What is your winning formula for 2011?

Asiacat

As we approach the end of another year and our thoughts turn to new year resolutions how will you approach the forthcoming twelve months? What will you be, do and have? New year’s resolutions on their own are rarely enough to make a significant change in our results and are seldom kept anyway.

So this year rather than just list the usual rhetoric save more, exercise more and read more I have decided to come up with a detailed winning formula that I hope will enable me to get the most out of 2011.

As I approach my fortieth year I have realized that experiences are more important than possessions and people are more important than anything. Retail therapy rarely works and the brief thrill of acquisition lasts barely beyond the department store exit though the related credit card bills can last for years.

Therefore this next year I will focus on personal and professional development.
I live in Thailand and don’t have children so my own plan will not be suitable for everybody but the idea is that you come up with your own personal formula to fit in with your current lifestyle, opportunities and aspirations.

So here goes:-

I won’t own a credit card. They make buying things a little too easy. Everything will be paid for in cold hard cash.

I won’t own a rapidly depreciating cash-consuming lump of metal plastic, glass and rubber otherwise known as a car. I will use my trusty 125 cc Yamaha Nouvo for personal transportation and hire a car on the odd occasion when I absolutely need one.

I won’t set foot in a shopping mall. Retail therapy is overrated and expensive to boot.

I will make a spending plan for every month detailing income fixed outgoings and a budget for each category of spending. I will plan to still have at least 15% of my salary by the next payday. I will remember to factor in some fun. I’m looking at value not depravation.

I will retain every 10 baht coin I receive throughout the year. I won’t miss it and I can envisage it turning into a tidy some come 31st December 2011.

I will plan my spending in advance for each day and exceptional circumstances apart will stick to it.

I won’t make a single impulse purchase. I will write it down in a notebook and if I still want it in 72 hours time will go back for it.

I will raise my professional profile by having at least twenty-five articles published relating to my profession (corporate training) in the country’s national English language daily newspaper The Bangkok Post. (Not as difficult as it sounds, they have a weekly training supplement – I had three articles published last year.)

I won’t buy a new computer. I have upgraded my computer roughly every three years for the past fifteen years, not an extravagance as prices have tumbled and specifications soared during that period. However it’s time to put a halt to that. My laptop purchased in November 2007 does everything I ask of it and more. A new computer now would simply give me bragging rights.

I will self-study website design one hour a day six days a week to help give me a back-up career option or second income opportunity.

I will set up a website related to my profession.

I will make at least one person laugh each and every day of the year.

I will pay at least one person a compliment each and every day of the year.

I will hire a Harley Davidson motorcycle and tour Thailand’s outer border including The Golden Triangle. Then I will turn inland and visit The hellfire Railway and the famed bridge over the river Kwai.(Experiences matters more than acquisitions)

I will take my scuba diving course and explore some of the shipwrecks off Thailand’s eastern seaboard. (Experiences matters more than acquisitions)

I will visit all six tropical islands off the coast of Thailand’s Eastern seaboard.

I won’t upgrade or replace my current cell phone, television, games console or hi-fi system no matter what the marketers throw at me this year.

I will read at least 50 pages a day of self-help/finance books.

I won’t spend a single baht I don’t really have to.

I will pay all my utility bills on time to avoid late payment penalties.

I will at least consider buying second hand before buying any major new purchase.

I will not buy anything that incurs interest charges.

So what is your winning formula for 2011?

nonnatus

W.O.W. Now that's an impressive list.

I was going to pop on here and put that I intended to try and only do one grocery shop a week. Feels a bit lame in comparison, but GO YOU!!!

Hope you have a great, productive year x

chevalier

I want to get a job

And keep decluttering

Both would be a good start!
chev

WelshWoofer

I have £13000 of debt - in just 1 loan, no CC, overdraft etc - and want to pay off at least £6000 of it this coming year. That will mean 12 x £350 monthly payments and £1800 extra coming from somewhere! I will get a golden hello payment in the summer time (new teacher) that will be about £4000 after tax so may well use half for this purpose and put half in my savings account to swell the coffers a bit again - aiming for £5000 savings by the end of the year (£2500 now, so doable with the bonus payment and a bit of saving).

I also want to lose a stone but that's another conversation!

cyclura

I aim to get my debt halved by Dec 31st

I will be going through my DDs toys and car booting anything shes too old for now.

I will do a car boot once a month and put the money made towards my debts

northerngirl30_2

I want to clear my little debts, I have ten creditors on my DMP, only 4 of which are over £300, I want to start shaving money off my budget to ring one of these every couple of months and give full and final payments!

I also will/want to stop impulse buying, stop wasting food, hopefully stop smoking and maybe loose some weight lol!

really need to get myself sorted!

Norfolk_Jim

I want to pay off my Tesco card. £2000. I'm resigned to Barclaycard taking me 4 years.

If I can stop the tide, that will be a big enough achievement for me in 2011

kate_pixie

I have promised myself that nothing shall be purchased before checking the internet to see if it can be bought cheaper or second hand.

I shall also committ to doing my surveys daily in the hope of paying for christmas in vouchers.

Good luck all!

bargainbetty

I am going to reduce the amount of food waste my household generates (terrible for buying something and it going off).
I am going to lose the stone I lost in 2008, and appear to have found again in 2010. This time, I'm going to leave it somewhere it can't find its way home again.
I'm going to start doing yoga again.
I'm going to sort out all my junk, clear the decks and turn my spare room into a guest room instead of a dumping ground.
I'm going to recycle properly.
I'm going to visit one place I've never been to before, and revisit somewhere I've been and loved.
I have a TV, a car, a Wii, a CD player and a DVD player. I do not need gadgets and I will wait for my free mobile phone upgrade.
I will use all the money I save to pay cash for a new kitchen.

Am so very jealous of the chance to visit all those Thai islands..... Isle of Wight isn't quite the same!

I will, however, try to have a massage at least once every two months, because it is good for my back.

determined_new_ms

wow your formula is impressive!

Mine will be 3 x a year have a "spending diet" for 1 month - so not spending anything other than the essentials (1 grocery shop, petrol and bills) for a month. first one scheduled for Jan....

try to move away from the consumerism culture that I am part of - buy not buying endless things I don't need, when buying clothes go for quality items that have been thought out for maximum utilisation

try to remember the route to happiness is through loved ones & experiences and not things - continual struggle...

eco

Mine isn't exciting either, but I can't buy any junk only declutter more next year, and save the cash, in 2 years time I want to be living on a barge and I won't have space for junk, so it's slowly going.

so next year it'll be save a bit, but enjoy myself and not buy anything, good luck to everyone else tho, I've got a diary sorted to write all spends in and stuff, so hopefully I'll stay on the straight and narrow.