Taxes & My Patio

What do these things have in common?

1. They caused a lot of stress
2. They were expensive!!
3. They are done :)

The taxes caused an unbeleivable amount of stress. Oh my gosh. And the patio, which could have served as a release, just seemed to make matters worse.

It isn't like it was a surprise that all this money was going to be moving out of the bank account, and yet somehow, parting with it was just a struggle. At the reccomendation of my boss, I have been reading Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. While much of this book does not come as something new to me, I am discovering that I have forgotten to practice these "laws".

In the book, Chopra talks about the flow of money. I think that the pending tax and patio expenses were acting like a dam in our lives. I feel such a release just having them out of the way. Phew!! Time to make some money :)

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”

Rather than resolutions, I do New Years Goals. I think a resolution implies that you need to fix or change some part of your life, and lets face it, nobody wants to be fixed. So instead I do goals. My life is full of goals, and over the past couple of years I've done a pretty good job at hitting them. In the past I've limited them to finance, this year I'm going to create goals for other areas of life as well.

Career

• Support E in finding a job he loves where we can spend more time together during the week (he should be working at new job by December 31, 2008)
  
• Reach or exceed all of my sales goals at FWI
  
• Mentor a new salesperson who will love working at FWI and have that person be in outside sales by year end
  

Finances

• Combined household income of $200K or more


• Add at least $30K to Savings/Investments


• Pay down student loans at a rate of $1000/month


• Pay additional $500/month toward mortgage

Household

• Spend at least 15 minutes 5 days per week on housework


• Paint all living areas of the house to fit my dream house


• Complete phase 1 of landscaping for under $5,000 (lawn, patio, some trees & shrubs)

Social

• Host 3 parties at our house


• Engage with at least 2 recreational activities where we can make new friends as a couple


• Add at least 3 new friends to my social network
  

Recreation & Travel

• Travel to see our families in California, Washington, and Maryland


• 1 Vacation to someplace with a beach


• Try at least 3 new activities


• Go on at least 2 backpacking trips