December was a great month financially as M (girlfriend) and I achieved a net worth of $400,000 combined.
We also paid off our HECs debts last year (with some help from our parents) so we now have no outstanding debts.
Our travels to London and the UK are also coming up, we are flying out in late January. The current plan being a year and a bit of work and a few months of travel at the end.
But I must admit 2024 has not been a great year for me health wise (will try to not sound like a snowflake)
During the first half of the year I got these really bad headaches that would last for days at a time.
I went to the GP and we got a lot of scans done on my brain to make sure it was nothing serious.
The scans came back with a few white spots in my brain which really really freaked me out. I think I tried to stay really calm during this whole processes but internally it ate away at me a fair bit.
After a few more tests with a nuerologist and a neurosurgeon it was determined they had both been there for a long time and were okay, but it would be a good idea to get them checked in the next few years.
I also got a blood test during this time and the results looked a bit odd so I kept getting them every few months.
I am very scared of blood tests so each time I would get very nervous, but I did get slowly better at getting them.
After a while the blood results were okay.
The headaches also went away after I started doing some neck stretching each night, so they likely came from a bit too much computer work.
It felt like a pretty insane process for a sore neck.
A few months later I got mycoplasma pneumonia. I have never had pneumonia before, and have usually been able to power through colds. But this one was brutal. Every time I took a breath it felt like their was an orchestra in my chest.
I got some steroids from the GP though. A week in I had a trip to Darwin planned and really wanted to go but was still really sick.
I went in the end but it was pretty rough.
Since then I have been getting a weird tight chest, and sometimes chest muscle spasms. It is very peculiar, and I cannot tell if it is because of anxiety or from asthma / long COVID / effects from mycoplasma pneumonia/ hay fever.
I have pretty much finished up work for the year now which is good, but am slightly worried about flying out to London and not being in tip top shape. I think it will be alright, and too be honest it might be helpful to move countries and have a fresh start in a new place.
What I have learnt during this year is pursuing FIRE is important but health and friendships are more important.
As long as each month we save a bit of money and make sure we are not going backwards that is okay.
In all my jobs so far I have only thought about the salary, which has led to feeling a bit lonely and not making strong personal connections.
I would like to change that moving forward, as we now have a fair amount of money behind us, and some risks can be taken!