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What’s Up Frugal Samuraites!!!
We’re back again for another sitting of the Frugal Samurai.
Hope everyone’s enjoying the wonderful warmth of Winter – don’t worry it’ll be over soon!
Speaking of wonderful, how bloody insane has this year’s World Cup been eh?
It’s the most alive and drama filled tournament we have had in DECADES.
The quality, passion and emotions of the games has certainly lived up to expectations.
So much so that the halfway mark of the year passed with barely a whimper.
Wait… say that again?
Seriously, HALFWAY already?
That’s right – we’ve officially passed the halfway point for 2018, where did the time go?!
“Shakes head”
I hope you’ve had a productive and fruitful year to date – one in which the goals you’ve set on January 1 are well and truly in the works.
If not, don’t stress or fret about it – get on with it!
What about you The Frugal Samurai? How have you gone with your goals this year?
Me?
Oh… well…
Up and down I would say but if you really want to know then here they are, I’ll rate the current progress as well if you like.
Bigger is better?
At the beginning of the year, there was only two big tickets to punch out…
- Marriage: The first was to get hitched to my life partner, the one and only MrsFrugalSamurai.
- Verdict: 10/10 here, best day of my life so far without a doubt, BIG TICK.
- Property: The second is to add another property to the portfolio – something in line with my longer term goals. Still working on that but I feel like it’ll come along in the second half of the year.
- Verdict: Probably a 6/10. I mean researching is the easy part, finding value is increasingly difficult even if prices are falling.
Medium rare please!
What differentiates a good steak meal and a great steak meal?
Well, apart from the the main slab of juicy, prime, A-grade meat – it’s the accompanied sides of course!
Goal setting is no different, after the main centrepiece come all the trimmings.
My list here is a bit more varied:
- Career: new job, new boss, new environment – luckily it’s been pretty spot on with my expectations so far, the culture is vastly different to the previous gig and a healthy pay-rise is always a good bonus! Aim is to knuckle down and really give it a go in this role.
- Verdict: 7/10 I think, although a bit too early to tell given time in role but the signs are there that it’s been the right move. Helps to know people already.
- The Frugal Samurai: Ahhh this beloved blog, this cherished chim chim cheree, what can I say – I’m impressed that (so far) I’ve kept up the discipline to post on schedule twice a week, blogging is certainly much, much harder than it appears. The time commitment involved is… just wow. BUT in saying so – I haven’t invested nearly as enough time as I wanted to or envisioned, some days it feels like you’re hitting a wall. Still, as long as you persevere and chip away at it, sooner or later – it will come good. Just need to ramp it up.
- Verdict: 4/10. Maybe a bit harsh, but then again justified given the scope for improvement.
- Travel: OK, travelling wasn’t quite on the list, it just sort of happened – however after visiting Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur earlier in the year, it’s definitely made it onto the to-do’s. MrsFrugalSamurai and I are planning another trip back to the motherland to visit the relatives who couldn’t come to our wedding, that and a shitload of weekend get-aways, should be amaZING.
- Verdict: They say travelling expands the mind, I say it bloody well relaxes it – 8/10 so far with plenty more to come.
All the small things…
“Say it ain’t so, I will not go…”
Yep, the small things in life arguably matter more than the bigger items.
These 1 percentagers are the invisible forces we don’t see and tally up – but make all the difference in the long run.
- Health and Exercise: FINALLY, one area which I don’t think I’ve dropped the ball (see what I did there) for as long as I can remember. Hit the gym everyday and running around after kids on the weekends (as a referee NOT what you were thinking whacko) has kept my fitness levels up. Only downside is more instances of eating out with unhealthy meals and at varying times. Could improve on diet and portion sizes.
- Verdict: A better diet would mean 10/10 for sure, but docked 2 points to an 8 due to the frequency of eating out. Need to eat healthier.
- Friends, relationships, networking: The long running Harvard study has determined that the key to happiness is not money, not career and certainly not material possessions – it is in fact, relationships. I’m grateful for MrsFrugalSamurai in this regard as she has a very wide and close-knit circle, which I’ve been tagged along in. I’ve been disappointing with my own social circle and its something I’m looking to rectify. In addition, I’ve barely made it to any of the networking and meetup groups I use to frequent last year.
- Verdict: 3/10 – very poor on this front, apart from travelling overseas earlier in the year and sporadic events here and there – barely made time with existing relationships, certainly not made time for any new ones. Wedding preparations didn’t help – but that was 2 months ago, what’s the excuse now?
- Reading: Luckily I haven’t neglected this area, for in recent years I’ve been consuming books, magazines, journals and articles voraciously. Gates, Buffet, Oprah, Musk et al – are just some of the numerous billionaires who credit their success to reading. Fair enough, I can see where they’re coming from after digesting countless hours of material each and every week. Been a pretty big part of my life these post-graduate years.
- Verdict: 9/10 – hard to argue for anything less given the time spent, but need to watch out to not read for the sake of just reading without understanding the concepts.
Whew, all done and dusted – for a grand total of… 55/80 or just under 7/10. Decent but could be better.
But hey! That’s what goals and self-reflections are all about right? No point giving yourself all 9’s and 10’s when you don’t deserve it, and definitely no point in slamming yourself hard when you’ve put the hours in.
There’s a few other ideas simmering under the surface, but yknow simplicity is key to a good life in my opinion – I’ll be ready to share them when they boil!
So good luck for the remaining half of 2018 and remember:
Time stops for no one, so use what we have left to do what we must!
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