
2021 Goals
I have so many plans for this year! It’s really exciting to think about and honestly, I am typing this post up to not only share with everyone but to be able to have something in black and white to look back on to make sure I am staying focused on my priorities in life.
Check out my 2020 Annual Review here!
I have decided to not just make more goals so to speak. Instead, I want to set intentions and create more systems that will have a positive outcome so to speak. I have been doing a lot of reading on this topic and it seems to be a better approach. Because goals are black and white you either achieve them or you don’t. Sometimes completely out of our control. Where intentions are more flexible.
I like to break them down by categories to make it easier to look back on.
Community Goals
Keep growing my Barista and Coast FIRE FB group
In 2020 I started cultivating a Barista and Coast FIRE group on Facebook. I saw there was a need for it and loved the idea so I went for it. My system for this will be to post daily thoughtful posts throughout the week to get everyone engaged. I will also follow up on all comments with thoughtful responses as best as I can. Community is the word that describes my hopes with this group.
Check out the Barista and Coast FIRE group today!
Connect with more content creators
I want to connect with more content creators, not just bloggers. I love connecting with those that create. I think these types of people are unique and we have many things in common. So I would love to find more that I can build stronger closer relationships with. I want this to be somewhat organic I guess you could say and would love to connect with both smaller content creators and bigger ones. My system for this is to start saying yes to more meetups with like-minded creators and start fostering more connections on social media groups.
Keep looking for more ways to help/impact the community
I love having positive impacts on my community. It’s one of the reasons I have served in the Marines for over 16 years. I’m always looking to find new ways to better more efficiently impact my community. I am considering starting to donate money to bring clean water solutions to people around the world. I have yet to figure out a system for this as I have still not found a company I feel good about for this task.
While I am still researching this I am also impacting the community through my free workouts I post, free content on here, donations, and volunteer work I do off and on.
Content
Keep creating two posts a week on my blog
I have been writing two posts a week for a while now. I would like to keep this up for 2021. I actually have a backlog of content scheduled out for a few months so I could do more posts a week. Yet I really don’t want to overdo it in 2021. My system for this is to write every week no matter what is going on. Even if that is only for 30 minutes. Honestly, though I write almost every day.
Get better at SEO
I paid $100 for a sort of course on SEO this year. I started to dive into it but took a break because I am currently on a vacation so wanted to unplug a bit. So far I find it very interesting and an organic way to get more traffic and reach more people in a positive way. My system for this is once I am done with the course start writing one SEO driven article every month to see how I like it and how it brings in traffic. If I like it I’ll up or adjust as I go.
At least 1 monthly fitness videos for YouTube
I love creating and posting my workout videos for everyone to learn from them and use them to up their fitness game. Lately, I have been having some challenges uploading on to YT and have slowed down how often I am posting them. This is because while my internet is good for most things it’s not great to upload YT videos it would seem. This is where my fitness Facebook group comes into play. SOCAL Warrior Fit Bootcamp is a group I cultivated to share my fitness routines, knowledge, motivation in a judgement-free zone. What is unique is these workouts can be done anywhere in the world with no weights, fancy gear, or gyms.
Keep increasing traffic every 3 months
This has worked very well over the last two months and I would like to keep this going for 2021. I have increased my traffic by 300% over the last month by just putting in a little bit more effort. My thoughts are the more traffic I can drive to my site the more impact I have on the community. One day I might even decide to monetize the site and make a little side passion money on it.

FIRE
Hit $400K in liquid investments
This is one of those ones I mentioned above I have not much control over. Yet I do have control over how much I invest and how often I invest. The system I have for this is simple. I will invest one paycheck a month into my portfolio. I have already maxed my Roth IRA for 2021! My 401K is set to max in Dec 2021. So now every month I will invest 50% or so of my income to my taxable account or other investments.
Up my risky investments to 5%-10% allocation
It’s not news that I have preached that investing 5%-10% of your portfolio in higher-risk investments is ok in my book. This way if it goes to zero it’s not a huge deal. But if it does well, you will actually see the reward. With saying that I have less than 3% into risky investments. 2021 I want to change that finally. Because now with over $350,000 liquid portfolio I have built a solid foundation in my Index funds. My system for this will be to allocate a portion each month to risky investments until the allocation rises to my desired amount. Hopefully, this will work out and increase my wealth-building even faster!
Check out M1 Finance to get your investing on the right path.
Buy a rental
This has been on my radar for some time. Actually have already been approved for the mortgage and even have been looking for the right one. So far no luck with finding one. Yet I’m still actively looking for this. Well, we will see if it happens. It’s on my active pursue list but I’m not going to just buy if the numbers don’t add up in my favor.
Personal
Keep learning guitar
I started learning how to play guitar late last year and I stopped practicing as often. So this year I want to up my time I play as I want to get better and learn to play more songs. My system for this is simply practicing 2-3 times a week even if only for 20 minutes at a time.
Learn more French
My wife is French and we would like to go visit her family this year in Paris. I want to be able to at least speak a bit and understand more by that time. I have straight out been lazy about this. My system for this is to download some tools to help me and sit down 2-3 times a week and practice for 20-30 minutes at a time. From there adjust as I see the need.
Read more books
I started reading a lot more at the end of 2020. I have probably around 20 books or so on my Kindle app I need to read. My system for this is read for 10-30 minutes before bed. It has worked the best for me so far. I really enjoy reading before bed and It gives me a better perspective and creative mind in my opinion. So I think it’s very important to me.
Here are the books that have had the biggest impact on my FIRE Journey!
Practice more gratitude and contentment
Be more in the moment, intentional and content. I now say three things every morning I am grateful for as the sun rises. I will continue to slow down and take in the moment this leads into being intentional. That right there is my system for this. I find this to really help with having a fulfilling happy life longterm. It helps both your emotional and physical health.
Make 2021 Your Year!
Nothing too crazy for 2021. Some might say that I need to think bigger or reach for the stars. Yet I am happy with taken a step back and creating simpler more enriching plans this year. My biggest ones evolve around building more community and connecting with more content creators.
More people in my opinion should take a step back and a step up in making 2021 their year!
We can’t control everything that happens to us. Yet we can focus more on things that we can control. This leads to a happier, more fulfilling, better life. It also allows you to succeed more in life. We only have so much time in a day, week, month and year. What you spend it on and focus on is taking that time away from other things you could create and do.
Make 2021 be the year you focus on what brings you joy, happiness, success and a fulfilling life.
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