You are here: Home / Goals / Second Quarter Goal Update for 2016
0 Shares
We’re almost halfway through the year! I thought I’d share an update about where I’m at with my goals so far for accountability.
Plus, I feel like I’ve been a little silent about my huge goal to quit my job to freelance this year. I’ll share what I’ve been up to with that toward the end of the post. Would you like to hear more about my preparation for the big leap? Let me know in the comments!
Progress on 2016 Goals
Pay off as much debt as I can – Still on track
More specifically, I wanted to get my student loans down to $10k or less by the end of this year. This is still a possibility so I’m trying to continue with aggressive debt repayment, but now I’ve devised a plan for my husband’s debt as well.
Since the only debt I have is student loans, I’m working on eliminating that while we’ve already paid off the little credit card debt we have and will start chipping away at his car loan this year too. Our monthly debt payments vary, but they usually average out to be $1500+ per month so we are making lots of progress.
Get my emergency fund to $5,000 by December 31, 2016 – nearly complete
We should reach this goal by the end of the month. This was very important to me since I ended last year without much savings. This year, I really cracked down and made sure I paid myself first to hit my target each month. Now, I feel much more secure and can start setting aside money for some business expenses.
Improve my work-life balance – Making progress
I’m happy to say this has improved since my last goal update. Even though I’m still busy, I still make time for myself and that’s what matters most. I try to stick to my weekday work schedule of 8am-4:30pm and use my time off wisely so as to not let my work overwhelm me when it comes to freelancing. I recently started meeting with a few other people in a mastermind group as well to help stay on track with my freelancing goals and work flow.
I also gave in and purchased a gym membership. I’ve been against gym memberships for the longest, mainly because I viewed it as an unnecessary expense since most people can work out at home for free. However, recently I’ve had a change of heart.
I’ve tried almost everything to get in shape and lose the weight I’ve gained these past 4 years and I always lose motivation as quickly as I gain it. It was frustrating, so I decided a membership at my local park district might help motivate me to make exercise a priority since I’d go to the gym to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth even if I become unmotivated. My membership is only $36 per month which is not much at all, and if it helps me get healthier, it’s totally worth the price. I’m committing to going to the gym 4-days per week and doing two group fitness classes which are going very well.
I still feel like I have time to spend time with my family, hang out with friends, and practice self care when I need to. If I miss a night of freelancing to do something else, it’s not the end of the work and I usually can catch back up quickly.
Start earning $5,000 per month in online income and leave my job by the end of the year – On track
This goal has been a huge focus for me this year and even though I may not always talk about it every month, I’m working toward it. My income goal is not directly tied to my goal of quitting my job because I could live off less than $5,000 per month or whatever I’m left with after taxes easily because my expenses are so low.
With freelancing however, I find that while it can be extremely rewarding, it’s also pretty unpredictable as well. Earning way more than I really need would be ideal because it would help create the extra cash cushion I need during slower months.
Being completely honest, I had thoughts about leaving my job back in November last year – 9 months ago! I was hoping to make the leap this summer, but a few weeks ago I decided to delay my gratification more and try to stick it out at my job until October or November this year.
It would have been wonderful to be a full-time freelancer this summer, but I knew that things would be slower both at my day job and with freelancing during this time of year and they have been. With things being slower at my job this summer, I feel less stressed and have more energy to keep building my freelancing career and getting caught up on my own projects for this blog which is working out perfectly.
I also want to have a little more saved up for businesses expenses that may come up. Plus, there’s the healthcare issue. I’m still with Liberty HealthShare which is fine, but my husband may be able to get insurance for the whole family through his new job so we’ll review which options they have next month. If I can get on his health insurance policy, that would be one less drawback of self-employment I’d have to deal with.
Then there’s our debt situation. The less debt we have when I walk away from my job, the lower the liability is so it makes perfect sense to squeeze in a few extra debt payments these next few months since my budget will most likely be tighter when I start freelancing full-time.
Overall, everything is slowly trickling into place. It’s not happening as fast as I thought it would but that’s the reality of life. The beginning and the end of your journey are often the most exciting, but the middle matters just as much as well which is why I’m trying to be positive and enjoy my current state.
How are your goals going so far this year? Is anything taking longer to achieve than you would have thought?
Stop Worrying About Money and Regain Control
Join 5,000+ others to get access to free printables to help you manage your monthly bills, reduce expenses, pay off debt, and more. Receive just two emails per month with exclusive content to help you on your journey.
0 Shares
About Choncé
Chonce is a personal finance blogger and freelance writer who enjoys sharing debt stories (as she and her husband work their way out of $40,000 in debt) along with talking about saving, budgeting, conscious spending and improving your financial house. In her spare time,she enjoys working out, playing sports with her son, cooking, and thrifting.
Reader Interactions
Comments
Congrats! $5k/month in online income is no joke; I hope you get there soon! Heck, I hope I would get there soon – I only make $2k/month at my day job, and I’m supposed to be the primary breadwinner in my family and support my husband through school…you can see why I picked up freelance writing. 😉
I find that group fitness classes are also really motivating to keep you going. I just started an online fitness workout program last week, but I can see how it’d be easy to stop doing it without anyone actually interacting with me. When I first started exercising several years ago, I went to group classes and they were always really fun and I was more successful doing that than any other type of program so far.
Choncé saysGroup fitness classes are the best! As a fellow primary breadwinner, freelancing has done wonders for my income so I’m a little hesitant to let it go as a side hustle. Some months I gross more from freelancing than I bring home from my day job, but it’s those darn taxes that kill me. And inconsistency at times.
You’re doing awesome, Chonce! It sounds like you’re on track for all of your goals, and you’ll be earning $5,000 a month before you know it. I’m in the same boat with weight loss. I’ve struggled to lose an extra 20-30 pounds over the past 3 years. I’m trying address my underlying diet issues, so hopefully I’ll make some progress this summer.
- Choncé says
Thanks Kate! Glad to hear I’m not the only one 🙂 I know what my diet issues are but changing them is where I always fall short. It’s a work in progress though.
Yay to your progress, and yes I would love to hear more about your work towards being a full-time freelancer. That isn’t on my radar yet, but when and if it does, I want to be able to value the opinions of other freelancers that I trust will keep it real;)
My mid-year update was looking promising until our hvac went out last week and we had to replace it. It set us back $8,500!!!!! To say I’m a little sad about it would be an understatement because I’d just made my biggest student loan payment ever and I’m really ready to attack it with a vengeance. However, this hvac system has a higher finance rate of 9 percent and I’m not about to chalk up an additional $5,000 just to finance it. Needless to say, I will be using all side hustle income to get that paid off, hopefully by spring.
Keep your fingers crossed for me and I’ll have mine crossed for you too!
- Choncé says
So sorry to hear about your HVAC going out! And during the summer too… Last year when I kept trying to pay my car loan off it seemed like everything kept going wrong in terms of me needing repairs almost every month and it sucked. Hang in there. Your extra income will definitely help you get back on track then you can continue crushing your debt.
I think it’s smart to delay your freelancing for a bit to wrap up those loose ends. You seem to be doing awesome with your goals though this year. Congratulations!
- Choncé says
Thanks Tonya! My job is not so bad that I need to leave tomorrow, so I hope that waiting a bit really pays off.
- Kristin says
I like how patient you are! You are totally prepping and that’s awesome. Being able to have the full time day job and crushing it freelancing is amazing. I don’t know how you juggle it all – I can barely #adult, ha! I seriously can’t wait to see how you do in the freelance world – you are going to be making like $10K a month like right out of the gates. You are killin it!!
- Choncé says
Aww thanks Kristin! Even though that seems so far away from where I’m at now, I need to have more confidence in myself. I’m excited to see how much I can do with a full 40 hour week though.
- Jason @ TheButlerJournal.com says
So far I’ve been doing on my goals this year. I’ve paid off one debt and my side hustle income is growing. One goal hat I haven’t reached yet is the $1K per month in side hustle money. I had to reevaluate some things. Hopefully I will reach that amount this or next month.
- Choncé says
Sounds like you’re doing great so far! And for hitting that $1k per month, maybe we can talk about some strategies during our next meeting with the others?
- Catherine Alford says
It can be frustrating when things don’t happen as quickly as you want them to, but you’ll get there. Great job!
- Choncé says
Yes slowly but soon enough. Thanks Cat!
- Frugal Millennial says
You’re doing awesome! Best of luck with switching over to freelancing full-time. You are obviously doing a great job planning ahead, so I’m sure everything will go well. Also, that’s great that you’re trying to lose some weight. I recently lost some weight, and group fitness classes really helped! I find most exercise boring, and classes are way more fun!
- Choncé says
Same here. It’s a challenge for me to get to the gym or start working out at home but once I get my workout done, I’m always so glad I did it.
- colinashby says
Nice to hear about all of your progress! I’ve FINALLY been making progress in the past few months to get to the gym. Since it’s 15 minutes away, I sometimes have a problem of talking myself out of going, haha.
I have a question about your freelancing. What type of day job do you work? Do they know about your blog and freelance goals? I’m always interested in seeing how people go about the transition.
- Choncé says
That’s awesome! The gym is like 5 minutes from my home so that helps a lot. I work at a web design company. I’m pretty sure they don’t know about my goals unless they read my blog haha, but I don’t really do a good job of hiding it. I told some of my coworkers about my blog and my podcast, and I honestly don’t think my boss would be too upset anyway since he’s pretty supportive wants to see everyone happy with their work. I do plan to give a 30 day notice though since I feel that’s the right thing to do. For now, I’m just doing the best I can at work and keeping it separate from blogging and my freelance goals. It’s nice to be able to work on whatever I want in my spare time.
