Early on in 2009 I decided to define some high level personal finance goals that I had for the year. While most of these goals were specifically geared towards my blog – Passive Family Income – each one of these goals has a direct impact on my family’s personal finances as well as our mission to become financially independent. I think it is important to document your goals up front to help you stay on course over the long-term so that you can meet your goals. I also believe it is important to identify to my readers my goals so that I can be held accountable for what I publish on this site.
The first month of 2009 has come and gone and I have stayed on track (for the most part) with my personal finance goals for 2009. Here is my status as of January 31, 2009.
- Monthly Passive Income
- Goal – Make $1,000 per month by the end of the year.
- Status – I am a long way from this goal currently and will provide a status on my January earnings sometime later in February. I will also breakdown my specific goals on how I plan to get to that $1,000 mark.
- eHow Articles
- Goal – Write 25 eHow articles per month to reach my goal of over 300 articles by the end of 2009.
- Status – I wrote 22 eHow articles during January – so I fell 3 behind for the year. I plan to make up these articles in February and March.
- RSS Count
- Goal – 500 subscribed readers to PFI by the end of 2009 – add 35 per month.
- Status – As of January 31, 2009, I had 137 subscribed readers which meant I had added 48 new subscribers to PFI!
- eBook
- Goal – I plan to write 2 eBooks over the course of 2009.
- Status – I started my mind map this week for an eBook on Trading Options for beginners.
- Carnivals
- Goal – I plan to host at least 2 personal finance carnivals this year.
- Status – I plan to host my first carnival in the April/May timeframe.
- New Income Streams
- Goal – Create at least 5 new passive income streams in 2009.
- Status – No new passive income streams added at this time.
- Comments
- Goal – Respond within 48 hours to most non-spam comments on my site.
- Status – I have done a better job responding to commenters on PFI but still need to respond sooner.
- Visit Other Sites
- Goal – Visit at least one new personal finance site per week.
- Status – I started a new feature on my Weekly Updates post to promote one new personal finance blog per week.
- Social Networking
- Goal – Use Social Networking sites to promote PFI.
- Status – I have not had a lot of time to promote PFI on these sites but need to start.
- Optimization
- Goal – Optimize PFI – Average 250 page views per day.
- Status – I averaged 175 page views per day in January.
NEW GOAL – I am adding a new goal to my list for 2009. I plan to work with other personal finance bloggers to organize and start a new blogging network. This new network will be built around passive income. Eventually, I would like to start a passive income blog carnival. I have completed some preliminary work on recruiting future members and will share the status of the group in next months personal finance goals review.
Please understand that I may add or remove certain goals throughout the year depending on priorities and obviously the worsening economic climate.
How are your personal finance goals coming along for 2009? Has the sour economy forced you to alter your goals for this year?
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What excellent and detailed goals. I imagine you will surpass your goal of $1,000/month passive income before the end of the year. It happened much more quickly for me than I imagined. Having large goals, and breaking those down into manageable tasks is really, really helpful.
Maria — WAHM’s last blog post..Free Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide from Google
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@Maria – Thanks for the vote of confidence. I am really going to try and get to the $1,000 mark by the end of the year.
pfincome’s last blog post..Personal Finance Goals (2009) – version 2
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Brother,
I really appreciate how your mind works. I could literally copy and paste your goals and insert them into my life. I’ve told my wife that over the next 3 years I’m going to completely get us out of debt, even get rid of our mortgage. This number is about $370,000 (not as bad as it sounds as much is business debt) but debt is debt and I don’t want any of it, it is not a good way to live.
Anyways, I look forward to working with you in 2009. You have my support for sure.
TAM
Brandon’s last blog post..Tips for getting a job!
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Thanks for sharing your goals for the new year. You have inspired me to get started on e-how (I’ve published two articles to date, but have set a new goal of 4 articles per week).
I am interested in hearing what 5 new passive income streams you are planning to get started this year.
Steve’s last blog post..Guaranteed Formula to Turn Failure Into Success
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I’m having fun with ehow as well and have a similar goal, although yours is much more aggressive. You’ll make that $1k a month sooner than you think with your articles. I keep reading Maria’s book for inspiration.
The Passive Dad’s last blog post..How We Shed $200 From Our Grocery Budget. Next Month FoodMaxx For More Savings
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I love reading goal update posts, it helps me stay focused on my own goals when I read about other people striving to meet goals as well. So far I’m on track to meet all of my goals for 2009.
One of your goals is 5 new passive income streams. Do you have any plans yet? Any ideas as to what these income streams might be?
Steve’s last blog post..Comment on How Does the Stock Market Compare to Fantasy Baseball? by Dollar Frugal » Blog Archive » Carnival of Personal Finance – Wizard of Oz Edition
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@Brandon – Thanks! That would be a great feeling having all your debt paid off. Good luck to you.
@Steve (Home Prosperity) – What is your eHow name? I am planning an eBook and some niche sites right now. More to come later on new streams.
@The Passive Dad – Keep up the great work on eHow. I checked out a lot of your articles and they are great. You really put out some high quality articles in a very short time.
@Steve (PF Startup) – I enjoy reading roundup and goal posts as well. It gives me something to shoot for. Good luck with your 2009 goals. One of the 5 income streams I plan to create is an eBook. I am also in the process of creating a few niche sites.
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