2008 Roundup

I wanted to provide my results to all my goals for the year. Even though they were not clearly dictated like next year, I'm going to gather several ramblings and provide an update.

• I am on milestone number two which is getting down to 185lbs by May 2008. It's currently March 2008 and I weight a little under 195 lbs.

I didn't gain weight this year but didn't lose any. I'm currently at 201 even after the holiday eating. My motivation for working out declined after I injured myself in March and took 2 months off. 2009 I'm getting back on the horse and sticking to running 3-4 times a week, and lifting twice a week.

Eliminate debt:

• Best Buy Card($1,200)
• Litman's Jewlers Card($1,500)
• Fine($2250)
• Car Loan($13,744)
• Student Loan($9,802)

I think I did really well this year in debt elimination:

• Best Buy Card-PAID
• Litman's Jewlers Card-PAID
• Fine-PAID
• Car Loan($8281 remaining)
• Student Loan($9365 remaining)

If you compare the amount of debt I eliminate with also the amount of money I saved, my networth went from: -$17,896 to $7,684. That means that I have adjusted my networth by $25,580 this year. I would say I did a good job this year. I got a raise this year and put a majority of it to my 401k contributions. I raised it from 5 to 15%. If the economy wasn't so bad those numbers would be through the roof, but i still did well in tough times.

• So I have already read 3 books and am almost done with my 4th so I decided to set this goal to now 12 books in 2008, 1 book a month.

I destroyed this goal. I am currently at 29 and probably will finish #30 before the end of the year. I never really read many books growing up. I got in 2 kicks where I read more than 3 books but never like this. I think the reason for this was I aquired a DVR. I watch tv shows when I want so it doesn't take up my evenings and I read in the later hours of the night. I also only watch tv i record unless it is a sporting event and sometimes a program here or there, but not like I would do before. Also, when Ali moved in we removed the TV from the bedroom so that eliminated late night channel surfing replaced with reading.

I think I would rate this a pretty good year. I achieved mostly all my goals and along with that I've educated myself more about personal finance. I have become used to a budget and working towards debt elimination. I also am enjoying my free time by reading more, but also working out, and doing many other things. I see no reason why I should fall off track for 2009.