2020 Year in Review / 2021 Goals

I had to get this in before the end of January as you can’t do a year in review once we are February. It’s the rules!

2020 was another good year financially. I remained fully employed working at home, with limited discretionary expenditure on going out and holidays allowing me to increase my savings rate. I like to measure

• Increase in cash and investments
• Increase in net worth (exc home)
• Increase in net worth (inc home)
• Savings rate

Some good numbers comparing last year. I have either maintained the number or increased it everywhere except ‘Increase in net (exc home)’. I think this is because last year our buy-to-let property was revalued so had a bit of a jump for that category. A big increase in Savings Rate so was hoping for a bit more on ‘Increase in cash and investments’ but obviously the numbers are getting bigger making it harder to increase the percentage. Most of the increase is through investing rather than capital growth.

Increase in net worth (inc home) shot up as my neighbours sold their house last year giving me a reliable revaluation.

My Financial Year in Numbers in 2020

and for comparison…

…. 2019

Last year I was boasting I had got into good habits in 2019 in terms of increasing % of savings in investments and decreasing the % of my total net worth in cash – I was delusional. This year I nailed it by moving all cash except £5,000 in premium bonds into investments. I also decided with my partner to sell the buy-to-let we have, realise the cash and invest and forget. My 2020 goals were

Financial

• Increase savings rate to 40%
  • nearly there at 38% but could have done better, but I was using gross income as a measure and have change to net income so am fudging my figures a bit !
• Increase in net worth to exceed or at least be in line with 2019 figures i.e. 28% increase in net worth
  • done
• Increase savings / income by £2,000 with side hustles / squirreling / being more ruthless with budgeting
  • done easily through not having to be that ruthless with budgeting, just nothing to spend our money on due to Covid-19. I did manage some side hustle income to around £900 with the rest and more being made up of extra money due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The full suite of squirrel pots to manage all my current and projected expenditure including living expenses, discretionary expenses, holiday, DIY fund and Xmas expenditure are doing a great job.

I did try some new podcasts out after I did the Our Favourite Personal Finance and FI Podcasts post back in May, but I must admit, I know what I like and like what I know and still mainly listen to Dave Ramsey, ChooseFI regularly and Meaningful Money, Money to the Masses and Maven Money.

Personal

• Focus on well-being and get a better better work / life balance, leave work on time, sleep better and don’t self medicate – which will leave me more time, energy and head space to do more of the things that make me happy
  • This is all a bit of a blur, I am not sure I did achieve this at all. Work bleeding into life, life bleeding into work, lots of cheap cider, very little energy and head space unfortunately. Someone at work had a good phrase for this blurring of our work and home lives, ‘I am not working at home I am living at work’. This did improve as the year went on but this is something that needs attention in 2021.

Preparation for FI

• As well as all the the financial goals above, I also want to work on getting myself and my partner ‘on the same page
  • Oh this makes me laugh, this definitely did not go to plan, we are still very different, am working on it, but it will not be resolved any time in 2021.

Other achievements in 2020

The MCR FIRE meet-up went from strength to strength and we had 6 online meet-ups after lockdown, two as joint events with our friends at London Financial Independence meet-up.

I have also upped my reading of FI books, am not a great reader any more but worked my way through, Your money or your life, Simple Path to Wealth, Financial Freedom and RESET. I also took some free financial online courses as well as registered for the Award in Financial Services, signed up to take the initial module R01 – Financial Services, Regulation and Ethics with the aim of taking the exam in February 2021.

2021 Goals

Have been participating in ChooseFIx – a community to develop and grow personally as well as part of my journey to FI. The first activity we did as a group was goal setting using the principles of Dominick Quartuccio – listen to him on the ChooseFI podcast.

As a result I have loads of goals, but the main ones are

Financial

• Have a consistent savings rate of 60% with one month at 70%
• Give monthly to charity
• Raise £500 for charity
• Earn £3,000 in side hustle income

Learning and work

• Achieve award in Financial Services. Produce Research proposal for a PhD in FIRE
• Take the qualifications to be a a Senior Project Manager

Health, self, friends and family

• Look after myself, ensuring I have a good nights sleep, have a good work life balance and don’t drink to much
• Loose 10lbs
• Run three times a week and do a half marathon
• Read a book a month
• Connect with family and friends weekly

Good luck with your goals and keep safe and well in 2021.