It certainly has been fun and interesting year again. The most notable event occurred right before my very eyes as I was planning to complete the RE of my very own FIRE.
While I was planning on retiring in December 2018, my former employer decided to reorg me out in June, 200 days earlier than I had planned.
As John Lennon once said: Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
As a bonus, I got the entire summer and fell off on someone else’s nickel. We enjoyed three driving trips to experience a bunch of National Parks and the beauty of our expansive country in a cool car.
Here are some “fun” facts on things that I measure
1. 21 blog articles written in 2018.
2. 33,049+ website visits.
3. 4,081+ website attacks blocked by my primary firewall.
4. 57 Spam Comments.
a. I’ve eliminated comments on posts that are older than 90 days to reduce my blog maintenance caused by the trolls and spammers.
5. 300+ hours of cardio/weight gym workouts.
6. 114+ hours of Yoga using an online program called Gokker.
7. Seven pounds of fat loss using intermittent fasting eating protocol.
7. $11,072 spent on bucket list travel and vacations.
a. Challenger fuel cost: $1,727
b. Gallons burned on the three major road trips: 602
c. Bucket list miles driven: 12,759
d. National Parks/National Monuments experienced in 2018: 11
(There are 59 National Parks and 87 National Monuments).
8. Money spent eating at Restaurants: $4036.
a. This is a 9% increase over 2017. Kind of loosened up this category being more social and available due to my mini-retirement.
b. We’ve experienced an overall 14% decrease in our Food Category.
9. Out of Pocket Medical Costs:$11,677.
a. Significant increase due to an unexpected medical crisis and three months of COBRA health insurance. (Ouch, Ouch!).
10. Overall we’ve experienced a 7% decrease in our 2018 spending despite some deviations, a seven-month mini-retirement, and surprise expenses.
The Bottom Line continues to act as a series of reminders of things that I already know, but am too busy reacting to other things to appreciate them.
This week’s Bottom Line (s):
1. Be grateful to be surrounded by family and friends during the holidays and all the days between.
2. Want what you have.
3. The days are long and the years are short.
4. Track your monthly expenses and the year-end tax time roll-up is so much easier.
5. Your time is much more valuable than anything that you can buy.
6 Update the “legacy Binder”. As long as you are organizing your tax stuff, work on organizing your financial documents and tell your partner or your parents where to find them.
7. Build your 2019 plans and goals now. If you don’t have a plan, then you’ll be part of someone else’s.
8. Retire to something. I nailed this one after decompression/detox.
If finding a better job is on your goals list for 2019, several useful tools have worked remarkedly well for me. They should work for you too but have to do the prep work to secure the interview.
See the Managing Your Career Tab.
Happy Holidays and thank you for following along this year.
