Category Archives: Goals

Business and Personal Finance Goals For 2012

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While reflecting back on the year I had in 2011, I promised I’d make some goals for 2012, so it’s time to reveal a little about what I think is important, both in terms of my site and my life.

2012 is an exciting year for me. I’m going to be getting married in June, I will be moving to a new apartment and have to take care of furnishing it and paying all of those one-time expenses that can add up, and I will be working like crazy to make sure my blog and online business ventures don’t get neglected!

It’s a little difficult to decide how much personal information to release through the blog. I like being able to interact with people and I like sharing my lessons with you. They’re interesting and informative and we can all benefit from them. However, there is some information that I want to keep private. This includes income (both online and in real life), so I prefer to give percentages rather than put numbers to it all.

My goals aren’t big on personal items, rather they are heavy on business goals, which definitely influence my personal life in a big way. So while I’m not promising to keep my monthly budget under a specific amount, my personal income and spending habits shine through.

1. Start 2 New Side Ventures

Since I’m starting a business that maybe technically started in 2011, we still haven’t launched yet, and most of the effort will come in 2012, I’ll allow it. For my other idea? I have absolutely no plans yet, but the more I experience, the more I think of income-producing ideas. They don’t always pan out, but with enough hooks in the water, I’m bound to catch something. With 334 days to go, I’m sure I’ll think of some new moneymaking idea at some point.

2. Double My Side Income From 2011

This is a big leap, 2011 was an amazing year for me, but there’s no reason to think I can’t beat it. I have a big head start in that I am not starting from the bottom like last year, so I have everything set up for a big year and I can continue what I’m doing while expanding and capitalizing on my new ideas and projects. Doubling my side income won’t be easy and is far from a guarantee, but I like to set high goals, and hopefully one of my other side businesses will help me get over the hump.

3. Save 60% of My Post-Tax Income

The sad thing about this one is that it’s not something I’m going to actively work toward. I no longer keep a strict budget, but I have guidelines. I don’t spend much money on frivolous purchases, but I don’t hold back from the things I want. Still, being able to save such a large portion of my income at a young age will only help me achieve whatever financial goals I make for myself in the future, so saving is definitely a priority for me.

4. Double My Net Worth

I’m getting married in June, and that means I’ll be taking on some addition student loan debt. This was never a real consideration for me, more a fact of life, but what it does is sets me back in terms of net worth. If I can achieve my first 3 goals, I think it’s still manageable and would be a large source of pride for me.

Readers, what are your personal finance goals for 2012? Did you set income and savings goals? Net worth goals? Personal goals?

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Aim High With Your Goals

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For the past few months, I’ve been working for an online advertising company. Basically, people pay us to send them traffic. It works similar to AdSense and AdWords, but we have more control over the type of traffic you receive and over the quantity.

People come to us when they want to boost their traffic and they’re willing to pay for it. And compared to Google, we have very low rates, as low as 1/20th of a penny!

We get people who own websites with affiliate links, who sell their own product, or who want to get their name out there to the public.

There are some people who spend a lot of money, have a good business model, and are constantly refilling their accounts and buying more traffic. There are the people that make me smile.

However, there are others who spend as little as $1 a day trying to get a specific type of traffic, those who fit certain demographics or who search for obscure terms.

These people drive me crazy for a few reasons. I deal with a lot of accounts and any questions or issues people have, and I also get a small commission of the amount they spend with us. When they spend just $1 a day, it’s not really worth my time to deal with them.

The second and more aggravating thing for me to see is that these people are not turning their $1 into $5. If they’re lucky, they turn it into 20 cents. And by spending only a dollar a day, they’re effectively trying to make about 6 dollars a month.

Sure, it’s better than nothing, but those are their goals. And as much as I’d like them to spend more for selfish reasons, I also believe that they are setting their sights too low. It’s very likely that pouring more money into our system isn’t going to yield them better results, so I understand why they don’t want to spend more. But if that’s the case, they are in the wrong business.

We all must aim high with our goals. As I mentioned last week, I’m aiming to start a new company that is successful and brings in a profit. I am not hoping to make a few dollars a day, rather I am trying to build something real and sustainable.

I used to work at a job that paid me $30/hour. It was great, except that I could only work 3 hours a week. So while the hourly rate was great, it was not sustainable because my ceiling was far too low.

I encourage everyone to set their ceilings very high and not to spend too much time focusing on the small things in life. If we do, we’ll miss the big picture and waste our time when we could have been achieving something great.

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2011 Personal Finance Goals

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2010 was great for me financially. In my first full year of working, I was able to save about 50% of my take-home pay from my job, I was able to boost my income significantly with this blog, and I moved from a crappy apartment into something a little more reasonable.

For 2011, I want to continue building on my success. While my work income will increase slightly due to a standard performance review and likely raise, it will also be boosted by the 2% Payroll Tax Deduction and an expected bonus in February that could total around 10-12% of my pay. So overall, my income could increase by over 15%, which sounds great!

That extra income should allow me to keep my savings rate high, even as I let a little more lifestyle inflation into my life. I’m already planning a few vacations, but am more than ok with that.

For this blog, the income from the past year has been great, but I know that the it may not be sustainable, so I will ride the wave and take what is given to me without setting a specific monetary goal. In the meantime, I will work harder to produce higher quality content, and I’d like to increase visitors both through links from other sites and from search engine traffic. The best way for me to do this is to network, promote others endlessly, be active in social media, guest post more often, and gather more attention from a wider range of blogs.

One specific way to do that will be to comment on other blogs. I don’t do that nearly enough, but it’s never too late. I read about 40-50 blogs a day, but I don’t respond and add to the conversation as much as I should. My goal for this year is to comment on at least one blog every day. It’s a simple goal, and yet I haven’t done it enough.

I also want to continue my activity within the Yakezie, supporting other participants and providing advertising opportunities if I can.

One option I have been considering is obtaining another website. I remember the first 6 months of blogging as being a lot of work for little reward and I don’t think I want to go through that stage again, but acquiring a site that’s been established for awhile could help me build up my online empire (cross out) business faster. I’m not ready to buy yet, but if an opportunity presents itself, I may decide to pounce on it.

Happy 2011!

Readers, what are your financial goals? How will you get there?

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Take Action Tuesday: New Years Resolutions

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On January 1st of every year, millions of people set new year’s resolutions. Some set goals to let a new skill, some vow to lose weight, and some promise to start getting out of credit card debt.

Today is December 7th, which leaves 25 days until the the new year.

Why wait to start your new year’s resolution? Why not take advantage of the next 25 days and get a head start?

That could mean taking a few guitar lessons, going to the gym 5 times, or making a nice payment on that credit card bill. Starting TODAY.

Most of the time, the hardest part of change is the beginning. Quitting a bad habit or starting a good one is difficult when it’s new, but it gets easier with every day.

Running 5 miles today would be difficult, but running just 1 or 2 is an easier task. Do that 3 or 4 times in the next 25 days, and you’ll be ready for an increase.

If you start today, when all your friends are just starting, you’ll be weeks ahead. And guess who will have a better shot at reaching the goal?

Don’t wait until January to work on your goals. By waiting, you are silently indicating that you don’t have the motivation to start yet.

Are you motivated?

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