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2011 Goals and Objectives

I know myself, and for whatever reason the main way to keep myself motivated is to be accountable to anyone, but myself.  As I type and re-read that sentence it almost seems immature but the fact that I feel a need to come back here and confess to my failures keeps me motivated me not to fail.  That is why I have provided my goals and objectives for 2009 and again for 2010.

These are not resolutions, but rather goals and the actionable steps I will follow to achieve those goals.  I equate the difference to saying I will lose 20lbs by going to the gym 3 times a week rather than saying my New Year’s Resolution is to be healthier.  Semantics? Maybe to you, but not for Evan’s brain.

2011 Goals and Objectives

So I can judge myself at the end of next year I am going to break down my goals and objectives into a few different categories:

  • Personal Life
  • Professional Life
  • Blogging World
  • Financial Goals

Personal Life

I think my personal life is going pretty damn good right now.  I am attempting to find that balance between what I believed to be my self-identity and my new found fatherhood.  While they will eventually merge, but obviously, the latter is much more important right now, but it would be nice to keep some semblance of who I am while figuring out fatherhood.  I am very close with “my pops” and to create that bond with my son is priority number one, way before the rest of this other “stuff.”  But how much bonding can a father do with a one year old (he’ll be one by the next time I grade myself)? I literally have no idea and I hope next year I can be surprised how close my boy and I are.

Notwithstanding holding on to “who” I am, I need to better that person and I have a few goals and ideas how to fix that.  For whatever reason my health has taken a complete and utter back seat.  My goal is to get underneath that 200lb mark.  I am only 5’7 so to be carrying all this weight is just unhealthy.  I joined a gym last week and am signing up to compete in my first racquetball league! I have played with co-workers for about 18 months and I absolutely love the sport, however, it is sporadic in terms of consistency and intensity.

In addition to increased exercise I need to sleep and read more.   To do so I need to balance my time much better.  I work a lot.  I have my day job and then I come home, run this site, another site, and am always thinking about other ideas.  However the balance between them all is so inefficient.  I think one way to achieve a more harmonious life is to cut out time wasters.  Early next year I want to figure out a way to block certain sites during certain times, and set up “writing times.”  Even this post is being written at 12:45AM on the day it is to be published, December 31, 2010.

Professional Life

My day job has been going well.  I received a fantastic bonus with an additional raise for 2011, and I recently sat down with the boss-men to discuss how I can improve my position.  So my goal is to follow up on the things we discussed which includes being more proactive in determining which financial planners need my help by actually asking them. Amazing Idea, huh?

My next goal is to take my small law practice much more seriously.  The income potential is there, I am very good at the small niche I fulfill and I enjoy it so much.  My actionable steps include:

  • Create a corporation to handle the taxes better
  • Obtain Malpractice insurance because I am an idiot for practicing without it
  • Cultivate my referral sources

While it is not entirely necessary I plan on building a business atmosphere around the practice.  In addition to the corporate structure this would include a dedicate phone number, postal address, website and email address.   I’d like to have the practice be a very good portion of my income, and I think these steps are the way to start down that path (especially the cultivating of referral sources).

Blogging World

My Journey to Millions has grown exponentially in the past year, mostly due to the best personal finance blogs out there – The Yakezie Group.  The group is fantastic at keeping me motivated by providing both economic opportunities and more importantly comments.  Interacting with people, especially larger blogs and those that are successful in both the online world and real life is really the fire that keeps me going.  Recently I even had a back and forth on dividend investing with Nickel from the massive financial blog FiveCentNickel.  That sort of stuff gets me pumped up.

To continue My Journey to Millions’ growth I am going to continue writing as I have been.  I feel like I provide a mixture financial planning, estate planning, insurance planning, with a heavy sprinkle of my life.  However, I know there are things I can improve on.  I have to figure out a process to make sure I submit to Personal Finance Carnivals, I also want to figure out “affiliate marketing” but both of those are back end blogging stuff that most people don’t care bout.   I also want to set up a corporation or LLC that will own my site, The Wife’s site and a few other online ventures.

I’d like to feature more guest posts from my fellow bloggers so if you are reading this Contact Me!

Financial Goals

I think as I complete the above actionable steps I’ll get closer to meeting these financial goals:

  • Pay off Auto Loan
  • Cut Student Loan #1 in half (I have over $65,000 in student loans and Student loan #1 is currently at $6,500ish)
  • Increase liquid savings!  I am currently at 66% of my moving target.
  • Continue to Max out my 401(k) to employer contribution.  This is not maxing it out completely, but if and only if, I hit the other goals will I set up a secondary retirement account
  • Continue to contribute to my Dividend Fund (between $150 and $300/month)

I am putting myself out there…I’d love to hear what you think?

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32 COMMENTS

  1. Great set of goals and objectives! Three times a week for the gym? You can do it!!I set my goal for two times a week…. which is a vast improvement on my current schedule which is NO times a week. 🙂

  2. I love racquetball and play a couple times a week against my husband. Exercise will be a big thing for me next year too and fitness has taken a back seat for me also. (I do walk most days, but I need to really get moving. At 43, my metabolism is not what it once was.)

    I am going to write up my goals this weekend as they need some major thought. I want to have some goals that I can actually achieve.

    No matter what, you have that beautiful little boy, and that makes the world great no matter what. (Which you already know.) My kids are teens now, and I would love to relive the last 16 years as they have been the best of my life.

    • You and the husband play huh? That’s really cool. The Wife and I determined early on in our relationship that competing is not good for us HAHAHA

      Good luck with writing up your goals…when you do please come back here and leave the link

      • I play racquetball with my son too. I am getting exhausted! (But not as exhausted as you are with a new baby!)

        I finally got my goals together. Hopefully I will make some real progress this year.

  3. Love it E-dog! Dude, we are going to DESTROY the all you can eat Shabu Shabu place, if it is all you can eat! I imagine you as an NFL full back at 5’7″, 210lbs. Yeah? Just imagine me as the Aussie version of a Shaquille O’Neal baby!

    Please write about your journey and the process of getting incorporated in 2011! Where does one start? What are the fees? etc. That would be awesomely helpful!

    HNY!

    Sam

    • I’ll write ALL about it! Fortunately for the place it is not all you can eat! But we can order for 4 and rock it out lol

      Your imagination isn’t that far off in terms of body type. In my much stronger days I could bench over 300…now I’d be luck if I could half my fat ass body weight HAHAH

  4. Awesome goals! Time management has been such a huge issue for me this past year and is also on top of my list as the one thing that I have to get in control! I can definitely see how doing that better would help other areas of my life improve. Good luck to you in all your endeavors.

  5. It’s good you’re prioritizing your role as a dad above everything else – relationships are what make life so special. Earnings lots of money is secondary, and unimportant in comparison.

  6. I love the way you’ve broken down your objectives into categories! I understand how difficult it must be juggling a day job and more than one blog!

    I put my other sites on autopilot and now focus mainly on my current site.

    But don’t give up thinking about new ideas – here’s to a more successful 2011! Loved your post Evan!

  7. These are some great goals! I’ve been reading your blog on and off over the past year, and its great to hear that this site is doing really well. Here’s to a great 2011!

  8. These are some great goals! I’ve been reading your blog on and off over the past year, and its great to hear that this site is doing really well. Here’s to a great 2011!

  9. Excellent list of goals. I think the goals around your health are really the most important and the ones to focus on first. Your health is the foundation of everything else in your life since it provides you with the strength and stamina for any challenge you want to tackle mentally, physically, emotionally, or intellectually. Remember it is all about baby steps…don’t bite off too much too soon because you won’t be able to stick with it. Your health habits are meant to last for a lifetime so do things that you can keep up consistently. Here are even a few small changes you can make- aim for 7-8 hours of sleep a night, sleep at regular times, do a produce challenge (see how many colours you can get in one day and when you are hungry grab some fruit or veggies to snack on), limit your junk food to once a week. I have many other tips we have done over the last couple years that have allowed us to loose 40 pounds total between my husband and me so if you are interested in them, let me know and I can pass them on. I have some tips listed on my blog too.
    Best of luck in 2011.

    • I am 100% interested! I think being healthy is a lot like personal finance in that the basics are difficult to understand but implementing them is!

  10. Evan, I think you have some great goals.

    I’m really looking forward to reading how you build your private practice just to understand the paperwork side of running a business.

    Good luck on all these goals; you can do it if they are priorities.

  11. You have some good goals there, and I think we’re moving in the same direction (paying off student debt, etc.) I’ll admit, first time to the site, but I definitely bookmarked it and looking forward to seeing how your journey progresses in 2011.

  12. It is always interesting to read someone’s goals, it makes think about my own. I’m trying to stay healthy as well, it is difficult to fit it in. Good luck, I hope both of us reach our goals.

    • Thanks! Your goals are fantastic…do you have a plan to complete them or was that in a different post I didn’t see

  13. A lot of stuffs to work on in 2011. Good luck with your goals. I agree with working on your health first too. Gotta keep healthy so you can work on the rest of your goals with no worries.

  14. I want to say that YOU CAN DO IT! I know it seems daunting and even overwhelming at times, but these are all possible. Go for it 🙂

  15. Great post. Just like the others, loved the way you broke everything out. Family, your day job, health, blogging, you got everything covered! Good luck and would also be interested in the incorporating yourself process. Will be staying tuned. 🙂

    • THe incorporation is a big priority since I am practicing law without. It is stupid and I know it is!

      Whether to incorporate this site or not is still in the air…

  16. The bonding with your son will be a function of how much time you spend with him. It’s that simple.

    Sounds like you definitely need to lose weight – I would suggest working on the diet (ie eat less) along with the exercise.

    I’m on a “no beer” diet. As in, I can’t drink any beer until I get below a certain weight. It’s painful…very painful, but it’s working so far.

    Mike

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