The post I’ve been putting off for weeks. I experienced some recent losses lately…
The second was the loss of someone I’ve been friends with for over 15 years. His name was Ryan, he lived just a couple miles away from me when I lived on Long Island. Like me, he started out working in a regional grocery store and wasn’t sure about his future career. He eventually started landing writing gigs, moved to NYC, and became CEO of the site Manhattan Digest. He also was into food blogging and wasn’t ashamed about being who he was. I saw some messages from 2011 we exchanged where he was struggling to make any money from writing. Only 34 years old and it was Covid-related. It all happened so quick, he posted regular social media updates of what was happening. Then all of a sudden the posts stopped. I learned he passed from one of our mutual friends, and saw several posts from his sister on his status later on. I cried and just wasn’t sure how process it all. I thought maybe I’d see him again next time I went to NYC.

The first was the loss of one of my aunts, she was 74 and had some health problems. I was a lot closer to her as a child and leading up to the time my father passed away. Then we kind of lost touch. I called her once after I moved to Texas, she was friendly as always. We just didn’t have a ton to talk about. No one in the family told me either via phone or even sent me a message. I learned 2 weeks after it happened via Facebook. I was quite upset about that, felt like the wind got knocked out of me. I also wasn’t able to attend or even see the service, there also was a bad snowstorm in NY at the same so even if I flew it probably would’ve been delayed. I planned to visit last year during my planned trip to see my mom for her 60th birthday. Then Covid happened and that trip got cancelled. I haven’t seen family on my father’s side in almost 5 years (I wish we were closer than we are but it is what it is), have no siblings, and on my mom’s side no one in person for over 800 days.

Then yesterday a guy I went on two dates with and messaged back and forth daily for 2 weeks said he felt like something was missing and didn’t think another date was right for us. I read the text literally after I finished brunch with a friend and was grabbing a few drinks. Maybe I drank a little more than I should have. It’s hard to date during a pandemic, and the last couple guys I had a strong interest in dating really left me feeling broken. I try to forget bad past experiences, but they seem to keep happening over and over again. Then a different guy I matched with, exchanged some messages with for half the day and was having a somewhat normal conversation with drops “sorry to do this but I just ended a relationship recently and I thought I was ready but I don’t think so now”. We were just supposed to meet for a beverage… Straight people have it a lot easier. February has been a rough month, I’m glad it’s almost over.

So let’s move onto personal finances.

2/28 Update:
401K: $117,738 (including my pending contribution)
Roth IRA: $10,239 
M1 Acct: $1,452 
Crypto: $181
HSA: $1,037 
Total Investments $130,647
I was tempted to touch the emergency fund to cover a small credit card balance or more quickly contribute to the Roth IRA 2020 cutoff but decided not to. The market had a couple of rough days last week. Still managed to grow my portfolio by $4,606 or 3.65% higher than last month. Had another vet bill to the tune of $250, this time for some annual tests plus treatment for some growth in her ear. So that, plus a $195 tax bill, several dates, the $200 dehumidifer, and a meal plan service I signed up for. Just a year ago I had $80k in retirement and $6,975 in debt. My net worth is up 79% from 2/22/2020, still not where I want it to be, but still nothing to scoff at. I read somewhere that once you pass the age of 30 you should only compare yourself to where you were previously, not to others. In your 20s, you and your peers are beginning from generally the same starting line but so many things are unique to individual situations after that.

I’m probably on the border of a mid-life crisis. Not sure if I should stay in this apartment, in this city, heck even in the state of Texas. Not sure if I should go for a low cost STEM related degee online, or maybe work on my skills in my current industry. Maybe I need to travel somewhere, been super stir crazy. Still no word yet on a date for the vaccine. I registered in two separate counties, one last week and the first in late January. Things could be a lot worse I know. I didn’t lose power, or get stuck with a $700 electricity bill like Harlan of Out and Out (terrific travel / points / lifestyle / personal finance site) did. I watched someone I follow on YouTube whose girlfriend got sick and had to be hospitalized. He paid for her rent for a month but he’s also on unemployment. Yikes!

In spite of this I did have a good weekend in Deep Ellum. Cool place but a bit more congested than I’m used to in the burbs. Anywhere you have to circle the streets 4 or 5 times to find a paid parking spot on the street or pay even more to use a parking lot a bit extra to me. Either way cool place to grab drinks/food, shoot the shit, and admire the art. North Dallas lacks culture. I’m looking forward to March, doing a mental reset and to start making some solid gains.

Last but not least I hope good things are happening in your lives. Hard to believe I’ve been blogging here for almost 9 years. Net worth is up almost 4X in that timeframe and that’s with buying 2 new cars…. I was such a hot mess back in the early days…

I recently experienced my coldest week in Texas on record. We had two major snowstorms in the area. In a state like New York these would have been an inconvenience but after a day or two most of the snow would have been shoveled and the roads cleared. However here…

There were sheets of ice covered by snow. This of course led to abysmal driving conditions. In Fort Worth there was a 100+ car pileup in addition to accidents spread out all over the country. It also lead to record breaking energy consumption, leading to ERCOT (lectric Reliability Council of Texas) to initiate rolling blackouts. In reality many of these blackouts weren’t rolling and people in some cases didn’t have power for days.

I briefly left my apartment with the washing machine running to go to the gym, and grab a couple of groceries on my way back. This in retrospect was a huge mistake. With groceries in hand I stepped in water, both on the tile near the door, and in the carpet, all the rugs I had were literally soaking wet. I panicked and had to quickly think of the best way to extract the water quickly. I don’t own a wet/dry vac and it was questionable whether Home Depot or Lowes would even be open. My carpet cleaner saved the day and I effectively was able to suck up literally 11 gallons of water from the flooring.

A very panicked phone call was left with apartment maintenance along with an online ‘Critical” severity ticket. Tried to pick up a dehumidifer that night with no luck. The next day I drive to HD on ice and they have none, and a f’ing fire alarm goes off literally the moment I walk into the door at Lowes. After 15 minutes sitting in the parking lot in freezing temps I head home. A friend tells me to try Ace Hardware and they only have 2 in the whole store. The cheapest one was $199 plus tax. It pained me to spend so much when I could shop around and save $40 potentially but I was in a pinch.

I filled the 22 pint dehumidifer with water at least twice since Tuesday. Luckily all electronics and furniture were spared, the water didn’t make it to my bedroom. A carpet cleaning company came by to do a half ass job cleaning the carpet, over the next 4 weeks they’ll replace the water soaked padding.

It could be a whole lot worse, I’ll be the first to admit that. Still had electricity, water, internet access, and heat the entire week. Many other Texans were not so lucky, so I’m counting my blessings. There’s also been a lot of conversation surrounding how Texas is not connected to the national power grid, is not deregulated, and the system isn’t really weatherproofed. Then one of our state senators flies out to Cancun when millions of people in his state have no power. Poltiics aside, I’m hopeful something good will come out of these recent experiences.

Maybe some overlap between the blog and my YouTube channel, but linking to this video as well.

I was feeling emotionally vulnerable when I posted this video on Jan 13, 2021. I should post a part 2 since a lot has happened since. For now the part 1 will have to do. It’s 32 minutes but it felt great to get it out of my system.

I made a video on this…

How it Started:

Dec 8, 2019 Balances:
401K: $65,831
Roth IRA: $4,425
HSA: $633
Total: $70,889

Car Loan: $5,375
Car Warranty: $517
Credit Card: $1,557
Total Debt: $7,449

How It Ended:
Dec 31, 2020 Balances:
401K: $110,076
Roth IRA: $7,389
M1 Acct: $1,304
HSA: $507
Buffer Fund: $5,000
Total: $124,276
$0 Debt

My net worth is basically up $60k from last year. 2020 was a rocky year for me, for a while I wasn’t sure I was going to still have a job. I didn’t go into the year at full steam but didn’t backpedal when my investments took a huge dip in the Spring. I managed to put $19.500 in my 401k and on the path to hitting $6k for 2020 in my Roth IRA before the April 15th deadline. That’s exactly where I put every last dollar of my $600 stimulus check. Some might call it a dumb move but I like compounding and seeing my money grow.

I see others making poor financial decisions and the only thing I can do is step back and let them learn the lessons on their own. I could offer advice but it would fall on deaf ears. You can’t take it with you, but you can enjoy life while also planning for a future filled with abundance and joy.

What Are Financial My Goals for 2021?

1. Max out my personal 401k contribution for 2021: $19,500
2. Max out Roth IRA for 2021: $6,000
3. Max out Roth IRA for 2020: $3,900 left
4. Add to taxable investments: $5,000
5. Double emergency fund / downpayment account: $5,000
6. Max HSA Contribution: $3,600
   Total: $43,000

I’ll admit these are some pretty aggressive goals for the year. If I can’t meet all of these goals I’m not going to beat myself up over them. Life happens, but paying attention to my investments and being super aggressive is more than what most people do.

I also want to find a new place to live after over 6 years in this apartment. Houses are way too expensive in this current market. Not to mention the competitive nature of the market. People with conventional loans getting preferential treatment over FHA, or making cash offers above asking price. Then you have taxes, maintenance, HOAs, utility costs 4x my apartment, pest control, PMI, closing costs, home security, etc. Not sure I want to sign up for that right now. I would be building equity up however. Lots to think about.

I have a couple non-money related goals but keeping them to myself for now. Talk is cheap until you’re actually out and doing the things you claim.

What are your goals for 2021?

December 2020 Net Worth Update – It’s been a long year, I hope you are all happy and safe. Sharing a quick net worth update. I feel very fortunate for having a job, being able to contribute to my investments and for the capital gains / dividends I keep earning over time. I haven’t gone on any trips this year, live alone, and have seen friends minimally for the last 9 months. In 2012 I had $0 in investments and a net worth of -$46,000. A bit fat negative balance. Just one year ago I had literally half the net worth as today. If you keep at it, you can make a lot of progress in a short period of time.

Hoping this video gets more than 5 views. That’s all the last one generated… 😀 I also noticed the exposure on the last one was messed up. Lesson learned..

Wow, October and Halloween feels like such a long time ago now. Biden is now president-elect, we are going through another surge of Covid-19 in America and many other parts of the world. Many of us are still filled with hope over our major pharmaceutical companies releasing a vaccine. There are still looming questions with regard to effectiveness, side effects, distribution, and more.

Black Friday / Cyber Monday

Today I bought a new computer chair. The one I had was held together with zip ties and bungee cord. It was the highest dollar amount I’ve ever spend on my chair. It’s not the Herman Miller Mirra 2 or Aeron I strongly considered but were ultimately way outside of my price point for a new chair. We’re talking $633 on the low end. Surely I could have bought a refurbished one but those kind of creep me out a bit. I bought…

1. WorkPro® Quantum 9000 Series Ergonomic Mesh Mid-Back Desk Chair, Black – Office Depot was asking $449.99 for it. I found it on Lenovo instead for 319.99 plus 10% cashback through Rakuten and 1.5% cashback on my credit card. So net is around $310. I’ve used it for a few days now, much of my back pain has subsided
2. MacBook Pro M1 – 16GB / 1TB – This is a purchase I honestly debated for few weeks. I had a fully functioning notebook, a 2019 16” MacBook Pro. However it’s heavy, the cpu often hits 200° F, super uncomfortable in my lap. In Geekbench 5 single core tests this machine is 51% than the computer I bought a year ago for ~$2800. Multicore is only a few percentage points higher but it does that without the fan running. To make it even more enticing, Apple increased the trade in value offer from $1400 -> $1530 and another site that I ended up using offered me $1784 for a one year old computer and that trade in value offsets the cost of the new machine. With my corporate discount my out of pocket cost is under $300.
3. Logitech MX Master 3 Mouse for Mac -This is quite possible one of the best mice I have ever used on a computer. It works very well over Bluetooth and is a perfect addition to my wireless keyboard. Cost $82 after a $10 and $5 Gift Card.
4. SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 : I will be the first to admit I have too many hard drives. The one I have been using for my backups is 20x slower than my internal SSD. The 500GB Samsung T5 SSD in 2017 is too small to store all my data. 2TB is a lot but I’m also planning for the future. I got $200 off on this for Black Friday, and 10% cashback through Rakuten. Then my credit card offers 1.5% cashback on top of that. $287.81.
5. Henckles Knives Set & Shower Liner – I have had the same knife set since moving into this apartment in 2014. They were cheap when I bought them and now starting to rust. I feel like 6 years off a $20 set is time. $86.28
6. Shag Donut Luxury Plush Cuddler – My dog flips up her bed all the time. I think it’s because it’s too small. It’s also over a year old. She deserves a comfortable place to sleep and relax so it’s time. $64.90

Aside from that I haven’t made any major purchases lately. My car and renters insurance are both coming due within 10 days. Car insurance is $669.64 and Renters is $115.61. I’m really thankful to be at a point where these expenses don’t devastate me like they used to.

In terms of personal life someone I really enjoyed the company of ghosted me after 3 dates and talking for several weeks. It’s crazy how someone could open up to you, talk about how they might want to adopt one day, sleep next to you… then all of a sudden be stressed out, not wanting to talk on the phone for even 5 minutes and not respond to text messages anymore. I bought two small birthday presents for him, returned one and gave away the other. It hurt but I watched some videos on how to get over ghosting and now it hurts less.

Looking back at the last couple years…Relying on other people really hasn’t worked out so well in adulthood. I have countless stories between friends and family. I know it’s a two-way street, but now I just focus on things that bring me joy. If other people want to join me I’m open to it but not just sitting around hoping just to be left alone.

Enough about that though… It’s time for an investments update:
401K: $105,686.95
Roth IRA: $6,506.07
M1 Acct: $1,131.47
Total Investments: $113,324.49
Considering last month was $99k I’m doing pretty damn well. November 2019 my investments were $68,561 with over $10k in debt. My net worth is effectively double in a year!

Credit Card: $2,053.61
I’m getting $1,784 of this back through my old computer trade-in. Coming up I also have my renters insurance and car insurance coming out. Both payments will be around 
I can pay this off fully out of savings if I wanted to, but keeping an emergency / moving / home fund is something I prefer not to touch. I will pay it all off in full when I get paid again in 2 weeks.

Last but not least I’m extremely thankful for all my blessings right now.

Stay healthy, be safe out there. Remember to do things that make you happy.