The main goal of this blog is to help you pursue a healthy and balanced life. We hope to achieve this by explaining how we are working to pursue this goal in all aspects of life. I’ve been thinking lately how to boil this down to a simple strategy to pursue. Overall, we do this by trying to maximize three areas of life: family & friends, health & wellness, and financial freedom.
So for this post I’m going to explain how I think of each of these areas and work to maximize them. I will also provide some specific examples of how we work toward this along with some examples of small things you can start on today to work toward this goal.
Family & Friends
I list this one first because ultimately this is what life is all about. You can have all the money in the world but it’s worthless without family and friends to enjoy it with you. You may live into old age but without anyone to socialize with, it will be a lonely life.
It’s important to make time for both family and friends. I’m a big proponent of having a few strong friend relationships to maximize rather than many small relationships. Don’t neglect the strong relationships.
What we do
Quite frankly, finding much time during the week to spend time with family is difficult. But we try to maximize time on the weekends. That can be spending time doing various activities with your kids or having a night out with your significant other.
We try to spend time with our friends on the weekend as well. This may be inviting a couple over for dinner or meeting at a restaurant. We also try to find some time for just one of us to hang out with his or her friends alone. I recently started making a point to meet up with a group of my guy friends on a quarterly basis. Sadly, with everyone’s busy life, quarterly is the best we can do for now.
Where to start
Don’t spend too much time working. The work will always be there tomorrow. Eat dinner as a family at the table (without the TV on!). Try to do at least one family activity together each weekend. Schedule meetups with friends in advance so it fits into everyone’s schedule. Small changes like these can go a long way.
Health & Wellness
Prioritizing your health and wellness is probably the most overlooked area of these three. As life gets busy, exercise and healthy eating tend to be the first to go. Also, I’m lumping hobbies into this section as well. I know many, many people who give up lifelong hobbies as they get older and have more responsibilities. Don’t let this happen to you!
What we do
Both Lindsay and I try to exercise at least 3-5 times per week. Obviously when I’m training for something like the 100 mile run there is a built in reason for me to prioritize exercise. We also try to eat healthy as much as possible. This tends to result in eating healthy throughout the week and slacking a bit on the weekends. But we’ve lost around 150 pounds combined over the past 10 years and mostly kept it off.
We also try to pursue at least some hobbies in what little spare time we have left. For Lindsay, this is her yoga training and practice and for me running and triathlon. But I also play the piano occasionally (at least enough to keep up to a minimum standard) as well as playing pickup basketball.
Lastly, we try to keep some traditions alive from our younger days. I have gone with a group to the BWCA every year since graduating from high school. And we will take occasional solo vacations (without kids) to some of our favorite places like Napa Valley.
Where to start
This doesn’t have to be complex. For exercise, try to do even 15 minutes per day. Go for a morning walk. Run for 1 mile. Lift weights for 30 minutes. Any amount of exercise is better than nothing. Don’t overthink it! Do what you enjoy.
The same goes for healthy eating. There are so many fad diets out there that it can be overwhelming. I tend to stick to the basics: eat a fair amount of vegetables, fruits, and lean meats and consume fewer calories than you burn. If you do this long enough, you will lose weight.
Finally, try to prioritize at least some hobbies and traditions in your life. Don’t become the person who “used to do” a given activity. Be the person who does it! Always think ahead to your next challenge in life and then pursue it!
Financial Freedom
The ultimate goal here is a comfortable retirement. But I tend to think bigger than this regarding financial freedom. To me, it’s all about creating optionality.
What we do
I have written previously about how we are aggressively paying down our debt. The main objective there is to have as few fixed payment obligations as possible. We are also working on increasing our emergency fund. That way if life happens (like losing a job), you will have less worry about making it through.
We are also aggressively funding our retirement accounts to build the nest egg up while we are young. When we got raises or promotions, we tried not to increase our lifestyle, and instead, increased our retirement savings. Our hope is that taking these steps now will lead to less stress and more freedom as we get older, even before retirement.
Where to start
Depending on where you are at on your financial journey, there may be a different starting point. I believe a strong first step for anyone is to have a solid budget plan and track where your money is going. Try to pay down debt as fast as possible (especially credit card debt) and limit taking on new debt.
For retirement planning, have a strong idea of how much money you will need and what it will take to get there. Try to have a base knowledge of investing even if you work with an financial adviser. Don’t invest in anything super risky or take uneducated risks. If you have a solid plan and stick to it, everything will work out fine.
Find a balance between these three things
Overall, try to find a healthy balance between these three areas of life. If you spend too much time in one area, others may suffer. Keeping a balance will help decrease stress and hopefully increase your over happiness. Good luck and enjoy the ride!
