I haven't blogged here in about two months, so just some quick updates focused on changes since my last blog post.

1. Changes to retirement plan contributions:  I made a change to my retirement plan contributions.  I had been contributing 20% to my 401(k) and 3% to my Roth 401(k).  I changed the total contribution to just 20%, but now it is 10% to the traditional 401(k) and 10% to the Roth 401(k).  That increases my Roth balance and gives me about $50 more cash to spend each month.  I will reassess next year after we get our annual pay adjustments.

2. Personal trainer:  After losing weight pretty steadily for a year (32 pounds), I came to a plateau.  I know that one of the elements that has been missing in my health routine has been regular strength training.  I had joined Planet Fitness to address this, but the trainer that I was working with there had some health problems of his own and missed appointments plus I got bored with it after about 6 weeks.  I haven't yet canceled but what I did do was to find a personal trainer at a Cross-Fit gym near my house and I am working out with her twice a week.  This isn't cheap but I'm learning more about form and I am being pushed beyond what I would do on my own.  In addition to a Cross-Fit certification, my trainer also works as a Physical Therapy Assistant at the local hospital, so I feel reassured that she has good credentials and won't push me in a way that will lead to any injury.  Plus, I just relate so much better to a woman trainer than to a man.  I did lose another couple of pounds off my plateau after starting with her.  At the moment, I've gained those back temporarily as we just had our company retreat this week, which threw my schedule and eating totally off, but 3 separate people who hadn't seen me since July noted that I *looked* thinner since they last saw me, so I'll take that.

Looking at my 2022 goal, I can see that I'm close on my step count to my goal of 9,500 steps a day on average--the current average since 1/1 is 9,471.  I'm sure I can increase that by at least 29 steps by year end (maybe even by 529 steps).

3.  Work--We had our annual company retreat, here in Pennsylvania.  Usually the PA team travels to our company's main office in Richond VA, but this time, the VA crew came here, which I enjoyed.  We spent part of our time at our company office but we also went to a lovely retreat center in the woods for half a day, which was inspiring.

The tax "extension" deadline is passed, thank goodness.  I had a 396-page draft of a tax return dropped on my desk on Wednesday  the 12th to review, then the 392-page revision arrived Thursday evening.  I have a little bit of a break before the year-end planning gets heavy.  And my calendar always gets filled up with meetings towards year-end.  November will be a pretty busy month.

4. Wealth:  Obviously with the markets down, it's not been a good year for my portfolio balances.  Debt is a little higher than I would like, but in general moving in the right direction.  I have been fortunate (knock on wood!!!) that I've been able to avoid big veterinary, car repair, or home repair bills this year.  Also I haven't yet replaced the refrigerator or dryer, as I'd intended.  So far they are each holding up.