Fianancial Goals for the year.

[miss fortune]

^ Very exciting!

And congrats on the success so far!

Hopefully you will continue to move forward and gain increasing control over your career, and get to try your hand at entrepreneurship.

it's happening sooner than I can expect in a way... and my team has been working hard for it

pretty exciting though... more things to learn and do!

 

[Giggly]

20% year-to-date return on aggregate total of all invested securities by mid-December.

I'm shooting for this too.

 

[highlander]

Well what are your financial goals for the year?

I have a net worth goal. I'm also considering investing in real estate. It seems like a good time to buy.

How do you plan to get there?

By saving a good portion of my income and investing it.

How are you planning to grow your business this year?

I'm a consultant and tend to focus on getting things started at new accounts. There are a couple of good ones that I have been working on for a long time that are coming to fruition right now.

Are you developing your personal business brand?

Not as much as I need to. I should have an article in the WSJ in a few months though.

Do you feel like your career or business are running you instead of the other way around?

Probably. It's a rat race.

 

[EvidenceOfRedemption]

cement a state of positive financial buoyancy so I can add finances to the list of things I never have to really think about again.

call me stupid but everyone is investing or saving for retirement to reach a point of work ease that you can have now without waiting 30 years or being a stock broker (who also happens to beat the curve of thousands of other like-minded brokers). it has more to do with spending patterns than investing... income to spending ratio is what its about.

think of it this way--you have very little food but 10 boxes of cereal because it's very cheap. you have $5. what do you do? conventional investing says, buy more cereal because it's cheap... and keep making smart purchases like that and you can eventually eat something. heck, even try to make more money so you can buy more cheap boxes of cereal, then you can really go crazy one day.

I say, buy $5 in milk and turn your $5 into weeks or months of food. the analogy here is this--instead of fixating on income and investments, put your budget into gear by spending that $5 on milk and reducing your spending, especially recurring costs. this puts you in an echelon above that of linear investment, as a static amount of income will produce higher ft-lbs across your reduced spending, boosting your financial effectiveness exponentially. this also will leave you more leftover which is, again, an echelon above the linear investment gains approach to finances as it allows you to compound yet again, not to mention whole different worlds of financial exploration with the same static income.


successful dragsters have torque, not speed. take a strategical bite out of financial trends and increase your budget's torque: income to spending ratio.



I always thought it would be pretty cool to build a base point of survivability on a matter of mere hundreds a month after some upfront investments for lifestyle balance of performance and convenience. Something you can make in a week at minimum wage. Then, of course, combine this with a high income career for massive financial torque and expand into the expensive areas of life without a threat of backsliding or failure. I've done it to some extent for about a year... works very well and it's an awfully stress free way to live.

 

[FDG]

Survive.

 

[kyuuei]

Well what are your financial goals for the year?

- Turn $10k into the SDP to collect interest while I'm on deployment. I'm almost to that goal.
- Save $30k for my house when I get back. Well on the way to that one.
- Re-enlist in the army against my better wishes so that I'm financially secure and stable career-wise.
- Open up a roth IRA for myself
- Balance my parents' budget
- Continue to contribute 10% of my earnings to my emergency fund until I reach that goal
- Continue to save money for graduating presents for my nephews (and a few of my close friends' kids too.)
- Secure a contractor's job civilian side overseas so I can pay off my land.
- Go home and buy my land.

How do you plan to get there?

- Don't do anything stupid. Sounds simple, but as long as I stay out of trouble here, I'll make the money I need to do most of that stuff this year. And if I play my cards right, and get that contracting job, I'll own my land, my house, the house my parents will live in, and my car and all the accessories that go with having land by the age of 30. Also, I'll have my bachelor's degree by then.

How are you planning to grow your business this year?

Its not my business, but my dad's got one that I help with a lot. The goal is to get my parents financially secured, so that the business's money can go back into the business. We want to hire an artist to re-do the face of the website as well as take pictures of all of the products, and then hire a web-site designer to make a more modern, user-friendly site interface. We have some pretty established purchases and clients, but we have a lot of work to do too.

One of the things I plan on doing when I get back is downsizing the amount of product we carry to only carry the products that actually sell well.

Are you developing your personal business brand?

Hm. I've tried some approaches to make the site more warm and personal, but nothing really took off. Making blog entries was easy enough, but no one really bothered paying attention to them. Advertisers we've hired lately have all been busts, more than a couple of them I'd like to punch in the face for tricking my dad.

Do you feel like your career or business are running you instead of the other way around?

Right now, it runs us, but it's stagnant and this beast won't take off without some major overhauls. The goal is to put the money back into the business instead of needing the money to pay bills. Something I hope to accomplish by next year. If we can hire those two key things, and do it right, and then find an advertiser that actually works and a full-time employee, we'd be set. Which we could do if we didn't need the money right now.

 

[Salomé]

This thread made me throw up a little in my mouth.

 

[Rasofy]

I'm probably gonna bet heavy on a market fall. I will most likely short the brazilian index, but I see room for a 30% decline(from top to bottom) on dow jones and nasdaq. I haven't been this confident in years. If someone tells you something like ''stocks haven't been this cheap since xxxx'', don't listen to this person, he's a sucker. And don't try to convince he's wrong either - save your time.
I will be back to say ''I told you'' by the end of the year.

 

[Haight]

This thread made me throw up a little in my mouth.

What were you eating prior to that?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

This thread made me throw up a little in my mouth.

Haters always given me those salty looks....

 

[Lark]

I dont set precise career and money goals like this to be honest, I read about how the most unhappy people are those that do and fail to meet their goals, even if their circumstances HAVE improved on what they were when they made the plan in the first place.

 

[Haight]

Gratitude is the key to happiness (which is the basis of what your read). And you are speaking of unrealistic goals, which I do not create. However, what you're describing seems like an F thing, and I'm not an F either.

 

[kelric]

Well what are your financial goals for the year?
Well, obviously I was planning on winning 400M in the lottery. I mean, it was (almost) inevitable, right?

On a more realistic note... most of my financial goals (although I use the term loosely) involve paying my house off as quickly as possible. At the rate I'm going, that's not realistic probably until 2014-2015, but if I make it a priority (and I have), it should happen around then.


How do you plan to get there?
I really lack sophistication and any interest in financial matters. My strategy comes down to "lead a simple life, don't spend a lot, minimize debt, have a financial reserve, and save what's left". Generally my investments tend toward stock/bond funds, that I don't play with or really pay much attention to.

How are you planning to grow your business this year?
This doesn't really apply. I have very little, if any, entrepreneurial drive. The idea of having to spend any time on the "business" aspects of a career make me cringe. So I don't. I've considered looking for a new job -- it's likely that I could make more money, at the cost of less security. Hasn't been *quite* enough reason to make me take that step yet.

Are you developing your personal business brand?
Applies even less than the business growth question. Winning the lottery is probably a more reliable plan for me than anything relying on my ability to have, much less develop, a "personal business brand". Just not a strength of mine.

If you've been trying any new business approaches in 2012 so far, how have they worked for you?
N/A, really. I've had my current job/investment/retirement planning strategy for quite a few years now.

Do you feel like your career or business are running you instead of the other way around?
Interesting question. The answer is probably neither, perhaps trending towards the "career runs me" end. I'm doing relatively well, and am in a (I think) very stable situation that's unlikely to get either much better or much worse in the next 10 years. Unless I rock the boat -- which might happen, might not.

 

[Winds of Thor]

Well what are your financial goals for the year?

I just became a Realtor a few months ago

I'll be buying a house from [MENTION=6724]DiscoBiscuit[/MENTION]

 

[FDG]

This thread made me throw up a little in my mouth.

Lol. Yeah, I kinda feel the same.

 

[highlander]

cement a state of positive financial buoyancy so I can add finances to the list of things I never have to really think about again.

call me stupid but everyone is investing or saving for retirement to reach a point of work ease that you can have now without waiting 30 years or being a stock broker (who also happens to beat the curve of thousands of other like-minded brokers). it has more to do with spending patterns than investing... income to spending ratio is what its about.

think of it this way--you have very little food but 10 boxes of cereal because it's very cheap. you have $5. what do you do? conventional investing says, buy more cereal because it's cheap... and keep making smart purchases like that and you can eventually eat something. heck, even try to make more money so you can buy more cheap boxes of cereal, then you can really go crazy one day.

I say, buy $5 in milk and turn your $5 into weeks or months of food. the analogy here is this--instead of fixating on income and investments, put your budget into gear by spending that $5 on milk and reducing your spending, especially recurring costs. this puts you in an echelon above that of linear investment, as a static amount of income will produce higher ft-lbs across your reduced spending, boosting your financial effectiveness exponentially. this also will leave you more leftover which is, again, an echelon above the linear investment gains approach to finances as it allows you to compound yet again, not to mention whole different worlds of financial exploration with the same static income.


successful dragsters have torque, not speed. take a strategical bite out of financial trends and increase your budget's torque: income to spending ratio.



I always thought it would be pretty cool to build a base point of survivability on a matter of mere hundreds a month after some upfront investments for lifestyle balance of performance and convenience. Something you can make in a week at minimum wage. Then, of course, combine this with a high income career for massive financial torque and expand into the expensive areas of life without a threat of backsliding or failure. I've done it to some extent for about a year... works very well and it's an awfully stress free way to live.

So you are saying increase your income and spend less and you'll have less stress? If so, you invest what you don't spend presumably. But you're saying don't save and invest. I don't understand. Also, you talk about the "work ease" that can you have now but you don't say anything about how to achieve that.

 

[EvidenceOfRedemption]

So you are saying increase your income and spend less and you'll have less stress? If so, you invest what you don't spend presumably. But you're saying don't save and invest. I don't understand. Also, you talk about the "work ease" that can you have now but you don't say anything about how to achieve that.

No, I am saying capitulate on the money hoarding mindset and focus on work-to-cost-effectiveness ratio. As you invest in that, you'll eventually need to work less to maintain a living, which makes achieving the stress-free lifestyle desired from retirement a reality.

Then again, this will challenge just about all of your lifestyle habits so it's not for everyone.

One example of this is buying instead of renting. At some point, your house is paid off and your monthly housing cost is only taxes. You can say, but this requires buying a whole house... well, that's where the problem is, don't spend so much on a house, or live somewhere where the same house cost 1/3 the price (and probably a lot of other things you buy). Do you really think you need a house bigger than Mark Zuckerberg? Far more often what will save you money is an adjustment of your expectations, not your budget.

Another example of this is Edmunds.com cars' "true cost to own". As far as I'm concerned, this should be the actual cost. By thinking in terms of "true cost" eventually you can live this way.



If you're really hardcore, here an idea I've thought of doing for a few years if I was living alone but don't plan to anymore... it could be very useful for a single person. Purchase a Mitsubishi Delica, build a bed/drawer system in the back, eat out of a high quality ice chest (only cost is the dry ice every 3-4 days) and shower at 24-hour Fitness before work. Watch internet TV on your laptop and use free wifi or pay for clearwire service.

At first, it seems kind of strange, but the end recurring cost is car insurance, gas (which is minimal because you can live close to where your need to be each day), food, mobile phone and internet, and gym membership. Someone could actually work for minimum wage and save half their paycheck each month. Now imagine you're making the $18-25/hour entry-level after college.

This is what I call "financial torque"... with the rest of the money you could invest, but why do that when you don't need to? At best, find a high yield savings account to collect your leftover money while you carefully consider other spending decisions with high cost-effectiveness returns. If you enjoy the lifestyle enough, one could even invest and hit an early retirement goal and be living secure for a long time, working only to pay for education or endeavors they so desired (which are potentially a good return as well).

 

[highlander]

No, I am saying capitulate on the money hoarding mindset and focus on work-to-cost-effectiveness ratio. As you invest in that, you'll eventually need to work less to maintain a living, which makes achieving the stress-free lifestyle desired from retirement a reality.

Then again, this will challenge just about all of your lifestyle habits so it's not for everyone.

Capitulate? I think that means to surrender to - to give into something - vs. giving it up.

What is a work-to-cost-effectiveness ratio?

 

[EvidenceOfRedemption]

I just wrote a whole post explaining it my friend. Also, you're right about "capitulate", I thought it meant give up. I'm glad the context was strong enough for you to know what I meant.

 

[highlander]

I just wrote a whole post explaining it my friend. Also, you're right about "capitulate", I thought it meant give up. I'm glad the context was strong enough for you to know what I meant.

I know. I read it like 5 times and still don't understand it. No matter. I'll stick to my hoarding .