January 2019 update: Did I undersell my goals?
I’m not one of those people that hates January. For a lot of folks it’s the toughest month of the year. I entirely get that. Heck, my wife totally feels like that. Christmas has gone but the credit card bills have to be paid. The weather’s cold, wet, and generally pretty awful. Everyone seems to be getting ill. The next break from work is months away. Not a lot to be cheerful about right?
I appreciate my oddness but I’m OK with January. In fact, I’ve had a great month. I’m going to get into the detail below but having set some goals for 2019 I’ve been smashing them in January. [Note to self: should I add modesty to my goals for the year?]. More importantly than my goals though is that I’ve been doing things to get, and stay, happy. Often little things, but that’s all it takes right?
Keeping warm
A wise woman once said to me “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.” Obviously as a statement of fact that’s utter rubbish, but I know what she means. This month I’ve dug out my massive padded duffel coat, scarf, hat and gloves and not been shy about putting them on. Yes I’ve been a getting a few comments at work about being dressed for the Arctic when I turn up. But, I’m warm and dry so I’ll take the comments.
We’re big believers in the environmental and financial benefits of turning the thermostat down at home. Can anyone explain why so many people are averse to putting a jumper on? Lowering the temperature doesn’t means you have to be cold you know. Equally we don’t need much heating overnight. Blanket technology is incredible and this January we’ve rediscovered the simple joy of putting a blanket over our duvet.
Similarly, January has also been a month to spend a lot of time cosying up in front of the fire (well wood burner). As well as being a comforting thing it also means that we don’t heat the rooms in the house we aren’t in so it saves money (I need to look again at the environmental impact though). If you’ve never spent an evening sat with a cup of mint tea watching a film, or lost in a book, in front of a real fire you’ve missed out.
I’m going to stop banging on about it now, but staying warm has really made January for me. Enough of that. On with my round up.
A wood fire in the winter makes all the difference to me
Money update
As they’re on a standing order it’s not very surprising that I have hit my saving goals this month. I continue to appreciate the financial and psychological benefits of owning our home outright. Without that mortgage payment it’s proving straightforward to save enough to fill my ISA. As the months go by and the tax-free savings account fills up, even that hint of regret at the years of tax-free saving that I ‘lost’ years while overpaying the mortgage is starting to fade.
I wrote earlier in the month about my marginal gains. Those savings on phone and broadband have already happened and the TV savings will kick in at the end of this week. The other things that I’ve done is move some of my cash emergency fund into premium bonds. The main motivation for that was to make it entirely tax free. 1.4% ‘interest’ isn’t great but it’s a lot better than most instant access savings account particularly when it’s tax free and, of course, as it’s backed by the government I don’t have to worry about getting the money if I should need it.
Health update
Health, and particularly weight, is my main goal for 2019. On the weight side I started at 17st 1lb (or 239 lb) and ended the month at 16st 2lb (or 226 lb). I know that I won’t keep that rate up (and the first few days of February haven’t been great) but that’s a cracking start. Assuming a more sustainable rate of weight loss of 1-2lb per week I should hit my target weight some time over the summer….let’s see!
A solid start to my weight loss goals for 2019
As a related aside I did dry January. To be honest it wasn’t too much of a challenge as I don’t drink too much anymore. Looking back I drank too much from my mid-teens through to my mid/late-twenties. That story is for another time but now I basically don’t drink at home at all unless we have people round. That’s meant that dry January was pretty easy so I’m going to keep at it into February until there’s a social situation that justifies a drink.
Exercise update
I didn’t even try to get into a gym routine this month. The gym is overcrowded and full of people that don’t know what they’re doing in January so I have no regrets about staying away. However, I have some left-field plans on that side that I’ll share in my February update if they come off.
That all notwithstanding I hit my steps goal this month and then some. To hit 4,500,000 total steps in 2019 I need to do 375,000 per month. My total for the month was actually 466,188. I know that January’s a long month so I should have been over the target but I’m feeling positive about that.
Not far off half a million steps for the month – I’ll take that
Sleep update
The other thing I’ve done well on here is my sleep. You may recall that I realised how bad things had got at the end of November. As you can see below my average sleep in November was 6 hours and 10 minutes per night (and actually it was worse in October where dropped to an average of 6 hours and 2 minutes per night). But I worked at it and on average I’m sleeping almost 40 mins more per night. I feel SO much better for it. It really is a magic bullet for me in terms of physical and mental health.
My sleep in January was so much better than in November
Looking at this a bit more closely, it looks like I’m getting less deep sleep than I was in November. I guess it’s possible that it’s because I’m less exhausted than I was back then. What I suspect it might be though is that I’m still terrible at turning off screens before going to bed. While I try to read for a while before dropping off I’m sure that’s not enough time for my brain to stop thinking it’s daytime. Less screen time at night has to be my goal for the next stage.
Books update
The cold weather and the fire meant a lot of time for reading in January. I read four books and loved them.
I kicked off with Agatha Christie’s Labours of Hercule. I’ve read lots of Christie so popping back to spend some time with Hercule Poirot is always a pleasure. I followed that with Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb. This is the last part of a fantasy trilogy that I first read decades ago. While I remember enjoying the series I could remember almost nothing about it so rediscovering it has been a joy.
As an aside I had an exchange on twitter about reading. From my totally unscientific survey it turns out that the Fantasy and/or Sci-Fi is the reading material of choice for many of us interested in finance. I don’t know the cause and effect in that (it may just be skewed by those of us who engage on twitter) but it’s nice to know that we have more in common than just money.
My other two books were Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Although it wasn’t deliberate these two American books strongly complemented each other. Hillbilly Elegy is a non-fiction book that’s part autobiography and part social commentary. J.D. grew up as a self-proclaimed Hillbilly and he explores the motivations and migrations of his people. It’s clear-eyed, but affectionate, in looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the culture and then more widely around how it is impacting on America today. Absolutely fascinating.
I must be one of the few people that didn’t read Of Mice and Men at school. Totally loved it. Particularly fascinating to contrast the American poor in the 1920s (?) with those in the 21st century that Hillbilly Elegy describes.
Film update
Given that my goal for 2019 was to watch 12 films I blitzed it in January by watching five. I suspect that’s not entirely unrelated to wanting to be indoors. The year kicked off with Star Wars: The Force Awakens – I’m massively behind in the new Star Wars films so I was delighted to find some time for this. Super fun.
Other films included family fun in the live action Jungle Book and Resident Evil: Extinction that’s definitely not family fun. I even made it to the cinema to watch The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
Worth pulling out is what I guess may be a TV movie called Paterno. It starred Al Pacino and it’s based on a true story about a highly successful college American Football coach who got caught up a in scandal at the end of his career. Great performances with a few harrowing moments.
As a related aside, I’m a big American Football fan. January to me means the NFL playoffs running into the Superbowl (13-3 to the Pats? what a damp squib that was this year) so that took a lot of my screen time on Sunday afternoons and evenings. I’m going to miss it in the off-season.
Goodbye for now NFL…I’ll look for you again in the autumn
Friends and family update
Time for friends was my least successful goal in January. I did manage to catch up with one old friend (which was the target) and that was so, so lovely. I followed my own networking rules as well and had a coffee with a former colleague but that was it. To be honest I mostly wanted to stay in as much as possible and get home into the warm as quickly as I could.
Looking back I think that there was a bit of a Christmas hangover. We were super-social (by my standards anyway) over December and there has a been a bit of relief in having weekends to ourselves. Therein lies complacency though. It’s a little too easy to get comfortable in our own company so there are various things that I’ve already lined up for February.
Definitely didn’t do well enough seeing my friends this month…must do better
Blog update
It’s been a fun month on this blog as well. I’ve put up four posts which largely keeps me on target to get 50 posts up in 2019.
That’s led to 1,231 page views from all of you lovely people. Thank you very much! Given that my goal was 1,000 per month by the end of 2019 that’s my target hit…I’ll just need to keep it there for another 11 months. I’ve loved reading and interacting with you in the comments. But even if you’re just here to quietly read or be entertained I’m delighted you stopped by.
Twitter went well in January. I think I ended the month with 299 twitter followers (that’s tipped over 300 now) up from around 150 at that end of 2019 so my goal of 500 followers by the end of the year looks doable. Thank y for everyone who follows me! I engage with Twitter in bursts. Some days I’ll be all over it and then I’ll ignore it for days after that. I’m sure there are ways of being more effective ways on Twitter but I suspect they’ll require more effort on my part so, nah (at least for now).
As I said when I set out my resolution for the year, I was in two minds on whether to put any blog goals in here. Some people talk about having to treat blogging like a job. I really don’t want to feel like that and make blogging a chore. I’ve already got a job and if I want another one I’ll need to find the unicorn of a side hustle that I don’t get bored of. This is for fun and thanks to you it is. I want to keep it that way.
Conclusion
Given all of that, I’m putting January down as a win. I do wonder if I have set my targets too low as I seem to be exceeding them without too much effort. Having said that, January is always the month where I attack my resolutions. The challenge is going to come when I start to get bored/frustrated/tired. So I think I’ll bank the January overshoot and live with these goals for a few months longer before thinking about tweaking them.
The lesson that I’ve learnt is that many of these goals are interlinked and impacted by external factors. The obvious one is the weather. Not going out as it was cold and wet meant I wasn’t going to bars and restaurants. That made it easier to control what I was eating. Similarly, staying in meant I hit my goals around books and films and it probably contributed to my finding the time to get those marginal gains.
I don’t see that as a good or a bad thing per se but awareness is important. If I don’t hit my targets it means that I shouldn’t get overly frustrated or use those external factors as an excuse for failure.
Reading this back I realise that this post is an extended narcissistic navel gazing exercise that’s probably only of interest to me. Sorry about that! Having said which it’s an excellent tool to reflect and in stay accountable to myself. So, sorry again. Unfortunately for everyone else, even if I’m the only person that reads this I think I’m going to keep doing them every month!
Thoughts
How was your January? Are you delighted to see the back of it or are you sad to see it gone?
Is this sort of post of any interest to anyone besides me?
When was the last time you curled up in front of a fire?
What is your reading material of choice? Are you a fantasy or Sci-Fi fan or do you have something else you settle down to?
12 Comments
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January and February are the worst. It’s cold and dark, Christmas is over and, as you said, the next holiday is several months away! Despite that, looks like you’ve had a very successful start to the year. Great job with the weight loss! Peaking around summer is surely exactly what you want, so you can show off the beach body for a month or so, then start packing on a little bit of insulation again before winter hits!
I can fully understand the appeal of paying your mortgage off early. Sure, it may not make financial sense, in that the mortgage may only have 1-2% interest, and you might expect to gain 3-5% by investing in the stock market. But just knowing that, whatever happens, you don’t have to pay £500+ per month is huge. I already resent paying rent every month, so I will certainly be looking to pay off my mortgage asap whenever I get round to buying a house.
I can also relate to making January a quiet month! December was probably my most social month in 2018, so I’ve been relishing taking it easy throughout January and being a hermit for a while.
Once again, Robin Hobb is mentioned… Clearly I need to right this wrong and get round to reading some of her work!
Thanks Doc. Yes it’s been a great start to the year. As I say though I’m much more of a initiator than a completer/finisher so the key is to keep the energy up.
The mortgage is emotional rather than rational for me…although I did look at it as tax free “returns” even though it was just interest that I wasn’t paying.
It does feel easier to bed in in January – I think most people do it to some extent so you don’t feel like you’re missing out so much.
Also yes to Robin Hobb…I went over to your blog to reiterate this!
Congrats on hitting your goals — especially congrats on the weight loss. That’s a pretty substantial amount in such a short time.
If you’re not already following me on Twitter (@ipickuppennies), do so and I’ll follow you back to help work on those Twitter numbers 😉
Thanks Abigail. Well it’s looking good so far…just need to keep it up. Even more importantly to make it sustainable. I’ve realised that food for me is all emotional, not about hunger. I’m happier now than I’ve been for years so I hope that will help.
I checked and we are already following each other on Twitter which is excellent!
Well done on smashing through January! Dont worry about writing long monthly updates – I enjoy reading them as I’m sure many others do too.
Yay! It feels strange writing so much about myself. The anonymity of writing a blog like this means, oddly, that I can be more open than I might otherwise be. It’s cathartic though so I’ll keep at it!
In Fire The Boss HQ we’ve got the thermostat at 19 degrees C most of the time. When busy with chores around the house, I’ll put it down to 18 because physical activity generates enough heath for me.
When watching a movie or Netflix at night we might put the thermostat up to 20. But I agree with you, less heating should be possible.
We’ve shut down the radiators in our bedroom and hall way, the only rooms we actually heat are the living room and bathroom. At night, we’re at 16 degrees, and only when we come home we dial it up to 19.
Congrats on what looks like a pretty darn good month. Keep it going.
We have our heating at 18 degrees as a default. I read somewhere that in order to get to sleep you need your body temperature to drop so, like you, we also keep the bedroom cooler. Having said that I do find that if I am working from home and sitting for long periods then I will need to put a blast of heating around the house!
Wow caveman! I would call this THE monthly update.
It’s interesting that you update on areas that any FIRE bloggers cover.
We both have a similar average sleep, fit bit is quite good at tracking that 😉 My sleeping has never been a major issue for me, I sleep like a clock, regarding the steps a fell a bit below the 10k daily recomended… 🙁 office work can’t be healthy, can it?
Your weight loss in January is impressive, well done! Bear in mind that its easier to lose weight in the beginning than at the end, so a gym may be required later on hehe – I will make sure I support you! 🙂
All the best in your goal progress in February,
Thanks Tony. I’ve never been very good at keeping a diary or a journal (although I’ve tried a couple of times). This looks like a good way to keep track of a few key things so, hopefully, I will be able to look back at my progress over the years.
In most ways actually getting to sleep and staying asleep has never been a problem for me either. My real issue has been in stopping and actually going to bed in the first place.
Totally agree on the gym. It’s something that I quite enjoy. My plan is to focus on the food bit for now and then add in the gym…it’s also much easier to do when it’s not so cold!
My favourite part was learning that you read Agatha Christie books. I always seem to come across those who read obscure character-building novels or ones that I had to read at school and hated e.g. Of Mice and Men! One suggestion for still enjoying night time screens is to get special glasses to wear which screen out the blue light – the cause of sleeplessness. That should improve your sleep but allow you to spend as much time as you want on Twitter building your following!
Hi Sam! I reckon the key to enjoying reading is to mix it up. So I think that if I only read Agatha Christie I would get a bit bored of it, but chucking in some non-fiction and some Sci-Fi and even some (short) ‘worthy’ books keeps in interesting. Having said that, when I was younger, when I found an author that I liked I would read everything they had written!
Good tip on the blue light glasses! To be honest I think I would rather actually stop and read instead. It’s a delightful luxury to be able to have so many fun things I want to do!