count snow shoveling as exercise.

  2. Damien Says:
    January 20th, 2010 at 02:59 pm 1263999569
    1263999569

    Is there a reason why you both have savings and are carrying some credit card debt? Considering that interest rates on credit card debt are usually much higher than on CDs, would it not make more sense to use the remainder of your savings to pay off as much of your credit card debt as possible?

  3. Dido Says:
    January 20th, 2010 at 04:26 pm 1264004789
    1264004789

    Damien, Good point--but the vast majority of my credit card debt is on a 9-month 0% finance charge card, so I'm not accruing interest fees on most of that. As to why I don't pay off all of the debt that's on cards where there is a finance charge, it's the psychological price I'm willing to pay for control over my money. A credit card company can always tighten up credit and refuse to let me charge something. Not very likely, but it's stil much less likely than a bank's refusing to let me withdraw my own money. The amount of fees I rack up in a month is less than $10 and I'm willing to pay that for the psychological security of money in my own bank account. The idea of completely draining my savings makes me feel completely helpless and hopeless and is not worth the psychic penalty. I know there are lots of people who live without a savings account--I deal with them daily at the tax office. I just don't know how they do it.

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