Shannon writes in with a great question: I’m trying to figure out how exactly I should save for several goals that I have. Here are the things I want to save for: 1. A BlendTec blender – $300 2. A complete refinishing of the downstairs bathroom – $3,000 3. A vacation to Germany next summer

A few weeks ago, I put out a call on Twitter and on Facebook for detailed posts that people would like to see. I got enough great responses that I’m going to fill the entire month of July – one post per day – addressing these ideas. On Facebook, Joan wondered “What do you do

Mark sent me an email regarding my recent article, Some Thoughts on the Long Term, in which he asked the following question: I still don’t see any compelling reason to worry about my future more than about five years down the road. I can think about where I’d like to be in ten years, but

Amy writes in: I have no problem setting goals for myself. I follow the steps you suggest: make them realistic, make them numerical so I can keep track of them, write them down, and so on. The problem is that when I come up with a plan to reach them, that plan completely falls apart

I’m never going to play in the NBA. That’s an unrealistic goal for me, and I knew it to be an unrealistic goal when I was ten years old on the playground. I wasn’t fast enough and didn’t have the natural reflexes of the other ten year olds on the court. It was a painful

Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking a great deal about the goals I’ve set for 2011. For a quick reminder, here they are: Goal #1: Get fit, which basically meant meeting a few fitness metrics Goal #2: Play music, which meant being able to successfully play four pieces on the piano Goal #3:

Whenever I consider whether or not I should be doing something, I ask myself a very simple question. Is this moving me towards my goals? The outcome of that question casts a strong light on the activity at hand. Sometimes, it’s a positive light and it encourages me to move forward. At other times, it’s

I want to run for mayor of a large city. I want to publish a series of fantasy novels that appear in every bookstore in the country. I want to pay off the $300,000 in debt that I owe. I want to start a restaurant chain. I want to visit 100 countries by the time

This year, in addition to my three yearlong resolutions, I’ve decided to take on a series of month-long goals and projects spread throughout the year. Here’s my schedule of projects as they read right now, which covers the first five months of the year. January 2011: Rearrange my office with shelving February 2011: Reorganize the

Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. For my first book review of 2011, which will pop up on the site on Sunday and appear in subscriber’s mailboxes early in the morning of the first working Monday of the year, I thought I’d take a look at

In an effort to talk about the power of goal-setting along with some methods of setting and achieving goals, I’m going to discuss my three resolutions for 2011 this week. Over time, any voracious reader winds up with a list of books that they intend to read someday, but they find themselves reading more urgent

In an effort to talk about the power of goal-setting along with some methods of setting and achieving goals, I’m going to discuss my three resolutions for 2011 this week. Another of my 2010 resolutions was to learn to play the piano, which is something I feel is coming along very well. For 2011, I’ve

In an effort to talk about the power of goal-setting along with some methods of setting and achieving goals, I’m going to discuss my three resolutions for 2011 this week. As many of you remember, I set a weight loss goal for 2010 that I exactly halfway achieved. I’m happy with that partial success. What

As 2010 draws to a close, it’s time to take a look at my resolutions for the year and see how they’ve gone. 1. Lose 40 pounds Result: Partial success What do I mean by partial success? I mean that I did lose weight during 2010 and made it halfway to my goal by losing

Recently, a good friend of mine convinced me to sign up for HealthMonth, a website that aims to turn the self-motivation needed to improve one’s health into a fun game (you can see my HealthMonth profile and goals). It works quite simply: you set certain goals for yourself throughout the month – “I will floss

When we set big, lofty goals for ourselves, it’s really easy to find ourselves at a plateau of sorts, where it feels like we’re spinning our wheels but not really heading upward towards our end target. I’ll share two examples of this from my own life. I’ve been working on a novel pretty consistently for

Recently, I came across (via jason kottke) a brilliant commencement speech given at Princeton by Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon. The main focus of Bezos’ speech was the difference between gifts and choices. Here’s an excerpt: What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness

As I’ve said many times on here, my wife and I have a small handful of major goals that we share going forward in our lives. We both want to eventually live in the country with some wooded area and a small barn. We both want to focus on raising our children as well as

Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people. – Nido Qubein I spent the first twenty five years of my life mostly pushing forward on goals created by other people. When I was in school, I was told that grades were the only thing that mattered.