The Obligatory New Years (New Decade) Post

You can find 2008's post here.

And darn - it was such a good post. I don't know if this one will stack up, probably because 2009 wasn't as good of a year as 2008 was. The things that stand out about 2009 tend to be negative and the days I remember most from this year are somewhat depressing.

Rundown of 2009:

-Got home to Washington and immediately missed living in South Carolina. Missing the South was probably on my mind until I found out it in April that we would be returning (and this is where I write from now).

-Shorted the market after the initial crash in October 2008 until around Dow 7600 in Q1. That's when I started buying. All the way down to Dow 6500. I seriously told people we were going there - I just didn't know we would actually make it. The problem? I started selling on the way up and got rid of 80% of what I owned by Dow 8800. Always always early. Never letting enough of it run.

-Basketball. Memories of my college days came flashing back to me. Suddenly I had access to an indoor, full court hard wood basketball gym. For about 9 months it was my own personal sanctuary and I lived there for at least 5 hours a week. Which is a lot more basketball than I had been playing since I had left college. In turn, my game has improved. Started my own basketball team in the spring. I've always been part of basketball teams in the past - but never formed them.

-Laid off from my first "real job". After 4 and a half years. Received the announcement a day before my birthday. Received a nice severance, went on unemployment for the first time, worked as a contractor for the first time and then was quickly let go. Since I turned 16, I've never been unemployed for longer than 3 months. I might break that record here pretty soon.

-Drove back across the country to South Carolina. Saw most of Chicago. Loved it. Took a much needed cruise in the Caribbean and actually found some time to relax.

So let's see what I did and did not accomplish based off of my resolution's for 2009:

-Start my MBA: My excuse was that I wasn't going to be home for the start of Fall quarter so I didn't apply.

-Be more like Batman: Definitely am more rich than I ever have been in the past. No martial arts training. No motorcycle lessons either. 1/3 points on that one.

-2 nights of vomiting due to drunkeness: Success! I only threw up once this year and that was due to seasickness. Although the feeling is very similar.

-Sports related resolutions: Mid range jumper: Worked on. Golf: Worked on. Raquetball: Not played (fail). Silvertips or Storm game: Had the chance, didn't go. Fail. 2/4 points.

-Be less cheap: Really? I thought I could put this on this year's resolution. To be completely honest I was more stingy in 2009 than I was in 2008. It's definitely getting worse. Failure.

-Pray more: There were some weeks that I would pray 3-4 times during the week. That's a lot for me, considering I hardly did any of it in 2008. I believe it really has helped my life.

-Experience more outside my comfort zone: Nope.

-Go to Vegas: Played in the WSOP with my dad! Awesome time, unfortunately we came home with less than we brought. But finally being back after such a long hiatus was perfect.

After going through all of these, I think I had too many resolutions for myself. So many that I forgot about some of them which is why I failed. Yes, I don't go back and read my posts, my new year's resolutions are usually just mental notes I hold on to throughout the year and sometimes they just don't stick.

So 2010...and new decade, here I come. I resolve to do (or try):

-Write less/higher quality posts. Somewhere along the line I thought that having 4 posts a month was a good idea. It's not. There were at least 4 months (this month included) where I'd look up and realize I had at least 2 more posts to write for that month with only a few days left. Then I felt forced to write and the stuff I put up I typically wasn't happy with. I was forcing it and I think it showed. Expect probably 20ish posts for 2010.

-Get a job, pay off our home equity line of credit.

-Put on some bulk. Sadly, I've had a skinny complex since I hit puberty. I'm wiry, I'm a stick, I get pushed around by guys with weight. As I sit right now I'm currently 190 lbs, and believe it or not, that's "filled out" in comparison to how I used to look 10 years ago. I'd like to gain 10 lbs of muscle and plan to do so by upping my protein intake and lifting more than I have been over the past few years. Included within this goal is the ability to do 10 pull ups in a row. I can currently do 4.

-Start preventative care/remove all notions of invincibility. I've read that around the age of 28 (which is what I will be turning in 2010) our bodies turn the corner and start getting worse. I've seen plenty of people in the baby boomer generation that live every day with pain. That's now how I want to be in 20-30 years. Sure, it's bound to happen (assuming no major medical breakthroughs) but I can do my best now by starting to take better care of myself now.

-Have faith. I worry way too much about too many things that are out of my control. I need to work on letting things go their course and have faith that things will either work out in my favor or just weren't meant to be (or happen to teach me a lesson). Faith in myself, my relationships, my world.

A lot has happened in the past decade. Everything can change in 10 years. In fact, I would be surprised if I was still sitting on a couch writing like this 10 years from now. Hopefully I'll be around to see.

Happy new year everyone.