If I had to summarize my first quarter of 2024 in a short phrase, it would be "work intensive."  I'm taking 5 days off (Wed through Sunday) this weekend, but most of my weekends so far this year have consisted of Saturdays off, then doing grocery shopping and laundry Sunday mornings and working the rest of Sunday.

But Q1 is the busiest quarter of the year, so things go back to a more "normal" schedule for Q2 and Q3.  "Normal" is still quite uneven, as the company president comes in to our office one week a month and that week tends to be much more hectic than usual.  For example, in April, I don't have any client meetings until the 16th, then 7 of the 8 meetings that are scheduled so far for the month are on 4 days between April 16 and April 25.  Those multi-meeting days exhaust me, and it can take a week or two for me to recover from.

Other than work, I've tried to keep up with exercise fairly regularly.  I've run three "virtual" 5ks so far this year.  (A virtual 5k is one where you are connected with the race manager either through an app or otherwise online, and you pick and run your own 5k course and use a smart watch with a fitness tracker to monitor and report your time).  And today starts the training program for my next virtual 5k on May 4th.  

I'm going to try to exercise more consistently--I've been too much of a "weekend warrior" with my running--and to get outdoors more.  I even plan to get my bike out either this weekend or next and try to ride it.  And I desperately need to start getting consistent about strength training.  Still trying to figure out the best approach there.  But I do have an app that I like that has a "live" training program with a trainer I like.  That program starts 4/8 and hopefully will get me going.

On the "wealth" front, I'm very excited to see that my total assets (after my end of the month paycheck and after receiving a bonus and raise last month) are within $800 of a million dollars!  Debt is down to about $68k, so current net worth rounds to $931k.  As long as the markets don't absolutely tank later this year and as long as there is no other major expense (such as occurred last year with Buffy's lymphoma), I have high hopes that not only my assets but my total net worth will exceed a million by year's end.  And that means that retirement is within sight.  I would really like to get my total net worth to about 1.25 million and buy a new car before retiring, and for that and other reasons, my targeted retirement date is 2029 or 2030.  But we'll see.  I like the idea that I'll be working because I WANT to, not because I so much NEED to.  And it means that I'll have to start taking spending more seriously again--I've not paid much attention to the spending side of things for the past decade since I changed industries.

As far as my third sidebar goal of systems/habits/routines, I've completely ignored that during Q1 but hope to make it goal #1 for Q2.  I really need to clear the clutter out around here and I've made that a pre-requisite for myself before adopting new kitties.  So I'd like to declutter during Q2 and adopt new kitties either the end of this quarter or the beginning of next.