goals

Posts of the Week

by Flexo on July 25, 2009

in Personal Finance

Here are a few articles from around the web I recommend reading.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With a Single Step. A few days ago, Tom, the producer of the Consumerism Commentary Podcast, and I spoke with Matt Jabs and recorded most of that conversation for an upcoming episode. Part of the discussion focused on the core message of this article and its inspiration, a quotation attributed to Lao Tsu matching the title of the article.

This quotation inspired Matt to set goals and take the first step towards achievement, but for me the quotation reinforces the idea that your goal (of traveling a thousand miles by foot or making the world a better place) need not be reached. The steps you take towards that goal, the small things you do, are what define who you are. Look for more on this topic in an upcoming episode of the Podcast.

Carnival of Personal Finance: New Zealand Edition. Baker from Man Vs. Debt hosted the 213rd edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance on Monday, and put together an excellent presentation of the prior week’s best articles in personal finance. The articles are interspersed with fantastic photos from New Zealand, representing the backpacking journey through the country Baker and his family were undertaking.

Is Frugal Living Just a Fad? The media has made much to-do over the idea that Americans are saving more and spending less due to the economic recession. Some out of necessity, but there is an implication that frugality is now more mainstream than it ever has been. I believe that’s an exaggeration. Perhaps we have been to the point where circumstances necessitate a change in consumerist behavior, but very few things in life are permanent. Entire generations have been identified by generalized adjectives such as “frugal;” current behavior is simply a reaction, not a permanent shift in behavior.

I wouldn’t call the recent popularity of “frugal living” a fad, but it’s not going to stick around for too long. The economy moves faster than it did seventy years ago; changes that used to take a generation to complete may take much less. Before long, Americans will be back and spending in full force.

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Evaluating My Progress Towards 2009 Goals

by Flexo on July 8, 2009

Now that the halfway mark of 2009 has passed by, it wouldn’t hurt to review the financial mini-goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year and determine how far I have strayed from my path. For me, these goals are only milestones. They help my gauge my progress but numbers in my bank account have little correlation to my quality of life and do not have much bearing on my non-monetary, real goals.

Last year, my success at reaching arbitrary financial milestones was hindered by the stock market, so when I set my goals for 2009, I focused on metrics that are not affected by short-term investment performance.

Income

My goal for “Other Earned Income” in 2009 is $108,000, or an average $9,000 per month. My stretch goal is to surpass this year’s success with $132,000.

“Other Earned Income” refers to the gross revenue (before subtracting expenses) derived from running a number of websites, most notably Consumerism Commentary. I don’t write much about how I earn money through these websites because I feel it is too introspective to publish. It would be like writing a book about writing that book or singing a song about singing that song. There is a market for self-referential writing, but I’m not particularly interested in writing about the minutiae of blogging. Consumerism Commentary is a blog about money, not a blog about blogging.

Anyway, according to my June financial reports, I am on target to meet my target as long as I maintain about $4,000 Other Earned Income per month for the rest of the year. Barring any unforeseen problems, this is achievable, but mostly due to significant income earned earlier this year. To meet my stretch goal, I would have to earn an average of more than $8,000 each month for the rest of the year. That is less likely as I expect the remainder of the year will look more like May than March.

Grade: B.

Investing

Contribute the full $16,500 to my 401(k).

Contribute the maximum to a Roth IRA if possible; if not, contribute to a Traditional IRA and convert the account to a Roth IRA in 2010.

Contribute the maximum to an SEP IRA.

Invest $250 per month into an account to help pay for future children’s education.

According to my most recent pay stub, I have transferred $8,836 to my 401(k), split evenly between “Before-tax” and “Roth” contributions. It seems I may overshoot my goal, so I will make sure to adjust my contributions to prevent my 401(k) from hitting the maximum early, reducing the amount of employer match I receive.

I have not yet contributed to my 2009 IRAs yet, although this might be a good time to do so. Usually I want until the tax deadline, but with the stock market hitting lows again, I should consider starting my IRAs now.

Although I set a goal to invest $250 per month for the education expenses for a theoretical future child or children, I have not done this. My internal debate is whether to start the fund now and get a head start or to wait until I plan on having children, reducing the risk of being penalized for withdrawing the funds at some future date without education expenses to cover.

Grade: C.

Saving

I’m working on finding a tax accountant to ensure that my tax bill isn’t any higher than it is supposed to be. After I pay my taxes, I’d like to take half of whatever I have left and earmark that amount for a down payment on a house.

Through 2009 so far, my savings progress has been strong. I do not think I specifically earmarked half of my remaining savings on April 15 for a future home purchase, but I have been paying attention to my “Orange House Fund.” No, I do not particularly plan on purchasing a house colored orange; “orange” refers to the fact that this bank account is housed at ING Direct, a bank that has claimed orange as its color. The fund currently sits at about $13,000, and I add money occasionally.

If I need to buy a house in a hurry, I could draw from a number of other accounts to come up with 20 percent of a reasonably priced house in this area. I tend to distribute leftover income to a variety of goal-based savings accounts, and a house is only one of these.

Grade: B.

I did not set a net worth target for 2009 as this number is pulled in different directions by the stock market, something over which I have very little (that is, zero) effect. My investing strategy is to stay invested in the stock market for all assets other than cash I might need in a few years, so as time goes by, my net worth is driven increasingly by the performance of stocks.

How are you progressing against your goals?

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Goals Bring About Real Results

by Jeff on June 25, 2009

Do you have a 5-year financial plan? What about just a general idea? Do you know where you want to be financially in 25 years? Have you ever set a financial goal? If you decided you wanted to save $5,000 this year, could you do it? Far too often we get into situations where we let money control us, instead of being in control of our money. Learning to set and achieve goals is one of the simplest ways to achieve the financial freedom you’re seeking, but it might be one of the hardest as well.

A goal, a purpose, and a plan

A 5 year financial plan can sound like a daunting challenge. Most of us have trouble staying within our monthly budget (it’s those darn Jelly-Bellys), and trying to find the time and and energy to draw up a plan can be difficult. The good thing is, your financial plan or goals can be as complex or as simple as you’d like. You can simply decide that you’re going to save 10% of every paycheck, or that you’ll take your lunch to work three days a week.

Don’t cut back just for the sake of cutting back, though – have a purpose. If you cancel your cable to save money, save that money! If that $90 just cycles back into your monthly budget you’re reducing your expenses for nothing. You can use that extra money to pay off debt, or to save up for a new purchase. You could pay off your car, or buy the latest season of 24. See how easily a purpose can become a goal?

Motivation

A purpose and a goal provide an important factor that comes into play when you’re making a change in your life – motivation. If you don’t want to do something, it’s harder to do it. Spending is a habit for some people. It’s difficult to break habits. But now you have a carrot on a stick – your goal. You can weigh everything you want to do with your money with what you really want. If you’re not sure if you want something, compare it with how much you want your goal. Which one do you want more?

Put a visual reminder of your goal somewhere where you can see it every day. If you want a new dress, print out a picture and tape it on your fridge. My wife and I have our savings goals charted on a piece of paper on our bedroom wall. Every time I want something I head over to that chart and see how much closer we’d be to our goals if I would save that money instead of spending it.

Your Goals Become Your Guides

Now that you have a goal, and you’re weighing different ways to achieve it, you’re formulating a plan. That didn’t take very long, did it? In its simplest form, a plan is really just a collection of goals, and how you’ll achieve them. Short-term goals have smaller plans, and long-term goals can have elaborate plans. You can control a plan by limiting it to what you need to succeed.

If you’re trying to save up for a down payment on a house, your plan should include what you’ll do to get to that point. Not eating out once a week so you have money to save up for a TV is good, but it’s not a part of that plan. Your mini-plans and big plans (your goals) can help you determine what in your budget is a need, and what is a want. It can help you learn to moderate your spending and to make better financial decisions. If you want to retire in 10 years, you’ll think twice about buying a $100,000 boat if you don’t have the money for it.

Don’t Give Up

Now, a word on goals. If you set a goal and don’t reach it when you want to, or struggle and want to give up, don’t. You can always achieve your goals, you just need to re-think them and re-commit yourself to achieving that goal again. Just because you splurged and spent more than your budget or had some unexpected problem that threw you way off doesn’t mean you can’t try again.

Our financial strategy is goal-driven, and it’s brought success, happiness and peace of mind. We still have rough spots, but we’re more equipped to deal with them and can minimize the damage. Learning to let your purposes become goals and plans will help you on the road to financial independence.

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Smithee’s New Long-Term Goals

by Smithee on April 7, 2009

in Family and Life

My goal was never to have all the money I could get my hands on.

On the other hand, I’ve never solidified my financial goals. Up to now, it’s mostly been about what I don’t want, rather than what I do:

I don’t want more rooms in my house than I can use
I don’t want to have to hire a security firm
I don’t want to go to fundraising dinners for politicians
I don’t want people around me who only like me for the luxury I share with them
I never want to do any “shmoozing”

It’s things like that which I’ve long associated with wealthy people. Maybe these are stereotypes that only happen in fiction, I couldn’t say. More realistically, I’ve only had one (not)goal for many years: I don’t want to be in danger of being homeless. That’s not a productive goal. I think it’s time I change my thinking.

Flexo has written about different types of goal-setting in the past, which helped me start germinating ideas subconsciously over the past few months. Here’s what I’ve got so far for my long-term goals:

I want moderate luxury: a perfect example of this is our living room TV. I bought a used HD projector ($900) and a cheap 92” screen for $75. I hung the screen myself for less than $10, and we’ve had an enormous gorgeous high-def TV for years. I don’t need a separate media room or surround sound. What we’ve got is great.
I want to eat breakfast outside: I want enough time in the morning to be able to make myself some eggs and bacon, coffee or tea, and take it to the backyard to enjoy. Usually this is only possible on vacation. I think in order to do this every day, I’d need to work from home.
I want my evenings and weekends to myself: I know too many people who think about, and perform, work during non-work hours. I’ve always felt this is indicative of a management flaw. The people at my current business tell me I work faster than anybody else, so that may also have something to do with it.
I want lots of open space: I’ve always lived in metropolitan areas, so I probably don’t have it in me to switch instantly to farming, but I like to think that by the time work slows down for us, we’ll at least have a kind of subsistence farm situation.

For many months, excluding one huge setback last fall, my only goal has been “get rid of the credit card debt”. I’m still going to do this, but a recent salary cut decided for me that my plan of paying off $1,000 a month won’t work anymore. After adjusting our budget, instead of $532 leftover per pay period, I have about $228. So, new plan: save the leftover salary money. It’ll either grow in a bank account, or go toward home improvements (including my wife’s increasingly impressive garden), or upcoming vacations. You know, things that improve the quality of life. Things that I’ve been ignoring for far too long.

And I’ll take half of whatever I earn from my freelance work to gradually pay down the pesky credit card. It’ll go a lot more slowly, but hopefully that will encourage me to do more, better work in my spare time. That will hopefully lead to a situation where I can work from home, in a place with lots of open space, and a backyard I can eat breakfast in.

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Flexo’s Financial Goals and Resolutions for 2009

by Flexo on January 5, 2009

One lesson I learned this past year, after setting financial goals for 2008 and evaluating my progress as of last week, is that I shouldn’t set goals that are heavily dependent upon forces beyond my control, such as the stock market at large. My main target of a $210,000 “modified net worth” assumed the stock market would not perform so poorly. There’s that idiom about assumptions.

I’ll take a slightly different approach with my financial targets for 2009.

Financial goals for 2009

Income

Last year, I looked past my day job salary towards the income from my side jobs, including Consumerism Commentary. My target for 2009 was to earn $100,000 from a variety of sources outside of my primary job. I succeeded, with an official tally of $121,000. I’d like to see this year-over-year increasing trend continue, but again I need to look at the market.

Most of this income comes from advertisers, and many of these advertisers are financial companies. I don’t have to look hard to find news stories about the troubles facing companies in the financial sector. In addition, experts are predicting a slow year for internet advertising across all sectors. While a year ago I was considering following some of my blogging colleagues by quitting my day job and pursuing blogging and related projects full-time. This is a luxury I’d like to have, but I’m still playing it conservatively. As long as I can continue to basically work full time with two jobs without losing more of my sanity, I’ll do so.

My goal for “Other Earned Income” in 2009 is $108,000, or an average $9,000 per month. My stretch goal is to surpass this year’s success with $132,000.

Investing

My investing progress for 2008 was haphazard and unorganized. I’d like to be more clear in 2009 about achieving investing targets. This is what I’d like to accomplish by year end (or by the time I file my 2009 tax return in April 2010). The ability to reach these goals depends on earning the “Other Earned Income” I’ve indicated as my goal.

Contribute the full $16,500 to my 401(k).
Contribute the maximum to a Roth IRA if possible; if not, contribute to a Traditional IRA and convert the account to a Roth IRA in 2010.
Contribute the maximum to an SEP IRA.
Invest $250 per month into an account to help pay for future children’s education.

Saving

According to my year-end balance sheet, I currently have over $80,000 in various savings accounts and money market funds. I have a sinking feeling that a good portion of this is earmarked for the IRS. I’m working on finding a tax accountant to ensure that my tax bill isn’t any higher than it is supposed to be. After I pay my taxes, I’d like to take half of whatever I have left and earmark that amount for a down payment on a house.

Net worth

Last year, I made the mistake of setting a goal for my total “modified net worth.” I failed thanks to poor performance in my investments. Had I moved my investments to something safer than stocks at the first sign of trouble, I may have been able to make my goal. By doing so, I would be reacting to short-term indicators. Had I sold off stocks and bought safer bonds, I might have achieved a positive return on my investments and surpassed my 2008 goals. Staying invested in stocks was the right choice for my investments that won’t be tapped for a few decades.

For 2009, I will not set a net worth target. It is more meaningful to focus on my income and keep my spending in check.

Throughout the year, I will occasionally compare my progress against these goals. I have fewer goals this year, and the ones that I am keeping are the most meaningful, measurable, and mostly within my control.

What are your financial goals for 2009?

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Evaluating This Year’s Progress Against My Goals

by Flexo on December 28, 2008

In December 2007, I set a number of financial goals or targets to be accomplished by the end of this year. In some cases I was successful while in others I fell short. It’s important to keep things in perspective; when I set these goals, the economy was in a significantly different state. The goals reflected a positive economic outlook but a cautious approach to my income. Here is how I measure up.

Goals for 2008

Income:I don’t see much growth ahead in my salary, but I would say that if I continue to work hard on my side projects, one of which is this blog, $100,000 in additional income is not out of the question. The industry could change drastically, so one year from now, I could be looking back at these goals and laughing at the ridiculousness of that number. I’ll call $125,000 my stretch goal. If I am able to earn that much next year, it may be time to leave my day job and devote myself to my projects full-time.

Result: success. I’m on target for earning about $117,000 in additional income this year, between advertising, affiliates (percentage of product sales driven by my websites), and freelance writing. I feel like I don’t have much to show for it, however, and I am concerned about my upcoming tax bill.

Investing: I plan on contributing the full $15,5000 to 401(k) accounts. I also plan on contributing as much as possible to my 2008 SEP IRA account, but the amount I can invest depends on how much income I make from my side business.

Result: not success. According to my final pay statement of 2008, I contributed $14,142 to my 401(k), split between before-tax and Roth 401(k) after-tax contributions. I missed the target by not carefully planning the contributions. In February, I increased my 401(k) contribution rate from 25% to 33% of my salary. Later in the year, I bumped up my contributions again to 50% of my salary, the maximum allowed, to try to reach the $15,500 goal by the end of the year. It was too late, however, and I fell short.

I won’t fund my SEP IRA for 2008 until I file my tax return because the deductions I take will determine how much I am allowed to contribute.

Debt: I have about $13,000 left in student loans at an interest rate above 4%. This is the only debt I currently carry. It is reasonable for me to completely eliminate this debt by the end of the the year. I have the cash to do so now… Stretch goal: eliminate the $13,000 debt by the end of June 2008.

Result: success. Earlier this month, I sent the final check to my student loan servicing company and am now completely debt-free. It was an anticlimactic experience for me; I’ve had cash available to pay off the student loan for a long time, but I wanted to keep cash on my balance sheet for as long as possible. Still, by the end of the year, I was paying over $1,000 per month to eliminate the debt. It will be nice not to send those payments out the door.

Saving: My primary saving goal is for future real estate, so I want to have $40,000 earmarked for a down payment (plus closing costs) either by the end of the year or by the time I sign on the dotted line. I may not use all of that cash depending on how it would affect my liquidity at the time. I’d also like to double my emergency fund so I could last four months without significantly reducing my expenses and without tapping credit. Stretch goal: accomplish these goals by the end of June 2008.

Result: not success. According to a preview of my year-end balance sheet, I have over $70,000 in savings accounts spread across a number of banks, plus about $10,000 in money market mutual funds at Vanguard. I need to consolidate these accounts and properly organize the funds. I should be able to find $40,000 to earmark for a down payment. My emergency fund, or the cash I have in an ING Direct account labeled “Emergency Fund,” has increased this year from about $8,000 to about $13,000. Like the down payment earmark, it’s a question of moving money from one account to another, but the cash is there.

Charity: Last month, I established a charitable gift fund in my name. In lieu of creating my own foundation, an expensive and overly administrative process, this is going to allow me to direct my contributions to non-profit organizations at any time easily. My goals for this year are to choose two or three organizations to support, grant at least $5,000 to the organizations, and contribute an additional $10,000 over the course of the year to the fund.

Result: not success. With the stock market experiencing a major dip this past year, I was reluctant to distribute funds from the charitable gift fund. I added to the fund this year, and rather than investing it all, I left half in a money market fund and invested the rest in a stock market index fund. With this strategy, I can grant half of my contribution in 2009 and allow the remainder to grow. The goal is to grow the fund to a level at which the grants can come from the interest and gains alone, with the principal left to sustain giving every year. In 2008, my charitable giving was funded outside of the charitable giving account.

Net worth: I am ending the year with a modified net worth of about $120,000. I’ll have a more concrete total when I post my full financial reports in the next few days. This number will likely be about twice the amount of my net worth at the end of 2006. I’d like to continue this trend by doubling my net worth by the end of 2008, but that may not be realistic. Let’s call this goal $210,000 by December 31, and the stretch goal will be $240,000.

Result: not success. I did end 2007 with a modified net worth of $123,000, a little less than twice my net worth at the end of 2006 ($69,000). Doubling my net worth would be a great trend, but the stock market ensured that this would not be a possibility in 2008. Despite investing throughout 2008, my investments have only increased $5,000, including my contributions. That’s a negative rate of return. My modified net worth at the end of 2008 is heading towards $180,000, significantly short of my goal. I would likely have exceeded the goal if the stock market increased at a rate closer to average.

Some of the goals could have been reached by rearranging or reorganizing my accounts. I should have considered the effect that a down stock market could have on my finances when I initially determined my goals of 2008. In the next few days, I’ll set my goals for 2009, a year that will present a lot of questions for me.

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9 Tips for Choosing and Achieving a Purpose in Life

by Flexo on December 19, 2008

in Personal Development

Recently, I mentioned that setting goals is an important part of taking control of your personal finances, focusing on the idea that the best approach is to determine your major, non-financial life goals first. This is a difficult process for many people, and many people go through life without determining a direction.

There’s nothing wrong about not having a major purpose for your life. I wouldn’t criticize someone who blindly lives decision to decision without a driving force behind the choices made every day. Living without direction is still living, and it is possible to be a positive force in the world without setting out to do so.

Choosing a life goal isn’t a final decision, and it’s a process of feedback. It may take some time living before you decide on a goal, and your experiences will help shape the goal you choose. In turn, the goal provides an ideal that will guide you as you make everyday decisions. What you experience as a result of those decisions can shape, refine, and change your goal.

Again forgetting about “SMART” goals, the concept promoted by people who want you to work efficiently and earn more money for your employer, here are 8 tips for helping you find a direction and focus on yourself.

1. Think about your passions. Many people throughout the world have limited options. Living conditions force the less fortunate to focus on survival only. Others have the luxury to pursue activities beyond the search for sustenance. Even for those with time to read about and participate in a number of activities, finding a passion can be difficult. What do you like doing? What kind of activities do you get excited about? Is there something unique you can bring to the table?

If you really, really love playing video games, that may be your passion. Other people may see you as a couch potato or a kid trapped in an adult body, but perhaps you can turn your love into a mission. Perhaps your purpose is to create video games that bring enjoyment to teenagers, training to the military, or education to children.

2. A natural skill leads to a natural purpose. Do your friends and family look to you as an expert in some activity or skill? Many “big fish in a small pond” become overwhelmed at the realization that the world is an ocean with many other big fish. With the right approach, you can view this as a challenge to present your skills to the larger community in a unique way.

If you have a knack for public speaking as well as a passion about a particular issue, perhaps your purpose is to advocate for your cause. Do your talents lean towards mathematics or can you naturally understand complex scientific concepts? Your purpose may be to discover a new way of understanding the world in which we live and translate concepts to the public.

3. Your values define your purpose. People are not born with values, they are learned from our environment. Parents and community define the values we hold. Your purpose should take these values into account, be they community service, family, God, self, human rights, or any other issue. Values set the parameters for the choices you make, and it makes sense to integrate them with your largest life decisions.

If you can’t pin down your own most important values, do not worry. Think about the people you care about the most. What are their values? The values held by the people you admire most are most likely the values that will feel right to you. Talk to these people about their values and you may find that certain ideas feel comfortable for you.

4. Create a mission statement that describes your purpose. Your passions and your skills should lead you to your mission or purpose. Your mission statement should concisely describe your long-term purpose in no more than three sentences. It should an idealistic view of the best possible situation. Defining your mission statement is not the time to limit yourself.

Development consultants want you to focus on your job when you design your mission statement, but this view is far too narrow. It should apply to your life, something much bigger than your job or career.

Your mission statement should be everything that follows, “My purpose is…” Here are some examples:

To educate women about breast cancer through sharing personal experiences, and inspiring others to share their own, to build public awareness about the disease.

To encourage participation in the performing arts through grants.

To inspire young people to learn about personal money management and provide ideas for building a solid foundation for financial success.

To live life completely and honestly with guidance from a higher power and be the best possible father to my family.

5. Write down your mission and display it prominently. Once you’ve developed your mission statement, write it down. Tape it to the inside of your bedroom door so you see it every day. Post your mission statement to your refrigerator with a magnet.

The local Chick-fil-A restaurant has their mission statement displayed above the counter, facing the employees. Every time a cashier looks up, they are reminded “to be Quakerbridge Mall’s best quick-service restaurant at winning and keeping customers.” You can perform this basic form of brainwashing on yourself by doing what you can to create a constant reminder of the effect you would like to have on the world.

6. Involve friends and family in your mission. The people who know you best are those most likely to support you as you reach for your goals. Not only will they be your cheerleaders, they might offer suggestions to help you refine your mission or select your path. Stay away from those who criticize or try to bring you down to earth.

7. Determine the goals that will lead you to achieving your mission. What do you need to accomplish along the way towards completing your mission? Just like setting savings targets, you can start to get more specific. These are the milestones you need to pass.

The best way to plan is in the form of a pyramid with your purpose at the top. Determine three specific goals that will allow you to achieve that purpose. For example, if your ultimate goal is to encourage participation in dramatic arts, three major goals that you might find necessary could be running a successful theater foundation, writing a play for young actors, and creating a touring acting company that visits elementary schools. From here, determine three steps along the path to each of these three goals.

8. Remain flexible and welcome changes to your mission. If a person is the sum of his or her experiences, a person changes every day. These changes can have an effect on the way you see yourself. Your purpose should always be highly relevant to who you are, so you should reconsider your mission when you feel it is necessary. If you find, however, that your mission changes every year, then you may not be ready to set a long-term goal. There’s nothing wrong with this; continue to discover more about yourself and a solid mission will eventually feel natural.

Remember that your mission doesn’t have to be your ultimate goal. You might be lucky enough to fulfill your purpose before you expect. Rather than ceasing purposeful existence at this point, consider expanding your mission and moving forward. Or take what you’ve learned and forge a new path.

9. Maintain a mission journal. I must say, right up front, that one of the best things you can do for your mission is to keep a public journal online. Today, the quickest and most efficient way to accomplish this is to start a blog. You can create a blog for free on wordpress.com. This blog should be focused on your mission, and you should try to write every day about something related to your goal.

Just like Consumerism Commentary allows me to hold myself accountable for my finances, publicly writing about your daily progress towards your mission will force you to think about your decisions from the right perspective. The journal doesn’t have to be public, but opening yourself up to the constructive criticism of strangers can give you wonderful insight.

Not everyone needs a defined purpose in life. I am not a fan of personal development gurus who claim that mission statements are the key to a fulfilling life and career, particularly when they encourage focusing on career-oriented goals. I do, however, think it’s important to keep your eyes open to the world and using your interests and talents for the benefit of many. Consumerism Commentary readers are lucky or blessed and have advantages well beyond the majority of people all over the world. If making a contribution to the world is important, thinking about your purpose and creating a mission statement is a good way to formalize what you would like achieve.

Do you have a mission statement? If you have any tips to share for other readers, please do.

Photo credits: 416style, Prabhu B

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