How I Plan to Crush My 2017 Goals

A few months ago I told you that if you want to meet your goals you might want to broadcast them to people. Because if you do, to avoid embarrassment, you’re more likely to follow through. So here I am, oversharing on my goals.

Because I want to crush them. There’s nothing like being competitive. With yourself.

I’m also going to make it even easier for myself by breaking down the goals into smaller, specific steps. You know how if your boss said you had to plan a holiday party for a thousand people in a month, you might feel so overwhelmed and paralyzed you do nothing? But what if you broke it down into little checkpoints, or tasks? I bet it would seem a lot less scary. By using this same system, breaking a goal down into steps, I was able to get both posts out in the morning this week!

Here are four of my goals for the rest of 2017, and how I plan to achieve them.

1. Achieve a Net Worth of $325K

In case you’ve never calculated your net worth, you add up everything you own (assets), then subtract what you owe (liabilities). Example:
[House + car + bank accounts + investment accounts + retirement accounts] – [All debts]

I don’t have a house or a car, but I have everything else. Right now, Mint tells me I have around $296k:

To me, net worth is a financial snapshot and gives me a way to track my progress. It makes me so happy to see my net worth go up, up, up, and I can’t wait to cross the 300k threshold. Buying clothes is fun and all (I just got a package from Matches!), but let me tell you, watching your net worth grow is IMMENSELY satisfying.

OK, so how am I going to get from here to there?

Just hope for the best?

I could do that.

But I’ll probably be more successful if I break it down into smaller, more manageable steps. You know, coming up with an actual game plan.

So, working backwards, the difference I need to make up is $29,000. That sounds like an insane, impossible amount and is almost as much as my first salary.

Let’s break it down even further.

$29,000 in 5 months = $5,800 per month

So each month my net worth targets look like this:

August: 301,800
September: 307,600
October: 313,400
November: 319,200
December: 325,000

With the smaller, defined amounts, it actually looks achievable to me, given the stock market doesn’t crash. Also, I actually have to save less than $5,800 out of pocket, because my stocks appreciate by themselves every month.

To make sure I’m checking my targets every month, I set up calendar reminders in my phone for the third week of every month. If I cruise past those numbers each month I know I’m on the right track. But if I’m under, I can try to course correct by looking at my spending and seeing where to cut.

2. Make More Stuff

When I was younger, I used to be a Person Who Makes Shit. But then Internet became a big thing. All of a sudden, I had access to everything at all times. I could shop for clothes at any time at online stores. I could watch shows instantly whenever I wanted. I could learn the perfect method for cutting a mango on Youtube. Speaking of Youtube I was on there last week and found myself sitting through those pre-roll ads where Karlie Kloss shills Wix websites. Then I started to wonder: Hey, when did Karlie Kloss start modelling? And what’s her net worth like? Then all of a sudden I was on Wikipedia and clicking on all the links until I knew every piece of minutiae about Karlie Kloss, including who she’s ever dated, as well as her favorite foods. And deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole I went. Hello, instant gratification.

That’s me now, but let’s take a trip down memory lane.

Once upon a time I quit my job with nothing lined up. During my Funemployment, I decided to spend my time learning how to make things out of leather. Here are some projects I’ve made:

A leather laptop case. I made the pattern myself by tracing my laptop and just approximating the measurements.

A leather makeup bag. I used a pattern for the pieces, but I decided to add a lining because I like it when the inside looks nice, too.

Have you ever felt like you gave the perfect gift too early in a relationship? Because now you’ve set the standards too high? Yeah, that’s what happened here. I made this leather wallet for my husband a while ago and now every gift seems so lame in comparison. I spent weeks on it. I looked for a pre-existing pattern, but nothing was quite right, so I ended up designing the pattern from scratch. I had to create 2-3 prototypes to get the pattern exactly right. Then I hand-sewed the entire thing because my sewing machine couldn’t handle the leather. It was singlehandedly the hardest project I have ever worked on. But it reminded me exactly what I’m made of; that if I really put my mind to something that I can do it. That I’m capable of doing difficult things. In a world where everything is easy and fleeting, these old-school skills mean a lot to me.

The inside of the wallet.

A leather tassle for my suitcase.

Nowadays I make at most two to three things a year. With that kind of sad track record, I can’t say that I’m a Person Who Makes Shit anymore.

Here’s the plan:
I want to complete two projects by the end of the year: one big project, and one small one.

Project #1: A dress. I have a vintage dress pattern already, so all I’ve got to do is start.
Due date: October 31st

Project #2: A leather valet case. It’s easy enough and practical for the little bits and bobs that inevitably make their way into the house.
Due date: December 31st

I’ll track this stuff on Instagram, so follow me there if you want to see how I’m doing.

3. Spend No More Than $1,000 on Clothes

I gotta admit, this is a stretch goal. But I honestly believe that you don’t need to be dropping five grand a year to have a wardrobe you’re happy with. To me, that’s a lack of imagination. So far, I’ve spent $827 on clothes, so I have $173 to play with. And it’s only August. BUT, if I’m cutting it close, I can get creative and sell some old clothes to fund new ones.

4. Drink Less Coffee

I never used to drink coffee…until I met my husband. He needs it to function like a human being in the morning. When we started dating, we’d stop at the coffee shop every day on the way to the subway. At first I just accompanied him there, but all of a sudden I was also grabbing a coffee every morning on the way to work, too, without thinking about it. Operative words: “without thinking.” Any purchasing that happens in conjunction with those words deserves to be questioned.

I love it, but I don’t like how I expect it every day now. If I hadn’t needed coffee for years as an adult, then why do I need it now?

It was the definition of lifestyle creep.

So I’m going to wean myself off coffee. I don’t believe in quitting things cold turkey, because I think it’s too easy to fail. I’m all about the baby steps. Here’s the plan: every week, for 6 weeks, I’m going to drink one less coffee a week, until I’m down to zero.