Ok. It's almost the middle of the year, so I thought I'd go ahead and do a 6 month review of the goals that I set back in January. For those who may not remember, or don't want to go digging, here is a reminder of what my goals for 2014 AKA the Year of Joe are.
1) adjust and live my budget
2) Read 6 nonfiction books by the end of the year
3) TOP SECRET
4) Exercise at least 3 times a week
5) Improve my credit score
Here we go!
1) Adjusting and living my budget.
This has been an interesting one. I had to get a loan in order to fix the fence in my backyard back in December, so this one has actually come in handy and one I've actually done pretty well on. I've come up a bit short the past couple of months due to some additional expenses, and the occasional bad decision. The loan is nearly paid off. I have one more payment, and then I'm done. I've decided in light of the fact I have no real savings account, I'm going to continue to "pay the loan" and transfer that money into an account that I will not be able to easily access. Granted, I need to be able to access it in event of an emergency, so it won't be THAT hard to get access to. With Summer in full swing, and having to turn the AC on, I expect to see an increase in the electric bill but this is something that I had already adjusted the budget for. I'm optimistic that this weakness of mine will soon become a strength.
2) Read 6 nonfiction books by the end of the year.
This goal has been one of the more fun ones that I have set in the past. I love to read, but i've always shied away from the non fictions because I'd almost always find them boring. I decided to remedy that by asking for a few recommendations on my facebook page, and asking friends. I've solidly read 4, maybe 5. I'll have to look. regardless, It's been an amazing journey of learning.
*SHAMLESS PLUG* If you are not aware, LeVar Burton (Kunta Kinte of Roots, Geordi Laforge of Star Trek: The Next Generation) has a Kickstarter project going on aimed at spreading his old PBS television show Reading Rainbow to a new generation and across multiple platforms. This was one of my favorite shows to watch with my Niece when she was a kiddo, and even up until it was taken off of PBS. He's already reached his initial goal, but every bit helps. Check out the Project at the Link below.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh?ref=home_popular
3) TOP SECRET
Well, I can't really go into details here about this one, but the ball is rolling. I ran into a roadblock, but I'm working my away around it, and hope to have an announcement on this by the end of the summer.
4) Exercise at least 3 times a week
Yeah... The most popular one that EVERYBODY sets. I've got my DVD sets, and I've been cleared medically to do any intensity of workout that I want, but I simply haven't started. I've got a great reason to get it done though.
5) Improve my credit score
This is probably to going to be a long-term, multi year goal. Having the loan that I talked about earlier is going to help a bit, but this is truly going to be an uphill battle. I ran my credit earlier this month, and I'm still waiting on one report to show, but so far there haven't been any nasty surprises yet. At least with this, I will have a solid platform to go on.
I've also decided that in addition to these long term goals, I'm going to set a monthly goal.
The goal for this month? Write something every day. It won't necessarily go on my blog, or on facebook (which doesn't count as writing) but I will certainly share when I feel the need or the inspiration.
So that's the update. Hope you've enjoyed.
