New Year, Same Goal(s)

Happy 2019 everyone! I read somewhere recently that we should make goals and not resolutions at New Year’s, which brings me to the inevitable question:

What are your goals for 2019?

Since we’ve officially entered the last calendar year that I’ll be a part of the U.S. military, my goal for 2019 should come as no surprise. In October 2019, I’ll begin terminal leave, and on 01 January 2020, I’ll be officially retired … if all goes according to plan. I’m excited but also nervous. I got a lot of work to do in order to retire on the best terms possible from the military and to make sure my family and I are financially prepared.

I also have one other major goal for 2019, but really, it’s a carryover from 2018. Go figure, as a life-long procrastinator I didn’t get something done! What was it? My book of course. That’s right, in 2018 my one and only goal was to convert some of my blog posts into a self-published book. Alas, I was not successful. I only managed six chapters, which is a good start, but not a full book. As a result, I’m back at it this year. Not that I expect it to be a best seller or anything, but anything I can do to generate some extra cash flow going into retirement can’t hurt. No pressure!

Enough About Me, Let’s Talk About You for a Minute

Are you finding it hard to set some goals for yourself this year? May I be so bold as to offer up the following idea? One of the reasons that you’re experiencing this goal-setting difficulty may be that you’re stuck in your paradigm. What’s a paradigm you ask? According to Google, it’s “a typical example or pattern of something; a model”. In this context, I like to think of it as the window frame through which a person views their world or life. Alternatively, you can think of it as the frame around the picture that you’ve painstakingly painted to represent your point of view on a particular issue.

A paradigm represents the limits of your knowledge about something. It’s the borderline between the knowing and unknowing. On a small scale, paradigms help us navigate everyday life extremely well. They allow us to make assumptions like the sun will always rise in the east and set in the west, morning will always follow dawn, or that the best way to put on your pants is one leg at a time. On a larger scale, paradigms help us understand complex issues as we add or discard new information upon determination if it fits within our frame of view. However, paradigms can also turn into self-limiting beliefs. Sometimes new information comes into view that’s valid but doesn’t fit neatly into the frame. At that point, a person can either discard these inconvenient truths or build a new frame.

Enough About You, Let’s Talk About Me Again

That’s where I found myself in mid-to-late 2018. My paradigm for how and when I would retire from the military had transitioned from a useful coping mechanism to a self-limiting belief. As described on my About Me page, after my mental breakdown in 2016, part of my path to recovery was a financial awakening. That financial awakening included a mathematical-based realization that if I just gutted it out at work until 21-years of service, all of life’s major expenses in the future would be solved through a combination of my pension, lifetime military healthcare benefits, and the ability to transfer the GI Bill to my children.

What I failed to do in the intervening years was revisit the assumption that I needed all those expenses covered. I specifically failed to update whether I needed to transfer my GI Bill to my kids. As chronicled in my third-to-last post of 2018, it turns out that I don’t need to transfer it. I have plenty of other options available to pay for college without incurring serious debt including the 529 plans Mrs. Grumpus and I built for the kids when they were born. Nor do I need to stay in until 21-years just to make my retirement plan work. Upon running the numbers and making some calculations, I realized I could retire directly at 20-years of service. Yay me!

That said, after doing all the above, it registered I should probably go back and question the entire paradigm my retirement plan was built upon (or within if you’re sticking with the window-frame metaphor). In doing so I discovered that a slew of previously unconsidered choices lay before me. So many in fact, that I made my thankfulness for this abundance of retirement choices the key theme of my Thanksgiving 2018 post.

That story’s not finished either. While Mrs. Grumpus and I are still planning San Diego as our primary retirement location, we’ve realized there’s an opportunity to go BIG and unique if we really want to. It may not pan out, but we would’ve never even considered the opportunity had I not challenged my retirement planning paradigm. Stay tuned for future posts about whether we decide to listen to our heads (San Diego) or follow our hearts (somewhere more exotic). Either way, we are spoilt for choice that only the achievement of Financial Independence (FI) could provide.

I’m Not the Only One

Apparently, I wasn’t the only FI blogger breaking paradigms in 2018. For better or worse, others were out there doing the same. Top on that list was Mr. Money Mustache (MMM). In case you didn’t read his final post for 2018, he and Mrs. MMM got a divorce. As he points out in the article, and many others have discovered in the past, getting a divorce isn’t the best move when attempting to achieve FI … or after achieving FI in his case. That said, sometimes adults need to do what’s best when differences are irreconcilable, and the happiness of all parties is at stake.

I’m not the biggest MMM fan, and I’m not part of his cult. However, I’ve enjoyed many of his posts over the years. While I may not agree with all the self-administered face-punches he dishes out on his website, I certainly don’t wish him ill. He seems like the type of guy that would be fun to grab a beer with some time. As a result, I was a little bummed when I read his moving musing about the (fortunately) amicable end to his marriage.

On a more positive note, one of my favorite bloggers and FI authors, Darrow Kirkpatrick started a new relationship in 2018. It wasn’t a marriage, but a business partnership in which Darrow brought on another writer (Chris Mamula) to co-publish on the Can I Retire Yet blog. While I’m fortunate enough to call Darrow one of my blogging mentors, I haven’t taken the opportunity to ask him what he thinks of his partnership decision. However, from the number of posts on the blog by Chris, and Darrow’s ever-increasing outdoor related posts on Facebook, it seems like everything is working out. I bet when Darrow first FIRE’d at age 50, started writing his blog and publishing his books; that he never thought he’d be so successful as to require a partner. I’d also wager that he probably challenged some assumptions and broke a few paradigms when deciding to do so.

My Favorite Paradigm Breakers of 2018

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Wendy Juvenal Mays and Timika Downes from the House of FI blog and podcast. These two ladies are breaking everyone’s paradigm about what it takes to be successful podcasters, bloggers, and businesswomen in the FI space. Need experience with podcasting to start a podcast? Nope. Need to be an experienced businesswoman to start a successful side-hustle? Nope. Can’t be divorced or spend time as a single-mother and achieve FI? Nope. Need to come from a privileged background with no debt to achieve FI? Nope. Need to gut it out in professions that you don’t like just to make enough money to achieve FI? Nope.

Not only are Timika and Wendy women (which are a definitive minority among FI podcasters and bloggers), but they have such a refreshing message. They provide value-added content in an already crowded field through their unique team-voice. Also, since she blogged about this year on her personal blog (The Reluctant Frugalist) it’s worth pointing out that Timika is a female African-American FI blogger and podcaster. That makes her a minority (African-American) within a minority (women) within a minority (the FI movement) — which is unfortunately rare indeed. It reminds me of this scene from the movie Chasing Amy … except for the pretending to be someone you’re not, just to earn professional respect. OK, so it’s absolutely nothing like that scene, but my Gen X pop-culture cluttered mind went there when I typed the minority of a minority of a minority line.

Seriously though, the House of FI story is pretty much the antithesis of the Grumpus Maximus story. Whereas I took some shitty stuff that happened to me and made a shit sandwich to share amongst a small following of fellow commiserators in the FI space; they’ve taken their life’s challenges and made something far sweeter and more palatable. I love them for it, and I don’t just say that because they interviewed me in 2018 either. Tell a lie, as an egotistical S.O.B. I came for the interview, but I stayed for their content. You’d be wise to do the same if you haven’t already.

Get Out There and Smash Some Shit Already

Have I convinced you yet? Are you ready tear out that traditional 3-by-5-foot window in your mind’s proverbial front room? Maybe you’re ready to go so far as to bust up the wall and install a large bay window in order to obtain a new view on life? How about some nice French sliding doors to boot? I say go for it. Question and/or challenge everything. It’s good for you.

Of course, when you’re done smashing your paradigms, you’ll need to set some new goals as you build new ones. After all, this isn’t an exercise in nihilism. Which brings me to a few words on how to set effective goals, especially effective financial goals.

Hopefully, by now everyone has heard of the SMART method. If you haven’t, I’ll recap. According to the SMART method, goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. While the SMART method applies to setting and achieving goals generally, numerous personal finance bloggers have addressed how you can apply the method specifically for financial goals. One of the best articles I found was this one from the Struggle.co website. That said, here are some lessons I’ve learned about financial goal setting using the SMART method.

Specific

In terms of specificity, I find it helps tremendously to write your goals down on paper … or in electrons …. as the case may be. Anyone who’s followed my blog for a while knows that I’m a big believer in the power of the written word. It was, after all, one of the founding reasons for my blog. My shrink told me to start writing stuff down. She literally told me I could write about anything, and eventually, it would help me work out my feelings about numerous issues. Some of the topics I chose to write about ended up as the original posts on this blog.

Writing things down is an especially powerful tool when it comes to financial planning. As the proverbial quote goes, writing something down is the difference between a dream and a plan. It’s no different when you want to develop a goal. A written goal staring you in the face in black-and-white holds a lot more power over you. It makes you far more likely to achieve the goal than some half-formed thought in your mind.

I’m not making this stuff up, there’s actual science behind this phenomenon. In case you don’t believe me, check out this article at Forbes.com. You already know this though. It’s the reason why year-in and year-out you’ve never gotten in shape, practiced more guitar or finally learned Spanish – despite having told yourself that this year is the Year! Oh wait, maybe that’s me.

Measurable

That said, writing a goal down is only the first step. As you write down your goal, you not only need to craft it so that it’s measurable, but you need to build a measuring stick by which to judge your success. When setting personal finance goals, I can think of no better measuring stick than your previous financial history. Alas, this means you need to track your money in order to build a detailed understanding of your financial history.

Ah yes, my tried and true trope about the need to track your money. It’s literally the first step in the Golden Albatross Financial Philosophy. Why? Because from an intimate understanding of your cash flow, all other things in the personal finance space spring! Nothing drives me crazier (as if I needed any help) than people seeking personal finance advice, or attempting to do something with their finances, without knowing how much they spend or save in a month or a year.

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard Jill Schlesinger on her Jill on Money podcast attempt to dole out advice to people who’ve never run their numbers. You can tell who they are because she always asks her callers how much money they’ll need to live annually in retirement. The ones who don’t know are the ones who “ummm” and “aaahhh”. She eventually puts them out of their misery by guessing and they inevitably respond with something like “yeah, that’s about right”. Now, how effective do you think her advice is going to be after that? A lot less effective than it would be for someone who tracks their money … that’s for sure.

Apply that mentality to financial goal-setting. How effective do you think your financial goal will be if you don’t have a grasp on your spending and saving history? What do you think it does for your odds of success? I would venture a guess that it’s debilitating. So much so that instead of crafting some unachievable financial goal it would be far more worth it to make tracking your money the goal for that year.

Achievable

The venerable punk-rock band Descendents have a song from the 1980s called the All-O-Gistics. It’s a joke song that riffs off the format of the 10 Commandments in a forlorn attempt to build a movement around ideas like the perks of college life, coffee, and punk-rock. In it, one of the lines is “Believe. You must believe. Believe and you will achieve!”. Well, as much as I love Descendents, I hate to tell Milo (their lead singer) and crew that it takes a lot more than belief to create an achievable financial goal. He’s a smart guy too that studied and taught biochemistry at a university for years before getting the band back together and hitting the road … again and again.

As opposed to belief, might I recommend a heavy dose of reality? It does no good to make a goal to save $3 million in three years if you only make $25K annually and spend $20K on bills and groceries. Much better to take the knowledge you’ve built from tracking your money and craft a goal that’s obtainable and useful like paying down credit card debt or establishing an emergency fund. I’m not saying that $3 million can’t be an ultimate objective but start with a closer alligator to the boat. Get some wins under your belt. Crawl, walk, run. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Is that enough metaphors for you? I can go all night here but would rather mike drop and move on.

Relevant 

Speaking of punk rock, and the need to practice more guitar, I’ve always wanted to play in a serious band that plays actual shows. I’m talking more than the singular battle of the bands I participated in at my high school … in 1993. Call it an unfulfilled dream of mine, especially since I don’t practice much … if at all. Until I start to practice then, it will remain just that, a dream. Thus, it would be a complete waste of my time to go out and get a booking agent or a band manager … or even join a band for that matter. Unless of course, they are looking for a roadie. In that case, Milo, give me a call.

If your ultimate intent is to achieve Financial Independence (FI) and provide a certain level of financial security for your family, then make sure your year-in and year-out goals support that objective. They should be mutually reinforcing and build on each other. Don’t get distracted with tangents or short-cuts. No doubt that along with your journey there’ll be plenty of distractions. There might even be the siren’s call of a get-rich-quick scheme or two. Don’t fall for it. Just like I know that my shot at the big time for the punk-rock scene isn’t a punk-rock version of American Idol try-out away; you should understand that options trading or crypto-currency isn’t yours.

Time-Bound

My goal for 2018 was to self-publish a book based on my blog posts by the end of the year. While I didn’t make it, honestly that’s not the point. The time-frame was just another measure; another method for holding myself accountable. When I set the goal in January 2018 it was specific (publish one book), measurable (I would either have a book or I wouldn’t), achievable (I was already writing a blog and we live in a day and age of Kindle self-publishing), relevant (I wasn’t seeking to publish a trashy romance novel, but a book based on my blog) and time-bound (end of 2018). In spite of meeting the intent of the SMART method, I still didn’t achieve that goal.

In reality, I underestimated the amount of time and energy it would take me to edit a book based on posts. I also continually succumbed to the desire to create new content for the blog, as opposed to going back through my old content and compiling it into a book. In hindsight, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. I had no previous experience with publishing books, thus no mechanism for determining if a year was a reasonable amount of time or not.

It turns out that the time-frame I chose was nothing more than a method to judge progress. Again, I don’t feel too bad about that. However, it’s nonetheless useful to know that a year isn’t enough time for me to write a blog; be a father and husband; work a full-time job; and publish a book. That knowledge will help me manage my expectations accordingly in 2019 as I attempt to retire from the military and self-publish the book. In this case, my attempt to achieve a well-formulated goal was as important and informative as achieving the goal would’ve been. I just don’t get the pay-off of authoring an international bestseller about FI, pensions, and retirement. The Pulitzer will have to wait another year.

A Final Word on Efficiency 

Since I’m on the topic of running out of time, I’ll end this post with some thoughts on how to be more efficient in order to free up some of your time in order to achieve goals. It’s a topic that’s probably worth its own post, but for now I’ll just hit the wave tops. My first tip is to get off social media. Or at least get it off of your phone. 2018 was the year of reckoning between Grumpus Maximus and Facebook, and I’m happy to say that GM won.

That wasn’t predestined. Facebook was, and still is, my main method of interaction with my blog’s followers and some fellow bloggers. However, I determined that for my wellbeing I needed to take FB off my phone. When I did, it stopped being a crutch that I would check whenever I had an extra minute (i.e. felt like ignoring my wife/kids and/or not working on my book). Instead, it transitioned into a deliberate tool for interacting with my followers and fellow bloggers. As a result, my home life got better, and the chapters started flowing for the book.

That’s anecdotal of course. Yet, I’m amazed at how quickly FB transitioned from something I looked forward to using after a long work day, to something I viewed as a chore. It’s enough to make me contemplate the idea of whom is using whom in the relationship between FB and its members.

My other quick tip is for the dudes in the audience. If you truly want to see your personal efficiency in life sky-rocket, then stop watching sports. I say that as a former collegiate athlete and a life-long (until two years ago) sports fan. You’d be amazed at how much time and energy it frees up. It’s the life-hack that provided me the time I needed to start and maintain my blog without my kids and wife firing me as a father and husband. Of course, the downside to quitting sports is that it makes kids birthday party conversations amongst the other Dads in the room a lot harder. Without sports, I’m left with my mastery of movie quotes and my devastatingly good looks to break the ice — which I know some people find intimidating.

May the Best of Your Past Become the Worst of Your Future 

Again, happy 2019 to all my readers and followers. I hope you start or continue to find happiness this year. I also hope you continue to find value in this blog. As always, if you have a topic for a post or question you want to ask, drop me an email or comment via the links on this page.

Although I try to limit predictions on this blog, it’s probably safe to say that the nature of my posts will change over the next few months. If nothing else, either the traditional length of my posts (3000+ words) will need to shorten, or the traditional frequency of my posts (twice a month) will need to lengthen. I’ll try to avoid making both changes (e.g. shorter and less frequent posts). However, I need to find the extra time somewhere in my schedule to concentrate on retirement, the book, and more guitar practice!

— GM