Working on Goal #1

Goal #1 for this year was to get my finances under control. I really don't know what that looks like so I picked a few things to focus on for the time being.

1. Investing
I wish I had started investing a long time ago. I thought about it for years and kept avoiding it because I did not know what I was doing and I could not afford to lose money. Fortunately, I found Ellevest. Unfortunately, now that I have decided to start, the Coronavirus comes around and causes stocks to drop. "major sigh" My job ended because of it too. "even bigger sigh" So this is on hold until things calm down a bit.

2. Emergency Fund
I'm slowly but surely building an emergency fund. It is going to take a long time because I don't make much more money than what covers food and bills. I just started and have been trying to work out how much of each paycheck I can devote to it while still having enough for everything else.

3. Budgeting
I have struggled so much with budgeting over the years. I've tried multiple apps, spreadsheets, and paper with no luck. I can't seem to make any system work for me. I need to come up with something that I can work at least for the time being.

It's a start. I am definitely on hold while this pandemic has the world shut down. I feel confident that I will be on the right track once everything is up and running again.

Updating My 2020 Goals

It's mid-February and I already realized that I need to reevaluate my goals for the year. My goals were good but I realized that they were too focused on building a future business but not enough on other areas of my life. I'm not going to create the kind of business that I want by letting areas of my life fall by the wayside. I came up with something a bit more balanced.

Goal #1
Get my finances under control. Come up with a plan to invest regularly and to build an emergency fund.

Goal #2
Pick charities to support. I used to support some regularly but once money got tight I was unable to anymore. It won't be much right now but I'm tired of not making a difference for anyone. I believe in the butterfly effect so I believe that something small can lead to big things.

Goal #3
Take one journaling course, one NLP course, and one EFT course. I do believe in the power of these techniques and I would like to make them part of my life.

Goal #4
Create a mindfulness practice. I had a good morning routine going for a while but I began waking up in the night a lot and needing the extra sleep. So I'm going to try coming up with a short routine for the morning and a short one for after work. I always need a good way to decompress after a long day. Some part of the practice will include journaling.

Goal #5
Write one poem a month. I haven't written a poem in years and I'm not happy about it. I'm going to focus on getting my poetic voice back.

These goals feel much more balanced to me. Now to create a real plan for each one.