Resolution Update

Last year I had three resolutions of which I achieved one:

Make money - Achieved! I had full time work most of the year, got to work (mostly) normal hours, for decent pay, doing stuff I'm good at and mostly enjoy. This resolution was resolved much more nicely than I would have had the guts to predict. Of course now I'm on almost the same position as last year, starting over again, but that's another subject.

I didn't even have to try very hard at all--mostly people approached me, and all I had to do was say "yes, I'm interested" and fill out some paperwork.

Improve health - By most measures, I failed:

* have a lower resting heart rate - nope
* weigh less - nope, more
* have a smaller waist measurement - nope, all measurements are bigger
* have a lower percentage of body fat - sincerely doubt it
* jog longer when I go jogging - quit jogging when I hurt my ankle
* exercise more often - ha!
* have a lower TSH level - yes, I do not suffer from hypothyroidism after all (this was actually the measure I most wanted to improve on, so that's good)
* have a lower thrill level whenever any events fall through (like there's no dance class this week) - maybe

I didn't try on this at all except for trying to keep my stress low.

Write a book - Ha! Failed miserably! I did work on this for a couple of days, but once I got full-time work, I stopped trying on this.

But another thing I did fairly well was prepare financially for unemployment:

Budgeting - The budget I made was reasonable and I was able to stick with it all year.

Tracking spending - I was able to stick to my lower budget for food and for short-term fun, but I went back to my usual budget for long-term fun.

Other cuts - I stopped budgeting at all for renovations, I put off charitable contributions until I knew I would earn enough for both myself and others, and I stopped adding money to my retirement accounts, though I was able to max out my Roth IRA after all.

Savings account - I did indeed manage cash flow just fine even with ever-changing monthly incomes.

Activities - I did indeed refrain from volunteering, which is good because I would have had to cut everything out when I got my jobs. And I did cook and exercise more while I was jobless.

This Year's Resolutions

I haven't even decided if I want to make more money or just suck down my retirement savings until my pension becomes available in four years (and one week). If I can get more of these degree audit jobs, I'll take them. They pay better than most things I can stand to do plus can make me eligible for my pension earlier.

But what other jobs would I be willing to take, just to not have to basically cut my Roth IRA savings in half? I'm not sure. Part of me really just wants to go skipping into the sunset. But it feels bad taking out all that money and leaving so little in the third leg of my retirement, which is already tiny:
* Pension: $2088/month before taxes - this by itself is enough for me; of course pensions can get cut and probably won't keep up with inflation and people usually collect expensive health issues as they age
* Social Security: $815/month if I start at age 62, more if later; except everyone knows that these are just fantasy numbers
* IRA: $363/month (using the 4% withdrawal rule); of course who knows what's going to happen with the stock market. I have contributed $57,000 so far, and 4% of that is $190/month, so that's what I would be losing if I never worked again, not to mention not contributing more to my IRA.

In the olden days, I fantasized about adding to my IRA even after I started getting a pension by either doing odd jobs or, if I was married to someone with an income, by just contributing some of my savings. I still kind of like that idea. But do I like it enough to work more?

Heal Strains - Okay, I definitely want this rotator cuff and plantar fasciitis healed by the end of the year, and I am willing to commit to that.

Other possibilities - I would also really like to give this house a spring cleaning, but I can't do that by myself.

But I want the spring cleaning because I want a birthday party this year. Now I'm thinking that instead of an over-the-hill theme, I'll go with an over-the-top theme. I'm not really an over-the-top kind of person usually, but a few intriguing ideas come to mind:
* party foods that take way too much prep work like Patrick's ice cream (first make custard, ...), Robin's layered rolls, and Sherry's Cointreau cupcakes.
* outfits - crazy period costumes, halloween costumes, or tuxes or gowns
* the movie "Rendezvous" (a 7-minute movie about a guy making it to his date on time by driving way too fast through Paris)
* some literal over-the-top things like top hats--or any hats, really; overcoats; and things with a cherry on top or a sauce on top

I need more activities, though, before I'm willing to settle on this theme.

I'm also just today finally experimenting with setting a timer whenever I'm sitting at the computer. After 30 minutes, I should get to a stopping point and get up and do something. I am quite talented at ignoring such signals, but this time I did actually get up and hang the laundry. Some kind of resolution about not being on my butt so long would be good.

I'd like to use some of my free time to figure out how to do a few things more cheaply. Like I want to at least try baking bread--I've watched my mom do it a million times. I could try making some beans from scratch. I could do some weatherization projects.

I could resolve that my first dollar will go to charity.

I'm not really in a committing mood right now (except for healing my strains), though, so I'm just going to go with the flow. Which apparently is what I usually do anyway!