A cool pic of a Banyan tree in Hawaii. Anyone else dreaming of a Hawaii vacation?
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This week I wanted to review my 2014 goals and hear how yours are going. I know a lot of people do this in it’s own stand-alone post, but this seemed like an appropriate place to do it on my site.
Here are my goals for 2014 that I shared last December as well as how they are progressing:
- Bring in $2,000 in online revenue per month – I started to reconcile all my finances each month for the blog, side hustles, etc. so this has been pretty easy to track. I currently am hitting this goal and hope the trend continues the rest of the year.
- Start my second niche website – So I set up my second website and wrote probably five posts on it and haven’t done a thing with it for over a month now. I’m really considering starting or buying a second personal finance website instead, mainly because using the strategy I shared I could potentially double every single deal I make, since oftentimes the advertisers ask if I have any other websites. At the same time the site I have in mind could be huge for affiliate income and may sell for more down the road to a company looking to diversify their income streams. I really need to think about this one.
- Continue to Grow Young Adult Money – So far so good. Page views and unique visitors continues to rise. This is to be expected as I get a larger and larger database of content and continue to grow daily readership.
- Complete some major outdoor projects next Summer – I’m in the planning stages of a pretty big DIY retaining wall project. I decided to add a patio area as well so that makes it about twice as much work as originally planned. I think it will be worth it, though, and will make the outdoor space much more usable. We also will probably get a dog pretty soon so I need to finish the last 10 feet of our fence.
- Buy a Reliable Car – This will likely happen very soon. My car is getting less reliable by the day and if we weren’t busy with taxes, baby showers, work, and other things on the weekend it probably would already have happened.
- Buy a Second Suit – Not a priority right now but I vow to do this before the end of the year.
- Take a Vacation – My wife and I both got the $400 travel credit from churning the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard so we have $800 to use for this. At this point everything is on the table: Chicago, Vegas, a cruise, or something else. We’ll decide at some point and plan it for Fall/Winter.
Overall I’m feeling pretty good about my progress on my goals so far. I think I had a good list of goals that were realistic but sometimes a little bit of a stretch (like starting a second website). I hope I can check them all off the list by the end of the year.
How have your 2014 goals been going? Anything in particular you really hope to accomplish this year?
Below are the posts we published this week:
- Monday I gave The Dirty Little Secret of How People Make Money Blogging.
- On Tuesday Sally shared 5 Important Things to Remember for Career Fairs.
- On Wednesday Cat asked4 Things You Need to Do To Become Self Employed.
- On Thursday I shared 9 Things to Consider Before Renting a Basement or Bedroom.
Posts of the Week:
As usual, here are five posts from around the blogosphere that I enjoyed:
- Andrew from Living Rich Cheaply asked Are Personal Finance Bloggers “Pound Foolish”?
- Laurie from The Frugal Farmer shared A Basic Prepper Food Arsenal
- Dee from Color Me Frugal reminded us Don’t Sweat the Lattes, Sweat the Elephants!
- Liz from Budgeting for More talked about Becoming Wealthly
- Pauline from Reach Financial Independence talked about her 10% blog income pledge for education
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What are you up to this weekend? How are your 2014 goals coming along?
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Photo by daveynin
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I just used the Barclay Arrival card to finance my entire flight to Europe next month! Love it!
Thanks for the shout out! I’m definitely dreaming about a Hawaii vacation…this winter is relentless. Always impressed with your side hustles and online revenue. It’s been almost a year for me since I started blogging, and I still don’t what I’m doing!
I would love to hanging out under that tree in Hawaii right now! Although I can’t complain too much- it’s been a little bit warmer here these last few days. Looks like you are making excellent progress on your goals so far. Seems like I have seen a lot of PF bloggers going out and buying their second (or more!) PF blog. I guess if you have multiple websites to sell advertising to, it works out pretty well then. Thanks for the shout out and have a great weekend!
brokeandbeau That’s so awesome! I’m glad you are going to get to visit your boyfriend while he’s over there.
Andrew LivingRichCheaplyThe fact that you have been blogging over a year is a huge accomplishment. I think getting to the 6-month, then 9-month, then 1 year are all big milestones. I feel like sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing either! So many little things to learn about, so little time.
BudgetforMoreIt’s been warmer here as well which has been nice. It’s nice to see the snow slowly melt and I can start planning my Spring/Summer projects. I definitely have seen more and more bloggers buy up additional sites. I really need to think about what I want to do as far as that goes. I may hit a wall if I try to manage two sites, especially with one being a new one. Hope you have a great weekend as well!
Wow, DC, you guys are doing great on your goals!! Love that you have accumulated so many vacation bonus points; we are working on that too. Thanks so much for mentioning our article – we appreciate it!!! Have an awesome weekend. :-)
My goals are sucking right now and I am in a rut. I need some fresh air! I hope you have a good weekend, David!
Laurie TheFrugalFarmer Thanks for the encouraging words, Laurie! It’s really interesting learning about travel rewards. I had no idea how simple it could be and it really will pay off if we use them correctly. No problem on the mention and I hope you have a great weekend as well!
Holly at ClubThrifty Based on your monthly income updates it, DIY home projects, etc. it seems like you are doing really well, Holly! Hope you have a great weekend as well!
Looks like you’re doing great against your goals, DC! I’ve got several of mine completed with the redesign and the book finished. Now I have to work on the launch and really making it successful. I also want to really grow The Heavy Purse this year. I made some unplanned but extremely good changes to my personal practice last Fall but it was a huge distraction for me, so I feel like I need to catch up. :) Have a great weekend!
With not even three months into the new year, you are doing awesome with your goals!! Congrats! And I honestly do not know how you find the time to work full time, manage this awesome blog and plan to launch another website. Do you ever sleep?
DC,
If you come to Hawaii I’ll buy you a beer. Have a great weekend.
Sounds like you’re doing well so far. Nice idea about the Patio. That’s one thing my house already had but I have to figure out how to keep the mosquitos away this summer. Enjoy your weekend!
ShannonRyan Sounds like you are really making progress in 2014! I think your book will be a huge success. Hope you have a great weekend too!
Charles@gettingarichlife Haha I’m holding you to it! I definitely want to get back to Hawaii sometime soon.
blonde_finance Thanks : ) I crash on Fridays : / Seriously considering going to bed (7:30pm here….). I haven’t spent much time on the second site for obvious reasons haha.
Raquel@Practical Cents That’s really nice that you already had a patio. We have the concrete slab but it’s really not that great of a patio space. I think adding the tile patio will really make a great space.
Thanks for the mention, and well done on your goals! Starting a second site is a great idea.