No New Resolutions for 2010

After realizing that I haven't fully met my 2008 New Year's resolutions, I decided not to make any new resolutions for 2010. Instead I am going to continue working on the 2008 resolutions until they become habit, making the process a three year plan. Here's my latest report card on how I'm doing on the 2008 resolutions.

	2008 New Year's Resolutions and Status
Category	Category Activities	Status	Grade
Healthier Lifestyle	Lose 10% of weight	Briefly achieved 10% in September, 2009, but have only been able to consistently maintain a 7.5% loss.	B+
	Better diet	Achieved a target of 5 servings of vegetables/fruit per day in July, 2009, but have regressed back to 2-3 per day.	C-
	More exercise	In July, 2009, I had exceeded my target of 3 times per week by regularly exercising 6 times per week. Have fallen back to 1 time per week.	C-
Tax Strategies	Identify five strategies to minimize taxes	Used Roth IRA contribution, Child tax credit, Roth IRA conversion , and 0% long term capital gains in 2008. Continued to benefit from these four tax strategies in 2009, and added a fifth of using accelerated itemized deductions and standard deductions in alternating tax years.	A
Contingency income	Earn 20-40% of retirement income needs in first 3 years	Achieved 27% in 2008 due to deferred compensation. In 2009, 16% was achieved because our monthly expenses declined when we paid off our mortgage. It isn't clear yet whether I can achieve 20% in 2010.	B
Have Fun	Family activities and vacations	Have attended 100% of our daughter's pre-school activities for parents. We do an annual vacation with in-laws, and an annual family camping trip. We are planning a trip to either Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon	B+
	Hobbies	Playing tennis, rediscovered stamp collecting, and playing some golf.	A-

I won't consider my 2008 resolutions successful, until I give myself an A in every category. As a start, I will be returning to a schedule of visiting the company gym at least three times a week, starting tomorrow.

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