Tuesday 3 January 2012

2012 financial goals

For the first time in several years I sat down and wrote what my goals were for the year. Also for the first time they were not all with a career / advancement / get ahead type of flavour. When I thought about the last couple of years I realised how much I had not yet done from a personal point of view.

After taking into account all my personal goals I then looked at my financial goals for the year. What I realised was that to fund some of my personal goals my financial goals would suffer. I am still going to set aggressive financial goals however they have been scaled back significantly from what I originally had in mind.

With that in mind my 2012 financial goals are


  • Invest a further $40,000 into the stock market (i.e. $3,300 per month)

  • Pay down my investment property loan by a further $30,000 (i.e. $2,500 per month - note however that some of this repayment will go towards interest costs so the actual paydown will be ~$20,000)

  • Limit my personal expenditure to $1,500 per month averaged over the year ($18,000)

While this accounts for most of my wage per month I get a significant amount of income each year from my bonus. This year, however, I have decided to spend my bonus on a sports car. Whilst this may seem like the silliest thing to (i.e. buy an expensive depreciating asset) I have come to realise that life is very short and I dont really want to be an old man driving a sports car. Any excess will be used to fund a reserve cash account which I have been meaning to set up for a while.


Going through this process was a very valuable experience. I cant recommend strongly enough the importance of going through this exercise, not only from a financial point of view but also from a personal perspective.

2 comments:

  1. Good thinking, my friend! The money that you are going to use for that expensive sports car can be your allowance for a month or more. It can also contribute a lot in accomplishing the list of your goals, so you have definitely made a good decision. Hmm. Good luck with your accomplishments, and I really do hope you can make it.

    China  Ream

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  2. So, how was the 2012 financial plan? I hope you have succeeded with your goals. Anyway, it’s good that you created a financial plan like this. For one, strategic planning provides you a solid idea of the essential steps you need to take to reach your target goals.

    - Brooke Claudio

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