Debt Free Climb

One Millennials journey from debt to debt free

December 2016 Goals

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Hello and welcome back to another month of “my goals” posts! 2016 is coming to an end, and I can’t wait for 2017. Its is going to be the best year yet. I have so many things to look forward to, including:

  • Paying off my Student Loans (projected March 2017)
  • 100% Debt Free by May 2017 (Car)
  • Travel to Italy and France in May (check out my post how I booked the trip for $255 for two people here)
  • Start investing in a Roth IRA, max 401k
  • Continue to build Debtfreeclimb
  • Attend financial conferences – Dave Ramsey in April and possibly FinCon in October!

December is my 3rd official month of running this blog, and I am excited to keep learning and sharing with you!

Let’s review my November Goals Results

Student Loan Debt

I was slightly disappointed that my payment in November is below my average pace for the last six months. I ended up making my payment in November for $1021. My current balance is $7.3k at @ 3.15% interest.

My regular payments have been $1600 – $1900 (min payment is $109), but unfortunately, I got a speeding ticket in November :/ (one of those speed traps on the highway at 10 am Saturday morning). I was going to pull money out of my Emergency fund, but decided against it and just took it out of my budget in November. I had a great time spending 6 hours taking a defensive driving course during Thanksgiving too ;).

Also, had a few extra gifts, car expenses and added some money to beef up my Emergency Fund before the ticket which resulted in a lower payment this month.

I used the debt reduction calculator and confirmed I’m still on track to pay off my last Student Loan in March 2017. With one month to go, I have paid off $17,182 in 11 months this year. I set a goal of paying off $18k which I will meet in December. It looks like I will finish off with 44-45% of my net income towards Student Loans in 2016. I hope to improve that savings rate in 2017!

Website

  1. In November I had two blog posts that I received good feedback. My Travel Hacking post gave me a nice spike in traffic for the site and a lot of positive feedback on the Travel Miles 101 Facebook group. Also the Simple Tips to Automate your Finances had a few nice comments as well! Let me know in the comments of my posts what you think (good or bad)!
  2. I am still working to find my writing style. My writing is a work in progress and hopefully will get better as I write more.
  3. I set up a Pinterest account. Check it out here!
  4. I had ten new Subscribers in November :). Looking forward to seeing subscribers grow each month and increase the interaction!

Personal Education

  1. Finished reading “168 Hours”. My plan is to track my time very closely in the upcoming weeks/months and use the tips in the book to optimize my time
  2. Read “The life – Changing magic of tidying up” – I didn’t plan to read this book, but my GF had read it, and it sparked my interest. I was able to fill a few trash bags worth of clothes and organized my closet. I’m still working on implementing the strategies for the rest of our apartment.
  3. I started the Audiobook of “#AskGaryVee”.
  4. Completed the “Zac Johnson Udemy Blogger Course.” Lots of great tips I will use when building my blog!

Meditate

I struggled again in November to meet my Meditation goals. I’m going switch to meditate first thing in the morning rather than at night. Making this a habit will be key to my success.

December Goals

Student Loan Debt

As mentioned below my current balance is $7.3k. My goal is to make a payment of a little more than $1.3k to be below $6k left for 2017. With this payment, I will meet my yearly goal of paying over $18k towards my Student Loans and remain on pace to pay off by March!

Website

  1. Write three valuable blog posts (Will be traveling in December so spend a little less time on my computer)
  2. Continue to interact on Twitter and Pinterest. Create more Pinterest graphics!
  3. Improve writing style. (Learn from successful writers)
  4. Increase Subscribers more than November and look into Guest Posting
  5. Seek feedback and Make improvements to the site (theme, layout, sidebar)

Personal Education

I will be traveling to Washington State this month, so I will have some time on the plane to read and listen to audiobooks and podcasts!

  1. Finish “#AskGaryVee”
  2. “Simple Path to Wealth” by JL Collins (Not at the Library :/)
  3. If time permits “Vagabonding” by Rolf Potts or “Tools of Titans” Tim Ferriss
  4. Complete another Video course on building my website

Meditate and Fitness

I want to Meditate at least 3x a week with my Muse headband. As mentioned above I am going to strive to complete my meditation sessions in the mornings now. I also want to increase my workouts per week to 4x per week. The combination of Meditation and fitness will improve my productivity and energy levels going forward!

 

I’m looking forward to finishing 2016 strong and look forward to what’s to come in 2017! I will be planning my 2017 goals throughout December and look forward to sharing with you next year!

 

Let me know in the comments your goals for this month or 2017! Let’s keep each other accountable to be the best version of ourselves!

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  1. Financial Panther says

    Awesome to see you so close to crushing that student loan debt! Way to go! It’ll be awesome once they’re gone! When you get them done, you should totally get all the payment records from your student loan company and see how much you ended up paying to them. It’ll be eye opening I bet.

    • Gary says

      Thanks! I actually started the process of collecting all my payment records a few months ago and was pretty shocked to see how much interest I paid so far (like 10%). Will be interesting to see the total interest paid vs principal when I finish.