Jeff Blankenburg tagged me on his “goals for 2009” list and by some weird force of the Internets I feel compelled to write my goals for 2009 down publically. Don’t expect anything earth shattering, let me just forewarn you.
1. Lose Weight
The first thing on my list is to lose weight like 97% of America. Because of my height, most people that know me today, have no idea just how skinny I used to be. My height is 6 feet and 2.5 inches tall. That height isn’t a world record, but I am taller than the majority of the people I run into.
Would you believe it if I told you though, that I was the same height today that I was when I was a senior in high school, yet i weighed in at 129lbs? That’s right, I was a walking stick. A bean pole as they say. The reason was I so active in my younger years. I used to ride my bike 10-20 miles / day, worked on the farm, etc. I may have been skinny but I was as stout as an ox and could easily throw around 150LB sacks of feed at the barn with no problem.
Fast forward to today and let’s face it, I’m not active. My job requires zero physical activity, zilch, nada. As long as my brain and fingers work, I’m good. I have to change something, get more active and also watch what I eat.
Earlier today I put a sign on my fridge that read this, in hopes that it would serve as a reminder:
What I am not going to do is set some ridiculous two digit weight loss goal only to disappoint myself. My first goal is to lose 10lbs. After I reach that goal, I’ll set another goal.
2. Pay off Debt
Every few weeks I get paid only to turn around and send it to people we owe. As I get older it bothers me more and more that I’m not building more wealth. At the start of the year I started reading a lot of material on debt, managing finances, retirement, etc. The one book that really made sense to me was The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
I’ve listened to Dave’s radio show in passing and he always made sense to me. Thus starting in January we put the Total Money Makeover in action. This plan takes both people in the relationship to buy into so it isn’t something you can go out on your own and do if you are married.
Since I started reading more about managing money lately, it is funny how many people I have talked to about money who have said, “I don’t have any debt, all we owe is our car and our house.”. Well, guess what, YOU HAVE DEBT!
If you owe someone anything, it doesn’t matter what it is for, you have debt. If you didn’t pay cash for it, you have debt. If you are in this mindset of thinking, read Dave’s book. He can help.
It is going to take some serious life altering changes to accomplish this but I am already seeing positive results. It is going to take time to get to $0.00 of debt but it will be worth it. There is a famous quote in the book that really drives home the point of living debt free.
Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else.
The point is that if you live like no one else right now (cut corners, drive an old car, slash costs, etc), later you can live like no one else because you’ll have built wealth and be debt free. Honestly, it is a small price to pay.
3. Fix Things Around The House
As if the first two things weren’t enough for the year, my last goal is to fix things around the house. I have a lot of projects that I want to do and I think I can make them happen this year. I won’t bore you with the details but here are a few things on the list: do some re-landscaping in the yard, treat the deck, stain the front door, re-do my closet.
It is stuff that needs to get done and while I may not get all of it done due to budgets, I am sure I can get a lot of it knocked off.
Who’s Next?
If you read this far great! Now guess what? You are officially tagged/called out to write about your goals if you meet one of the following criteria:
- A) you follow me on twitter
- B) I follow you on twitter
- C) we’ve met face to face
- D) you listen to our podcast
- E) you are bored and need something to blog about.
Happy 2009!
I KNOW there are a ton of diet pills out there but this one has a patent from the Univ. of Minnesota and clinicals from the Univ. of Conn. – it regulates your leptin levels which tells your body it’s OK to burn fat. Check it out is all I can say! I lost 20 lbs in 8 weeks after not being able to loose anything!
Congrat’s on starting the Total Money Makeover. My wife and I started working the baby steps a few years ago, and it feels great.