Three months have passed since the beginning of the year. A quarter has passed since January 1 and its traditional procession of resolutions of all kinds. From the simplest to the craziest, from the most realistic to the most utopian. Three months is ultimately a short time, but it is above all an opportunity to draw up an initial interim report on the progress, or not, of some of its 2014 objectives. As far as I am concerned, my objectives were to optimize my expenses and my way of life, with the somewhat pretentious idea of helping everyone to motivate themselves in turn to optimize their personal finances .
But why this article? Why is regular monitoring of your goals an imperative? Well for several reasons, including:
For my part, several targets had been identified at the beginning of the year. For the record, I invite you to read or reread the article detailing my 2014 objectives. We will now take them up one by one to see how far we have come.
An important objective had been set at the start of the year: to increase my savings by €10,000 over the next 12 months. Clearly, the objective is advancing at the correct pace given the target and the deadline set. However, drawing up an initial assessment on this point is not easy. Indeed, expenditures are planned for this year which will burden the figures reached to date. I will be a little more by the end of the semester on the precise amount of these expenses, so I prefer not to present here a quantified balance sheet and not to advance too much on the achievement of this objective. All I can say is that I have no worries so far or certainty, we will see when the summer is here. Operationally, the actions that my wife and I had deemed relevant were put in place to approach these €10,000 at the end of the year, namely:
To optimize your finances and increase your purchasing power, the simplest solution is probably not the first solution that you often think of, namely increasing your income. Indeed, increased income is synonymous with increased taxes , so the money earned in addition does not land 100% in your pocket. No, the easiest way is to better manage your expenses. And one of the obvious levers is then to reduce recurring direct debits which in most cases constitute a substantial part of a household’s monthly expenses.
The objective here is to reduce my expenses by €50 per month, i.e. all the same a gain net of tax of €600 desired over the year. As you know if you follow this blog, a first step was taken in February by reducing the cost of my car insurance, allowing me to free up almost €30 out of the €50 envisaged. And I do not intend to stop there, with a second track which should materialize quickly, track mentioned in the article on the advantages of public transport. A third action is in progress, which I will present once validated, so this objective should, if all goes well, be achieved well before the end of 2014.
In 2013, I managed to generate €1,300 in bonuses net of tax, in particular thanks to the existing sponsorship system for various online banks. Sponsorship has really been a catalyst and constitutes, in my view, a bonus which one should not hesitate to take advantage of when subscribing to a service, whatever its nature. Overall earnings can easily amount to several tens or hundreds of euros , all without significant effort. On this theme, do not hesitate to consult the article devoted to sponsorship or to take a look at my Sponsorships page.
As the amount collected in 2013 seemed very high to me, I set the bar a little lower for 2014: a target of €1,000 was shared with you. In order not to make this article indigestible, a separate article is planned to present the various actions launched to date, actions of course accompanied by their results. Suspense, suspense… 🙂
[EDIT]29/03/2014: the article on my balance sheet at the end of March 2014 is published: Winning €1,000 in bonuses, balance sheet after 3 months[/EDIT]
After nearly taking the plunge a few years ago, 2014 will be the year of my first real estate investment! The subject is rather well advanced as it has already been shared in the article on the choice of a first apartment building, and even more so in the article evoking the signing of the sales agreement. The search for the best mortgage is in full swing, I will have to be fixed next week. Here again, we will have the opportunity to discuss the subject together in the articles to come in the coming weeks.
Finally, last objective not directly related to the topic of Optimizing your finances , although… If it is a bit early, and even more so not appropriate, to talk about monetizing the blog, this site forces me to maintain my motivation intact to follow the path to financial independence. By the way, this is not yet one of my life goals. It allowed me to get in touch with other people whose approach is similar to mine and just for that, this blog has exceeded my expectations. Well, I’m not quite 3 months old yet, and I understand that the most difficult thing is to last, by continuing to publish relevant and interesting posts. Thanks to you, my desire is still there and I don’t have the idea of stopping anytime soon! So yes, this target of 100 weekly visits will be reached within the year! I have the idea of doing a next article on this subject as well, as soon as I have some time to take a step back.
So much for this first assessment after 3 months. Already quite a long way, optimizing your finances has never seemed so interesting to me since I shared it with you. And I hope that in January 2015, I will be able to proudly tell you that these 5 objectives have been achieved or even exceeded, and share with you the rest of my adventures!
For your part, have you been able to make progress on the objectives and resolutions you set at the start of the year? What actions do you take to keep your motivation high?