Because of the New Year holiday, my paycheck came a day early, enabling me to make a few credit card payments.

As of today, my total debt is $29,889.40.  Total assets are approximately $1.2 million (some accounts won't show the 12/31 balance until tomorrow morning), so Net Worth is $1.17, a 15% increase from last year.

Tomorrow I will calculate my RMD from my beneficiary IRA and take a distribution to pay off my outstanding consumer debt.  The mortgage payment will hit the account as well.  Once the two outstanding consumer loans are paid off, total debt will be around $20k plus revolving credit card balances which I will pay off monthly.  So I'm feeling good about my "Wealth" goals from last year.

In terms of "Health" goals, my weight is basically the same as it was last January, and I've surpased 1,000 walking/running miles (1,089 to be exact), a bit more than last year but less than 2022 and 2023.  I need to finish tabulating my runs for the  year but it was generally 8-12 per month except for slacking over the summer due to the heat.

In terms of my "Systems, Habits, and Routines" goals, that was not a priority and the house is a mess; I will spend a good chunk of New Years Day clearing off the dining room table, which is back to being stacked about a foot high except for the one space that I keep clear for eating and working.  But I *did* do a better-than-usual job of making sure that I have gathered the tax letter information that I need to send out to my clients and their tax preparers during the first couple of months next year.  They used to have someone on our client service team compile much of the data; then when our company was acquired, that person was overwhelmed trying to manage software changes and didn't compile it for us, which meant the task fell out us without warning.  That made the beginning of last year stressful.  This year, anticipating that the data won't be compiled for us, I spent Christmas Day going through client files and making notes, so I am feeling on top of the task for this year.  [It was a good way to pass the day.]

As far as 2026 goals, I am going to try and make the "Systems, Habits, and Routines" category my main focus for the year, after having focused on debt reduction for 2024 and 2025.  Specifically, I am going to start tracking my spending again, and I am going to spend a little bit of time doing some decluttering daily plus I am going to HIRE somebody in May or June to help me make progress and make sure that I actually get stuff out of the house, not merely shuffled around.  If I am successful on that front, I will probably look to adopt two new cats, although I might wait another few months and try to do some traveling first.  For 2026, I am looking at weekend trips to Phoenix to visit my cousin maybe in April and a trip to visit a friend in Atlanta in May, then a driving trip to visit another cousin in MA over the summer.

I also want to keep up the exercise goal and will probably make another stab at working with a personal trainer, since I don't keep up well with strength training when left to my own devices.  Hoping to walk/run at least 1,200 miles (if not 1,400 miles, my 2022 amount) next year.

So tracking spending and decluttering are the two big focuses for next  year, all in service of clearing the runway to be able to retire in the not-too-distant future.

[And on that front, I went ahead and filed for Medicare Part A, since I am now eligible.  I still have my work health insurance, which will remain primary until I retire and start Part B, but Part A will be there as a secondary payer if anything drastic occurs, and, most importantly, it will get me a Medicare number, which is the lengthy part of the filing process, so that when I DO retire and start Part B, D and a Supplement, that process will go more quickly.

Happy New Year to All!!!!

I paid a little bit extra on my mortgage today to get the year-end balance to a round $20,000.

Total debt as of today is $30,242, just $242 from my end-of-year goal.

It's a nice booster for a very busy week.  The custodians (Fidelity, Schwab etc) have deadlines for submitting requests for things like Qualified Charitable Distributions, Roth conversions, or Required Minimum Distributions.  As the managers, we can handle transactions in client accounts when they are all in cash, but sometimes when the transaction involves stock, the custodian needs to be involved.  I don't deal with that part of the business so I don't know the details, only that there are deadlines.  So I have been busily working my way through my lists to make sure that all RMDs are going out, that we have followed up with clients on every Roth conversion we suggested, and so on.  It's been a busy few days.  I didn't work on Thanksgiving but I worked through last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and this is the first evening this week that I left the office somewhat early (at 7 pm).  Two more weeks of client meetings and then I am taking off from December 19th through January 1, a full two weeks.  I haven't done two full weeks in the entire time I've worked at my current company, and I've now been there over 9 years.  But taking more time off is one of my New Years resolutions, which I am implementing early.