2015: Our Year of Intentional Living

Beginnings are great.  Everybody has the best intentions when a new year, or new era, or new phase starts.  Those intentions often get thrown by the way side after a few short weeks.  

This year will be our year of living INTENTIONALLY.  In every aspect of our lives, we will put forth effort of thought and planning to see through our goals toward Healthy Living and Debt Reduction while at the same time, remembering to throw a little lot of fun into the mix.

We will act purposefully with a goal in mind.  I can't wait to get started.

It's a New year . . .Continuing our Goals into 2014!

I know, I know--the new year is already a month old and I'm just now getting around to writing my first blog post.

Our goals for 2014 are:

1. Continue to reduce our debt to income ratio.  It'll be nice to not have any payments but my car and the mortgage!
2. Get Healthy!

I am concerned that only having two goals is not enough, but when you break those two huge goals down into smaller, more easily accomplished goals, two becomes a whole LOT more.


Goal # 1 is self explanatory and a continuation of what we were working on last year.  Each month sees us getting close and closer!

Goal # 2 seems to always be a goals for folks.   But for me, it has taken on a whole new meaning.

During an acute bout of stomach pain and subsequent trip to the ER because I thought I had a kidney stone some of my blood work came back elevated.  Let me tell you when your doctor is explaining what he feels your diagnosis is and you hear this word:

Remission:  [ri-mish-uhn] noun:

a temporary or permanent decrease or subsidence of manifestations of a disease.

all thoughts suddenly and irrevocably change direction.  While I was not diagnosed with the dreaded "C" word, I have been diagnosed with a chronic, life altering disease that affects my liver and that we hope the treatment course I'm on sends into remission.

Even with this new blockade thrown in my path, I'm still confident that 2014 is gonna be a GREAT year and maybe we'll get a chance to get on the water somewhere!

Rounding out the Year . . .

I began the year trying out goals instead of resolutions in hopes of sticking to them better.  It seems to have paid off:

ü  Goal #1--get my PMP certification

ü  Goal # 2--start a Blog

ü  Get our Financial House in Order

ü  lose weight

So 2.75 out of 4 is a pretty good percentage compared to my success rate on past resolutions.  We've been working hard at getting our financial house in order but there is still more work to be done.  The Christmas Holiday and a septic tank issue caused a little back sliding, but no worries we'll get right back on track after the new year. 

One thing I've determined during this year of working on our household finances is that you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT try to pay off debt unless you track your spending and have a budget set up.  These are mandatory requirements. 

I've used several softwares in the past including Money and Quicken but they are too much software for personal home finances.  As you will recall from an earlier post, I set up an account using Mint.  This works well and if you use your banks online bill pay is really all you need.  However, we still do a lot of our finances the old fashioned way--writing out a check and putting it in the mail.  (I know, we need to get with the times!).  To that end, I'm considering using this Personal Finance Template I found while doing a Google docs search for budget sheets.  It works like a check book register but allows you to categorize your spending. 

2013 was a good year and 2014 will be even better!!

In closing out the year, from our house to yours, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a joyous and prosperous new year.