What was my Year End Goal?

It's September and I was trying to remember what my Year End Goal was and if I even had one. Well I found I had stated in January;

Goal 1. to clear my debt

Goal 2. save emergency fund of £5000

Goal 3. savings over and above this amount to fund house building fund.

Okay these are the only gaols I found and am a little disappointed I wasn't clearer on what I wanted to achieve for the year financially. In saying that, will I be able to achieve the goals that I have set out above?

Goal 1. Achieved this one as I have cleared my debt

Goal 2. I have not even got chose to this goal and currently my Emergency Fund is at just over £100 so needs to be topped up again

Goal 3. I have saved £1,800 so far and by the end of the year my total here will be £3,000 that will be the goal amount


I have started to save about £500 a month (okay I only paid £250 in August) into a Freedom Fund. A term I have used in the past but have now changed it's meaning to be my pension saving or if your in the USA think Roth IRA. I am putting it into an ISA which is a tax free saving vehicle, the interest rate isn't great but that is more to do with the current financial situation. I don't trust pensions and I don't like the way they are operated or how you have to buy an annuity with your pension, so I am going with an ISA instead.

I did have a ballpoint figure in my head to save $10k (NZ) towards my Building Fund, that is equivalent to about £5k but I will be short by about £2k or $4k (NZ). So that will have to go into my Goals for 2012.

As 2011 comes racing to an end, how have you done with your Goals for the Year?

Months End

I have banked my final cheque for the month and now have to sit around waiting for it to clear before I can credit any of my accounts. It will clear by Thursday but it is aways such a drag having to wait.
In the mean time I have to confess that my Emergency Fund is almost not there and will have to built up again over the next few months. My holiday to the North cost me more than I had planned as I had three days of not walking and so did a little sight seeing instead. There were lots of Roman forts to visit and I got to see Aydon Castle which my grandmother was convinced was an ancestral home. Before my visit I was pretty sure she had been wrong and since I am certain she was wrong! (Sorry Grandmere!)
Anyway back to finances - once my cheque clears I will be adding £800.00 to Freedom Fund and Building Fund. My net worth will be down on last month but still at over the £4k mark (cash). Once I am over the £5k or there abouts, the plan is to close the Flexi Loan account that I am still holding on to. May do a credit reference check to see what my status is now with the Flexi Loan still listed but not being used.Next month the only radical thing I am planning to do is going to a Glen Campbell concert (don't even go there...) and that is already been paid for. So hoping to have done well and kept to budget, time will tell.

Back From The Front

Yes I am back from the edge of the Empire - the old Roman empire that is, as Hadrian's Wall was just that. And I have to confess that I didn't complete the wall walk either. I completed three days, walking from Bowness-on-Solway to Steel Rigg and then did the final day walking from Heddon-on-the-Wall to Wallsend in Newcastle (I did that last day wearing jandels, aka flip-flops).

But for three days I had to give my feet a bit of a rest after getting blisters on the balls of my feet as well as my heels and (?) little toes too. This was very frustrating as I have spent three months breaking in my walking boots! But as someone pointed out I had been walking in mostly urban areas which for the most part were flat (most of London is very flat) and on footpaths. Then on top of that the longest I had worn them was about three hours so five hours of solid walking was going to be a bit of a shock to my feet.

But regardless of all that I had a great time I did walk about 61 miles and would like to go back and complete the part I didn't do but that is for another day.Looking back at where I had come from, with King Arthur's Turret and beyond that Walltown Farm.

Walking towards the highest point on the wall in the Northumberland National Park.