How To Read More

After graduating college (THE Purdue University – Boiler up!) I worried that the working world wouldn’t push me hard enough to keep learning.  While I can say 10 years later this has not been the case as I’ve worked in 3 organizations, received several promotions, and learned an entirely new ‘trade’ if you will – I’m glad that the worry caused me to start making reading goals.

In my first job my coworker shared my desire to ‘be a reader’ and we made goals together to keep ourselves writing and reading.  We determined we would read 50 books a year.  And while normally I would hesitate to act like this plan would work for anyone – we both found the same thing, it got easy.  The first year we pushed and prodded and were so proud just to finish.  But 50 became 80 became 100 and this year I finished 136 books: killing my 125 book goal even though it was 19 higher than I’ve ever done before. The truth is, 136 felt easier than my first year of 50.

Tomorrow I’ll finish my 9th trip through the One Year Bible (reading the entire bible in a year) and the same has held true.  Once the habit is build, the work load seems light.  My first year I felt like it was a HUGE daily commitment.  Now, I read for an additional hour after I finish.

So, let’s get to the how.

50 books a year is one a week. Save your excuses for your lack of time because A. I’ve heard them all before and B.  if you allow yourself to make excuses you won’t achieve any of your goals this year.  Excuses are always readily available for those who are willing to use them.  Don’t.  There will always be busier people than you would find a way to do what you make excuses not too.

Mornings.  Maximizing your morning time before the day start and people (and things) are vying for your attention.  I get up by 5:00 every morning and begin my routine.  Bible, educational reading, workout, and morning page journaling.  I started with 10 minutes a day.  Then I moved to 20 minutes of educational reading.  Then 20 grew to 30 as I found myself excited to wake up and enjoy quiet mornings with coffee.

Like fiction? Me too.  It’s probably my favorite genre of all.  I do my fiction reading at night, on my lunch break, anywhere I get stuck (keep a book in your purse or car), and of course on the weekends (preferably poolside for us Floridians).

Thinking you don’t have any free time at night?  Keep the TV off.  I almost never turn on my TV between Monday and Thursday (my work week since I work 4 – 10 hour days).  Most of us have the ability to record (or Hulu) shows later on and can catch up on the days we have off.  Although I still recommend limiting TV time.  At first it may seem like reading it more work than watching TV (it is, I know) but as time goes on – you won’t miss it.  I ditched cable for a few years while getting out of debt and still haven’t started paying for it again.

I admit to using TV to bribe myself to fold and put away laundry but I do this via streaming and it keeps me from doing much of it during the week unless I’m getting something else done.

Let me reiterate: the best way to get more reading done is to always have your book with you.  I never ever leave home without reading material and if I get stuck there’s ALWAYS an audiobook and an ebook on my phone.  Which reminds me: maximize your library and it’s resources.  I joined a library with a drive through window so I can pop by after work for drop off/pick ups (reserving online before I go).  I also use an app (Hoopla) through my library for 12 free audiobooks every month. I never ever get through 12 in a month (because for some reason it takes them 12 hours to read aloud). But they’re a great way to get some ‘reading’ in while commuting.

People frequently ask me (as if I’m an expert) if audiobooks ‘count’.  Here’s what I’ll tell you: all reading is good reading.  Google benefits of reading and make yourself a list of all the reasons this is a great priority.  I will likely never fully convert to audio but I do love the occasional story read to me.

How Not to Stress at the New Year

I love the beginning of a New Year.  Fresh calendars.  New chapters.  The successful closing of your previous years goals and the chance to make new goals and opportunities. This is my time to shine.

For those of us with faraway family, though, the new year can be stressful as we return home and to work in quick succession.  How do we beat that frazzled start to the new year? How do we return home and to work rested, refreshed, and reenergized?

Here’s how I’m tackling it this year…

1. Bah-humbug me if you will, but I took down Christmas before Christmas.  Since I’ll be leaving on Christmas morning to head ‘home’ for a week on the beach in South Florida with my parents, 2 sisters, 2 bro-in-laws, and 4 nieces and nephews, I’m ending the Christmas at my condo a little early.  Why? Well, because I’m making life easier and easier on myself.  I booked a cleaning service to come while I’m away which means I’ll come home to a fresh, clean house without a tree that still needs taking down and decor that needs boxed up and returned to the garage.
2. Taking a few days off, at home.  I leave Christmas day because my job requires that I be present and working on Christmas Eve.  But before that – I managed to take a few days off here at my own home and in my town.  This gave me the chance to think through what I could do in advance of the New Year.  What might that be you ask?  Order checks, set up my Rx for the year, write a new budget after my year end review/raise, and purge purge purge the house.  I also used this time off to write my goals for 2018, by a new planner, and even fill out the first week of the year so I’ll know what to do and have some margin to get back in the swing of things.
3. Simplify.  Christmas can get crazy.  For all of us.  So a few years ago I suggested simplifying across the board. My family moved to a gift exchange which means I buy for one person, I pack just that gift in my bag, and I fly home to spend quality time.  When I return I come back with my gifts from the one person who drew me and it isn’t tough to get that home with me on the plane.  Saves money, saves time, and most of all: saves stress.  Next I thought: how can I simplify with friends?  With my closest friends I moved to doing an ornament exchange.  I love that my tree is now filled with ornaments that mean something and remind me of the people I love most.  Buying them throughout the year on my travels brings me joy and come Christmas time I drop them in the mail or mailboxes a little early so they can hang on the tree that year.  How does this make New Years easier?  Less stuff to find a new home for.  If you’re like me you constantly flight with clutter. I do not need 30 items every Christmas to find homes for.

I love the promise of a New Year and I’m excited to spend the next week at the beach reading books, doing puzzles, playing board games, and smooching the newest addition to the family who shares my middle name.

Merry Christmas to all and a stress-less New Year.

 

Raising Your Net Worth

The vast majority of my financial savvy I’ve gained from my Dad over the years.  When I graduated college and entered the ‘real world’ for the first time I quickly realized it was harder to be an adult than I could have imagined and my parents were doing it well.  I finally started listening, asking, prodding, and soaking in their wisdom as I tried to figure out how I would inch ahead.

In 2015 I was debt free other than my mortgage, almost 30 years old, well on my way to having a paid off house and learning how to invest for the first time.  It was my Dad who suggested I start calculating my net worth once per month.  He said doing this would A. remind me not to go backwards (debt) and B. encourage me as I started to inch ahead.

If you share my type A personality than you know I love to smash a goal.  Getting ahead, succeeding, advancing – I thrive on these things.  So watching that number slowly (but steadily) grow over the last 2.5 years has pushed me harder and harder.  I’ve fought against using my emergency fund or tapping into my savings and I haven’t taken any investment money out unless to invest it in something else.  As my salary has grown my expenses have mostly shrunk and I’ve slowly saved and invested more and more.

This morning as I did my monthly calculation I was excited to see that since I started calculating my net worth in April of 2015 to now (November 2017) I’ve raised my net worth almost $100,000.  As a single, one income homeowner – this is no small feat.  So here’s what I’ve learned in 2 years:

• You will literally win and lose some (money).  Investing isn’t a perfect science and while I’ve gained more than I’ve lost as a whole, there were some rough years in there.  Stay big picture, keeping plugging away.  Don’t ever panic when the market is down.
• Be diligent.  While I’d love to be raising my net worth a million dollars a year, it’s a marathon and not a sprint.  Getting ahead has been as much about playing defense as offense for me. Saving for car repairs, appliances that will eventually die, and paying cash to update my house have played a big part in not tapping into my savings so it can keep growing.
• Celebrate victories.  I take the time to celebrate when I save 50% on my car insurance because I take the time to research it and every single bill I manage to negotiate down.
• You can’t be gazelle intense forever.  Here’s the honest truth: you won’t coupon and eat ramen while staying in every weekend forever.  And while I DID at one point do most of these things while working 2 jobs to get out of debt, that’s not a maintainable lifestyle and I don’t live that way now.  I travel, I go out, and I live in an adorable townhouse that I absolutely love.  I do not live like a poor person.  BUT I also don’t live like the Kardashians.  Example: I gave up cable when I was getting out of debt and realized, I didn’t really like it anyway.  So I never got it back.
• Track your progress.  I am frequently discouraged by how hard it is to get ahead in your career, your finances, and life in general. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that.  But I go back to my notebooks regularly and look at how far I’ve come. In weightless they call these: non-scale victories.  Maybe you didn’t lose the weight, or make a million dollars – but if you survive a year without touching your savings and you stick with your plan – that’s a victory.

Type A Vacay

Early in my career I learned this about myself: if given ANY option other than to relax, I will not relax.  I have found 2 vacations now guaranteed to help you relax: missions trips and the mountains.  My first missions trip (Haiti) when I found out how much it would cost to use my cell phone while away, I opted to turn it off for a week.  I could call home and tell my family I was alive and well (a top priority for my non-international-traveling-family) for $5 per minute.  So I talked a total of 2 minutes on the phone that week.

I came back a week later after helping lay the foundation of a church more rested than I had been in years.  How?  Who pours concrete and lays block work and comes back feeling like they spent a month on Maui?  I do. There’s something about being unavailable that was completely freeing for me.  No opportunity to work, to plug away at to do lists, or to be that ever reliable friend. For my personality, the manual labor isn’t what exhausts me.  Truly I’m a mind over matter person to the core.  If my mind can rest, then I’m refreshed.

This weekend I went to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg/Sevierville, TN for 3 days.  I was secretly hoping there would be no cell phone reception.  As it turns out, there was reception (curses) but I still treated the trip in large part as if there weren’t.  I put on my out of office and gave myself permission to let the e-mails pile up.  I went to bed before 10PM every night of the trip.  Ignoring my text messages (or giving the occasional one word answer): I didn’t even read a book.

As I drove back with friends on Tuesday (8.5 hours) I realized I wasn’t dreading my return to the grid.  After accomplishing nothing more than winning a few rounds of cards and making memories with friends and family, I felt rested and ready to return.  No post vacation dread.  No inbox remorse.  Just rested and ready.

This morning as I drink my coffee and return to my routine of 5am wake ups and grinding through my morning routine I’m committing to more unplugged time.  To setting my out of office a little more often. To ignoring texts or even giving the dreaded one word answers.  I’ve found that answering 30 text messages before leaving for work drains me before my day even starts but leaving them as I sip and savor in the mornings refreshes and energizes me.

If you mind needs rest: the mountains are calling.  Get away, unplug, and do not leave yourself the option to achieve.  I’ll admit towards the end of my long weekend I did start adding a few items to my Any.do app as I prepared to return and face the ever growing pile of tasks needing my attention.  But if writing it down lets you let it lie until you’re back on the clock: do it, and forget it.

 

You’re Coming Over, TONIGHT?

Somehow I have become the queen of last minute company.  Dinner, drinks, ‘I’m in your neighborhood’, impromptu game nights, and ‘Can I crash tonight?’s have been in abundance. I frequently repeat my mantra that there is no point in having a home if you aren’t hospitable.

Weekly I wish I were laid back. I literally dream of being laid back.  This is probably a horrible confession from someone who literally named their blog after their personality type (A).  It’s probably ‘the grass is always greener’ at it’s best to believe that being really laid back would solve my problems.  But I envy my friends who calmly, graciously roll with the punches. I cannot.  I am not.

So here’s how I’ve managed to (kind of) fake it…

Keep the House Clean

When I was a child, I would beg my mom to let me bring friends home from church, school, etc.  She would always say: we’ll do it when we can plan it.

So here’s how I combat that same feeling now that the house, the plans, and the friends are my own: I keep the house ready.  When I leave the house each morning it’s ‘good enough’ for someone else to beat me home at night.  So if a friend lets themselves in before I can even get home – that’s ok.  It takes the pressure off of me to run around with  a laundry basket trying to get at least the dirty laundry picked up and the pillows back on the couch.  This has been incredibly freeing.

Adopt a cleaning routine or at least learn to speed clean.

Trader Joe’s Saved My Social Life

 While I love to bake and serve a plate of warm cookies, deck my coffee bar out with themed syrups and napkins, or make a salty snack mix this doesn’t work with last minute guests.  I can’t always make it to the store or even get thirty minutes of prep time before company.  So I’m going to let you in on a little secret to entertaining: Trader Joes.  

Trader Joe’s saved my social life with their amazing (and affordable) entertaining options.  I now keep on hand: chips and salsa (there chips are less than HALF the price of regular grocery stores, by the way).  I keep at least one dessert in the freezer (this month: pumpkin cheese cake).  If I’m still at work when I get the text: play cards tonight? Your place?’ – I get to say yes.  I can pull the cheesecake out of the freezer, pour the chips and salsa in a platter and I’m ready.

Bonus: they have great seasonal items from Cranberry Prosecco to Pumpkin Cheesecake.  If it’s seasonal, get it.  Or ask any cashier: what do you recommend for a little last minute entertaining?  I’ve bought dozens of items recommended by the friendly cashiers (hello, cookie butter cheesecake bites) and never been sorry.

Don’t Forget to Delegate

My front door should really be replaced with swinging saloon doors the way the company flows and I love that.  But I’ve had to get over my fear that delegating makes me a bad hostess.  I want to do it all, perfectly, myself.  That’s just silly.  If people invite themselves over (or even when you invite them) it’s really ok to say: sure, bring drinks.  Or if you have a fridge full of drinks say: I’ll order the pizza, you pick it up on your way.

That reminds me: there’s always delivery.  I was an early adopter of the Uber life with my constant travel but I’ve been slow to adopt the Uber Eats life.  I like to cook. BUT there are so many ways to make your life easier, for a price.  Don’t shy away from having company just because your fridge is bare.  It’s ok to order in.