This year, for the first time, Doug and I actually sat down and made some mostly joint goals for 2020.
- Read 2 books, then discuss and apply. The books are
You & Me Forever which we got as a wedding gift 5 years ago, finally started reading this last fall, and realizing there is a lot to think about and could be pretty life changing if we allow ourselves to be changed. Doug feels the same about
Tactics and so we will do the same with that one.
Doug has some weight loss goals, and unfortunately I got bad news from my new primary care doctor that I have "borderline high" cholesterol :( I was pretty surprised to see that, and disappointed as I already do exercise, not smoke, and eat pretty healthfully including lots of beans and fiber. But obviously that needs to come down. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women and I want to do all I can to be healthy and fit for myself and my family's sake.
- Lower my cholesterol into normal/good range! So I plan to exercise more faithfully, eat less cheese and icecream?, add salmon weekly and vegetarian dinners 2 nights a week. And then ask my doctor for a re-check in 3-4 months?
- Dance lessons. Saw a video on facebook and it looked so fun, so we're going to do that together.
- Buy our second rental property and get it rented. We are ready on the bank end, now just waiting for something decent to come on the market!
- See a financial adviser. This one is more what I want to do than Doug necessarily. We are saving into our Roths, 401k, 403b, 529s for the kids, and the rental property plan. I just want someone, with expertise, to look over our plans and see if we need any tweaks. It haunts me that just a little something done not right now could cost us literally thousands of dollars over the years before our retirement. I've also started reading
Retire Inspired, after getting it as a gift from my sister years ago, and it's helping me get more motivated. As he says in his book, the only one who will plan for my retirement is me!
- Do a 5k together.
- Walk the Mackinac Bridge.
- Talk with our neighbors about building. I cannot shake this desire to build our own home. But both my parents and best friend are building, and it is SO expensive. We found out our neighbors build theirs and kept it to about $100 a square foot, (national average is $175), but they said they did a lot themselves. So we would like to sit down with them and see how they did that and if it would be feasible for us. I think having some real numbers would help us see if we could afford it, without being too house poor. We will have our house paid off in a couple months, so in some ways it seems crazy to go from banking all this extra cash to having a medium/large mortgage for 30 years, but on the other hand would love to have a little more land/ little more space/ stay in our neighborhood. So we are at least going to start sort of pursuing it until we come to a hard 'no'.
- Learn to play a piano song. Last Christmas my dad gave me sheet music for a song I liked and I don't think I played the piano all year. After seeing Mannheim Steamroller last month I was feeling nostalgic and missing being connected to music. I used to play piano and clarinet, although neither well, but enjoyed it and could be better with some practice.
- Read through this stack of books:
My game plan is to take a book to work and on my pump breaks I will alternate working on my BSF Bible study homework one pump break, and read on the second pump break. That way I'll get in an hour a week. And it will be a better use of time than just scrolling the internet on my phone.
- Travel. We also have plans for a trip to Germany for my old host brother's wedding in September. While in Europe I hope to see at least one more country, talking with Doug about where to go and what to do. Would love to do Greece, but not sure if we have enough time to do it justice and/or if it would be too hard logistically with the kids. We shall see.
Looking forward to 2020!
- Read 2 books, then discuss and apply. The books are You & Me Forever which we got as a wedding gift 5 years ago, finally started reading this last fall, and realizing there is a lot to think about and could be pretty life changing if we allow ourselves to be changed. Doug feels the same about Tactics and so we will do the same with that one.
Doug has some weight loss goals, and unfortunately I got bad news from my new primary care doctor that I have "borderline high" cholesterol :( I was pretty surprised to see that, and disappointed as I already do exercise, not smoke, and eat pretty healthfully including lots of beans and fiber. But obviously that needs to come down. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women and I want to do all I can to be healthy and fit for myself and my family's sake.
- Lower my cholesterol into normal/good range! So I plan to exercise more faithfully, eat less cheese and icecream?, add salmon weekly and vegetarian dinners 2 nights a week. And then ask my doctor for a re-check in 3-4 months?
- Dance lessons. Saw a video on facebook and it looked so fun, so we're going to do that together.
- Buy our second rental property and get it rented. We are ready on the bank end, now just waiting for something decent to come on the market!
- See a financial adviser. This one is more what I want to do than Doug necessarily. We are saving into our Roths, 401k, 403b, 529s for the kids, and the rental property plan. I just want someone, with expertise, to look over our plans and see if we need any tweaks. It haunts me that just a little something done not right now could cost us literally thousands of dollars over the years before our retirement. I've also started reading Retire Inspired, after getting it as a gift from my sister years ago, and it's helping me get more motivated. As he says in his book, the only one who will plan for my retirement is me!
- Do a 5k together.
- Walk the Mackinac Bridge.
- Talk with our neighbors about building. I cannot shake this desire to build our own home. But both my parents and best friend are building, and it is SO expensive. We found out our neighbors build theirs and kept it to about $100 a square foot, (national average is $175), but they said they did a lot themselves. So we would like to sit down with them and see how they did that and if it would be feasible for us. I think having some real numbers would help us see if we could afford it, without being too house poor. We will have our house paid off in a couple months, so in some ways it seems crazy to go from banking all this extra cash to having a medium/large mortgage for 30 years, but on the other hand would love to have a little more land/ little more space/ stay in our neighborhood. So we are at least going to start sort of pursuing it until we come to a hard 'no'.
- Learn to play a piano song. Last Christmas my dad gave me sheet music for a song I liked and I don't think I played the piano all year. After seeing Mannheim Steamroller last month I was feeling nostalgic and missing being connected to music. I used to play piano and clarinet, although neither well, but enjoyed it and could be better with some practice.
- Read through this stack of books:
My game plan is to take a book to work and on my pump breaks I will alternate working on my BSF Bible study homework one pump break, and read on the second pump break. That way I'll get in an hour a week. And it will be a better use of time than just scrolling the internet on my phone.
- Travel. We also have plans for a trip to Germany for my old host brother's wedding in September. While in Europe I hope to see at least one more country, talking with Doug about where to go and what to do. Would love to do Greece, but not sure if we have enough time to do it justice and/or if it would be too hard logistically with the kids. We shall see.
Looking forward to 2020!
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