Hope for your financial life and beyond

Luke1428 Goals Update – June

software updateSummer is in full swing and June has been busy at the Luke1428 house. Our schedule was jammed packed with camping trips, swim lessons, and vacation Bible school. In between it all, I still found time to start my marathon training (see below), update my blog design and complete many projects around the house I had been putting off. All these activities have been enjoyable, but I’m actually looking forward to the post-July 4th weeks to relax a bit before school begins in August.

I’ve really enjoyed the investing series I began in June. Even as an investor with some experience, it is always good to go back and revisit the basics of why I invest. Tomorrow I will be continuing with part IV of that series with a post entitled “How to Pick a Good Mutual Fund.”

On to my goal update for June.

Goal #1: Read through the entire New Testament of the Bible and the book of Proverbs by May 31st.

Finished.

If you remember when I introduced the SPLASH Goal plan, the first “S” stands for making a goal in one’s spiritual life. I always try to be working on a goal in this area so my spiritual/inner-being life does not become stagnant. So to keep moving forward here, I have a series of books lined up to read, one a month for the rest of the year. I’ll share my impressions of each book with you as they are completed.

The first one I’ll be reading for July is Jon Acuff’s new book Start.

Goal #2: Pay off our mortgage debt by the end of the year.

Postponed. You can read about why in my post entitled “Time to Punt This Goal Away.”

Goal #3: To support Mrs. Luke1428 as she obtains her CPA license and MBA by December, 2013

Mrs. Luke1428 has finished her classroom requirements for the CPA license. The final paper was written and submitted last week and the paperwork is being filed with the state of Georgia. Hopefully there will be no snags and she will receive official notification of her CPA licensure in July. When that happens we have a big celebration planned for the whole family.

Goal #4: To run a half-marathon in under 2 hours, a full marathon in under 4 hours and run 1,000 miles for the year.

I finished part one of this goal on March 17th with a time of 1:46 minutes.

I ran 104.5 miles in June as I dove headlong into my marathon training. All in all, I ran 21 out of 30 days, had 4 days of cross-training on the exercise bike, 4 days of rest and missed one day due to rain. That schedule will continue at that pace for the rest of the training, the only variable being that my mileage will increase each month.

Through June, I have now run 441 miles.

Goal #5: Redo the Luke1428 blog design by August, 2013.

Finished.  I have been really pleased with the new framework and theme I purchased from StudioPress. Now that the theme is updated and my one-year blogging anniversary has come, I’ll be focused on some new blog goals for year two. Stay tuned for more news on that.

Goal #6: Join a local running club by March.

Finished.

Now, for some fun…the unusual search terms that have led people to Luke1428 in the past 30 days:

dog making a goal – Let’s see…our dog’s daily routine…eat, sleep, chase squirrels, eat, sleep, bark at the neighbors, eat, sleep…that’s seems to be about it.

I don’t do budgets – Then you need to read this and this.

finances debt “car payments” in the Bible – Must have been car payments in the Bible. Acts 1:14 mentions how the disciples continued with one accord…da-da-dum.

man sitting on a toilet drawing ­– Funny…that’s also where I write all my blog posts. (jk)

homecooked meal? ain’t nobody got time for that – Sure you do. It’s a $37 dollar decision.

where in the Bible does it speak of the money bag with a hole in it – Probably in reference to the thief Judas

making love in bathroom –  Just make sure the bathroom is clean first.

(Wow…I have no idea where that last one came from!)

Have a great Monday!

Have any big milestones for 2013 that you would like to report?

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Comments

  1. Shannon Ryan says

    Wow! 1000 miles – that’s amazing! I ran quite a bit when I was training for the LA marathon but since I’m no longer in training mode – I’ve become a bit of slacker compared to you! I love your blog redesign and I’m having my redone this Fall and I can’t wait! Congratulations to Mrs. Luke 1428 too! What an achievement!

  2. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    Lol! I love those search terms! I want to know what you’re writing about to get that last one. 😉 Seriously though, great work on the goals! My big goal is for the site redesign, which I hope to have done in the next month or two.

  3. Congrats to your wife! Good luck on your running goals – you are already doing a great job! I am trying to motivate my boyfriend to start training again; he ran one marathon about three years ago but since he graduated college it’s been difficult for him to find time to train. I’d love to see him run at least a 5 mile race by the end of the year, but we’ll see.

    • He just has to start slow and not get discouraged during the early training when it doesn’t feel so good. My first race was a 5k and then I was hooked. Maybe you could join him? Sometimes the best way to motivate someone else is to lead by example. 🙂 My daughter seems to be showing a desire to run and I haven’t verbally pushed her at all to do so.

      • That’s cute that your daughter wants to run! Unfortunately I am not the runner, he is, I just want to support him since he’s been doing it since middle school. My goal is to work toward it though, and he definitely helps with that, but I’m more on the couch to 5k wavelength, whereas he’s running five miles every morning in 36-40 minutes. I’m lucky if I can do a mile in 13 🙂

  4. Great job on hitting your goals!! Your running times just amaze me!

    • Thanks Tonya! This is the most exercise I have ever done, even back to the days I was training for soccer and basketball in high school. I’m just crossing my fingers that my body does not break down cause I feel really good.

  5. Nice work on the goals Brian. You are hitting your stride here. I finally jumped back on the exercise regimen last week and I am already feeling better. I have some lofty goals with that, so hopefully I can keep up with it.

    • Thanks Grayson! It is counterintuitive to think that expending energy through exercise actually brings you more energy but that is what I have found. I feel real sluggish during the day if I have missed exercising.

  6. Some great goals here! I had a bible reading goal last year and I only made it 5% in before I fell off the bandwagon. I should really set a “read whole New Testament by….” goal. It’s important to me but I haven’t made it a priority.

    Congrats on your wife for her pursuits! I was a finance major so I can’t get a CPA, but if I get my MBA I can pick it up along the way. Still on the fence about taking on all that work, though.

    Did you purchase a theme and then tweak it yourself? I plan on hiring a professional (or semi-pro) designer to redo my site, though I STILL am considering doing it myself. Perhaps if I find some sort of theme with lots of options. Thesis seems overdone so I haven’t done anything with it even though I bought it 9 months ago.

    • I’ve done the “read through the Bible in a year” program and that is real challenging, but worth it. Gets tough in some of the Old Testament law and prophetic books. The New Testament in 5 or six months will only require a couple of chapters a day. Bibletrack.org is a site that has helped me in the past stay on course with my reading schedule.

      I purchased the Genesis framework and Eleven40 theme from Studiopress. They have many to choose from. I’ve been slowly tweaking it myself and I haven’t run into anything I couldn’t figure out myself or find in a Google search. I like the idea of learning new things and slowly building something from the ground up.

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