At the start of the year, I outlined some of my personal goals in my journey to financial independence. While my end-goal is still an extremely long way away from being achieved, I think it’s important to check progress from time to time to make sure I’m not forgetting what I’m supposed to do.

So in this post I’ll be sharing what happened so far.

#1 Save and Invest – I’ve almost reached my target goal! I can’t believe it happened so soon. I got some lucky breaks in the stock market; that 74% gain was a real windfall.

I will be creating a stretch goal since I believe it’s never a bad thing to save more.

But otherwise, I am more concerned with preserving my capital and buying some stocks to hold long-term.

#2 Learn basic business concepts – Really bad; there’s no progress here. I know some basic stuff, like cash flow is important and to not tie up money in hard-to-sell inventory. But I knew that stuff before.


#3 Research a good business for me – I’ve looked at some franchises, but haven’t even talked to franchisors. But right now, I’m thinking seriously about a vending machine business. If you’ve got tips or advice for me, email me or leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts 🙂

#4 Find out how large my capital needs to be – I have a decent idea, but I’ll really know this for sure when I accomplish #3. This is pretty much an extension of #3, but It’s important to keep this as a goal so I can’t wussy out on doing real research for #3.

A quarter of the year through, and one goal practically done. That’s actually good progress. But the lack of progress on the other goals is very concerning for me.

So for this next few months I’ll concentrate on #3 first. My thinking is that there’s a multitude of opportunities out there that I need to sort through. But all I need for #2 is to read a good book. Plus, it might be better if I didn’t have to wait too long before applying what I’ve learned.

How about you guys? Did you make a new year’s plan too? Leave a comment below and share what happened! 🙂

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photo credit: sara | b. via photopin cc