the richest man in atherstone

At the beginning of the year I set myself seven goals to aim for over the course of the year. As we approach year-end, it's time to look back over 2007 and review the progress I made in achieving those goals.

Goal 1: Save at least £3000 - This goal has been completed. Every month, I've been putting aside £250 into my Lloyds TSB Monthly Saver (8% interest rate) and over the course of the year this has equated to £3000.

Goal 2: Set up a Savings Account for my children - Although my first attempt to open accounts for the kids ended in disaster, I have since set them up with Nationwide Smart accounts. Goal complete.

Goal 3: Donate 1% of my gross salary to charity - Back in January, I decided to give to the children's charity BDF NewLife. I completed this goal by making the donation in November.

Goal 4: Set up and run a Limited Company - Unfortunately, I never got around to doing this. I've had quite a few ideas for businesses that would hit this target - in fact I'm doing some market research for one at the moment - however I feel I've been a bit lazy and perhaps a little hesitant in bringing them to market. Starting a business is something I very much still want to do and I expect it to be on my goals list again in 2008. I think I need to look at the reasons behind my procrastination before taking another stab at it next year.

Goal 5: Earn at least an additional £5000 of income - In August I decided to lump this together with one of my other goals. See Goal 7 for further details.

Goal 6: Invest £1000 in an investment which will earn more than the top savings account - I invested in Lloyds TSB stock, which is looking on target to fulfil this goal over a twelve month period. Although the shares are worth a fair bit less than they were when I bought them due to a general fall in banking sector equities, the dividends are still very good (even better now the share price is lower). As I plan to hold the shares for the long term (around 20 years), I am not particularly concerned about this.

Goal 7: Complete steps 9 to 16 of my Doubling Plan - In August, I decided to merge Goals 5 and 7 and aim to complete steps 9 to 20 of my Doubling Plan, resulting in a Doubling Pot of around £5000. Looking back I don't think this was a realistic goal knowing the time constraints I had with a new baby in the family, a sick relative, work commitments and other personal issues. I am currently working on step 16 of my Doubling Plan, so I haven't even completed the original Goal 7, despite being quite close!

So, four of my financial goals are complete and three are still in progress.

I'm not particularly pleased with the results, but I'm not overly disheartened either. I feel I made the mistake of being unrealistic with some of my goal-setting and changing goals two-thirds of the way through the year was a bad idea. I also think that my emotions (fear of taking the plunge) got in the way of completing Goal 4.

But on the plus side, I did complete four of the goals that would have probably not been done if I hadn't targeted them for this year. I actually completed two additional goals but they were non-finance related and so were not discussed here. I feel I've learned something about goal-setting and a little about myself and these experiences can only serve to help me in the future. I'm a big believer in mistakes being fantastic opportunities to learn something new and I look forward to taking this knowledge with me into 2008.

Coming Soon - My Goals for 2008...

This series of articles was inspired by a wealth-building strategy created by Stuart Goldsmith. It is called 'Double Your way to a Million Plan' and you can sign up for your free copy on this webpage.

I've had a little income in December to bump up my Doubling Pot.

Firstly, I found a grubby 2p piece on the pavement when I went on a walk with my youngest - I say that but because my youngest is only 9 months old, it was actually only me who did any walking.

Secondly, I earned a further £6.25 from completing free offers on RPoints.

And finally, I've earned £8.56 in interest from my A+L Premier Direct Current Account as a product of my Stoozing Plan.

I should also add that I've made more affiliate sales from ClickBank using the Bum Marketing Method. I haven't actually done any further work - these new sales are additional products of my previous efforts. I haven't added these profits to my stake yet as I haven't actually received the cheque and I've set a $100 threshold before they send it out due to the fact it costs money to cash it.

Step 16 In Progress
Cumulative Cash: £176.74

Wow! It's been nearly a month since my last post - I think that's the longest I've ever left my journal unattended.

The reason for the gap is that I've had one or two minor personal issues that I had to spend a bit of time sorting out and then I decided I'd take a short hiatus from my financial interests as there wasn't anything urgent I needed to be doing.

So, I've spent the last month or spending time with my family, doing a bit of DIY and playing on my new laptop. I've had a great time but now I find myself missing the buzz of my extra-curricular activities and so I've returned refreshed and with renewed vigour.

Just in time for my end of year review...