Sunday, December 30, 2007

Looking Back/ Looking Forward

2007 flew past me. It seems like 2006 was just yesterday and here it is the end of 2007. I started out the year on maternity leave with my new baby son. It was a happy time, but also a very stressful time. I had many goals for the year. Because I spent the first few months of the year on leave, I got comfortable with the free time I had and didn't really think about how I was going back to school and work soon. Some of my goals kinda flew out the door.

One of the main things I wanted to accomplish this past year was getting my money in order. I started out the year with virtually no savings and had stopped putting money into my stocks for quite a while. My goal was to have money in my saving account and have my stock purchasing program turned back on. This goal I accomplished. Not only have I gone from having $10 in my main savings account; I've managed to save over $400 since July of 2007. I turned my stock purchasing program back on and opened up another money market account with them. This one is great because the interest is just slightly higher than my main savings account and it's an account I don't look at. I have money going into it each month, along with money being put into and spread throughout my stocks. Because I don't stress over my stocks, I'm not touching the savings account. I go in and look every couple of months, but basically leave it alone. So my main savings account I can use for emergencies and the other account is for long term savings, and with that account I've managed to save a couple hundred dollars so far. All this with almost no extra money after each paycheck. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you pay yourself first. I never thought I could do it, "I don't make enough money" I thought; but I did it.

My other goals for the year included getting my apartment organized (haha...ha...haha)and losing the baby weight. I lost almost all the baby weight. I gained-I hate to say-about 60lbs. with Baby G. I've got about 10 or 15lbs. to go still but I've lost about 45lbs. this year. I'd say I did a pretty good job there. Now, getting the apartment organized kinda went to hell. It's actually worse now than it was at the beginning of last year. I don't know why I couldn't get it done. I only work full-time, am in school full-time, and have a baby; it should be no problem to clean out and organize an entire apartment all. by. myself. (can you feel the sarcasm seeping through?)

In 2008 I have some new goals.

1. To finish school (I'll be done at the end of May)

2. To quit smoking (which I will set out to accomplish after school)

3. To organize my apartment (which I will start after I am out of school as well)

4. To learn more about jewelry making and increase my skills. (This is ongoing)

I'm not planning to start anything until after I am done with school. School takes up so much of my free time most days that I've just stressed myself out trying to accomplish everything all at once. I may turn my apartment organization task into a blogging series here. Maybe that will help keep my momentum going once I get started, that is if I can bear to show the world my messiness.

Anyway, I hope that you all will have a wonderful New Year and are able to accomplish your goals this year. Let me know what they are so I can root for you!

2 comments:

Histrel said...

We can root for each other - it seems we have a couple of goals in common :-)

1. finish college (May 2008)

2. declutter the house - started in 2006 after reading about FlyLady but it's kinda got left lol

3. set up a blog that might earn me some money (if I'm lucky). I have a couple of ideas but no time to put them into practice yet

4. improve my web design skills

5. continue with the novel I've started in Creative Writing. Not expecting it to be published but I don't want to stop writing once I've left college.

Nancy said...

Sharon,
Doesn't it feel good to know that you are almost done with school? I look back at all my hard work with a lot of pride, as I am sure you do too. Being a Mom and a wife and holding down a job while working on a degree is a tough job, but we did it! Just a few more classes for me and I'll be able to breath a sigh of relief.