August was a pretty decent month in terms of goals. Increases across the board with finances, health/fitness has been pretty stable, and my other YouTube and personal development goals have all made progress.
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
- On the 1st of September, my net worth is at $128,956.89 (an increase of 5% from August).
- I’ve finally started to get an increase in my net worth for the past month. Previous months I have been at a slight decrease due to some previous highs May.
- Great to see that it increased. I’ve been saving and investing more than usual lately due to being in lockdown and spending less money.
- 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 $96,166.58.
- This is a huge increase from August due to investing my house deposit savings into my investment portfolio.
- 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 August, I spent $344.9 more than my goal budget of $2,500.
- I’m happy with how August went, due to lockdown, I’m less likely to spend money on smaller things and transport.
- My savings rate was at 52% which was great to see.
- As at September 2021, I have spent $32,501.91 – and therefore technically I’ve failed this goal. I’m still interested to see how it goes to the end of the year and my final yearly spending. It’s been great to see my spending habits this year, and it sets me up for the future as I will now what to aim for.
- See below for a chart of expenses:
Grow House Deposit to $40,000
- Over August, my house deposit grew from $34,386 to $37,823.
- I’m getting very close to this goal! Hopefully over the next few months, with some extra saving and any potential investment returns I’ll hit my goal!
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)
- Gyms have been closed due to lockdown – so no powerlifting training has been happening.
- I’m planning on buying an over-the-door pull up bar for home workouts.
Increase Lean Muscle Mass
- Current lean muscle mass is 65.9kg (-0.3kg from August).
- Weight is sitting at 92.3kg (-0.1 from August).
- Fat mass is 23kg (+0.3kg from August).
- Given that gyms are closed during lockdown, I haven’t been motivated to workout at home. Considering lockdown may last for a while, I’m going to investigate an over the door pull up bar and perhaps a large kettlebell to be delivered.
Nathan Challenges Life
Grow YouTube Channel to 1,000 Subscribers and Reach 4,000 Watch Hours (monetisation criteria)
- Current subscribers = 363 (+6 during August)
- Watch hours = 772 (+37 over August)
- I’ve been focused on creating a video each weekend on my channel.
- Daily views have been steady and slowly growing.
- See below for August’s stats. Not quite as good as July, but great to see some subscriber growth.
Publish 100 Videos on my YouTube Channel
- Videos = 76 (2 during August).
- I created 2 videos in August:
- How to Save an Extra $1000 a Year with NO EFFORT
- Retire at 40? How I Plan to Retire Early (FIRE)
- Found a new format/filming set up that I’m really liking. If I end up creating at least one video per week until the end of the year, I will create 16 more videos bringing my video count to 92. It’s definitely possible, and I’d love to break the 100 video milestone this year, so I’ll have to look into doing maybe 2 per week.
Write 50 Blog Posts on Nathan Challenges Life
- In August, I wrote 4 articles on my Medium profile here!
- Struggling to Save Money? Try Raiz
- Are ‘Shower Thoughts’ a Product of the Smartphone?
- I didn’t know I had so much time
- Seeing the Positive in the Negative
- I wrote 3 of these in the same day in the same sitting. For this goal, it’s all about sitting down and getting some writing done. Once I’m writing it’s easy.
Personal Development
Create Nathan’s Mobile PT and Gain 5 Regular Clients – DONE!
- Still maintining a regular 7 clients
- Currently lockdown in Canberra so trainings have been off since mid August.
- Once lockdown is over, and I’m a few weeks back into the regular routine, I’m definitely going to push hard to find a casual PT who can do more sessions for the business.
Read 30 Books
- Currently at 16/30.
- In August, I finished reading 25 Hours a Day – Nick Bare, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant,
- I post all my book reviews on my Goodreads profile – check them out!
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 escape room– DONE! (August).
Summary
August was a pretty good month for my goals. Increases in financial goals, pretty stable with health/fitness, and slow increases in other areas of focus. I’ve been managing to get a few things done that I was pushing aside, which feels really good.
Coming closer to the end of 2021 I’m happy with my progress to date on most of my goals. I’ll definitely have to sit down and work on a few of them even more in the coming months to come close to where I want to be.
Nathan
Nathan Challenges Life 