I’m in my happy place right now.

Praying, planning and thinking about 2017. I mentioned (maybe here or on the Instagram/Facebook page) that I’m doing my 2017 planning a little differently. In fact, my only shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday was to purchase these planners:

1. The blue set is for my fitness/Wellness Advocate work;
2. The pink set is for my blog/podcast planning;
3. The one with the gold foil cover is my professional development planner; and
4. The pink & orange set is my personal goals and vision planner. It’s actually a BLOOM planner I found on Amazon along with the matching To-Do list binder.

I’m a firm believer in the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”  I’m sure some of that planning gets on my Husboo’s nerves, but (based on many of his comments) I think he’s grown to really appreciate that about me and 2017 will see a new level of planning.

I’m actually at home cleaning and preparing for the rest of the week and the new year while he’s out enjoying time with friends.  He asked me to accompany him, but I had to be honest– I was tapped out from this week’s events.  I had an evening commitment almost EVERY night last week and then the holiday festivities meant that we were out with family for the past three nights.  It comes with the territory, and while I don’t mind it, it does take a lot out me (I promise, I’m really an introvert…. but some folk struggle to believe that about me).

The great thing about #TeamBHenry and the growth we’ve had in the past 6 years is that my husboo can look across a room and see when his “selectively social butterfly” is reverting to a caterpillar that wants to crawl back into her cocoon.  When my social fuel tank is nearing “E” he usually swoops in with an exit plan (Thank Ya, JESUS!🙌🙌🙌) and we’re headed home.

I am also thankful that our communication is at a point where we can talk things out and come to an agreement rather quickly–sometimes without any words.  For instance, after 2 years of trying to go to every house and do every impromptu outing/event that came up during a holiday season, we’ve agreed that for every holiday weekend, there has to be one day where we do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (Clearly, this was my idea 😆). We sleep late, we often clean or organize at least one room in the house, and we just enjoy one another.

I’d actually recommend a version of this practice to all couples, especially young married and/or newlywed couples. Family units NEED that time. Young couples really need that time while working to sort out existing family traditions and creating new ones for your recently formed family unit.

I shared last year, that I don’t really do “New Year’s resolutions“– Instead, I set new goals!  Sometimes those goals continue from the previous year and other times they are completely new ones.  The blog has a mix of both.

This week, I’ve been doing more planing for 2017 and I’m excited to share that new things will be coming to the blog.  I am praying for the strength and energy to do at least 3 or 4 posts per week on a consistent basis (This is a goal I’m continuing from earlier this year).

I’m receiving more AND MORE books to review and another one of my goals is to share at least 4 with you per month or about 1 per week (I think this is a new goal).

I’ll be sharing more of my fitness plans and goals on the website. I’m now a Wellness Advocate with my main employer and I’ll be working on something every month.  I even got a new planner to devote to that sole topic (Yay– this is a new goal and I’m really excited about it).

I’m also stepping into a new content area for the blog.  “Finances” has been listed in my bio since the start of the site, but I realized I don’t speak much on that topic.  I think I was hesitant to do so because I don’t have a “degree” in that area and much of my advice is based on practical experience, but people often ask me about the journey I took to work from home and part of what made me most comfortable in doing so (and making a few career changes during the process) was because I followed many of the Financial Peace planning steps. For me, some of these steps included:

1. I made a decision to transition careers in 2015.
2. I already had some money saved, but I tightened my belt and put away 3 months of my salary in a separate savings account that I refused to touch. I did this while paying my share of the household bills and my student loans.
3. I did a spending fast.  When I got my first contract position (working from home, full time), I knew it was a 6 month position that was not guaranteed to continue so I cut out all unnecessary spending. I did not go shopping (unless it was necessary purchase) and I limited my clothing shopping to my product reviews/thrift store finds.  If I couldn’t find it between one of those options, I didn’t need it.
4. I started exploring ways to save on household expenses and make residual income.  This is how I got into product reviewing.  I don’t really “make lots of money” doing this and I DO pay for many of the items I receive to review (only about 20%-30% of the items I receive are “free”– the rest are just discounted and I do have to file the free items as income on my taxes).  When I was out of work, this was a MAJOR help because I was able to find items we ACTUALLY NEEDED at a fraction of the price. I was looking through my 2016 notes and realized I set a goal of 25 review per week while I was out of work– that was a heavy lift, but I was later recruited to be an official Amazon Reviewer and I’m sure that helped my reviewer profile stand out from the crowd (I’d like to think so anyway 😊)

Another random fact about me: I’ve always been a numbers person.  I took accounting classes in high school up to level 4 accounting and started working as a bookkeeper for a small local business during my Junior year of High school.

Budgeting and number crunching are really my thing.  I started my first 401k straight of college and I now have multiple 401k’s, a Roth IRA and checking and savings accounts that I review monthly (if not daily).

I’ve yet to join circles with people that talk very much about investing and building wealth, but I am grateful for the foundation and wisdom that my Mother and Maternal Grandmother poured into me.  At an early age, I learned that having both a checking AND savings account was key, adding to your savings EVERY time you got paid was as vital as depositing your paycheck or checking your account balance, and that TITHING and GIVING are ESSENTIAL.

I’ll talk more about these things and lots of the books that I read as the year goes on.  I’m no “finance guru” but I am coming to understand that I do financial planning a bit better than others and I am open to sharing the knowledge that I have (and pointing you to the resources that have been beneficial to me).

There are a few other surprises that will come up as the year goes along (no there’s no #TeamBHenry Baby on the way), but I think we have a lot to look forward to!

Until next time, you have a few days left in 2016 to “Go Fix Something!”