2012: The Year the World Ended

December 21st marks the day that Mayan calendar-makers decided was far longer than they needed to waste their time carving

days into stone.

More importantly, it marks the beginning of the week before my birthday.   No self-respecting civilization would end the world just a week before my birthday.

This is traditionally the time that people look back at the previous year, and make resolutions they don’t intend to keep in the following year.

Who am I to buck tradition?

In 2011, I became a bit of a workaholic.  

This site has taken off a bit.  I’m not about to retire off of the proceeds, but it has turned into a nice little side income.  Thank you for that.

I launched a marketing company.  We do web design/development, social media work, and search engine marketing.   It’s strictly a part-time gig right now, but it’s growing and taking up most of my free evenings and weekends.

I’ve been working 50-60 hours a week at my day job.

The plus side?   I’ve also paid off almost $20,000 of my debt in 2011, bringing my total to $47,535 left.

It’s been a lot of work, but the harder I hustle, the sooner I can stop hustling.

What’s in store for 2012?

On the work front, I plan to cut my weekly load down to 40-45 hours again.  Life it to short to work all of the time.

I want to expand my new company to the point that my day job is optional.   I’m projecting that by spring.   Call it June 1st.

Here, I want to double the size of my audience.    I don’t just want random people popping in, I want to grow an engaged audience.  That means more comments and more discussion.  Expect to see more along those lines.

I’ve also got a couple of products under development.  By year-end, I’d like to have them both released.

On a personal level, my biggest goal is to carve out a regular chunk of time to spend with my wife.  Working all of the time has cut into our quality time together.  I want to find a way to schedule date nights at least twice a month.   It will cost more money, but that’s part of why I’m working so much.

Financially, I want to kill the last of my credit card debt.    That’s down to about $17,000.   We’ll need to keep working at it, but it’s a reachable goal.   That means we still don’t get cable, I still avoid buying books every week, and my kids still have to live with not getting every whim fulfilled.

To recap: I’m going to work smarter, grow my side projects, and make this site better for you.   In the process, I’m going to kill the last of my unsecured debt, and drag my mortgage down to it’s last gasping breaths.

Here’s to the end of the world….