Mid-Year Check-In: How My 2026 Goals Are Actually Going

At the start of the year, I set myself a few realistic goals. Nothing flashy, nothing that required overhauling our lives overnight. Just small, repeatable changes I could actually stick with. You can see the full breakdown in my 2026 goals post.

Setting goals is the easy part. Checking in on them is where things get honest. So here's where I actually stand, six months in.

1. Simplify Life

Working on it, and so far so good. I've been saying no to a lot of work events and in-person meetings that used to eat my evenings. If the kids are on the fence about an event, we skip it instead of defaulting to yes. I've also been cooking more at home instead of reaching for takeout, ready-made meals and processed foods.

The payoff has been more free time than I expected (I've finally been catching up on movies and games I'd been meaning to get to for a year). Simplifying isn't just a financial move, it's given me back hours I didn't know I was losing.

2. Increase Monthly Dividends

Working on it, and the gains are showing. Leaning into REITs and bonds has moved the needle here more than I expected this early in the year. Slow and steady, exactly as planned.

3. Exercise More

This one is a fail, and I'll own it. I kept the momentum going for the first three months, then work and kids caught up with me. Simplifying life cut down my travel, but it didn't cut down my workload, it just moved where the hours went. The rest went to my eldest, who's gotten into science and engineering this year. We've spent a lot of evenings running experiments and watching how-to videos together, and I don't regret a minute of it.

The one silver lining - I have started doing more landscaping on weekends, which at least offsets some of the exercise I'm not getting during the week. Not a replacement for a real workout habit, but better than nothing. And hopefully in a year or two our backyard will have some fruits and look better.

4. Reduce Spending

Working on it, and technically a win on paper but it sure doesn't feel like it. The cuts have added up to $2,487.81 compared to the first half of 2025. This is an average of $414.64 per month. I am surprised by this mainly because last year we missed on summer camps and kids stayed home all summer so I thought our expenses were a bit lower than normal. This year, both are in summer camps for 6 of the 8 weeks of summer. The extra cost of summer camps is around $1,900. This means that if we didn't pay for summer camps this year, savings would have been even higher. With an extra ~$300/month savings, the difference would have been felt. Nevertheless, this is good progress!

5. Learn Game Development

Success and a fail, in equal measure.

The first few months, I pushed hard. I published a small game on itch.io, got some useful feedback from a couple of Reddit posts, and made a few updates. I built a couple of mobile-friendly web games my kids still play once in a while, and a three-level maze game in Godot where my eldest designed one of the levels himself. Then I started on a bullet-hell game and lost steam somewhere in the second quarter.

So technically, yes, I learned enough to build simple games. But game development, like investing, rewards discipline and consistency, and I ran out of both around the same time. What I didn't run out of was enjoyment. I loved every minute of it, and I'm fairly convinced this is going to be my early retirement hobby.

Where That Leaves Me

Three goals on track, one clear miss, and one that succeeded and stalled at the same time. That's a fair scorecard for six months of real life happening alongside the plan.

The exercise goal is the one I'll be actively rebuilding in the second half of the year. Everything else, I'm sticking with the same approach - small, boring, repeatable.