It’s time to talk about my goals for 2019.

 

Since starting this blog I have publicly declared my goals. I see it as a way to keep myself accountable. Making it public provides me with just the right amount of pressure to act on my goals and make it happen.

 

Now last year was a disaster in terms of achieving goals. I failed in almost every single financial goal I made. But as I mentioned I want 2019 to be different. The main focus is to save and make as much money as I can save and make this year.

 

The plan next year 2020, God willing, is to move out and live independently. Have my own condo, or an apartment. Whatever money I can save or make this year will me be closer to that goal. Aja!

 

 

2019 Goals

Financial Goals

 

1. End 2019 with Php 250,000 Net Worth

For 2019, I want to be back as near as Php 250,000 in net worth. Even exceed the said target if possible. This means saving the most from the day job salary I have and making the most from the side hustles I am currently pursuing. This will be a long shot but I am beyond excited. I want to see how frugal I can be for the sake of goals.

 

2.Tithe 10% of whatever money I earn every month

Tithing is more than just a financial term. All of us are called to tithe and bring every tenth of whatever we have back to God. I was able to religiously tithe last year and it is my goal to continue doing so for 2019. If you want to learn more about tithing, you can read this post from Dave Ramsey – Tithing vs. Giving

 

3. Php 60, 000 Emergency Fund

This was already my goal for last year (and the years before) but I failed miserably and I cannot let another year pass by without accomplishing this one.  This 2019 it is really important for me to finally achieve it. In order for me to end 2019 with that amount saved for emergency situations I am committed to –

 

• Save 10% of whatever money I get every single pay day.
• Save all cash benefits. This includes the holiday pay, allowances and not to mention bonuses.
• Put here whatever extra cash I save or make.

 

Once I hit the Php 60,000 mark I will open a passbook account with ATM (if possible). In excess of Php 60,000 will be reserved for short-term savings.

 

4. Monthly Transportation and Food Allowance <Php 4,400

One of the reason I didn’t save as much money last year is because I’ve been overspending with my transportation and food allowance. I wake up late in the morning so I have the tendency to take habal-habal which costs Php 200 instead of Php 50 UV Express fare. I also had this burst of dining alone before going home which costs an average of Php 250 a meal! Whaaa! So for 2019, the goal is to make sure my monthly transportation and food allowance will be just below Php 4200. I’ve been tracking my expenses since 2019 started and I can’t wait to share to you the results.

 

5. Maintain a working Opportunity Fund

How I organize my finances is that I use all money I receive from my side hustles as opportunity fund.

 

According to Get Rich Slowly, opportunity funds are money on hand to take advantage of unexpected opportunities. Joe of Retireby40, one of my favorite personal finance bloggers to read says, once in a while you’ll come across a good opportunity and you need money to take advantage of it.

 

That’s Opportunity Fund in a nutshell.

 

For years, I’ve struggled in saying yes to travel because I’m afraid of losing money. Then, I decided to dedicate all my extra money as my working opportunity fund instead.

 

I used it to buy my ticket to Palawan on my birth month during the Red Hot Seat Sale. It will also provide enough money to cover my expenses during my first out of the country this year, Seoul and the trip to Samar I did with my family last March.

 

Because I’ve experienced firsthand the good effect of having an opportunity fund my goal is to maintain one for 2019. 

 

6. Monthly Phone Bill <Php 1,500

Aside from transportation, I also overspent for my monthly phone bills last year. My plan is only Php 999 but I’ve been paying double that amount in some months. Bad move! If I can maintain my phone bill to less than Php 1,500 then I can save a lot of money. Also, my post-paid plan will end in August 2019 (Yay!). The plan is to not renew anymore and instead save the money. And because I don’t have data anymore to browse net while at work I feel like this will totally level up my productivity! Win-win!

 

7. Maintain 30% Saving and Investing Rate Every Month

For 2019 I plan to successfully maintain 30% saving rate every single month. I skipped some months last year and so this year, the goal is to not skip a month ever.

 

Here’s how I’ve been saving 30% of my day job salary every single month:

 

• I automatically transfer 10% to my savings (emergency fund). This is the first thing I do as soon as my paycheck reflects on my online bank account.
• I transfer 5% of my salary to FAMI-SALEF, an equity mutual fund.
• I transfer another 5% of my salary to FAMI-CF, an index fund.
• I transfer another 10% of my salary to my stock market account as additional buying power. My current broker is FMSBC. I did a step-by-step tutorial on how I opened an account with First Metro Sec in this post.

 

 

Blog Goals

 

8. Create a better “Archive” for the blog

I’ve been meaning to create a better “archive” for both my blogs – SavingsPinay and IzzaGlinoFull for years.

 

Over the weekend, I finally come up with an archive based on publication date for SavingsPinay! This is a good progress on the goal.

 

Click here for the SavingsPinay Archive Page.

 

The next action item I have will be creating the same archive page for my other beauty and lifestyle blog. I also have to make an archive per topic which I expect to be a more tedious process.

 

I am setting May 2019 as my target date to accomplish this.

 

9. $500 Adsense Income

Last year, total passive income I generated through Adsense was over $360. This 2019, my goal is to generate $500 passive income instead.  

 

SavingsPinay is earning $27 to $30 a month on Adsense while IzzaGlinoFull is averaging $4 per month.

 

For the blogs the only action item I have is to increase the traffic as always. The goal is to double my traffic which will help boost the earnings I generate every month.

 

To help in achieving the $500 goal I went back to making videos on YouTube. I posted two new videos – a vlog of my El Nido, Palawan trip and a haul of the free products I received from Althea Korea. The main focus is to up my watch time so I can monetize my channel again. The sooner I accomplish this, the better.

 

10. Double my total published content from last year

I posted really few contents last year. I was averaging less than one post a week which was way little compared to what I used to.

 

The plan for 2019 is to stick to a posting schedule of two posts a month every Tuesday and Thursday. Then every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will be for my other blog.

 

Posting more quality articles will definitely help in increasing my traffic.

Personal Goals

 

11. Read 30 books

Last year I set myself to read 25 books. I ended up reading 16. Although I failed to reach my goal, I am still happy and proud of the achievement. This 2019, I will reading 30 books. Five more books that last year’s target. So far I am on my second book already! Hooray!

 

You can check all the books I read in 2018 here. 

 

Also you can follow me on my Goodreads account to see my progress for the 2019 Reading Challenge.

Fun Goals

 

12. Hike again

I used to hike before and has been to Mt. Manabu, Mt. Daraitan and Mt. Talamitam since then. Last year I stopped hiking. For 2019, I am hoping to have at least one hike per quarter. I find this to be a cheaper alternative to traveling.

 

 

Setting Goals I Can Actually Keep

 

This year is all about setting goals I can actually keep. Here’s how I approached my goal setting for 2019:

 

1. Review my goals. For 2019, I will be tracking the progress of my goals on a monthly basis. I will publish a monthly goals and net worth update which will be up every first Tuesday of the new month.

2. Set achievable goals that matters to me. Unlike last year when I just randomly selected the goals I want to pursue year long, I decided to sit down and really take note of the important areas of my life where I want to see changes. I knew hitting that emergency fund goal is important for me. As soon as I hit that Php 60,000 mark I can use the succeeding money for down payment in the future. I also tried to think of goals I can achieve in a year. Hitting Php 500,000 in net worth will be impossible given the salary I have. So I instead refocused on goals I can work on and achieve based on the current resources I have.

3. Set an action plan on how I achieve my goals. Aside from writing down the big picture, I also included an action step that will guide me in achieving the goal. As mentioned earlier, the steps I’ll be doing in order to achieve the Php 60, 000 emergency fund is to automatically save 10% of my salary in it, save all my cash bonuses in it and whatever extra money (from my salary) I get in it. So I just didn’t write the goal, I also wrote down a to do list for it.

Final Notes from SavingsPinay

I hope you enjoyed this post. Excited to share to you my new monthly goals and net worth update.

 

What about you? What are your financial goals for 2019?