2019 Goal Check-In

It’s hard to believe that 2019 is already halfway over. It’s a good time to review how I’m doing on my yearly goals.

Feel free to check out the New Year’s goal post from the beginning of this year.

Goals 2019

Improve Our Finances

1. Pay off $20,000 in debt

One step forward, $14,000 steps back.

We actually reached this goal… Until we bought a car. Now we have $14,000 to go. So, depending on how you look at it, we’ve either reached this goal or only reached about 30% of it.

2. Max out our 401(k) Match

We haven’t missed a penny of the match on either one of our 401(k)’s this year, and have no plan on adjusting our contribution percentage.

3. Max out our Roth IRAs.

We’re over 50% through the year but have only contributed 47% of the max contribution to our Roth IRA.

A three-point difference isn’t that bad. I recently upped the amount I contribute to the Roth IRA per check. At the rate we’re contributing now, we’ll contribute over 100% of the max.

That only means I’ll have to eventually lower our regular contributions.

4. Eat out at most 3 times a month

We’ve done pretty good with this. Basically one weekend a month we do not eat out.

We did slack a bit in June when we took a week “staycation.”

EDIT: My wife says no, we haven’t done well with this. Oops!

Develop Personally & Professionally

1. Publish an Android App

I haven’t done this yet. I have updated my copy of Android studio and began doing tutorials, however.

2. Publish a variant of the book I published last year

Last year I published a children’s ebook called The Adventures of Princess:

Cover for The Adventures of Princess

And I have managed to publish its companion book The Adventures of Niko!

Cover for The Adventures of Niko

Be Healthier

1. Get down to 225 lbs

I started this year at 250 lbs. I weighed myself this morning; I’m now at 241 lbs. That’s the right direction, but look at this graph:

Chart of my weight over the first half of 2019

According to the chart above, my weight got down to 235 lbs in March but has since been creeping back up.

I have been keeping track of my food intake during the week, but not on the weekends. On the positive side, I’ve taken the stairs every day at work.

2. Hike as a family at least once a month

I don’t think we’ve been doing this.

We even originally intended to take walks after dinner, but have been slacking. Some of it has been weather related (can’t go walking or hiking when there’s a lightning storm!) but it’s mostly been lack of motivation.

So we need to get motivated!