Goals 2009
It is hard to imagine 2008 is actually over and today is the beginning of a brand new year! As always, today is the day I sit back, think hard and start writing about what I want to achieve in the year to come.
Goals setting is like marking out the places of interest in life which you would like to go to. You will be loss if you do not have any destination in mind and very often, it is more about the journey then the destination that makes you grow up a little every year. The other important thing on goals setting is about making each goal S.M.A.R.T.
Financial Goals
Even though the financial market is still in a pretty bad shape, what I hope to achieve this year, is to garner more financial wisdom from this turmoil other than paying off some debts. One thing for sure, it is not very often we get to live through a “Great Depression” in one’s life time and everything that we used to think is impossible are becoming a reality. I believe this crisis is a great test that we must go through. And if we are able to emerge from this crisis, the golden gate of opportunities will open for us.
Goal 1 - Payoff a third of the loan I took for my MBA
a. Specific: Payoff $15,000 of the $45,000 of the study loan I took for my MBA
b. Measurable: I will track the payment with a spreadsheet and see how well I am doing
c. Actionable: Put aside my monthly earnings and get a part time job to improve my finance
d. Realistic: Saving $1,250 per month is within my saving and investing abilities
e. Timely: Goal should be achieved by Jan 2010
Goal 2 - Track my budget
a. Specific: Tracking my daily budget closely and spend within means
b. Measurable: Track my daily updating status through a spreadsheet
c. Actionable: Put aside 5 minutes daily at night to update the financial spreadsheet
d. Realistic: This goal is within my abilities
e. Timely: Goal should be achieved by Jan 2010
Goal 3 - Improve financial knowledge
a. Specific: Knowledge in stock investment, personal finance planning
b. Measurable: Track learning status by constantly updating the finance portion of this blog
c. Actionable: Put aside 1 hour daily reading financial blogs, write down the findings in this blog and participate in the investment community online
d. Realistic: This goal is within my abilities
e. Timely: Goal should be achieved by Jan 2010
Online Goals
In 2009, my hope is to start and grow my online business. This is something I wanted to do for a very long time but procrastinated until today. I have decided to start this brandless blog because I’ve felt that there is no point to ponder so hard about the blog design, brand name or domain name. Rather, the key to success for any online business is the value the readers or customers receive out of it.
Goal 1 - Post regularly
a. Specific: At least 1 blog post per day
b. Measurable: Track the frequency of post and see how well I am doing
c. Actionable: Put aside 1 hr on weekdays and 3 hr on weekends for writing
d. Realistic: Writing 1 post per day is within my abilities
e. Timely: Goal should be achieved by Jan 2010
Goal 2 - Increase subscriber of this blog
a. Specific: Increase the subscribers to 500
b. Measurable: Track the status through feedburner
c. Actionable: Produce useful blog posts to attract readers and maybe more marketing
d. Realistic: This goal is within my abilities
e. Timely: Goal should be achieved by Jan 2010
Goal 3 - Improve the look of this blog
a. Specific: Slowly customize the look of this blog
b. Measurable: Screenshots of this blog taken to track changes every 3 months
c. Actionable: Put aside 2 hour monthly to make the changes
d. Realistic: This goal is within my abilities
e. Timely: Goal should be achieved by Jan 2010
Goal 4 – Income from this blog
a. Specific: Grow my online income to $500 per month
b. Measurable: Track the online earning by spreadsheet.
c. Actionable: Affiliation marketing, selling info, etc
d. Realistic: This goal is within my abilities
e. Timely: Goal should be achieved by Jan 2010
Happy New Year to everyone!
May you have a great year ahead!
Last 5 posts by Rendell
- Hunting for the right job in the legal industry? - April 6th, 2009
- The Short & Simple Story of the Credit Crisis - March 19th, 2009
- Violinist in the Metro - March 17th, 2009
- Why Do People Think It Is Ok To Cheat The Stimulus Money? - March 17th, 2009
- Premature Shift to Renewal Energy? - March 17th, 2009
Comments
5 Responses to “Goals 2009”
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Hello there pal!
Happy new year
I hope you all your goals will be achieve at the end of the year
Norhafidz
Hi Hafidz,
Thanks for the support and well wishes.
I would like to wish you all the best for 2009 and may your year ahead be exciting and fruitful.
Rendell
[...] One of the goals I have set myself to "accomplish" in 2009 is to improve my knowledge in investing and personal finance planning. I believe learning from the best finance books, academic research, market news and financial blogs will reveal certain practices that can improve the financial decisions I made. Better investment decisions lead to lower costs, more predictable returns and lower risk. And being more inform improves the probability of meeting my financial goals. [...]
social development…
Most people don’t know what they are talking about. You seem to have thought this through completely. Good Job!…
subconscious…
I find that if you focus on yourself more than anything else a world of problems disappear…