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 January 2025. I had hoped to write an update a little sooner, but travel got in the way. (An excuse that made me happy to skip blogging.)
This is a good time to review how well I have been pursuing those goals, as it I will soon have significantly more time out of the office to work on them.
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?
In the past 17 weeks, I’ve met my goal 10 of 17 weeks. Not super, but this includes some very cold months with poor walking conditions. I definitely did not do well with the plan to work out with video programs.
Now that the weather should be better, I expect that I should meet my exercise goals more regularly. We will see if that is really true.
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 services more regularly, though I lowered my goals to once a month.
How did I do?
In the past 4 months, we again hosted my sister-in-law; went out to lunch with some of her friends; and had dinner at the nearby home of some college friends (mine). Mr. PiN and I also socialized with friends at the ACP meeting, and visited my brother after my second meeting. Plus, we hosted our ACP friends for dinner when their power failed, and 1 of them stayed with us for two days to enjoy hot water and electricity, though not at the same time.
On my own, I went to the bakery with my friend who lives nearby 4 times, and invited a different college friend over for a little in-person socialization.
This is in addition to keeping up with my video calls, though those were reduced while I was out of town.
I also attended routine services three times in the past 4 months, which did not meet my goal, but is getting close.
I think I did pretty well since January in keeping up with connections, though many outings were with the same 1-2 friends. I most certainly would like to continue keeping up with my good friends, but perhaps I should use some of my upcoming free days to strengthen additional friendships.
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 4 months were supposed to involve clearing old journals and magazines, and taking pictures of things to give away in my local Buy Nothing group.
How did I do?
I don’t know that I got any of this done. Perhaps I cleared out a few journals, but I still have a few piles in the living room. I certainly haven’t photographed anything to post in the BN group. Nevertheless, after a weekend straightening up, I feel like the overall state of the house is much better than it used to be several years ago. I may be delusional–or, more likely, worn out, but I feel there is less for me to get rid of.
Going forward, I do want to use some of my new time keeping the house in better shape. Putting aside a few extra hours each week to go through journals will help, and I am sure that I will find things to clear out if I decide to put my mind to it.
My goals for the summer will certainly include reducing my pile of journals in the living room. I think I will be able to make some headway to clearing the “piano corner” as well. Lastly, I may be renovating my home office, which means that it might be time–finally–to clear some piles of books and papers from the corner where they have settled in the past few years.
Local Adventure
I love to travel, but I feel it’s important to enjoy the smaller pleasures around home. I would like to spend some of my time enjoying features of the city I have chosen to call home. My goal is to explore 1 to 2 attractions per month.
So, how did I do? Over the past 4 months, I did check out 2 new-to-me restaurants, attended a local food festival, and visited a local historic home with a friend.
Not bad, especially considering that I was away for large chunks of April, and the weather was poor. I think aiming to go on 1-2 local adventures a month going forward still sounds like a very good idea.
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.
My extra day off sounds like a good time to work on this, but I already have many other plans for that day. I will see if I make any progress on this over 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 it is less regular than previously. Knitting has come to a complete stop. Mr. PiN has expressed an interest in creating photo albums of our trips, so that may pick up again if/when he makes time to join me on this.
The fact that I really haven’t done much, nor do I really have a great interest in making yet another project for myself, is a little concerning. I will have to hope that letting things stew in the back of my mind for a bit longer may lead to something in the future.
Financial tasks
As I automate more and more of my financial tasks, there is less to list here. I had written that I wanted to complete the 2025 backdoor Roth for me and Mr. PiN, move money from my “secret” savings account to one with better interest, and reduce the number of accounts I have open.
The Roth IRA contributions have been completed for 2025, and I recently moved most of the savings from the low paying credit union account to the big bank, which pays better interest. I keep finding reasons to keep one or another of my extra savings accounts, but I think this summer I do need to close 1 or 2.
My financial goals for the summer really ought to be consolidating some of my accounts. I also expect to see a large reduction in my paycheck, so figuring out how much I can save will be an important task this summer.
In Summary
On the whole, I have been doing pretty well with staying social, and finding things to explore in town, though there is some room for improvement.
I still don’t meet my goals every week or month for exercise or attending services, but I feel like I am doing better.
Decluttering and using my creativity has been a big challenge, and might need to be a focus of my (about to happen) extra free time during the week.
We’ll see how things go when I check in at the end of the summer.
What goals, if any, do you have for the next few months? Or the year?
I love how you’ve included a wide variety of non-financial goals and your discipline in tracking your progress toward them. I especially like your approach to fitness goals. So many people say, “I’ll exercise when I retire and have more time.” But if you don’t start now, it won’t happen when you retire.
Other than my writing goals, my main goals for the next few months are to continue to build out my retirement coaching business and launch my virtual workshop. I’m working on a couple of potential partnerships with financial advisors that could introduce me to the employer market which is an excellent way to get the importance of non-financial planning for retirement to a bigger audience.
Wow! You have some big plans coming up–best of luck with that!