Ah, 2020 is finally coming to an end. It’s certainly been one crazy year, but there were definitely bright spots amongst it. I think that it’s important to remember that life will never be perfect and that if you can’t enjoy the good while taking the bad, I’m not sure you’ll ever have that great of a year. I’ve learned a lot about life and myself this year, and one thing I’m trying to get better at is reflecting and expressing gratitude. I find that once a quarter it’s helpful for me to do a post reflecting to help me express how thankful I am and to celebrate my wins. This post is all about how things have fared in Winter of 2020 for me! 

Income

Not much has changed on the income front, which honestly in 2020 is a good thing. Mrs. Money and I both are still gainfully employed and work has stayed busy for us. Of course no job is perfect but all things considered we are very thankful for where we both are in our careers right now. I am working hard and hoping to get a promotion early next year, which I’ve been preparing for a few months now (check out the importance of asking for a raise). Typically at the beginning of the year we do get annual raises at my job, so hopefully it’ll be a bit larger with a promotion! 

A great way to continue building wealth is to have either side hustles or investment income (or both). At this stage of our lives as young professionals I’m really trying to focus more on continuing to have my money work hard for me and am thinking about how I can strategically continue growing my net worth in other ways aside from my income. On that front, our experience as a landlord continues to go well and our tenants have continued paying their rent on time. The house continues to hold up well and thankfully there hasn’t been a ton of extra work for us to do. 

Looking at my investments, I’ve been trying to be more focused winning stocks. Of course 95%ish of my money is in index or target retirement date funds (ah 2055 here I come to retire) but with my ‘mad money’ 5% investments, I’ve been trying to be better at buying and selling. I chronicled my COVID investing in this post but some recent highlights have been: Dunkin Donuts and Slack getting bought out, which led to a nice payout, Google continuing to grow, and Beyond Meat. I’m learning that I often instinctively have good judgment with investments, and need to trust myself more!  

Finally, I’ve got my side hustle – this blog. I’ve been writing for nearly 8 years now, and that last 3 have been fairly good to me in terms of earning a little “pizza and beer money” as a friend put it. I’m thankful for this creative outlet and the chance to earn a little fun money to enjoy! 

Expenses

Mrs. Money recently commented that I always get a little stressed out with money in the winter months, especially November and December. It feels like there is so much going on and so many things that are difficult to say ‘no’ to spending money on. There are also things I want to spend money on – like gifts for friends, family, colleagues and BabyMoneyFinance’s teachers at school. There always seem to be end of year bills that pop up and expenses like daycare. It’s definitely a lot and Mrs. Money brings up a good point – I do get stressed. Every December I comment that I’ll do better about saving a little ‘winter fund’ in the middle of the year but I never do. However this year I created a calendar reminder for myself in summer of 2021 to start better preparing! 

Saving/Investing

On the whole, my investment strategy has remained fairly consistent. Mrs. Money and I both are saving just under 15% for our retirements through our 401(k) plans at work. I’m still contributing to my ESPP through work (12% but moving to 15% next year!) and we’re still attempting with some mixed success to save outside of those buckets. I have gotten more focused at putting more money into the stock market, and have been trying to buy at least one share of my favorite index fund ($VTI) per month (mixed success, ha!). Although we’re not saving as much as I’d really love for our general type savings, I have been trying to re-shift my focus realizing that we are saving a large amount for our retirement and my company stock so I shouldn’t fret as much about our lack of other savings. 

In terms of my ‘mad money’ stock investing, I have been dabbling more with individual stocks (remember it’s only about 5% of my overall investments) as like many of us, 2020 has given me a lot of time on my hands. I chronicled some of my stock adventures in this post in this post and overall I did pretty well. Of course the market as a whole has done pretty well so it’s hard to say if I would have done just as good keeping my money in an index fund but still fun for me! 

Giving

I firmly believe that giving back to your community and to causes that are important to you is critical to your overall financial health. Giving back helps you appreciate what you have and reminds you of the blessings in your life. As Mrs. Money and I have remained gainfully employed, we’ve continued giving back to our local church, and other important causes to us; this year a lot of social justice causes. In December we normally like to make a few one-off donations to other charities and were able to do so again this year! 

Overall

As glad as I am that 2020 is coming to an end, I’ve been reflecting that it’s important to find a way to be thankful and happy no matter what your circumstance. Yes 2020 has been challenging for a number of reasons, but it’s also had its fair share of fun memories and accomplishments. Resilience has been my word of 2020 – focusing on my own success and happiness – no matter what! 

Blog 

I’m always amazed at how fun running this blog continues to be for me. I sometimes worry I’ll get bored, tired or run out of ideas but somehow I continue learning, growing and am able to share helpful pieces of information to you (at least I hope you find them helpful!). In terms of popular blog posts – the top spot went to my friend Mike from The Money Galileo sharing financial hacks to make you rich. Other top posts were from Mrs. Money reflecting on her completion of a Masters Degree and how we decided daycare vs staying at home.

Finally, two of my personal favorites from the quarter was my article in support of social justice and my article on the importance of actually asking for promotions and raises at work!

Thanks for all the support – I love my readers!