​As I begin my first triannual xatu of 2017, I thought it would be great to xatu about the progress of The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer as well.  It has an average of over 20 unique visitors a day, with over 90 unique views every weekend.  The most popular posts are the monthly financial reviews and net worth updates.  At the time of posting, there are 32 people following on Facebook, 32 people following on Twitter, 34 people following on Instagram, and 10 people subscribe to the weekly emails.  As for the next four months keep an eye on social media for a new audience survey in May and a new section of the website going live during the summer.

Instead of giving a summary of last four months, I thought it might be more fun to share the 5 things that have surprised me about blogging.

1: I enjoy it but it also stresses me out
What does not surprise me is that I really enjoy working on this blog! I am developing a very distinct aesthetic by exploring new ways to use old tools and I am creating art on a regular basis.  I enjoy finding my voice for this blog and the development process for most of the posts.

What does surprise me is how much the writing process stresses me out even though I enjoy it.  I enjoy writing and editing each post.  I enjoy the evolution of each post from the idea, into a hurricane of information that I defog into each post.  My weekly life schedule changes like the stats of a moody glalie and disrupts my writing flow.  This occasionally limits the amount of time to explore a topic and develop better content. These shortened timelines replace my pleasure with stress.
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These last three weeks have been a petal dance of excitement which has left me tired when writing my posts.  I want to create great content for my readers. If I enjoy making it, I feel my readers will enjoy reading it.  Each of these last three posts has been posted later and later each week so they can meet my standards.  I am not changing my Saturday deadlines but I am planning to catch up in May.

​Budgets are like pokémon.  They are great tools to help us through our journey and reach our goals.  This four-part series takes a look at my budgeting history and my journey to finding my current budget.

In part one, I shared my experiences of how my budgeting developed over the decade before moving to New York City.
In part two, I shared the challenging battles from my first year living in New York City and my wins and losses.
In part three, I shared my process for breeding my new budget.

In part four, I count up through my budget’s biggest level-milestones as we have been training together.  These milestones highlight the moments in my budget’s training when I noticed it become stronger or demonstrate its strength.

​In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, trainers were introduced to a resume feature that reminded the player of the last few things they did the last time they played the game.  This feature evolved into the journal in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum.  What I loved about these features was how helpful they were if I picked up a game after not playing for a while.  Gone were the days of being confused why my last save was on a mountain with one pokémon at level 60, three pokémon at level 16 and two of the same pokémon at level 1.
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This feature did not last long, which disappointed me because I like records and notes.  I mostly just like keeping open memory in my head for other information if I don’t need it there and there is someplace outside of my head almost as safe.  It may play into the millennial stereotype, but I think it just makes sense.  I currently use four different methods to store my personal finance information: my financial diary, my net worth spreadsheet, my student loan notebook and my bill books.

I always thought being a grown-up would be amazing!  But now that I am one, I realize it’s hard.  Growing up is universally hard for people of all ages.  Every stage of life has their hardships.  I hear every day how someone can’t lift that or eat this anymore.  Children have to learn to walk, talk, use the big kid potty and eventually do homework.

What I find makes growing up so hard for me is the never-ending challenge to improve my life.  Navigating a career, starting a family and keeping myself healthy are just a few of my everyday challenges.  Personal finances are a big enough challenge for me, they get their own sentence, blog and section in my RSS reader.

I do not claim to be an expert with personal finances.  If you have seen my net worth, you may have noticed there is a lot of regeneration to be done, and I am working on it.  As with being an Ace Trainer, I know that in order to improve, I don’t need to be afraid of losing.  I just need to learn from the winners and figure out what works for me.

Happy April Fool’s Day!  This also means that it’s time for March’s Review and Net Worth Update.
 
For those who are new to The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer, each month I write a financial review to xatu my net worth by writing down my thoughts on the previous and following months.  I share these summaries so everyone can gain insight into my personal finances and my thoughts behind them.
 
I started tracking my net worth to measure my progress, inspired by Budgets Are Sexy, which has helped me pay closer attention to my personal finances.  I have been tracking my net worth since January 2015 and writing monthly financial reviews for myself since 2016.  I recommend tracking net worth because it has been such a helpful tool to see my personal finances stat changes all in one place.