Thursday, September 29, 2011

Starting the New Year with the End in Mind



I'm cleaning house in all ways imaginable this week as the Jewish new year begins. I'm sick, truly, with a digestive issue and migraine, and metaphorically, emotionally with all my unfinished business. Several years ago when Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Madonna and a few others started wearing red wool bracelets and embracing the kabbalah, I took a quiz to see which name of G-d fit me. The name means, "Finish what you started," and well, true to form, it has taken me over half a decade to get around to it. Oh, I've done plenty in the meantime, but my bad habits are hard to break without a plan. So, here, I'm doing my typical new year's resolutions, but in this case, they're lifestyle changes that will allow me to reach my ultimate goal within 7 years.

The Goals:
To be the best physical and fiscal shape of our lives, including each being at our healthiest body weight, with a strong level of fitness, while 100% debt-free and move to our dream home working for ourselves at our each of our life's mission by the time I'm 50 years old. (This gives us about 7 years.)

The Big Milestones:
  • Pay off cars, school loans, credit card debt, and home.
  • Get home and yard ready for resale.
  • Build a savings that will allow us to buy our new home with cash.
  • Find our "forever home."
  • Identify what we want to do working for ourselves and have those businesses paid for in cash upfront when we open our doors.
  • Make sure our desires match our missions.
The Big Challenges:
We're both need to lose weight, pare down our bodies and spending, stick to a plan, develop a workout routine that is for life, identify our missions, and most importantly, enjoy the journey as we work on our goals.

Anticipated Outcomes:
I expect we may never move away from where we live right now. Sure, we will probably desire to change neighborhoods, but we might just decide even though we're square pegs in the bible belt, that we can live with the things we dislike currently about our living situation if our physical and fiscal health is optimal. In other words, I hope we'll find we have enough of all that we need right here, but if we don't, we'll have the fiscal fitness to move anywhere our hearts desire.

Game Plan:
  • We've joined the local upstate YMCA system.
  • We have a financial planner who is paying it forward and is willing to help us now for free if we promise to invest with him when we're ready to do so.
  • We're going to online payments for everything that is a current debt, and paying cash for everything else. No cash = no spending.
  • We're revamping our budget to limit spending on things we tend to play too much with (entertainment and food are our biggest budget busters) and have a visible plan of repayment for everything else.
  • Pay off $200,000 in debt.
  • Save at least equal to what we've paid off for future use (new home/business needs).

The Whole Truth
  • I've already lost about 60 lbs but have been struggling to keep it off due to poor choices, falling back into old, familiar bad habits, and stress.
  • Hubby had to give up his workouts when work and school added up to 16 hr days, and is just getting back on the activity wagon.
  • We're about $200,000 in debt.
  • We earn less than $70,000 a year.
  • We have no savings thanks to my 60% job reduction last year, and hubby needing to cut back at his day job to finish school (in a field that is healthier and a safer, long-term career).
  • One of us might not have full-time work at any given moment due to living in a right-to-work state during our national financial crisis.
Other Unfinished Business:
  • Scads of little home-improvement projects.
  • I need to finish TWO different certifications I've started but let slide due to letting life get in the way.
  • I've met several resolutions for this calendar year, but still haven't met my weight-loss goal. (As of this morning, I have 17.5 lbs to go to hit it.)
  • Hubby has his own weight-loss goal, but we haven't really discussed it much.
  • We're so busy rushing around trying to be and do so much that we're losing out on the best parts of daily living. This, we believe, will improve with a routine and plan and each success will only make us healthier and happier.
Like I mentioned earlier, I'm not healthy today. No, I don't have a fever and I'm not delusional, but I do believe my dis-ease is connected to being unfit spiritually, physically and fiscally, and I think healing the budget and body will also heal the spirit. Today, I stomp my foot and cry, "Enough!"

So, on this day, it is written, and with G-d's grace, it will be sealed.

No comments:

Post a Comment