With the New Year comes new goals and visions for the future. I certainly have new goals and visions – and I’ve decided to share them with you, friends! Some are personal and some are blog related. Either way – I’m publicly sharing what I would like to accomplish in the New Year and beyond.
New Vision for the New Year
Giving and random acts of kindness
I was deeply impacted by the Rockstar Community Fund (RCF) project in December. The feeling of gratitude, love, compassion and understanding that comes from helping others is something I want more of on a regular basis.
I fell in love with the idea of giving unexpected gifts. From the moment I gave away that first $20 Visa card, I knew I needed to do more! I’ve committed to contributing to the RCF each month to support the good it is spreading.
I’m also committing to giving away an unexpected gift and/or doing a random act of kindness at least once each month (and I’ll share with you). Since I don’t know when or how the opportunities will present themselves, I’m not putting any parameters on how I do this. Part of the fun is searching for that perfect moment. Sometimes the other person (or persons) may know I am committing the act, but there is something to be said for giving without taking credit (we’ll see how it plays out!).
In a world where so much of what we hear and see on in the news, internet and television is negative, people need to know that there is GOOD. They need to feel the kindness. They need to know people care.
I believe this can change people’s lives and open their hearts and minds.
Blog
Until now, I haven’t set any concrete blogging goals. I’m happy with the growth of Centsibly Rich so far and hope to continue to grow it in 2017. The blog has gained some momentum over the past few months and I have started seeing some income, though it’s still irregular.
I don’t focus as much energy on monetizing as I could, but I think I’m on the right path by focusing most of my energy on creating useful content. The idea of doing some freelance writing or creating an ebook are part of my plan but, mostly, I want to continue to grow the site and help readers by writing useful posts.
I don’t find it helpful to compare my own stats with others’ (this is true of debt payoff, retirement savings, etc). What is most helpful is seeing improvement in my own progress over time. That said, I’m aiming for a 10% improvement in blogging income and growth (traffic) each quarter for 2017. It seems like a doable goal.
As far as posting goes, I would like to continue to post twice a week, but there may be weeks when I only have one post (sometimes I’ll be an overachiever and post 3!). Creating a constant stream of content can take away from quality and quality is something I want to focus more time on. That said, you will always see a Monday post and probably another later in the week (on Thursday or Friday).
Financial Goals
I will also let you in on how we’re doing on our financial goals. With the exception of my grocery spending, I’ve never really shared any nitty gritty numbers here on the site. And, though I’m still not ready to share my net worth, I can keep you posted on our financial goals.
Rental Property
You may remember a mention of this goal in a past post. Buying an investment property has been on our radar for years. And though I’ve read a ton on real estate investing, spent countless hours on Realtor.com and Zillow and poured over numbers, Alan (hubby) and I never took the initial steps to actually buy a property.
That all changed in December. I finally contacted my favorite mortgage loan consultant to get the ball rolling and we are looking for our first property. It’s the “finding” part that’s proving most difficult. We have a budget of $100,000 or less for this first investment property, but it’s a very high demand price point in a seller’s market.
The goal is to cash flow right out of the gate. I tend to be conservative and probably overestimate projected costs (capital and ongoing). We would also like our property to be in certain areas of the city/suburbs. Basically, we’re very picky. Right now, I’m still patient, but hopeful the right property comes along soon.
FIRE
To keep you (and me) updated on our Financial Independence (FIRE) goal, I will provide the years/months until FIRE, by using the Mad Fientist’s FI Laboratory.
Savings Rate
I would like to see this go up, which will present a challenge because it seems like we already save about as much as we can. Our savings rate for 2016 was 46% (calculated by using this method). I want to see that number at 51% for 2017.
One thing that will help boost this is the Digit app. I didn’t start using it until June of 2016, but I was able to save $1420 in 2016 through Digit. An entire year will yield even better results!
There you have it – my goals right there in writing for the entire world to see. I’ve written them down, created accountability and made them measurable. Each month, I’ll keep you posted on my progress!
Awesome goals!!! So excited for your rental property journey. This is one of our goals too. As is FIRE. And finishing our debt payoff. I have a feeling 2017 is going to be a banner year for all of us putting in this extra effort, Amanda. 🙂
Thank you, Laurie!!! I’m excited for the rental property journey too – and would love to hear about yours. I have the exact same feeling about 2017! I’m so excited for this fresh start and know we’ll all make huge strides in our goals. 🙂
Amanda, you along with MSM and Freedom 40 Guy are all doing an amazing job on your saving rates. It really inspires to take a closer look at my own saving rate as I am nowhere near the untouchable 50% saving rate. You guys are all easily within that 50% mark, which to me are super disciplined savers. I thought I was quite the disciplined saver till I read your blogs. Now is time to up my game a do a better job in 2017.
I look forward to reaching your achievement of the 51% saving rate.
Thanks, Leo! I’m glad you’ve found some inspiration! It’s a great goal to have for 2017!
Really exciting goals, Amanda! I just read a parenting book about fighting entitlement, that included the tip to do random acts of kindness that your kids can see, or be involved in, on a regular basis. Sometimes anonymous, sometimes visible, depending on the circumstance. I thought that was a great idea to model generosity and kindness for them. Excited to hear how that goes for you, and also to hear more about your rental property search. It’s something we’ve talked about, too, but aren’t ready to take the plunge yet.
Thanks, Kalie! I want my kids to be there for many of the random acts – I have told them about the unexpected gift, but it’s a different feeling when you are actually present (an amazing feeling!). The rental property search is in a lull right now – hoping things start to pick up soon and I have some news to share!
I never would have thought it possible to save at least $1400 in a year using Digit. That is a really good way to get a nice stash of cash.
Those are some great goals, especially pursuing rental property and achieving financial independence.
Your blog has made lots of progress in such a short time, the evidence is visible. It’s hard making goals the first year because there are so many horror stories from people that do not realize how much is required to establish a web presence & a recurring theme for people to continue returning to your site. I finally started earning income around month 11 and it is still irregular, but, I’m tossing around a few different ideas that are more appropriate for year 2 instead of just throwing darts blindfolded (figuratively speaking) for year 1 to try and gain an audience.
It is totally possible to save that much (and more) with Digit. I actually put it on “pause” at least three times and was still able to save that much. What I love about it is – it’s money I wouldn’t have otherwise saved.
Thanks for the kind words, Josh! It’s great to hear you are starting to see some income from your blog too and are finding some good ideas for the future!The blog is so much more work than I anticipated, but it’s also a labor of love. I enjoy it more than I ever imagined. I don’t think you can really know exactly what direction you want to go until you dive in and just get started. I’ll be going into year two in March and do have more of a vision for the second year than I did for this first one.
I agree. I started using digit in April and in 9 months I saved $2,300. I love the service. It pulls small amounts from my account almost everyday. I never miss the money.
I like Digit as well. I’ve had to pause it a few times when unexpected expenses occurred, but other than that, it saved a couple hundred dollars for me in just a few months. I actually used that money to help pay for some of the unexpected expenses and lessened the blow a bit! Every little bit counts!
I’m glad you like it too, Colleen! It’s great to have as a backup emergency fund.
Nice work on building the blog and saving half your cash in 2016! Those are some great goals for 2017. I think it’s good that you are being picky about your rental property investment. You definitely want something they will cash flow right away.
Happy New Year, and best of luck on your goals in 2017!
Thanks, Mr. CK! Being picky with the rental property is definitely a good thing – it’s keeping my patience in check that provides the biggest challenge right now!
Wishing you the best for the new year! 🙂
Exciting to see your investment real estate search. We’ve never actually done one, just held onto properties we used to live in. And I’m not surprised properties in your price range move fast, as other investors are competing with first-time home buyers for those properties. I wish you luck.
One thing I’ve heard other folks say worked out is buying low end older mobile homes…yeah, it’s not much of an asset and the rents are low, but cash flow can be pretty solid. It’s an idea if you aren’t worried about property appreciation and selling as you age.
And love your monthly random acts of kindness goals.
Thanks, Emily! We may need luck with our real estate search. We’ve only been looking for a month or so, so I’m trying to stay positive. I have considered the mobile homes just for cash flow purposes, but I’m not familiar with that market and having an asset that won’t appreciate makes me nervous. Definitely food for thought, though!
Yay for all of these goals! 🙂 I love it, and I cannot wait to follow along. Fun idea to add the FIRE countdown.
Thanks, Penny! The FIRE countdown will be motivating (at least I hope it will!).
I’m also working on saving and blogging goals. I just transitioned into a full-time blogger a few months ago, so I can’t wait to see where the rest of the year takes me. I look forward to reading your blog in 2017!
I think it’s awesome that you transitioned to full time, Alexis! You’re doing great! I’d love to say I’m a full-time blogger at some point. Thank you! 🙂
I’m hoping to double my blog traffic in 2017. It’s one of those things that is hard to predict. But I have a few action steps to make it happen. I’m excited to see how your goals progress!
Thanks, Ms. Montana! I’ve seen such huge swings in traffic from month to month. I now have Alan (hubby) working on learning SEO, so I’m hoping that will help once we get some of those strategies in place. As long as it’s growing, I’m happy.
Great 2016 and and looking forward to more Centsibly Rich this year!
I am also excited about the RCF! There is going to be a lot of good coming from that all year long.
Good luck with the rental property and I look forward to reading about it – we might have to share some tips once we get further down this path.
Thanks, AE! I’ll definitely share any tips I learn along the way. One of the reasons we’re keeping our budget so low is because we consider the first property our “learning” property. I’m sure we’ll learn plenty of lessons along the way.
Love the FiRe countdown! Also interested to see how rental investing pans out for you. I think everyone has a unique story in that area!
Thank you! It will definitely be interesting! Happy New Year!
Very exciting goals for the next year! I can’t wait to see more of what’s in store for you. Your FI date is so close-great work!
So close…yet so far away. Depends on the day! 😉 Thanks, Liz!
Happy New Year!
Here’s wishing you a great and successful 2017!
Let me know if you need any advice/help along the way. I’m always happy to help you.
Thanks so much, ESI! Wishing you a happy and successful 2017 as well!
That’s a very generous offer that I’ll definitely take you up on! Things are really slow right now, but I would love your advice when we find something worthy of consideration. 🙂
Congrats on a great year Amanda and wow, what a savings rate! Best of luck in 2017 with the blog, keep up the good work! I’ll be curious to see how you make out with the rental.
Thanks, Jon! I’m pretty happy with the savings rate, overall. And I’m excited about some ideas I have for the blog over the next year. Crossing my fingers on the rental!
Happy new year! Sounds like you have some great plans for the year. You know I love real estate despite my sorted rental past. With the right financial plan it can be a most lucrative investment. 🙂 As for the blog, awesome that you have seen so much growth! She I started (June 2016) I had no plans to monetize or grow past a few readers. I am shocked how things can gain momentum so quickly! I have a lot of work to do, but like you, I am not making it a competition of any kind. This is all part of the journey and I’m loving every minute of it!
Looking forward to following your progress throughout the year!
Happy New Year to you too, Miss Mazuma! You’ve been doing an awesome job of growing your blog! Your content is amazing – so positive with a great outlook on life! I look forward to following along with your progress as well! 🙂
I can’t wait to hear about the rental property that you end up buying. I use to scour Paula @ Afford Anything’s website and unfortunately her 1% rule made it unattainable to find something around my area that made sense.
While I thought about looking further out it made me a bit nervous to own a property that I couldn’t drive to in an emergency.
But anyway I hope you and your family have a great 2017!!!
Thanks, MSM! I can’t wait to share a rental property purchase! I’m pretty sure we can make the 1% rule work here, but I’d like to be slightly better than 1% (maybe that’s wishful thinking). We would like to keep the first property local to learn the ropes but, after that, we may look outside of our area.
I wish you and your family a great 2017 as well! 🙂
Happy New Year! I’m excited to see how your rental property search pans out. I am too chicken to touch landlording with a ten foot pole (and lazy, oh boy, so lazy. Index funds are about all I can handle), so I enjoy being a voyeur on other people’s real estate adventures.
Thanks, Mrs. BITA! Happy New Year to you too! I’m excited to see how the real estate pans out too. Becoming a landlord can seem scary, but I’m willing to give it a go. My husband and I have developed some great DIY skills over the years (we renovated our last home), so that is something we know we can handle.
Such a noble goal to give back through random acts of kindness. We do this often, and force our children to do it too. One of my favorite things to do, is to buy a coffee at Starbucks with a $25 gift card. I then leave the card with the cashier and they use it on the next few customers until the value is $0.
The best part is coming back the next day and hearing the stories of customer reactions from the employees.
Thank you! I love what you do at Starbucks! And to come back and hear the stories is a fantastic idea. I have yet to give away my second RCF card, as I haven’t been out much between the holidays, but I’d like to do it this week.
Nice! I like the idea of 10% growth each quarter rather than arbitrary number targets. You get the feeling of continued progress as well as the benefits of compound growth. I may have to steal this…
Also, I love the Mad Fientist’s lab tools! August 2024 is great!
Thanks, Matt! It’s easy to get caught up in other people’s progress or numbers and then feel good/bad about where you stand in comparison to them, but it’s not really helpful. As long as I am seeing my own progress, I know I’m on the right track. Please, steal away!!!
Amanda, you are on fire! These are great goals. “I don’t find it helpful to compare my own stats with others’ (this is true of debt payoff, retirement savings, etc).” I love this. If everyone with a financial goal adopted this attitude, there would be so much more progress all around. I think that the fear of competition from others keeps many from taking steps forward. But the only “competition” that matters at all is the one each of has with ourselves to meet our chosen goals. All the best in reaching yours : )
Thank you, Ruth! 🙂 I’ve had to learn the hard way that comparing my numbers to others’ isn’t productive and can work against me. Seeing progress month after month, or even year after year is more motivating for me (I believe you wrote a great post about focusing on what you’ve accomplished rather than how far you have to go). I’m really excited going into this year – more so than ever before!
Nice goals! Can’t wait to see what kind of rental property you pick up. The idea of dealing with tenants always makes me a little nervous, but I guess some people are natural born landlords 🙂
Thanks, Andrew! I wouldn’t say I’m a natural born landlord…but I guess time will tell! 🙂
Woot woot! Those goals look great! Glad you finally got in touch with the mortgage broker! Wonder what made you do that haha. I think it’s fun that even though our situations are so different, we’re at roughly the same stage as I also will be hitting my FI date around the same time as you. Good luck on the rental hunt! It’s a tough market out there.
Thanks, Gwen! Thanks for the encouragement to get moving on the financing! I needed that! It is a really tough market right now – I admit, it’s not encouraging, but I’m hoping it picks up a bit soon. We’ll have to do some sort of FI celebration when we get there! 🙂
Great goals Amanda! I like your focus on content for your blog and on quality vs. quantity! I’ve enjoyed reading and learning from you! Looking forward to hearing more about your adventure into real estate investing too 😉
Thanks so much, Vicki!
Exciting goals Amanda! Glad to see your site growing and I find the 10% increase in blogging revenue and traffic per quarter seems very achievable! Definitely something I can look to use in the future.
Thank you, T! 10% is the minimum growth I’d like to see. I wanted to make it doable – it’s not huge strides, but it’s still progress!
Love your goals, Amanda. And I love what you’re doing with your blog. Best of luck on the rental property front. I’m sure you and Alan will be excellent landlords. Finally, I just wanted to thank you for sharing $20 Visa card idea. Mrs. G and l loved the idea so much that we’re going to devote $300-$400 this year to $20 Visa cards and hand them out randomly. We easily come across 15 to 20 people every year that could use a small shot of hope, and we would much rather give that hope to them directly than through our taxes or a donation to a big charity. At least when I give a $20 Visa card to someone, that someone is getting $20. I don’t know how much of the money that goes to the formal safety net actually makes it to the needy. It’s certainly not 100%.
Thanks, Mr. Groovy!!! I’m so excited that you guys are going to give so many unexpected gifts this year too! There is just something about giving to someone directly that makes it different – in a good way. I donate to a couple of charities (and you’re right, you don’t always know where exactly the money goes), but never experienced that same feeling of joy and gratitude that has come from giving directly. It’s indescribably good! 🙂
Amanda – I love how your blog has become an extension of the Rockstar Bloggers Forum! All the usual suspects are congregating here because of your content (and warm personality!). I enjoy reading your updates and wish you nothing but good vibes (and goo luck on your Jan no spending challenge!). Happy New Year.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for the kind words! 🙂 You have no idea how much it means to me to hear that. So far, so good on the spending challenge! I wish you a fantastic New Year as well!
Nice set of goals Amanda! Wish you a very happy and prosperous 2017. I am in the process of writing my goals down for 2017 and hope to complete it before the end of this week.
Thanks, Michael! Looking forward to reading your goals too! Happy New Year! 🙂
7 years away from FI and hoping to pull that in – that’s great! I’m excited to hear more about the rental property as well. I accidentally have a property when we couldn’t sell our home when we moved but looking to acquire one that cash flows.
Thanks, Julie! I know a lot of people fall into being landlords when they move. It is a good learning experience, if nothing else. I am hopeful we will find something, but not necessarily encouraged at this point. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Hi Amanda, nice post, your goals for the new year are very interesting. I already planned my goals, specially financial goals like stay away from the risks, but i will to take the cue from your ideas. See you soon
Thanks, John!