My Goals For 2012

I didn’t set any goals for 2011, at least not publicly. And that’s a shame because studies have shown there are clear benefits both for writing goals down and being held accountable for them publicly. Since I probably need all the help I can get, I’m going to broadly outline a few personal finance and business goals for myself in 2012. I’m not going to get too terribly specific because I don’ t want to reveal too much personal information, but you’ll get the gist of it.

Personal Finance Goals

• Increase my net worth by $60,000 - This is a pretty aggressive goal based on my savings rate. I say “based on my savings rate” because I don’t think setting a goal based on earning a positive return on my investments is all that useful. I can’t control what the market does, but I can control how much money I save. If my business does well over the next year and I hit at least 100% of my bonus at work, I just might be able to hit this target. Of course, if the market crashes it probably won’t matter how much I save. On the other hand, if the market shoots up 20% next year, I will hit this goal easily. But I’m not going to worry about that either way. I won’t feel bad if I miss my goal solely because of an uncooperative stock market.
• Fully fund both my 401k and SEP IRA next year - I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to max out my company’s 401k plan both of the last two years and expect to be able to do so in 2012 as well. I will only be able to defer 20% of my self-employment income into my recently-opened SEP IRA, which will put me absolutely nowhere near the maximum contribution for that type of account. So when I say “fully fund my SEP IRA” I mean defer 20% of my self-employment income. This should be a gimme barring any unforeseen disaster I would need to funnel my secondary income towards.
• Fix up the ol’ homestead to prepare it for sale or rental - I want to move. I don’t necessarily see myself being able to sell my condo for a reasonable amount in this market, but I’d like it at least to be in saleable (or rentable) shape by the end of the year. Best case scenario would be to lease it sometime in 2013 while I move to my favorite part of town.

Personal Goals

• Spend at a very minimum 2 weeks this year on another continent – Preferably Asia or South America, but I’m not going to be picky. In reality, I’d rather spend more like an entire month abroad. We’ll see how this goes.
• Do some sort of exercise at least 5 days per week – I’m already doing pretty well on the personal fitness front. I work out at least 2-3 days per week and sometimes hit 4 or even 5. But I’d like to get to the point where I’m working out 5 days per week consistently. This isn’t really a particularly aggressive goal, because even something as quick as an intense 10 minute interval session would count. The point is to do something every day. Walking doesn’t count, but things like playing soccer or basketball after work do.
• Eat better – I already eat a ton of fruits and vegetables, so overall macro nutrition isn’t a problem for me. But I also eat far more junk food than I should, and often after a long day at work I’ll just order a pizza for dinner. I have to cut back on that significantly.

Business Goals

• Break 1,000 RSS subscribers – I’ve been hovering around the 600 RSS subscriber count for almost 6 months now. Most of this is due to the fact that I didn’t aggressively pursue RSS readers in 2011 coupled with not doing any guest posts on larger blogs, which in my experience is one of the best way to build loyal readership. Wanna help me out? Subscribe to my RSS feed!
• Consistently post about 3 times per week – My posting slowed down considerably in the second half of 2011 due to some personal things I won’t get into. But that’s really no excuse. I’m going to post more regularly in 2012. You guys deserve it.
• Write at least 1 quality guest post per month for a popular blog in my niche – Guest posts can be a time sink, but they are still the most effective way I know of to build domain authority, search traffic, and most importantly readership.
• Start a mailing list – Everybody else does this. Why don’t I? Because I’ve been lazy.
• Increase business income by 50% – There’s absolutely no way this is going to happen without creating my own product. I’ve had a few ideas for an ebook I’ve been kicking around in my head for a while now. Speaking of which…
• Write an ebook – I’m just going to do it this year. I may even decide to give it away for free to loyal readers instead of selling it. But I can worry about that after I’ve actually written the damn thing.