Although I am a somewhat goal-oriented person, I have never really posted specific goals on the blog. I do have however, have a goals document on my computer where things have been crossed off. There are also some things that have re-appeared every year because I never got around to accomplishing them.
After providing you with a couple of serious posts to kick off 2016, it was time to share a positive, optimistic post.
FITNESS
I signed up for the Rich and Fit Challenge. You can still sign up for it too if you’re looking for a new challenge to take on.
Increasing my weights on lifting biceps for high repetition/high endurance workouts (lifting weights straight for 3-5 min). I have increased my weight here and there by about 2lbs, but am still struggling with being able to do this consistently. I know I need to add in additional workouts and focus on lifting heavier.
Do another TRX (total resistance exercise) boot camp. I did one of these back in 2014 and absolutely loved it. It is a challenging way to do body weight training in a group atmosphere.
TRAVEL
Last year was probably the first year in a while that I didn’t travel anywhere. Not even out of the province. I’ve been watching departures on Netflix and it’s been scratching my travel itch all over again. An Asia trip has been a goal of mine for several years now. I’m looking at Thailand and Cambodia, with the possibility of China, because a friend of mine is teaching English over there.
BLOG
On my MakintheBacon Trello Board, I have a long list of crazy blog goals. I’m only going to share a few with you because I don’t want you to take my idea and implement it before I do. Haha. Just kidding. I’m going to share with you the ones I will most likely tackle this year.
Business cards
This is a given. At the One of a Kind Show, I was collecting everyone else’s business cards, yet I didn’t have any to hand out with my contact info. Insert face palm emoticon here. Now that I revealed my identity (I know it’s not shown on the blog, but check out my social media accounts for proof), I’ve been informing more people about my blog.
Blog Clarity– which has become my absolute fave blogging resource site, has a great series on Blog Business Cards.
Better design of a media kit
Content-wise I feel my media kit is pretty decent. The actual look of it could probably be better. Given that my blog is undergoing a total custom design (should be completed by end of this week) I feel as if the peripherals of a blog should have the same professional look or at least something close to it.
There are a couple of media kit course/products I’ve been looking at:
Brand Magnet by Jeni Elliott of the Blog Maven and web designer Shay Bocks
Media Kit Smash by Melissa Culbertson of Blog Clarity
Another e-course I’m considering taking is Content Brew, also created by Melissa of Blog Clarity
Opportunities
I’ve always waited for people to contact me, but more so in the later half of 2015, I’ve been trying to reach out to brands and pitch my blog to them. I’m hoping when the new design comes out, more advertisers will want to work together.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Investing in more ETFs and learning more about investing
Despite experiencing a somewhat hefty pay cut, I think I’m doing pretty well financially. A goal is to look at purchasing more ETFs for my retirement accounts because that’s where the majority of the payout from my previous job went. I would like to get my savings to over 100 K this year. This amount is separate from our joint account, my chequing account for day to day expenses and what we have already put into the house. I am only a few thousand away, so I feel it will be doable.
The whole learning more about investing is an ongoing goal. I am looking into the idea of taking an e-course and doing investment coaching. Since there is a bit of a time commitment involved, I would take these after doing the blog coaching and blog e-courses- possibly after the first quarter of 2016.
Budget/Income
I finally increased our monthly mortgage payment a bit (almost a couple hundred dollars) to reduce our interest and length of amortization. I am well aware that this should have been done sooner. We have been living in our house for several years now and are now familiar with the house expenses.
I want my clothing budget to be only $250. I wear exercise clothing for my side hustle and casual clothing for my day job, so there really isn’t a need for me to buy a lot of clothing. I’ve been buying most of clothing lately from a consignment store. If anything, it would be just replacing items, like my pair of loafers I lost at the gym a few months ago.
Subbing more classes (1-3) this can also be tied to fitness, but since I get paid to exercise, I can put this in the personal finance category. I lost a bit of the teaching income when I started my new job because I had the long commute and later hours. Now that I work from home for most of the week, the opportunity to teach classes before work starts and during lunch is there.
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