New Year New You - A Response About Goals

For prompt 2 of the New Year, New You experiment in radical magical transformation, Deb is talking about goals and asking all of us about ours.  But she's not just asking about what they are, but how we intend to work toward them.  In addition, there is an element to it that asks us what we have already done.

This is the kind of goal exploration that I learned from the likes of Nancy B. Watson, Jason Augustus Newcomb, and Inominandum.  As I mentioned in my first New Year, New You post, I am focusing mainly on my finances, and that will be no different here.  My goals revolve first and foremost around them to the point that even my self-confidence/self-esteem/self-improvement goals are almost on the wayside.

Here is an overall summary of my financial goals:

1. Get a higher-paying day job.
2. Set up secondary income.
3. Budget
4. Catch up on my bills and get them out of collections, where applicable.
5. Set up an emergency fund of $1000
6. Reinstate auto insurance
7. Pay off my credit card debt
8. Build my emergency fund up to $4500 or three months of living expenses

I've estimated that all of these will take a year.  And since the New Year, New You experiment is only running until Valentine's Day 2012, I'm going to focus on completing 1-4 on the list, and get a good start on #5.  I've had setbacks thus far, but I'm trudging onward.  Now, it may seem like cheating when I tell you that I already have items 1 and 3 on the list completed.  However, if you know my financial history for the past year and a half, you'll know that item 4 has been one hell of a bitch for me.

Deb has the exploration of our goals split into 4...I dunno, aspects?  Here are items 1-5, explored through each aspect:

The Bite-Sized Pieces

• Since I already have a higher-paying day job, I am focusing on keeping it!  I am mostly paranoid about this, but I don't want to take any chances.  I've begun to focus on re-honing my skillset and learning newer skills.  My company has training available, free of charge, and I'm going to take advantage of that.  My uncle recently offered to pay for half of the Dale Carnegie course if I take and stick through the whole thing.
• The first idea I had for secondary income was secondary part-time employment.  This will consist of putting in applications, doing follow-up calls (and possibly pre-application calls), and hunting in sources other than job sites (craigslist, newspaper, checking with friends and associates, etc)
• The second idea I had for secondary income is Delano Services, where I sell my sorcerous services and products online and possibly at certain local magic-friendly shops and events.  This, however, will require research and development (for the services), and require that I have some kind of money to put into it (for products and spellwork services).  On the upshot, with the prices I can reasonably charge, I will turn a profit if there's enough business.  It will also require some good time management...an area I'm not-so-good at yet.
• My Budget is not a conventional budget.  I based it largely on Carmen Wong's Budget Calculator, although I have it as a Google Doc spreadsheet that I can plug in my anticipated income into and it will calculate my spending across Wong's categories, according to percentages I adjusted to my needs and obligations.  It's simpler yet requires a bit more homework and insight on my part, but I prefer it.
• The bills are the beast of burden here.  I've been chipping away at them, but haven't gotten as far as I would prefer.  So, in combination with budgeting and all my income from all sources, I'm going to set aside even more to throw at them.  I will live frugally, refrain from eating out, see what I can sell, and scrape together as much as I can.  It is possible for me to get my tax refund before march, and if I do and if it is sizeable enough, it will go toward any action in my bills.
• I am only aiming to get started on my emergency fund by Valentine's day.  Even so, my personal aim is to have $200 in a savings account or a money market account by V-Day.  The money for this will be gathered via the same means used to catch up the bills.

The Magical Acts

• I used a combination of temple magic and field magic to get my higher-paying day job.  Since getting it, I have deployed a combination of field magic and temple magic aimed at influence and personal success.  I'm still working there, and glad for ever hour of it!  However, I'm also going to do work on better luck, better ability and memory.
• For a part-time job, I will work magic much like I am looking for a day job, just with small adjustments.  For starters, magic to find likely opportunities that will actually fucking call me back.  I will enchant my resumes and applications with the power of Jupiter and Venus.  During interviews, I will deploy influencing field magic and Venusian enchantment.
• For the prospect of my own business, I'll need to cast for better time management and discipline.  In addition, I'll need to work for discovery of knowledge and research to help me know how successful I might be.
• For my budget and for my bills, I will work magic for discipline, abundance, and for limits on my spending.  On top of that, I'm going to start preparing enchantment and influencing magics for when I have to deal with bill collectors.  Finally, I'm going to be working Jupiterian and Mercurial magic for flow of money into my life, which I will continue for my emergency fund.

On top of all this, I'm going to be doing Gentlement for Jupiter-type work every Thursday, focusing on macro-enchantments and guidance on micro-enchantments from the spirits of Jupiter.

Divinations

To be honest, I haven't really done any yet, apart from inquiries about whether I'm likely to still have a job in three months, or even one (I'm seriously THAT paranoid).  But here are some areas of inquiry that I'm going to look into shortly:

• Areas in my day job that I can target to cause me to stay as long as I wish, apart from avenues I've already worked on.
• Divination to help find the places that will most likely hire me and will work around the schedule of my day job.  Also, people I can talk to and even sources of unconventional work.
• For Delano Services, use divination to explore its viability and explore how I can specialize in order to gain a niche and thus a potential advantage over other sources of spiritual services.
• Divinations about my budgeting will focus on upcoming events and possible unforeseen expenses.
• Same thing with my bills.
• The one thing about my emergency fund that I haven't been able to figure out is what kind of account to keep it in.  Should I go with savings or a money-market account?  One way or another I want it to be something that gathers interest.  Also, which bank?  Or credit union, perhaps?  These are what I will explore through divination.

Spirits

This is another area that I haven't put much effort into...yet.  Here is a list of spirits I am going to conjure to ask for assistance:

• My Genius - For general life advice and direction, as well as to put me in touch with the genius of my career for help with my day job and getting a part-time job or furthering my business idea.
• Tzadkiel, Yophiel, Hismael - I'm going to be doing regular work with the spirits of Jupiter in a fashion similar to the Gentlemen for Jupiter to up the flow of Jupiterian force in my life.
• Strategic Sorcery Mini-Grimoire Spirits - I won't mention them by name here, but there are two spirits from the SS Mini-Grimoire who would be good for my goals.  One is a spirit who helps with mundane knowledge and efforts, and the other is a spirit of money.  Now that I'm thinking of it, there is also a spirit who opens doors, but I already have a lot of help in that regard.

So, I have a lot of work, mundane and magical, to do toward this goal.  While catching up my bills and setting up the emergency fund will only be the beginning, it will definitely be a good start that will help me to become healthier and happier while I work on the larger goal.