I hate the idea of New Year’s resolutions because it implies that there’s something negative from the previous year about yourself that you would like to change. It’s much easier to criticize yourself with 20/20 hindsight (haha..) than it is to make decisions in the moment and I think we should be able to forgive our past selves for not prioritizing what we now think should’ve been prioritized. In my opinion, New Year’s *goals* are a better way to frame the idea of resolutions because it’s forward thinking and let’s yourself create actionable and measurable things to achieve.
Since I started as a Software Engineer in Sept 2018, I noticed that my days had become pretty standardized. I would wake up, buy a coffee, head to work, hop on the bus to leave work, get home and hop onto a computer to watch Youtube videos. Throughout the course of 2019, I tried to make a conscious effort to get out of the house more and spend my weekends doing things/meeting up with friends in order to stop feeling like my life was on autopilot. It worked! In the past year I:
- Went on a ski trip to Steven’s Pass, WA
- Facilitated 3 Day Startup programs at UCLA and UIUC
- Visited Las Vegas.. TWICE (ouch my wallet)
- Took Jess to my parent’s home in San Jose
- Walked through the cherry blossom trees in the UW Quad
- Surprised Jess with a helicopter tour over Seattle
- Explored Chicago with my college roommates
- Biked all the way from South Lake Union to Golden Gardens beach to picnic
- Completed a half marathon.. without training!
- Hiked in the North Cascades
- Started a dynasty fantasy football league
- Learned how to golf
- Took Dustin on a hike to Lake Serene
- Went on a business trip to Iași, Romania
- Followed that up with a solo journey through Vienna, Austria
- Got oysters straight from the Taylor Shellfish oyster farm
- Drove up to Vancouver for a weekend
- Got lost in a corn maze
- Made a rather unhealthy sweet potato casserole for Friendsgiving
- Introduced my Romaian buddy and co-worker to hot pot.. yummm
- Started a flag football team
- Skied at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe
As a challenge and a goal for myself in 2020, I want to keep up the momentum and travel at least 1 time per month. Travel doesn’t have to be international and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Some of my favorite adventures have been spontaneous trips, such as driving cross country to Nashville, TN. The goal of this is to experience as many new things as I can.
I want this to be a living document up until Dec 31, 2020. Each month I’ll update this post with the info from the trip I took and how I planned it. Some guidelines for this goal:
- I have a limited amount of vacation days (2 weeks every year), and approximately 13 days saved up from 2019. The focus will be to maximize time by mostly utilizing weekends/holidays
- Transportation/lodging (the two main expenses) should be frugal. I’m okay with spending more heavily on food/experiences because these are experiences I value. I’m set-up to receive emails from Scott’s Cheap Flights
- Flights should be booked when deals come around as soon as possible. Since most airlines let you cancel within 24 hours, it’s better to book when there’s a deal and then cancel if I change my mind within the next day. Booking it immediately also helps me not slack off on finding a deal later (not going on a trip because I de-prioritize it)
Some things that help with travel
- Scott’s Cheap Flights — emails you every time there’s a crazy good deal on a flight. The free version is great, but Jess is subscribed to the premium version and if you book even 1 flight with the service you’ve saved money with the premium version.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) — I’ve gotten really into maximizing value by accumulating credit card points within the last year and the CSR is a great way to churn out points on categories that I spend a lot on (3x on dining and travel). When you look at the fact that each CSR point is worth roughly 1.5 cents per point on travel, you’re looking at roughly 4.5% cash back. A $300 travel credit helps offset the $450 annual fee and with a 50k points sign up bonus, it more than covers the fee for the year. Other useful travel perks include Priority Pass lounge access at airports, TSA pre-check/Global Entry credit, and no foreign transaction fees. If you want a no fuss all in 1 credit card, this is it.
- American Express Platinum — The platinum card has some overlapping perks with the CSR such as Priority Pass access and TSA pre-check/Global Entry credit, but it also gives you access to Centurion lounges (useful for me in Seattle), Delta Sky Club lounges (when flying Delta), and Hilton/Mariott Gold status. It also gives you a $200 airline fee credit and $200 Uber credit to help offset the $550 annual fee. Since access to Priority Pass lounges is sometimes unreliable, I’ve gotten a lot of value from visiting the Centurion/Delta lounges. There are other really great perks from this card too, but here I’m only focused on the travel ones.
- American Express Gold — Over the past few months, I’ve stopped using Chase as heavily and switched over to the Amex system because it makes more sense given my spend categories. The gold card helps me churn out 4x points on groceries and dining (1.5 cents per point = 6% cash back). This is the main driver card for earning American Express Membership Rewards points.
Trips
Below I’ll keep an updated list on the trips that I’ve taken and how I booked each trip. Hopefully this will give me the opportunity to learn about mistakes I’ve made and give me a baseline for how to improve it.
January
Snoqualmie Ski Trip ⛷️(Jan 24–26) — Booked!
February
Mt. Bachelor Ski Trip 🎿 — Still in the works!
March
Hawaii 🏖 (Mar 2 — Mar 9) — Booked!
April
Coachella 🎉(Apr 12–14) — Booked!
May
June
July
August
September
Barcelona 🇪🇸(Sept 9–16) — Booked!
