FrugalJim

I can hardly believe another year has passed. 2008 definitely had its ups and downs, but overall, I think when I look back, I’ll remember some fun things I did…

The wife and I celebrated our first anniversary in 2008, and we made it through a big challenge to not kill each other while painting, installing hardwood floors, and tiling our house.  We traveled three times into the mountains of North Georgia, Cherokee North Carolina, and Laurel Springs North Carolina.  Scooter made it to the last two   And to top it off, we made significant contributions towards savings for the future (even if a lot of it has been lost from the short term down market).

Looking ahead though, I was trying to decide what goals for 2009 I should set.  Of course I automatically came up with a perennial favorite of most people: Make More Money and Lose Weight.

Making more money seems pretty vauge.  What I’ve decided to do is track my investments down to every deposit and withdraw, so that I can calculate my Internal Rate of Return at the end of the year.  I will also track a sample investment of an S&P 500 index fund.  At the end of 2009, if my investment returned less than it would have if I had just put it into an index fund, then I will take half of my money and put it into the fund.  If on the other hand I beat the S&P 500 I will continue to personally manage the majority of my investments.  In essence I’ll really be able to decide if I’m making the most of my money.

Losing more weight has been my goal countless times.  On January 1st, 2009, I weighed myself and discovered I’m tip toeing on the line of “All time highest weight” at around 220 pounds.  My perfect healthy weight according to my height would be 175 (if I used the BMI calculations, they say I should be 140 lbs, but I’m big boneded ).  So again, I am planning on tracking my weight.  I am setting a goal of losing 1 pound a week for 50 weeks.  By cutting 500 calories a day of my current face stuffing, I should be able to do this.

So here they are…  my 2009 Goals:

• Beat the S&P 500
• Lose 50 pounds

Wish me luck!  I’m sure going to need it for the weight loss part.  I have way more confidence in goal number 1