December 2014: Goals Update

I think the only thing better than dreaming up goals is checking them off :)

Finances
Put at least $2000 toward mortgage prepayment - Yes! We actually paid $2600 by September. 

Save for daycare - Change of plans! My employer doesn't provide paid maternity leave so I figured we'd kill two birds with one stone - practice paying for daycare and use the money to pay bills while I was home with a baby. Since we now know we'll need medical intervention to have a baby, this savings account will instead be the start of our fund for that. I'm super glad we have this moolah set aside! 

Personal 
Finish my degree - Probably my proudest moment of the year! I turned in my final project in April and graduated in May :)

Read 50 books - Success! 73 books in all. I'll have a post about my favorites soon.

Marriage

Travel at least twice - Yes! We traveled to California to celebrate our anniversary in June and to NYC for a day in November.

Learn something new together - Yep! 
We took a surfing lesson in California and it was one of the coolest experiences ever. I would definitely do it again.

Read a book together - Not really. We accomplished the spirit of this goal - shared reading - the way we usually do. I read a book and loved it, then Mr. G listened to the audio version on my recommendation and we talked about it afterwards. Reading a book aloud just didn't work out for us like we hoped. 


All in all, fantastic year :) 

Goodreads published a set of illustrated quotes on Monday to wrap up 2014. They're all beautiful but this one by Simini Blocker made me laugh:
Excited for 2015!

Comments

  1. Congratulations! I can't believe you read 73 books! That's incredible... I don't think I've read 73 books in my entire adult life put together - even if you count the ones CatMan had read aloud to me. Movies, on the other hand... :-)

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    1. Thanks! I wonder how many movies I've seen this year? I love goodreads for tracking my reads so much, I wish there was a similar tracker for movies. And I'm in awe of how many miles you've traveled by bike this year - very impressive! :)

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  2. Your review is very upbeat - lots of good things have happened - and all is looking good for 2015. Happy New Year!

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    1. So true, lots of good this year :) Happy New Year, Dar!

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  3. Wow what a great set of accomplishments, I should review my 2014 goals in a post!

    I'm so pleased you can look on the positives of your child care savings, and redeploy them to something that will help you have a child. It's a great upbeat point of view!

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    1. Thank you! Yes please do review them, I'd love to hear how your goals turned out.

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  4. So thrilled that you have the daycare funds available now to redeploy. 73 books is amazing, especially in a year when you had your final work due for graduation. Congrats on a wonderful year, from mortgage success to education success. I am sure there are very exciting things ahead in 2015!

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    1. Thank you! Yep, the savings will come in handy :) I haven't read this much in a long, long time - I'm grateful for the extra free time I had after finishing school.

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  5. You did great in 2014 Amanda, 73 books? Wow!

    I wish you and Mr G all the very best for 2015 :)

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    1. Thanks Laura! I'm surprised by how much I read as well (was only aiming for 50 books). But I do enjoy it so much that I make time for it :)

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  6. Wow you totally blew all your goals out of the water! What a year! 73 books is awesome. When do you do most of your reading? I'd love to know what helps you keep on track with reaching your goals. Do you ever fall off the horse? :o)

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    1. Thank you! I had a lot more goals in 2013 and accomplished far fewer of them, so I wanted to narrow my focus in 2014. It really helped! I also checked in with my goals most months here on the blog and that seemed to keep me accountable (and the goals were usually fresh in my mind because of those blog updates so nothing really got put on the back burner). I tried to pick things that were SUPER important to me - not stuff like "clean out the guest room," which I could easily put off because it's messy, but not bothering me too much.

      I usually read at breakfast, after dinner, and/or before bed. I try to bring books with me so I can read while I wait as well. 5 minutes is better than no minutes :)

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