2025
goals
2025 is the year where I need to make and invest as much money as I can in order to free up the rest of my life in meaningful roles that don't necessarily pay much, or sometimes anything! Conservation is calling.
Additionally, growth, not simple hedonism, will be the principle aspiration. Let's get going!
Personal
-Main goal: pursue growth. Focus on the future. Invest money. Develop new skills. Growth existing skills. Spend free time acquiring knowledge, learning, pushing self. Read books. Listen to podcasts. Have the tough conversations. Disagree. Articulate. Fail. Succeed. Grow.
Secondary goals: Enjoy every moment - easy or tough. Have fun. Dissolve the ego. Be a minimalist in possessions, but a 'maximalist' in experiences. Remember life is short, youth and health are ephemeral, and there's so much I want to do, to be doing, and to have done.
Adventure Goals
-Main goal: get back into adventure. I want to do some awesome canyons, a few caves again, a multi-day backpacking trip, a new national park, climb a peak with our glacier gear and definitely reach some tropical beaches.
Get in tip-top endurance physique for long approaches with heavy backpacks. Big stuff's a-coming.
Relationship Goals
-Treat her as best you can. Relationship is precious, time is fleeting, and no moment is not special.
-Try to get family abroad for big trip (again!) -with or without myself! If I can motivate them to travel independently, it's a success.
-Make a new friend. Keep old friends. Don't be afraid to give respect to those that deserve it.
Health Goals
-Main goal: continue with excellent health, and always try to improve in weightlifting, endurance, diet and 9-hour sleep practices. My sleep schedules got wrecked in the winter of 2024-2025 with varying, mostly nightshift work schedules in seemingly perpetual darkness, opposite Suhei's schedule, and I aim to sleep better for 2025.
I don't see any needs for significant tweaks in my weightlifting routine.
Diet: more organic, less processed stuff. My diet's been great, but there's always room to improve. After returning from Europe in late 2024, I had a week of stomach troubles in the US from the food. That's a sign to change!
Endurance: I still have a desire for long adventure, mountains, and outdoors pursuits requiring good endurance. This year I'd like to improve my endurance, such as by being able to run a few miles, better times hiking uphill with a pack, etc.
And most of all: realize health is precious and not eternal. There are billions of people that would kill to have perfect health like I do, and I best not take it for granted!
Career Goals
-Main Goal: Work a ton in the ER. Earn the money while nursing rates are still good, but it likely won't last. Take overtime, start the new job in Cut Bank to try something new, excel at my job. Consider - consider - applying for a master's in conservation or related.
Travel Goals
Travel is not the priority for early, or even much of, 2025. But, it will be hopefully THE priority by late 2025 (goal: South Pacific, Western Australia).
Hopefully, we can do a week of canyoneering in Monterrey in March, a week of canyoneering in Utah in April, a TBD packraft adventure in May, maybe Mount Rainier in June, Greenland in July (big trip! Three weeks!?) and interspersed with smaller mountain jaunts in the Rockies the rest of the time.
In early 2025 as I write this, we're still processing 2024's massive trip as we work overtime and save our money. Travel goals will come, and it's going to be awesome.
Reflection - December 31, 2025 - Browning, Montana
Money, money, money.
We ‘sacrificed’ our entire 2025 to earn as much money as possible.
Earning and investing were the primary focus of 2025, as (…sigh) we reluctantly decided to make it back in 2024.
Our plan was to work hard for about nine months in 2025, then jet off to the South Pacific with some ropes and tents and sunscreen.
However, in late summer, after analyzing both of our current jobs, other opportunities, and our future jobs and opportunities, we realized our lives will likely never be as financially productive as right now. And, as investments compound, it’s more effective to work now and invest than to work later and invest.
Both our salaries here are greater than what we would make elsewhere.
We both scored dayshift (no more nightshift!) a rarity in healthcare.
Our rent here is half (or even less) of the rest of the US.
We can live with only one vehicle, as both of us can walk to work.
There are ample overtime opportunities.
And, importantly, we’ve mostly been able to sync our schedules, generally both having the same two seven-day breaks each month.
If we quit for the winter, can we get all these perks back? Unlikely.
How much better could it get?
So, we grudgingly decided to spend another year in Browning. Life here isn’t always so exciting, especially in winter, but every year we work here saves us two or even three years of work at most other American healthcare jobs, growing our investments and getting us closer to being able to retire two or years years sooner.
Honestly, I hope it’s the right choice. All the times we’ve spent winters abroad, living in a tent, spending money cautiously, and earning nothing, I felt a sense of loss at the high salaries we could be earning.
Now, as it’s -5F with whipping winds and completely dark at 4:30 pm, I think back to our winters on tropical islands, and feel it was totally worth it to be poor and free instead of rich and trapped. It’s not an easy decision. At 36 years old, I’m closer to 40 than to 30. While I want to be doing adventures and travel now - while my knees work and my vision is perfect - I also don’t want to be a nurse forever. I like my job in many ways, but there are other paths I wish to pursue in life.
And we know - we admit - that the only path to maximum free time, and money, and a career in conservation, and more time on tropical islands, is to keep working hard now, investing 90% of our salaries, and delay our rewards a year for a massive payoff in the not-so-distant future.
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Looking back on all that we did in 2025, I’d still say we had our fun. We did lots of canyons, we travelled to Hawaii, we went to the greatest heavy metal festival of my life, and had lots of dog walks in the sunset. We absolutely crushed a much-dreaded climb of Mt Rainier, tried again and got bored of caving (at least here in Montana’s boring caves), and took up jumproping as a hobby. We had countless fabulous homemade dinners together, hundreds of fun gym sessions, and plenty of everyday moments that truly do make life special. Our health stayed remarkably good. Suhei got a new certification, a new job, and furthered her life skills. I learned really nothing new for my career, yet I feel I work hard and produce results and am a valued member of our team.
We’ve grown a lot closer to each other in our relationship, withdrawn from many friendships, and the world at large, as we’ve become better at recognizing toxic egos, conspiracy theorists and other people that are just not worth our time. The world is a wonderful place, but it’s filled with both good and bad people.
Looking ahead into 2026, we are largely going to stay on the path to financial independence, yet pull back somewhat, spending some on trips while working, and then, mostly likely, quit our jobs in the fall and head to the tropics. Money counts, but life is short, and youth is fleeting.