1. Spend less than $36,500 in 2017. If I can keep my spending at this level I should be on my way to a long term goal of being financially independent at age 42. We spent about $45,000 in 2016.

  2. Build a portfolio of airline miles and hotel points by travel hacking credit cards. This could save me $4,000 a year or more in annual plane tickets and hotels for a family of 3 to travel to Singapore. We go every year to visit my wife’s family. I completed a free 15 day email course at travelmiles101.com and I can’t recommend that enough.

  3. Help my wife get her license. Time is the most valuable thing. It would be way more efficient if I can do chores while my wife goes to the grocery store.

  4. Make at least 1 good friend who is a neighbor. We just moved. Our neighbors seem like they might be cool. Science says having friends makes you live longer – especially if they live close by. Also part of the appeal of financial independence is having more time to spend with friends and family.

  5. Write about how to get stuff done - project management for people who aren’t project managers. I think writing is the best way to learn. Getting better at managing projects at home and at work has been on my mind for the last 2 years. Time is everyone’s biggest constraint.

  6. Get 100 readers per month on this blog by the end of the year.

  7. Learn to walk on my hands. Last year my fitness goal was 100 pushups and 20 pullups every other day. Shockingly I managed to acheive that. I am apparently old and delicate so it took me most of the year. But it was just a stepping stone to my larger goal of learning to walk on my hands. How is this useful? Its not. I want to be strong but I need a specific goal. This one sounded more fun than “lift 500 pounds”.

  8. Fix my knee injury. I need to see a physical therapist so I can run again. I’ve been putting this off and trying to solve it on my own for years which is dumb.