Indeed this year has been the big turning point of my life. I never had imagined that it will all happen in just one year! It was truly challenging that until now I can’t help to think that maybe this is not real.
- I lost my job.
- I lost some of my relatives.
- I lost one of my colleagues.
- I lost one of my friends.
- I saw how my colleagues desperately looked for a job.
- I saw how my fellow countrymen fight to survive from pandemic to typhoons.
- I experienced a lot of rejections.
- I was stuck for half a year without a job and with less money!
I remember my dramas back then and this blog became my outlet from all of that. Check out my blogs that I’d put my heart on it during this tough times.
Fast forward, regardless of what happened, I still found something positive out of it. I landed a job and was able to share some of my savings to those who were in need during the typhoon in the Philippines. Let’s just say that I didn’t lose hope that there will be something good in this year. Well, I think that to stay positive is necessary for me in this time so that I won’t succumb to these challenges.
I know that I need to start again from the very beginning and I may feel quite pressured about it. But with the hope that this upcoming year will be the best one, I’ll see everything in a positive way. I’ll take everything step by step.
So let’s trail down to my goals this year which I’ll be working with much effort for it to work out. Are yo ready?
Financial Goals
Since I almost spent my savings due to being unemployed for six months, sadly I need to start from the very beginning again.
1.Investment Fund. In case of emergency (like what happened to me), I planned to secure two years advance payment for my investment. In this way I’ll be able to pay regardless of not having any source of income for two years.
2. Business Fund. This is my new goal after getting a new job. Since I’d experience an increase from my previous salary, I planned to put all of it in building my passive income. Actually I have a lot of things in my mind like house rentals, food kiosk, water refilling station, online farming and many more. As of now, I still haven’t decided on it yet, but I need to start saving for it to happen.
3. Emergency Fund. This is my top priority from all of my financial goals this year. Since it helped me a lot for the whole six months, having this will give me a peace of mind whatever happens in the future. Based on what I’d experienced, I planned to secure an amount that can provide for my six month expenses. This savings will be kept solely for emergency purposes, although I’ll be easily access it, I need to ensure that I won’t touch it for other purposes.
4. Joint Account. This is my boyfriend and I planned on having by the year 2021. This will serve as our fund whatever priorities will have in the future. From Marriage, buying a house, business and other investment, this will be our source of it. This fund unlike any other savings account, it won’t be that required to put huge amount on it. Whenever we’re comfortable to put any amounts, that will be ok so that it won’t put pressure on both of us.
5. Local Bank Account. Since this account is accessible, the emergency fund , my first investment (since it’s still not enrolled in debit payment) and my monthly expenses will be put here. It’s very important on my part to keep a track and make sure not to overspend the amount that was stated, so that the payments for those will always be ready.
To ensure that I’ll be able to reach my financial goals in the year 2021, I made a budget guidelines for every month starting January 2021. By having this, it will be easy for me to allocate my funds for each goals. All I need to do is to make sure I’ll follow those amounts needed to complete my goals.
You can check my blog on Sharing is Caring: How I Manage my Salary to know how I allocate my salary from my savings up to expenses!
Personal Goals
I know that from the past years I’d been neglecting myself from all of the things I deserves. From physical, emotional, spiritual and mental needs, I deprived myself from all of it. Never again this year. I learned from it already and now I wanted to put it on my top list. This upcoming year, I’ll make sure that I’ll be able to learn more and experience things that will help me to develop myself. This time it will not be for the sake of other but it will all be for myself.
1.Take Short Courses. It’s been my dream to take Master’s Degree but since I can’t afford it now, I’ll planned to take training courses that are fit to my current field. I was planning to take training courses such as Events Management, Sales and Marketing and Document Control. I already looked into some training centers here in my place and all I need to do is to save money for those courses. Actually it doesn’t cost that much and the training will take only less than two months, but since it’s pandemic, there’s some precautionary measures that are strictly needed to follow.
2. Read Books. I’d been a fanatic of books since before, but now I wanted to focus on Inspirational and Financial books this year. I know it will not only help me mentally but personally as well especially in making decisions. I plan to borrow all the books I have in mind in the National Library here in my place, by doing that, I won’t spend much and I can read many books as I can.
3. Be a Volunteer. This is quite 50:50 knowing the situation right now, but I’ll look into it so that it will happen this year. I have things in mind already but making it possible will surely take time for me.
4. Tea & Drinks Recipe. I’d been a coffee lover for so long and now I wanted to venture on another drinks which are more considered healthy. My curiosity started when I read a manga titled The Duchess’ 50 Tea Recipe. I was just reading it before just to kill time and then just one day, I started to take note all the information about Tea from it. Now my curiosity became a motivation for me to know more about it and I’m certain that I can also use it in the future once I have my own beverage shop (Who Knows?).
5. Explore Qatar. This is my project for this year. I don’t know, but while writing the places I want to go in this country, the excitement built up on me right away! My target is to put a budget for that and at the same time, plan two places that I must visit every month. This may sound unattainable knowing that I’m still not sure about how busy I’ll be next year, but why not? Let’s just see what will happen by then!
Social Media Goals
This is quite challenging on my part since until now I can’t find time to be active on my accounts like before. I also have this anxiety in my mind to share things openly, knowing how world revolves right now (It’s crazy!). Well, I can do it slowly but surely, right?
As of now, here’s the over all update of my accounts this year and my planned target for each.
- Instagram. My Instagram leapearl_14 has been active since I was in college, but when I graduated, I started to became lazy to update it. I rarely post unlike before. And maybe that’s the reason why the number of followers are not increasing. Now I wanted to focus on making my profile look stunning. I’d been reading some strategies to grow your followers and all of them pointed out that the content plays a big role on that.Well I know that this will be very challenging for me but I’ll surely work on that in this upcoming year.
- Facebook. My account in facebook plays a big part on getting my blog more readers. Having almost 4000+ active friends and followers, it became one of the platform that help me reached out to my readers. Although I became quite anxious posting since It was hacked before, I think I just need to be more careful but at the same time engage on it to keep it active.
- WordPress. This blog is very important to me. It was with me when I faced all the challenges that happened in this year. It became an outlet for me to share my experience, inspire others and reach out people around the world. I started last September 2020, and I never imagined that I reached 1630 readers! I may sound over reacting on it but it just makes me happy that someone is interested on my work. It’s more than enough for me and that’s the reason why I wanted to consistently work on it.
I’d seen a lot of blogs that took almost five years to reach thousands of readers and they faced the same thing that what’s happening to my blog right now. As the saying goes “Everything will take time” and I’m sure if I’ll work on it, the perfect time will come to me too! I’ll be praying on that!
Nobody knows what our future will be. Maybe I laid my plans but there’s better one that God has made for me. Regardless of all stated in this blog, I’ll still make room for any changes so that I won’t feel bad about it.
All I hope is for everyone’s goal in this year. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but now, let’s make this upcoming year full of hope and happiness. Let’s work on it together.
Towards your goals, I’ll be here cheering on you!
Let’s face the challenges, learn on it and continue to reach our goals! I’ll be with you.
Isaiah 43:2
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
