2014 Goals Tracking - Nov End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Done for the year.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Fail. Had some bulk expenses. 
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. Given up on this. :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. 
4. Exercising: Pass.

Score: 7/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul
Aug

Sep
Oct

2014 Goals Tracking - Oct End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Done for the year.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. Will I ever pass it. :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. 
4. Exercising: Pass.

Score: 8/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul
Aug

Sep

2014 Goals Tracking - Sep End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Done for the year.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Fail. Well September was a very expensive month. I had lot of premiums to pay, car servicing due, baby's new-to-him bed was bought and car tyres had to be changed. additionally, we 3 were not well all month long :(
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Fail. I was unwell almost all month. Had no energy for most of September and hence lots of time baby schedule has slipped up. :( I am so not proud of it. :(
2. Reading: Fail. Will I ever pass it. :(
3. Improve myself: Fail. When you are so low on energy, negative thoughts creep back in.  
4. Exercising: Fail. Again due to illness, took a week's break. :(

Score: 4/9.

Can't believe it, this was the worst month of the year so far. 

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul
Aug

2014 Goals Tracking - Aug End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.Finished for the year. NW increased by 21% already. YIPPEE
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. Will I ever pass it. :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally. 
4. Exercising: Pass. Recently again picked up. Hope to continue without break. 

Score: 8/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul

2014 Goals Tracking - Jul End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. Will I ever pass it. :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally. 
4. Exercising: Pass. Recently again picked up. Hope to continue without break. 

Score: 8/9.

Wow. Best score of the year.

Update on cooking: tried couple of new things in one week long stay-a-cation.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun

Half yearly update and tracking - 2014

These are my goals for 2014.

Can't believe its July already. Since 6 months have passed, lets see how I fare in each of my goals.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): This goal I have achieved in all last 6 months. I count this goal as pass if I can increase my NW by more than 1% in a month. Till June end, my NW has increased by 14%, seems like I should be able to achieve this target within next quarter.  
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Other than in February, I have managed to achieve this as well. This one I calculate as savings from our take home pay. I don't count automated deductions. Aim is that expenses should always be under 60% of whatever money comes to us. Last year I used to aim at 50% but with baby going to school + daycare, 50% seemed outrageous. However, quick calculation shows that I achieved 50% in 4 out of 6 months, not bad aah!
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): To be honest I have totally forgotten what was in my mind when I said 30% for retirement. Was it 30% of total savings, 30% of total salary, or 30% of take home, i have no clue. I am marking it as pass if I don't interrupt my automated retirement savings. This also has been pass in all 6 months.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year. Saved 3 months expenses in short term FDs, which can be en-cashed within a day or two. Couldn't save anything for first 2 months of the year, however achieved it in next 4. :)
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year. This took priority and I payed it off completely in first two months. Now you know why no EF for first 2 months.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: This is mostly a pass, except the January month. I am consciously trying very hard for work-life balance to not let my baby suffer.
2. Reading: Failure till now. To be honest lately work has been more on research side hence no brain cells free for more reading. I could have counted that reading in here but that will be cheating and I as a principal never cheat myself. :)
3. Improve myself: Pass. I am overall more positive and optimistic. 
4. Exercising: First 4 months I couldn't concentrate on this. But last 2 months I have become very serious for this goal. I am walking regularly now, even on days when I am not well. Hope to continue this spirit for rest of the year.  

Score: 7/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun

2014 Goals Tracking - Jun End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. I even had a one week stay-a-cation but couldn't achieve this.:(
3. Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally. 
4. Exercising: Pass. Recently again picked up. Hope to continue without break. 

Score: 8/9.

Wow. Best score of the year.

Update on cooking: tried couple of new things in one week long stay-a-cation.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

2014 Goals Tracking - May End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Pass.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Pass.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. Work is so hectic plus i took a vacation for a week. :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally. 
4. Exercising: Pass. Recently again picked up. Hope to continue without break. 

Score: 8/9.

Wow. Best score of the year.

Update on cooking: back to square one. hardly tried anything new here. Lets hope to do better in June.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr

2014 Goals Tracking - April End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Pass.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Pass.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. Work is so hectic plus i took a vacation for a week. :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally. 
4. Exercising: Fail. Though not as regularly, but this has started picking up again. hopefully, soon I'll have pass here. 

Score: 7/9.

Improvement by 2 achieved goals, not bad.

Update on cooking: still enjoying it completely. :)

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar

2014 Goals Tracking - March End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Pass.
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Pass.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. Work is so hectic that new reading becomes a luxury :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally. 
4. Exercising: Fail. Work is so hectic that this also becomes a luxury :(

Score: 7/9.

Improvement by 2 achieved goals, not bad.

One funny thing to share, I had "learn-more-cooking" goal from so long in my list. 
It was one goal which I almost always failed in achieving.
This year when I decided to scrap it completely, I am cooking more than usual.
Life!

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb

2014 Goals Tracking - February End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Fail. It was an expensive month. What more can I say. :(
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Fail. It was an expensive month. What more can I say. :(
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Pass.

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Pass.
2. Reading: Fail. Work is so hectic that new reading becomes a luxury :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally. 
4. Exercising: Fail. Work is so hectic that new this also becomes a luxury :(

Score: 5/9.

2 bad months in row, welcome 2014. 

Previous Months:
Jan

2014 Goals Tracking - January End

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

1. Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass
2. Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass
3. Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass
4. Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Fail. Retirement savings took a priority. I know I am worst PF role model. :(
5. Payoff my 1 loan: Pass

Personal:-

1. Baby schedule: Fail. Had a very hectic month - job wise, plus being unwell with some nasty virus for all the time, leaves me with no energy. Thankfully DH totally compensates for what I couldn't do. 
2. Reading: Fail. See above :(
3. Improve myself: Pass. I wish I was comfortable discussing more of my personal life in this space but I am not. What I can share is that from last few days I again had doubt about how to deal with some social situation. I decided to just back off and it worked. I just need to learn how to back off earlier and trust my gut (about people) more.
4. Exercising: Fail. I started good with this but then being unwell took its toll. This is exactly the vicious circle that I would like to break. 

Score: 5/9.

Not very good way to start the year but hopefully we will improve from here.

More insight on personal goals for 2014

I wanted to elaborate little more on my personal goals, just to have more clarity on why behind what.

One of my personal goal this year is: "Pick one bad habit of myself every quarter and work on it for full one quarter hoping to improve it eventually."

Even if not 4, I right now have one thing that I would like to improve about myself. I always most of the times judge myself based on other's reactions to me. This is very irritating and causes most of the mood swings among me. I don't lack self-confidence in my life but I think when it comes to likability, I think I am certainly not really a very confident person.

Better overall self-confidence is something I really want to work towards. 

If you guys have any tip, please do let me know.

Another goal that really needs attention is "stamina". I think at my age I should start some exercising so that I have better health and stamina while growing old. I have also got Fitbit as a gift which I am using from last few weeks.

First thing that I really want and is going to track is: Number of steps every day. 

I am going to do more research on exercises related to things I want to improve and going to add them to this list going forward in the year.

Goals for 2014

2013 was year of Self  Love. Some of the key take away are:

1. I finally had a decent financial year. That feels awesome. 

2. Cooking is always going to be tough for me because that is something I don't enjoy inherently. On the other hand, given my mood, I can cook a decent meal. 

3. When I take care of my self regularly, it does feel good. This also leads to feeling bad when I go back to "not-taking-care-of-myself" mode. I think this goal REALLY WORKED last year.

Over to goals for 2014.

This year my financial goals were very clear in my mind, but it was personal ones that took so long for me.  

Financial:

By no means I feel that following are the stretch goals, but I will certainly feel very happy if we end up achieving them. I just hope Murphy decides not to visit us and we can pass this category.

1. Networth: I aim to increase our networth by 20% in this financial year. This is same as last year but essentially means we have to save more (maths geek!!!).

2. Savings: Save 40% of our joint take home. I am reducing this by 10% because baby will be starting his school this year which means increased expenses.

3. Retirement: This is my priority in savings this year. Aiming to save 30% towards this.

4. Emergency Fund - Last year I have really lived on edge with almost no money in bank to achieve my goals. It gave me bad feeling too many times. I think its high time to get responsible and build some emergency fund. I am aiming for 3X monthly expenses.

5. Payoff my 1 loan - Should be able to do this by first half of the year.

This year I am not setting any budget related thing. I realized last year that tracking works fine in my household but budgeting not so much.

Personal:

Continuing "Love Yourself".

1. Aim to not disturb baby's schedule on day to day basis, specifically when we have visitors.

2. Spend at least one hour on my new job related studying.

3. Pick one bad habit of myself every quarter and work on it for full one quarter hoping to improve it eventually.

4. I have to start exercising - to build my stamina again.

9 goals for this year, please wish me best of luck and I promise to try and update regularly on my progress. 

Happy New Year

I know I am 5 days late, but still wishing me and everybody else a very happy and prosperous 2014.

I am still working on my goals for 2014, will update them soon. :)

2013 Goals Tracking - Nov & Dec End

These were my goals for 2013.

I missed tracking for November, and below's result are for November and December.

Financial:

1. Networth: Pass.
2. Savings: Saved < 50%. Fail.
3. Retirement: Pass. This category is fully automated now.
4. Budget: Fail.

Personal:

1. Cooking: Fail.
2. Schedule for baby: Pass.  
3. Study - work related: Fail. Work has been very hectic lately, no time even for study.
4. Get rid of TV: Pass. So much work and a small baby, shortage of time in this household.
5. Self Improvement - one-thing-at-a-time: Pass.
6. Reduce Google-Reader addiction: Pass.

Total Score:  6 / 10, not good way to end year right. :(

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb

Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep

Oct