Progress report for Week ended - 3/23/08

So here's the status of my goals so far for the month. Lot's of progress on goal #2 :

Goals by the end of March 2008 -

1. Decide on a part-time business to focus on for at least 2 months. - I believe once the 2nd job ends at the end of the upcoming week, I will try and re-focus on maintaining this blog and increasing readership.
   
2. Save $2750 or more into Wedding savings account. - SUCCESS - As of today, the wedding account is at approximately $3777 - the balance will increase even more on Monday after I deposit some extra money I got this weekend.
   
3. Do local and regional taxes - I have a million excuses for not getting to this as of yet. none of them that good - I think I'll have to set a specific date or else I won't meet this goal.
   

I'm really pumped now that the wedding account is actually starting to build up some cash. Shortly - we might have to switch to a different bank though because earlier this month I learned interest accrues quarterly - rather than monthly. Our interests earnings thus far since opening the account = $0.09, I think we can do better it's just a matter of finding a bank that is both me and my fiance's town.

Progress Report - for week ended - 3/9/08

So here's the status of my goals so far for the month:

Goals by the end of March 2008 -

1. Decide on a part-time business to focus on for at least 2 months. - I'm leaning strongly towards an artistic area - involving drawing specifically - but, after working on it a little this weekend I'm not sure If I have the energy and the patience to give it my all like I would like to.
   
2. Save $2750 or more into Wedding savings account. - I was well on my way to accomplishing this goal until last weeks car trouble intervened. I did get my state tax return ($100) back though so assuming my federal return is not too far behind I should be able to still meet this goal with ease.
   
3. Do local and regional taxes - I haven't begun to look at the forms although I know I need to. The Ohio Blizzard of 2008 distracted me quite a bit Friday, Yesterday as well as today: it took me about an hour and 4 people to get my car freed from the snow today.
   

Overall, the main thing I'm concerned about at this point is making a good first impression at my new job tomorrow as well as determining if this is something I can feel fairly stable doing full time for the next few year(s) or not. We shall see.

Do I stay or do I go?

So I've gotten a new job - accomplished my goals for the month of February.

Now, I am debating over taking a secure path to meeting the goal of paying for the oncoming wedding - OR - taking a semi-risky path with the chance that I might not meet my wedding budget goal or I might blow that goal out of the water and have money left over to put a down payment on a house or go on my fiance's dream Hawaii honeymoon or both.

The secure path: Work my new job which pays about 10% less than I was making and work 2nd job which is fairly unfulfilling and keeps me up until 10Pm most nights BUT - will definitely help pay for the wedding bill faster.

The semi risky path: Work new job which pays about 10% less than what i was making and with my newly stress-free free time, work on a part-time business or businesses that I will enjoy running but may not earn me anywhere near what i could make at the part-time job in the short-run - OR - could possibly pay much more than the part-time job in the long (and possibly short) runs.

I'm torn as to what to do. It's 12:30 AM here now and I know this is not good sleep-wise because I need to get up around 6:30 to go to my 2nd to last day of work at my higher-paying yet more stressful job.

I'm debating whether or not I should just try and hit a certain goal mark for the wedding account and then quit the second job so I can sleep like a normal person and have time to work on a business at the same time.

What do you think?