As promised, here is an update on the goals I set at the beginning of the year:

  1.  I will bring my automatic monthly income up to $10,000 with new online services I will create by the end of the year.
    Progress: Unfortunately not much progress on this goal.  I have plenty of active income, but I haven't made any progress on the automatic income.
  2. I will weigh 190 lbs. by July 31st.
    Progress: I am really excited about this goal.  I started the year weighing 264lbs.  I am currently down to 232.5lbs as of this morning.  That is only 1.5lbs above the half way mark.  After I posted this goal I looked up my supposed 'ideal' weight - it's 198lbs, so that is my new target weight.  Heather thought that 190lbs was a little too low and the internet agrees.  In any case, I feel better and look better.  I will save pictures until this goal is complete, but it is very exciting to make so much progress in so little time.  At the current rate I should complete this goal around the end of June or the beginning of July, ahead of schedule!
  3.  I will pay off my car by June 1st. ($3000)
    Progress: Complete!  I paid my car off with out federal tax return in mid March.
  4.  I will create and publish 5 new iPhone apps to the App Store.
    Progress: I am currently in the middle of creating a new app called eButterfly - Heathers' idea.  It not only allows you to view the streams from multiple social networks at the same time, but it allows to to cross-post between the networks.  See something you like on facebook?  Re-tweet it on Twitter and post it on MySpace.  I should be able to complete that project by the end of this month.
  5. I will purchase an iPad by April 2nd. ($600)
    Progress: After receiving a birthday gift last night from my in-laws I have the funding to purchase the new iPad 2.  I had an iPad 1, but returned it in favor of the iPad 2.  However the funds from that return were used to cover medical insurance that month.  I started setting small amount of cash aside from my completed projects, and the gift last night pushed the balance to within $3 - which I am happy to cover.  I will be purchasing the iPad 2 at the Apple Store either today or tomorrow!  Right on time - Complete!
  6.  I will pay off the water filter by the end of the year ($3,000)
    Progress:  I have started making larger payments on this now that we don't have the car payment to worry about.  I haven't commited the full amount of the car payment to it yet due to medical expenses surrounding Heathers pregnancy.  I am expecting a few larger projects to close this month so I should have plenty of extra cash to put towards paying off the water filter.
  7. I will pay off my credit card by the end of the year ($10,000)
    Progress:  I have moved all automatic transactions away from this credit card and have been paying at least $200 per month on it, which is just above the minimum.  However, since the interest rate is so low (7.9%) this still allows for a large portion of the monthly payment to go towards the principle.  It is currently down to approximately $9,300, so at this point it looks like I will miss this target unless a very large project comes my way. 
  8. I will test 3 new muse ideas by June 1st.
    Progress: I started with the idea of a simple WordPress installation service that I could build up and then outsource to a virtual assistant.  The site is still up - wpblogsinstalled.com, but I found that I had too much active programming work to maintain it and the cost of aquiring customers was too high when compared to the amount I was charging.  I will return to this idea later, but for now it is on hold.  There haven't been any other ideas for automated muses, but I will keep looking and doing brain storming sessions until I come up with something I like.

 

That's everything, and so far completing 2 major goals for the year seems like good progress for 1/4 of the year - 1/4 of the goals.  Even though it looks like I will miss on a couple of these I will still strive to complete them.  Progress towards a goal is still preferable to standing still.  I will publish my next progress report on July 1st, at the start of the next quarter.

 

Chris