My 'goals' for 2017 - review of the year so far

OK, 2017 isn't quite out yet, but as I've already achieved my personal goals for the year, I may as well have a little review!    In fairness, it helped that I had a very short list of goals, but they were quite big and important ones for me. When I say 'goals', they weren't as in a formal list that I wrote down at the start of the year or anything.  They were more like things that were essential to me and my continued well-being.  Anyway, they were:

1)  Get made permanent in my new job, after 15 gruelling months of training (I managed this in February 2017).

2) Drop my hours to 0.9 time, so the equivalent of 33.3 hours per week (this happened in August 2017).

3) Switch my mortgage deal as my current 5 year fixed deal was due to end in January (got this sorted on 1 December 2017).

These are all steps towards my masterplan which, in a nutshell, is to reduce my time spent at work, and to pay off my mortgage early at the same time.  This time round, my new two year mortgage deal has allowed me to reduce the monthly payments by around £150.  I will be topping the payments back up by that amount every month, and this will apparently reduce the overall term by 5 years.  5 years!!  That's a lot.  I can stop the overpayments if I need to, but it's a big incentive to find ways to cut back my spending and achieve this bigger goal. 

There is even a term for my plan, which I hadn't realised until I read the book Stuffocation, by James Wallman.  Yes, it turns out I am espousing a movement called 'the medium chill'.  The medium chill exists in contrast to the big chill, which involves making as much money as you can whilst you are younger, then retiring around forty or so, and chilling.  If you're not too burnt out to enjoy it.

I don't mind admitting that I don't have the ambition to achieve the big chill, so the medium it is for me. As a label, it doesn't have much currency - in the book, Wallman rejects it as a movement in favour of experientialism.  Still, the original article on medium chilling at grist.org makes for an interesting read.  (And experientialism sounds quite tiring, really...)

I don't want to set out any goals for next year just yet - plenty of time for that - but hopefully 2018 will bring some more medium chilling.  (It just needs a better name!)