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I have held out from blogging for so long because I didn’t think I had much to say about anything. But while talking over G Chat today with my girlfriend Prissy Pink, I realized that it would be a perfect place to document my latest project: The Deliberation Hiatus Lodge.
On the last Sunday of each month, I hide myself away at some undisclosed location and “take a hard look in the mirror”. My hope is that this will allow me to address things that I am screwing up on and reward myself for things that I am doing right. After each deliberation I post my goals, concerns etc. to the Deliberation Hiatus Lodge blog. This is still a work in progress and will change as time goes on but I feel like it is definitely a good start.
At my hiatus I review the following items:
-How I adhered to my Budget
-Review the Goals from the Previous Month
-Set Goals for the Next Month
-Review 1, 5 and 10 Year Goals
-Review my Calendar for the Month
I first came up with this idea in college when my back was against the wall. I was not organized at all, my priorities were all jacked up and I really needed a wakeup call. So I decided to do something about it. This process helped me finish school and graduate Thanku Laude. While having a heart-to-heart with my roommate Potter, (you know one of those talks you have after about 5 or 6 or 9 drinks, lol), I decided that it was time to bring it back. The talk made me realize that I needed to step it up to the next level. I mean I have a good job that pays pretty well, nice apartment, and have had more than my share of fun traveling around the country and doing whatever comes to my mind. I had my 25 birthday party on a yacht for God sakes. All of this was made possible by the sacrifices I made in college, not what I’m doing now. So what happens if I tighten up and take care of business now. What will I be able to do for my 30th or 40th birthdays?
I’ll start out by listing my goals for December.
Goals for December:
No Credit Card Debt incurred During the Holidays: In the midst of the holidays it’s so easy to get caught up in the Christmas Spirit and run up a hefty credit card bill. My goal for this month is to continue to buy gifts without the use of my credit cards. To aid with this goal I have given all of my credit cards to my Prissy Pink to be locked away in her safe.
Create a Workable Plan to Eliminate Credit Card Debt: So many people told me not to be a rack up a lot of credit card debt, but what did I do… THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE. Now, I’m not as bad off as some people out here, but now is the time to focus on this issue. My goal for the month is to set a realistic goal of when I will be credit card debt free. I still have student loans and a car loan I’m working on, but we’ll worry about them later.
Control Spending: Although I am not purchasing any gifts with credit cards I still have to be sure to control my spending so that I do not spend my rent and food money on foolish purchases. I have outlined my budget for gifts and other expenses and I plan to stick to it.
Build Spreadsheet to receive Mint.com Export: Mint.com has been an excellent resource to help track my budget. Before I started using Mint I used a spreadsheet that I had to manually enter each transaction. This was tough because I would forget about money that I spent and things would slip through the cracks. Mint uploads my transactions automatically from my bank accounts and allows creates very useful graphs and charts. These charts allow me to plug financial holes and stick to my budget. It has an export feature that allows you to export transactions into Excel. I would like to set up my spreadsheet to receive this export and provide a deeper look into my finances.
Create Tool to Track Goals: It is one of the action items on my monthly Deliberation Hiatus is to check up on how I achieved or did not achieve my goals for the month. I would like to create a tool to make this process easy and effective.
Create Weekly Schedule: Without a schedule my life is a mess. I miss deadlines, pay bills late etc. Some of my overspending can be attributed to this by the way of fast food purchases. When I don’t make time to go to the grocery store I have to eat fast food. Of course fast food is more expensive, not to mention less healthy. I’ve been doing OK lately, but I would like to grab the bull by the horns and really get my personal life organized.
Find an Acceptable Hiatus Lodge: One of the key aspects of the Deliberation Hiatus comes with finding a quiet place to deliberate. With two roommates and being in the heart of football season, holding this meeting at my house on SUNDAY is not ideal. Therefore, my goal is to find a quiet place where I can clear my mind and focus on the task.
Find a System to Review my Goals Daily: This will allow me to keep my goals at the forefront of my mind. So many times I do not fulfill goals because they are “out of sight”. If I could come up with a way to look at my monthly goals on a daily basis, I will more likely to achieve them.
