Reevaluating My 2013 Goals

Remember these???

I did a lot of thinking over the last couple months on my life. I thought about what I had achieved, what I want to achieve, what I truly care about, how I feel about my present self and my current situation, what I want, and what goals do I have in place to get what I want and where I want to be.

This thinking of course brought me to my "13 goals for 2013". The last time I actively looked at these and reviewed my progress was probably in February. Why is that? I asked myself. It turns out to be quite simple, and I won't try to sugar coat it in any way... The simple, ugly truth is...

I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THOSE GOALS I MADE.

Not one bit... Those goals I wrote don't match what I truly want or care about right now, and they don't even fully align with what I want in the future (short or long term). Yes they are helpful positive goals; but that's all they have going for them. To be honest, they are just a list of things that I would like to do or wouldn't mind doing that I came up with during the high of the new year. We are almost halfway through now and I can openly admit I don't care or basically never cared about them.

So that now means I am in a position where I need to create new goals; goals I truly care about and that matter to me. It is no longer 13 goals. it has been simplified and brought down to 3.

1. Grow my net worth yearly(I guess I did care about one of the goals)
2. Travel once every year starting from now (first trip 2014)
3. Move out of my mom's house and live on my own.

Those are the 3 goals. With those, I can break them down into mini-goals and milestones and I am more likely to achieve them as those three goals reflect actively what I want, they also align more closely with the seven year plan I talked about back in March (I should have realized then that I didn't care about my 2013 goals, took me 2 months). I'm going to take them and create some mini-goals to aim for during the reminder of 2013. Stay tuned... I'll keep you posted.

Tech, Tech, and more Tech

A couple months ago, I was in a battle with myself about either buying a tablet or a HDTV. If you read that post, you would know at that point that I decided against them both. Fast forward to the present and things changed quite a lot.

I kinda own them both now and I don't feel even a tad bit of regret... at least not yet, but I'm pretty sure I won't in the future either. I also broke one of my easiest 2013 goals which was not to buy a new phone or a new computer unless my current ones broke (which they haven't).

Let's start with the tablet. I decided to forgo the tablet for now and instead decided to upgrade my smartphone. I'm a tech junkie at heart and my current phone is outdated by current standards(it's a 2011 mid-range android model that I bought in 2012). Enter my mom now. She needed a new phone since her current phone(which was also mine at one point) is not reliable; it shuts down sometimes when you try to make or answer a call. Since she needed a phone and I wanted a phone, I told her she can buy mine(I know it seems cold) but she wouldn't have taken it for free. I gave her it at a steep discount, I could have sold it for $450 - $500 but I gave it to her for $150(she chose that amount). It means I took a huge loss buying a new phone because I could have sold my current one to subsidize the cost, but it's my mom so no worries. Back to the tablet. The main purpose I wanted a tablet was to open and browse documents at school if necessary. I figured why not just get a phone with a bigger screen; it should do what I want. I also wanted a camera so I picked a new phone with a pretty great camera by phone standards(12 megapixels - Sony). The new phone cost me around $520 out of pocket and I will get it at the end of the month. So now, instead of a tablet, I have a new phone with a bigger screen. Hopefully this should put me off buying a tablet for a little while longer.

Now for the TV. After more than two years of wanting an HDTV, I finally went out and bought one..... On CREDIT(dun dun dun). I didn't feel like forking out cash for the TV which cost $900; especially after buying a new phone. I bought it on store credit and so long as I pay it off in 3 months, I will get it interest free. Of course I plan to pay it off ASAP and I have currently decided to put savings on a hold and throw at least $100 week at the TV until it is paid off. I also bought a couple accessories; HDMI cables to hook my laptop, Xbox and phone to the new TV and a cheap case for the phone I found on eBay.

I don't have the full cost yet for all of my spending as I still have a few shipping charges to pay but overall, I think the final cost will be roughly $1500. Now don't go thinking that I've been completely reckless and went balling like a geek. $900 of this is spread out over 3 months and none of this came from my current savings which sits around the 2k mark. I also did work a bit of over time these past couple weeks and I intend to work some more in the coming weeks, especially since I don't want these purchases affecting my day to day living or have to great an impact on my future savings.

I think that just about covers everything when it comes to my crazy spending for May, and we haven't even completed 2 full weeks yet. It's going to be interesting to see how my net worth looks at the end of the month. Either ways, I'm happy with the stuff I bought.

Next post will be highlighting how all of this affects my 2013 goals.

Net Worth - May 1st 2013 & April Spending Review(Budget)

Assets

Liquid Cash - $3212.11

Retirement - $5117.30

Stock - $732.00

Liabilities

Credit Card - $463.05

Net Worth - $8604.36

April was a really awesome month overall. Much better than the previous. My net worth went up by roughly $1000 and I came in under budget. There isn't much else I can report about April's finances specifically so all I can do now is give myself a pat on the back for doing so awesome and a big smile.

I can however issue a warning. Today would be the 10th day of May and I've already spent a mob-o-tonne of money on "stuff". Updates to come and also my reevaluation of my 2013 goals.

Net Worth - April 1st 2013 & March Spending Review(Budget)

Assets

Liquid Cash - $2043.56

Retirement - $4805.10

Stocks - $732.00

Liabilities

Credit Card - $106.27

Net Worth = $7474.39

March was a terrible month when it came to my budget and spending. I went over in way to many categories and most that were within my control. The only excuses I have was that I bought two tickets to a birthday celebrity cruise to see one of my favourite musical artiste that was held here in Barbados and, I had a dentist appointment set from last year that I obviously don't budget for in any normal month. That excuses the overage in health and entertainment. The rest are at me.

Because Spending was so high though, my net worth actually dropped slightly from March. It dropped by $33 and even though that is minuscule, it is going in the wrong direction and I can't appreciate that. Even though spending was high, I did manage to move roughly $700 to my "longer term" savings, so that was good.

Overall, March was a heavy spending month and I am glad it past. April's update was much better so I will have that up soon.

Almost 4 Months of Freedom

So it's been almost two months since my last blog post. I apologize for that but the truth is, I didn't have much to talk about. Couple that with the fact that school got tough and I still didn't put in enough effort because of rampant procrastination and the blog just fell by the wayside.

Even without the blog as a distraction though, I still didn't put much focus on school. I found other things to distract me and at one point I had even stopped caring about school and was reevaluating my choice. Exams are over now and I have a good amount of free time that I don't have to feel guilty about. When I had free time before, I used it unwisely and always felt like I should have been studying. Anyways, school is out of the way now and I think I still passed my subjects this semester, just not with A's.

Since my last post, a good amount of stuff went down, especially since the beginning of May and a lot of it has been financial (lots of spending). I've also reevaluated my 2013 goals and some other aspects of my life that I will share with you in the coming posts. It is sort of a shocker. I'll update the blog with everything though as I'm not that into hiding stuff and I need to man up to my decisions.

I'll start with my net worth for April and come forward from there. Most of it is interesting. At least to me. Stay tuned.