For me, new year’s resolutions are BS (see how I don’t even capitalise the words). I’m a fan of ‘progress not perfection’, and that’s been the case in January for me.
Bank Balance
Net worth has slipped a little bit this month. That’s due to making provision for personal tax due and some money spent on necessary (and some not necessary but nice to have I suppose) home improvements.
If business is decent over the next few months we should see the blue line creep rightwards. I know this because I have paid myself enough money to cover living expenses for the next two months, and have enough in the business to cover three more months expenses, plus the expected corporation tax and VAT bills. Therefore, money earned during that period will be a combination of money to cover a further period of expenses and money to increase our net worth. I have decided to set a goal of billing the amount required to cover six more months of expenses and pay off a specific chunk of the mortgage; specifically a chunk that is on a short-ish term repayment deal and therefore takes quite a bit of monthly servicing. Paying this down will lead to a worth-having reduction in monthly commitments. There’s more about my approach to the mortgage here.
Mind
This post discusses how my mild success has been a mixed blessing and led to the decision that I need to push a bit harder at work. Other than that the longer I do it, the more I am convinced that self-employment is good for me. The little bit of financial sorting I did this week has also given me a mini-target to aim at over the next few months and – for me – the ‘goal within a goal’ of paying down that big chunk is a good motivator.
The time spent in understanding and managing finances described above will seem like absolute basics to most readers I’m sure. But I know people who run their business and their personal finances seemingly much less tightly. I also know people who suffer stress and pressure as a result. In the way I manage my personal and business finances, I am happy to be boring.
It’s also been cool looking at the blog post statistics. This month the number of views smashed through the 500 mark, and I got some comments too. I guess this goes in the ‘mind’ category of my monthly round up because I do the blog to help organise thoughts, because it’s a good distractor, and because views are good for the ego!
Body
As predicted in the December update, it has proved easy enough to get back to good habits when it comes to diet and exercise. A note on alcohol though; what I have noticed is that when I don’t have a lot to do, a little bit of booze can be tempting. This is one to keep an eye on as I’d probably regret celebrating financial freedom by falling into an alcohol-fuelled death spiral.
I’ve done a good amount of running and walking. The exercise, plus the return to non-Christmas dietary and boozing habits lead me to be satisfied when it comes to body health.