I have established the fact that my new year's resolutions will likely remain much the same throughout my life. And as they will remain the same, I will continue to begin them with a bang, ease off, forget about them entirely, pick them up occasionally, sniff them to see if they still smell fresh enough to wear around for a day, and carry on with my life. And throughout those years I will pick up an occasional hitchhiker jumping on board as the children grow older and grandchildren sprout up in the mix.
So, as always before, for my new year's resolutions I plan to eat healthier and exercise more. I plan to de-clutter my house. I plan to read and write more, meditate and do yoga more, get more sleep, and the newest hitch hiker, focus more on our finances.
As I get closer to retirement, and I have grown sons who want to have all grown up conversations about things like interest rates, money markets, and bonds. And as I continue to find myself in the sandwich of elderly parents, growing families, and a future with words like "a fixed income," my quick shopping sprees on a whim to TJ Max or Old Navy have got to take a back seat. Our daily cost of living needs to be better planned out, and as I have always advised my family to "live with intention" I will need to "spend with intention." That is an intention beyond shopping therapy after a rough work week.
My first step in this endeavor after another conversation with my son Jonathan was to put on his recommended podcast during my one hour commute to work kicking off my new year. Now, granted, he had to show me what the icon for podcasts looked like on my phone. He then had to show me the podcasts to listen to for assistance with this newest hitchhiker. And he had to explain to me how to stream it through the bluetooth something or other in the car that I have now been told I will need to drive for the next 20 years.
This would be my first experience driving down the road listening to the first podcast I have ever listened to. Turns out a podcast is just people sitting and talking about something. This man and woman talking about how they no longer work and now travel the world with their children while being a minimalist and tracking their spending with the intention to cut it by 15% each year. I couldn't help but think after the first thirty minutes that this new hitchhiker was not likely going to remain a passenger for long. In fact, listening to my son explain all of this to me was far more entertaining because I got to watch his toddler run around our house and climb on our furniture.
Listening to this podcast reminded me far too much of riding with my husband in his truck as he blares his talk radio, and I complain, and he complains that I don't care enough to keep up with current events. And I tell him I prefer to focus on our own current events which would include what we were cooking for dinner. And now saving money to plan for a fixed income in a twenty year old car while relying on this percentage and that revenue and so on. And before I shut off my car the two talking heads came to the conclusion they had spent the same amount of money in 2022 as 2021, but with inflation that was considered a success.
Well, that was a quick resolution. Back to exercising more and eating healthier. Back to de-cluttering our house as we remodel the utility room and buy the new swing set for the Grands. Back to doing more yoga and getting more sleep. Let's stick with the predictable.
