There is only a month and a half left of the year, so I think it’s time to check-in on my New Year’s Resolutions for 2011:
1. Lose 20 pounds by the end of the year – I am aiming to weigh 150 pounds by December 31st.
I was down 30 pounds by July 2011 thanks to Weight Watchers Online and was weighing in at 146! I was then aiming for 140 by December 31st, but instead started creeping up! Grrr. I am still down 20 pounds overall, but I am at about 154 now, so I am going to attempt to at least not go above 156 by the end of the year. Then I will hit this hard again in January.
2. Volunteer for a charity at least twice a month – I seemed to have replaced charity time with blogging in 2010, oops.
I am doing this via Meals on Wheels. I am a substitute driver and get called 2-3 times a month to fill in. 
3. Build up the emergency fund to at least $15,000 – it was at about $8200.
We hit $17,000 at the beginning of November but decided we wanted to pay off the mortgage faster instead, so now we are keeping the emergency fund right at $10,000 and have put all of the extra towards our home pay off project.
4. Max-out 2 Roth IRA’s for 2011.
They both will be maxed out on December 10th when our last $300 automatic payment clears.
5. Pay off at least $8,000 of our mortgage principal – that means it needs to be at $60,000 or less by the end of the year.
We refinanced our loan this year, which has helped us pay off principal even faster. Then we decided to pay off our home by 2013, so we have redirected most of our monthly extra towards that! We are down to less than $55,000 already and will be hitting it with at least $6000 more by the end of the year!!!
6. Make AT LEAST $15,000 through blogging – my true target is $25,000.
Wow this year was amazing. As of November 15th, I had already brought in $64,000 before taxes but after Paypal fees with blogging income and my ad business. HOLY MOLY! I didn’t even think I would be able to quit my day job until 2013 and I left in July 2011…so much can change in a matter of months…
How are your New Year’s Resolutions treating you?
From an overall net worth perspective, I don’t think we’ll meet our goals simply because of the stock market performance (or lack thereof) that’s tied to our retirement and stock investments. Overall, we should still see a decent rise which is good. We also re-financed and rolled some of our closing costs into the loan, so we didn’t hit our mortgage number, but we’ll cross that line into net benefit by March or April and then it’s a few hundred bucks a month in our favor.
I cannot believe how well you have done with your blogging career. It’s absolutely incredible! Congrats on the other goals as well.
You say you make well over 4K from advertising on BFS, but the only ads I see are Adsense, a Hostgator affiliate and a couple of sponsors. Are you really making that much from Adsense???
You’re an inspiration. Great work on reaching most of your goals, especially income. I keep telling myself 2-3 years to blog part-time with a full-time salary, but I think it could happen by the end of 2012 at the rate things are picking up.
Great job on hitting your goals! I will be posting my 2012 goals soon. I did a post on Wed about creating a vision board so you can visualize your goals. I will prob try to do a round up if everyone puts together a post oon their 2012 goals.
You’re rocking in, Crystal!
I hope you’re playing your theme song!!
You’re rocking IT, not in.
Not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. But I’m glad you are kicking butt on yours!
Great goals! Do you have a plan? Monitor your progress and adjust your effort and all these goals can come true.
I am looking at this and thinking two things. First, who ever said that New Years resolutions are a waste of them; next year I am having what Crystal is having. And two, I am envious – not in a bad waybut in a ‘I wish I was doing this one with her’ kind of way. Well done!
Congrats on meeting your goals. How will you surpass them in 2012?
Excellent post! I will be posting my 2012 goals soon. I did a post on Wed about creating a vision board so you can visualize your goals. Congrats for you made it cool.
I like the number 1 in your list. Loosing weight was also one of my new year resolution. I really want to loss weight asap!
Great goals you have. You’re an inspiration. Great work on reaching most of your goals, especially income.
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