All Work and No Goals Make for a Broke Girl

I've been reviewing several personal financial sites lately and I just realized that I don't have any goals. Sure I have goals floating around in my mind about everyday life, but what am I doing for my financial stability? How can I expect to achieve anything if I first haven't set a goal...even if it is small and short-term.

First things first...I opened my bank statement today and headed straight to the "Interest Earned" section. Well, Lordy be, I don't think I will be reaching any goals, not even the smallest inkling of a goal, with the whopping $0.14 I earned for the month of December. That incident caused the "creation" of my first financial goal...to earn more interest than the cost of a piece of peppermint on my hard earned dollars.

Goal #1 - Earn a higher interest rate ~ Accomplished ~
I opened a high yielding online checking account last night to get started. Instead of earning an APY of .21%, my new online checking account is earning 3.92% APY. (Unfortunately, today's economy has caused a drastic decrease in APY's.  Charles Schawb is now at .25%.) There were higher yielding accounts available, but the bill pay feature is very important to me and this one seemed to be the best. This will be my first comparison test.

Goal #2 - Pay myself first (10%)
For some reason, this has got to be the hardest financial step of all. It is hard for me to understand "why am I paying myself, when I can't even pay my bills." To accomplish this, I set up an automatic payroll draft straight into my credit union. Once I get the higher yielding account situated, I will have the 10% drafted there instead of the low yielding credit union. I think it's about .01% APR. Currently, I am "paying myself" .7%. Still a long way from 10%, but I will make it. I have to get to a point where I don't miss the money from my paycheck.

Goal #3 - Snowball my credit card debt
I downloaded Dan's Super Snowball Plan and have put it in action. I haven't yet made it to the point of paying off one card and then using that amount towards another credit card. But I'm getting there.


Goal #4 - Minimize my spending
I should have listed this goal as the hardest since I don't think of money as a total amount but more like an instant visual. If I budget $100 to spend on eating out, as long as I don't spend $100 at one sitting, I think I'm doing great. But after they all add up, I have spent well over that $100, probably enough to feed a third world country for a week. Eating out is definitely my biggest weakness. One month, we spent over $800 eating out in one month surpassing my grocery spending by $500.

I know this is only a start, but that's what it takes. You got to start somewhere and I'm definitely starting small, but I'm dreaming big and eventually I will set my goals a little higher. I feel that the goals I have set are at least attainable...and eventually surpassable. (Is that a word?)

Don't Let the Monkeys Enforce Murphy's Law

Never, I repeat, never say out loud...What else can go wrong? I don't know if it is fate that likes to play tricks on us or just plain old Murphy's Law, but it seems like if one thing seems to be going good, then something else is going to come along and throw a monkey in my wrench...or is that a wrench in my monkey?

First things first...I started this blog with all good intentions to let everyone know what I'm doing to make money online. Well, it seems that as fast as I can make it, one more thing in life requires money.

It all started when I decided to pay off some debt. I did get one credit card paid off, but unfortunately, Christmas rolled around and I used it for a little Black Friday shopping. The plan is to pay the balance each month, or at least half. Anyway, I thought to myself, man, this debt payoff is moving pretty smooth and based on my scientific calculations...er, actually Dan's Super Snowball Calculator, I should have all my credit cards and personal loans paid off in only 9 months. Well, I did not take into consideration those little WTM's (Wrench Toting Monkeys) that seem to pop up out of no where.

Just to give you an idea, these are my latest little WTM's:

Brake job and 2 tires (to replace the badly worn, daily self-flattening rear tires) $200.00
Daily laundry drop off service for the past 2 weeks (I think my washing machine slung a rod!) $200

• NSF charges for not paying attention to my newly started checkbook register $175

Still searching for happiness...priceless.
I will go back to the drawing board tonight, make a stronger commitment with that checkbook register, and scientifically recalculate that snowball plan and get back on track.