*This post contains affiliate links for the book recommendations.
It’s always good to start a goal setting session with a little reflection about the past month.
September started off rocky but ended strong productivity-wise. Really it just took a while to get back on track after “No Goals August”.
I also recently discovered virtual co-working which has been a huge help for deep work focused sprints in the morning.
It’s funny how upping discipline in one area of life can lead to improvements in discipline in other areas! For example, I’ve heard statistics about people that go on a budget and end up saving money and losing weight. I noticed that after I started co-working, I was tidying up the house more, eating healthier and even running more.
This phenomenon is referred to as a “keystone habit”; one habit that tends to domino into improvements with other healthy habits. Common examples of keystone habits are making your bed in the morning, meditating and tracking calories.
Just thought this was interesting so thought I’d share it. Let’s get into October financial goal setting!
October Money Goals:
Add 1 income stream: Mystery Shopping
I’ve never done any mystery shopping before and honestly am not sure yet if you can even do this in Montana. So in October I am going to explore this option and try to at least sign-up for some shops. If you know anything about mystery shopping, I’d really appreciate any tips you could share!
Side hustle goal: Make a digital product
Since I started this blog in 2017 I’ve wanted to make a freebie that I could give away to those of you on the email list but haven’t been able to make the time for this project. I’m putting my foot down, October is the month!
Finance Book Reading
Finish reading “The Millionaire Mind” by Thomas J. Stanley
&
Start reading Jean Chatzky’s book; “Make Money Not Excuses”
Ongoing financial education is important to me. I want to always be improving financially and to always improve we have to 1. learn and 2. practice. Call me a weirdo but I find it enjoyable to find new, creative ways to make and save money. Plus books are just such a great window into how other people think about money and wealth.
Move Money Planner/Trackers to Separate BUJO
Right now I have a Finance section in my discbound bullet journal/planner that I would like to move to a new, separate planner. There are so many great trackers and layouts that I’d like to try as well.
How do you track your finances and money goals? Do you use apps or paper planners or a combination of the two?
Read 1 Money Article Per Week
Mr. FinanceRox and I have had the same routine for our Weekly Household Money Meeting since we started so I thought it would be good to add one additional task. I’d like to read one “How to save money on…” article with him each week to help us brainstorm ways we can be more efficient with our money.
20 No spend Days
Initially this read “14 No Spend Days” but I just saw a Comment on Instagram from my friend Courtnie at Instagram.com/montana.spirit/ that inspired me to up that to 20!
I will be doing an official, week long, no spend challenge here on the channel from October 20th through the 25th so be sure to check back if you are interested in participating! (It’s free and I just post tips each day and you can Comment if you would like extra accountability).
Write money goals every day
“They” say that physically writing your goals every day increases your likelihood of success.
This makes sense since if you are anything like me, you easily get caught up in the busyness of day to day life and forget about those bigger goals and intentions that you previously set. The hope is that this will help increase motivation and action-taking towards those goals.
Start the “208 Wealthy Life Challenges”…again
This is an e-book that our friends Dani and Mike from Bucks and Dough created that I started going through a couple months ago and want to start again.
Each week there is a challenge in each of these 4 areas:
-Finance
-Health
-Happiness
-Personal Development
They work out a lot more than me (they do Crossfit) so so far the Health challenges have been the most difficult! You can check it out HERE if you want to join me!
Non-Financial Goals
Run a virtual 5K
If I don’t have a race to train for, it is really difficult for me to muster the energy to go running. Because of COVID race cancellations the only thing I could find was a “virtual race” so I signed up for it. I can run it at any time but would like to run it by the end of October. My regular jogging distance is 2 miles so I need to work back up to 3 by then.
Morning routine
I’ve been doing a good job of waking up at the same time for the last two weeks. I’d like to wake up a bit earlier and add in a few of the goals from above to the routine.
Here’s my goal Morning Routine:
-Drink a glass of water
-Re-write my money goals in my journal (mentioned above)
-Complete the 208 Challenge prompts (mentioned above)
-Do a 1 hour focused work session of either writing or video editing
In Summary
Overly optimistic or riding good momentum?
Maybe it’s just the usual, overly optimistic, monthly kick-off vibe but I really feel like October is going to be a big month for goal crushing. Let’s hope!
FOR DISCUSSION:
What are your goals for October?