Intermediate Goals

It's that time of the month again.

No, not that time.
That's gross.
Shame on you for thinking that.

The time of the month to which I am awkwardly referring is the end of the month where I look back at all the income and expenses for the previous 30 days. It's the time of the month where I get to be an accountant and not get paid for it.

What's different about this month, January 2016, is that it is the first month where I get to evaluate my data in light of my new year's resolution.

I just realized I probably did not share what my resolution for 2016 was.
Here 'tis:
Keep personal credit card statement less than $300 a month.

How inexplicably dull, I know, but achieving this goal has far reaching implications.

I have certain things charged to my credit card every month automatically such as:
1. Cell phone ($30)
2. Car Insurance ($78 or $84 or something, idk, it just went up last month)

So over a third of my allowance is gone right there for just having a car and a phone.
Thank goodness I don't have to pay for a car phone. Remember those? LOL.

Other expenses I usually charge are:
1. Gas, which usually runs about $45 a month or more, depending on the price of gas and if I go to my parents' house
2. Miscellaneous hobby items like sewing notions or patterns
3. Clothing
4. Gifts
5. Going out to eat for lunch

What was so cool about January 2016 is that my credit card statement was less than $120.
That is amazing.
A huge part of this was my USAA dividend got applied to my insurance payment, so that was like $50 in savings.
Another large part was that gas keeps going down and down, so I only spent about $35 in gas.
Additionally, I went out to eat for lunch twice in the past month (very rare for me) and only spent $16.

Not only did I meet my goal, I crushed it.

Even without the USAA payment, my statement still would have been under $200.

What kind of sucks is that I know I'm going to have to buy running shoes sometime in the near future which is one of the most expensive investments for a runner. I've kind of stopped being a runner for the time being and not just because I'm cheap but because I'm also lazy.

I know. I'm so bad.

Anyway, back to the "far-reaching implications" of my incredibly dull resolution.

Currently, I'm working with Mike on Operation Pay Off the House, Man. I try to make myself feel better by advertising that it's only 52 easy payments of $3,918.33!

So while that's going on, the less I spend on credit card stuff, the more I can invest.
And, man, do I miss investing.
Once the house is paid off, though, Operation Deploy Capital Like a Day Trader So You Can Live Like a Wealthy Hobo will be well underway.

My favorite games of pool to play is Nine-Ball. The game is that you take turns hitting the balls 1-8 in order with the end goal of being the person to pocket the 9-ball.

One of my favorite strategies with this game is to look for opportunities where I can line up the queue ball to hit the low-numbered ball that will hit the 9-ball in, which ends the game early as if the setup were some zany Rube Goldberg Mouse-Trap machine.

I call it "intermediate goals". Keeping the end goal in mind allows you to adjust how you play the game.

It's a good strategy for Nine-ball and also for life.

We should really clean out Daniel's garage so we can play Nine-ball sometime,
TWS