Things to aspire to...

So… it’s time to put down my thoughts on the up coming year, while it still appears to have a fresh clean slate and positive opportunity in appearance. I think I mentioned that I’m not much of a “goal” maker, I always hated those questions in school… Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Everytime I answered them with my hopes, dreams or wishes, the 5 or 10 years would pass and I’d realize I was still nowhere close to those things and so after so many times of being disappointed I decided it was much better just not to say them outloud or put them down on paper. Instead I tend to do something more along the lines of deciding on several things or areas that I know I need to work on or improve in.

Last year one of my top areas of improvement was my finances! I’m a recovering credit card user and I’ve been “sober” for a year now. Yes, this means that I’ve been credit card free…

not using any cards…

no charges racking up my debt…

since January 2006!!

What a weight lifted from my shoulders! Now the flip side of that is that in order to make this possible my parents were gracious enough to help me out by giving me a loan that I never would have been able to achieve from a bank (because I didn’t want it tied to my mortgage), so I’m in the process of paying them off and working towards really being debt free. Though I achieved not adding to the debt, I still spent down to the wire most paydays and did quite a bit of spending that I shouldn’t have and achieved no savings except what I put away from my last tax refund.

So… this year, I’m going to work on not spending the money just because it’s in the account and actually contributing regularly to the savings account. To help me in this process I was able to catch up my records this weekend in Quicken (I had done really well at keeping current until my computer problems exploded, and had not taken the chance to catch up once I got the computer up and running) and also have all my records ready to go to do my taxes. I just have to pick up the new Turbo Tax and wait on my W-2.

I also achieved one of the other things I wanted to do last year, but want to improve upon this year. I read through the Bible. Though I didn’t do it every day as was the intent… there were several months in the middle of the year that I got out of the habit, then when I started up again I was able to catch up and finish. This year I want to stay at it daily, it is very important to me. My regular reading time is in the morning and I have a plan that I follow that has some OT, some NT, some Psalms and some Proverbs each day. I also have decided that this year I want to end my day with something as well. I’ve got a ladies devotional book that I’m using as one thing for each night and then I also am going to work at catching up on my issues of a magazine called Discipleship Journal and/or any other Christian (educational-type) books that I might be interested in. I still will enjoy reading before bedtime, but just changing the focus of what I’m reading. I will still have plenty of time to read my other books as well.

And last but not least, I did not do as well last year at eating healthy and exercising, so it will again go on the list of things to continue chipping away on. I’m planning to sit down this coming weekend and do some menu planning to help me get started. I would like to follow the South Beach plan as it has worked well for me before, but I just have to set a date, prepare and then force myself to do it. It’s just so much harder to get it going alone! Exercising is the same story, it’s not fun for me and therefore, doing it alone is even harder so I just have to force myself to start. Once the habits are formed it’s a little easier.

So that’s my take on the good ‘ole “New Year’s Resolutions” gig. Maybe I’ve triggered some thoughts for you or helped inspire you – at least I hope so. Please feel free to leave me comments and let me know your slant on the subject if you have one! In the meantime, have a great week all!