I hope you’ve had a wonderful 2013 and I wish you all the best of luck in your ventures for the new year! In traditional fashion I’d like to reflect on last year and set goals and resolutions for the new year. 2013 has been a great year with huge changes for my finances, career and fitness. If there’s one lesson that has been valuable to me it’s to replace unproductive habits such as procrastinating and spending money with productive habits like monitoring finances and working towards your long term goals. And now I really do enjoy these new habits more!
2013: The Highlights
- Setting up Budget Breakaway and meeting some great finance savvy bloggers!
- Graduating from university with a first class honors degree in Creative Marketing
- Passing my Driving Test
- Taking the first step in my career in digital marketing
- Getting out of my university debt (Just in time for the new year!)
- Gaining two pay rises in 6 months and the ability to take on overtime work at home
A New Years Resolution
My new years resolution is to read one book every month; there is a lot to learn about the footsteps of others and I plan to commit myself to a great deal more reading to drive my personal development. My aim is to write a review of each book as I finish them – the first of which is ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki.
Goals for 2014
I have taken a couple of leftover goals from last year to complete and added a few more to the collection for 2014.
1. Spend some time abroad – July 2014
We love to travel and want to go interailing sometime this year. We are looking to plan our trip this month so that we have plenty of time to budget for it!
2. Open a higher interest savings account – 2nd January 2014
This has taken a little longer than expected as I have been shopping around for the best place to put my emergency fund. I have decided to allocate funds to an instant access cash ISA from Virgin Money. The advantage here is that I can benefit from a tax free interest rate of 1.75% and can withdraw my money at any time.
3. Save an Emergency Fund of £1950 – 28th April 2014
The first stage in building my wealth now that I have a positive net worth will be to create an emergency fund in case of any more car trouble or moving costs etc. The emergency fund will give me a three month buffer of £650 in the case I stop working. To create the emergency fund I will be depositing £487.50 into the cash ISA for four months. I will pay into my savings as soon as my paycheck comes in.
4. Increase my Salary by another £4,000 – December 2014
In the past 6 months I have managed to increase my salary by £4k, my goal for 2014 is to increase my salary by another £4000 as well as continuing some side hustles to add to my income.
5. Invest in a Stocks and Shares ISA Begin Trading Shares
My investment goals are currently quite flexible as I am constantly researching various avenues where I can invest my money. Inspired by the Naked Trader’s approach to trading I am interested in exploring this avenue of investment to see where it can take me. I have received Robbie’s book for Christmas which I am intending to read in February.
Goals for January 2014
Open a higher interest savings account – I wanted to tackle one of my broader goals for 2014 nice and early so as I write this post I have just applied for an Easy Access Cash ISA. This should hopefully be ready to use within a week so that I can complete this goal.
Build over £200 in side hustle income – Through coaching, business consultancy, online sales and overtime I want to generate over £200 in side hustle income.
Read and Review ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ – I am currently reading Robert Kiyosaki’s book about the psychology of the rich, I will write a short book review of this on here when I have finished.
Deposit £487.50 into my Cash ISA – This is the first deposit in securing my emergency fund.
Thanks for stopping by BB, all the best for 2014! If you fancy a financial challenge, check out Savvy Scot’s new year financial boot camp for plenty of tips to save money this year!
What are your goals and resolutions for 2014? Any big steps you are taking to control your finances?
Those are some great achievements and some solid goals. I’m sure you’ll be reporting back at the end of the year with some good news. Good luck!
Thanks Nikki, I think my savings goals are a little ambitious but I’m going to try and get this emergency fund together as fast as possible!
I’m really looking forward to 2014!
Happy new year!
Great goals! I really enjoyed Rich Dad Poor Dad. It’s a great read. Good luck achieving all your goals and happy new year! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, happy new year!
It’s a great book and really shows how we are programmed to make silly decisions with our finances!
I like that all of your goals are really specific and achievable. Many people set goals that depend on outside factors, but there’s no reason you can’t check off everything on your list. Good luck and happy new years!
Thanks for stopping by Daniel, happy new year!
I often find it difficult to set a realistic but challenging deadline on goals so I’m hoping these are achievable!
Good luck with your goals! Where do you think you will go abroad?
Thanks Michelle, we’re still thinking about which countries to choose, but maybe Poland, Switzerland and Berlin 🙂
Looks like a full year ahead! I get 3% on savings on Santander’s 1-2-3 account, which is really good and since it is a current account, having the savings there avoids having to make transfers all the time or getting overdraft when you don’t make said transfer on time for your direct debits.
Hope you keep getting raises this year! That is the easiest way to save money if you keep living as usual and bank the raise.
The 123 account was very tempting when switching my current accounts especially with the cashback on utilities! I think Halifax proved a better option in my situation as I don’t yet have the capital to benefit from the 3%, I gain £160 from the current account this year regardless of the balance; I could then transfer overflow into the ISA and get additional tax-free gains on savings in there. Thanks Pauline, we’re lucky to have very low outgoings for the next 5 months, looking forward to seeing your goals post! 🙂
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Good luck with these goals? Have anywhere specific in mind for your travels?
Thanks Marissa! We still have a lot of planning to do but a couple of ideas are Belgium, Germany, Prague, Italy & Poland!
I’m loving these goals and for the record, with your skills, I think you can make more than 200 in side hustle income. 🙂
Thanks for the support Cat, I hope the side hustles start to grow in the coming months!
[…] first month of this year is over already! It only seems like yesterday that I was writing my goals for January 2014 and scanning my twitter to see everyone’s new year resolutions. January was the first month […]
Hi. Just stumbled on your blog via others I read.
Best of luck in your quest, but be very, very careful with spreadbetting ! If you invest say £1,000 in buying ordinary shares within an ISA etc, then even if the company goes totally tits-up the most you can ever lose is your original £1,000.
Spreadbetting is like ‘shorting’ shares, you can lose many, many times more than your ‘stake’.
The clue’s in the name – spread-‘..betting..’. I’ve never yet met a poor bookmaker, and yet’s he’s always on the other side of your trade when you’re spreadbetting…..
Hi DM, thanks for stopping by!
You’re most certainly right here, there’s a lot of risk involved in spreadbetting especially given the credit that is made available. No wonder the government don’t feel the need to tax us on it! This was an error on my part while writing, you can replace ‘spreadbetting’ with ‘trading shares’ here ha!
[…] of my goals for 2014 was to create an emergency fund of £1950 to cover me for 3 months without work. Last month I set […]