Since it’s a quiet week with nobody around, I thought I’d do some more mid-year reflecting.

To hold my feet to the fire, I’ve been setting public goals for a while now. But I’ve mostly just checked in at year-end, leaving me no opportunity to course correct during the year in case I was lagging. Oftentimes, I wouldn’t even remember what my goals were. Not this year baby!

My theme for 2018 is: Back To Early Retirement Life.

I spent years building a lifestyle business in order to one day be a good stay at home father. But I kinda screwed things up in 2017 when my son was born by maintaining my writing schedule, my tennis schedule, and even taking on a part-time high school tennis coaching job. As a result, I was more stressed than I wanted to be and suffered numerous injuries.

Surely, things had to change. Below are my goals made at the beginning of this year and my self-assessment in italics. Everybody reading should go through this exact same exercise because I bet you’ll be surprised by your results as well. 

Whenever I meet a fresh college graduate at a random mixer, I’m inevitably hit with a wave of bubbly enthusiasm that’s rarely found in my circle of older friends. Phrases such as, “I love my job,” “I believe in my company’s mission,” “this city is so amazing,” and “we’re making the world a better place,” are quite common.

It’s refreshing to hear so much enthusiasm, since my older acquaintances are a little too scarred to blindly believe that everything will be sunshine and rainbows. One friend is going through a bitter divorce. An old co-worker recently died at the age of 44 to breast cancer. While another person had to take out a second mortgage to keep his startup afloat. Life is hard. But you won’t know until you live it.

I was fortunate at the age of 22 to experience a miserably exhilarating time working in New York City. From day one, I knew that getting in at 5:30am and leaving after 7:30pm every day was going to lead to a miserable existence. Therefore, I did everything possible to figure out a way to escape.

My biggest disappointment in 2017 was pushing my mind and my body past their limits. At the age of 40, I no longer have the energy to do what I’ve been used to doing all my life, yet I worked more than I ever had before. I was a stubborn mule who couldn’t accept the fact that I had aged. As a result, I injured my ankle, back, elbow and quads.

I also had a breakdown one evening when I couldn’t put my son to bed after the third try at around midnight. Hearing my baby cry is a heart-stinging experience. After an hour and a half of singing and cradling, I gave up on giving my wife the rest she needed and texted her to relieve me.

I felt like such a failure. I had spent years building a lifestyle business in order to be able to be a good father. Yet I lost it because I was working way too much on the business instead of storing up energy reserves for the late night shift.

It was at this moment I realized that going down the path of full-time caretaker with my wife while also keeping Financial Samurai going at a fervent pace wasn’t going to work out. I was no longer my happy go lucky pleasant self. Here are some goals that will make life better in 2018!

Happy 2018 Everyone!

Since the year doesn’t really start until the second week of January, I’ve decided to spend more time reflecting. Hopefully you will too on a tropical island somewhere.

Before 2017, the best year of my life was when I got married on a cozy beach in Oahu. It was a simple wedding with only 16 family members in attendance. There was a gentle breeze that rustled the palm leaves while a ukulele player played Somewhere Over The Rainbow. The ceremony was simple, yet so beautiful.

No moment ever topped that day until our son was born last Spring. The birth went smoothly and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief both mama and baby were safe and healthy. We feel so blessed to have him in our lives.

Despite all my preparation, I still underestimated how difficult it would be to work 15 hours every day for months on end. I worked in banking where 15 hour days were the norm. But even in banking, we got at least one day off a week. Further, nobody works every single minute they’re at work. With parenthood, one look away could spell disaster.

Constant sleep deprivation killed my mood. No longer did I have the desire or creativity to spend several hours writing a post. No longer did I have the patience to deal with annoying people. Yet we had to forge on like all newborn parents do to make sure our baby was properly cared for.

If it wasn’t for my wife, we wouldn’t have a precious son. And if it wasn’t for my wife, there would be no Financial Samurai because she started taking over the entire night after he was three months old. Therefore, I thank my wife for everything she has done and apologize for all the times I was unpleasant. She is the sweetest, loveliest, kindest person I know who deserves a partner who always treats her well. I will do better. I promise!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone!

The best thing about hard work is when it’s over. Once finished, you can basically sit back and enjoy all of the rewards if you wish. And if you hustle long enough, you might positively change your life forever.

In 2017 I wrote 175 posts, averaging 3.3 posts a week. In addition I also published 173 pages, consisting of product reviews, random thoughts, and different spins on existing topics. Pages are public, they just don’t hit the homepage or got out in my feeds. Finally, I’ve got 36 pending posts in the queue waiting to be unleashed. All in, I averaged 7.3 posts a week.

My goal was to do as much as possible before our baby was born to buy time in the future to take care of him. It’s like saving all your tax cut money to inevitably pay for a tax hike later. Even though I don’t have a day job, writing a comprehensive article is easier said than done. Further, the average stay at home parent spends 97 hours a week taking care of their little one.

Here are the most popular posts written in 2017 by traffic and some of the the most popular posts by traffic regardless of when they were written. My #1 goal is to help readers reach financial independence sooner, rather than later. Every single post was written based on first-hand experience because money is too important to be left up to pontification.

Overall, Financial Samurai received about 12.1 million unique visitors in 2017, which is better than a poke in the eye. 25 more years of this and I should be able to reach the entire population of America!