Forget new year, new you. We have an entire decade to celebrate! Kim and I wanted to start the blog off right in 2020. So, here’s five useful tips to start your roaring twenties off right.
Eat Less processed foods
Yes, making healthy resolutions can be cliché, but this advice is more helpful than your “eat healthy” goal. One time in college, my friend Luke found a forgotten fast food cheeseburger under the passenger seat of his car. He didn’t know it was down there because there was no smell. It was at least a month old. When we opened the box, it was still fully preserved. Hard as a rock, yet no signs of decomposing. Imagine what happens to that processed burger when it hits your stomach! Think about that next time you’re in a fast food drive thru.
Declutter
Declutter everything! Your closets, your fridge, your attic, your finances and even your relationships. Are their things and situations in your life that just aren’t serving you anymore? Allow yourself to declutter and let go! Start small with your fridge or closet and work your way up to the hard stuff. The biggest lesson I learned in 2019 is how to say no. As a people pleaser, it was a liberating feeling being able to say no and put myself first for once.
Organize
Organization and decluttering go hand in hand. Once you’ve cleaned up the messes, make sure that you have a plan in place to control the chaos. When things get messy, it’s easy to get stressed and anxious (speaking from experience). In 2020, my husband and I will be organizing our finances. Our goal is to pay everything off besides our house. Credit cards, car loan, furniture loan, student loans- we want it all gone! We can’t do that without some organization and a plan. We will be snowballing our way through by paying off smallest to largest while increasing our payments along the way as we pay things off. I’ll make sure to keep you posted on our progress throughout the year.
Educate
My uncle recently fulfilled a long-term goal-retirement. Now he has no idea what to do with his time. Speaking with him and his wife the other day, my aunt told me that she is trying to encourage my uncle to go back to school. Then it clicked, even in your fifties you should NEVER stop learning. As human beings we should never stop growing and evolving. So, if you find yourself saying “now what?” in 2020, pick up a book and start there.
Be Present
Being present is the most precious tip on this list. In my eyes, spending time with the people you love the most trumps everything else going on in your life. You can make more money, you can work your entire life, you can be “too busy” as much as you want, but you can’t create time. In our ever-evolving social media world, it’s becoming more and more difficult to just be present. In 2019 I danced at concerts, I watched nieces and nephews blow out birthday candles and I got married. Somehow, I did all of this without my phone in my hand. I want more of that in 2020.
Got any more wisdom, tips or advice? Leave them in the comments below.
Happy New Year from Stockton Mortgage.
Until next time,
Savanna