February was a productive month across a number of my goals. For descriptive information for each of my goals, check out my Goals for 2020 post.

Financial/Wealth

1. Reach a net worth of $100,000
   • Currently at $35,627, an increase of 1.5% from February. The current market drop hasn’t helped my goal, as I explain in my financial independence progress post here. However, I’ll continue to invest, and on the inevitable market up turn eventually, I’ll be closer to my goal.
2. Grow my Australian investment portfolio to $70,000
   • Currently at $41,132.64, a decrease of $1,034 February. This hasn’t decreased much due to me investing when I can. As mentioned above, there are drawbacks every now and then, but we will see how this is fairing closer to the end of the year.
   • I use Self Wealth for my main portfolio, due to having the lowest brokerage fee per buy ($9.50). Message me if you’re interested in setting up an account, there are benefits for both of us.
3. Save/invest at least 50% of my income
   • In February, I saved 45.07% of my take-home income, which was basically directly invested. Again, I only missed out on the 50% in the last few days of February. There were a few large purchases in February (~$200) which didn’t help. See below for a run down of my spending in February:

My car costs have decreased slightly from last month, as I got a letter saying my car needs to be recalled… so I haven’t driven it. I’ve been sharing my partners car, so fuel has definitely been less. Transport (mainly bus) will be increased over the coming months as I’m not planning to buy a car right now with my recall payment ($2,800!). Considering I will be buying things specifically for Nathan Challenges Life, I thought I’d add that category – mainly expenses on future challenges.

Health/Wellbeing

1. Lower body fat to 15%
   • From my scan on the weekend, I’m now at 19%, which is a 3% decrease from the start of February. I’m also 3.3kg lighter. Super happy about that. Currently 22%, up from 21% since start of 2020. So I’m in good standing for the Anytime Fitness 8 week challenge! Just need to stick to the routine and my meal plan for the next 4 weeks. Excited to see what the results are.
2. Increase lean muscle mass
   • Current fat free mass is still 65kg, which hasn’t changed from the start of February. Considering I have dropped 3% body fat, I’d say my efforts to preserve lean mass has been working well!
3. Increase strength across major lifts
   • Reassessing at the start of July. Strength is being maintained.

Happiness/Other

1. Expand PedalPay (www.pedalpay.com.au)
   • In February, I visited 28 different stores across a small area of Canberra. From that, I now have another store signed up! That brings it to 3 cafes and 1 bike store. I need to follow up on a number of the stores I visited as there is potential for further sign ups.
2. Expand Nathan Challenges Life
   • In February, I made my second 30-day challenge video! This was about waking up at 5am every day. You can view it here.
   • I have a number of video scripts to write and record. There will definitely be a video released in March, so stay tuned.
   • I’ve been pushing Twitter recently for fun and interesting posts, if you’re a user of Twitter, check me out here.
3. Reduce single-use plastics and non-recycled products
   • This hasn’t really been at the front of my mind as a goal. I have definitely worked towards it. Again, I’ve stopped myself from buying items with plastics and opting to either go without or find something better. However, it hasn’t been going as well hoped. Need to work on this in March. I am thinking of doing a 30-day challenge with completely no plastic. In time.
4. Reduce consumption of added sugar in foods and drinks
   • This, like above, could be better. I’ve started using stevia solely for my coffees. But I haven’t been opting out if something has had sugar in and honestly I kind of forgot about this during February. I’ll give this more focus in March.
5. Wake up at 5am every day
   • I have stopped doing this. Mainly because of the difficulty in doing things in the morning without waking people up. I do this on occassion if there is something I really want to finish early in the morning. Otherwise, I’ve been able to complete what I need either at night, or by waking up at my usual time of around 6-6:30am. It was really good to do this for 30 days straight and I may get back into it. Considering I have stopped it, I won’t be reporting on it each month.
6. Read 25 books
   • In February, I finished reading The Innovators by Walter Isaacson, How to Win at the Sport of Business by Mark Cuban, If You’re Not First, You’re Last by Grant Cardone, and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. This brings my current total of finished books to 7. Still making my way through What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack and Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss. I have a number of planned reads coming up.

Happy to discuss any of the above points! As you may have figured, I am a huge advocate for setting goals, and I love to discuss personal goals with people!