Dan's Personal Goals Thread

[dmooretoys]

Ok, I probably shouldn't start a personal goal thread but I am going to try to keep track of some goals here through the years. In the past I have made physical goals like run a marathon etc but right now my goals are more work-related and educational. Here is a list of my 2010 and beyond goals:


Goal #1 Work: One goal was to get promoted and that goal will soon be realized. I have made the Captain's list and should be promoted on September 1st. Obviously as I move up the ranks in the Army this takes more of my time and I have less time to work on the website. Sorry but I will still try to keep Joe Intel going (lol).

Goal #2 Education: I have been wanting to start working on my Master's Degree for a while now and am just getting back into it. I have already taken the pre-requisites for the MBA I am pursuing and completed two of the classes for it three years ago. Well, I recently went to an academic advisor and now have a plan to finish my MBA in the fall of next year. Of course this will depend on my deployments, work schedule, etc. It feels nice to be back in class again (I'm now taking Managerial Economics) but once again this is taking time away from working on Joe Intel. Sometimes life has to take priority and it is time to finish this so I can move on.

Goal #3: Financial: If you check out the thread on 2010 collecting goals you might notice I have really inexpensive goals for this year. That is because I am eliminating all consumer debt this year. This month we paid off our van and it has been paid off three years early. We still have a small amount of consumer debt and it will be paid off in December on our current budget. Once all debt has been paid off we will only pay cash for vehicles or whatever else we need. We are following Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace plan and it has been excellent for my family. We are almost finished with the debt snowball and then we will finish our emergency fund, kick up our retirement investments, and start saving for our next vehicle and furniture expenses so we will pay cash instead of using credit. I highly recommend checking out Dave's Financial Peace or Total Money Makeover books. Although I don't spend nearly as much on Joes as I used to it is worth the sacrifice when we realize our financial goals and know our kids will have a college education and my wife and I will actually be able to retire before we are 97 years old!


Another goal that has already been realized for this year is I have had corrective eye surgery in February and no longer need glasses. I have worn glasses for 29 years but now after having ICL surgery I no longer wear anything except sunglasses. This has been great for me and I am thankful I was able to have this surgery.

Ok, that is it for my personal goals for now. This fall I may begin training for a marathon again next year but right now with my wife being pregnant and everything else going on it is just impossible to spend the amount of time it takes to run a marathon.

So, does anyone else have a goal list they would be willing to post? It is kind of fun to occasionally post as you make progress AND it will help you to stay on track. I have noticed if I do not write down my goals I often will not realize them. The first step to making a commitment is actually writing your goals down. Try it!

Dan

[silverc]

These are all great points, Dan. I know this may ring a bit hollow coming from somebody who has spent as much as I have on vintage plastic and cardboard, but it's always good to save as much money as you can....especially for an emergency. I am a planner by nature and I have prepared a lot of items in case of a disaster (extra food/water, camping gear, etc), but also extra money. If the **** is going to hit the fan, it may come in the form of a tornado or a hurricane, or mass civil unrest, but it's much more likely to come in the form of a lost job(s) and financial SHTF instead. My wife lost her job twice and both times it was a great stress on the family until she found a new one. She makes 2x what I do since I technically don't have a "real" job as research fellow, so when she was not working our savings got massacred.

So you are really onto something there in getting yourself out of debt as much as you can. I am working on that myself, trying to rid myself of the crushing debt of student loans as quickly as possible. I've sold off as much excess junk as possible to trim the fat from the collection and really consolidated my collecting focus. It's liberating to be free from the burden of debt and I am looking forward to when I have no more debts to pay.

[Goofateer]

I'm kind of surprised I missed this thread.

First off, congratulations on the impending promotion Dan.

I've learned a valuable life lesson this year with regards goals. It's OK to juggle, but don't juggle too many ball's.

Last year, and well into this year, I had way to many ball's in the air. I finally had to make the decision to put down a few, and just concentrate the most important ones.

In the last few months I've been able to make some major changes and progress. The shop is looking much better, and a little more money is coming through the door. My apartment has had some major work done, the most work in about a year or more. I'm also working, or maybe it's more appropriate to say "not working" on getting out of Credit Card Debt. Might not be the best way to do it, but it seem's to be working.

Another aspect that I've learned is that I'm not really great at meeting long term goal's. So it's better to shot for smaller, short term goals. Not so much the "what to do today" kind of goal, but more like the next 3 months or so.

So right now I just have 3 short term goal's:

1) finish the shop completely before the World Equestrian Games in September. Central Kentucky is going to have a massive influx of people for that event, and ALLLLLL of them will have very deep pockets.

2) finish at least 2 more rooms in the apartment.

3) reach 1000 fan's on Facebook, then use that to launch my new store web site. So to that end, go to Facebook, and become a fan of Captain Cosmos Collectibles:

http://www.facebook.com/CaptainComsosCollectibles

Roger

[dmooretoys]

Finished my Managerial Economics class with an A+. Having been getting much done with the website but I am making some personal progress at least.

Dan

[dants]

Congratulations Dan. That is sure one big step.

I think the most important thing is that you have your identified goals. That way you get to know what to prioritize.

[silverc]

Originally Posted by dmooretoys

Finished my Managerial Economics class with an A+. Having been getting much done with the website but I am making some personal progress at least.

Dan

Wow, that's awesome. Nice work, Dan.