2020 ROUND UP

2020 was a year I’m sure we will all remember for various reasons. While I’d prefer to actually forget it, I think we learned a lot this year, at least I know I did, and I don’t want to forget those lessons. I learned how much I have here at home. I learned how important people and the time I get to spend with them really is to me. I learned I don’t need a lot of the physical stuff I’ve been carrying around. I also learned a lot about how privileged my life has been. Some really big lessons this year for all of us, but I also think it depends on what you do with those lessons. Do we use them to grow as people or do we stuff them down deep and not deal with them. I had a lot of conversations this year and read a lot of other people’s thoughts on the internet. I don’t like where 2020 took us but there were also many things brought to light that we all needed to face.

So how did the year stack up for me?

HEALTH

I had 2 surgeries this year. In February I had a preventative double Mastectomy due to my BRCA1+ genetics test. In July I had an exchange surgery where I got silicone implants put in. All told, I was a lot more worried about these surgeries than maybe I should have been, and everything went better than expected and I am doing really well. I am glad I made the decision surrounding this that I did. Other health news is pretty stagnant. I had hoped 2020 would give me the free time to focus on getting a little fitter and spending more time on healthy living but if I’m being honest, I use food as a coping mechanism, I love carbs way too much, and I did gain a few pounds. We can blame it on the lack of motivation that this year has thrown at a lot of people. I did get out and walk a lot more in the warmer months, and I really want it to warm up quickly this spring so I can get back to that.

FINANCES

Where I lacked in fitness motivation I made up for in financial motivation in 2020. The markets performed well and given we were not able to go out and buy things or eat out as much, I was able to sock away a great deal of our income.

Year over comparisons:

Paid off Mortgage Principle of $25,200

Zillow Estimated House appreciation at $30,000

Investments increased (growth and contributions) by $69,800

In 2021 I am hoping to reach a net worth milestone, and that will depend on what the markets look like for how quickly I am able to see that happen. I will continue our monthly investment schedule of paying off extra mortgage principle (only through June), ROTH contributions and our respective Pension/401(k) contributions as we did in 2020. I am hoping to add more to our brokerage account this year as well but have not set any concrete goal for that.

TRAVEL

Soaking up a much sun as I could. Little did we know what was in store for us back home!

Obviously Covid made our 2020 travel plans go up in smoke. We did take a trip to Tulum, Mexico in January 2020 and a long weekend road trip to St Louis in September. We had initially planned a road trip to Canada and a trip to The Netherlands. I really wanted to be careful And not travel around too much this year given the state of the country. We played everything pretty safe, even our trip to St. Louis, only doing outdoor activities and distancing. We tried new restaurants by getting take-out and even found a few new hiking paths and parks not too far from home. Being forced to stay home made me appreciate what I have at home a lot more. We really do miss travel and will probably try to get out more locally in the coming months, but I am happy that we explored home more.

FAMILY

While 2020 started out with our same little family of 3, 2021 sadly brought that down to family of 2. I did write a post about BooBoo a little awhile ago and we did have him put to sleep 1/14/21. It was a hard choice but I think Marcus and I are both accepting that it was the right choice that needed to be made. We had 18 (almost 19) good and happy years with him, and I’ll miss him for the rest of my life.

We did gain a couple of people family in 2020 though, our nephew Jack was born in January and my baby sister got married over summer so we can say I gained another brother! Those were definitely big family celebrations we were all so grateful for.

We were able to pend time with my older brother and his wife while they relocated across the country and that time was incredibly valuable. Having family live so far away, we could easily go a year or more without seeing them and I felt we really had the time to get to know each other as adults in the weeks we had together. Since then we have been having family video chats and I think it is possibly one of the best things about covid- we found a new way to connect all of us together even though we are far apart.