As a result of my sister
Jen's goal update yesterday, I decided to revisit last years goals and highlight some for 2014. Jen was a bit disappointed in her results and looking back at my 2013 goals, it looks like I didn't quite hit the mark either.
It's funny, I thought I was working towards some goals with my website stuff last year and now that I pulled up
my 2013 goals, apparently I did not have any website related goals for 2013. The goals I was thinking of in the back of my mind were from my
2012 beginning of year goals and
2012 goals revisited posts.
So apparently last year was an off year for goals for my sister and I for whatever reason, at least I'm in good company!
Here is a quick breakdown of how I did based on my 2013 Goals:
1.
Stocks: Get 12 performance bonuses on the SpikeTrade.com site that I am a member of. It is a friendly competition where you paper trade 1 stock each week and attempt to beat out the "Spikers", which are a group of about 10 seasoned stock traders. I did manage to get 9 performance bonuses, which was better than the 8 I got the year before, so not bad, but didn't get 12.
The other part of this goal was to get a 10% return in my personal trading account, which is an old rollover 401k account. Unfortunately, I didn't quite hit this goal. My rate of return was 7.5% and with the overall stock market up almost 30% last year, I wasn't happy with those results. Luckily our regular 401k and Roth IRA account got much closer to the overall market rate than I did, but I definitely need to do better here.
2.
Fitness: Gain 20lbs, make better meal choices and try to increase cardio. Fail, fail and fail.
3.
Travel: Go on vacation somewhere and visit our niece and nephew, Hadley and Max more. Accomplished. We went to Riviera Maya in Mexico and stayed at the Excellence Riviera Cancun. We also got to see Max and Hadley for the July 4th weekend and for Christmas this year. We would like to see them more, but weekly FaceTime chats definitely help to fill in the gaps.
4.
Job: Keep the options open. Job has still been the same and I am keeping my options open. Still always on a quest for less work, more pay and more freedom when it comes to the day job! ;)
5.
Dream/Vision board: Did not do this one.
So overall, I'd have to say, other than travelling, I really didn't do real well on my goals as a whole. And it is odd to me that I didn't have goals for my website stuff in 2013. Looking back at my 2012 goals, I did seem to meet the goals I had set in 2012, so I was on-track, just a year off apparently.
Goals for 2014
I'm going to keep my personal goals much more simple this year.
1. Stocks: Continue to shoot for 12 performance bonuses for SpikeTrade. In my personal account, perform better than the overall market by the end of the first quarter or put most of the $ in the existing mutual funds that I'm holding.
2. Fitness: Eliminate soda and phase out caffeinated drinks in favor or water or drinks like lemonade. Stretch and strengthen my lower back at least every other day for at least 5-10 minutes. Add in more vegetables and salads and have smaller portions of pasta and white/enriched carbs. Hit up Planet Fitness at least once per week, preferably twice.
3. Travel: We already have our 2 week cruise to Alaska/Seattle/Vancouver booked, so this one doesn't really count. Mom is going along with us as well. Would like to see Max and Hadley and our new niece or nephew that arrives in June as well.
4. Job: Continue to learn new skills and keep options open. Less work, more pay, more freedom!
That's all folks! I think keeping it simple this year is key in regards to my personal goals.
How about you? How did you do in 2013? Any new goals for 2014?
1/30/2014
Chris
