Happy April!
The birds are chirping. The sun is staying out later. And it’s snowed, it’s rained, and it’s been 50 and sunny…all in the past week.
Welcome to springtime in Chicago!
With the arrival of spring (and the other three seasons that also sporadically burst onto the scene), I thought it was finally fitting to recap my posts for the first quarter of the year. Because somehow 2019 is already more than 25% of the way finished.
Whoa.
To start the year, I set some goals to focus on my health, my wealth, and some other priorities I outlined. Here’s how it went:
Health
Q1 Goal 1 – Hit at least 10,000 steps a day.
Q1 Goal 2 – Climb at least 10 floors a day.
I set reasonable goals for my health in Q1. I’m still using my FitBit, which means I’m easier to figure out than I thought. I’ve always known that I’m motivated by rewards (Why yes, I did collect every sticker from every test for elementary school and middle school), and it turns out, I’m also highly motivated by spending my own money. I really don’t like the idea of having purchased a FitBit only to have it collect dust.
RELATED POST: 10,000 Steps: Why I’m Spending on Fitness
So my goals for the first quarter of the year were as follows were really focused on my Fitbit. I looked at steps and stairs.
CHECK AND CHECK (mostly). I must confess that there were two days when I was just steps away from my goal only to crawl into bed and forget out it. But most days, I clocked 12,000 steps or more and hit the floor climbing goal as well. I averaged about 75,000 steps a week, which is pretty fantastic considering how terribly cold it was for much of this quarter.
Wealth
Q1 Goal 1 – Send $1500 to our Roths.
Q2 Goal 2 – Put $1800 to mortgage principal.
We did really well with our money goals this quarter, but I don’t want to brag too much. It was equal parts effort and sleep deprivation that did the trick.
Basically, I forgot what month it was and made an extra contribution for both of us. So we have $1825 in both of our Roths for this year already. That’s our usual monthly contribution, plus $750 split two ways from my three-paycheck month. Woop woop!
As for our mortgage goal, we knocked it out of the park…mostly because my goal was actually really imprecise. Putting $1800 toward the principal is basically the bare minimum we can do to actually keep our house. Since I’d like to continue living here, my guess is that I mean $1800 extra. In either case, we actually paid $4138.37 toward our principal. That means we paid about $2275 on top of what we already owed. Woot!
RELATED POST: Lessons Learned from Putting $33K Toward Debt Last Year
Clutter
Q1 Goal 1 – Track my clutter/decluttering.
Q1 Goal 2 – Donate more. (For every item I sell, I must donate something else.)
I have been doing an excellent job of keeping track of my decluttering. I wrote two different posts about how I’m not done decluttering, and one even got picked up by The Financial Diet. (insert squeals of delight here)
We’ve also been rocking donating this quarter. It’s a combination of realizing that we can actually do a lot of good with the excess that we have and being just plain tired of lugging around the excess. I’ve sold a handful of things, but we’ve donated hundreds of others. I’m still working on my decluttering recap post for March and plan to post that next week.
Others
Q1 Goal 1 – Continue to give monthly to causes and people that matter.
Q1 Goal 2 – Use 4 or less single-use cups.
My proudest accomplishment for the quarter actually stems from a category I couldn’t even be bothered to name this past January. In 2019, I excelled at Other. Someone, get me a trophy quick!
I only used a handful of single-use cups, and I only purchased soda in a plastic bottle twice. That second part wasn’t even part of my original goal, but I’ve been thinking a lot about my drink choices and the plastic left in their wake.
But the real victory is tied to last month in particular. I have often asked what people do with extra paychecks, and this time, I actually deliberately put an extra $50 to charity…after increasing our charitable donation budget by $50 each month.
We aren’t doing everything we can, but we are doing more. I’ve talked about upping my giving game, and it feels really good to do it not just once, but twice, in such a short amount of time.
RELATED POST: Doubting Your Charitable Giving
Me
Q1 Goal 1 – Spend time or money (or both!) on myself (and only me!) once a week.
Q2 Goal 2 – Say no thank you to an opportunity at least once a month.
Welp. So much for saving the best for the last.
In case you couldn’t see the theme of tiredness running through the goal recaps, let me come right out and say it.
I am exhausted.
While I managed to focus on myself a bit over spring break, I spent the better part of this part quarter hustling and helping others. I’m actually a big fan of both of those things. But I’m starting to really realize what happens when I continually sacrifice my sleep and myself to everyone and everything else around me.
RELATED POST: When Your Goals Have Nothing to Do With Money
Just when I thought I’d started to get a handle on focusing on me, I found myself saying yes to a totally last minute task from my boss. I tried to say no several times, but I am a total sucker for “what’s best for kids”. (I know, I know. I knoooooooow. After getting bounced around so hard, you think I’d get a little bit more of a backbone.)
Final Thoughts on Finishing Q1 2019
It’s hard to believe the first quarter of the year is over. My favorite college professor once made an off-hand remark about why people in nursing homes look so confused. She said one day you blink and your 25, the next your 50, and the next you’re in a home wondering how your whole life passed by in a day.
I laughed when I was 18, and I feel that in my bones now that I’m 32.
Instead of speeding up, though, I’m going to try to slow down even more for the next part of the year. I’m still working through my goals, and I’ll share them soon. I’m trying to keep the focus where I really want it to be. And I’m also making sure that I’m a little more specific. Because there’s nothing quite like looking at your own goals wondering how much money you wanted to pay where and when.
So Tell Me…How did the first part of the year go for you? Do you have any money wins? If you’d like to share one using this link, I’d love the bring back the series this spring and summer!
I memorized all the Bible verses in Sunday School so that I could get the erasers/stickers, etc, so I think we have that in common. As an adult, something as simple as checking off a box feels like a reward for me! It makes me unreasonably happy to mark off my workouts in my HabitShare app even though that’s not exactly a reward…it just somehow feels fulfilling.
Oh man, a quarter of the year has already passed?! I come to realize that the first half of the year passes by really fast then it slows down the second part of the year. Maybe it’s because they’re fewer days the first six months and with all the holidays in the latter part of the year makes it slow.
I just went to DSW this past weekend and donated some shoes thanks to your post a month or so ago. I still have more shoes to donate so I’ll stop by there a few more times. It feels really good to donate especially for items that someone else may really need and we are more than willing to help out.
Work has been so very intense that my goals for fitness are falling to the wayside. Financially we took a hit from unexpected repairs (house and car) but picked ourselves up and still managed to stay on the path to financial Independence. I am happy to start this new quarter! Glad you are rockin’ it!
“We aren’t doing everything we can, but we are doing more.” I so appreciate reading this quote. I feel the same way. We’re trying to balance our personal finances with our need to give more. We’re increasing every year, but always feel like we should sacrifice more given what the families we serve face. Our gifts tend to be larger one time donations – I like your idea of giving something monthly. Maybe that’s how we’ll continue to increase.
January was no good. I had bills from one-off expenses that added up. But February was decent, and March rocked. I didn’t set any real personal goals for myself. I suppose “work out consistently” was one in a vague way. I’m doing well on that.
And I’m working (unsuccessfully) on getting out to more Meetup events to make a wider circle of friends/fill up the hours now that it’s just me. Because currently it’s mainly me sitting at home (both during the day while I work and at night while I’m twiddling my thumbs aka watching Netflix).
The problem is that things keep coming up so that I have to skip the event. The only one I routinely make is for this guy who throws house parties every two weeks. While that’s definitely my goal of socializing, I’d like to do some stuff during the week too.
I’m going to try to be better about sticking to events I RSVP for this quarter. Crap, now I’ve made a resolution and have to stick to it. Sigh.
Great start to the year (which is going by way too quickly)! I did reduce my work hours, which may seem like a weird goal but I tend to overcommit myself. I’m doing my workouts most days.