Reflections on 2018 & Plan for 2019

Last December, I publicly posted the following 2019 goals. For the sake of public accountability, here’s how I grade myself for 2018 (bold is my grade & self assessment, non-bold is the original goal). At the end of the post I’ll include my 2019 goals.

  • Finances
    • Keep doing the painfully simple things that generate wealth:
      • Living significantly below means
        • Keep staving off lifestyle creep
      • Keep maxing out all tax-advantaged accounts
      • Keep investing in low-cost index funds, trying best to ignore market fluctuations along the way
      • Grade: A+
        • Unsurprisingly, we did not deviate from the financial habits developed over the past 2 decades. Despite growing wealth, we continue to be happily frugal.
    • Don’t hit a deer (5% of 2017 annual spend)
      • Grade: A+
        • No deer were hit in 2018, saving us $3,500 in the process relative to 2017,
    • I’d like 2018 annual spending to drop to $50k
      • Grade: C+.
        • Actual spend was $66,467 which was significantly off from the $50k goal primarily due to $12k of medical expenditures. Had we instead spent $0 on healthcare, our annual spend would have been $55k.
  • Family
    • Do another extended road trip
      • One of these years I want to do a national parks tour…probably not in 2018 though
      • Grade: B+
        • Took family on extended road trip to Colorado/Utah, but we didn’t visit any national parks. 
    • More quality time with kids
      • Minimize phone usage in front of kids
      • Grade: C
        • A continued area for improvement…more on this below.
    • More camping trips
      • Grade: C+
        • I only took took my family camping once this year in Vedauwoo WY during our summer vacation to the mountain west.
  • Personal
    • Complete coding course at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/
      • Grade: C-
        • I completed 261 of the challenges on the site but didn’t come close to finishing. Real life and lack of prioritization got in the way of completing it.
    • Incorporate olympic lifting into training
      • Grade: F-
        • Did olympic weight training a couple of times last year with a friend. The workouts were incredibly intense, leaving me basically unable to walk without wincing for a week after the workout. After just a couple of these suffer-fests, my friend had a new baby and couldn’t keep up the routine. I failed to continue the tradition on my own but was secretly happy to end the suffering.
    • Climb >= 3X/month
      • Grade: A+
        • I’m officially a climbing gym rat. I love it. I’m an idiot for letting my frugality prevent me from joining the climbing gym the first 1.5 years at the university.
          • This is one of the few instances where I regret having been so frugal.
    • Start training for 2019 half ironman???
      • Grade: F-
        • This was a weird goal to have written down at the end of 2017. I vaguely want to do a half ironman, but I always want to do it 5 years from when I think about it so that I don’t have to exert effort.
    • 50 mile backpacking trip (Wind River Range, WY?)
      • Grade: A+
        • Took a fantastic trip with undergrad buddy (second consecutive year doing so after first year in Utah). I have another trip planned to WY this coming summer with 5 friends from undergrad. It will mark 20 years from my freshman year of college when I roomed with these guys.
          • Holy crap. Where did the past 20 years go!?!?!?!?!?
    • Limit online rotting (phone & computer)
      • No incessant checking of news or Reddit
      • Grade: C+
        • Early in the year I failed on this goal, but later in the year I installed a few activity trackers on my web browser and phone that really helped me become more aware of my technology usage. I recommend them:

Reflecting back this past year, a few things stand out to me:

  • Absent deliberate planning, good life systems, and continued self-monitoring, most of us will take the path of least resistance through life. Unfortunately, the path of least resistance includes too much binge-watching of Netflix, too much binge-eating cheetos, and too much surfing reddit. Absent deliberate intervention and conscious planning, we’ll all wake up as broke sedentary people in our 80s having pissed away our entire lives on the couch and cubicle without achieving more the more aspirational goals we know deep down we want to accomplish.
  • To this point, I didn’t do much continued monitoring of my goals through the year, significantly weakening the effectiveness of the goal-setting process. This is my bad.

Weighted average 2018 grade, based on completely arbitrary weighting scheme across goals: B-. Overall, I’m generally pleased with the year but disappointed with how much I let inertia dictate my path forward. I spent a much of the year rudderless without actively striving towards meaningful long-term goals.

 

2019 Goals:

  • Finances
    • Stay the course of frugality and disciplined tax-advantaged investing.
    • Get non-medical household spend to $45k and total household spend to $53k.
  • Family
    • Visit 3 national parks this year.
    • Camp 3 times.
    • Minimize phone usage in front of kids.
    • Board games with family 3x/week.
  • Personal
    • Climb at gym 3x/week.
      • Get up first 5.12 in gym.
      • Get up first V8 bouldering problem.
    • Weight train in basement 2x/week.
    • Bike 95% of working days, with 5% of days representing free passes due to inclement weather.
    • Finish writing book.
    • Complete annual backpacking trip.
    • Make significant strides on a personal project.

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