2020 Financial Recap

Well, 2020 is almost over and what a year it has been! My old adage rings true now more than ever. "Things are never as good as it is and they are never as bad as it is."

Financially, I made some investment mistakes, but overall my net worth grew to $89,000 from a projected $65,000 when I started to estimate my future net worth about a year ago. My investment mistake was holding too much money in my checking account and not investing in stocks/ETFs until the market had turned around. This was due to my desire to purchase a property, which I decided not to do at the end. However, I did open a Roth IRA in December and invested $6000 in an ETF. I'm never good at timing the market and rumors are the market will dip some time next year. I'll just invest more when that happens.

2020 Expenses Overview

In terms of my expenses (see chart below), the total is about $22,082. My rent really chewed me up. At $14,616, it's 66% of my yearly expenses! That is way too much to be spending on housing. Next year, when my lease is up, I plan on moving to a cheaper apartment and spend less on housing.

In terms of my other expenses, I mainly use one credit card. Below is the summary of my credit card spending.

2020 Credit Card Spending

Like most people, my second biggest expenditure after housing is Groceries and Food. Though, I feel $6506.57 is on the low end of my credit card spending. In the past few years, I've seen that number go above $10,000. But the low figure for this year is mainly due to the pandemic where I didn't do much traveling and didn't eat out too much this year. Next year, I will probably spend more on traveling, so whatever savings I get from housing will most likely go toward that.

Also this year, I had a goal of spending less on Amazon. I'm glad that I only spent about $420 on Amazon this year. Here's my yearly spending on Amazon since 2006.

Yearly Amazon Spending Since 2006

It's surprising to me just how expensive it is to live in the suburb of Philadelphia. The cost of an around the world travel ranges from $20,000 to $30,000 per person per year. This year's expense is on the low end of that range.

Overall, I was able to save and invest. I made the most income this year out of any year I've worked so far. Unfortunately, my spending was also the highest due to rent. I hope to change that so I can save and invest more next year. My savings rate, after taxes, is about 57% this year. I hope to cross the $100,000 figure in a few months and work toward my FIRE number of $500,000 in the next 7 to 8 years.