Struggling to be debt free

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  Please take a moment to remember everyone who has fought and died for our freedom.

I saw a quote on twitter the other day: "You're killing yourself for a job that would replace you within a week if you dropped dead.  Take care of yourself." Wow, did that quote strike a note with me!  It's ingrained in me to work hard.  My mother is a hard worker, always has been and always will be.  Her biggest struggle with aging is having to slow down.  My Dad was a hard worker, but he knew how to relax and was not afraid to speak up when he needed a break.  My mom would just go and go and get upset and angry when she was worn out. As an insurance defense lawyer, my job is based on billable hours.  The more hours I bill the more successful I am in my position.  Working and billing clients makes money for the firm and is the main evaluation tool used by the firm. (but not really because the firm doesn't do performance evaluations.  Generally, the partners will look at the billable hours spreadsheet at the end of the year and co...

Yesterday was payday and I maxed out my 2018 Roth!!! This is the 4th year in a row and I am so excited. My goal this year was to contribute $10,500 to my retirement savings. I planned to contribute $5,500 to my Roth and $5,000 to my taxable brokerage account. In case you were wondering (and I would because I am a nerd ), I have been tracking my retirement contributions for the year.  These are the contributions for my Roth, they are as follows: 1/15/18    $1,390 2/15/18    $610 3/15/18    $1,270 4/16/18    $765 4/27/18    $55 5/11/18    $55 5/15/18    $1,355 Now I only have $5,000 more left to contribute for the year and I hope to be done by September. How are your retirement savings going?  Are you on target to make your goal? 

Guys, it's May.  I don't know what happened. It was late April and now it's May. May 6th.  Time is still flying and I feel perpetually behind.  On everything, work, life,home, etc.  I'm feeling especially burned out at work.  It's been rough lately and I have been working every weekend.  Except this one.  This weekend I decided that I just couldn't go into the office.  I truly could not bear the thought of sitting in the office for hours. On Saturday, I got up early, went to Lowes and bought some stuff for the yard.  Then I met up with my friend and we went for a walk.  I came home and cut the grass, trimmed 2 trees, cleaned out a very overgrown and messy flower bed, trimmed the grass over hanging the sidewalk, picked up the limbs from the tree, pulled weeds out of another bed out front, pulled some vines that had grown into the bushes, and sweated like a pig.  I took a long nap afterwards. Earlier today (Sunday), I went f...