Third Quarter Check In

Back at the beginning of the year I set some goals for myself.  If you want to read that post, you can click here,  but in a nutshell they were:  improve my health, improve my finances, and work on my personal relationships. I've been working at all three this year, and things really turned around for me this quarter.

In a post I wrote back in August, I detailed the issues I was having with my budget:  I had big medical bills to pay, so I was working too many hours at two jobs, putting most everything else on hold.  That just was not working.  So I made the somewhat scary decision to cash out a big chunk of my emergency fund and finally paid off those bills. I am so, so glad I did.

I still have my part time, work from home job.  I have cut way back on my hours, though, and I made a promise to Walker that I would take off at least one full day, every week, from both jobs.  Since we no longer "need" the extra money for bills, it's being saved toward special things, like our upcoming trip to the Mall of America.  I also started a new budget envelope labeled "date night", specifically for Walker and me to use when we go out.  Unfortunately, Walker is on his winter hours at work and we have not had a night off together in weeks.  We've been getting creative: one morning he set his alarm for 3am and watched a movie with me when I got home from work.  A couple days later, I stayed up past my bedtime so we could have breakfast together before he headed out.  It isn't ideal but it will do.

I was hoping to report that I am now consumer debt free, but then I bought a new (used) car.  I was also hoping to post that I had refinanced my mortgage, losing two full interest points, but that is still a work in progress.  Refinancing has been very popular around here, and the lenders' schedules are backed up.  I've fulfilled all the requirements and now am just waiting for the results of the appraisal before I can close.  The refi will lower my mortgage payment by $250 but I'm going to continue to pay the higher payment, so I can get the house paid off faster. The sooner we lose the mortgage, the sooner we retire.  With that in mind, I have increased my 401k withholding at the office, I started payroll deductions into my Roth IRA, and, while I was at it, I started a Sharebuilder account for Diva. Sharebuilder gave us a $50 bonus for the new account so it was a great time to sign up.

I still have to prepare my vital documents using my Suze Orman document kit, but I'm confident I can get that done yet this year.  When I finish those, I think I'll be able to call my financial goal complete.  The relationships goal is, and always will be, a work in progress.  I think any relationship worth having takes some level of continuing effort.  You're never really "done".  But I will say that I feel like I've been successful there, too. Walker and I make a point of spending time together, just the two of us.  I make sure to spend time with Diva every week, too.  I've reconnected with some old friends that I'd lost touch with. I get to have quality time with Cubby and Squeak, too.

Which brings me to the "health" goal.  All I can say there is, I will never stop trying to improve my health, to lose the extra weight, to increase my exercise.  I've made improvements, but I have a long way to go, yet, too.  With the other two goals right on track I am free to focus on myself for a while, and that's exactly what I intend to do.  Hopefully, by the time I post the next quarterly check-in, I'll have some great results to report.

First Quarter Check In

You may remember that at the beginning of the year I decided to focus my energies on three things:  getting healthier, fixing my finances, and spending more quality time with my family.  It's been a wild ride so far this year, but I realized today is the last day of the first quarter, so I thought I'd post an update.

The family time has definitely increased since Bro moved in. I see a lot more of my nephews, too.  Walker, Bro, and I sit down to dinner together several times a week, which isn't easy considering we all have very different schedules.  Walker and I had a week together in February, on vacation.  I think we needed that.  We've also managed to sneak in a few late lunch dates before I go to work.  It's progress.

The finances are actually ahead of schedule.  In the interest of full disclosure, I need to state that one factor in getting there is the contribution Bro makes to the household budget.  I followed  Gail Vaz-Oxlade's plan to set the budget up, but I based it just on income from Walker and me.  When Bro moved in, I didn't adjust the numbers.  So his contribution is "extra".  I decided not to account for it since I know he'll be moving on soon.  The biggest "Wahoo!" happened in February, when I paid a credit card balance, in full, after our vacation.  I have one more to go, but that one is going away quickly since it's the only consumer debt I have.  I've been working overtime, clipping coupons, and watching sales.  Finances are doing well.

Then there's the "health" category.  Can I get back to you on that one?  Actually, while I don't have a regular exercise program, I've cut way back on my caffeine intake, I'm sleeping better, and we're eating a lot healthier since Bro moved in.  He's a great cook, and he's committed to his wellness plan.  He makes low fat, low carb meals that are awesome.  We also have healthy snacks now.  It's a start, but I do need to get going on the exercise.  Now that spring is (almost) here, I think that'll get easier.  I love to walk outside, bike ride, garden.  In a couple months Diva and I will be swimming every day.  I'll get there. 

Over all, I guess I'd give myself about a B.  Maybe a B-.  Nah, a B.  Can't get everything done at once.  Considering the challenges I've had, I think a B will do just fine.

Game On

Walker is snuggled under a puffy down comforter, watching the Packers smack down the Bears.  Diva is off with her daddy, hopefully having a fun afternoon.  And I am waging war against my to-do list, checking off line after line in my quest to organize my life.

I've heard that if you can take control of one area of your life, the rest will fall into place.  I don't know if that's true but it seems more manageable than trying to work on everything at once. My three big goals for the year are to get healthier, to fix my finances, and to spend more quality time with my family.  Since my family is otherwise occupied and my health is an ongoing battle, I'm going to start with the finances.  I'm assembling the necessary documents to get my taxes done, and I've gone through the mail to make sure I've got all the bills up to date.  Walker has a bad habit of bringing in the mail and putting it down "wherever", so I've made myself a spreadsheet that tells me when payments are due.  I added a column so I can mark them off when I make them.  We haven't missed any payments but we came close a couple times before I had the spreadsheet.  If I can't find the actual bill, I can go online and look it up. And if you're wondering why we still get bills in the mail, well, I've had issues with my email account.  It may be green but I don't consider it secure. 

In an attempt to simultaneously clean out some clutter and generate some cash, Walker and Diva have gone through their dressers and closets, purging things they no longer want.  We're months from rummage sale weather, but I've been listing books on Amazon and other stuff on eBay.  Things are moving right along.  What doesn't go will most likely be donated the next time the Easter Seals folks swing through the neighborhood.  It's progress.

Happy New Year!

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, but I do like the idea of a fresh start.  I usually make a short list of goals for the new year and I carry them around with me in my wallet so I don't end up forgetting them by spring.  I see my little goal card every time I go for a stamp or some cash.  It helps to keep me on track.

Last year, the goals focused on three things:  getting healthier, cleaning up my financial plan, and making more time to spend with my family, especially Walker.  Overall, I'd say I made some progress but not a lot.  I lost some weight but I didn't do as much exercising as I should have.  I put aside my fear and went for my very first mammogram, and while I didn't get the all clear I was expecting, I know I would have come out much worse had I not found out I had breast cancer when I did. So in the grand scheme of things, I'd give myself a B- in the getting healthier category.  The finances.....well.  I did really well the first half of the year, working hard, building savings, paying off bills.  The whole cancer thing wiped out the progress I'd made with the savings, but then, all my 2010 medical bills are paid in full.  We had a large, unexpected expense when the shower tiles started falling off the wall, but I had the cash to pay for that, too.  We're just waiting for the installer to finish the work (he's coming next week).  I bought some stocks last year, when the market was in the toilet, and most of them have rebounded well. I opened a health savings account, and I added a chunk of money to Diva's college fund.  On the other hand, I have not contributed a single cent to my IRA for the year, and I still have a balance on my credit card.  I also bought a kit from Suze Orman that walks you through each step in making a will, setting up a living revocable trust, and a couple other vital financial documents.  I was feeling all grown up and responsible when I ordered it.  The kit arrived by UPS the week I was diagnosed with cancer.  I've not even opened the box.  Overall, I think I'd get about a B in the financial category.

Now the family category.....I guess that's the hardest one for me to judge. We have regular get-togethers with my family and Walker's.  I spend a lot of one on one time with Diva.  I worked a logistical miracle with my sister to get her kids here for a couple weeks last summer. Walker and I.....that's another story.  We don't have dates, we don't have nights out.  I can't remember the last movie we went to.  Part of it is our work schedules, but I think we could do better.  We're happy, but we don't get to just enjoy each others company as often as we'd like.  I can't give myself more than a C in the relationships category.

All that said, I think I'll just rewrite my goals from 2010 with a 2011 heading.  I'm going to change the way I approach them, though, and work toward better results. Stop back in about 364 days and see how I did. Happy 2011!