Now that I’m a grown-up, full-time career girl, I feel like it’s time to start setting some income goals.
I have a number in mind for my goal gross income for 2012 but I’m still trying to figure out if it’s unrealistic or not. My salary at work is fixed, so that’s pretty straightforward. I’m bringing in some regular additional income tutoring, and freelance writing opportunities are coming up which is awesome, but difficult to estimate how lucrative they’ll actually be. Investment income is increasing, but I think it will be years before it generates anything truly substantial. All in all, I have a lot going on that make the number in my head possible, but I hate the idea of failing SOVERYMUCH I feel a great mix of terror with all this excitement =p
Nevertheless, I’ve come up with a figure, and I’ll be tracking my gross income in that context from now on. I’ll try to share my progress, and then maybe do a big reveal at the end of the year if I make it — but if I don’t make it, we’ll all just pretend none of this ever happened and I will tell none of you about the days I will spend crying in my bedroom in defeat. If I come up something menial like $500 short I will lose my mind with frustration — it’d be worse than being $5,000 short!
As for net worth, my plan is to cut my student loan in half and max out this year’s TFSA contributions. This will result in about a $15,000 net worth increase. I’m going to go ahead and get super ambitious and say I plan to increase my net worth by $25,000 in 2012. I decided this before it occurred to me that I’m planning a very expensive vacation to Africa in July. That kind of scared me because if I’m going to go on a ~$5,000 vacation AND increase my net worth by $25,000 that means I really have to account for $30,000. So I’m hyperventilating a bit, but I still think this is possible! I STILL BELIEVE IN ME! (that was said in a triumphant, passionate, I-can-do-anything voice, preferably while standing on a chair, in a room of bewildered strangers).
Because of the trip, I’m going to go soft on myself for the Net Worth goal and not spend days crying in my room if I fail. I mean, if I boost my net worth by $20,000 it’s still going to be amazing. Maybe the stock market will undergo rapid recovery and growth, and take some of the pressure off me…
I will make charts and maybe a tab at the top there to track this (update: HERE THEY ARE!), and all of you may encourage or mock me at your leisure. 2012 is my money year!
Good luck! I plan on increasing my net worth by a similar number, and it’s scary!
WE CAN DO THIS!!!!
all the very best of luck! i’m curiuos to see how you do at the very end :)
me too! …hopefully I don’t fail
Wow! this is such a great goal. And quite ambitious! I wish you all the best. All I want this year is to pay off my consumer debt.
I like net worth goals because paying down debt boosts your net worth, so it’s like killing two birds with one stone =) if I can shake $10,000+ of student loan debt, I’m halfway there!
Yes! You can do it! I have no net worth goals for 2012, only to pay off $20K in debt. It’s almost triple what I paid in 2011, but I only got serious halfway through last year. We GOT THIS.
I’m going on a $5000 vacation this summer and paying off $10,000 in student loans at the same time. It’s tough, but worth it. Look at you, all adult-like!
Um, I love your blog.
I’m not going on the 5k vacation (though I really want to go to the us in september for a blog conference), but I have similar goals. Well, actually my goal for the year was to pay off my student loans. But now I think I might borrow your idea and make a net worth goal too! $25k is a big and scary but awesome number!
You can totally do it!
FinCon12? haha I’m hoping to go to that, it’d be awesome but it’s at a really bad time for me work-wise.
Net worth goals rock because killing debt = increasing net worth. It’s like you make progress no matter what.
I really want to know what are the Net Worth and Income Goals for 2012. I think that having a great goal would allow you to plan about the future. I know that this goal would be very achievable this 2012.