Lessons Learned About Setting Goals

It is that time of the year.  To me, December means finishing out the year strong, racing towards the finish line, and setting the table for a successful year going forward.  For the last few weeks, I have been thinking long and hard about my life, investing, and our blog goals.  What should I focus on?  Where should I be at this point next year?  Questions like these have racing through my mind and I am trying to process and make sense of them all.  I’ve been thinking a lot about the goals I have set from the prior year and trying to leverage them as much as possible, including both the successes and the shortcomings.  I thought it would be helpful for me, and hopefully some of you, to write down my thoughts and lessons learned over the last few years about setting goals.   Time to dive in.

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My Plan to Pay Off Our Student Loans

Student Loans….a topic that almost everyone can relate to and almost every person in the personal finance community curse.  We’ve all read the reports and the numbers are staggering:  total student loans are over $1 trillion dollars here in the US and the average graduate is leaving school with an average of $37,712 (Source: Student Loan Hero).  My goal today is to discuss my family’s student loan situation, some of the tough discussions we had before incurring the student loans, and then to cap it off, my plan to pay off our debt as early as possible.

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One Downside of a Roth IRA

I’m starting with a disclaimer here.  We could debate for hours the pros and cons of a Roth IRA; Heck, Lanny has written about both sides of the Roth vs. Traditional argument already…first about maximizing your Roth IRA contributions for 10 years and then writing about his plan to use a Traditional IRA going forward during the summer.  What am I proving here?  There is not a one size fits all approach and using a Roth or a Traditional account may (and should) change as your financial situation changes.   This last week I experienced one of the downsides of a Roth IRA and I wanted to share it with all of you.

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Why I Can’t Wait for 2017

This morning I have been thinking about “next year”, not in the Cleveland Browns sense where “there is always next year”, but that I am eagerly awaiting what is to come next year.  If you have read my articles, there are probably a few reasons that you can come up with as it relates to next year, but I was hoping to write about them and the impacts that it will have on my life , beginning January 2017.

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Bert’s 3rd Quarter Goals Review

We are rounding third and heading home here.  Considering the Cleveland Indians clinched the AL Central Division title this week, I figured a baseball reference to start the article off was pretty appropriate.  Let’s see if they can capture some of the same postseason magic the Cavs had during their run in May/June.   At the end of each quarter, Lanny and I review our annual goals to monitor our progress towards hitting these marks.  If we are on pace…great.  If we are off track, well there is still time to make some adjustments despite the fact there are only three months remaining.  Time to dig and perform my third quarter goals review.

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My Not-So-Glorious Cable & Internet Battle

Having cable is a hot topic in the personal finance community.  There is one camp that consists of people who have been able to cut the cord and slash their cable, ditching traditional cable, and subscribing to a streaming service like Netflix.   And the other camp, which I find myself in, have been unable to cut the cord because they like their traditional package and live sports too much!  Well, last month, my cable contract expired and my rates were set to jump.  I was torn in both directions and this was the closest I have ever come to cutting the cord.   I wanted to share this experience with all of you…check out my last battle with my cable and internet provider.

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Banking Without Branches (3 Months Later) & A HUGE Life Lesson Learned

Woah, I can’t believe time has flown by this quickly.   It seems like just yesterday I was walking into my banks, closing my accounts, and requesting a cashier’s check with the remaining funds.   Why did I do this? My wife and I were looking to consolidate our finances after our wedding and wanted to experiment with using a bank without any physical branches in our area.   Ultimately, we selected Capital One as for this grand experiment.  That was three months ago, so I wanted to share the results of this experiment with all of you!  But wait, there is more.  Over the last three months, this experience and others has taught me a HUGE life lesson that I would like to share with all of you.

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