A RESOLUTION to Bring Greater Fiscal Tracking to the Life of Geof F. Morris

WHEREAS I spent a large part of 2005 looking to log and track a lot of the goings-on in my life, learning quite a few good techniques for doing so along the way, and

WHEREAS I sometimes find myself looking at my bank statement and saying, “What the f***?”, and

WHEREAS I am at a point in life where greater financial responsibility is certainly a good idea, and

WHEREAS greater knowledge of my cash flow will undoubtedly correlate into better financial decision-making, as personal experience of short-term monitoring of my cash flow has achieved a high degree of solid, conscientious spending decisions,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. Financial tracking software be procured for my home computer as well as my Treo handheld no later than 15 Jan 2006.
2. Aforementioned software shall be learned and implemented no later than 20 Jan 2006.
3. A basic budgetary outline [mortgage, house-related expenses, groceries, entertainment, vehicle maintenance, etc.] be completed no later than 31 Jan 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 Feb 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the second day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Jackass, presiding.

I think that I, like most folks, vacillate on the idea of New Year’s resolutions. The argument for doing them is a good one: it’s probably better to live life with goals than it is to drift about aimlessly. The argument against them is as strong and simpler: most people fail miserably.

As 2005 waned, I thought about writing resolutions: what they would be, how many, etc. Eventually, I struck upon an idea that really made sense to me: the reason that most goals fail is because are either unrealistic or are too generic ["save more money", "be a better employee", etc.].

Thus, an idea was born, one with its roots in all the student government crap I’ve done the last decade: real, honest-to-God resolutions. “WHEREAS, it is the opinion of this body that …”—you get the idea. I love writing this stuff—ask anyone who’s ever been in student government with me!—and the experiences I’ve had the last three years have honed my planning skills quite well. [Unfortunately, my execution skills have lagged.]

Starting tomorrow and going through the 13th of January, I’ll post one resolution a day, to be acted upon by the end of each subsequent month. The easier resolutions are certainly front-loaded, but a couple of the ones at the end will require more than a late-fall push to make them happen.

Should be fun, at least for me.