January 2023 – It all started here

January 2023 – So much for a slow start to the year then. This month I cut back on the caffeine and my spending. I lifted more weights and read more. Oh and I sanded down a table and became a part owner of Tesla, so it’s been a pretty eventful month really…

I thought the coffee thing would be hard..

No seriously, given how much I love the stuff. Last year I’d go through 1-2 terrible tasting instant coffees a show and then back it up with a three shot caffeine festival from Cafe 2640 which is just around the corner.
No wonder sleep was few and far between.
Randomly on day one of getting back to work for 2023 I switched to a cup of black tea for the shift and managed to resist the temptation to pour myself a brew of the bean across the three hours. Then even more amazingly I ordered a medium after the show instead of a large and my system didn’t shut down in a mad fury that I wasn’t drinking so much coffee.
So now three weeks in it seems to have stuck – tea in the early morning, coffee when the show is done and maybe a cup of flavoured tea in the afternoon depending on what I’m up to. I can’t say it’s had any noticeable effect on my mood but there’s probably more health benefits in doing this than trying to rid the world of it’s coffee plantations each and every morning.

One rises slowly, the other falls at the same speed

And luckily it’s the debt going down and the savings going up. Because one lazy weekend afternoon in January 2023 I broke out the Google Sheets and did some rough calculations on how long it would take to put a sizeable dent on the credit card debt just paying what I was paying now.
The answer: A bloody long time Al, do something about it. Yeah it’s quite the wake up call when you crunch these numbers yourself and count down the years before freedom, probably even more so than using an online repayment calculator to get a quick answer.

And so I factored in throwing in 10% of my pay packet each fortnight and the results were far more pleasing, so that’s what I’ve started doing. The normal payments plus 10% means bigger chunks gone and far less to pay back in over time. There’s still a bit to go obviously but the less the bank gets out of me, the better I’ll feel.

(We also had some unexpected hospital travel reimbursements come in so I got my wife to put my share straight into the card. I didn’t even think about it, just a ‘credit card please’ which gave me a good feeling when I saw another small chunk disappear in an instant, because once upon a time I certainly would have found creative ways to spend it!)

January 2023 debt – down $840

On the flip side of that coin, things seem to be back on the mend like my meagre haul of cryptocurrency which finally started to rise again after god knows how long. It’s still one of the most random investment in terms of volatility and it certainly isn’t the focus this year but it’s nice to see it grow by $120 this month. I’m quite content to let the coins that can earn do their thing quietly in the background.
What is the focus however is Plenti, the P2P lending platform currently providing the best rate of return at a little over 6 percent. Once upon a time I went for month to month lending but now I’m happy to park spare pocket change into 5 year loans – most of them end up getting paid out early anyway.
I finally paid off the money I borrowed from my BT online account too to pay for a radiator and air conditioning service. Nice to see things back to where they were a few months ago.

Then of course came I will teach you to be rich which got me involved in the Superhero app and investing in EFTs. It’s early days, I’m a little late to the party really but a late start is better than no start so here we go.
Plus it’s hilarious revealing I have a bit of a Tesla share. That’s going to be hilarious icebreaker if ever I need one..

January 2023 investment – Up $685

Keep on lifting

I’m happy to report that the fitness this year is well on track as every few days I’m out the back (usually in the shade) throwing barbells, dumbbells and kettle bells around and once in a while, all of them in a single session.
Do I feel any better? No. I’m certainly not sleeping any better.
Has anyone noticed any difference? One person at work asked if I’d been busy with the weights which was nice while wifey keeps a look out for any abs that might suddenly pop up.
But I’m very happy I haven’t quit in a single month and am well on my way of smashing the points target I set myself this year:

January 2023 fitness – 15% of target

https://www.tiktok.com/@alshieldwrites/video/7192054400343379202

The other numbers this year are starting to grow

In between work and exercise, school holidays and attempting to sleep again I’ve been doing a lot of writing, especially here. I’d like to say that this blog has grown as much as the word count but sadly that would be a lie, I don’t think I’m the only one struggling with blog SEO this year and I’m certainly not the only one having trouble selling books at this early stage of the year.
Algorithms seem change every time I think I’ve found the method to make the most of them and after spending far too much time on social media trying to promote my work, I’m wondering why anyone bothers. Especially when I realised everyone I followed on Twitter was doing the exact same.
I mean imagine walking into a bar with one hundred people and they all suddenly turned to you and said ‘BUY MY BOOK!’ at the exact same time, while hoping you’d pick them over everyone else.
Madness.
Then there was #writerslifts that went nowhere fast and Tik Toks that didn’t do much either.
I think it’s time to try a new bar, don’t you?

Still, a lack of attention isn’t going to stop me writing anytime soon so while I work out where I’m next going to spruik my wares, the typing continues to grow:

January 2023 Blog word count – 16688

Earnings: 13 cents..

January 2023 Working on the next book – 10623 words

Earnings: 0

In the rest of my world

I never noticed how many people rock a smart watch until I started wearing one myself and now I see them everywhere.

I tried a chilli without meat and didn’t rate the experience (well more how I managed to cook it more than anything..)

The table project looks like this:

January 2023
Another coat of stain and vanish to go and then we paint the legs white. But going great so far!

The mead is going well:

January 2023
Starting to clear but still burping away which means it’ll continue to say under cover in the shed for the time being.

And I’ve discovered the alt folk sounds of these guys and I’m currently hooked on this song of theirs in particular, Poor Man’s Poison’s Feed The Machine.

That’s one month down, eleven to go. I wonder what other surprises 2023 wants to serve my way?

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