the richest man in atherstone

After a pretty successful first year of setting goals for myself in 2007, I have decided to continue with the idea and set myself some goals for 2008. At the end of the year, I hope I can say that they've all been completed.

I've set myself 10 goals for this year, however only six of them are related to the financial and business aspects of my life, so only these will be discussed here on my website.

1. Save 10% of my salary - This was one of the routines I got into when I started my financial journal nearly three years ago and also one of the best pieces of financial advice I've ever heard of. I originally read it in the book 'The Richest Man in Babylon' by George S. Clason (also the inspiration for this website) and over the years, I've built up a very nice lump of capital.
2. Review utility bills - With my wife no longer working so that she can look after our baby, we find ourselves living on just one income rather than two so things will consequently be a lot tighter this year. In order to reduce our expenditures, I plan on reviewing our utility bills to see if I can get better deals elsewhere.
3. Set up and run my own company - This was one of the goals I struggled with last year, and I contemplated giving it a miss for 2008, however after going over my original motives for setting it, I included it on the list again. I want to learn about business and I always find the best way to learn something is by doing it. I plan on working for myself in the future, so there are a lot of important skills I will have the opportunity to master by setting up my own company. I was unsuccessful last year because of my procrastination. I'm determined not to fall into the same trap this year.
4. Reduce our mortgage capital to below £60'000 - Last year we managed to overpay our mortgage by around £1500 in just 8 months, an achievement of which we are very proud. That is £1500 that we will never have to pay interest on again. Our mortgage is now around £62500 and by the end of the year, it will be reduced to around £61400 by making the standard payments. We plan to earn enough extra cash to be able to overpay at least an extra £1400 over the course of the year to get our mortgage to below £60'000.
5. Complete steps 16 to 20 of my doubling plan - I'm currently on Step 16 of my Doubling Project and plan to reach Step 20 during 2008 (to find out what 'Doubling' is, see this explanatory post). The target amount for Step 20 is £5000.
6. Donate 1% of my salary to charity - This was one of my goals for 2007 that I'm happy to say I completed. I made my donation to a charity called BDF NewLife, which helps children with birth defects and their families. I have decided to include this goal on my list again this year and each subsequent year.

So, that's my list of goals for the coming twelve months