My 2018 Goals

This year I decided to simplify the goals I set for myself, in an attempt to focus more on the things that matter most to me. Here are the 4 goals I set:

1. Grow my new book publishing and digital marketing business to achieve £4,000 in profit this year

• To be achieved through a combination of activitites such as publishing, blogging, podcasting or any other income generating activities which present themselves throughout the year

2. Focus on my well being to achieve optimal health this year

• I will know I have achieved this goal when I am happy with the diet I am following and with my fitness and relaxation levels. I am eating an organic diet and taking quality supplements. I am regularly having treatments such as chiropractor, massage, acupuncture and reiki. I am using mediation and yoga to keep me relaxed and in touch with my spirituality

3. Continue my learning

• I will know I have achieved this goal when I have read or listened to at least 6 further books
• I will also have participated in any courses or events that offer learning opportunities, which present themselves throughout the year
• I will have watched TED talks, educational films, youtube and podcasts to learn new things

4. Create a philanthropic strategy for this year and implement it

• I will know I have achieved this goal when I have decided upon my charity giving strategy for 2018 and beyond. I will have a charitable target to save toward which could be something like funding a new school or providing sanitation/toilet blocks or helping a homeless person get off the streets

At nearly halfway through the year I've been making good progress. I've been reviewing my goals everyday so that I keep them clear in my mind.

Here's a quick run-down of how I've been doing:

1. Grow my new book publishing and digital marketing business to achieve £4,000 in profit this year

• I'm behind on this target, with £839 profit made by the end of May 2018
• Now that I am working full-time on my publishing business I hope to see profit increase

2. Focus on my well being to achieve optimal health this year

• I've been doing great with this:
• Chiropractor treatments x 3
• Acupuncture treatments x 8
• Reiki treatments x 2
• Eating organic food and grass fed meat
• Taking daily supplements
• Meditating daily

3. Continue my learning

• I'm happy with my progress on this one
• I've read 3 books:
• Headstrong (by Dave Asprey)
• Unshakeable (by Tony Robbins)
• Conversations With God Book 1 (by Neale Donald Walsh)
• I've attended Tony Robbins' Unleash The Power Within event for a second time, but this time volunteering as a crew member
• I'm booked to go to the rebooted Coventry TEDx event later this month which I'm really excited for

4. Create a philanthropic strategy for this year and implement it

• I have not done well at this goal so far. I have started doing some research into what charitable goal I might like to work towards, but I have not yet picked my goal
• For now my pre-existing monthly charity donations continue until I make a decision on my new goal

Did you set any goals for 2018? If yes I'd love to hear about them and how you're getting on with them. The end of June will be the halfway point through the year, so it's a good time to take stock on how you're getting on and make any revisions you think you need to...

Better Late Than Never - My 2017 Goals!

So how did it get to be APRIL already?! I have had a reminder on my lengthy To Do list for months now to post about the goals I set for myself in 2017. Sorry it's taken me so long, but here we go...

At the start of January I carried out an exercise to review the success/failures of my 2016 goals, and then carried forward my learnings for setting my new goals for 2017. I decided to stick with the same goal tracking process as I'd implemented in 2016 because I felt it had been so successful at getting me to actually TAKE ACTION and get stuff done.

First of all I determined the 3 key areas I wanted to focus on for the year, and I loosely named these:
1. Personal Nurturing
Anything falls under here which I want to improve in terms of my health, fitness, relationships, wellbeing and personal development

2. Giving Back
This covers things such as donations and help for charities, fundraising efforts and any help or support I can offer to family, friends, acquaintances and people seeking my help

3. Achieving Freedom
This is all about my entrepreneurial and FIRE related endeavours - my ultimate goal is to achieve freedom from working for someone else - so whether I achieve that through early retirement, funding myself through my own money making endeavours, or a combination of these two it goes under this category!

Next I spent some quiet time listing out everything which I ideally wanted to achieve this year, and these evolved into 30 goals (yes you read that right...30!). I wrote these up in a spreadsheet and for each of them added a column in which I listed how I would know that I had achieved the goal - so that I would know when I could say it was "DONE"!

Since 30 is really too big a number to track and share, plus some of the goals are personal ones, I've opted to pick 10 good 'uns to share with you below. In each case I've listed underneath the goal how I know that I will have achieved it.

Personal Nurturing
Goal 1:  I will easily have read 6 new books by the end of 2017
I will know I have achieved this goal when I can list the 6 new books which I have read

Goal 2: I will easily attend and eagerly learn from the Tony Robbins Unleash The Power Within event
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have attended the UPW event and have made a list of notes from it

Giving Back
Goal 3: I will easily maintain a monthly presence in the personal finance/FIRE online community
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have either posted a blog update, or commented on a personal finance/FIRE update from a member of the online community, at least 12 times

Goal 4: I will easily hold 3 free coaching sessions in personal development or personal finance to get experience at how to coach
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have provided 3 free coaching sessions

Goal 5: I will easily donate £400 to charitable causes this year
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have donated at least £400 to charity this year

Achieving Freedom
Goal 6: I will easily have 4 published and promoted books on Amazon by the end of the year
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have at least 4 books published in KDP and Createspace

Goal 7: I will easily attend and learn new tips from FinCon in Dallas
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have attended and made notes at Fincon 2017

Goal 8: I will easily attend and learn new tips from the UK Money Bloggers conference
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have attended the UK Money Bloggers conference (SHOMO awards 2017)

Goal 9: I will easily follow my 2017 Freedom Plan so that I achieve freedom from working the 9-5 by the end of 2017
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have finished my last freelance contract onsite

Goal 10: I will easily follow my FIRE by 50 plan so that I remain on target to retire by age 50
I will know I have achieved this goal when I have achieved the targets for 2017 on my revised FIRE by 50 plan


Once I determined my 2017 goals, I have since been breaking them down into quarterly and monthly action plans so that every month, and indeed every week, I am focussed on working toward achieving them.

My thinking is if I can do just one thing every day to get me a little bit closer to at least one of my goals, then over time I'm going to achieve them eventually.

So that's all for now folks. In a future post I'll do a run-down of how I'm progressing with achieving these, and whether I'm on target to tick them all off by the end of the year.


Did you set any goals this year? Now that we're over a quarter of the way through the year, how are you getting on with them? I'd love to hear your thoughts below...

My Revised Roadmap To Freedom for 2017

Last February I formulated my strategy for how to achieve retirement by the time I'm age 50. In my Roadmap to Freedom I set out the savings goals I would need to achieve on a monthly basis.

I think it's important to revisit this Roadmap frequently to make sure that I'm still on target with my savings each month. This post is the result of my 2017 review.

I have revisited all my calculations from last year, including:

• My expense projections considering:
• Ages 50-57 (the ages between which I'll be retired but won't yet be able to draw my Personal Pension)
• Ages 50-62 (the ages between which I'll be retired and still have mortgage repayments to make)
• Age 62+ (when I'll be mortgage free)
• The current value of my Freedom Kitty and my Personal Pension

So without further ado, here is my revised Roadmap for 2017 onward...

FI Before 50 Roadmap

Freedom Kitty  must reach £190,000 by Jun 2025 (age 49) 

•    To be achieved by saving on average £1,268 per month from February 2017 - May 2025 (assumes 4% interest)

Personal Pension must reach £446,300 by Jul 2032 (age 57) 

•   To be achieved by saving on average £1,090 per month from March 2017 - May 2025 (issues 5% interest)

This results in a total average monthly saving goal of £2,358

My FI Before 50 Roadmap suggests that I need to save a total of £2,358 each month until June 2025. This splits out across my Personal Pension as £1,090 and my Freedom Kitty as £1,268 per month. The amounts I actually want to set as my saving targets for 2017 have been slightly adjusted from those suggested in the Roadmap:

SAVINGS TARGET

Freedom Kitty - £1,666 per month

Personal Pension - £1,000 per month

Equals TOTAL Savings Target: £2,666 per month 

(£308 more per month than the Roadmap states is needed, but split differently across the 2 savings pots)

Although my 2017 pension target is £90 per month lower than the Roadmap suggests, it is hoped that the fund will grow by at least 5% per year. Furthermore, savings into my Freedom Kitty are planned to be approx. £480 per month higher than the Roadmap requires, any excess in my Freedom Kitty can be used to supplement my Personal Pension if it has not met the required amount by age 57. The reason for paying more into the Freedom Kitty is to maximise the new £20,000 ISA allowance in 2017/2018.

I feel very confident in being able to achieve the Personal Pension target. The Freedom Kitty target will be more of a challenge, but I'm going to give it my absolute best shot.


Have you set any financial targets for 2017? I'd love to hear of them, let me know in the comments...

How did I get on with my 2016 goals?

Looking back on 2016 and my aspirations to provide a monthly update on how I got on with my goals, things didn't quite go to plan! I knew it had been a while since I last posted but I didn't realise that my last goals update was for March. So here's an end of year review of how I got on with my goals for 2016.

1. Experience the joy, satisfaction and contentment of living with my partner (TheBF) for the first time

• Accepting suitable offers for the sale of my house and TheBF's house, with both proceeding to sale completion


• Finding a new house to buy with TheBF which meets all our purchase criteria

RESULT: DONE!

We successfully sold our houses and moved into our lovely home together in May 2016

2. Gain the freedom to choose what I use my time for, removing the necessity of doing work that does not inspire me simply because it pays the bills

• Pursuing financial independence
• Create a 2016 financial plan/budget [by February 29th 2016]
• Create a "FI before 50 Roadmap" containing steps I need to take to become Financially Independent before the age of 50 [by March 31st 2016]
  
• Follow the 2016 financial plan/budget

RESULT: DONE!

The plans were created in the first quarter of 2016, after which I followed and achieved the savings targets specified in the 2016 financial plan

• Researching alternative options for spending my time which could eventually help to replace my current mode of work
• Create and maintain a blog site to track my goals and interact with the online community
• Research suitable blog site & how to use it, and set-up blog - DONE
• Deliver at least 1 post per week on average

RESULT: FAILED

Sadly when I began a new full time work contract in June 2016 the regularity of my blog posts suffered. Most of my free time was spent pursuing side income generating activities such as book publishing

• Research new alternative sources of repeat income
• Generate at least £1 this year from a new source of regular income

RESULT: DONE!

I discovered Kindle publishing and successfully published my first ebook in July 2016. I generated considerably more than my £1 goal (which was set to effectively inspire me to research and find ways in which it might be possible to earn additional income). By the end of the year I'd made £162.35 profit from a combination of publishing and matched betting


3. Become a better person by the end of the year, than I was at the start of it.
Can be measured in terms of knowledge & skills gained, health & fitness improved, relationships circle expanded & strengthened, internal beliefs challenged & reviewed, positive habits created

• Completing a personal development challenge with my sister (100 day challenge or something similar)

RESULT: DONE (We completed The Magic one month challenge)

• Reading at least 6 new books

RESULT: NEAR MISS
In the end I didn't quite manage to read the 6 books I was hoping for - I completed 5.5*:

1. The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich

2. Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust

3. The Magic by Rhonda Byrne

4. The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy

5. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography

6. The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results - only half complete

Given that in 2015 I didn't even read one book this was a good achievement for me nevertheless

• Losing 10lbs in weight by the end of July and maintaining the weight loss through till the end of the year through good diet and exercise
  

RESULT: FAILED
I ended the year at about 1lb below my start weight for the year! This is one of the hardest goals for me to achieve. It feels like my whole life I've been struggling with trying to attain my ideal weight (which for me is just to be a healthy weight). Sometimes I lack willpower and I genuinely think that some people are more biased to be overweight than others. That's not intended to be an excuse, but being overweight is something which runs in my Mum's side of the family.

This is a goal which I fully intend to carry forward into 2017 to see if I can attack it once and for all. On the bright side, at least I can say that I didn't gain more weight in 2016.

• Going on at least 12 planned "date nights" with TheBF in 2016

RESULT: DONE!

In fact we went on more than 12 dates, although not all of them were specifically arranged by me in the end, I think this still counts as a pass.

• Going on a family holiday to France where I can spend quality time with TheBF, my parents, my sister, brother-in-law and niece

RESULT: DONE!

• Researching and booking a mini-cruise with family

RESULT: PARKED

Due to all the time and effort required for selling and moving houses during the year, this goal did not feel attainable in the end. However I'm hoping to research a cruise holiday in 2017 with my parents and TheBF

• Introducing a routine of regular meditation
• By the end of the year, I will be meditating a minimum of 3 times per week

RESULT: I'm going to say DONE

This goal was a difficult one to assess the success of because some weeks I meditated every day, and other weeks I didn't manage 3 times. The main point however is that I did start meditating in 2016 and continue to do this consistently every week. 

As well as meditating, I have introduced several other short activities which I endeavour to complete daily:

Exercising (20 mins)

Yoga (about 15 mins)

Meditation (10 mins)

Gratitude (3 mins)

Affirmations (3 mins)

Visualisation (3 mins)

Reading (15 mins)

Goal Reviewing (3 mins)

Journalling (3 mins)

My goal for 2016 ended up turning into achieving 60% of this daily routine each week

* affiliate links, if you purchase through these links the cost to you will be the normal Amazon price but I will earn a small commission for directing you to the product


4: Use my unique personal skills and abilities to help others achieve happiness.

• Offering tips, support and conversation online through my blog, social media accounts and getting involved in the FI and Personal Development communities

RESULT: DONE

This was another goal which was actually difficult to track whether it was achieved or not, because I hadn't really made it specific enough. Given that I started my blog, wrote about my FI plans, regularly read and commented on personal finance blogs throughout 2016 and I attended the March FIRE escape gathering, I feel that this was achieved.

• Offering tips, support and help offline through any face-to-face opportunities should they arise, (meet-ups, coaching, training, speaking engagements)

RESULT: DONE

Again another goal which was difficult to say whether it was definitely achieved. As I did attend the FIRE escape gathering and also participated in Facebook Groups for UK finance bloggers and Fincon (which I also purchased a ticket to attend in 2017) I feel that I can mark this one as done

• Supporting my chosen charities through a spread of donations totalling £350 this year

RESULT: DONE

This was a success for me, I donated to the charities who I have regular giving set up for, as well as sponsoring several of my friends in their charity endeavours.

So all in all I feel very happy with my progress in 2016. It's the first year in a long time that I have set a list of goals for myself, and it's definitely the first year ever where I have consistently tracked my progress toward achieving the goals. This for me is the biggest win of all. It has made such a big difference having goals to work toward (some of which felt unattainable when I set them) and being able to tick many off the list. I am looking forward now to 2017 and achieving my new list of goals. You can find out about my 2017 goals in my next post...coming soon!


How has 2016 for you? If you set yourself goals, did you achieve some or all of them? Have you set any goals for 2017?

Busy times

Time for a quick update post to let everyone know that I am still alive and very much here! I'm sorry for the slow-down in posts over the last week or two, but there is good reason with some breaking news...

TheBF and I have finally exchanged contracts TODAY on our new house!

That's a giant step toward achieving my number 1 goal for the year! We are both incredibly happy, particularly because the journey to this point has been fraught with problems and stresses. There were several times over the last few weeks when we thought that the chain we were in would collapse and our dream home would disappear from our grasp. Luckily, the stars appeared to align today (despite it being Friday 13th!) and the contracts were finally exchanged.

In the UK, the key part of the house sale/purchase process is the exchange of contracts, with the completion date following either on the same day or within the days/weeks thereafter. In our case, we now have a completion date just under 2 weeks from our exchange date (near the end of May), so now we're going to be very busy packing, boxing everything up and moving our things into storage ahead of the big move day.

As well as doing a lot of chasing with Solicitors and Estate Agents and packing over the past days and weeks, I've also been working on a side hustle which is new to me - I'm having a go at Kindle publishing and this has also been taking a lot of my time. Hopefully I'll be getting my first books published soon and will see whether my hard work has paid off in getting some returns on my investment. I will keep you all posted!

As soon as I am able I will be back to "usual business" with my blog posts, I have 1 update post for March still to post (about how I invested my money in March) as well as all of my posts for the month of April. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here and will be raring to go again once the house move is complete.

Goals progress update for March

Here is my monthly progress update where I provide a review on how I'm getting on with my goals for 2016. This post is reporting on my progress as things stood at the end of March this year.

1. Experience the joy, satisfaction and contentment of living with my partner (TheBF) for the first time

• Accepting suitable offers for the sale of my house and TheBF's house, with both proceeding to sale completion - Following on from the disappointment of losing the buyer for my house in February, I quickly got it back on the market. It's quite hard work having people coming round to view the house as I always feel I need to run round beforehand tidying and cleaning! Within a few days of my house being back up for sale I had 3 appointments to view booked in, and in just over a week of relisting the house I'd accepted a new offer. Things have moved swiftly since then, the survey has already been carried out by my buyer's mortgage company and the sale is now progressing nicely. TheBF's sale is also proceeding to plan, the mortgage has been approved for his buyers and the survey is booked to take place in April


• Finding a new house to buy with TheBF which meets all our purchase criteria
  - In early March we were house hunting in earnest. Initially we focussed our efforts on viewings in a neighbouring town about a 40 minute drive from where I currently live. As we reached the point where we were ready to put an offer on a house, I realised that my heart was really yearning to stay in my hometown and I had a bit of a "wobble" moment. It seemed no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get excited about moving somewhere that far away (even though I know for many people this is not far at all), and there were a few teary moments (on my part!) as TheBF and I had a heart-to-heart. Luckily for me I have the best boyfriend ever, I am so thankful to have such an understanding and caring partner, and we swiftly refocussed our efforts closer to home.
  
  So I'm delighted to share the news that we have now found our dream home in my hometown! We entered negotiations with the vendor and agreed a purchase price, so all that is left now is for the purchase process to go ahead alongside the sale of our 2 houses. I think it will probably be a couple of months before we actually complete and make the move - but this goal is WELL on the way for 2016 and I couldn't be happier

2. Gain the freedom to choose what I use my time for, removing the necessity of doing work that does not inspire me simply because it pays the bills

• Pursuing financial independence - On target...
• Create a 2016 financial plan/budget [by February 29th 2016]   {PREVIOUSLY DONE}
• Create a "FI before 50 Roadmap" containing steps I need to take to become Financially Independent before the age of 50 [by March 31st 2016]   {PREVIOUSLY DONE}
  - Both of the above plans can be found here
• Follow the 2016 financial plan/budget - Mostly achieved for March. Detailed Income, Expenses & Savings breakdowns will follow in upcoming posts - only the headline figures are noted here.
  
  Income wise, it was a really strong month, helped by the welcome news from my accountants that I had not yet claimed back my expenses for home-based office work, I was really pleased about that. My target monthly income is £3,332 which I achieved and actually managed a little bit extra (£256.30 more than target).
  
  My overall target for monthly savings is £3,000, breaking down into targets of £1,000 for the Freedom Kitty (I achieved £949.69) and £2,000 for the Personal Pension (I achieved £3,000). This means I've exceeded my overall savings target by £949.69, but the split of how I achieved this was slightly unbalanced compared to my plans. It's important for me to save into my Freedom Kitty because this is what's going to enable me to stop working earlier than my pension retirement age of 57 - it needs to be big enough to support me for 7 years

• Researching alternative options for spending my time which could eventually help to replace my current mode of work
• Create and maintain a blog site to track my goals and interact with the online community
• Research suitable blog site & how to use it, and set-up blog {PREVIOUSLY DONE}
• Deliver at least 1 post per week on average - Achieved for March! I published 5 posts which means I'm still on target for achieving an average of 1 per week since I started the blog

• Research new alternative sources of repeat income
• Generate at least £1 this year from a new source of regular income - I didn't receive any new income in March. I did however spend time investigating how kindle publishing works as well as reading about matched betting on Richard's blog (Live Happy Save More).

3. Become a better person by the end of the year, than I was at the start of it.
Can be measured in terms of knowledge & skills gained, health & fitness improved, relationships circle expanded & strengthened, internal beliefs challenged & reviewed, positive habits created

• Completing a personal development challenge with my sister (100 day challenge or something similar) - Following on from last month's update, my sister and I have now set a date to work together through the daily practices in The Magic* by Rhonda Byrne. We start on April 1st and will finish on April 28th. During March we set-up a board using Trello ready for us to track our daily progress and share thoughts. Trello is a great tool to easily do this and best of all it's free!


• Reading at least 6 new books - With a little bit of extra reading time required on the last day of March I managed to finish my first new book of the year The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich* by Timothy Ferriss. I really enjoyed this book and it was a real eye-opener for me - it is possible to break away from a 9-5 office job and earn a good income with less time and effort required. I can see though that to achieve this I need to put in effort up-front to get set-up with a product and business process that will allow me to earn from it with very little effort on my part. I'm hoping to be able to put some, if not all of my learnings from this book into practice. I'll assess my effectiveness in doing this, based on whether I'm writing my blog from a beach in the Caribbean or from my office at home this time next year ha ha!
  
  In terms of my reading goal for the year, I'm a little behind where I need to be, but I know with the Magic Challenge that I'll be finishing my second book in April so I should be back on track by then.


• Losing 10lbs in weight by the end of July and maintaining the weight loss through till the end of the year through good diet and exercise
  
  
  
  Unfortunately I made no progress with my weight loss in March - not helped by the fact that the Easter Bunny brought a fair bit of chocolate! I review my goals every day and the fact that I've not found motivation to get going with this goal has been bothering me a lot. So I spent some time in March investigating options which might help me such as Weight Watchers (which I've used successfully before), Slimming World and calorie counting style diets. I've pretty much concluded that a menu plan of my own choosing will be the best option for me, because I can make it flexible, plus I really don't want to have to spend money on a diet group. So I'm working on a personalised plan to get me going and I've also started indoor running for 20 minutes on most weekdays. Let's see if I have more to report in April!


• Going on at least 12 planned "date nights" with TheBF in 2016 - we've been pretty busy this past month with the house sale and purchase process, so it's not really been the right time to plan any big dates. However, we have done two very fun date nights which practically organised themselves.
  
  We went to watch Speedway Racing thanks to receiving complimentary tickets (TheBF belongs to a biker group where the tickets were offered in the forum). INTERESTING FACT: Speedway bikes have no brakes and 500cc engines which can accelerate faster than a Formula 1 car to 60 mph! It was a really good night, particularly when we were given the opportunity to go and watch two of the races from the centre of the track.
  
  
  
  Our second date night was at Festival Hall in London where we saw one of our favourite comedians Dave Gorman. We watch his show on the TV channel "Dave" called Modern Life is Goodish, it's definitely my kind of humour, particularly with his powerpoint slides!
  
  So I think I'm going to consider these 2 dates as progress toward this goal (even though I didn't specifically arrange them) since they were so good, and at the end of the day, the reason I set this goal was because I thought it would be fun for us to do some new things we hadn't done before - and these were definitely new!
  {DONE AT END OF MARCH: 5 dates}


• Going on a family holiday to France where I can spend quality time with TheBF, my parents, my sister, brother-in-law and niece - we'll be doing this in August


• Researching and booking a mini-cruise with family - I've put my research into mini-cruise options on hold while TheBF and I are focussing on our house move. It doesn't feel like the right time to be arranging or booking any trips. I should be able to get back to this later in the year


• Introducing a routine of regular meditation
• By the end of the year, I will be meditating a minimum of 3 times per week - In March I started to introduce doing a morning routine every week-day. There's various things I do as part of the routine, one of which is at least 10 minutes of meditation. I have been experimenting with different guided meditations on YouTube, here are a couple of my favourites:
  
  • Meditation For Beginners - Learn To Meditate
  
  
  • Positive Thinking Meditation: Endorphin Meditation with Positive Affirmations
  
  This goal is definitely on target, in fact I exceeded the "3 times per week" target in March

* affiliate links, if you purchase through these links the cost to you will be the normal Amazon price but I will earn a small commission for directing you to the product


4: Use my unique personal skills and abilities to help others achieve happiness.

• Offering tips, support and conversation online through my blog, social media accounts and getting involved in the FI and Personal Development communities - I've signed up to the emails or feeds of the FIRE blogs I've found so far that I like to read. I try to get some reading in every day and I enjoy participating in the conversations in the comments if I find I have something to say


• Offering tips, support and help offline through any face-to-face opportunities should they arise, (meet-ups, coaching, training, speaking engagements) - In March I attended my first FIRE Escape meet, arranged by Huw at Financially Free by Forty. For anyone who hasn't been to one of these yet, if you're in any way interested in Financial Independence, Retiring Early or just talking about money, ways to increase income and save I would highly recommend it. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly, and it gave me an opportunity to find out how other people approach the same goal as me, we were able to share tips and experiences. There should be two further FIRE Escape weekends later this year and I'm hoping that they'll be on weekends that I'm free as I definitely plan to go along again


• Supporting my chosen charities through a spread of donations totalling £350 this year - as at the end of March I've donated £95.52 to my chosen charities. I need to be saving £87.50 per quarter to achieve this goal, so I'm ahead of where I need to be, I think I'll easily end up donating more than £350 this year

So it's the end of quarter 1 already, 2016 seems to be flying by. I'm very happy with my goals progress to-date. I think my biggest achievement so far this year has actually been taking the plunge and setting this blog up! I'm looking forward to tracking and achieving more of my goals in the rest of the year and sharing my progress with you.

How has the first quarter of 2016 gone for you? Is it just me, or do you think that this year has gone really quickly so far? I wish you well in your endeavours for the rest of the year, and would love to hear from you if you feel like leaving a comment...

How I got on with my goals in February

Here is the first of my monthly updates where I provide a review on how I'm getting on with my goals for 2016. This post is reporting on my progress as things stood at the end of February this year.

1. Experience the joy, satisfaction and contentment of living with my partner (TheBF) for the first time

• Accepting suitable offers for the sale of my house and TheBF's house, with both proceeding to sale completion - We received an offer for the asking price on TheBF's house so that's fantastic. I accepted an offer on my house, only to find out a week later that my buyer's house sale (without which they could not proceed to purchase mine) had fallen through. So 1 out of 2 properties on the way to being sold by the end of Feb. It's progress but with 1 step forward 2 back it seems!


• Finding a new house to buy with TheBF which meets all our purchase criteria
  - We have not found a house to buy yet, but by the end of February we were hunting in earnest and had several viewings lined up

2. Gain the freedom to choose what I use my time for, removing the necessity of doing work that does not inspire me simply because it pays the bills

• Pursuing financial independence - Good progress on this one...
• Create a 2016 financial plan/budget [by February 29th 2016]   {DONE}
• Create a "FI before 50 Roadmap" containing steps I need to take to become Financially Independent before the age of 50 [by March 31st 2016]   {DONE} - both of these plans can be found here
• Follow the 2016 financial plan/budget - Achieved for February! My target income per month is £3,332 and somehow I managed to hit this with 8p to spare (£3332.08). Target savings were £1,000 into the Freedom Kitty (I achieved £1,048.22) and £2,000 into the Personal Pension (I achieved a whopping £3,000). So I over-achieved on both of these!

• Researching alternative options for spending my time which could eventually help to replace my current mode of work
• Create and maintain a blog site to track my goals and interact with the online community
• Research suitable blog site & how to use it, and set-up blog {PREVIOUSLY DONE}
• Deliver at least 1 post per week on average - Achieved for February! Even though I started the blog on 12th February I managed to publish 4 posts, so ahead of the game ever so slightly on this one

• Research new alternative sources of repeat income
• Generate at least £1 this year from a new source of regular income - I've not managed to get any new forms of income yet, though I have been doing some research into possible income sources

3. Become a better person by the end of the year, than I was at the start of it. Can be measured in terms of knowledge & skills gained, health & fitness improved, relationships circle expanded & strengthened, internal beliefs challenged & reviewed, positive habits created

• Completing a personal development challenge with my sister (100 day challenge or something similar) - My sister bought a book for me called The Magic* by Rhonda Byrne this month. I've previously read her book and watched the DVD of The Secret* which I found fascinating, it really changed my outlook on life, particularly with the insights into the power of positive thinking. My sister tells me that The Magic includes a 28 day programme to follow so this is likely to be our challenge for this year - still to be decided!


• Reading at least 6 new books - Until this year I've been really lapse at reading books. This year I'm trying to read a minimum of 15 minutes per day. My first book for the year is The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich* by Timothy Ferriss. I'm about half way through it at the end of February, so a little behind target but hopefully I can catch up over the coming months


• Losing 10lbs in weight by the end of July and maintaining the weight loss through till the end of the year through good diet and exercise - I'm afraid I've failed fairly spectacularly at this goal so far, I've just not been giving the pursuit of weight loss my due attention. This needs to change! I'm hoping to pull some motivation out of the bag for March


• Going on at least 12 planned "date nights" with TheBF in 2016 - so far this year (by the end of Feb) I've arranged 2 date nights. The first was a trip to the cinema to see the latest Star Wars film followed by a cheeky dinner at Nandos, the second was to the Tamworth Snowdome where we had dinner and then went tobogganing - so much fun! We've also done a third date night which TheBF arranged where we went for cocktails at the casino then to the cinema to see Deadpool (which I'd highly recommend if you haven't seen it already)


• Going on a family holiday to France where I can spend quality time with TheBF, my parents, my sister, brother-in-law and niece - this is now booked for the summer, looking forward to it already!


• Researching and booking a mini-cruise with family - I made a start researching mini-cruise options, and started a spreadsheet to keep a "possible" list. However I've not completed this and still need to discuss with family whether they even want to go on one!


• Introducing a routine of regular meditation
• By the end of the year, I will be meditating a minimum of 3 times per week - Since I've not been in a contract during February I've had more time on my hands, so I've made a start with meditating but it's not up to 3 times a week yet. I've been using guided meditations on spotify and youtube as I find this works best for me

* affiliate links, if you purchase through these links the cost to you will be the normal Amazon price but I will earn a small commission for directing you to the product


4: Use my unique personal skills and abilities to help others achieve happiness.

• Offering tips, support and conversation online through my blog, social media accounts and getting involved in the FI and Personal Development communities - I've set-up a twitter account for Organised Redhead (@OrganisedRed) to allow me to follow the stories of others, I'm also building up a reading list of FIRE blogs I like to visit where I will be endeavouring to be an active participant in the conversations that take place in the comments sections


• Offering tips, support and help offline through any face-to-face opportunities should they arise, (meet-ups, coaching, training, speaking engagements) - I didn't have any particular opportunities to help anyone "offline" in February - though in January before I finished my last contract I did help coach a couple of fellow colleagues with their respective plans for buying a first home and getting out of debt


• Supporting my chosen charities through a spread of donations totalling £350 this year - I'm on target to achieve this goal, I've donated £63.68 by the close of February. Most of my donations are automated so this goal should almost complete itself by the end of the year

And that's it for my February update! Overall I feel good about the progress I'm making. Since moving home this year is such a big endeavour, my primary focus will be spent on achieving that. Hopefully later in the year I'll have more time to focus on the other goals to try to get as many DONE as I can.

Did you make goals for 2016? If yes, how are doing with them? There'll be another goals update soon for how I got on in March [*spoiler* there's some news to report on the house move front!]