The next three months

The next 3 months. 

Here’s what’s on my agenda for the next three months.  You’re probably wondering why I’m writing about this and I’ll tell you.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  -Benjamin Franklin

Hawaii

In a little over a week is my daughter’s 21st birthday.   We’ll be celebrating it in Hawaii of course!  It’ll also be the first time since my brother’s wedding, over 6 years ago, that I’ll be in Hawaii with one of my siblings.  I’ll try my best to keep spending low, with one exception, the night we’re going out to dinner for her birthday.  Spending time with family, when you can, is important.  The memories you make with the people that are important to you is priceless.

A few weeks later, I’ll be doing a mini experiment by working from home in Hawaii.  There’s the whole time difference thing but my daily routine shouldn’t change much.  I should be done with work early enough, local time, for me to get out and get a hike in or go surfing/swimming.

Work-related goal

For the next three months, I’ll be studying for a work related certification so that’ll keep me busy.  I also already have another certification that I would like to work on after that.  Never stop learning.  Always a student.

I’ll be studying a lot over the next three months.  This will keep me busy.  FI doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes tame for interest to compound. It takes time for paychecks to hit the accounts and for savings to occur.  To me this is one of the attributes of not “living within the spreadsheet”.

Half Marathon

In about 2 months, as I mentioned, I will be running a half marathon.  Running is great for folks that are frugal.  You don’t need anything.  There’s also not many excuses you can have.  If you can walk, you can run.  You don’t need any equipment or a fancy gym membership.  You don’t need to show up for some workout class at a specific time.  You go outside and you run.  Running progress is progressive.  You get what you put in.  Your performance and ability will be obvious.  The time you put in to your training will show come race day.  You can’t just show up and run a full marathon and in most cases even a half.

Being active is a part of my life.  Even if I take time off from time to time.  We’ve al. heard the horror stories.  Folks that don’t take care of their health and end up having huge consequences later in life.  Not to mention, all the possible hospital bills.

Food

I’m going to talk about one the biggest struggles I have personally and financially.  Food!!  I don’t have a love hate relationship with food.  I have a love love relationship with food.  However, this is one of the biggest challenges I face weekly and even daily.  It’s such an integral part of our day to day and how we decide to eat effects our health and our finances.  In fact, I’ve created a whole page to it so that I can track it weekly.

“If you can’t measure it.  You can’t improve it.”

Summary

At its core, FIRE is lifestyle and/or a result of a lifestyle you choose to live.  FIRE itself is a goal for a lot of people.  You want to stay healthy so that you can live in the RE part of life.  Frequent and constant improvement to your spending habits and savings rate is also very critical.

Have a good week folks!