EOY 2020 Goals

I am a big one for new year’s resolutions. And birthday resolutions, sunday resolutions, month beginning resolutions, and so on. It gives me a sense of motivation and excitement. I accomplish some, and don’t accomplish some. I somehow seem to be completely devoid of the guilt that comes with failed resolutions. If I don’t accomplish it, I feel a bit annoyed, but just turn around and make it again.

Last week, I was in a bit of a funk, and on Friday, started to come out of it. I had a beautiful weekend, and vaguely made up some more resolutions for now till the end of the year. 

1. Make my sleep schedule more regular. I have been up later and sleeping less. My fitbit always gives me a “fair” score, and I need it to at the very least be “good”. So, I plan to get in bed by 10pm, at the latest.

2. Lose 7 lbs. That’s about a pound a week, and very doable, I think. I have amazingly lost weight since the start of the pandemic. I have not tried to lose weight, I just have. I think it’s because the start of the pandemic just happened to coincide with my plan to go into full time self-employment, and I went from working 50-ish hours/week to about 28 hrs/week. The resulting lack of stress is what led to it, I think. I have never before in my life lost weight without trying to. I haven’t lost a lot – about 10 lbs over the last 8 months. If I try and lose another 7 lbs by the end of this year, I will be at a weight I have not seen since 2005.

3. Exercise every day. This is unrelated to the weight-loss. I have over the past few years been very much out of the habit of regular exercise. I started to do a 15-min HIIT exercise about a month ago. And this month, I have changed this to alternate days with a 30 min cardio on alternate days. I can tell that the exercises are getting easier as time goes by and that makes me feel good.

All the above seem to be health goals. But, I know that health is inextricable from wealth. If I have health, I incur fewer healthcare costs. I potentially get to live longer and enjoy the fruits of my labor for longer. So, I definitely see this as a financial goal as well.

Other financial goals seem to be on track. I don’t know exact numbers yet, but my accountant projects that I can put another $29k pre-tax towards retirement this year, and I think that will leave me with another $21k to to add to my brokerage account. These numbers seem high, but we’ll see. I won’t actually know until the beginning of February. I always overestimate how much I need to pay in taxes and save more than I need, so it’s possible it will work out like this.

In other good news, I read reports this morning that Pfizer thinks their vaccine is about 90% effective. I am hopeful. I can’t wait for the pandemic to draw to some sort of an end, and for me to see my parents again.