HOW TO START ANEW THIS 2018

The holidays are over and time to set up a new you. This could mean working on  another set of New Year's resolution or upgrading your old one; having a total make over of not just yourself but also your lifestyle; and so much more.

I started reviewing my old list of plans, which I had it entitled "10 Year Deadline". This is a list of my things to accomplish at a 10-year period which has dropped down to 9 this 2018. My review came as a motivation (although I take everything as "motivation" nowadays). I didn't make well last year as it was the year of my daughters' graduations (primary and secondary) which means I need to at least give them some presents. One asked for a DLSR and the other required to have another desktop, different from their cash rewards. These presents already cost me the down payment for my supposed to be investment which I also started the same year. Needless to say, I am still down to around three-quarters of all those installments I need to complete in two more years.

From this financial realization, I need to be certain this time that I can focus to those things which need paying. There are no one graduating this year anyway so I can definitely attend to my investments.

These are those things I tried to work on these past few days:

1. LIST DOWN HOW YOU SPEND YOUR MONEY. I usually print a list of things I need to pay per payday. This list would prioritize my daughters' allowance, bills to pay, credit card dues, daughters' braces adjustment, food, and I still get to place 500php to my bank every month. I usually would add the mount to the credit card due when I deposit to the bank. Practically my first half of the month pay will be totally consumed. Nevertheless, I got more freedom budgeting on how much I can pay on my investments on the second half.

2. PRACTICE BULK BUYING. I do practice bulk buying with my kids. This is the day when all of us will walk to the grocery; pick everything we needed for at least 2 months; grab a taxi and done. Our list of groceries includes toiletries to food until snacks like chips and soda. We have one complete door of just junk food in the cupboard. I also would take a few packs of processed food and stock them in the freezer. These are good for rush morning routines when children go to school. My girls don't like to buy lunch so they get theirs packed and their lunch money are saved.

3. STAY FRUGAL. I have so may tips on how to work on your daily expenses and I will be posting it on my next blog. It is not an excuse that the cupboard is overwhelmed with chips that my girls are allowed to eat as often as they want. We usually open one when we have our bonding time as we watch movies at home after the day's work. This is usually over the weekends after we finish our chores.

4. REVIEW WAYS TO CHECK ON WAYS TO EARN INCOME ON THE SIDE. Even as I work on two part time jobs, I still get to check out where I can increase my output especially on free time. Working in the school is indeed time consuming as the job extends to preparing for the lesson and checking cumbersome test papers every now and then. On the other hand my proofreading job is time consuming just the same as one need to sit down and read writing per writing to meet the daily quota.
Anyhow, with all these tasks on hand, one glance at my "10 Year Deadline" will keep me going and looking for more.

My "10 Year Deadline" is posted just on top of my desktop so I can look at it everytime. Those times when I felt tired working, I only raise my head up to ease the tension, and a glance at my list will invigorate me to get back to work. Another tip is to check on videos pushing you to work harder. Youtube has videos from Robert Kiyosaki, Dave Ramsey and the others which are so motivating. As I always advise my girls, "If you are tired working, it is OK to work slow, but never stop."