September was a bit of a slow month in a few areas. Not much growth across the board, but a few areas I’m happy with, and definitely areas that need some work.

If you want to see a run down of each of my goals, with details on how I plan to achieve them, check out my original blog post for my 2020 goals here: https://nathanchallengeslife.com/2020/01/06/goals-for-2020/

Financial/Wealth

1. Reach a net worth of $100,000
   • Over the month of September, my net worth increased 0.6% from last month, bringing me to $71,428. Happy with how it’s going, but definitely need to work on this aspect over the next few months to bring it close to my goal.
   • Check out my FIRE posts for more detailed information on networth and investing.
2. Grow my Australian investment portfolio to $70,000
   • My portfolio grew from $56,573 to $55,234 over September. I made a bit of a portfolio adjustment for the first time in a while, selling some of the holdings I don’t believe in anymore, or where intiially not the best purchases. The rearrangement is much more to what I’m aiming for.
   • There are still a few holdings I’d like to optimise, but they aren’t essential at the moment. Perhaps closer to the end of the year, or when the holdings recover, I’ll look further into re-adjusting.
   • I use Self Wealth for Australian shares, Raiz for daily savings and investing, and STAKE for US shares. If you’re interested, let me know and we can both get some rewards 😀
3. Save at least 50% of my income
   • In September, I only managed a 28% savings rate.
   • There were a few big expenses like car servicing, but this was really just due to me buying items that I’ve wanted and finally decided to buy. Next month will be a lot better.
   • See below for a rundown of my expenses for September. I’m happy with how it’s gone generally, but need to optimise spending on items.

4. Save for a House Deposit

• I’ve grown my house deposit fund from $5,688 to $7,248! Really happy with how this is coming along. The more I end up saving per month, the faster I can grow this, and hopefully by this time next-year this will have grown substantially.

Health/Wellbeing

1. Lower body fat to 15%
   • In September, I went for a scan and it showed 18% body fat at 77.7kg, a drop of 1% from August, which I was really happy about.
   • I’ve started another 8 week challenge with Anytime Fitness, so that will really help with the motivation.
   • My weight is around 76kg at the moment, which is about 10kg lighter than I was in February this year. Really working on bringing down the fat.
2. Increase lean muscle mass
   • This goal doesn’t really align with my goal with reducing body fat (unless I was talking about lean mass percentage).
   • I may end up spending the rest of this year cutting down the body fat, which isn’t optimal for building muscle. I’ll have to see how it goes later this year.
3. Increase strength across major lifts
   • My ACL surgery has pretty much prevented any squat, deadlift, and standing overhead pressing ability for this year.
   • My strength has dropped a little from the start of the year, which has come as a result of losing weight and cutting the body fat.
   • I can still reassess bench press at the end of the year, and given my weight at the time, I may be stronger as a percentage of body weight compared to the start of the year.

Happiness/Other

1. Expand PedalPay (www.pedalpay.com.au)
   • I sent a few emails/messages to cafes in Canberra about having PedalPay in their store. I had someone interested, and can hopefully build on that interest to get PedalPay into another cafe.
   • Check out PedalPay across platforms here.
2. Expand Nathan Challenges Life (www.nathanchallengeslife.com)
   • I have published 34 videos on my YouTube channel, and now increased my total views to with 10,600! and now sitting at 183 subscribers! Really happy to cross the 100 subscribers mark, and super keen to keep growing it.
   • Check me out across platforms here.
3. Reduce single-use plastics and non-recycled products
   • We have been shopping for fruits and vegetables at the markets, and have been bringing our own bags. Apart from that there hasn’t been any real reduction.
   • We are interested in doing a 30-day challenge to use no plastic in regards to food soon.
4. Reduce consumption of added sugar in foods and drinks
   • This has been going well. I’ve been buying the sugarfree option on all occassions when buying drinks such as energy drinks.
   • I’ve been also avoiding sugary snacks given my motivation towards cutting body fat.
5. Read 25 books
   • In September, I finished What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School, and Eat that Frog!
   • Currently at 19/25 for 2020!

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A couple of things I feel that I need to put more effort into:

• Work on expenses and keeping to a 50% savings rate.
• Working hard for the next few months in terms of reducing body fat %.
• Work on expanding PedalPay.
• Finish off videos for Nathan Challenges Life YouTube channel.

Until next time, keep working on your goals and challenging yourself to achieve everything you want in life.

Nathan