Way back in January, I published our family’s list of goals for the year. I’ve learned over time that if I don’t write down Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timed goals, there’s no point in making goals at all. We also set a BHAG (a big, hairy, audacious goal) to pay down a chunk of debt that amounted to 19% of our bring home pay. We wanted to shoot for the stars!
So how did we do? Well, we reevaluated those goals several times. We finally realized that we would have to set aside some of our goals to focus more on our BHAG.
Sometimes success ends up looking much different than you envisioned. And I’m ok with that!
Reaching My SMART Goals for 2016 (Or not?)
Home/Barn
- Get a water plan in place. We’ve decided to table this until 2018 (or until we have all credit card debt paid off).
- Barn driveway. We’ve also tabled this plan for now.
- Improve goat pens and fencing. Working on the barn is ongoing and probably always will be!
Finish the bathroom project.Done!- Paint baseboards and staircase. I’ve put this off until we have cc debt paid off.
Swimming. Done! One of the best things we did in 2016. (I hated that my kids couldn’t swim enough to get out of water.)- Vacation. We had a fun camping trip!
- One on One Time. Another ongoing goal. This could probably be made more SMART.
Marriage
- Date. We didn’t have monthly dates, but we improved over previous years.
Personal
- Faith. I used a few different books to improve on this.
- Read. I did not make it through 12 books in 2016. I probably did about half that.
- Blogging. I made this much more SMART (see below). In 2017, I plan to dedicate these goals to their own blog posts.
- Exercise. This was a no go in 2016. I spent all my extra time on the blog and couldn’t fit it in the schedule. Now that I’m learning to blog smarter I hope to make this a priority in 2017!
Our BHAG
Our main goal and biggest focus of 2016 is to pay off debt. The debt we are focused on amounts to nearly 19% of our (after taxes and deductions) bring home pay. So for every $100 we bring into the house, $19 has to go back towards this debt.
Our #yearofno taught us a lot about ourselves. We’ve changed the way we think about spending money. Would I do it again? Absolutely. In fact, I’m hoping to turn the lessons we learned from our #yearofno into an ebook in 2017.
That said, we didn’t quite reach our goal. It was a stretch from the beginning, so I can’t be too upset about the fact that we got our debt down by 78% rather than 100%.
The Hidden Benefits
What you can’t see by looking at that number is the big changes we made in our lives this year. Here’s a list of just some of the life overhaul we made in 2016:
- Paid off our van early.
- Covered all Christmas expenses without touching a credit card. (This is huge and will change our finances all year!)
- Finally broke the bad habit of hitting the drive thru or the pizza joint whenever life was a little busy.
- Adopted a new mindset about spending. That “just $1” item is often not worth it.
- Reevaluated spending with the kids. They learned to delay gratification a bit better.
- Covered heat bills using our sinking funds.
While 2016 was rough for many, it’s a year I will remember as pivotal for our family.
Blogging Goals
I’m glad that I set these goals, but the truth is I had no idea what to shoot for. Now I realize that I should have aimed much higher! What a fun way to learn about blogging goals. 🙂
- Improve social media. My goal is 5,000 Twitter followers, 600 Facebook likes, and want to have 3,500 pins to my Pinterest page by year end.
- 2016 is close enough to over that I’ll call this at 6,541 Twitter, 606 Facebook (squeaked it in!), and 6375 pins. I later decided to track these stats: 2392 Pinterest followers and 527 Instagram followers.
- Learn. Take 12 classes on ways to improve my blogging.
- I took at least 12 classes from big to small to help me improve my blogging. I chose free courses as well as paid. And I took advantage of the Genius Bloggers Toolkit, a lite version of EBA, and more. I’m proud of how much I learned and the improvements I’ve made to Medium Sized Family in 2016.
- Views. In January, I had about 6,000 pageviews per month. I’d like to increase that to 18,000 pageviews per month by the end of the year.
- I reached a high point of 22,820 in September. Each month my numbers bop around a bit, so it’s tough to get a good average. My December views are at 17,076. I anticipate higher numbers in January once my Secure Your Savings and Find Peace in the New Year series begins. Very happy with my slow but steady growth this year!
- Guest post. I’d like to start writing at least 1 guest post per month.
- Guest posting has been valuable for me in 2016. I was excited to write for The Penny Hoarder, Money Saving Mom, The Peaceful Mom, and more. You can find those posts on my Start Here page.
- Monetize. I need this blog to earn some money to help with our BHAG, so I’m always exploring ways to monetize. Since I’ll only share things that I truly find beneficial, I pass on a lot of opportunities.
- I never realized there were so many ways to earn money while blogging before this year. I’ve earned money through sponsored posts, ads, affiliate links, social media, and freelance writing. I’m hoping to improve in all of these areas again this year. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve only accepted jobs that I can truly stand behind, and I will continue that in the new year.
That’s how we spent our 2016.
We had a good year, and anticipate a great 2017. Stay tuned to read all about our goals for the new year!
How did you do in 2016? Was it all you’d hoped for?
sounds like you all did great. Not using credit card to buy Christmas now this one would be a huge one and one we are proud of this Christmas as well Congrats on what sounds like a successful year
come see us at http://shopannies.blogspot.com
I found this series in October and I’ve really enjoyed reading it. Congratulations on all of the success this year. Looking forward to seeing your goals and your ebook in 2017!
Wow…even though you didn’t reach 100%, cutting your debt by 78% is huge. Congratulations on that and all the other progress you made this year!
Thank you! I’m pretty proud of our progress this year. It’s been a good year for us.
Congrats on the goals you did reach. If you don’t mind sharing, what were the 12 blogging courses you took and how did you find they helped?
The Sticky Blogging Formula was probably my favorite and made a big impact. It’s a free mini course http://stickyblogging.com/subscribe/. I also did a lite version of EBA that only covered getting your blog started. I’ve read the 17 Strategies ebook, Strategies Worth Sharing (Facebook) ebook. Plus many others. I adore Sticky Blogging, though!
Thanks! I’ll have to check them out! Maybe I’ll be able to get some traffic like yours then for next year!
Good luck to you!
Great summary of your goals and achievements! Page views and Twitter followers are particularly impressive! Look forward to reading more of your content in 2017!
Congratulations. Hopefully you’ll be out of debt this year and ready to start investing. It’s a lot of fun to see your net worth go up with passive income.
I.can’t.wait. 🙂
Wow, you did a great job with your debt! And “broke the bad habit of hitting the drive thru or the pizza joint whenever life was a little busy” is huge! At least I know it would be for us. 2016 was a pretty good year, although we didn’t accomplish everything we wanted to. For 2017, we’re going to try to focus a bit more to make sure the priorities get done. Hope you and your family have a very happy new year, Jamie!
That goal was huge. It was a big life change, but was so good for us in more ways than just money. Hope you have a great year, too, Gary!
You have come a long ways. I love how you have realized that not everything can be done. It will get done but not right now. So smart and balanced! Great job on your blog goals too!
Thank you! 2016 was certainly a year for personal growth.
I am so impressed with your debt reduction! I think my husband is finally on board and we’re going to make a go of it this year. It’d be wonderful to pay down 78% in a year. I need to crunch all the numbers to see where we are. Thanks for sharing on the Homestead Blog Hop!
Good for you! That’s awesome success! I especially love your blog wins and the fact that you paid off 78% of your debt. That’s amazing!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much! It was a long year, but I’m really pleased with the progress we made. 🙂