At the beginning of 2009, I set some new year resolutions for myself. Here is where I keep track of the changes and my current progress
Eliminate 1.5 credit cards: When I started the year I had 4 credit cards with balances. I succeeded in paying 1 off and I am close to paying another one off ($170 as of Septemer 2009). Did a balance transfer and now I am back to 4 cards with balances again and my current goal is:
- Reduce cards with a balance to 2. Ongoing
Save $1000 and put in a mutual fund or CD: I wanted to save $1000 as an emergency reserve. I decided to scrap the CD idea and do something else:
- Save $1000 in a high interest rate savings account for Emergency. Completed this and now I am back to $400 as of September 2009
- Open a Suzy Orman Save Yourself Account to which I put $100 a month for 12 months and I get $100 at the end of the 12 months. Using the simple interest formula, that’s 11% interest so it’s a good deal as far as I am concerned. Ongoing
- I also decided to open a T Rowe Price Mutual Fund Account (RPBAX and PREIX) so I could catch the market as it was coming back up. I figured even if it went down, the best time to invest is during a bear market (as opposed to conventional wisdom). Ongoing
Write two academic papers: I need to have three published academic articles at the time of graduation. I had written one before but it was rejected so I decided to rework and expand it.
- Resubmitted rejected paper. Done
- Submit papers written with lab mate. Ongoing
Don’t drink soda: I used to drink an average of a bottle of soda everyday for the past 3-4 years. Usually it was Coke or Mountain Dew so I decided to stop. One confession though, I find myself drinking Gin & Tonic when I go to the bars now and Tonic Water I came to find out is soda. So technically I have had soda this year, but this is the only form in which I consume it. Ongoing
Cardio (Run or Bike) 3 times a week: I did this for the first quarter of 2009 and then by the second quarter, I fell back into having no time. So I scraped this idea and:
- Started doing P90X. 43rd day as of September 1st 2009
Lift twice a week: See above
Sleep 6 hours: Anyone who knows me is aware that I don’t get a lot of sleep. I started off the year well with this goal, but gradually my hours tended to fluctuate. At the moment I am back to an average of 5 hours but I am working on retooling this. Ongoing
Read 1 book per month: The books I am considering here are non-fiction books. At the moment, I have read
- Team of Rivals (February 2009)
- The Six-Day Financial Makeover (February 2009)
- Founding Brothers (June 2009)
- Four Pillars of Investing (July 2009)
- The Vindication of Love Ongoing
Listen to 1 motivational tape per month: I am only referring to non-fiction work here as well. And by 1 tape, I mean the series since most of these works are multiple CDs /Tapes.
- How To Master Your Time by Brian Tracy Completed
- Success and the Self-Image by Zig Ziglar Completed
- The Science of Personal Achievement by Napoleon Hill Completed
- Powerful Time Management Skills from Franklin Covey (Found an online source but not sure if legit so proceed with caution). Completed
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. Completed
- Living the 7 habits by Stephen Covey. Ongoing
Graduate or at least be close to it i.e. proposal done and defended, comprehensive exam passed, experiments completed and in the process of writing dissertation at the minimum: I decided to break this down into more sizeable chunks. I realized that this would be
- Write proposal. Ongoing
- Defend proposal. Fall 2009
- Comprehensive Exam. Winter 2010
- Dissertation. Spring 2010
Update: Report Card for 2009
