New Years Resolutions - Your Goals for 2012

[One Drone]

Hi All,

My wife and I just painstakingly went through our goals and completed them today, and to make them concrete I believe it is best to share them and have a place to review them periodically. This time next year we can look back on what we achieved and create new goals moving forward. I’ve created this thread for those who would like to share their goals for Year of the Dragon 2012. I’ll kick-start it first by sharing ours.

First is health, I (like most) want to maintain my fitness and weight. I will be able to do a 2.4km run in less than 10 minutes by the end of January and maintain this standard. When I first started I was doing 14 minutes so a bit of work to do.

The two long term goals are to start having kids in 2 years and getting out of the rat race in 2014 so most of our goals at the moment rotate around these.

In terms of work, I am completing an apprenticeship where my TAFE component will finally be complete in July where I will have distinctions. I did an apprenticeship to have something to fall back on in case I need to go back to work. Ultimately though I won’t be doing this JOB for very long where 2014 is when the apprenticeship will be complete and I will have the option to quit if I want.

I will visit my in-laws overseas in September as I haven’t seen them in over 6 years! I don’t know how I got away with that.. My wife will get her driver’s licence finally in March, she’s had Learners for over 18 months now and it is time she (or I?) found her independence.

We've just exchanged on our second property in Western Sydney and we're going to do a cheap reno and have it valued and pull out equity to purchase the 3rd around May then do the same for the 4th around Aug/Sep. As a reward for myself, I am going to upgrade my aging computer (deductible anyway!) After the 4th, we're going to buy a PPOR. We’ve been living in a small granny flat for 2 years to save and be able to purchase the first properties and I don't think a baby will work in a granny flat somehow. I bang my head against the wall as it is with just the missus!

To keep the philanthropy going we will donate to charities of choice; it was Movember and RSPCA last time. Lastly I will review these goals on the 1st day of each month to see where we’re at.

That is our goals in a nutshell. It already feels like a lot of work and I think it is fairly ambitious but like the title of ol’ Trump’s book says:

Think Big and Kick ***!

I look forward to hearing from others if you would like to share!
Be SMART!

Cheers,
Sean.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Good luck to you Sean (or good creation). I say luck out of habit but realise that all of our successes are created by ourselves. Good to see philanthropy is in your list - a very important part of life.

I have just purchased land to build house 9 and 10 (in the past 5 yrs) This project will put us in the position to semi retire and concentrate more on volunteer work. This past year we have increased our available time for this type of work and plan to increase that in the coming year.

Financial goal 2012 will be 200k increase in net worth. ( more, of course, if CG comes into play)

That's about it apart from becoming mentally stronger, wiser and healthier which is a given for every new year. All the best, Sticky

 

[kathryn d]

I don't want to give anything up.
I'm quite content as it is.

I don't smoke, drink,or overweight.
I'm good natured (really Jaycee, I am!)

I'm a bit stubborn in my ideas..but I think I'm right, so don't want to give that up either.

I've decided, and already started trying to help people lowering their grocery bill, and have had very positive feedback...

So, I just wish everyone success in what they choose to achieve.

 

[wobbycarly]

We settle the sale of our PPOR on 20th Jan.

We settle the sale of our new PPOR on 29th Feb. (That date HAS to be auspicious, no?)

That's Q1 sorted, what with shifting twice, etc!!!

The rest of the year will be spent painting and generally tidying up the new PPOR. If I get that done, I'll be happy. So nothing particularly lofty this year.

 

[lizzie]

I am making no resolutions this year.

I am also making no goals except to get "the business" up and running, and a children's book series illustrated and published.

I am making no property/finance goals as we have no idea where, when, how we will be situated in around than 4 weeks times ... might have to make my goals on the 1st February instead.

 

[marg4000]

Hubby is retiring early in 2012 so my challenge is to get my head out of the "saving" mentality and starting the "we've arrived, it's OK to spend more freely" way of thinking.
Marg

 

[our obsession]

Life is pretty good, after some family illnesses, everyone is going great, so I'm over the moon on them being as well as they possible again. Just makes me appreciate life even more, personally, (and I had a relative good appreciation of it beforehand).

So 2012 no doubt, will be like much of my life, 'before'-enjoying it, appreciating time on earth, being with people, some treasured solitude, doing things I love, travelling, contributing, experiencing....and building upon (further), the wealth/assets I have created so far.

 

[luckyone]

This year, my investing goals are at the forefront. I have just found out a young relative of my husband's is very ill and will need lifelong care. I want to be able to do everything possible to help her out. Unfortunately it's likely she will never live a normal life now. To me that combined with my parents getting older has made it even more important to get my investments really rolling along.

Other than that, I really want to make new friends. I'm sick of being the only one who makes an effort. I've had a number of my friends for over 10 years, and yet I'm still the only one who initiates catching up. They clearly don't value my friendship. So the only way forward is to make new friends. Goodbye old, hello new.

 

[beachgurl]

My resolution for 2012 is to find more balance and happiness in my life. We have a baby due very soon and have moved into our new house, so no investing next year. Life's a bit shaky at home so want to focus on family and improve quality of life. For the past 4 years or so it's all been about investing and budgeting. Need to take a year off from that and enjoy my babies.

 

[amiaow]

I'm also trying to find more balance and happiness. I only have three things that I want to do this year- finish renovating our house, put a good chunk of work into my PhD, and not go crazy (I don't think I took a weekend off in 2011 other than to get married and I am burnt out). Among these three things I'd like to take up my hobbies again and if that all goes well and I have not gone crazy from being too busy, I'd like to think about having some kids. Financially, in the next 12 months we plan to pay off a private loan and then 2013 will probably be the year of investing our money into something other than our PPOR

 

[knightm]

Still mulling, not fully formulated yet (i know im nearly out of time!)

but the exec summary is basically

1 Finished having kids now (4) so enjoy/survive that but relish the not too distant future that will be nappy-less.

2 Tinker on this crazy big ppor we built to try and finish it one day

3 Pick up the pre kid energy for investing again - come up with 1 or more hair brained schemes and get rich quick or maybe slow but you know....

 

[pennyk]

Mine are
* to do renovation on new PPOR (should be happening in Feb/March)
* to set up my home office properly
* to put my laundry away each week (no more floordrobe or loungerobe in our new PPOR)
* to take each day as it comes and appreciate each day
* to finish the year healthier than I start it

 

[Piston Broke]

Drink more booze
Eat more food
Work less, or none at all
Hangout with friends doing nothing more often
Forget about "balance", there is no such thing
Be even more selfish, self centered and take megalomania to new heights

 

[Rixter]

Drink more booze
Eat more food
Work less, or none at all
Hangout with friends doing nothing more often
Forget about "balance", there is no such thing
Be even more selfish, self centered and take megalomania to new heights

You may want to consider adding this one to your list:

My goal is to not set any more goals. It's simply got me waaaay ahead of the pack for my friend's liking.

 

[mattnz]

By this time next year, I will have finished my first development and the 2nd and 3rd ones will be well under way. By then a 4th and 5th development should be at least initiated.

My first development on its own should create enough net income to allow me to leave my job by the end of next year to do developing fulltime (or at least still do around 20 hours a week, without another day job to worry about for the rest of my life). I can't wait.

All going to plan, this should be the best year of my life.

 

[Dazz]

To continue monitoring the auto-skimmer, making sure that it's on full bore, swiping some of that rent that the Tenant's back up and dump into the Banking and Govt bottomless pits before it disappears forever down the various big plugholes.

Definitely won't be ordering any more trucks, or digging any new holes.

The stockpile being skimmed off is now sufficient to start looking at filling in one or two of the holes.

When that happens, I'll need to upgrade from the auto-skimmer to the Super-Suc 2000, otherwise the continual dumping will create a huge mess.

Life is good. Property has been very kind to this little wood duck.

Time to concentrate on something other than property me thinks.

 

[rchad]

Wish for 2012

For our market to start growing sufficiently to offer decent capital growth across the whole portfolio

 

[Perchy]

To improve our ppor and focus more on family life

 

[lizzie]

Time to concentrate on something other than property me thinks.

Meet you and the missus next New Years (with my hubby) in that little cafe in rural Southern France?

We''ve decided to make our plan/resolutions this year on 1st Feb instead.

 

[Dazz]

Why not indeed....