Almost at the half-way point of the year and I’ve made a lot of progress. Next month, I’ll be doing a mid-year review of all of my goals to examine my progress, and what I need to do to achieve them.

May was a great month for my financial goals. I’ve been working really hard on Nathan Challenges Life, which has taken up a lot of my time and interests recently. Keen to see where it goes!

In May I created a Patreon page to help people achieve their goals. You can read more about it here: https://www.patreon.com/nathanchallengeslife?fan_landing=true If you’re determined to set and achieve some of your own goals, then check it out!

Financial/Wealth

1. Reach a net worth of $100,000
   • Currently at $51,822.55, an incease of 17.3% throughout May! All of my investment and money accounts increased, which has helped to boost my net worth. Really happy to see it pass the $50,000 mark – as approximately this time last year I was only just passing the $0 mark.
2. Grow my Australian investment portfolio to $70,000
   • Currently at $52,945.45, which has increased throughout May by over $6,500. My portfolio increased over 10% in May, and I’m pretty much back at where I was 6 months ago – only now my value has increased significantly. As we are approaching the mid-way point of the year, next month I’ll really have to work out where I am in terms of achieving this goal.
   • I use Self Wealth for my main Australian portfolio, due to its very low brokerage fee. If you sign up using my link, you and I will receive 5 free trades 🙂 – more than happy to discuss investing and get you started if you are interested in long term wealth creation! https://secure.selfwealth.com.au/Registration/Plan/5/zRml4
3. Save/invest at least 50% of my income
   • In April, I saved 43.3% of my take-home income. Unfortunately didn’t hit the 50% this time due to a few purchase and a number of dental costs (more coming next month…). Also managed to spend a crazy amount on groceries – but this was mainly for bulk purchases – so I don’t expect spending anywhere near as much next month. See below for a run down of my spending in April:

Health/Wellbeing

1. Lower body fat to 15%
   • Still haven’t been able to get this tested – however they mention that the machine may be opening soon! so I’ll hopefully be able to get it tested in July. I feel as though I’m still around 18-19%.
2. Increase lean muscle mass
   • Similar to above – probably the same lean muscle mass but can’t measure yet.
3. Increase strength across major lifts
   • Reassessing at the start of July (although I might not do a strength test in July anymore). Haven’t been to the gym now for a couple of months – so I would assume my base level strength has probably decreased. Gyms are reopening on the 3rd of June and I can’t wait to get back into it.

Happiness/Other

1. Expand PedalPay (www.pedalpay.com.au)
   • I haven’t been spending much time on this at all. I’ve been much more focused on Nathan Challenges Life below. After meeting with a number of cafes and stores in the past months, I haven’t managed to get anyone else interested. Now that restrictions are easing on cafes, I can definitely start promoting this again. Check out PedalPay on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
   • Currently at 66 members and 4 stores.
2. Expand Nathan Challenges Life (www.nathanchallengeslife.com)
   • May has been a huge month for this! I posted a lot more videos on my YouTube channel! I finished 30-day challenges involving juggling and playing my cajon. Currently working through a 30-day running challenge and only buying Australian made products. Lots of videos to be made. Check me out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more recently, TikTok.
   • I’ve grown to 76 subscribers now! Up 34 from last month!
3. Reduce single-use plastics and non-recycled products
   • We have been making our own bread, which has helped to decrease buying bread in plastic from shops. Haven’t really been going to the shops a lot during this time. We have been making our own oat and soy milk recently. I got a tofu maker for my birthday, so that was one block of tofu without plastic packaging.
4. Reduce consumption of added sugar in foods and drinks
   • Same with above, we haven’t really been going to the shops much. Also, with my current challenge of only buying Australian products, I haven’t been buying random snacks as much either.
   • Getting a check-up at the dentist has made this goal even more important. Recently I’ve chosen a sugar free option when buying something (still not the best for the teeth due to the carbonated liquid, but marginaly better having it with added sugar as well).
5. Read 25 books
   • In May I finished Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone, Living with a SEAL by Jesse Itzler, and The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick. This brings my total books read to 12/25.
   • Currently reading Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, Unshakeable by Tony Robbins, and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma.
   • I still have a number of hard back paper books to get through. A routine of reading a few minutes before bed should help to get these finished off.