Happy New Year! I hope 2009 brings you all the health and happiness you deserve. As I had a couple of weeks off of basically doing nothing I noticed that, as a society, we have become human doings and not human beings. It seems like that our worth as individuals is now determined by the size of our to do list. This becomes especially prevalent during the holidays when we try to cram everything- holiday parties, kid’s events, family obligations and shopping- into one short season. It simply cannot be done without giving up something in the process.

As a particular personal example, I tried to arrange a time to see an old friend during the holidays and it got to the point where the only time available for both of us was a one hour window before dinner time on a Saturday night between shopping and another dinner. How much could either of us enjoy the hour if we were both rushing from the prior appointments and looking at our watches to rush off to another event?

I ended up saying that we should see each other in the new year since we really would not make use of the hour well. “Quality time” is a bit of a cliche but it is apropos in modern life. How many of us obsess over where we have to go next rather than just enjoying the time that we have? I have been with people in a supposed social occasion where all they are doing is looking at their Blackberry waiting for that email or call rather enjoying the time. It is obviously rude but it speaks to us spending too much time doing and not being in the moment.

On a business basis, we (my business partners) and I sat down around late November and realized we were doing too many things and not any of them well. Being ambitious is a good thing but not when the ambition is so grandiose that one is totally unfocused that ambition can never be realized. Thus, we made a collective decision to adhere to the “less is more” model. Do less but better.

…which brings me to new year’s financial resolutions. Firstly, I am not a big beliver of them since if you have to make a change in your life why wait for an artificial date to do it rather than make a change now?

Nevertheless, here are my financial goals from last year. To score myself, I am not sure if I am “healthy” but I did run two 5km (3.1 mile) races last year at a 9-10 minute a mile pace (I can do the chin-ups not so much on the swimming- I still sink like a stone); I can run a 8:30 minute mile but for a mile only. I did increase my dividend income to three month’s mortgage payments so I did beat my goal but increasing my net worth by 7%. Not so much. Just like everybody else, my portfolio took a beating.

But one of the things I am focusing on this year is actually doing less. Less on the “to do” list. Less emphasis on cramming appointments in a day. Less doing and more being.

This is why I only have one major financial goal this year: to increase dividend payments by another two mortgage payments by end of the year (I readily concede in order to do that there’s a whole series of underlying steps such as increasing savings which, in and of itself, are goals). The whole purpose is to focus on one thing and to do that one thing well. So you will probably read a lot more dividend related posts this year.

If you are thinking of new year’s resolutions, whether financial or not, I would suggest you only think of one that you can devote your time and energy on lest you become scattered and discouraged. If you are interested in learning about personal finance, every Monday for the rest of the month I’ll share what I did and am doing about educating myself about personal finance. Hope you enjoy.

Hope many of you settle back into work today.