February 3, 2019February 3, 2019 FOGA

January Goals Update

Financial Independence, Goals

Hello FOGTA Readers,

Happy February everyone! Hope you had a great January.

My January was pretty slow and uneventful for the most part. That is to say, nothing happened offline. Work was dead, and Mr. FOGTA spent a good portion of the month working overnights. It was also cold. I live in Florida to avoid lower than 40 degrees.

As a result, the most eventful things happening was my beating Mass Effect (the first game), the feature which I talk about below, and playing the Sims and documenting it on Twitter. The Black Widow challenge will be completed. 😉

However, I guess we all have months like that. I am hoping for a more eventful February. Will not be hard to accomplish.

So, my tops posts for January were…

Top Posts!

Most Popular Post In January: Five Opinions and Ideas About FIRE That I Do Not Agree With
This post got featured on Rockstar Finance last month. As a result, FOGTA’s traffic went crazy. I got alerts from WordPress letting me know that traffic was going up for eight hours straight. It was awesome, and I was very honored by it. You see a little more about it below.

My Favorite Post in January: A Look Back on 2018 & Looking to 2019
I liked this one since it was me getting goals in order for the new year, but also looking back at what we were able to do in 2018. People have a tendency to overlook their accomplishments (especially me) and this helps keep me grounded.

Without further ado, onto the January Goals Update!

Goals for January

January was a slow month for work. I did not sell a single house. Pretty typical of January, but it still sucks a bit. I did get paid for two homes that closed last month, and two more homes closed this month that I will be paid for next month.

This is month I only had one paycheck, but we were able to make do.

• Keep MasterCard paid off. FAIL. Took my car in this month and it only cost $580. That means that the card won’t be paid off until next month. Stuff happens. The good news is we will not have interest on it, so it will be like paying cash.
• Stay under $400 for eating out. FAIL. We were around $545 on this. This month was a slump. One of the few things that improved our mindsets was eating out (I’ll explain more towards the end). We did start to cut down on the cost towards the end of the month, but the damage was already done.
• Pay Off May Cruise. PASS. Done. We are going on a cruise in May, and we are looking forward to it. Going on Carnival this time, so it should be better than the last cruise we went on.
• Read One Book. FAIL. I am on Chapter five of You Only Live Once by Jason Vitug. Good book, but I am lacking in motivation. Will finish it, but it’s going to take longer than usual. Meanwhile, I breezed through a manga of Black Bulter, so it just not be what I am in the mood to read right now.
• Work Out Once a Week. FAIL. Nope. I worked out twice this month. Better than other months, but still need to get to at least four times before I will be able to pass this one.
• Transfer $10,000 to an Ally Account. PASS. Done and it is growing interest now. Plus they raised the interest rate again this month, so this decision bodes well.
• Put $500 in both our IRAS. PASS. We completed this one. We are on track to max it out this year. 🙂
• Increase 401K contribution to 9%. PASS. Now I need to monitor it to make sure it doesn’t go over by the end of the year.

   

Blog Goals for January

• Post four times.  PASS & FAIL. There were definitely four posts in January, but I am behind on my one a week goal. This post catches me up, and I have another scheduled this week (two in one week. What madness!). I will be back on track. 
• Get Four Followers on Pinterest. PASS. Currently, I am somehow sitting at 11 followers. Hooray!!! I have no idea what I did. Now, I need to dedicate some time to figure out this thing. 
• Get to 225 followers on Twitter. PASS. Like super pass. I am currently at 290 followers on Twitter. Just wow. Every time I think I am overshooting this, I am proven wrong. As a result, I am going to go big on my goal for next month. 
• Get to 200 views in a month for FOGTA. PASS. Thanks to the feature by Rockstar Finance, this goal got obliterated. The day of the feature alone, this blog got 1854 views. This is known as the Rockstar effect. The month ended at 2687 views. Just wow. Thank you all so much. 
  

Goals for February

February is going to be pretty similar to January. I have two closings that will be paid on the 15th. The problem is I have no closings this month. That means, as of now, there are no paychecks from me incoming for March. Therefore, March is gonna suck.

Thankfully, Mr. FOGTA has a biweekly paycheck, so fingers crossed we can make it through our gap without me needing to take a draw at work.

So, with that, here are the goals for February:

• Pay Off Credit Cards. Because my car is a necessary part of life, we carried a balance for the first time in what feels like forever. Will correct that this month. 
• Stay Under $400 for Eating Out. We started changing things up at the end of January, so I believe we are on track to keep this goal for a change. 
• Clean Out My Closet. It is time to do a purge. There are way too many clothes hanging that I do not wear or shoes that are not comfortable. 
• Read One Book. Currently on Chapter 5 of You Only Live Once, so now I am going to finish it. 
• Work Out Once A Week. Ahh… this goal… It lives here now doesn’t it? Gonna do something about that. 
• Put $500 into Both Our IRAs. Got it done last month, so hoping to do it again. 
  
  

Blog Goals for February

• Post Once a Week. Off to a rocky start with this, but starting to get it under control. This week gets us back to a once a week average. Then, I’ll be back on track. 
• Get to 20 Followers on Pinterest. Due to last months jump, I am also jumping up this goal. While I am not sure it will get done, I am pretty pumped about it. 
• Get to 400 followers on Twitter. It seems that every time I put a goal for Twitter, it gets blown out of the water. Due to this, I am going higher than usual. Getting over 100 followers in 25 days will be a challenge. Let’s do this!  
• Get to 300 Monthly Views for FOGTA. Both December and January had me waking up to discover that one of my posts had been featured. It was (and still is) and awesome feeling. As a result, the traffic for FOGTA has jumped like crazy. Since I do not foresee another feature anytime soon, I am bringing this goal to where I think it may end up. It may be higher, or it may be lower in the end. I guess we shall see. 
• Get Two Weeks Ahead on My Posting Schedule. Getting ahead is something I want to accomplish. Currently, I have time to write a post every week without issues, but we are about to get into the busy season with my job: lots of long hours and significantly less free time. Therefore, if I can get a few weeks ahead, then everything at FOGTA will continue seamlessly. 🙂

Other Things

Last month I mentioned that Mr. FOGTA wants to switch careers this year. I am now thinking that he may end up quitting before that happens. For one thing, his job is getting hella toxic. People are getting fired for the dumbest reasons and without any process. Mr. FOGTA asked me not to list any specifics, but it’s terrbile right now. In other words, they want to make a fearful work environment.

As a result, I think that Mr. FOGTA will quit in due time. Most importantly, he has epilepsy, and crazy stressful environments do not help with that. Secondly, he’s the type of person who will point out when something doesn’t make sense. Therefore, he is almost guaranteed to be in the line of fire. Lastly, his rage level at everything that is going on is already dangerously close to boiling over.

In short, I am preparing us for the likelihood that we will be down to one income within a few months.

In Conclusion

So, that is the January Goals Update. Sorry to end on such a bummer note. We will be fine regardless of what happens. It just sucks to watch him go through it.

How was your January? Did you have more fun that us? Did you get your goals accomplished? Let me know in the comments. 🙂

Until next time.

-G