Sixty-Two Sixty-Two

Seneca on Anxiety... More things frighten us, Lucilius, than really affect us, and we are more often afflicted in thought than in fact. My advice to you is this, rather: don’t be miserable before it is time. Those things you fear as if they were impending may never happen; certainly they have not happened yet. Real dangers have an inherent limit; anything that arises from uncertainty, though, is given over to conjecture and to unrestrained anxiety. Hence our most pernicious, our most uncontrollable fears are the crazy ones. Our other fears are unreasonable; these are unreasoning. So let us look carefully at the facts." How many unexpected things have come to pass! How many of our expectations never happen at all! Even if it is to come, what good does it do to anticipate your grief? You will grieve soon enough, when it comes; in the meantime, allow yourself something better. 2019 will be filled with a mentality to win the moment. Win the day. Beating anxiety will be a tough t

To honor this day, the day of the year with the least amount of daylight, I'll keep this post short. The money for the rest of the year has been allocated, and goals for 2019 have been established. Total principle eliminated in 2018 - $23,168 2019 Goal - Eliminate $24,540 minimum Minimal fitness - I ran 18 miles, cycled 10, and walked 2 this past week 2019 goal - Run 1001 miles, cycle 500 I'd like to read 12 books (had to make this achievable and not too aggressive) And finally, the graph - 2019 ends: Here's to a great year focused on health, self love, and discipline.

Things are progressing well as the year comes to a close. Financially, the final numbers on the year should be in soon - there are two more pay periods left - and 2019 target goals will be determined. There is some good family news to share - L will be starting a new job in 2019. Not only will it benefit the family by her not working nights and weekends any longer, but I'll be able to remove her from my health insurance and lower my weekly premium withdrawal, only helping the financial goals. Workout intensity dropped the first few weeks of the month, but I'm back and really looking forward to get where I want to be early in '19. I logged 23.2 miles on the mill this week, and have chipped away the few Thansksgiving pounds I had put on. Holiday eating has been minimized, but not fully avoided. Grinding. Trying to improve daily. Onward.

As the year comes to a close, my final payments are made for the year on my various accounts. The first thing I wanted to do was calculate how much interest I paid this year compared to last, which a regular reader would know is the name of this blog. I paid $6,262 in interest in 2017 (this didn't include mortgage interest). Interest. I can't promise that an education in all things money would have changed my life path, but an understanding on how various interest works might have been valuable knowledge to have before the age of 18. In an effort to make the most of my debt payments while on this journey, I've utilized specific tools that I had at my disposal -- the 0% balance transfer offers through my multiple credit cards. I was able to transfer most of my debt balances (other than mortgage) to my credit cards at a 0% rate, which usually lasts for 15 months. Would I suggest this to everyone? No. It's a choice that I made; the 15 month windows, combined with k