Well, this global pandemic continues on and although some of life is getting back to some semblance of ‘normal’, a lot of it hasn’t. At this point I think it’s safe to say that thing won’t be going back to the way they were and we’re blazing our trail towards a new way of living. The world continues to move on! 

Once a quarter I do like to sit down and do some reflecting on life, my finances and the blog. Even with a global pandemic, I continue to live my new life, earn a living, save for retirement and keep sharing my stories via this blog! Let’s explore how things have been going over the past few months. 

Income

I’ll call out once again that I know that the COVID-19 global pandemic has drastically affected a lot of people and many friends and colleagues have seen job losses or paycheck reductions. My heart goes out to you if you’re going through a tough stretch! 

For Mrs. Money and I, we’re very thankful to still be gainfully employed. We’re both working hard and continue to earn a paycheck. As you may know, I’m full-time employed in software sales and it’s definitely been an interesting time for me. I’ve learned that there are always opportunities in both good times and bad times. There are plenty of customers that don’t want to talk and are trying to stay afloat but there are also lots of customers that are growing. At work we’re keeping our heads down, always trying to think creatively and trying to always show empathy. Mrs. Money, who works at a school, is also thankful for job security and although this school year is looking very different, Mrs. Money is remaining creative and continuing to work hard! 

I’ve also been thinking a lot about the importance of building other income streams, as I’ve been learning that ‘becoming wealthy’ often sees people with several ways of earning money. Our experience as a landlord continues to go well and although it’s not been without some challenges and work (Mrs. Money is great at fixing garbage disposals now), it’s been a good financial benefit for us. I continue to monetize the blog a small amount with sponsored posts and YMF Guides – which I’m super proud of. The guides are just $0.99 with the option to add-on email or video chat follow-up and I’ve found it’s been helpful for readers looking to get quality information and some personalized help as they think through life’s financial decisions. 

Expenses

When the global pandemic started by in March/April, part of me tried to think of the bright spots and I predicted that our expenses would drastically decrease. Mrs. Money and I really enjoy traveling and a good portion of our fun money goes there. We didn’t go out to eat a TON prior to COVID but a decent portion of our budget would go there too. I hypothesized that our spending would decrease and we’d be able to build up a nice surplus of extra savings. However, this hasn’t proven to be the case! 

We still manage to get restaurant food once or twice a week, just via takeout or delivery. Now that BabyMoneyFinance has been eating solid food for a while (and drinking tons of milk), there’s that grocery expense along with all my lunches and snacks now that I’m working from home. We’ve also been cooking and trying new recipes that add more to our groceries list. None are bad things but still things that add up! We’ve also been fixing the house up here and there and making little updates with décor. It’s funny how money finds a way to make it out of our budget even in a global pandemic! 

Thankfully we’ve been able to keep our spending fairly in line and are still each month spending/saving less than we earn! (Cardinal Rule #1 of Personal Finance!) 

Saving/Investing

Wow, what a whirlwind of a year it’s been for the stock market. What looked to be imminent financial collapse back in March/April has rebounded into an incredible year for many stocks. I did adopt a “COVID Stock Pick List” with some of my mad money and it’s been somewhat mixed. I tried to pick up on trends that I imagine will be here a while, but mostly it’s the tech stocks that continue to do well. 

I never paused or stopped by retirement contributions (I do 9% plus the 6% company match) but I did pause for a while other investing and instead tried to bolster up my savings, fearful of a longer recession. I’d say now I’ve shifted back to more investing as although I fear things won’t be normal for a while, that there will still be growth in many areas of the market. 

One bummer is that my high yield savings accounts don’t really look that high yielding anymore. If I’m remembering correctly (2020 time is weird), my American Express Personal Savings accounts were paying around 2% interest but now they’re down to 0.80%. Still much better than what my main bank is paying (I don’t keep much in saving there) but I wish it was higher!

Giving

I have maintained a consistency in my giving throughout the pandemic and am thankful to be able to do so. I very much look at my charitable giving as investing in causes and communities that I care for but also as something that’ll always be part of my financial plan. I believe it’s important to give back! I’ve continued giving to my local church (although we just meet online now) but also have adopted a few newer charities around Social Justice that I’ve been giving to. As previously mentioned, I like to have my money always work hard for me – even when donated to charity! 

Overall

Here we are in late 2020, and life continues to go on. I’ve definitely been trying to adopt a mindset of embracing life as it is and attempting to make the most of it. Although parts of life seem very dull and repetitive, I’ve been trying to focus more on some of the positive changes. It’s so incredible to be getting more time with BabyMoneyFinance after work, as I no longer have a 45-1hr 15 min commute to get home. It’s also been great Facetiming family members most nights of the week. My own personal world has been getting smaller but I’m learning that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Quality over quantity! 

I’ve already said this a time or two already but still very thankful for where we are financially. I don’t take for granted Mrs. Money and I’s jobs that are providing for us and we continue to work hard at them! Our financial strategy remains the same and we’re slowly and steadily trying to decrease our debt and increase our assets via saving and investing with compound growth! 

Blog 

I do always like to comment on the state of the blog and give my readers some updates here. Probably my biggest hit of the quarter was “Reflections After Resting”, which I wrote after returning from a short beach trip. It was so great to be able to get away even for a long weekend! We actually loved it some much that we just booked another long weekend at the beach coming up in a few weeks! I continue to still get a few sponsored posts, which help me figuratively keep the lights on with hosting fees. Very cool to be able to have a hobby that pays for itself plus a little more for a few treats here and there with some extra mad money. I did have a great session recently with a reader who purchased a guide – this one on Buying a Home. I appreciated their feedback on the helpful and easy to understand info in the guide itself and then the video session to answer a few questions and bounce ideas off of me. Very cool – I’d encourage you to check them out too!

Finally, Mrs. Money and I’s passion project of the American F1Natics podcast continues to be fun! We aren’t hitting the thousands of listens I would have hoped for (are there thousands of American F1 fans?) but it’s definitely more than 0!  Gotta have a fun project during COVID! 

Thanks for all the continued support and stay safe!