It was really valuable to complete my six month review of 2021 to evaluate where I am with all of my goals, the progress I’ve made, and most importantly to review where I need to direct more focus. I know what I need to do for the rest of 2021 and especially the key areas I need to work on to give myself the best opportunity to reach my goals.
For August, overall I’d say it was a pretty average month. Some progress here and there. Things are slowly moving in the right direction, with some areas such as YouTube and health/fitness needing some extra focus and commitment.
If you want to see my goals for 2021 and original starting points, with more explanation and background, check out my Goals for 2021 post.
Finances/Wealth
Grow Net Worth to $200,000
- At the 1st of July, my net worth is at $122,823 (a decrease of 1.6% from June).
- Due to a previous high with investments (mainly cryptocurrency) in May, and since then with some selling off and the values dropping quite heavily over the past few months, my net worth has been very slightly decreasing each month since, but it’s holding quite steadily.
- Overall there were increases in every area except for my small crypto portfolio weighting, so I can expect the post in September will show either no change or a slight increase from this month.
- Check out below for a graph of my net worth and also a table showing exactly what my net worth consists of.
- If you were interested in how I grew my net worth over the past few years, check out the video I made here.
Grow Self Wealth Portfolio to $100,000
- My investment portfolio is now sitting at $58,325.41. There was an increase of ~$1,800 in value from July.
- I haven’t been contributing anything to my portfolio due to my house deposit savings, but it was great to see an increase nonetheless. My overall P/L is sitting at 31.9% which I’m super happy about :D.
- I’ve consolidated a lot of my holdings into more ETFs as it aligns with my main goal of financial independence. As you can see from below, most of my holdings as a weight percentage are in indices and ETFs, with a few individual companies that have been going very well or pretty bad – but they do fluctuate pretty rapidly month to month.
- My portfolio returns over the past month have been pretty average as shown below. Happy to see my overall percentage quite high.
Spend a Maximum of $30,000
- In July, I spent $1,485 more than my goal budget of $2,500 – mainly due to a few trips to the snow.
- My savings rate was at 44.9% which I am super happy about.
- As at August 2021, I have spent $29,702… so it’s safe to say that my goal of $30,000 probably won’t happen. However, given that this year was a test for the future, I’m interested to see how my spending is at the end of the year.
- See below for a chart of expenses:
Grow House Deposit to $40,000
- Over July, my house deposit grew from $33,097 to $34,386. I’m happy with the small amount of growth over the past month. Getting close to the my goal of $40,000.
- I’ve been putting my exta income from my Personal Training business into my house deposit which has helped it grow.
Health/Fitness
Increase Strength Across the Major Powerlifting Movements, Reassessed Every 3 Months
- Current lifts and goals are updated as below:
- Squat (reach 120kg – started at currently at 95kg – haven’t tested one rep max)
- Bench Press (reach 95kg – started at 82.5kg – currently at 87.5kg – 15 April 2021)
- Deadlift (reach 160kg – currently at 140kg – haven’t tested one rep max)
- Overhead Press (reach 70kg – started at 57.5kg – currently at 60kg – 15 May 2021)
- Before testing my one rep max, I’ll need to really get back into a schedule for the gym. Given my time away from the gym, I’ll need to start off slow and build up. I could probably do some testing in October to see where I’m at.
Increase Lean Muscle Mass
- Current lean muscle mass is 66.2kg (+0.9kg from June).
- Weight is sitting at 92.4kg (+1.2kg from June).
- Fat mass is 22.7kg (+0.2kg from July).
- Great measurement progress over July. Increase in lean muscle mass and only a very slight increase in fat mass.
- A few days ago, I had the first realisation that perhaps I need to dial in my diet a bit more and stop just eating whatever I want – which has been really fun but most importantly just low effort and not much thought needed. However, I am at the stage where I can physically see fat gain and it probably needs to stop or severely minimise.
- This will also lead to slight weight loss due to calorie consumption and energy expenditure levels, but I am planning on committing to the gym more frequently to preserve and build muscle mass.
Nathan Challenges Life
Grow YouTube Channel to 1,000 Subscribers and Reach 4,000 Watch Hours (monetisation criteria)
- Current subscribers = 357 (+27 from July)
- Watch hours = 735 (+7 over July)
- July was a slower month than normal. Great to see that daily I’m still getting 30-90 views, which has added 1,600 views over July.
- However, I’ve been neglecting my YouTube channel for the past month just due to the sheer amount of things on at the moment. I’ve still got video ideas I want to create and publish, but finding the time is difficult.
Publish 100 Videos on my YouTube Channel
- Videos = 74 (0 over July).
- I didn’t post any videos in July due to a lack of time and commitment. I have ideas, and some videos may only take 1-2 hours to fully create, but I’ve been finding it hard to prioritise this task over all of my others.
Write 50 Blog Posts on Nathan Challenges Life
- In July, again, I didn’t write any articles on my Medium profile here!
- My original goal for this was to write 50 very short, punchy, and interesting blog posts – but I’ve sometimes thought of topic ideas and blog posts to write, but then I find myself overthinking it and imagining that the post will be long and require some decent research. It’s only a mindset that I need to fix. They can literally be 4-5 sentence / dot point blog posts and I’d be happy.
Personal Development
Create Nathan’s Mobile PT and Gain 5 Regular Clients – DONE!
- Still maintining a regular 7 clients
- I’m now training at least 2 people per day from 6-9am. Getting it done!
- Seriously considering looking into hiring a casual PT.
Read 30 Books
- Currently at 14/30.
- In July, I finished reading Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty.
- I post all my book reviews on my Goodreads profile – check them out!
- In July I bought a Kindle Paperwhite and I’ve been loving it!
- Current reads are: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos and Walter Isaacson, and Dread Mountain by Emily Rodda.
Experiences
I have been thinking about the things I want to do and try. So for 2021, I’m going to keep a list of things to do throughout the year to make sure I get them done. See below for my current list of things – I may add to this list as time goes on:
Test drive a Tesla– DONE (June)!Get my motorbike licence– DONE! (January)- Get my full motobike licence (I need to book this in August).
- Attend a Jiu Jitsu class – I’ve put this off due to COVID concerns.
- Organise a cycle-touring holiday/trip – I’ve done a bit of research into a few areas, the problem is having the right equipment. I will revisit when the weather is warmer.
- Attend a CrossFit class (Weather is getting nicer – need to book in on a free weekend!).
- Break a Guinness world record (There are two ideas I’ve thought of, I’ve applied for the documents for one of them, and I’m tossing up the other as it will take up a lot of time – I’ll have a think about it soon. It takes roughly 12 weeks to receive documents to start the record, then more to submit).
- Complete an obstacle course race – not completed just yet, there are quite limited numbers around me, may need to travel to NSW to complete this (hard at the moment as I don’t have any leave).
- Go to an escap
e room– DONE! (August) This has actually been incredibly fun! I’ve done two with my partner and half of my family – first one we finished in 86min out of 60min, the second one we finished in 59:47 / 60min… under 13 seconds!
Summary
Overall, I’m happy with how I progressed my goals in July. There were of course some goals that needed more work and commitment such as strength training and YouTube, but I’m happy with the work I put in through the other areas and my standing for August 2021.
Looking forward to the month of August and seeing what I can accomplish in my time.
I’d love to hear from you!
How are you going with your goals?
Have you tried to write them down and review them monthly?
Is there anything you need help with regarding your goals?
As always, happy to discuss anything listed above and whatever else!
See you in September…
Nathan
Nathan Challenges Life 