March 2018 Goals Report

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As, promised, we are back checking in on our yearly goals to stay accountable. Here is our March Goals Report. 

Financial Goals

  • Gain Employment (Race) ☑
    • Accomplished in February. 
  • Save 50% of our income
    • At the end of March, we are at 65% if you include the mortgage or 35% if you don't include the mortgage. We have been counting the mortgage as we are trying to pay off the house to allow us greater financial flexibility and allow us to save more money in the future. 
  • Increase passive dividend income by 25%
    • Year over year for March, our dividend income has increased by 37.4%. This is a major increase compared to the first two months of the year, but still not the best indicator. Our goal is to increase dividend income for the entire year and thus a YOY analysis is not the best estimate. We have earned 22% of the total amount needed to hit our goal this year. This is almost on track for 1/4 of the year having passed. If we do not contribute anything else we are on track for a 13.3% increase. We are about halfway to our goal!
  • Increase net worth by 14%
    • Markets have slowed significantly, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This will give us more of an opportunity to buy stock and get higher yield on dividend stocks. However, this did impact our net worth. We are now at only a 0.4% gain for the year. It is still too early to worry at this point. There is plenty of year left to pay down the house and for markets to rise again. 
  • Earn $2,000 tutoring
    • March was a busy month for tutoring. I earned ~$550 this month which puts me above the monthly average needed to hit my goal. I expect April to be fairly busy again and will push to hit high numbers before the summer slump hits. I have $1,201.33 left to earn this year.
    • If you are interested in tutoring as a side hustle, here is a list of where I tutor:
      • Varsity Tutors - Provides many opportunities throughout the day in a variety of subjects. You must pass a short (~5min) qualifications exam to tutor in certain subjects. This pays less than finding students on your own, but is a more reliable source of income. If you use the link above, you'll earn an extra $40 for signing up.
      • Take Lessons - Allows you to post your profile and set rates. You will get a higher percentage of the rate for repeat clients. Students will contact you and there are much fewer opportunities.
      • University Tutor - Allows you to post a profile. Interested students will contact you. Fewer opportunities than Varsity Tutors, but more than Take Lessons. You pay no fees, meaning you get to keep 100% of what you charge.
      • Rolland Tutoring YouTube
      • Rolland Tutoring Blog, Facebook, Twitter
  • Earn $100  $15 on YouTube/Blogging -- Please SUBSCRIBE
    • We lowered this goal drastically due to YouTube's new monetization policies. We are focused on getting remonetized this year. The blog does not provide nearly as much income as YouTube which is why the goal was lowered. We will continue to publish content on both the blog and the YouTube Channel. We earned $13.12 this year so far.  
  • Sell $150 of Random Lily Soaps ☑
    • We hit this goal early this year due to supplying a couple of bridal showers. We are not raising this goal at this point to allow us to focus on our YouTube channel for the time being.
  • Stay within the budget ☑
    • We were under budget for March, though we did go over in a few categories, it still balanced out. This is bringing us back on track for the year. See our March Budget Report for full details. 

Business Goals

  • Post 150+ Videos to Thriftism Channel
    • We posted 11 videos this month and 30 videos so far this year. We will have to pick up the pace, but I'm sure we can still hit 150 this year!
  • Post 52+ Blog Posts
    • This has been slower, but we were still able to publish 4 posts this month for a total of 9 this year. We will work to push out more content as the school year ends (and tutoring slows down). 
  • Reach 200 YouTube Subscribers☑  Remonetize YouTube
    • We are at 595. This is a big increase from our original goal, but since we are no longer monetized, we have changed this goal to remonetize this year. We are at 60% of subscribers and 40% on watch time. We will continue publishing content and trying to reach more viewers. 
  • Grow Twitter to 1,000 followers☑
    • We did it!! Thank you everyone for your continued support. As of the end of the month, we are at 1,041. We are not going to change this goal quite yet. We are going to stay focused on YouTube subscribers and reevaluate later in the year. 
  • Write London Guide Book
    • Outline created, no progress from last month.
  • Write Munich Guide Book
    • Outline created, no further progress at this time. 
  • Begin ThriftFit Series on YouTube
    • No progress on this one yet. 
  • Create Math Practice Workbook
    • Almost done with Chapter 1. 
  • Post 52+ videos to Rolland Tutoring YouTube Channel
    • Posted 3 videos this month for a total of 8 videos this year. We are behind on this, but should be able to easily hit our goal for the year. 
  • Post 52+ videos to Reviews the Rolland YouTube Channel
    • We have removed this goal and will be deleting this channel. Since it has become much more difficult to monetize on YouTube we are combining our reviews with the Thriftism channel to better focus our efforts. 

Fitness Goals

  • Lose 10 pounds by May 1, 2018
    • We have been making extremely slow progress on this one. Ashley is down 1.6 pounds for the year and Race is flat. With only one month remaining, we are not likely to hit this one and may have to reevaluate this and the next goal for the remainder of the year. 
  • Lose an additional 5-10 pounds by December 1, 2018
    • Reevaluating based on the goal above after May 1. 
  • Complete 1 - 30 day challenge☑
    • We finished our 30 Day Yoga Challenge. We didn't do it 30 days in a row, but did get through every day. The link above provides a great beginners yoga challenge. 
  • Workout 4x/week
    • We didn't hit 4 times this month, but we consistently worked out 3 times each week. This didn't include walking over lunch and breaks at work which would have gotten us to the 4 times. 

Mental Goals

  • Read 6 self-improvement books
  • Read 6 additional books
  • Attend church 1/month☑
    • We attended church twice this month. 
  • Complete 2 coursera courses
  • Master Spanish in Duolingo (all gold bars)- Ashley☑
    • Completed 1/15/18. I'm at 57% fluency so I will continue practicing throughout the year. 
  • Complete Duolingo or book Spanish lessons 3x/week- Race
    • Haven't progressed on this since January

Fun, Travel, Social, Relationship, House, Hobby Goals

  • Host 2 Game nights
    • We haven't hosted one yet, but are aiming for April or May.
  • Attend 1 monthly social outing☑
    • We went out with several friends for St. Patrick's Day and again later in the month to play pool.
  • Visit family 1 time each month☑
    • Race's dad visited us this month, so we are counting that for this goal, but plan to get on the road in April.
  • Travel to Mexico ☑
    • Completed in January. 

  • Complete one additional trip
    • We're going to ROME! We found tickets for $430 round trip to Rome, making the decision to travel there pretty easy. We won't travel until towards the end of the year, but this goal is in the works. 
  • Create and purchase England trip photo book☑
    • Done- Book arrived 3/29.
  • Create and purchase Germany trip photo book☑
    • Done- Ordered 3/30
  • Handmade Christmas - at least 75% of gifts given are hand made
    • Have not yet started this goal
  • Make wax melts
    • Have not yet started this goal
  • Make candles from kit received for Christmas
    • Have not yet started this goal.
  • Can 40 quarts of green beans and 100 quarts of tomatoes
    • We have plants started in our living room, but won't get to canning for a few more months. 
  • Complete 1 house project (finish basement, reside the house, reshingle the roof)
    • Planning to reside the house this year. Looked at siding this month.
  • Install basement windows.
    • Too cold and too much snow. We may get to this in May or June. 

Contribution Goals

  • Volunteer 10 nights/month max☑
    • Ashley volunteered 3 nights this month. It was down due to spring break and meetings around spring break were cancelled. 
Share your goals with us! Comment below or message us to be held accountable to your goals. If you aren't familiar with our goal series, be sure to check out our posts:


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