How many of you achieved last year's resolutions? How many of you still remember what last years resolutions were? If you don't write down your goals, you're more than likely to forget.
Here's a quick recap of my official five financial resolutions.
Top Financial Resolutions Each Year
1) Live Free.
Although leaving Corporate America in 2012 allowed me to travel freely, I decided to take a moderate approach instead due to the unknown risk of no longer having a paycheck.
Result: Pass. 2013 was much more of how I thought a free life would be like compared to 2012 because all the building blocks were already set. The longer you go without an income, the more confident you are you don't need a job to survive. 12 weeks of travel and setting my own schedule felt great. Now that I've experienced absolute freedom for over a year, I'm now considering going to work part-time for a start-up or even full-time if there's a great fit.
It's actually hard to stay retired once you retire early. I've been trying to relax since I left work in 2012, but it's hard not to be productive!
2) Bring The Family Closer.
My immediate family all live 5+ hour flights away. I plan to leverage my finances, the internet, and our shared interest for travel to keep our relationships healthy. Although this is not a financial resolution, it's an important lifestyle improvement.
Result: Work in progress. I convinced my sister to invite our parents to go visit her during Thanksgiving last year, a win since they live 11 hours by flight away and her apartment doesn't comfortably accommodate four people. She's got a busy life and my parents don't want to intrude. I'm very grateful to have crashed at my sister's place for 10 days this summer. We had awesome life conversations that haven't been discussed in over 10 years. Finally, several articles on FS helped open up some candid dialogue between my parents and I, which is always one of my intentions.
3) Grow Net Worth Faster Than The S&P 500.
It’s one thing to have the stock portion of your net worth outperform the S&P 500, it’s another thing to have your total net worth outperform the index. A 9% net worth increase should be feasible if my stocks and real estate equity grow faster than 11% (70% of net worth) to make up for my CDs and risk free assets which will only grow by about 4% (30% of net worth).
Result: Pass, but disappointed with 32% due to greed since everything went up huge in 2013. I understand why busy people appreciate leaving their money up for others to manage. It feels good knowing someone is looking out for your money manners as you go all out on your entrepreneurial goals. This is my main financial resolution I've had for 10 years.
The S&P 500 is one of many net worth benchmarks to target. At the end of the day, finance is relative and you need to keep up or beat to outperform.
4) Put My Finances On Autopilot.
I’ve been using an Excel spreadsheet with over 50 line items to track all my expenses, assets, and liabilities manually for the past three years. I still enjoy keeping on top of my finances, but I want to spend less time focusing on the nitty gritty since my spending, saving, and investing patterns are pretty set. Instead, I’m leveraging technology to stay on the ball. To care less about your finances, you first have to care a great deal about your finances.
Result: Pass. After deciding on a savings goal, a monthly spending limit, a comfortable net worth allocation, and a travel budget for the year, that was it. I enjoy checking-in on how my boys are doing to make sure they're behaving, but I don't have an obsession anymore that takes away time from doing other enjoyable things thanks to technology.
5) Smile Much More.
When I was younger, a friend of mine nicknamed me, “Smiles” because I would always be smiling and not even know it. I’d walk by strangers on the street who would always weirdly smile back. As I entered into the real world of work, bills, graduate school, and financial responsibility, I think my smiles have faded. I’d like to regain this natural disposition and spread some cheer.
Result: Undecided. When I bashed my face that one night from too much partying, I may have thought to myself, there goes my smile due to the huge hole in my lip. But the doctor stitched me up good and supposedly the scar will fade over a year. But this goal really isn't about physical appearance. It's about being so happy you're unaware about positive physical manifestations that occur that brings more joy to those around you.
TOP FINANCIAL RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR
Here's a list of 10 financial resolutions / goals that you may want to consider undertaking to really build your wealth. I encourage you to pick only 3 to increase your chances of success.
1) Stop thinking anybody owes you anything.
I firmly believe a proper mindset is the number one key to building wealth over time. As soon as you eradicate entitlement, you stop being bitter about other people's success. You will direct your dissatisfaction towards bettering yourself by working smarter, harder, and more creatively to achieve your goals. It's important not to rely on your parents, a rich aunt, or the government to take care of you because they actually will if you let them! If you do get baseline help, you'll never be able to achieve your full potential. Related: Why Not Just Try Harder To Get Ahead?
2) Increase your savings rate to 50%.
If you can live off 50% of your after tax income, then every year you work is one year's worth of savings in the bank. For those who are fortunate enough to be in a committed relationship, try to save the lower income partner's income. For those of you who are single and get paid twice a month, an easy trick is to try saving one entire paycheck.
If you happen to get a year end bonus, try and save 50-100% of that sum as well. If you feel you just can't save any more, then gradually inch up your percentage savings rate by 1% or 2% a month until it hurts. If your savings amount doesn't hurt, you are not saving enough. Related: How Much Savings Should I Have Accumulated By Age?
3) Review your finances like the CIA.
It's hard to devise a plan if you don't fully map out your current financial situation. Figure out whether you are happy with your stock and bond portfolio allocation. Assess your overall net worth allocation and see where you'd like to reallocate based on your risk tolerance. I don't care if you use an Excel spreadsheet, Empower or hire a financial professional to sit down with you, make sure to spend a good day going over your finances in order to understand what went well and what didn't go so well over the last 1, 3, 5, and 10 years.
The better grasp you have on your finances, the better decisions you will make. If you have a partner, please have an open dialogue with him or her. You know you're on top of your finances when you've memorized the balances for every single account you have!
4) Work on your X Factor.
You are more than just your job. Remember when you were growing up how creative and active you were? Try to go back to the days where life wasn't just about making money from a day job you don't love.
X Factors comes in all shapes and sizes. You'll never know what will hit. I was reading a profile about how a bakery chef ran out of pastry for her cream stuffing so she decided to stuff empty cannoli shells laying around. Now she and her husband have their own business in NYC called Stuffed Artisan Cannolis!
Spend 10 minutes a day dreaming about wild and crazy things. Then narrow down your focus and give your X Factor a go!
5) Review your will.
You do have a will in case something happens to you right? I bet for those of you who do have wills, it's been a long while since you reviewed what was written. Perhaps little Johnny is no longer your favorite grandson because he never comes to visit anymore. Talk to an estate planning lawyer.
Perhaps your assets have grown over the $5 million mark for tax free inheritance and you've got to accelerate your gifts while you are still alive. Maybe you've got a new granddaughter and you'd like to ensure she has enough money for college in 20 years. Keep your will up to date.
Related: Average Inheritance Amounts By Country
6) Get started on passive income creation.
The best time to create passive income is yesterday. Meaningful passive income takes an extraordinary amount of time to create. This is why it's best to start as young as possible so that by the time you burn out from work, you'll have enough passive income to hold you over until you find something better to do.
I was originally going to put a good 18 years of work until 40 and ride off into the sunset with my passive income. I could only last 13 years in finance, but fortunately had enough passive income to survive and an X Factor to work on. But I started my passive income creation in 1999. There comes an inflection point where your accumulated assets will start returning more than your annual income.
Work towards this achievement. Related: Passive Income For Financial Freedom
7) Create a Punt Portfolio.
One of the biggest risks in growing your wealth is complacency. When you're satisfied with what you have and living a life of leisure, you're definitely not looking for the next home run investment. I encourage everyone to create a Punt Portfolio equal to at least 5% of your net worth.
Your Punt Portfolio's main purpose is to invest in higher risk, higher reward ideas. Everybody should be able to survive a 5-10% hit to their net worth. With a Punt Portfolio you'll be able to satisfy your crazy beliefs and limit the amount of “should of, could of, would of” thoughts in your life when it comes to investing.
During good times, you want to be even greedier!
8) Create a Blackout Fund.
After you've calculated your net worth, set aside a Punt Portfolio and figured out your budget, it's time to set aside money for a Blackout Fund. Your Blackout Fund is the money used to have such a fantastic time you blackout!
Saving more cash makes us feel happier, but it's more than likely you will die with too much money if you're this serious about building wealth. Set aside money every year for guilt-free spending.
By blowing some money every year you'll prevent a massive spending orgy that could one day really cripple your finances. I've set aside a $25,000 blackout fund for travel, conferences, and some new electronics.
The YOLO economy is back. Enjoy it after a tough pandemic period.
9) Make a career move as a great financial resolution.
Day job income is by far the largest source of income for the majority of people. Given this fact, it is perplexing why more people don't get in first, leave last, work weekends, and be great team players with terrific attitudes at work. Even if you dislike your colleagues and think your boss is a bigot, grit your teeth and do good work.
If you can't stand your job, then you've got to make a move. Complaining is for losers and you're not a loser! Doing one thing like coming in first over an entire year will do wonders for your career. Another favorite recommendation is to take one senior person out for lunch once a month. If you just implement one new habit in your career, you will get paid and promoted faster than if you did not change.
When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter anyway? If it's been a while, you're falling behind the person who wants it more. Related: Never Quit, Get Laid Off!
10) Work on your communications skills.
It doesn't matter how smart you are if you communicate like Golem from Lord Of The Rings. The people who get the farthest are those who are able to make people feel at ease. Part of making people feel at ease is having a knowledge bank so deep that you are able to relate to anything the other party is talking about.
Develop your understanding of politics, sports, finance, and trash magazine issues. Learn to speak another language well and travel abroad to understand new cultures. Be a voracious reader. Join ToastMasters. Get into the habit of writing proposals every day. Having good written and oral communication skills will get you farther than any genius brain will.
TO A BETTER TOMORROW – Complete Your Financial Resolutions
Having a proper financial mindset is everything to building wealth over the long run. It's very easy to get off track the more money you accumulate because you face more temptation. Once you combine good financial habits and self-belief, there's very little that will stop you from achieving your financial goals.
Next up will be a discussion on net worth growth targets you don't want to miss!
Recommendation To Build Wealth
Sign up for Empower, the web’s #1 free wealth management tool to get a better handle on your finances. You can use Empower to help monitor illegal use of your credit cards and other accounts with their tracking software. In addition to better money oversight, run your investments through their award-winning Investment Checkup tool to see exactly how much you are paying in fees. I was paying $1,700 a year in fees I had no idea I was paying.
After you link all your accounts, use their Retirement Planning calculator that pulls your real data to give you as pure an estimation of your financial future as possible using Monte Carlo simulation algorithms. Definitely run your numbers to see how you’re doing.
I’ve been using Empower since 2012 to help complete my financial resolutions. As a result, I have seen my net worth skyrocket during this time thanks to better money management.
Great tips. I also think a good financial resolution – particularly for this year – is to do a complete review of all of your finances. With all the mis-selling scandals that happened in 2013, it’s important to take a really close look at all of your outgoings, investments and even bank accounts – as you could be paying a hidden charge or not getting the most out of your investments.
Great goals Sam! I’ve finally set mine in writing this year and am having them boomerranged to my inbox every month to make sure on target. It’s good to have a mix of personal and professional goals, as well as setting deadlines like 6 and 12 months. Hoping for a big 2014!
Good idea having your goals boomeranged into your inbox every month!
I would say ride it until the wave pounds you silly! You’ll hopefully get off before it does though!
I see that your new year resolutions are more financial compared to last year. I hope it is because you achieved most of the staff in your last year list and happy with where you are now mentally. My biggest resolution for the next year is to find a home to settle down. I have moved about 15 times in the last 20 years. I have even moved within the same property (it was a large one) and move back to the same house several times. I am tired and sad that I can never see my trees grow.
One of my goals for this year is to increase my savings from 20% to 50%. I am preparing for an early retirement and I think saving more will me help back up and strengthen my finances when the day comes.
Great list, Sam. In 2014, I’m working hard on the 50% savings goal, and creating passive income streams.
The punt portfolio is really intriguing to me and I’m going to add that this year. Anything in particular you’ve been looking at for that portfolio? Small-cap stocks? International?
My one stock that hit big was in 2009. I bought General Growth Properties when it went through bankruptcy. It re-organized and the returns ending up being huge. Only wish I had bought more, I could have retired before age 30!
I’m still looking at the tech/Internet space because this is where the mania is.
But I just found REM with a 16% yield and a total underperform!
Great goals Sam. You putting actual percentages and figures out there is what makes this site worth reading! For me it is pretty simple…stick to my plan of spending $ on the stuff that makes me happy and life more enjoyable while along the way saving the majority while times are this good. Avoid “stuff accumulation” seek out “experience accumulation”.
Thanks mate. I think you’ll enjoy the upcoming post about net worth growth targets.
I’m w/ you on avoiding stuff and experience accumulation!
I’m content with where I’m at for my day job but my main goals are to find a new source or two of income(thinking passive real estate investment, etc) and build my online income. My online income has been awesome the past 6 months but I want to see if I can keep it up for an entire year(2014). Also trying to diversify a bit more into affiliate stuff and not depend on direct advertising so much(right now I’m 95/5 direct ads/affiliate).
Share more of what your definition of awesome is!
I’ve encouraged the Yakezie community to really try and ween themselves off the direct advertising drug and go 80+ affiliate instead. You sleep better at night and the writing is much, much better and more congruent.
1) Finish my MBA.
2) Spend $12K< than last year, save the rest.
3) Fight the urge to buy a new car and keep my 1/4-million mile car alive (one more year Beast, one more year).
4) Travel for 5 weeks without breaking the bank (taking domestic road trips instead of multiple international trips this year)
Life is pretty damn good for me Sam. A little tweaking may be in order but no huge plans to do anything really drastic. If I can finish my MBA and hoard some cash, it should be another excellent year for me.
Beast! 250,000 miles is huge! Moose only has about 130,000 miles, but is 13 years old and all the electrical gremlins are coming out.
You’ll love it once you’re done with your MBA. Where you going and what do you plan to do with it?
Great read. I was able to achieve many goals. Couple quick questions, hoping you can help.
1. Currently at about a 55% LTV ratio on my condo, on a 15 year 3.75% mortgage, with 13 years left. (Much better than my orig FHA @5.25 w/PMI that i had when i bought it in 2010). Sitting on way too much cash at .85% online savings with AMEX. Would you pay extra towards mortgage? Where would you put cash? Saving $2500-$4500 post tax between 2 of us/mo.
2. Maxing out my employer match at 6%, not contributing more due to refund checks I got from not enough contributions from others in previous years. Time to max our a yearly IRA?
3. To pay off or not? I keep debating between attempting to pay off my condo (which I could do in 2014 at current savings rate, plus Amex savings) and save for a few years and buy a house to live in, and use the condo as a rental, or am I better off letting it ride at 3.75%? Frustrating earning .85 and spending 3.75 with barely any write off (only paid 6k in interest in 2013).
A little info on me, middle upper 20’s, engaged, no debt besides mortgage and cars, and combined income of around 200k/yr (in So Cal where its expensive like your neck of the woods)
I do have a trading account, made the mistake of selling all my positions in early 2013 when everyone thought the world was coming to an end, and then moving all the money to a high yield online account. Appreciate any insight!
Hard to say without know your cash balance, home equity amount, career trajectory etc.
You seem risk averse so id just work to paying it off while maxing out your pretax retirement accounts for sure.
I personally like having a large mortgage if I had $200k income.
Sam,
Thanks for the reply. I realize at my age I need more risk, which is why one of my goals is to become smarter with the money I’m making in 2014. I have about 145k in equity in my home, and owe about 170k. Between 2 of us we have about 40k in 401ks.
145k in liquid cash between both of us right now. I am a bit reversed on your model. A little behind on 401k, but ahead on home equity and cash.
Long term- does it pay to have a free and clear rental?
On a side note- love your site, found it a few months ago and have become addicted. Thanks for your insight.
Tom.
Hi Tom,
Not sure if you’ve read these posts yet, but if not, check them out:
* Don’t Stop Fortune Hunting
* Recommended Net Worth Allocation By Age Or Work Experience
Because we are no longer in a bear market, that $145,000 in liquid cash should feel like a lump of hot coal burning through your pockets and into your skin. Different story if the world is coming to an end.
I would max out the 401k this year for both so that’s $35,000 in pre-tax savings right there. A $170,000 mortgage on a $200,000 income is really very conservative and underlevered in this environment.
But at the end of the day, you got to do what makes you sleep well at night.
Good to have you as a new reader/subscriber!
Sam
To smile more might be the best resolution I’ve ever seen. Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we all smiled before we said anything in anger or frustration? It’s hard to be ugly with a smile on your face. It took me until the last week of December to accomplish my last goal on the 2013 list, so I haven’t done 2014 just yet, but I think I’ll put smile more on there for sure!
Sounds good Kim. I look forward to reading your 2014 goals.
Speaking of leveraging technology to ensure personal finance management efficiency, I recently discovered YNAB and it is the best piece of software I’ve found yet. I initially laid my plans out in Excel then translated everything into YNAB and haven’t looked back.
Might have to check YNAB out! Thx
Sam,
Great goals there. And you knocked it out of the park on your resolutions from last year. That’s awesome!
I’m taking a hard look at the career move. I’ve been working hard and gritting my teeth for a number of years now, and after a pay cut I’m feeling a bit unappreciated and burned out.
I hope 2014 treats you incredibly well.
Best wishes!
DM,
I hear you on feeling underappreciated or unappreciated at work after a while. 7 years is a long time for you, and if you dedicate that much effort and then get a 10-15% pay cut, well then…… it’s probably best to look for something fresh. It feels great to reset relationships and expectations.
Let’s hope the stock market holds steady for 2014!
Hey Sam,
I guess it has been a while since I commented on the site. I love the new banner.
I’m working on earning passive income after diligently working on a current project. You’ll hear about it soon enough. :-)
I decided to stop being just a consumer of information.
It’s time to put what I’ve learned from you and others to test.
Good luck in 2014.
Hey Romeo,
Good to hear from you man. The site was just redesigned several days ago for the new year.
Best to you for 2014!
I like these. 2,3 and 10 are in line with my goals this year.
I was at a 10% savings rate but after paying off my car loan I’ve made it a point to save an entire paycheck each month starting with my second January paycheck.
I just signed up for Personal Capital and it’s amazing how looking at my net worth makes me want to be more disciplined and diligent with savings. Once my student loans are paid off in a little under 3 years, I’ll be in positive territory when it comes to personal net worth.
And lastly, I’ve been told at work that I seem cocky. I guess that’s a negative? Anyway, I think it’s because I tend not to speak if there’s nothing important to say. College football just doesn’t do it for me. But this year I’d like to ‘play the game’ a bit more. Mostly to make my coworkers more comfortable.
Pretty cool how much more motivated and empowered one is after seeing their entire financial snapshot in one place? It’s a no brainer to do a full annual review of your net worth at least once or twice a year.
Yeah, cocky isn’t the best :) Gotta play the game to get ahead for sure, whether you hate the game or not. Gotta memorize all the stats for the current NFL playoffs, know the top 6 teams in the NBA and college, and have an opinion on FSU vs. Auburn!
I would agree with all of your suggestions except for a 50% savings rate and change of career. Unless you are earning more than $200K, a 50% savings rate is too extreme. It is certainly easier, if you are single and renting an apartment etc. Second, although I have had 7 careers, I do not think changing careers is for everyone. Except for my teaching career, all of my careers were related (business). I think it is far better to find something you like and are good at. The change may be employers to find that “Google” like company that pays well and rewards their employees.
The only financial goal I am working on is doubling my portfolio in the next 5 years. 2013 was a banner year, if 2014 is even close I will achieve my goal in less than 3 years.
I seriously don’t think you need to make $200,000 to save 50% of your salary. It’s certainly much easier when you are single, or have a dual income household with no kids. Folks should just TRY. I was able to save 50% when my income was around $60,000, and that was living in Manhattan.
On the career thing, I didn’t mean for everyone to find a new job. What I mean is encourage people to change one or two habits to make themselves superstar employees at their existing job, or try and leave for something better.
I managed to squeeze out 10.73% in savings in 2013, but I’ve just bumped that up by another 1% for the coming year. It’s going to hurt again I’m sure, especially since we have a couple more bills to payoff from Christmas – which is offset a little by some side work that I’m doing. Hopefully I can adjust it up another 1% within the first quarter. While 50% isn’t achievable at this time, I’ll have to run it by the Mrs. to see if she’d be ok with us cutting out all the extras. :-)
Sounds good Chris. Tell her to cut all of her discretionary spending out so the team can save more :)
Funny thing is I just found an article from Jean Chatzky who I’ve seen in articles in a lot of places over the years. The title of the article is “You may be saving too much for retirement” on Forbes site. I think I found it either from Fidelity, or from Google when I was looking at a few stocks.
I love the punt portfolio idea, although I’m afraid I’ve just about never got an idea or hunch to chase.
The blackout plan is cute and one I don’t usually see on personal finance blogs. Maybe it’s a leftover from working in the finance industry?
I do highly recommend your advocation of living on 1/2 your income. It’s terribly hard with inflation (both natural and lifestyle), but there’s really very little else that can allow you to cut the corporate cord as quickly.
Amazing job with your net worth in 2013. That’s amazing because you have so much of your net worth in CD (I think.)
I only have 2 financial resolutions this year.
1. save $50,000 in tax advantaged accounts
2. Generate $12,000 in passive income.
Both are within reach, but they won’t be easy. We will have to work on them throughout the year.
Good luck in 2014!
Those are good goals! Is the $50,000 tax advantaged savings just you or you and your wife? I need to get to a $250,000 income to be able to contribute $50,000 in my SEP IRA. The thing is, I don’t want to make $250,000 b/c that’s a damn lot of taxes if I combine that with my passive income. Need to make as little as possible!
I have around 25% of my net worth in CDs yielding about 3.8% blended.
The rest of the net worth consists of:
* 60% revenue growth in my online business which is valued at 2.7X annual revenue for the past three years. The valuation multiple is subjective, but I personally would not sell my revenue streams for anything less than a 5X multiple because I’m having a ton of fun, cash flow is steady, and operating margins are high. If I sold all my online properties, I don’t know what I would do with all my free time. The business is where I spent most of my time and the valuation is now a meaningful part of my net worth which I’ll discuss a little more of from now on.
* A 30% – 60% increase in home equity due to a 15% – 30% increase in property prices depending on what type and where. I’ve chosen to use a 15% increase in my calculations and have also taken a 15% discount to Zillow estimates. The nation as a whole showed a 13.6% YoY increase in property prices, so I think using a 15% figure is conservative since things are nuts here in the SF Bay Area. One report has Palo Alto home prices 40% HIGHER than 2006 peak levels. I’ll be posting a dedicated article on the repercussions of aggressive housing price increases in the city. Facebook, Twitter, Google are at all-time highs and I’m pretty sure rents and house prices will continue to rise by at least 5% in 2014.
* A blended 25% increase in equities. I operate my IRA like a hedge fund, taking big bets, going in and out of positions, and also hedging which is not the best in a bull market. My IRA is up about 16%, which is good compared to the overall hedge fund index (HDG +5%), but bad compared to the S&P 500 +30%. The rest of my equity exposure is in structured notes linked to indices with downside protection. If there is ever a downturn again, I want to still be making money.
Oops, I forgot to include my online business.
The $50,000 saving goal is a joint goal. We’ll save in 401k, Roth IRA, and 529. That’s a lot of money to save with less than 6 figures income.
Did you look at i401(k)? You can save 25% of self employment income in addition to $17,500 salary deferral.
Thanks for sharing your holding. I guess that’s the big advantage of being a financial expert. You can take advantage of the stock market going up or down.
Never heard of an i401(k). Is that made by Apple? :) I’ll take a look.
If you guys make combined less than $100,000 then saving $50,000 is excellent! I really encourage everyone to hit that 50% savings mark. I guess the trick is to still try and lead a full life and not pinch pennies.
I could work towards almost all of these, but the three goals I set for myself that happen to fall on your list are:
– Increase savings to 50%: I tried it last year on my own & couldn’t get there. This time I have my fiance & her income on board to help the cause.
– Work on X factor: Mainly I’m going to try and focus on taking my blog more seriously this year & not laving the lapses in motivation that hit me last year.
– Make a career move: I’ve been looking to make a jump to a company that offers more opportunity than my current one. Hopefully I can get this one done pretty early on in ’14!
If you can make the career jump for better reward, that’s likely going to be your biggest alpha in wealth creation. Good luck on that!
No more lapses in blogging motivation for 2014. Check out this post on Yakezie.com to figure out how to get you doing your best all year!
What’s your blog url? No time like the present to get some like minded folks to add the URL to their bookmarks!
Great summary of your goals. I think it is very important to tell others to gain accountability. A boo is a great way to do this! I did not reach all my goals in 2013, but I set huge goals. I want to keep pushing to reach them all year long. I may even revise them to get bigger throughout the year if I think they are well within reach.
Great job in 2013. I’m pretty pleased with my progress but I’m always thinking I could have done more. I have a small list of goals for this year that I really want to complete. I’m making a bigger effort to actively invest my money so it doesn’t just sit as cash for months. I’m also redoing my budget and raised my savings goals. I’m excited about the next 12 months!
Nice job raising your savings goal and deploying cash! I like Warren Buffet reminding us that cash is the worst investment. Yes, it’s good during a meltdown, but in 20 years companies overall will be worth more and cash will be worth less. Say no to sitting on cash!
Great post, Sam – definitely some good food for thought in here.
After mulling over your list a little, here are my two financial goals for 2014:
1) My savings rate – I’ve been decent about saving but not very proactive; I couldn’t even tell you what % of my income I’m saving. So I’d like to keep better track of how much I’m actually saving, and also try to ramp up my savings “until it hurts.”
2) My career – I’m a recent grad and although I’m working now (two jobs, in fact), I definitely don’t want to spend the rest of my life in the fields I’m currently in. So in 2014 I’d like to narrow down some other fields that I might be interested in and, if possible, set up some informational interviews with people in those fields so I can get ready for a career change in 2015.
Laura – I’m glad you’re going to figure out your savings rate. Set a percentage and go for it. You’ll naturally adjust your spending and living habits to accommodate such a goal if you are serious.
Good luck on the career change. Working one job will seem so simple after working two!
Love the list. My big goal for 2014 is a career move. My day job is gone and I’m starting a financial planning practice along with working to expand the reach of my blog. It’s more than a little scary, but also pretty exhilarating. Also, I like the idea to try and smile more! I’m smiling as I type this, so hopefully I can keep it up!
Good luck with the career change and new business Matt. What’s the story behind the day job disappearing?