New Year's Resolutions

I went to the gym this week, and the place was packed. Every machine had someone using it, and many of the machines had at least one person waiting their turn.

It’s always crowded this time of year. I attribute it to New Year’s resolutions. Folks get done with the holidays, resolve to lose some weight, and start going to the gym to work out. The crowds usually thin out by early March, as willpower gives in and old habits resurge.

I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions. My process is more like goal setting for the year. I start with areas of my life where I have commitments, than I develop tangible goals that relate to those commitments. It’s the underlying commitment that keeps me going, not the goal itself.

For 2010, my goals are based on three commitments. First, I want to push back against the decrepitude of the aging process. I’m committed to maintaining my physical capability to the greatest extent possible. Second, I’m going to increase my level of fiscal security. It is still a pretty dicey economy, and no job is certain in today’s world. Still, if I have to swim against the economic tide, I want to be the guy with fins on. Third, I’m committed to living as rich a life as I can, subject to the constraints of health and finances. Family, friends, and experiences enrich our lives, and I want as much of all of them as I can get. After all, you could move to a mountaintop in Idaho and subsist pretty cheaply, but who wants to live on a diet of potatoes?

In the area of health and fitness, my goal is to run 50 kilometers of road races throughout the year. When I run a 5K, I’m not competing against anyone but myself. I am not going to be the fastest runner, although I can win my age group if I’m the only one who shows up. However, the mere act of getting out there with other serious runners on a regular basis forces me to maintain a higher training level than I would without the road races. So far I’ve kept my body mass index below the 25 that is the threshold for overweight, and I intend to keep it that way.

In terms of economic security, I plan to work the problem on both defense and offense. By defense, I mean building up my cushion of assets in case I have to make an involuntary job transition. By offense, I’m talking about increasing either my current income, or my marketable skills.

On the defense side, my savings goal for the year is 20% of my earned income. Most of that will be automatic. Between salary deduction for my 401K and the matching corporate contribution, I’ll get to 15%. The last 5% will take the day to day discipline of saying no to temptation. Do without if you don’t need. Make instead of buy. Repair instead of replace. Since I am the least handy guy in North America, most of the heavy lifting in this category will be under the heading of “do without if you don’t need it.” I’m not planning on doing my own plumbing, or even changing the oil in my car.

I’m also going to continue the deleveraging project I started last year. By making extra equity payments on my mortgage (a guaranteed 6.5% rate of return), I hope to get my total indebtedness down below $60K, split between primary mortgage, home equity line of credit, and car loan. My credit cards will continue to be paid in full every month.

Increased savings improves my long term economic security. In the short term, I’m also taking steps to increase earnings and boost my marketability in a crummy job market. Tax season is starting, and I’m working for H & R Block again to make a little side money. The goal here is to pick up $2000 in additional income. This is just about what I pay my lawn service every year. Basically, I’m hoping to trade knowledge work in a climate controlled office for dirty, physical work outside. Based on last year’s results, $2000 will be a stretch. I may have to develop a Plan B to make up the balance of what I don’t earn doing taxes.

I’m also going back to school again. Post-MBA, I started taking graduate level classes in accounting last fall. My intent is to pick up 9 more credit hours in 2010. By taking one class in Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters, I’ll only need one more class to have enough credits to teach at the college level. Also, if the worst occurs at my current job, more accounting knowledge will help me stand out from the other job seekers out there.

But man does not live by bread alone. I could easily save more money by sitting at home watching television, only venturing out to work, jog, or attend classes, but that would be boring. Besides, my wife would only take so much of that before she snapped and smothered me in my sleep. So in addition to struggling to get rich, I’ll expend considerable energy and time into enriching myself in ways other than monetary.

It has been a few years since I’ve been out west on vacation. It’s a big country, and I want to see more of it. So one of my 2010 commitments is to visit one of the National Parks that I haven’t seen yet. The documentary maker Ken Burns calls the National Park system “America’s Best Idea.” I’m leaning towards Yosemite in Northern California, maybe in combination with a trip to the wine country.

There is an old saying: “No man is poor who is rich in friends.” I don’t have too many friends who will volunteer to pay my light bill, but I still cherish them. To celebrate and enjoy my friends, I’m committed to holding 12 in-home entertainment events this year. This covers everything from formal dinner parties to backyard cookouts to our annual Christmas party (even if I do end with the Chia pet playing “dirty Santa”).

The last of my enrichment projects is internal. Along with the formal education I’ve addressed above, I’m continuing to read authors from “The Lifetime Reading Plan,” a book I first discovered in my father’s library over thirty years ago. My goal for this year is to tackle three of the selections in 2010.

Finally, I’m going to continue posting in this blog. The goal here is a minimum of 60 posts over the course of the year, at least once a week.

After all, everybody deserves my opinions. And now back to our regularly scheduled productions.