November Goal Updates and December Ambitions

With another month now upon us, it’s time to review my goals for November and see just how well I did:

1. Purchase a new term life insurance policy. - SUCCESS, sort of. We’ve got the paperwork completed and now just need to get the “para-services” (read: pee in a cup and blood sample) completed.
2. Sign up for guitar lessons. - SUCCESS! I’ll be proficient at three chord classics like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Horse With No Name” in no time!
3. Lay tile flooring in my front porch (or foyer, for you fancy folks). - FAIL! I’ve pushed this project off until the new year.
4. Complete 50% of my Christmas shopping. - SUCCESS! In fact, virtually all of my Christmas shopping is now done.
5. Increase average blog readership by an additional 25%. - SUCCESS! Daily readership up by 26.8%, subscriptions up by 28%. Oddly, in the days following one disgruntled commenter’s suggestion that readers should delete MGL from their reader list, my subscriber count was up by an additional 6%. Advantage- MGL ;).
6. Take that moose hunting trip. - FAIL! My uncle is still out of town, so we’ll be going when he returns.
7. Adjust my investment portfolio allocations based on recent market changes. - SUCCESS! Readjusted slightly to keep to my set plan.
8. Write a guest post for another blog. - SUCCESS! I wrote about my adventures in church shopping for Clever Dude a few weeks ago. A big thanks to the Dude for helping me out.
9. Cook something with quinoa in it. - SUCCESS! We made a simple quinoa dish recently, and have quinoa pilaf on the menu for this week.
10. Take a walk in the park at least once a week. - FAIL! 3 out of 4 weeks ain’t bad, but the goal was at least once a week, every week. Boo-urns.

Last month, my success rate was a lowly 4/11. This month I’m up to 7 out of 10. Go me! And in an odd twist of fate, my net worth actually increased during November, thanks to relatively stagnant investments and continued debt repayment.

November also saw the new theme and look for Money Grubbing Lawyer finally introduced. I’m pleased with how things turned out, and the feedback has been quite positive. As always, I’d love to hear what you think, good or bad. With the new theme I also updated my About page, so be sure to take a look. And in case you missed some of my posts from November, here are a few of my favourites:

• Five Tips for Dealing with Police (or, How to Keep Your Ass Out of Jail and Your Face Off the Pavement)
• Get It Right: Carpooling is Still Legal, PickupPal.com is Not
• A Tribute to my Grandfather
• Tax Man Going After eBay Sellers A+++++

I’m keeping my goal list for December short and sweet, focused mostly on tax planning and keeping my sanity during the holiday season:

1. Review my charitable giving for 2008 and try to bring it up to 4% of net income before year end.
2. Review my biggest losing investments from 2008 and consider selling to take the capital loss in the 2008 tax year.
3. Write another guest post.
4. Host a Hanukkah dinner.
5. Not set foot inside a mall or big box store.

Here’s to a happy, healthy, and wealthy end to 2008!

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