On January 1st, I set several financial goals and will be updating them every couple of months throughout the year. Here’s the first review.
Already, two months have passed!
My main financial goal was to grow my net worth by 30%. However, with the purchase of a car, a boat, over $12K of home improvements, and repairs on my rental property, it has been an expensive start to the year. I don’t include the car in my net worth, nor did I change the value of the house with the upgrades, as I see these as sunk costs of living. There was also a shift in currency values, with the Euro appreciating, while the Pound Sterling and Dollar devalued, which changed things a bit.
With all these factors, my net worth has increased by 2.5% so far. This is a bit behind my target, though I expect most of the growth will come from selling the 90 acres of land, which we haven’t tackled yet.
My second financial goal was to pay off $25,000 of debt that went towards several past investments. I have paid off $9,500 to close a loan in January, plus $750 in capital each month, totaling $11,000. I am well on target. There is also over $10K on a 0% credit card ending in June that I aim to clear, and I’m confident I can meet the goal by September with normal payments.
Pay $10K credit card in June: Money is already in my account, earning $40/month in interest while the 0% period lasts. PASS
Pay my $9.5K 7% loan: PASS
Other Financial Goals:
– Sell plots on the 90 acres of land to recover the purchase price. We’ve had a few serious inquiries, but nothing concrete yet. The plans are shifting slightly to make a more popular development at the back and a nicer one on the prime lake view plots. I expected the architect to move faster with the parcel maps, but he hasn’t delivered any yet, making sales more complicated.
– Not sell my cattle for extra money until the end of April. PASS They are still happily grazing at the ranch, and I have enough cash to keep them until April.
– Increase blog income by 5 times. PASS Surprisingly, I’ve already achieved this. I started monetizing at the end of October 2012 and have earned 5.6 times more than Q4 2012 in just two months. Revised goal: Make 25 times more than last year.
– Take a trip back to Europe: Money is in my account, just not sure when I’ll go. PASS
– Take a trip to the US: This is an ongoing goal. Since we bought a car, I had to use some of the funds. I don’t budget much for travel, but there’s enough money for either one trip or the other.
Conclusion:
I’m pretty happy with the progress on my goals. When I pay off my 0% credit card in June, I’ll only have my rental mortgage left, which is really exciting. I’m confident I will reach my savings goal, but it’s time to focus all efforts on the land development to meet the 30% net worth increase goal.
How is 2013 treating you so far?
