Goal Achievement Update

I am a big goal setter.  I love setting goals and achieving goals.  I set goals in most areas of my life, including my finances.

Each year when I prepare my taxes is the time that I can evaluate how I did on my financial goals. You can read about my goal achievement from last year here.

This past year (2010), my gross earnings were down 62% from when I was a pastor. The only way I am able to make this work financially has been through lifestyle changes and tapping into significant savings. My giving, as a percentage of my income, was 16% of my gross income (up 3% from last year). Here were my goals/predictions from last year:

• I expect my income to drop another 20-25% this year. (Sad, but true).
• My goal is to increase my giving by another 1% this year.
• My goal is to remain debt free (except for student loans).
• My goal is to rebuild a 6-month emergency fund. (I can do this now that my credit cards are paid off by applying my “debt snowball” to my emergency fund. And given my new income level, I need a smaller emergency fund, lol).

 

I was accurate in my predictions and achieved my goals.

My financial goals for the coming year include:

1. Increase my giving by 1% as a percentage of my income (this is my goal every year).
2. Increase my income by 50% this coming year (and 50% again the following year).
3. Remain debt free (except for student loans).
4. Maintain my current emergency fund and stop draining savings.
5. Within 2 years… establish a car fund and be able to replace my current vehicle without any debt (that is, pay cash). My current vehicle is running well, but has 140,000 miles on it.
6. Within 3 years… restore my income to 2009 levels.
7. Within 3 years… pay off all my student loans and remain debt free for life after that.

The truth is that financial health is only one area to focus on — and not the most important.  But how we handle our finances does reveal a lot about our spiritual health.  Plus, I love to give and want to give more.  So I take the stewardship of the resources God has entrusted to me very seriously.  By writing these goals down — and sharing them publicly — I believe I increase the likelihood of achieving them.

I feel good about how I have handles my finances these last two years.  I have done less well with goals relating to personal health and excercise.  Last year I lost a fair amount of weight; this year I have regained all of the weight I lost.  That is discouraging.  But not giving up … time for a new plan and new approach.

HOW ARE YOU DOING ON YOUR GOALS?