It’s already the last month of the year, how did this happen? I swear, it’s like yesterday I was in Tucson with H for New Year’s Eve and now we are planning what to do with this one. Hint: We’ll be on the east coast, probably somewhere in NJ. The rest has yet to be decided.
This month was full of ups and downs, as most of life is, and my goals reflect that. As a lot of you know, I suffer from mental health issues that stem from trauma when I was in high school. I finally got a proper diagnosis this summer and my team of doctors has been working to ensure that I am on the right meds. With my autoimmune conditions such as Celiacs and thyroid cancer plus others, it’s been trial and error.
I had an episode this month which I’d been dealing for two weeks and when it was clear at work it wasn’t going away, I called my doctor and went in. I have another appointment in three weeks so I hope I’ll have some good news to share and overall, feel better. The holidays are a very hard time for me both emotionally and mentally so while I may, in general, feel better, I may still be sad and moody.
My life wasn’t all gloom though. I started working with a fabulous new client who I really enjoy and I’ve already learned so much from her. I spent a lot of time with friends which included three birthday parties, learning more about myself and a quick weekend trip to go see one of my best friends & check out a haunted museum we’ve been dying to go to. I’m an extrovert so my cup runneth over.
Onto the goals!
- Participate in my accountability health group. FAIL. While I did participate, I didn’t really do anything besides eat small regular meals and go to yoga. I am looking at a three lb loss which is nothing to snuff at but my weight has been fluctuating over the same ten lbs for the past six months.
- Figure out my Money Smart Latina schedule, both for clients and myself. PASS. I have a fairly regular schedule now but I’m still not putting my all into MSL.
- Pay $500 towards debt. FAIL I was so disorganized financially that I need to really sit down and see what is going on. For both client work and my day job, I have reimbursements and invoices due. This will definitely be a goal of mine for next month.
- Read 3 books. PASS! I read American Babe, Role Models and a book about Winnie Ruth Judd. I already have two books picked out for December but we’ll see what the third one ends up being.
- Do the work. FAIL Yeah, I didn’t do any work.
- BONUS: Do a deep clean and decorate for Christmas. PASS I hosted my friends for a dinner & movie night so my apartment got all of the love it needed and deserved. However, I decided I wasn’t really feeling the need to decorate for Christmas. I am gone for so much of this month that I am okay not setting up.
What does December look like? Glad you asked!
- Post 2x per week to Money Smart Latina & provide great content for you. I have a lot of articles I’m preparing and getting my first free download ready for next month! I’ll be announcing sign-ups for my newsletter soon, as it will have resources and tips to help anyone live a money-smart life.
- Organize my finances. I am allllll over the place and I wanted to say something because this blogger is all about transparency. As much as I’ve blogged and written about personal finance all over the internet, I fall off the wagon just like anybody else. This goal includes submitting reimbursements, invoices, cashing checks I have sitting around (I KNOW), fixing my budget & submitting all of my health receipts to my FSA provider.
- Read 3 books. Self-explanatory. Should be doable as I have a 4-hour plane ride in my future. I’ll be bringing noise canceling headphones because the last two times I’ve tried to read on planes, people were insanely loud.
- Get ahead in client work. I’m trying my hardest to take some time off the last week of December to really soak up time with my BF. I know there will be some time to work because he always has stuff to do but I want to enjoy our time together since we don’t have very much of it being long distance.
- Stick to my accountability health group! BF and I have officially decided to go to Hawaii in February and while I think I look cute, I would still like to lose some weight for both this trip and my back. I NEED to lose weight for my back, so I’ll be trying to really make an effort.
Pshew, so much to do, so little time. What do you guys have planned for this month?