Here's to a prosperous, healthy 2011! I can't wait to greet this new year. 2011 is going to be a great, great year!

Pleasant surprise this morning when my accounts were updated on Mint.com. Received $1456.16 in capital gains and dividends on my Roth IRA at Vanguard. Nice little boost to my end of year account balance. Think I'll send off $5,000 for my 2011 Roth contribution tomorrow. Love doing that! Goal # 1 accomplished on the first day of the year.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas! It has been such a merry one already for me and my family. I hope the same is true for you and yours this holiday season.

I'd love to have a personal goal besides my annual New Year's resolution to lose weight. I still need to lose weight, but I'd like to accomplish something else as well.

In January I'm starting my orientation to become a CASA volunteer. I'd like to give back more. I just hope that my work doesn't conflict with being able to make court dates and such.

A better relationship with God is always a desire. Maybe I can do some more Bible study. I'm always impressed with people that know the Bible well. I remember some stories from Sunday school, but I get embarrassed sometimes with how little I know.

I will have to think more on my personal goals.

Today when my retirements accounts were updated I had surpassed my $200,000 goal. I am very excited. My next goal will be $250,000 or a quarter of a million dollars. I like typing out "million". I am sure that if I stay diligent with my savings that I will one day reach one million dollars saved.

I have had a great birthday and the Saints won!

I am updating my progress on my 2010 goals, which remain unchanged or 2011.

I completed goal #1 in January 2010.

I will complete goal #2 with my last two paychecks this month.

I am working on goal #3, but it's hard to pin down my monthly expenses. I am tracking on Mint.com, but my expenses seem to vary widely from month to month depending on what's going on. So I'm just averaging those expenses. I think $20,000 would be reasonable start to rebuild my emergency fund to, and I'm not far from that.

Goal #4 has not been completed at any time this year. Maybe next year.

I am working on goal #5 and with my employer's help, the graduate school loans will be paid off quicker.

Two hours until my 33rd birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

This week I got some bad news, later replaced by really good news. I guess many saw that there was a proposed spending freeze for federal employees. While not exactly excited about that, I understood it. Then the next day I found out that my expected annual performance appraisal bonus was doubled what I expected. So that extra money will exceed the 1.4% raise that was proposed for next year. What an awesome early birthday present! Our organization must have done really well in our performance indicators. I'm proud of us. Despite what the public perception may be of federal employees, we really do try to go above and beyond for our veterans.

I was feeling a little bored today and decided to do some Christmas shopping. I know, I'm so bad. I really need to get presents for men, but it's always so much easier to shop for women, so that's what I ended up buying. Oh my goodness, the mall traffic was crazy. I didn't even make it to the mall. I just shopped near the mall then I wimped out and left. Besides, my brake tag expired in October and I suddenly remembered that fact. My car was in the repair shop for most of last month due to repairs from my accident in September.

So the moral of that story is, don't go to the mall on the weekend in the month of December. That's just crazy. I need to not forget that lesson next year. I really do not ever remember it being like that before now. Maybe this is a sign of economic recovery. I sure hope so.

I don't mean to be flippant about the economic prosperity I enjoy, but I'm kind of tired of hearing about what's wrong with our country. I'd like to start hearing that we're doing great. Sometime soon please. That will be my wish when I blow out the candles on my cake.