Recently, I wrote down a list of some long term goals. These are primarily goals over the next 2-5 years, with one long goal out at the 12 year mark. They include things like getting rid of debt, like credit cards and a personal loan. I wrote them down with a reminder at the top of the list to consider these goals whenever I’m thinking about buying anything of significance. For me, I’d probably put anything of significance at the $50 or above mark. $50 may seem small, but boy do they add up fast! All you have to do is look at your credit card statement and see how quickly you can be surprised by how the balance can just shoot up from a few $50 purchases. These can be things like just going out for a nice dinner or something.

Now, I’m not saying not to treat or indulge yourself at all. The exercise for me was more to think about these goals that I really, really want to achieve but will take some time. I’m hoping that making a list and referring to it will help me to be disciplined. I’ve also started to do a weekly spending review, each and every week. I do it come hell or high water and have been at it for 10 weeks now. I store them on YouTube as private videos but they allow me to review my progress. In the weekly review, I go over things like current credit card debt balance, net worth, cash flow for the past 30 days and year-to-date, as well as how much cash I have on hand. I find that it helps me to focus too. And sometimes the embarrassment of just looking back and being able to say “What the fuck?!” really helps to instill discipline. Let’s see if this keeps me going. 5 years is 310 weeks… and I’m only in Week 10!