There is Nothing New Under the Sun

A lot of the reason behind my latest blogging hiatus stemmed from the single fact that I felt like everything that I wanted to blog about was already being blogged to death by everyone else. Thanksgiving? Oh, I'm so thankful for my family and friends! Christmas? Wow, the lead up to the holidays is so stressful but the actual day is so family oriented and I love it! New Year's Eve? Psshh, I wouldn't be caught dead out on Amateur Night; I spent a quaint evening in with good company and laughter!

This is what I looked like by the end of the holidays, too.

Rather than regaling everyone with detailed analyses of my day-to-day doings (which, truthfully, were pretty mundane the past month or so anyway), it made more sense to me to just take a break, regroup and come back fresh with my own take on events, after everyone had a chance to get their lives back in order and, with any luck, recover from the surge of reflection running rampant on the internet.

Given the flurry of 2011 recaps over the past two weeks, at first I was hesitant to go back over the 11 goals that I had set for myself during the past year. Why, I wondered, would anyone other than myself care about what I accomplished (or didn't) in the span of 365 days? What makes it worth publishing, committing it to public record?  I hemmed. I hawed. I hemmed some more. But at the end of the day, I realized that I'd be cheating my 2012 self out of an opportunity to learn if I didn't do it. Rather than bore everyone to death with one long, ridiculous post, I thought I'd just tack updates on a few of my goals at the end of other posts. I might do all 11; I might not. But I figure this way, if you don't care, you can just read the first part and skip the summary, and I get the satisfaction of reflecting on what I what I did and what I still want to do. Everyone wins!
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And so, now that I've done exactly what I said I didn't want to do, here is an update on 2011 Goal #1:

1) Fiscal Responsibility 
One of my biggest goals in 2011 was to finally get my ass in gear with respect to not only how I spend my money, but also how I save it. After successfully clearing all debt but my current student loan payments in 2008 and 2009, 2010 was a time to kind of just relax and enjoy the fact that I no longer had to subsist on PB&J and PBR. It was nice to appreciate not cringing every single time a telephone rang or a white corner stuck out of my mailbox. For the first time since my senior year of college, I was able to live a comfortable lifestyle, within my means, without worrying about every nickle and dime that burned a hole in my wallet. It was a good feeling.

But in 2011, I wanted more. I wanted to save! I wanted to be a money maven!

To that end, I began the year with two goals: 1) pay off at least one of my student loans, and 2) end the year with a substantial sum in my savings account. All in all, I finished 50/50, saving enough of a nest egg to cover my ass should I ever need to, and falling a little bit short of paying off one of those pesky loans.

And while I didn't mange to pay off an entire loan in full, I'm ok with that -- because rather than paying off the easiest one with a fixed income rate, I decided to take on one with a higher balance and a (much, criminally) higher interest rate. I now owe substantially less towards the principle of that loan, and the balance is dropping lower every month. With respect to my little cushion account, I set a savings goal and really stuck to it, transferring a good chunk of each paycheck and never dipping into my savings save for one real, true emergency for which it is meant (my wallet was stolen and I needed to transfer cash in the event my landlord cashed our rent check the one day it took me to sort it all out with the bank). I also hoped to learn more about my work retirement accounts, which I actually found really interesting ! I learned all about my 403(b) and pension plans, and ALSO found out that I have a 401(k) loitering around due to a previous job I had. All in all, I feel at a much more comfortable place than I did a year ago, both in terms of finances and knowledge of them.  

Assessment: A. I know I only scored a 50 on the total rubric, but I really put my head into this one and made substantial progress towards my goals.


So, that's that. I have a real question, though: what is your opinion of year-end recap posts? I think they're valuable, to a point, but on the other hand, who really cares aside from the person writing them?