Goals

In my decluttering, I came across an old notebook. As part of a financial workshop I was doing, I wrote the following on July 1, 2002:

Goals for July 1, 2003
* Toyota, Pontiac or Buick (gently used car)
* Visit Veronica in Brazil
* Write Guide to Financial Literacy
* Sign [contract] or marry Andy
* [buy] Home
* Pay off Visa
* Visit Dad
* Visit Grandma
* Admitted to MLS program

From top, down.
+ We bought a gently used Honda 1/04.
- Visit Veronica in Brazil: I so wish I had, pregnancy intervened.
- Write guide to financial literacy: it was to be an outline for seminars I was giving on managing debt. Somehow this isn't a major focus anymore, although I still feel a shift in thinking is necessary for most people in their approach towards money.
+ Married Andy 10/02.
+ Bought home 9/02.
+ Pay off Visa spring 03
+ Visit Dad 10/02 (he came to the wedding)
+ Visit Grandma 11/02

I think I actualized what was important, the Honda was a little late ; )

Goals for July 1, 2007
* Child
* Publishing/magazine business
* Income in excess of $200, 000 per year
* All credit card debt paid in full
* Student loan half paid
* Own 2nd and 3rd Rental

The only thing accomplished on this list so far is having a child. But everything on this list is a high level goal. What is interesting is I would really like a small magazine/publishing business. I would imagine it almost completely online, and I am not even certain, yet, how it would make money.

It is interesting to read my goals from the vantage of 2.5 years. I am 1/2 way to my 5 year goals, and it's good to see what I've actualized, what has lost its focus. I think I need to get working!

July 1, 2012
* Student loan PIF
* Savings
* 3 or 4 investment properties
* Celebrate 10th Anniversary with Andy
* Speaking & writing career

and below, in different pen:
* Happy child
* Home in country
* Condo in city

Written pre-birth, pre-marriage, pre-home, yet so close in time to all those events. It's an interesting snapshot of my mind at the time.

Goals and focus are pivotal. A few years after I graduated from law school, I could not imagine what had ever possessed me to go in the first place. The entire experience seemed so against everything I hoped and desired. It felt like I had lost my way.

Around this time, my mother bought a new home, and all the kids were summoned home to sift through the belongings we had stored over the years. Among my high school papers I found my PSAT score sheet from the 10th grade. Listed among my prospective college majors was "pre-law". I felt shocked. I had no idea that my intention to go to law school had formed so early.