Introduction

I think the picture captures the spirit of this month’s update… running along a lonely patch of highway, a good distance from the start but still a long way from the finish.  I have lots of ground to cover and even some ground to make up.

 How about you.  Are you crushing or cursing your goals?  I’ve been doing a little of both!

Progress Recap

April Goals

2010 Year to Date Results

May Goals

Feel free to add your goals in the comment fields below.  If there’s enough interest and traction, we may dedicate articles to your progress as well.

Also, please comment on your experience with similar goals or even your general reactions to my goals and progress.

Photo By: obiwonmakanubi

Your Turn – If you enjoyed this article, I would personally appreciate it if you would consider commenting below and/or subscribing to our Free Updates via email or RSS updates.  Thanks!

Introduction

Hey Team, I’m a little late putting this one in motion.  Last week took an unexpected turn but I’m not complaining.

My goal-based activity is move along but at a slower clip.  I need to get started or I’m going to embarass myself. 

How are you doing??

 Progress Recap

March Goals

2010 Year to Date Results

April Goals

Feel free to add your goals in the comment fields below.  If there’s enough interest and traction, we may dedicate articles to your progress as well.

Also, please comment on your experience with similar goals or even your general reactions to my goals and progress. 

Photo By: Separation

Your Turn – If you enjoyed this article, I would personally appreciate it if you would consider commenting below and/or subscribing to our Free Updates via email or RSS updates.  Thanks!

As a validation – and an excuse to give a link back to serveral sites that are helping me along the way – here are the carnivals and round-ups I’ve participated in over the last month.

The Wisdom Journal’s roundup

Carnival of Debt Reduction

Money Hackers Carnival

Carnival of Personal Finance

Best of Money Carnival

Festival of Frugality

Best Financial Planning Articles of the Week

Fiscal Geek’s Weekly Roundup

Debt Free Adverture’s Roundup

Consumer Boomer’s Roundup

Carnival of the Road to Financial Independence

The Wisdom Journal’s roundup

Debt Free Adventure’s roundup

FiscalGeek’s roundup

Carnival of Financial Planning

Fiscal Geek’s roundup

A read an article the other day from a pretty well respected icon in the blogging game.  Leo Babauta over at Zen Habits has about 160,000 readers – an insane number when you’ve been doing this long enough to know what that really means.

His article was about changing habits and the easiest way we too often derail our efforts to change and improve.

The idea was as simple as it gets.  So simple in fact, that it should not require an article at all, much less a follow-up article espousing his thesis.

Yet it was at once genius and worthy of widespread proclamation.

His culprit as the worst antagonist against our habit forming ideals?  In his wise words, “Not doing the habit”.

And there it is, like a 2×4 in the forehead.  Well of course it’s the biggest obstacle, but… wait for it…. BUT YEAH, it really is my single barrier.

I wish I was able to get up earlier in the morning, but sleeping in until 10 every morning is what I do.

I wish I could drop 20lbs but this restaurant has the best cheeseburgers and fries.

 I want to get out of debt this year but I don’t know where all my money goes.

I want my children to behave better but I can’t bring myself to discipline them.

I wish had gotten that promotion but I begin packing my bags to leave everyday at 4:30.

Tell me when to stop.

This is our life and this is our time.  There are no ‘do-overs’, there is no ‘next time’.  If we want something, we must bend our will in its direction.  We must take action against that objective.  “Tomorrow” will never come, we must start today.

That speaks to the genius behind Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign.  Forget all else and just do that which you aspire to.

One of my favorite quotes I pulled from a Fortune magazine years ago, “a year from now you’ll wish you had started today”.  Human nature being what it is, perhaps truer words have never been spoken.

So consider this your wake up call.  Look in the mirror and decide what you’d like to change, what habits you’d like to establish and then get about the business of getting it done.

Thanks Leo, I needed the kick in the pants.

Photo By: amycaek

This article was feature in The Wisdom Journal’s roundup.

Introduction

March is here already – amazing how time flies.  Yet 2010 is shaping up to be a fantastic year. 

I am continuing to lag behind on some of my goals – I’ve again conquered only 3 of my 5 targets for the month but I did bang out one of the overdue items from January.  I’ll count that as progress as my overall % completion has increased.

 How are you doing and how are you altering your course to ensure a winning path?  Let me know by commenting below.

FaceBook Announcement:

Many of you are active on Facebook.  If that’s you then I ask that you please consider joining the DoYouDaveRamsey fan page I just recently created on Facebook. 

Along the same lines, I’ve also added a “FB-Share” badge to the top right of each article.  This will help you share with friends the articles that you particularly enjoy.

Progress Recap

February Goals

2010 Year to Date Results

March Goals

Feel free to add your goals in the comment fields below.  If there’s enough interest and traction, we may dedicate articles to your progress as well.

Also, please comment on your experience with similar goals or even your general reactions to my goals and progress.

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Your Turn – If you enjoyed this article, I would personally appreciate it if you would consider commenting below and/or subscribing to our Free Updates via email or RSS updates.  Thanks!

Being homeless is by no stretch a tragedy and while it is not a cause I actively combat, it never fails to illicit a reaction in my mind if not my heart. 

In Canterbury, England the youthfulness of the homeless population is shocking, the true stench of the homeless population surrounding Philadelphia’s City Hall will turn your stomach, and the aggressive and entitled nature of the panhandlers in New York City will boil your blood.

Be it anger or despair or sorrow or even gratitude in my own good fortune, my responses have always been rooted in the misfortune – self inflicted or not – of others.  Never has it been, on its own merit, a positive response.  That is, until I encountered perhaps the smartest homeless man in the world while visiting Key West a few years ago.

Key West?  No further explanation is required, this guy is ahead of the game.  Face, if I had no home or societal tether, a urine soaked park bench in Philly’s City Center would not be my first choice.  Nor would a back alley or crowded sidewalk in the NYC.  Without steady shelter, a warmer climate just makes sense.  It’s what birds do, there is a natural model.

However, the genius behind this homeless man’s plan is in his day to day approach.  He has staked out a popular tourist and photo-op location and in a very friendly and engaging manner offers to take the picture every couple or family wants to capture on their camera – them standing next to the attraction.  Enough curious ‘patrons’ will ask questions that enable him to humbly share that he’s homeless which creates an undercurrent of conversation and voila, the tips come rolling in.

Counting my 2 bucks, he probably raked in 8 or 10 dollars in the 20 minutes we were there.

Now I’m not naïve enough to think that is could not be a scam.  Enough investigative news teams have followed panhandlers from their corner to nice cars and homes and too many of New York’s wheel chaired elderly change beggers have simply been ‘checked out’ of hospitals and institutions by lazy relatives trying to turn a quick buck.  So even if this dude isn’t exactly living under a pier he is effectively exchanging a valued service for the tips he collects – a lesson from which many workers relying on our tips could learn.

And so my point – do I have one today – is that we should each have a plan.  Mindlessly wandering through our days without a plan propelling us towards a positive and improved outcome is polite society’s equivalent of a well pissed park bench.  Meanwhile, working with a goal, an objective, a plan to win is rewarding and much admired, whether you’re the director of your department or the best paid amateur photographer in Key West.

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Your Turn – If you enjoyed this article, I would personally appreciate it if you would consider commenting below and/or subscribing to our Free Updates via email or RSS updates.  Thanks!

Introduction

So January is down… when did that happen?  2010 is already 1/12 complete.  Have you accomplished 1/12 of your goals for the year?

Hey, it’s a fair question and to be honest with you, I have not.  I guess it’s part excuse and part explanation, but I’ve been snowed under at work in a way that I did not anticipate.  That’s a good thing, job security is what my grandfather calls it, and as right as that is, it also serves as a wake up call to my dedication and motivation to accomplish my goals in other areas.

So here’s the recap.  I trust you’re ahead of my current pace, but watch out.  I’m going to turn this thing around.  I’m still very excited – perhaps moreso now… – in the prospects 2010 holds.

Progress Recap

January Goals

 *each of the 5 items represents 20% of the whole.

2010 Year to Date Results

February Goals

Feel free to add your goals in the comment fields below.  If there’s enough interest and traction, we may dedicate articles to your progress as well.

Also, please comment on your experience with similar goals or even your general reactions to my goals and progress.

Photo By: Michael Mahlum

Your Turn – If you enjoyed this article, I would personally appreciate it if you would consider commenting below and/or subscribing to our Free Updates via email or RSS updates.  Thanks!

So here we are, on the cusp of what promises to be a fantastic year.  Can you feel it?  Whether you admit it or not is another matter, but I know I’m not alone, January attendance swells in the local health clubs will signal as much.

But today we’re – or at least I am – embarking on a very public journey towards the realization of several of my goals.  As promised in an earlier article, I’ll begin each month – on the first in-month publication date – with a rundown of my goals for that month, as well as, a review of my previous progress.

As I have already crafted my goals for the year, I’ve already selected the items I’ll be pre-viewing each month and drafted the article shells for the year.  Therefore, I’m kinda locked in even if behind the scenes. 

The idea on my side is to further commit myself while allowing for some flexibility if life veers away from my forecasted path.

The Set-up

We’ve talked about the production schedule for these articles, now I’ll set up what you can expect to see with each edition….which is to say not very much.  Beyond this intro edition, these reports will be just that and not acts of literature.  I may offer commentary or elaboration for some objectives or results but mostly I’ll allow the results to stand alone.  Success or failure will be clear and unadulterated.

Keep in mind also that the objectives for each month are unique to that month and often hint or aspire to a larger objective for the year.  For example – losing 24 pounds in 2010 may present as a 2 pound drop within a given month.  Also, know that what I review will represent a random cross section of all my annual goals and monthly objectives – so you won’t become bored by seeing “drop 2 pounds” every month, as an example.

I’ll share 5 objectives each month so in the end you’ll see 60 items.  Some small and some larger, some incremental and some end results.  I’ll share at least 3 items from of my 8 areas of focus so again, you’ll be seeing a cross section.

Logistically, you’ll see introductory remarks and a brief context setting piece for new readers.  Hint, the context will repeat each time so feel free to skip it once you’ve checked it out.  I want to be friendly to both the new readers I hope to reach, as well as, my loyal readers. 

I’ll follow that with a recap of the previous month and my year to date progress (except, of course, this month as it is the first), and finally I’ll conclude with my targets for the new month.

So, I’ve already spent way too many words setting up what should be an easy idea to track.  Perhaps that speaks to some pre-launch nerves….?

 Progress Recap

*none – this is the first month of this experiment

January Goals

 Let the games begin! 

Feel free to add your goals in the comment fields below.  If there’s enough interest and traction, we may dedicate articles to your progress as well.

Also, please comment on your experience with similar goals or even your general reactions to my goals and progress.

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Your Turn – If you enjoyed this article, I would personally appreciate it if you would consider commenting below and/or subscribing to our Free Updates via email or RSS updates.  Thanks!

This article was featured in the Money Management Carnival

As we embark upon the year’s final month, it is time to lay the groundwork for 2010 while also continuing to press through to a strong finish to 2009.

In equal parts I aspire and execute to this objective by outlining my goals for the next year while the current year is still in play.  This approach forces a focused attention on a strong finish now and affords a running start tomorrow.

Previously we’ve spent time with my approach to goal setting.  I outline goals along 8 unique fronts which together help me – as I accomplish my targets – remain rounded and balanced.

My eight fields of focus include Spiritual, Financial, Career, Personal Development, Physical, Family, Social, and Household.

I also layer time horizons across each category to ensure I am able execute in the moment while maintaining an alertness in the end game.

For the upcoming year, I plan to incorporate a new facet to my experiment in self improvement – Public Accountability.

We all claim, and to varying degrees possess, an accountability to self.  If you’re reading here it is likely that yours is fairly refined.  (That’s much more a function of personal finance not being a lure for slackers than anything I’ve actually managed to accomplish in this space.)  But we can all use a motivation greater than ourselves to move us along, and a fear of public failure is often just the kick in the pants we need.

Following my 4^th Quarter post back in October, a friend jokingly volunteered to help me keep my progress on pace.  If I’d share my goals, he offered to let me know when I was slipping behind.  Accountability is the characteristic he was offering and now he, and the rest of you, will have the chance to help keep me in check.

… oh my, what am I doing?!?

Here are the ground rules and game plans.  In the first article of each month I’ll outline 5 objectives for the month with each representing a unique area of focus.  Throughout the year, I’ll plan to touch upon each area at least 3-4 times.

Additionally, in each monthly goal post (except January), I’ll score the previous month’s effort and provide an updated running total on my completion percentage.

Now, I’m not going to be overly legalistic on the scoring.  If I have a March goal that isn’t accomplished until June, I’ll still update the running total even though I would have originally reported the shortfall.

Of course I will not be sharing each and every development objective I have for the year and I’m likely to sprinkle in a mix of hard and easy targets, however, during the year I’ll share and track against 60 (5/month) unique and varied deliverables and welcome your commentary, support, and prodding along the way.

…and feel free to use the comment fields to play along!

Let the games begin!

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Your Turn – If you enjoyed this article, I would personally appreciate it if you would consider commenting below and/or subscribing to our Free Updates via email or RSS updates.  Thanks!

As we enter this week of Thanksgiving, I think it’s important that we pause and connect with our inner gratitude.  It is so easy to become lost in the mechanics of day to day living or the want for things we don’t have that we often fail to appreciate the bounty that is readily available to us every day.

…I’ve been going to the same guy for haircuts for over 10 years now and along the way we’ve become pretty good friends.  Just recently his wife filed for divorce and we talked about it during my last visit.  It is a tough and fresh loss for him.  And while I certainly feel for my friend and his situation, in the moment it crystallized for me the appreciation and gratitude I have for my own wife.  On the drive home, I called her and shared as much.

Similarly, the continued barrage of financial news can be a source of appreciation – my bills may stack high but I’m not bankrupt and my home is not in foreclosure.  Unemployment rates are high but I am fortunate to have a job.  Even if you’re on the short end of those draws, there is still plenty for which to be thankful, including even the life lessons you are living and will have to pass along to others.

…And so I wanted to write some inspiring word of encouragement to celebrate the week.  I may well have tripped over the clichéd line about “we all have something to be thankful for”, but I refuse to plunge headlong into this true but trite sentiment.

But just when my inner wells of inspiration seemed dry, I received an email from a friend that carried with it a story which seemed to hit near enough to my target.  And now, continuing on a theme, I am thankful for the story in a time of writers’ block, and more so, for the friend who thought enough of me to pass it along.

Pennies

You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc.  This is the first time I’ve ever heard this twist on the story.  It gives you something to think about.

Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the husband’s employer’s home.  My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend.  The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house.

The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this rare glimpse into how the very wealthy live.  The husband’s employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest restaurants.  Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so was enjoying herself immensely.

As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant that evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband.  He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment.

Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him.  There was nothing on the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped and a few cigarette butts.  Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny.

He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure.  How absurd!  What need did this man have for a single penny?  Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up?

Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her.  Finally, she could stand it no longer.  She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value.

A smile crept across the man’s face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for her to see.  She had seen many pennies before! What was the point of this?

“Look at it.”  He said.  “Read what it says”, She read the words “United States of America”

“No, not that; read further.”

“One cent?”  “No, keep reading.”

“In God we Trust?”

 ”Yes!” 

“And?”

“And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin.  Whenever I find a coin I see that inscription.  It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it!  God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him?  Who am I to pass it by?  When I see a coin, I pray, I stop to see if my trust IS in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him.  For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold.  I think it is God’s way of starting a conversation with me.  Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!

When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change.  I read the words, “In God We Trust”, and had to laugh.  Yes, God, I get the message.

It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful! And, God is patient.

Author Unknown

An interesting story, one I trust you enjoyed.  In some ways it was probably more religious than something I might offer, not because I don’t aspire to such purpose but rather because I don’t write religion very well.  But the take away I’d amplify today is the significance of injecting random, yet common, reflection points into your day.  Upon encountering these triggers, take a moment to, if not say thanks, at least be grateful for both the magnificent and mundane elements of your day. 

In the meantime, if you are reading these words, know that I am grateful for you taking the time to do so and I hope you’ll continue to read along.

Thanks!

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The title is a quote from Super Bowl winning coach Bill Parcells. The idea is that a team is as good or as bad as its record indicate.  Fans, commentators, and even players like to interpret – or rationalize – circumstances and game events so as to suggest that a team is better, or sometimes worse, than its record might suggest.  A lucky bounce here or a bad call there and those close losses are wins, see, ‘we’re better than our record suggests’.

Parcells on the other hand will have nothing of it.  His take is that a team’s record is its bottom line.  Explanations and rationalizations will not lead you to a championship season, only your results on the field of play.  So rather than tell me that you’re a good team, show me.

Life often parallels sports, or is it vice versa.

We have a bottom line metric that tells us without question or explanation how we are performing in the arena of our personal finances.  Too many assume this metric is our level of income.  But income alone is like the team who scores points in bunches only to watch their opponent do the same.  It (high income) can contribute to a win, but it is not the only ingredient in the winning process.

Rather, the key metric – the record indicating the relative success for our financial play – is our Net Worth.

For purposes of example, consider the wealthy business man living in the McMansion, funding newly leased German luxury sedans and Caribbean vacations rather than retirement or junior’s college education while sporting an array of $1000 suits.  The dude is loaded!  And doubly so when compared to the unassuming school teacher living in a quiet townhome and driving the 10 year Corolla raking perhaps a third the income.

But a funny thing happened on the way to a cozy retirement.  The schoolmarm contributes to her 401k (or equivalent) has steadily paid down her mortgager, and traded a monthly car payment for a positive monthly cash flow.  Meanwhile, the business man’s killer income has washed through his hands like so much water.  His kids are in private schools and travel soccer teams, his perpetually renewed leases provide a relentless and growing outflow, the leveraged dream home is upside down and retirement planning begins with the next raise or perhaps the one after that.

Hey, it sounds like fiction, but I’ve read enough Money mag “Real Life” segments and observed the bevy of Lexus’ in my office parking garage to know that too many folks are working away for the now rather than the future.  Sure they may be paying attention, but to net income and cash flow rather than to the bottom line – Net Worth.

So what is this Net Worth number?  Trent over at The Simple Dollar offers a great illustration of the mechanics, so I’ll send you here rather than recreate his efforts.  But suffice it to say that Net Worth sums the net value of your assets against the net value of your liabilities.

Simply stated:  Net Assets – Net Liabilities = Net Worth

In the example I provided, the business man with his leveraged home, car debts (a contracted lease obligation is the same as a debt… try breaking a lease if you doubt it), and limited savings may actually have a negative net worth.  For all his outward appearance he has nothing but debt to show for his efforts.  Whereas the teacher has learned the lesson taught by others – she has bulked up savings and equity in her home offset only by her mortgage balance.  According to her financial record, she is putting together a winning performance.

Now fast forward to the very end of our individual games.  Our net worth will represent our final estates.  It is the legacy we will or will not be able to leave behind to the ones about whom we care.  Dave Ramsey uses a line when talking to callers trying to settle an estate.  He is not meaning to be harsh, but reality is sometimes cold.  Depending upon the structure of the dialogue he’ll ask or comment (paraphrasing) “there is nothing left to show for the estate”.

When I hear this comment, I personally rephrase the question in my mind – rather harshly I might add – as motivation for myself:  “financially speaking, there is nothing to show for this person’s life work but debt”.

Now, the key is “financially speaking” because we’re all worth more than the money in our accounts, but this is how I repeat the question to myself and it forces me to consider how I’d want it answered upon my coda.

At a minimum, I don’t want my final possessions liquidated to pay my accrued debt.  Nor do I want creditors hounding my loved ones for payment when I’m gone.  So I find it important to keep score.

And, because one day I want to enjoy more of life’s finer things – including a dignified retirement – I actively keep score.  I monitor my net worth on a monthly basis and track my percentage change month over month.  I’ve written before about my net worth goals, and it is a winning score most anyone would be pleased to accomplish.  However, I’m now tracking my progress in a way that allows me to be intentional in my actions relative to those goals.  While that does not by itself ensure success, it sure crystallizes my game plan and directs the path for my execution.  One day I’ll look at my record and feel a touch of pride, because I’ll know both what it says and represents.

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