April Goals

Happy April everyone! Not going to lie- March was a pretty bad month for me (and for the entire country). There were so many awful things happening in terms of violence and killings, so it's been hard for me to be cheery. I hope that better days are ahead as we turn the page to a new month.

Here's a look at how I did with my annual goals this month-

2021 Combined Miles

January -  44 running miles and 218 bike miles for a total of 262 miles

February - 32 running miles and 206 bike miles for a total of 238 miles. 

March - 36 running miles and 113 bike miles for a total of 149 miles. I expected a dip since I took a week off, so I'm pleasantly surprised I had more running miles than in February. Let's get those numbers back up next month!

So far, I've done a total of 649 miles, and have 1,372 to go.

Get Ready to Sell!

Another pretty good month in terms of progress- we booked some contractors to do finishing projects on the house, and have a few things that we'll be able to take care of ourselves. I also got rid of some bigger pieces of furniture which is literally a big weight off my shoulders. We should be ready to list the house in the next few months and I'm so excited! We also found our next place (more to come on that in the future!!)

Music Challenge

Each weekend I picked out a different album to listen to (based on this list from Rolling Stone) and it's been a great way to discover new (to me) music and have a "soundtrack" for the weekend. So far I listened to (new ones from last month in bold)-

Kid A by Radiohead

Purple Rain by Prince

Thriller by Michael Jackson

The Low End Theory by a Tribe Called Quest

Who's Next by The Who

The Doors by The Doors

Revolver by The Beatles

To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar

I Never Loved a Man the Way that I Love You by Aretha Franklin

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Funhouse by The Stooges

Next let's see how my monthly goals went!

Social Media-Free Sundays

I did great with this! Most weeks I forgot but quickly reminded myself and stay offline, but I need to make this a normal part of my life so I don't even have to think about it anymore. It's a great habit to add to your life and I highly recommend it.

Try all Apple Fitness + Instructors

I didn't get to try out ALL of the instructors (I still have Jamie-Ray, Kim, Kym, and Scott to go) but had a nice variety for this month. So far my favorites are Bakari, who has such an infectious smile and energy, LaShawn has the BEST dance classes with easy-to-follow choreography, and Jessica is my favorite for yoga.

Pay Off Mortgage

We did it! Earlier this month we sent in our final payment (it's not a straight forward process at all- you have to request a payoff statement, make a wire transfer, pay a bunch of fees, and then the account is paid off. A few days ago we received our remaining escrow balance and had to figure out how to pay our taxes and insurance ourselves- yay for adulting).  

I mentioned last month that it's kind of controversial and not advised to pay off a mortgage. The thinking is that you could use that money to invest in the stock market and receive a higher return on the money than what you would pay in interest on the mortgage. When Dan and I bought this house, we got one that was about 1/4 of what we were approved for and knew that our goal would be to pay it off and have a period in our life that we would be debt-free (Dan paid off all of his student loans after graduating and we paid off our cars a few years ago as well!).  Both of us seem to do much better with finances when we have a goal in mind, so for the past 5+ years this has been the thing we've been focused on, which made it much easier to skip shopping or eating out.

In the past year when the market really dipped down, we started to learn more about investing. Instead of paying off our house faster (our original goal was before my birthday in June 2020 so we could say we paid it off in our 20s), we started putting those extra payments in the stock market and maxing out all of our non-taxable accounts (I finally opened a Roth IRA and maxed out 401k and HSA accounts), as well as really increasing our charitable donations. We definitely got lucky with the timing, because instead of the average return of 10% per year in the market, my accounts have gone up an insane 61% in the past year!! 

The housing market in our area has really been hot lately, which is why we decided it was the perfect time to sell our house. Our realtor is estimating that we would make about a 36% profit on our house (not bad for 5 years!!), and since it's paid off, we can put most of that money in the market now that we feel like we know what we're doing. Definitely non-traditional, but that's how we are about everything in life. (Also a disclaimer- I'm obviously not a financial expert. This is what we thought was best for us, and if you disagree with everything or think we're stupid that's fine! My feelings will not be hurt if you think that, I promise.)

Break 50 Miles

Well, this definitely did not happen. I took a week off working out completely, so I wasn't even close! I think I really needed that so I don't regret it at all. Maybe I can do this in April?

Alright..now it's time for my April goals.

Morning Routine

I've been working on creating better habits for myself now that I'm going to be working remotely full time. Last month I tried to work on doing yoga before work every day, and I want to keep that up with some more good habits! My goal for April will be to do yoga or a stretch, drink a glass of water, make my bed, and put on an actual outfit every day before my first meeting of the day.

Read 5 Books

I've been slacking lately on reading and I need to get back to it to hit my goal of 50 books for the year. I can easily read a book a week so this shouldn't be too tough of a challenge, but will still force me to be more intentional about it every day!

Finish House Projects

I know that the last month before listing is going to be crazy with cleaning, decluttering, and having contractors here, so in April I want to finish all of the small projects that we can do ourselves. Painting trim, clearing out old appliances, replacing light fixtures- all little things that I want to focus on getting done this month.

What are your goals for the month?