​January 5th, The Grown-Up Pkmn Trainer officially launches!

I can’t believe that this is my final Shadow Sneak Peek and 2016 is out of Leppa Berries.  The Shadow Sneak Peek posts have helped me prepare over these last couple of months.  They have taught me a lot about blogging, promoting and getting the website to do what I want.  As we welcome the new year and say goodbye to Shadow Sneak Peeks, I want to share some different strategies I use when I start something new and how Shadow Sneak Peeks used them to help me start this blog.

Learn to work it into my routine
A big part of starting something new for me is figuring out how to work it into my routine and making it a part of my life.  With my cash-only plane ticket resolution from this year, it's lack of routine helped it be successful.  I only had to remember it when I was planning a trip.  I didn't have to try to add it into my daily routine and remember it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

As 2016 closes and 2017 opens, people start to act like xatu and resolution season begins.  Xatuing, or what I will call reflecting on the past and looking into the future, tends to create goals as a way to improve the future.

I adore New Year’s resolutions!  As such, I now xatu at different points throughout the year to keep the improvements going all year long!

The Big New Year’s Resolution
I like to give myself a big New Year'srResolution.  It is usually something to strive for over the whole year that may hopefully become a natural habit.

My resolution for 2016 was to not purchase any plane tickets without using actual money.  My goal was to work on my moody credit card relationship by using actual cash to immediately pay for the plane tickets.

It may come to you as a surprise, but I am not the first person to write a blog nor will I be the last.  In November there were over 69.5 million posts just on Wordpress.com alone.  That’s more than 5 times the amount of pokémon caught for the last festival mission, and three times as many pokémon that have been traded online over the last month!  That is not including Wordpress.org, Blogger, Tumblr, Squarespace or even Weebly, the host I am currently using.

If there are more voices out there than pokémon, why just be another echoing voice in the battle?

What inspired me to start this blog?
Over the last year, I have been odor sleuthing for some new personal finance blogs to read and have been really enjoying the variety.  There was one blogger who really planted the Blog Berry in my soft soil was Millennial Money Man.  (Don't be dirty)  At least once a month he mentions that everyone should try starting a blog.  Thus, he sprinkled that Blog Berry monthly while my mind provided it sunlight to help it sprout.

Hello there!  Pokémon Trainer Classes are different groups that the games categorize trainers based on their Pokémon and their styles for battling.  A Swimmer uses water type Pokémon.  A Juggler will rotate their Pokémon in and out of the battle making it difficult to hit the one you want.

I call myself an Ace Trainer and this is the (shortened) story of how I grew from a Youngster into the Ace Trainer I am today.

Youngster Tojo
In the beginning there was a Youngster named Tojo.  I was energetic and excited to play Pokémon.  I received my first Pokémon, a Squirtle, and made it all the way to Viridian City where I encountered a man needing his morning coffee.  My squirtle and I ventured all around the area while we waited.  We couldn't catch Pokémon because I didn't have any pokéballs.  Since all we could do was train, we trained until it evolved into a Wartortle.  After two weeks, he still did not have it and I put the game down for a month or so.  Once I picked it back up, I read the instruction manual and the rest became history.

Hello there!  This week’s Shadow Sneak Peak focuses on five possible monthly post series.  Read a bit about them and then let me know what you think.

Net Worth Updates:
I enjoy reading other bloggers’ monthly net worth summaries.  For me, watching someone else’s finances rise and fall helps me learn how to watch my own.  I even started tracking my own Net Worth in the beginning of 2015.  My net worth was -94,580.34 that month.

My net worth as of November 2016 is -98,879.70.  Like a metapod battling a metapod, it has not progressed very well.  In my updates, I will break it down to explain what I think happened each month.  I will have sections talking about my income, savings, student loans, credit cards, investments and other irregularities involving my finances.

My goal for this series is to show the ups and downs of my low net worth.  I know there are other people with a negative net worth, or minun, who are looking for support and I want to be there for them.  I also want those who have a positive net worth, or plusle, to also cheer us on as we get back on our feet.