Future Me, January 2025

Not long after the start of this blog, I cut my hours very slightly, and wanted to make sure I didn’t waste the extra time I was paying dearly for. I had started reading about preparing for retirement in non-financial ways, and I realized that it was time to start (re-) building a life that didn’t revolve solely around medicine.

I started this series of posts at the end of October 2018 with lots of big goals, but even at the beginning, knew that I couldn’t follow all those dreams all at once.

Every few months, I try to look at what I have accomplished, and see if I can adjust course to focus my free time in the directions I wish I would go: increasing fitness, building (or maintaining) connections with friends, family and community, engaging with the arts, and, lately, keeping up with financial tasks.

My last update was in May 2024.

Life got pretty crazy since then, and I apparently failed to update my progress for over 7 months.

Not only is it time to review how well I have been pursuing those goals (probably not all that well…), but there is a little more urgency to reconsider what I want. I will be meeting with (one of) my bosses soon, to discuss how I envision my clinical goals going forward.

It’s hard to ask for what you want, when you haven’t really considered the question.

Exercise

Getting to retirement in bad physical shape doesn’t sound like a great time. I have hopes that once I am in retirement, I can become fitter, but I realize I can’t wait that long to take care of my body. So one of my goals–the one I have probably focused most on–is to get more exercise while I am still working.

I try to get 150 minutes a week of some exercise (see: CDC recommendations) with at least 30 minutes of strength building; when I work in the hospital, I just can’t get that much. Instead, I lower my goal to 90 minutes of exercise, since that’s a realistic stretch.

How did I do?

I feel like I have been doing terribly, but that may be because I am falling victim to recency bias. I have spent the last 10 weeks either sick or working in the hospital. I have met my goals in only 2 of the past 11 weeks.

On the other hand, it’s been 35 weeks since I last did a full update; I’ve met my exercise goals in 21 of the past 35 weeks. Still not super, but still 70%, a passing grade.

I’m starting to recover from whatever URI plague I picked up, and have a vacation to somewhere warmer on the horizon. I’m hoping to meet my exercise goals at least half of the weeks until either I am recovered or the weather improves enough to walk outside. I also have some exercise videos queued up.

Connections

More and more is being written about the importance of connections: with family, with friends, with people in the community. If I’m not careful, I can totally let work take over my life. Since I don’t actually want to be a hermit, I really need to work on spending time with people other than Mr. PiN.

My goals have been to keep up with my weekly social video calls, and socialize in-person at least 1.5 times a month. I had also wanted to attend religious services more regularly, though I lowered my goals to once a month.

How did I do?

I kept up with the video get-togethers, with a few gaps for travel and my friends’ obligations. I hosted 2 parties–one for a birthday, another to celebrate a retirement–for one of these groups.

We hosted my sister-in-law twice, I visited my about-to-retire doctor friend about 5 times, had dinner with old friends twice, and attended 2 other get togethers. I also went home to visit my mom and saw my aunt as well. Not to mention arranging a funeral and attending a second one (for someone else). That’s 13 events for 7 months, which actually meets my goal (though some of those events were not exactly desired).

I attended routine services twice in the past 7 months, which is definitely not meeting my goal, but is more than what I was doing before putting it on my list of goals.

I’m feeling a little isolated right now, as I’ve been sick and spending all my time at home. When I’m better, I might try to socialize in person twice a month; even if I miss my target, I think it would be good for me to get out of my funk. Once I’m better.

Clear the Clutter

My hope is to start retirement with a (mostly) decluttered home. The thought of having to spend several years shoveling out my house in order to enjoy it is… dispiriting.

My goals for the past 7 months were supposed to involve clearing a spot for an eventual piano in the living room, and addressing my office by hanging up 5 of the pictures leaning up against the walls, and clearing 10 items.

How did I do? Maybe not so successful.

I did clear 2 bags of journals and magazines from the piles in the living room, and donated 2 bags of books. I removed a few clutter strata from the desk in the “piano corner” but did not clear the surface.

A different win was inspiring Mr. PiN to fill a large (super-large) trash bag with clothes he is willing to donate. They haven’t yet left the house, but they are out of the closet, which is huge.

Going forward, I might set my sights a little lower. I finally have some time to spend at home, and have been busy taking care of more normal decluttering tasks (like dealing with new mail).

I think my goals might be to address the remaining piles of journals in the living room, and possibly clear through some papers in my home office.

It’s too cold, currently, to be comfortable off-loading items via the local Buy Nothing group; but I might be able to round up and photograph items, so that I can post them when the weather cooperates.

As for the picture hanging and desk removal–much of this depends on the availability of Mr. PiN, who has been dealing with his father’s estate. These might be projects for the Spring/Summer of 2025.

Local Adventure.

I love to travel, but I feel it’s important to enjoy the smaller pleasures around home.

Over the past 7 months, I did check out 5 new-to-me restaurants, visited the grounds of 1 local museum to study, saw a local museum I had never set foot in, and went on a day trip with Mr. PiN to a great museum in a city a few hours away. Mr. PiN also took me to a neighborhood I had never seen before, to check out a potential real estate investment (nixed); brought me to play tennis on his old high school courts; and went with me to a local food festival over the summer.

Though it feels like we have done nothing adventuresome for months (and it actually is true), we did plenty over the summer and fall. Just going through this list makes me feel a little less pathetic.

I think trying to go on 1-2 local adventures a month sounds like a very good idea going forward. Ideally doing this every month, instead of having months of feast and other months of famine.

Study

Since May, I completed CME to qualify for a subspecialty board, studied to take that board exam, and passed.

Study and continuing education can now revert to my usual levels, and this section can be retired.

Reading

I love reading for fun and relaxation. I will certainly keep this up. That’s not what this section is about.

This is my challenge to myself to read the classics, or other books that make me work a bit. I gave myself a break in this category over the past year, and still am not quite ready to face it. I will readdress for the summer.

Creative Activities

I have been writing for a couple years about three goals: blogging, knitting, and working on photo books.

The blogging continues, though there was a noticeable slow down this year. The knitting has stalled as I made some poor choices with my hat project, and don’t have the heart (or the time) to get some help undoing them. I actually started a photo book, but realized I should probably get some photos off Mr. PiN’s phone to complete it.

My blogging has picked up since mid-December, we’ll see if that trend continues.

I think the knitting and photo books remain on my would-like-to-do list, but after so long, I realize my heart isn’t really in it.

This would be a good area to explore as I think about what I’d like to do with extra time off work going forward. More to come.

Financial tasks

As I automate more and more of my financial tasks, there is less to list here.

However, it’s the beginning of the year, so it’s time to work on the backdoor Roth IRA for me and Mr. PiN.

Also, as I keep putting money away from my paycheck each month, the total in my “secret savings account” keeps growing. Unfortunately, the interest on this savings account is shamefully low.

Before I write my next update, I hope to have moved most (if not all) of that money to a better paying account. I may possibly send the monthly savings elsewhere.

Lastly, in totaling up my net worth this year, I realized that despite saying I want to reduce the number of accounts I have, instead that number keeps growing. It may be time to eliminate 1 or 2 accounts, if I can manage it. We’ll see.

In Summary

Despite feeling like have been missing the boat on all my goals, I was doing pretty well until: my father in law died, I was working in the hospital, and then got sick with mystery crud.

When I get better, I will return to:

• Trying to meet my exercise goals (video work outs may be a priority during the cold weather).
• Clearing out old magazines and journals, and maybe papers.
• Attending services (by video okay) maybe once a month.
• Visiting with friends (made easier if I am less worried I will give them germs).
• Staying curious about local activities, possibly exploring with my friends.
• Finish off the financial tasks above.
• And figure out what sort of creative endeavors I’d like to try in the future.

What goals, if any, do you have for the next few months? Or the year?