I read something online the other day. It boiled down to this: Don’t worry about other people online because those people never showcase their failures anyway.
Boy, do I have a blog for that person.
And you’re reading it.
Because I am nothing if not a perfectionist, I met the majority of my goals for this quarter.
But I failed spectacularly at one goal, and I’ve failed even more at making this The Year Of Me.
Health
My goals for Q3 were straightforward enough. In terms of my health, I intended to do two things:
Goal 1 – 10,500 steps a day.
Goal 2 – Use the Calm app 2x a week.
I met my first goal generally speaking. There were two days where I was below the step goal, but most days I hovered around 13,000 steps. So I’m moving, and that’s a real positive.
When I’m teaching, it’s never an issue. In fact, I have one class that is so…spirited, let’s say…that I clocked 3,000 in under an hour last week. I will probably wear down the carpet by the end of the school year.
But now that I’ve upped my freelancing, I have to sit more. So I’m working hard–and succeeding–at balancing that.
However, I failed at using the Calm app. To be honest, I’m not even sure I opened it this quarter. Or that I even still have it installed on my phone.
Wealth
Sometimes, I don’t even recognize myself. I have been obsessed with paying down our mortgage ever since I realized it was debt. (What a dope I was.) But I decided to focus on beefing up our investments instead.
Here were our goals:
Goal 1 – Work on my mortgage enough this quarter to ensure it’s under six figures by 2020.
Goal 2 – Increase our 529, 403b, and taxable contributions.
We absolutely increased our investments in HP’s 529, my 403b (my husband still hasn’t opened his…le sigh), and our joint taxable account. Plus, our Roths were maxed earlier this year. So, I wanted to throw my weight into our investments, and I did.
But more importantly, we dipped in five figure territory already on our mortgage. I know I wasn’t supposed to focus on it for Q3, but I’m so happy. I have to say it one more time: FIVE FIGURES!
Clutter
We spent the second half of summer decluttering up a storm. I also got back into reselling. That’s good news considering what our goals were:
Goal 1 – Connect with a local organization that needs baby/toddler things.
Goal 2 – Earn at least $20 selling.
In terms of giving away baby and toddler things, I’ve been dragging my feet a bit. But I am still using Freecycle and OfferUp to give things away. I’m also not ready to write about it fully yet, but we’ve been spending 1-3 days a week visiting a nursing home these past few months. I quickly learned that it’s slim pickings for HP in their activity room. That means it’s equally lean for all little humans who visit. So we’ve been bringing extras of HP’s things to leave there: crayons, coloring books, books, balls, and a few toys. I would have never thought to do this otherwise, and it was really sweet to watch HP and another little baby bond over a ball. So I’m going to count this as a win for the first goal.
This quarter, we made over $100 reselling things. It didn’t make us rich, but it did fun our visit to the Walworth County Fair and our apple picking adventure.
Environment
Frugality and environmentalism go hand in hand. But we want to be more intentional about our choices, so we tease out environmental goals. For this quarter, we focused on two things:
Goal 1 – Swap out a routine plastic purchase.
Goal 2 – Use 5 or less disposable cups.
While I know glass is also a problem, especially in a world where it seems next to nothing is actually getting recycled, we’ve swapped plastic for glass with our peanut butter, salad dressing (when we don’t make it from scratch), and applesauce. I also only allow myself to purchase pop (fine, soda) in aluminum cans. The added benefit here is that I can’t visit the vending machine at work anymore.
I hit my disposable cup goal, mostly because the lovely ZJ met up with me and clued me into an amazing tea spot near #FinCon19. I got really delicious chai in a ceramic mug on several occasions. Otherwise, I would have gone over the 5 count because I didn’t get a reusable mug until the second day of the conference (and I forgot mine at home).
Me
I want to be more selfish. Not like THAT. Just in a way where I think about myself and don’t feel the need to apologize over it. To help, I set two goals:
Goal 1 – Go out with a friend once a month or more sans kiddos.
Goal 2 – Freelance more.
I am definitely freelancing more. In fact, I landed an opportunity to do a bunch of curriculum work outside of my district. I absolutely loved it. Things are going well in all aspects of freelancing. I love my clients, and writing is a treat for me. Plus, feeling financially fit is a form of self care (my blog, my rules).
And I’ve been going out with friends a bit more. It’s still hard to balance wanting time with my son (there’s never enough!), my husband (ditto!), and needing to be myself too. I’m working on it, and I have good friends who are willing to help.
Final Thoughts on Recapping Q3 2019 Goals
I have a lot to be proud of. In a lot of ways, I can feel the finance puzzle finally coming together. For a long time, it felt like I had three corner pieces and the box and not much else. Now, I really feel like we are starting to really build some true momentum.
But.
The fact that I couldn’t even tell you if the Calm app is still on my phone might seem like I flubbed one goal. In reality, it speaks to a much larger issue. Health is wealth, and I’m doing a terrible job of prioritizing my own health. Namely, I’ve been sacrificing sleep and really slacking at working out. My eating habits are OK, but my hydration habits are not (unless you count Diet Coke).
I don’t want to be the person that spends a hunk of their life chasing wealth only to have to spend all of that wealth trying to restore their health later on. But in a lot of ways, that’s how I feel right now.
I haven’t solidified my specific goals for Q4, but I can already tell you that they will be a lot less money driven. Building wealth needs to take a backseat to improving my health for a change.
So Tell Me…How did Q3 go? Do you know what you’re working on for Q4?
Congrats on your success on the mortgage pay down! Must be a great feeling! It is hard to set financial priorities and not shift back and forth after every bit of financial news or advice.
It is great that you are taking a focus on health this quarter! Poor health can be very expensive!
Q4 goal for me was to start a blog. I started “Prep-tactics” to seek the best nutrition while saving time and money. The unique thing I would like to provide myself and others is the per meal cost estimate of each meal posted. I get very specific on my ingredients list so others can easily reproduce my estimated cost.
Second Q4 goal is the post a 12 meals. 11 more to go!
Thanks for sharing your goal successes and failures! Would love to see what next quarter brings you!
Glad to have helped with the reusable mug and with your “going out with friends” goal. I am going to speak for Allea here for a second, I think that morning was a highlight of the whole trip. Getting to spend more than a handful of quality minutes with quality people was A-may-zing.
I really, really loved my time with both of you!
I am sort of a fail at being selfish (in the same way that you use the word.) Do you happen to know your Enneagram? I’m a 2, and this is a classic 2 issue.
I’m sure that HP is a bright ray of sunshine at the nursing home. <3
One of my friends likened him to a therapy dog. They’re better behaved 😛 He climbed up on the table and started eating my aunt’s food! LOL
Maybe I should find out my Enneagram!
I struggle with health too. It’s easy to automate savings, but working out and eating healthy choices requires you to make the right choices day in and day out. That’s difficult!
What an amazing idea to share well-loved toys with nursing homes so they have supplies for their littlest visitors!
It’s maybe the best decluttering idea I’ve ever had. I used to always try to lug stuff to keep HP busy there. But now that we know the things are there, it makes it much easier to get in the car and go! Hopefully, it helps other families, too!
I’m not sure what our goals for Q4 need to be, I’m having real trouble focusing on the big picture these days. Or rather I have to ignore the big picture stuff because it makes me maudlin and stressed about how far we are from “financial security” (it’s a moving target many days) and focus on day to day life instead.
So in that vein, I’m looking to organize and be prepared for fall/winter social things like dinner and lunch get togethers and spending quality time with people we like. And cooking for them. And wrapping up all the Christmas presents before November. That’s it. Those are my goals. 🙂
Congrats on achieving so many of your goals! I would personally call this an overall success with a “room for improvement” asterisk next to the part about health. I love that you choose to focus on both physical AND mental health. I think a lot of us tend to forget about the cognitive, emotional side of health, but it has such a huge impact on our overall well-being. I’ve been saying for years that it would be so nice to meditate or journal more, but I never do! For me, the mental health side of things is much less concrete than scheduling in a workout and getting in your sweat. Anyway, awareness is the first step towards change so it seems to me like you’re on the right path!
I love how you track goals quarterly instead of yearly. It just seems so much more doable. I’ve borrowed your idea, and it’s very helpful.
You did a lot better than I did. Especially on the clutter front. I’m also impressed with your average number of steps. My yearly average is currently around 9,800. Can you tell I have a desk job?
Good luck learning to be more selfish!