New Year-New Goals!

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2020 is officially here!! January is my favorite time of year (well, except the part where I’m always flat broke from overspending at Christmas). I absolutely LOVE the idea of a brand new year full of opportunities. Do you have to wait until January each year to set goals or decide to stop a bad habit? Of course not; you should always be working on being the best you that you can be. A new year beginning to me is a great point to check in and see how I did last year and re-evaluate on what I want to achieve in the new year.

I am anticipating that 2020 is going to be full of exciting changes for our family. Michael is slated to graduate from Bellarmine in May. He’s applying for internships as we speak and soon he’ll be doing his final graduation walk.

Nick has three semesters left before he graduates from WKU. He’s already working on a business plan with a friend and I’m sure he’ll have his own company one day.

I am determined to carve out a writing career for myself this year. I don’t have any plans to leave my current job, especially while we all still need health insurance, but writing is my passion. Now is a great time to focus on my love of writing and hopefully it will become another income source for us. The boys are on the cusp of embarking on their new lives and it’s time for me to re-focus on my dreams.

2020 Financial Goals

Finances are always going to be front and center with my resolutions. Single parenthood is tough because the world as we know it is not made for single-income households, at least not single-income households at my income level. So here are my 2020 financial goals.

• Double my emergency fund-we had a lot of stuff go wrong last year. I was working on paying off some medical bills, we had to replace one son’s vehicle, the other one needed a new clutch, and one had to have all four of his wisdom teeth removed. Oh, and one kid had a brief period of unemployment. You need an emergency fund, read this if you don’t have one.
• Reduce my credit card balances by 25%-see above!! My poor credit cards are hurting. This will be a stretch goal but it needs to be done ASAP.
• Earn $5,000 in extra income between my blog, freelance writing, and a couple extra side gigs I have going

2020 Blog/Writing Goals

• Finish EBA-this is my very expensive blog course I purchased in March 2018. It’s designed to be a go-at-your-own-pace course but I should really be further along. It got hard and I set it aside. Back to the grind because I’m determined to finish it this year.
• 4 blog posts a month-this is going to be crazy hard but it’s important. I love to read blogs and I love to know that my favorite bloggers are going to have a post out each Tuesday or Thursday or every other week or whatever their schedule is.
• Put my writing out there-this might be guest posting on other bloggers’ sites, submitting freelance articles, or creating a product to sell on my blog (I’ve got an idea-need to work on creating it).

Personal/Home

• Read 24 books and 12 will be memoirs/self-help, etc.
• 12 acts of random kindness-I think this is important. I’ve been on the receiving end of this and want to reciprocate
• Fix all the little crap that needs to be fixed at my condo-have you noticed that we don’t tend to fix stuff until we want to sell the place? Well, my five-year plan is to sell my condo but I don’t want to wait until then to fix stuff. Some stuff is minor, like figuring out how to re-hang my pantry door. Some stuff is a little more major-like replacing two windows. Even if I can’t afford to fix them now, I can get some quotes so I can start budgeting for them.

Healthy Living

• 3 glasses of water daily-seriously, this should be a no-brainer but I hate water. I bought an infuser water bottle last year and that helps me drink water. It just takes a little prep time
• 30 minutes of exercise@3 times a week-I have a gym membership that I’m paying $10 a month for. I took a boxing class last year for about 2-3 months and loved it but I can’t justify the cost at this point so I need to drag my lazy butt to my $10 a month gym and work out on my own. Heck, maybe this will be the extra incentive I need to go hard-core on my financial goals so I can afford to do my boxing class again.
• Start a meditation habit-I have a tough time relaxing. Probably not a shocker to those of you that know me.
• Sleep more-I want to aim for 5 nights a week that I’m in bed by 11pm.

Okay, I think that’s plenty to keep me busy in 2020. Leave me a comment with at least one goal you have for 2020. I’m interested in knowing what you have planned for 2020.

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