On January 1st, I set a number of financial goals, and will update every couple of months through the year. Here is the third review. You can check the January-February one here and March-April there.
The main financial goal was to grow my net worth by 30%. After spending over $40K in house renovations and the land development so far, I have not updated any of those assets’ value. As I explained from my hotel investment gone wrong, until someone is ready to pay for your house what you think it is worth, the return is not certain. I had not updated the potential returns on that investment either, so no NW drop. Since January, I am up 7.5%.
A little behind, although it is still a strong 5 figures jump and I expect most of the growth to come on the second half of the year via selling some plots on my 90 acres land.
Second financial goal was to pay $25,000 of debt that was used to finance several investments over the past years. I have paid $9,500 to close a loan in January plus $750 in capital each month and $7,700 on a 0% CC in June, totaling $21,700. I still have a $3,000 balance at 0% until December, the money is already on my account, bringing interest in the meanwhile. Just with normal monthly payments until the end of year, that is a PASS.
Other financial goals
Sell plots on the 90 acres land to get back the purchase price. While we have some strong interest from potential buyers, we cannot proceed until we get the property split into 260 plots, and the council is taking its sweet time to process our application. Apparently when they give the green light we are free to sell, although it may take up to 6 months to get the final deeds. Buyers would still buy just with the council’s approval that guarantees they will get a property title, but we prefer not to. ONGOING
Not sell my cattle for extra money until the end of April. I sold the cattle mid April but not for extra money. PASS. It was very dry and they would have lost weight by not eating enough pasture had I kept them longer.
5 25 50 times more blog income than 2012. That goal was revised on May 1st. Here is the cumulated total.
January 1.11 times
February 6.06 times
March 12.15 times
April 16.85 times.
May 21.21 times
June 27.11 times
The blog income in 2012 was only for Q4. Things have really picked up since February and it looks like we are on target with this one.
Take a trip back to Europe: Went to France for four weeks in May. PASS
Take a trip to the US: I will be looking for last minute September deals or may go to Europe once more to enjoy my bike. I was bitten by the travel bug in my early 20s but now that I have my new house I haven’t gone around much and don’t miss it.
New goal: Make $3K on Make Money Your Way
My new website, Make Money Your Way, has just launched, and the goal is to make $3K with it by December 31st. Ongoing!
Conclusion
Not too bad! I am very happy with the online income and thinking about investing the proceeds, but don’t know where yet.
See you in two months!
How is 2013 treating you?
This post was featured on the Carnival for Young Adults, thank you!
Congrats Pauline for achieving your financial goals. I also salute for your blog income. Actually, I like your cattle investment ideas. Hope you will get buyers for your 90 acre plot.
Thanks Walt, I hope so too!
I like the way you don’t guess at how much some of your property is worth. Given that the price could end up being less than you expected it makes good sense to not count on money that you don’t actually have/might not be getting.
I think we can get our money back tomorrow for the price we paid plus reno but I’d rather have a nice surprise when it does happen.
Pauline you are doing a great job and I like the way you guys have things planned out and diversified. Cattle, blog income, land, real estate and not depending on one source. How much are you selling the plots for? And for MMYW is it 3k per month or total by December?
Thank you Thomas. We are selling the smallest plots at $2k. There are some bigger ones with lake views that are 5 to 10 times that price, depends on the size. We offer financing so people can pay $150 a month for a year on the $2K ones with $200 down.
And MMYW is $3K by December, being a week old I think it is pretty ambitious!
Thanks for the information Pauline. I actually visited the other site as well not MMYW but the actual plot site you have. I checked the location and that lake is really nice. How is the weather over there?
That sites need work… sigh. I have been wanting to update the maps and plots for a month. Anyway, weather is pretty awesome here, although it can get very hot from March to May. Usual weather is about 80 degrees, and every other day, it rains heavily for a couple of hours, the rest of the time it is sunny. The hotter season is when it rains less so it looks like those summer days when you really wait for the storm to lighten the air. The best months are your winter months, it is milder, around 70 and the sky is clear.
Nice work Pauline, especially with the online income. Mine is picking up as well and determining what direction I’ll be going with that. Not bad either on being in the position to pay off your debt – that has got to feel great. 🙂
Actually I don’t really care about the debt but it is great to be able to sleep at night and not worry about it. July is slow re online income, how is yours going?
Sounds like some good progress. The increase in blog income is definitely impressive. Where in the US would you be looking to go?
Don’t know. I loved the West coast when I visited two summers ago but the East is cheaper to fly to, maybe NYC or Miami, it was also a way to go shopping for a new laptop and a few things I need that would be overpriced here because imported.
Some really solid goals here, Pauline! I especially like the $3k goal on your new site. As I’ve mentioned, I plan on starting a second one before the end of the year. It would be pretty awesome to have two sites bringing in money. FINALLY started to email with designers for my site redesign of Y.A.M. Hopefully I can get that redesigned and start outsourcing a bit more of the manual tasks so I can spend time on site #2!
If you get a cool design you can have the second site piggyback on the first for free. I have saved a lot of headaches/work on that second site.
Yes that seems to be a great way to go about it. I definitely want to start a second site, especially if it can grow to the size that Y.A.M. is now. Double the profits : )
You are doing great on your goals Pauline! I didn’t know about your new site. I’ll have to check it out!
MakeMoneyYourWay.com I just launched!
I think it’s great that you are striving to make $3,000 on your new site this year. How will you do it? Adsense, private ads, affiliate?
The main goal now is to boost affiliate, and Adsense has been picking up but it is never much. Private ads I hope to piggyback on RFI but need to build some stats first!
Way to be a superstar and rock those goals! I’ll be crossing my fingers that your council gets their act together to let you move forward with the land. Waiting for them would be so frustrating!
It is. I just talked to my neighbor and it looks like we have a corrupt guy in the village. He is just being resentful and tried to cut water access to my neighbor when the council had said nothing. He also reported us both to the National Forest for burning down trees, which we haven’t but will delay our plans by a few months…
Sounds like you are doing awesome!
Wow, you are killing it this year!
Thanks, it was the year for “relaxing and doing nothing” but it looks like there will be some moving forward, which i can really not complain about!
You go girl! I reckon you get 5K out of your new blog…. 😉
you’re in! hope you are right 🙂
Awesome job! It looks like you’re well on your way to all of your goals. I think the blog income one is pretty neat. It’s cool to see the great progress you’ve made over the first half of 2013. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Jake! The net worth one is a bit hard but I won’t pay Guatemalan corruption to make it happen. Hope it happens without it..
Debt rules my life but I just locked in a great interest rate so I won’t be overpaying if interest rates start to rise. My net worth is still a negative number and will be until the fall. Still wasting money on junk food and wrecking the budget that way.
Feel like I am going to melt in the high heat and extreme humidity in my part of Canada.
One step at a time Jane. I am always advocating trying to make more than cutting on expenses, but understand both can be difficult. I had no idea Canada got so hot in summer, what do you do to cool down? in hot European weather I was sleeping with wet sheets, it helps.
I can handle the heat it is the humidity that makes things so uncomfortable. It has been threatening rain for days and if it would just rain everyone would be less crabby and everyone could sleep better.
I have central air but use it sparingly. My dehumidifier is running nonstop. I close all of the blinds and curtains early in the morning and tomorrow I am going to clean the basement because it is always cooler down there. All of the cities have public cooling centres where people can sit in air conditioning and receive cold drinks so their bodies can get a rest.
Wet sheets? I have never heard of anything like that. Doesn’t it ruin your mattress? It is so humid here that I am watching for mold and mildew growth and I am leaving closet doors open so air can circulate.
No I don’t think it ruins the mattress, like sleeping with your sheet right out of the washer, you can’t throw a bucket on the bed haha!
You’re really killing it with online income. I have no doubt you’ll be at $3k (or more) with the new site. I always love reading your goal updates, because nowhere else in the pf blogosphere do I read things like, “Not sell my cattle for extra money until the end of April.” 🙂
haha, true, although there are a few people who buy whole cows to freeze for the year!
You have a lot going on! I hope you can make it to the US in Sept! Any chance you can make it to fincon?
Nope 🙁 prices are already expensive to fly to the coasts so prohibitive to fly to the Midwest!
You have had one heck of a year and I hope that your new website brings you exactly what you desire. When will you come to Canada?
Thank you Mr CBB! No idea yet, when a cheap offer I can’t resist comes out? I’d love to see BC and Montreal.
Killing it! Nice work
Great job on the goals!! My goal this year was to double the income from my blog and so far I am on track to do so. In the past, I’ve noticed that income during the summer months tends to decline, so I worked that much harder in the first half of the year making all that I could and it is paying off.
Thanks. That is my first summer, so far it is decent but starting to get slower. Great job preparing for it before it happened!
Wow, great goals and interesting to see how you are tracking along with those!
Sounds like blogs are really taking off for you!
Well MMYW is 10 days old but looking promising, only time will tell!
GREAT work on your goals, Pauline!!! Your year end update will be a huge celebration for you. :-). We aren’t doing as well as I’d like this year, but we are making progress, so I’m trying to be happy with that. 🙂
Thank you Laurie, any progress is good, and keeps you motivated for more. Hope Q3 is even better for you guys.
Pauline, you seem to be handling all these affairs with grace if not a bit of panache. It is fun to see you construct, develop and reach these goals. The constant revision and tweaking is a lesson for all of us. Congrats on all the PASSES!
Thank you! Yes you have to adapt your goals to keep them ambitious but realistic too. Life changes and so do you.
Looks like you’re doing great against your goals, Pauline. Sorry to hear the city council continues to drag their feet. Has to be frustrating but at least it sounds like you have some interested buyers once you get the green light! Tough call – States or traveling Europe on your bike. Would you go back to Paris or travel to other places?
I am thinking Spain or Morocco for a bit of late summer sun :). Yes, it sucks they are so corrupted, there is a nasty resentful little guy in the village who bribed a plumber to cut my neighbor’s water, when the council had emitted no cut order, just because he was jealous the guy had a nicer, bigger house. We don’t know what to expect!
This is inspirational. Happy to see that you are able to meet your financial goals really well. While some investments work and others are just a flop, kudos to you that you are doing so well with your finances. I use financial goal trackers to help me stay on track