Indian Thoughts

2016 Goals Tracking - May End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:16:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2016.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is after end of the May.

Financial:

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
Savings (Save 67% of total money): Fail. Another expensive month.
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Fail. See 2. Had to dip in this.
Save all of DH's salary: Pass.

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass.
Reading: Pass. Again tried picking this up, lets see.
Love myself: Pass.
Watch my spending: Pass.

Score: 7/9.

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr

2015

2016 Goals Tracking - Apr End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Wed, 04 May 2016 16:59:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2016.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is after end of the April.

Financial:

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
Savings (Save 67% of total money): Fail. It was an expensive month, baby's fees, had to buy a laptop etc. etc.
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Fail. See 2. Had to dip in this.
Save all of DH's salary: Pass.

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass.
Reading: Pass. Again tried picking this up, lets see.
Love myself: Pass.
Watch my spending: Pass.

Score: 7/9.

Jan
Feb
Mar

2015

2016 Goals Tracking - Mar End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 13:45:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2016.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is after end of the March.

Financial:

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
Savings (Save 67% of total money): Pass.
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Pass.
Save all of DH's salary: Pass.

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Fail. Yet again.
Love myself: Pass.
Watch my spending: Pass.

Score: 8/9.

Jan
Feb

2015

2016 Goals Tracking - Feb End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 17:48:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2016.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is after end of the February.

Financial:

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Fail. Markets decided not to co-operate at all.
Savings (Save 67% of total money): Pass.
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Pass.
Save all of DH's salary: Pass.

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Pass. finally started on it, just need to make a schedule for it.
Love myself: Pass.
Watch my spending: Pass. Mostly didn't buy anything other then few things for baby and was quite thoughtful on my purchases.

Score: 8/9.

Jan

2015

2016 Goals Tracking - Jan End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 18:19:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2016.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is after end of the January.

Financial:

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
Savings (Save 67% of total money): Pass.
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Fail. I needed to move some EF to one of the savings account (Tax free bonds!!). Will be working on bringing this up in coming months.
Save all of DH's salary: Pass.

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Fail. When Am I Going To Ever Work on This? :( :( :(. I am so so mad at myself.
Love myself: Fail. A very hectic month work wise, can't do enough here :(
Watch my spending: Pass. Mostly didn't buy anything other then few things for baby and was quite thoughtful on my purchases.

Score: 6/9.

What an Average start of the year! :(
So far this year has a theme of gloomy. Lot of uncertainity over job, hopefully will be able to resolve all of that pretty soon.

Last Year

Looking Back - 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 11:13:00 +0000

I had 9 goals for 2015 and before starting working towards my 2016 goals, I want to look back and reflect how I did in 2015.

Financial:

Networth: I aimed to increase same by 20%. Achieved this goal in October. And by the year end I (we) have managed to increase it by 26.6% annually.
Score:1/9

Savings: I wanted to save 65% of total money we make (all salary + bonus + any other money). I (we) saved 69% of our total money.
Score:2/9

Retirement: I wanted to save 40% of net salary (in-hand + automated deduction) for retirement. Managed to save just shy of 67% there.
Score:3/9

Emergency Fund - Wanted to have 12x months of living expenses in EF. Achieved this within first half of the year. But by the end of year, had to dip in my EF many times. Ended up 10.5x months of living expenses saved as EF.
Score:3/9

Save all of DH's salary - Done that. Finally, my household can survive on the lower salary of two. :)

Score:4/9

Personal:

Baby Schedule - I really worked very hard on work-life balance. This was a priority all through. A satisfying year on this front for sure.

Score:5/9

Reading related to Job - Another year of big failure. *Sob Sob*

Score:5/9

Diary Writing - I actually picked it up in last quarter and had been writing on-off. Going to focus on writing more regularly this year but so far I count it as WIP/Partial Success.

Score:6/9

Love Myself - Well worked on/off in the year but having this as a goal for sure made me more conscious of importance of routines. WIP/Majorly a success.

Score:7/9

So that's how I did in 2015 - 7 out of 9.

How about you?

Goals for 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 10:55:00 +0000

2015 was year of *Continuing the Good Work* both in financial world and in Self-Love. However, within few days into the year bad news started pouring in. My household lost 2 family members in last year. Age and illness was of course well known but I never knew it is going to be this tough before actually facing it. My family was devastated at one point wouldn't be an understatement. My priority suddenly changed to just taking care of everyone around me than anything else.

This new personal circumstances also resulted in noticeable increase in expenses of our household, but those were things I will never compromise on.

Some of the key takeaways are:

Family is and will always be my number one priority, that’s how I am.
Having money in bank gives you so much confidence and peace of mind and options when dealing with calamities.
Baby's growth amazes me almost always. It makes me happy and sad at same time to see him grow so fast. Parenthood is unexplainable!
Though my expenses were high last year, I was able to meet most of savings goals.

I just hope 2016 brings some much needed good news in our household, please spare some prayers for us, if you can. :)

Over to goals for 2016.

Financial:

Hoping to have a solid year in terms of finances. And yes I continue to hope that Murphy decides not to visit us and we can pass this category.

Networth: Let’s keep it same as good old 20%. I can bet, if I will meet this goal in 2016, I would for sure have to lower my number next year or really increase my take-home money somehow. *Fingers-Crossed*.
Savings: Save 67% of total money (all salary + bonus + any other money). I am trying to finally reach my dream equation - spend 1/3th on today and save 2/3rd for *consolidated fund of future everything*.
Retirement: Save 40% of net salary(inhand+automated) in retirement.
Emergency Fund - 12X of monthly expenses as I otherwise believe in having risky portfolio at this age.
Save all of DH's salary - This means we get to live on my salary + reimbursements. Should be totally doable.

Personal:

Continuing "Love Yourself".

Aim that I don't disturb baby's schedule on day to day basis, specifically when we have visitors.
Spend at least one hour on my new job related studying. ~~Hope to succeed~~ Must prepare myself to succeed in this category.
Love myself - Continuing same, follow my routine rigorously, esp. of Walk, Bath and Pray and diary writing.
Watch my spending - All other goals that you see in above are mostly same as last year one or a slight modification of them. However, this is one of the area that I have recently realized as my weakness. I am frugal person by nature, making do without things comes so naturally to me, but when I am purchasing, I am not very good at getting the best value of my buck. This year I am trying to set some guidelines for every purchase and improve myself as more savvy spender.

9 goals for this year, please wish me best of luck and I promise to ~~try and~~ update regularly on my progress.

Happy New Year - 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 12:49:00 +0000

Wishing you all a very very Happy New Year 2016.

May this new year bring fulfillment of all desires and dreams.

I was almost gone for 6 months from this blog, a lot happened in my household, I needed a break. Though, I have been tracking all my finances and other goals offline, I just not felt like updating anything here. *Hibernation* is my way of dealing with calamities.

Will update about my life, my tracking of goals for 2015 and my goals for 2016 in separate blog posts.

For now, let’s cheers that 2015 is finally over and a new year is here that brings so many new hopes with it.

Indian Thoughts (IT).

Half yearly update and tracking - 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 09:20:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2015.

Can't believe its July already. Since 6 months have passed, lets see how I fare in each of my goals.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): This goal I have achieved in all last 6 months. I count this goal as pass if the NW moves in positive direction for a month. Till June end my NW has increased by 9.8%. Predictions of future salary and automated/expected savings makes it look achievable. To be honest number greater than 10-12% would have made me happy but I can live with 9.8% as well. Status: On-Track
Savings (Save 65% of all money): Month wise I have managed to pass this goal only every alternate month, meaning 3 out of 6. However, till date I have managed to save 69% of total money. Status: Rocking
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): This goal has been a 6/6 so far. Total 64% saved towards this. Status: Rocking
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): As per the current numbers this is finished for the year. However to make sure that status remains as it is, need to replace all the FDs maturing in next 6 months with new ones. Status: On-Track
Save all of DHs salary: Yup, this one too is done nicely in last 6 months. Status: Rocking

Personal:-

Baby schedule: For sure this has improved a lot. It is totally visible in our bond and trust we share with each other. Touch-wood. Status: On-Track
Reading: Fail. All I am committing here is this will be a big focus area in next 6 months. Status: Need work
Writing: This one I am going to pick after August. This is stalled for now. Status: Need work
Improve myself: Pass. Routine of bath, walk and pray is working fine. Status: On-Track

Score:

Rocking - 3/9

On-Track - 4/9

Need work - 2/9

Previous Months:
Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May
Jun

2015 Goals Tracking - Jun End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 08:48:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2015.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is after end of the June.

Financial:

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass. - On-track ( it was very marginal change this month but anything positive is a YAY!)
Savings (Save 65% of total money): Fail. (another expensive month and a month where for a change I wanted to spend-it-all rather than save.)
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Pass
Save all of DH's salary: Fail

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Pass - feels so good. Just need to continue this.
Writing: Fail. I have left this goal as 3rd habit to improve and will pick most probably after August.
Love myself: Pass. 2 out of 3 has become a part of daily routine already. Every 4 months, I will take 1 of the 3 things and work on it for next 4 months. This seems like a better and more doable approach than aiming all 3 at one time.

Life Update:
I am at a very difficult mental phase of my life.
Nights where "I will just get up and won't be able to sleep back till dawn" have become a norm.
Subconscious mind is filling conscious mind with all negative things. It's as if former is playing a game of joining all the dots that I purposefully ignored so far. This gives lot of fodder to latter to feel sad/depressed/angry/frustrated.

Everyday, I pray to God to keep me sane, give me positive thoughts, give me strength to cope with all this in positive manner. This is the only hope that still puts a smile on this face. :)

To be honest, can't wait this year to be over, damn we are only midway through. :(

Score: 6/9.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

2015 Goals Tracking - May End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 18:17:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2015.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is after end of the May.

Financial:

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass. - Ontrack
Savings (Save 65% of total money): Fail.
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass. In fact, started pushing some of the last months remaining corpus back as well.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Pass
Save all of DH's salary: Pass

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Fail.
Writing: Fail. I have left this goal as 3rd habit to improve and will pick most probably after August.
Love myself: Pass. 2 out of 3 has become a part of daily routine already. Every 4 months, I will take 1 of the 3 things and work on it for next 4 months. This seems like a better and more doable approach than aiming all 3 at one time.

Life Update:
Unplanned travel caused 2 to fail. This year has been really bad so far on personal front. Now I pray everyday for strength to bear all that is happening around me. :(

Score: 6/9.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

2015 Goals Tracking - Apr End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Mon, 04 May 2015 05:17:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2015.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is after end of the April.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
Savings (Save 65% of total money): Fail.
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass. In fact, started pushing some of the last months remaining corpus back as well.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Pass
Save all of DH's salary: Pass

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Fail. At one point it was really going well, but all southwards from there on. :(
Writing: Fail. I have left this goal as 3rd habit to improve and will pick most probably after August.
Love myself: Pass. 2 out of 3 has become a part of daily routine already. Every 4 months, I will take 1 of the 3 things and work on it for next 4 months. This seems like a better and more doable approach than aiming all 3 at one time.

Score: 6/9.

Jan

Feb

Mar

2015 Goals Tracking - Mar End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 14:26:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2015.

Unbelievable, that march is already gone.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass. Increase in %age was much less than Jan and Feb however anything northwards is a pass.
Savings (Save 65% of total money): Pass.
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Fail. March is usually the time when I do annual portfolio shuffling, hence some of the money is cashed. Will be put back in in a month or two. Hence this became negative.
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Pass
Save all of DH's salary: Pass

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Fail
Writing: Fail
Love myself: Pass. 1 out of 3 has become a part of daily routine already. Every 4 months, I will take 1 of the 3 things and work on it for next 4 months. This seems like a better and more doable approach than aiming all 3 at one time.

Score: 6/9. :( ---> Still in search of a 9/9 month.

Jan

Feb

2015 Goals Tracking - Feb End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:26:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2015.

February is gone, and thank God for that. It was a crazy month and this has been a crazy year so far. :(

More travel, subtractions and additions to the family, can we have one day without any news please. And this is me after trying to stay as positive as I can.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass
Savings (Save 65% of total money): Fail
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Fail.
Save all of DH's salary: Pass

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Fail
Writing: Fail
Love myself: Fail. Though out of 3, I was successful in 1 activity. So definitely improvement from last month but yes long way to go.

Score: 4/9. :(

Jan

2015 Goals Tracking - Jan End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 10:08:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2015.

January is gone, really when and where!

It was a strange month which gave a strange start to the year. Hospital visits, unplanned travel, yuck way to start the year, rt? And then both of our companies stocks took 15% dip, double yuck :(

Lets hope February will be a different story from this.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass
Savings (Save 65% of total money): Pass
Retirement (Save 40% of net salary): Pass
Emergency Fund (EF = 12X monthly expenses): Pass
Save all of DH's salary: Pass

Personal:

Baby Schedule: Pass
Reading: Fail
Writing: Fail
Love myself: Fail

Score: 6/9.

Looking Back - 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 10:53:00 +0000

I had 9 goals for 2014 and before starting working towards my 2015 goals, I want to look back and reflect how I did in 2014.

Financial:

Networth: I aimed to increase same by 20%. Achieved this goal way back in August. And by the year end I almost increased it by double of what I targeted. Before you start judging me for aiming so low, let me tell you missing part of the story. There is one automated part of savings that gets deducted from our salary forcibly which I never added in my NW. However, after DH continuous push, I finally added that component in my savings, hence a big jump in NW numbers. But even otherwise, this would have been a convincing winner of the year.
Score:1/9

Savings: I wanted to save 40% of our joint take home salary. Monthly, I achieved it 8 out of 12 months. But annually, I met this goal very comfortably. I infact saved 55% of joint take home salary, which is a very satisfying number.
Score:2/9

Retirement: As I said here, I totally forgot what I meant in this goal so I redefined it. I have not once interrupted my automated retirement savings, hence a success for this goal. Another victory.
Score:3/9

Emergency Fund - Wanted to have 3 months of living expenses in EF. Achieved this in first half of the year. By the end of year, I had 6 months of living expenses saved as EF. Feels good, thanks to this. :)
Score:4/9

Payoff my 1 loan - This would have happened even with regular EMI payments.

Score:5/9

Personal:

Baby Schedule - I really worked very hard on work-life balance. This was a priority all through. A satisfying year on this front for sure.

Score:6/9

Reading related to Job - Big failure. I hardly could spend any time on this. However, this aspect just can't be ignored in my current job. I am going to focus really hard on this in 2015.

Score:6/9

Improve yourself - Cannot actually list 4 things, however, I had a very positive 2014. Lots of usual bad things happened but for most part I dealt with them in positive manner. I know that this needs much more work but was a Pass in 2014.

Score:7/9

Improve stamina - Walking for half an hour at night has become almost my second nature now, thanks to some good company I get in our society. That support system made it so much fun.

Score:8/9

Goals for 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 13:54:00 +0000

2014 was year of Financial come back and continuing Self Love. Some of the key takeaways are:

1. Financially, 2014 was a good year for my family.

2. Baby is more of a toddler now. His progress in this year was phenomenal.

3. I am in much better shape, stamina wise. Falling less ill when compared to last year. Need to continue same routine to improve mental, physical and emotional health.

Over to goals for 2015.

Financial:

Last two years have been good financially, hoping to continue same this year as well and hit a hat-trick. And yes I once again hope that Murphy decides not to visit us and we can pass this category.

Networth: Lets keep it same as good old 20% however, this is going to be a stretch goal for this year(true maths geek!!!).
Savings: Save 65% of total money (all salary + bonus + any other money).
Retirement: Save 40% of net salary in retirement.
Emergency Fund - Last year I aimed at 3X monthly expenses and ended up saving 6X. This year, lets aim for 12X i.e. expenses of 1 whole year. This should be a good cushion for now.
Save all of DH's salary - This means we get to live on my salary + reimbursements. Should be totally doable.

Personal:

Continuing "Love Yourself".

Aim to not disturb baby's schedule on day to day basis, specifically when we have visitors.
Spend at least one hour on my new job related studying. Hope to succeed in this category.
I will re-pick diary writing.
Love myself - Continuing same, follow my routine rigorously, esp of Walk, Bath and Pray.

9 goals for this year, please wish me best of luck and I promise to try and update regularly on my progress.

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 09:08:00 +0000

I know I am 7 days late, but still wishing me and everybody else a very happy and prosperous 2015.

2014 Goals Tracking - Dec End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 09:07:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Done for the year. This was done long back.
Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass. Though I took an year end trip, still was able to meet as DH got awards and bonus this month.
Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

Baby schedule: Pass.
Reading: Fail. Given up on this. :(
Improve myself: Pass.
Exercising: Pass.

Score: 8/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul
Aug

Sep
Oct
Nov

2014 Goals Tracking - Nov End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:06:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Done for the year.
Savings (Save 40% of take home): Fail. Had some bulk expenses.
Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

Baby schedule: Pass.
Reading: Fail. Given up on this. :(
Improve myself: Pass.
Exercising: Pass.

Score: 7/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul
Aug

Sep
Oct

2014 Goals Tracking - Oct End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 11:07:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Done for the year.
Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

Baby schedule: Pass.
Reading: Fail. Will I ever pass it. :(
Improve myself: Pass.
Exercising: Pass.

Score: 8/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul
Aug

Sep

2014 Goals Tracking - Sep End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 06:39:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Done for the year.
Savings (Save 40% of take home): Fail. Well September was a very expensive month. I had lot of premiums to pay, car servicing due, baby's new-to-him bed was bought and car tyres had to be changed. additionally, we 3 were not well all month long :(
Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

Baby schedule: Fail. I was unwell almost all month. Had no energy for most of September and hence lots of time baby schedule has slipped up. :( I am so not proud of it. :(
Reading: Fail. Will I ever pass it. :(
Improve myself: Fail. When you are so low on energy, negative thoughts creep back in.
Exercising: Fail. Again due to illness, took a week's break. :(

Score: 4/9.

Can't believe it, this was the worst month of the year so far.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul
Aug

2014 Goals Tracking - Aug End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 08:48:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.Finished for the year. NW increased by 21% already. YIPPEE
Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

Baby schedule: Pass.
Reading: Fail. Will I ever pass it. :(
Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally.
Exercising: Pass. Recently again picked up. Hope to continue without break.

Score: 8/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun
Jul

2014 Goals Tracking - Jul End

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 06:13:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2014.

Tracking time is here, let’s see what my progress is and what the scorecard is.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): Pass.
Savings (Save 40% of take home): Pass.
Retirement (Save 30% for this): Pass.
Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year.
Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year.

Personal:-

Baby schedule: Pass.
Reading: Fail. Will I ever pass it. :(
Improve myself: Pass. I am improving on not to think bad about un-necessary things, not to take every thing personally.
Exercising: Pass. Recently again picked up. Hope to continue without break.

Score: 8/9.

Wow. Best score of the year.

Update on cooking: tried couple of new things in one week long stay-a-cation.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun

Half yearly update and tracking - 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Ideas to Simplify and Manage Your Finances.) — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 11:57:00 +0000

These are my goals for 2014.

Can't believe its July already. Since 6 months have passed, lets see how I fare in each of my goals.

Financial:-

Net-worth (increase by 20%): This goal I have achieved in all last 6 months. I count this goal as pass if I can increase my NW by more than 1% in a month. Till June end, my NW has increased by 14%, seems like I should be able to achieve this target within next quarter.
Savings (Save 40% of take home): Other than in February, I have managed to achieve this as well. This one I calculate as savings from our take home pay. I don't count automated deductions. Aim is that expenses should always be under 60% of whatever money comes to us. Last year I used to aim at 50% but with baby going to school + daycare, 50% seemed outrageous. However, quick calculation shows that I achieved 50% in 4 out of 6 months, not bad aah!
Retirement (Save 30% for this): To be honest I have totally forgotten what was in my mind when I said 30% for retirement. Was it 30% of total savings, 30% of total salary, or 30% of take home, i have no clue. I am marking it as pass if I don't interrupt my automated retirement savings. This also has been pass in all 6 months.
Emergency Fund (EF = 3X monthly expenses): Finished for the year. Saved 3 months expenses in short term FDs, which can be en-cashed within a day or two. Couldn't save anything for first 2 months of the year, however achieved it in next 4. :)
Payoff my 1 loan: Finished for the year. This took priority and I payed it off completely in first two months. Now you know why no EF for first 2 months.

Personal:-

Baby schedule: This is mostly a pass, except the January month. I am consciously trying very hard for work-life balance to not let my baby suffer.
Reading: Failure till now. To be honest lately work has been more on research side hence no brain cells free for more reading. I could have counted that reading in here but that will be cheating and I as a principal never cheat myself. :)
Improve myself: Pass. I am overall more positive and optimistic.
Exercising: First 4 months I couldn't concentrate on this. But last 2 months I have become very serious for this goal. I am walking regularly now, even on days when I am not well. Hope to continue this spirit for rest of the year.

Score: 7/9.

Previous Months:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Jun