30 days to what?

I had so many intentions when I started this blog. I wanted to change so many things in 30 days. My finances, my weight, my eating habits, my exercise habits, my relationships, procrastination skills, social activities - the list goes on and on.

However, when I think about it there is only one thing that I really want to work on this year. Ok, that's not entirely true. When I obsess, I obsess mainly about 2 things.

My health and my finances.

It's true. One of my favorite pastimes is scouring the internet for information on money, savings, retirement, investing, and debt reduction. The other is looking for information about health and fitness. I can say with confidence that it can and does take up most of my free time. I absolutely love it.

So that being said, I'm not going to concern myself with the millions of other topics that I WILL eventually one day get to. Because right now, I want to focus on these two topics that I LOVE. In 2011, I'm going to spend all my 30 days worth on my health and my finances.

I want to lose 40 pounds this year. That's a big number and it will require hard work. Hard, hard work but I want to do it. So, any challenges I do for my health will probably center around getting me to that finish line.

As for my finances, I have two very specific goals in mind. First, I am in the process of building my emergency savings. For me that's 3-6 months worth of living expenses. As of right now, I'm at the 3 month mark but by the end of the year, I want to be at the 6 month mark. Second, I want to make a dent in my student loans.

You see, student loans have been looming over me for some 10 years now. It's truly my last great obstacle. I chose to go to school not once but TWICE. And after the second go 'round, I moved to Los Angeles where it took months and months of hard work to land my first job in entertainment. And after that, it took years and years and years of hard work to work my way up. And in the meantime, I accrued a lot of credit card debt and a lot of capitalized interest on my student loans. In February of 2010, I made my last payment to the credit card companies and now all that is left between me and a sweet debt-free lifestyle are 4 monstrous student loans. So this year, I want to rework my budget to start chipping away at it. I've got a plan in place but I've got to be set for the long haul. TEN YEARS long haul. If I can just get year one (2011) out of the way then we're getting somewhere.

I guess all that's left is to say what I'm going to do w/ my first 30 days of 2011.

Ok, in the next 30 days I am aiming to:

Health: lose 4 pounds. Very general, very broad, I know but it's what I want to do.

Finances: make ONE extra payment towards a student loan - I know this doesn't sound difficult but trust me, it's going to sting. A lot.

End Date:
March 11