Health goals top list of resolutions By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Health and fitness are again the top goals when people make their New Year's resolutions, a study has shown. The study, compiled for mygoals.com, an Internet site, showed that users of the site listed health goals 22 percent of the time as their main goal in 2004, down slightly from 24 percent for 2003. Also seeing a decline was the no. 2 area, work, with 18 percent wanting to improve in that area, down from 27 percent the year before. So if they're both sinking, what's rising? Personal finance and time management and organization were both up 3 percent to 11 percent of the total, while personal growth was up 1 percent. "Things might actually be returning to normal," said Greg Helmstetter, CEO of myGoals.com. Last year, a staggering 27% of people's resolutions were career-related, an 18% increase from 2002. For New Year's 2004, however, a 9% drop in career goals may signal a return to business-as-usual. "Deep concerns about jobs were so strong last year that career-related resolutions surpassed the usual top category, ÔHealth & Fitness,' " said Helmstetter. "This year, a marked drop in job-related goals shows that people are starting to focus more on other areas of their lives such as family, getting organized, and fixing up the house. That's good news for everybody." The most popular resolutions were an old standby, loing weight, followed by a newer one, paying off debt. And one that has grown, Helmstetter said, is an attempt to purchase land. "We're seeing a tremendous increase in goals to purchase rental properties," said Helmstetter. "Last year, we observed a sharp decrease in goals related to investing in stocks. It's safe to say that real estate is absorbing some of that investment capital. While real estate still remains a relatively small category of goals overall, resolutions to purchase rental properties - ranging from single-family homes to large apartment buildings - are significantly stronger than we've ever seen in the three years we've been collecting data."