Like with the monthly goals, I also do yearly aims to that I know we’re on track in a bigger sense. I also feel like it makes me more accountable over the year; 12 months is a long time and focus can drift at times, so knowing I have yearly goals to reach as well as monthly ones make me more focused. Again, like with the monthly ones, I do a financial section and a personal section.
Financial goals:
– Overpay our mortgage by £4,200
– Put £6,000 into savings
– Have 220 NSDs during the year
– Opening a S&S ISA
Personal goals:
– Bake at least one type of loaf a month
– Make more meals from scratch and rely less on ready-made food
– Eat healthier and lose 25lbs
– Be more kind to myself
– Stop worrying about things I can’t change and focus on the ones I can.
Our overpayment target is much less that we managed last year (which was £7,000 in 2013) but we’ve shifted our focus slightly in terms of overpaying and other avenues. I will do a post at some point soon which explains our decisions regarding overpaying the mortgage and other plans. The savings goal doesn’t seem that much in comparison to others, but this is a hefty chunk of our income every month. Combined with the OP, we’re looking at £950 going towards our future, which is fantastic. It’ll be wonderful once that goes above the £1,000 mark, but at the moment that’s slightly too much of a stretch for us. The NSDs thing links to the challenge I posted here and it does keep our finances much tighter during the week. Over the year, this again makes a big difference to whether we meet our goals or not. The final thing is for me to open a stocks and shares ISA; a subject I find very daunting but I will this year, I need to make that step.
Personal goals are a bit more varied, though seem to focus around food, which I didn’t notice when I first did them! I’m a big fan of baking but go through stages of doing loads and then not doing any at all. This is to focus me more and do more things just for me. Likewise with the second aim; I love cooking but when I come in from a long day at work, the last thing I want to do is cook. But, I’ve been relying too heavily on pre-packaged stuff, and it’s not helped my weight – hence the third goal. The fourth and fifth personal goals are just reminders to myself more than anything – what I do is good enough and I need to remember that at times.
So, I’m to meet these goals by the end of the year, and so far I’m doing alright. Could be better, but definitely not too bad!
Do you make yearly goals? How are they going so far? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
P.S do you have twitter? Follow me here!
I hope you will share some of your recipes. Saving money and cooking well is a hobby of mine and I would love to see how others do it.
I hadn’t thought of sharing recipes, but I can do if that would be a help 🙂
Great goals, I wish you all the best. Also like the Stoichthetoicinvestor.com, I’d like to see the recipes too!
Thank you 🙂 I’ll have about what recipes I can share – watch this space!
It’s so important to check in on your goals throughout the year and adjust as necessary. As my blog has grown in 2014, it’s eclipsed a lot of my other goals. I almost feel as I need to start from scratch and start an entire list of new goals for the next six months.
New goals will certainly help your focus – what would you like to achieve by the end of 2014? 🙂
Hey Nicola,
Your over-payment goals are impressive! My biggest goal for 2014 was to fill the emergency fund; with some real determination I’m hoping I can do this by the end of next month 🙂
It will be impressive if we can pull it off 😉 we keep adding bits and pieces to our emergency fund too – I keep changing my mind on what I want the number to be!
I like your list of goals. They go beyond financial goals and focus on personal betterment as well. Keep at it. Look forward to your progress.
Thank you – I worry sometimes that I’m so focused on the money side that the personal side gets a bit lost in the journey. I don’t want that to be, so I focus on goals that are just for me, to make me smile and hopefully make me a better person.
Nicola,
Great goals there. I especially like the weight loss goal. That will pay dividends of a different type for the rest of your life.
I wish you the best of luck with all of these. I wish I could join you on the cooking one, but cooking is such a drag for me. I know some people love it, but I can’t just can’t come around to it.
Cheers!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment 🙂 I’m lucky that I enjoy cooking, it’s just finding the motivation to after a long day at work.
I like to analyze my goals all of the time to see if I am close to achieving them. You are making progress. Keep at it!
“Stop worrying about things I can’t change and focus on the ones I can” is the perfect goal for me. I’m constantly wasting time and energy thinking about things I can’t control. Weight loss and eating healthier are also a goal I’m working on. I did really well in May, but June so far has been a wash. Keep up the good work!
Love you goals Nicola! I set annual goals and then make changes throughout the year is our circumstances change. This year we’re moving so I’ll be making a new set when it’s all done and dusted.
Good luck 🙂
I like your list of goals! We also overpay on our mortgage- so ready to be done with that thing!
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Thanks for stopping by! 🙂 it’s interesting you found me by accident – what were you searching for? Free free to browse the articles 🙂
Really like reading people’s goals, also good to find another UK blogger in saving/budgeting/etc. Keep up the good work! Also love the NSDs, brill idea!
By the way, if you’re still looking to open an S&S ISA, have a look at Halifax and also Interactive Investor. They both offer ‘regular investing’ at £2 and £1.50 respectively per trade. You can also get £30 trading credit for free with Interactive Investor at the moment by using the code AE751AA2 in their signup process
http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/open-account
Also have a look at monevator.com who has done a comparison of the costs of different brokers:
http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/
I really need to do some research re: S&S ISAs. Thanks for the reminder!