With every new year, people tend to look back at their previous year and compare it with the one that’s upcoming. In our case, this is our chance to look forward and write down what we want to achieve for 2017 so we can look back at this post in December and slowly tick things off a list: things we did and didn’t manage to do.

2017 Goals and Dreams

We like to start off every year by writing down our one-year goals, and looking back on our previous year’s goals to see what we can improve. Since we didn’t write down our goals in our blog last year, here are our highlights of 2016 to look back on.

Travel/Adventure:

• Go to 5 new international destinations – we already have 4 lined up in our list: Cuba, Bahamas, Ireland, and Canada but I’m trying to up the ante by adding an additional one in there just to push us even more.
• Go to 3 new states – we already have one lined up next year, Alaska, but we’re hoping to add more too!
• Discover at least 10 new attractions in states we’ve been in – one that we haven’t been to before. On our list is Aquatica, Discovery Cove, and… well, that’s pretty much it for now.
• Do something new every weekend – a new hiking trail, a new show, whatever – as long as it is something new to experience. We’re slowly scratching off things from our “bucket list” so keep an eye out for updates to that post too.
• Spend only $5,000 in cash each for 2017 travel expenses – our Alaskan cruise broke our budget though! We’ll see if I can find anything else. You can see how much we’ve spent in our 2015 trip here.
• For your reference, these are the places we’ve been to in 2016.

Personal Finance Goals:

• Max out 401(k) and HSA contributions
• Max out Roth IRA contributions
• Earn around $2,000 in dividend/investment income for the year
• Buy clothes, and most things used, if possible (except electronics)
• When possible, buy groceries at a discount (Aldi, Costco, and use Target/Winn Dixie coupons)
• Earn at least 2 cents per $1 spend on credit cards (higher rewards, higher benefits like free travel or cash back)
• Continue tracking our income & expenses (personal P&L statement)

Business Goals:

• Find and close on another cash flowing rental property in an up and coming area.
• Maintain Superhost status on AirBnB and earn at least $800 monthly.
• Lower expenses on rental properties.
• Monetize this blog through sponsors, affiliate links, and ads.
• Grow the readership of blog
• Grow social media (FB, IG, Twitterto around 1,000+ followers each)
• Grow and scale reselling business to earn at least $500/month on average.
• Earn at least $500 this year from our blog.
• Attend more seminars and network to meet more people in the same circles (to help each other grow)
• Track all our businesses’ income & expenses (P&L statement)

Life Goals

• Read at least 20 books & magazines for the whole year. At least 12 related to non-fiction/personal finance/self improvement.
• Practice the art of minimalism (very, very SLOWLY but we’ll get there)
• Continue writing down things we did ‘new’ daily.
• Do a reflection at the end of the year: what went well, what could have gone better, in all the aspects/subtopics listed above.

You may notice that while this post was published in January 2017, we will start crossing them off one by one as soon as we reach specific goals. We will also add more goals as we see fit throughout the year. If we don’t reach a goal then we’ll have to explain why we didn’t reach it – and strive to become better at reaching it!

Maybe we will publish a list of our longer term goals as well on a page, much like our Travel & Adventure List, which sort of acts like our bucket list. It’s always so much fun to start scratching things off a list one by one to see what achievements we’ve done.

Thank you all for sticking with us, and here’s to a great new year for all of us!