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Another month, another goal accomplished. Last month, I fully funded my individual 401k for 2008 and this month I fully funded my Roth IRA for 2008. I was able to do this a few days before the tax filing deadline. Now all I have to do is work on funding my retirement accounts for 2009. And all of my other goals of course.
Personal Finance Goals
- Fully fund 2008 Individual 401k ($8,207.00/$8,207.00) – Completed in March.
- Fully fund 2008 Roth IRA ($5,000/$5,000) – I just barely funded my Roth IRA before the tax filing deadline. Now it’s time to focus on funding my 2009 accounts.
- Fully fund 2009 Individual 401k ($0/$2,816.00) – Now that my 2008 retirement accounts are fully funded, I will begin funding my 2009 retirement accounts. I haven’t decided if I will start contributing immediately, or if I will build up a buffer of $5,000 or $10,000 before I fund my retirement accounts. I have a full year to fund these accounts, so my only hurry would be to try to invest while the market is still depressed. I suppose you will find out next month. My Individual 401k account goal for 2009 will increase every month as I earn more self-employed income.
- Fully fund 2009 Roth IRA ($0/$5,000) – As soon as I finish funding my Roth IRA with my 2008 contributions, I will try to fund this account as soon as possible. The goal is to invest as much as possible while the stock market is still depressed.
Alternative Income Goals
- Turn blogging into a source of income – I have not done a whole lot of work to turn blogging into a source of income this month. I was screwed over by google with their ad service over a year ago. None of the other ad services have proven to be very effective. Most of my money making opportunities will come from affiliate marketing. So far I have earned $100 through affiliate marketing, which is already enough to cover the $35 for my first year of hosting and the domain name. My overall goal is $565, which also covers my new laptop.
- Increase monthly page views and subscribers – I haven’t done a very good job promoting my blog this month. For this reason, my daily page views and subscribers were stagnant. My monthly page views, however, increased from 940 to 1,089. I have to dedicate more time to submitting to carnivals and writing guest posts. By the end of the year I will try to host a carnival or two as well.
- Replace tutoring income through a company with my own personal clients – I have made no attempts at tutoring on my own. I do not plan on attempting to tutor on my own until the school year begins in August. I also might try to supplant my tutoring income with a few different opportunities. I will go into these opportunities in an upcoming post.
General Goals
- Travel to two cities I’ve never been to – I don’t currently have any plans set in stone for traveling to two new cities, but it is still early. I do have a tentative weekend for a trip to Atlanta to see my Braves dominate the Phillies and Mets in September. The second city might be DC, Cleveland or somewhere in Mexico.
- Get in shape – So getting in shape has definitely started lagging behind and not for a lack of motivation. I just keep hurting myself when I run. On top of that, my bike has a flat tire. I will get my bike fixed this weekend and I just bought rollerblades to give me another consistent option. I have been lifting rather consistently and I have started to notice a difference in my strength, but that doesn’t really help me lose the weight that I want to. I really have to find a way to run though as that is where my passion lies.
It feels really good to be completing goals one after the other. I will continue to work hard on them so I can accomplish every single one. The most difficult one will probably be the get in shape goal as I somehow always manage to hurt myself. Until next month. Keep striving to meet your goals and I will be doing the same.
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Hi Steve,
Just arrived here from your post on Pat’s blog. I don’t have a website, blog or Adsense account. But I’ve been thinking about such things after reading Pat.
What happened with the Google ad service over a year ago? I’m guessing you’re refering to Adsense?? How’d you get screwed over? Why and how did you lose it, and have you tried to get it back? If you have attempted to get it back, what in your opinion is not working? What in your opinon did you do or not do initially that caused the problem in the first place?
Best of luck with your blog!
@Jen, I apologize for the late response. I was using Google’s Adsense on a different blog. I told a friend about how Adsense works and they took it upon themselves to click on my Ads numerous times. By the time I knew what was going on, Google disabled my account and I have been blacklisted.
The main problem is that there isn’t really a good alternative. Google has a monopoly on CPC advertisements, which means monetizing this way is almost impossible now.
Google is a search giant and could care less for the little man. I tried appealing and explaining the situation, but they didn’t even respond. I’m waiting for a legitimate competitor to step up against google both for search engines and advertising.