Financial Freedom.
- Saving another third of our four-month emergency fund - this has been one of the big positives so far this year as we're already very close to completing this goal already. Even though we have been spending more than we should, we've still managed to keep all our bills and spending down enough that we've been able to put a good part of our monthly wages into our savings. We might actually complete this long-term goal before the end of the year. Which makes me want to give us both big gold stars.
- Sinking funds - at the beginning of the year we concentrated mostly on putting money into our Christmas sinking fund and we've now got a fully funded Christmas fund. As it looks like we'll be reaching our emergency fund goal much earlier than we had expected we'll be able to start putting money into our holiday sinking fund this year as well. We still haven't quite decided where we're going, other than it'll be somewhere on the African continent.
- 12.5% of earnings towards my pension - I did change jobs at the beginning of March and with that job comes the company pension scheme. I'm just waiting for my details to come through and then I can change my payment amount to fit the 12.5% that I want for this year. The good thing about this job is that they will match pay into your pension up to 10% and I intend to make full use of this.
- Secondary income - this has gone completely on the back-burner for now, but hopefully, I'll be in the right mindset to think about it again soon.
- Changing my bank account - still to do, but again I'll come back to this at another time.
Learning New Skills.
- Skateboarding - I have given this a few tries and I do feel more comfortable than I did before. However, I'm still nervous about hurting myself so maybe I just need to bite the bullet and buy all the protective gear. Then I can just get on with it. I haven't done much of this recently though as I've just been letting myself sit instead of trying to do things.
- Surfing - I had started the process of looking into hiring surfboards for us to practice with, but that fell to the wayside when the depression came along. But we both enjoy this so it's definitely time to get back to it again.
- Drawing - this was one of the first things to go when I started feeling low. I don't mind though, as I had already managed to fit some practicing in and that gave me a bit of an idea as to where my skill level is. I will bring this back, but as an 'every now and then' thing instead of a 'must do regularly' thing.
- Flute playing - I did get quite a few practices in for this and it did feel good, though I'm not sure how far I'll be able to go without having a teacher guide me along. As with everything else, I stopped for a bit, but I will start it up again. I'll see if I want to carry it on once the year is out, but for now, it's been enjoyable when I do play it.
- Reading - this one hasn't really gone to plan, but it'll be easy enough for me to pick it back up again. I just need to make the decision to.
- Learning another language - funnily enough, I haven't even looked at this. Future George decision I think. For now, I'm just going to concentrate on getting back to where I was at the start of the year. This can wait a little.
And that's it. Depression has meant that it hasn't been quite the success I was hoping for, but then it hasn't been a complete disaster either. Especially when it comes to our financials, which we have managed to do pretty well. We are already a third of the way into the second quarter, but hopefully, I'll be able to pick things up for the next couple of months, though I'm not going to push too hard just yet. I'm going to take it slow. After all, I have plenty of time this year to achieve what I want. No need to try and get it all done now.
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