Another year in the books, another year to start fresh!
To say last year started off rough was an understatement. Being recently diagnosed with cancer, I had a lot of unknowns. Did it spread? How sick was I going to get? Would I ever get better? Even with having treatable cancer such as thyroid, it was still really hard on me. I was terrified, confused and just trying to be positive about the whole situation and life in general. Then, a close friend I worked with lost her fight with colon cancer in April.
Her death was very sobering for me. Having known her cancer was terminal when she was first diagnosed, she never gave up her fight. She did every treatment her doctors suggested to her, worked until she couldn’t any longer then happily volunteered at the school we both taught at and traveled a lot. She was feisty, fun and left an impression on everyone who knew her and the thousands of students she worked with throughout her career. Here I was, crying over something that hadn’t even spread and my friend had lost her life still doing what she loved until a month before.
In May, I made more of a conscious effort to get my life back on track. Travel became a priority again and so did spending time with friends. I dealt with some other health issues that had been looming over my head. My business started booming. Even when dealing with burnout in October, I can say that 2017 was good to me in regards to what I wanted to focus on, being health and wealth. I can’t complain and I can say right now in my life, while still dealing with unknowns, I’m happy.
For 2018, I will be going back to having actual concrete goals and not power words. I want to be able to measure my progress and give my actions the intention they need to move further on my journey and purpose. Moving forward, my primary focus will be on growing my business and my health. I’ll be allowing myself to have goals in other areas of my life and may have certain projects I’d like to do, but most of my time will be spent on the prior. By focusing on my business and health, I’ll be able to lose weight for some of my health issues and I’ll be able to achieve the financial goals I have set for the year.
2018 Goals
Business (And Professional)
- Regularly post on Money Smart Latina to bring resources and opportunities to help young women live their best lives. (All year)
- Match half of my day job income through my freelancing and blog. (All year)
- Create three freebies & two products (one e-book, one on Teachable). (Both completed by 9/15/2018)
- Grow social media channels and newsletter subscribers to 4,000. (All year)
- Site redesign (Completed by June 2018)
- Present at a national conference (Completed by July 2018).
- Continue growing in my current role (All year).
Health
- Run a 5K (Completed by April 2018).
- Lose 40 lbs (10 lbs each by March 31st, June 30th, September 30th and December 31st).
- Attend therapy 1x a week (All year).
- Workout regularly 3x per week (All year).
- Only drink alcohol on the weekends (All year).
- Successfully work towards completing thyroid cancer treatment (All year).
Finances
- Pay $3,600 towards my student loans.
- Pay $6,000 of medical debt.
- Save $3,000 for a downpayment on a new car.
- Save $3,000 towards dental work.
- Move up retirement contributions by 2%.
Fun & Relationships
- Attend all the weddings and graduations (Wedding 1- Feb, Graduation- May, Wedding 2- June)
- Attend gay pride in Castro. (Completed by June 2018) (Stretch Goal)
- Attend National Seminar in New Orleans. (Completed by July 2018)
- Attend FinCon in September.
- Italy in October w/ H.
- Christmas Family Vacation (Completed by December 2018).
- Read 36 books.
Business (And Professional) Summary
Like I said earlier, my main focus for next year will be really buckling down on my business and growing my income. That’s why so many goals are focused more on moving my brand forward and not gaining more clients. I currently have three clients I love so I am hoping to help them grow their brand in the upcoming year as well.
Professionally, I am growing in my career in the non-profit sector so I would like to just continue to build on my strengths and learn from my managers. I’d also like to go to our national training seminar next year and do a workshop presentation for professional development. There’s a difference between letting yourself be complacent than to grow in the space you are currently in.
Health
For 2018, I am going to try to get back into working out regularly and cutting back on alcohol. Since my hormone levels (knock on wood) seem to be leveled out, I have energy again so I would like to be more active. I don’t eat crappy but I am very sedentary at work and I do love to socially drink with friends. Mainly, I need to lose weight to relieve pressure in my spine. My spine is 200% better than it used to be but to prevent future wear and tear, I need to be more serious about doing my part to prolong my osteoarthritis from getting to the next stage.
Finances
Cleaning up my medical debt is the main priority for the year so I can fully move on from this time in my life. Along with cleaning up my medical debt, I am also going to be putting money aside for dental work and (gulp), a new car. My 2007 Hyundai Accent has been a true champ for the past several years and I do NOT want a new car but I’ve spent over $3,000 in repairs since last December and at this point, if it keeps up, the money might be better suited towards a down payment on something new. I hate saying that because I love not having a car payment and I love my car but I am trying to be realistic.
Fun & Relationships
I love celebrating my family and friends so I enjoy putting my entertainment budget and bonuses towards fun trips. By cash flowing my trips, I can save efficiently for them while still focusing on paying down debt. While I have an amount of money in mind that is estimated for each trip, I do not want to assign an exact dollar amount on for two reasons. One, I am not fully committed to half of these trips. My financial health comes first and if I can cash flow it, great. Two, if I say I have a certain amount of money to spend, I’ll spend it. I’d rather put money aside a few weeks closer to the trip date once plans have been solidified than just save to spend.
With all of the plans I have wonderfully drawn out, life is still full of unknowns. The saying “We make plans and God laughs,” is a very popular one forthat reason. A car could be needed sooner than later and cancel a lot of trips I have planned. My partner could get sick and I would (happily) drop everything to go take care of him the way he did for me. Or, I could get sick again. But, I don’t want to not accomplish anything and I don’t want to just float around waiting for life to happen to me. I want to happen to it.