SMART Goal 1

Maintain a positive bank balance in January and February 2008. It’s SPECIFIC and ATTRACTIVE: I first phrased this as ‘To not go into overdraft mode every month’, but changing this into the positive voice makes it more of an encouraging target. It’s MEASURABLE, as I just have to check my budget sheet against my online account to track my progress: what I’ve spent, what I have left to spend and how much money I have left in the bank. Is it REALISTIC? I first wrote ‘Maintain a positive bank balance every month during 2008’, but I’m not sure how realistic that is. In the 15 months that I’ve been tracking our budget, not once have we been able to make those goals. We have a monthlong trip to the US planned for the Spring, and I’ll be taking a major pay loss after February. I’ve therefore set the goal for the first two months of the year, and I’ll revisit it at the end of each month, as well as probably many times in between! Finally, it is a TIMED goal, as I’ve very clearly laid out a timeframe for myself.

Will I meet this goal? I hope so. It represents the next hurdle that I need to overcome in my path to becoming financially responsible and debt free: living within my means!