It’s the end of one year and the beginning of the next, which calls for a little self-reflection. Over the last few years, I’ve been moving away from New Year’s resolutions, which don’t seem very effective, toward annual reviews. I find reflecting on the past year to be much more effective, and while I still set a vision and goals for the coming year (mostly making sure I’m in alignment with my core values and long-term plans), the flavor is a little different. 2018 will also be different as it will be my first year sharing my review publicly!
Here’s the format I’ll follow:
- What went well this year?
- What didn’t go well this year?
- What did I learn?
My annual review is personal, and by sharing this publicly, I am in no way suggesting you should do anything the way I did or plan to do, although you are welcome to use this format for your own review. In case you’re only interested in reading about my financial endeavors and given that this turned out so much longer than expected, I’ve placed the financial notes at the beginning of each section. If you’re not interested in the other things going on in my life, feel free to skip to the next section when you reach them, and it will be a much shorter read!
So without further ado, here’s my 2018 Annual Review:
I. What went well this year?
Wow, what a year. 2018 held a huge amount of change for me and luckily, most of it was positive.
Finances: Despite the stock market ending the year down-ish (I can only stand paying so much attention), our net worth increased by well over 25%. I think this is a good sign that our FI/RE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) strategy of saving as large a percentage of our income as possible is working. This should continue to be the case until our portfolio becomes so large that it’s fluctuations dwarf our income, at which point we will probably be semi-retired or close to it, anyway. Much more on this to come!
Work: Both Mrs. Wallet and I landed new jobs this December that were big upgrades. I was also able to transfer a lot of knowledge to my previous team and make strides in my understanding and use of programming, which is my favorite part of my job even though I’m on the business side of things. I am now officially employed as a Data Scientist, which is something I’d previously thought I would have had to train for years for on the side to achieve. Why not just be one now!
Manufactured Spending: This year was my best year yet for manufactured spending. While I didn’t open any new credit cards (more on that later), I generated hundreds of thousands of points and actually made a pretty handsome profit, which is unusual in my experience. We were able to pay for all our travel with points this year and ended it with hundreds of thousands left over.
Side Hustles: Toward the end of 2018, I began experimenting with side hustles. In November, I was able to generate over $3,000 in additional income! Needless to say, this was a huge success – much more than I was expecting. I will be posting a full report soon.
New Home: This year we purchased a new home! Getting to and through closing was a stressful process (especially because it happened in the week we both started our new jobs) and there is still a ton of work to do, but it has already been extremely rewarding. I will be posting in much more detail about how we got to the decision to buy a house, running the numbers, and the work we’re continuing to do on it as the year moves on.
Business: This year was both a good and bad year for me entrepreneurially, as I’ll explain later. Overall, I would say it was mostly good as the trend is definitely positive. 2018 was the first full year for our personal yoga business, and while we took several months off for vacation we managed to make some money. Mrs. Wallet also taught her first private lesson, which was a big step.
Writing & Creating Content: I’ve written more creatively and created more content (articles, videos, material for teaching, etc – including for this blog!) this year than in the rest of my life so far. Huge win.
School: I am in the final stretch of my bachelor’s degree (Finance), and I am finally figuring out how to school efficiently! I decided to apply the Pareto Principle to my schoolwork this year, as it was previously eating up too much of my time. My idea was to identify the 20% of the work that would get me 80% of the results (so an 80 or a B) and then recursively use the Principle again and find the 20% of the remaining work that would get me 80% of the rest of the results… So in theory, 96% of the results (an average of 96 or an A [80% + 20% * 80% = 96%]) could come from only 36% (20% + 20% * 80% = 36%) of the input.
Sounds pretty fishy, but it was mentally pleasing and sounded worth a try. To my surprise… This worked stupendously well! I put in the least amount of time I’ve put into any college semesters I actually attended and had the best results. If I had to estimate, I’d say I reduced my school workload by close to 80%. Oddly, I actually ended up with almost exactly a 96 in most of my classes this year. In my last semester, for example, I ended with a 97.4 and a 95.4 (I also got a B in one class due to falling off near the beginning due to other things going on in our lives). In the other semesters this year, my final average was within a point or two of 96 for all but one class. Pretty weird. I think this is more a testament to our
Journaling & Self-Reflection: While I’ve known for a long time that journaling was really good for me, it never really stuck as a habit until I read an article by Ben Greenfield on his journaling tactics. To cut a long story short, I broke through the blocks of feeling that a) I have to write in a physical journal and b) it’s somehow wrong to simply reflect on what is going on and what you’re experiencing. This was a breakthrough for me and I’ve journaled and written creatively more this year than in the rest of my life combined, which has been paying huge dividends in my life, happiness, and relationships.
Reading: It’s been a bit up and down in terms of quantity, but I’ve read more material this year than I have in a long time. Exposing myself to new ideas has been one of my highest return activities and has spurred a huge amount of personal growth, reflection, and happiness.
Yoga: This year I really deepened my yoga practice. In addition to going deeper in terms of content and learning new, more advanced practices, towards the end of the year I moved from doing yoga five days a week to seven. I also began leading a group meditation weekly at work, which has been very rewarding.
Relationships & Family: This year was extremely fruitful in terms of our relationships in both our given and “chosen” families. While we mostly deepened existing relationships, we also had some important additions to our loving tribe of friends. My mother was also diagnosed with cancer about a year and a half ago, which has resulted in a deepening of my family’s relationships which has been truly beautiful despite the sad backdrop. I really feel we deeply appreciate each moment we get to spend together as the gift it is, which is a blessing.
My Mother’s Health: Despite a grim diagnosis, my mother’s health mostly improved throughout the year. Around this time last year, it looked like we might not be seeing another new year with her, so that has been the biggest blessing this year: time.
II. What didn’t go well this year?
Work: While overall work was great and I got a new job, near the end of my old job during six months of being in HR limbo, my motivation dropped precipitously, I lost a lot of momentum, and developed a bad habit of spending a lot of time on low-return personal tasks. I’ve done a good job of kicking it back into high gear at the new gig, but this was true for about half the year.
Business: I really felt like I slacked in my role for the yoga business I work with. I definitely accomplished some things, but not as much as I could have. While I could easily blame this on how much else we had going on and the amount of stress I was under, I think that would be a huge cop-out as well as a missed learning opportunity.
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Tax Planning: This year we had some opportunities to make a few moves at the end of the year that would have been advantageous tax-wise, but I didn’t make them. I think this happened as a result of having a lot going on as well as not having done some of these things before. For example, I should have harvested some capital losses, which I haven’t had an opportunity to do in the past, bud I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity before the year ended.
Travel Hacking: This year I didn’t open a single new credit card! While I generated quite a few points from manufactured spending (MS), I am missing a lot of low-hanging fruit and probably much more than I’m getting from MS. I’ve been wanting to get one more Chase card and didn’t want to mess up my 5/24 record, but I think it’s actually been over two years since I opened any card and I haven’t taken any action on it. In 2019 I’m going to get me some fruit! And mileage points! In particular, I plan on taking advantage of business credit cards, which don’t affect your personal credit or the 5/24 rule.
Again, because of the 5/24 rule, I haven’t gotten Mrs. Wallet any cards either, which is really a shame. Chase doesn’t like her, and I haven’t tried to mend that relationship or just go elsewhere, which has really just been lazy on my part.
Travel: Similar to being social, travel took a back seat to work, family, and other responsibilities this year. This is the first year since I met Mrs. Wallet that we didn’t leave the country. While we did have some great and important domestic trips, in 2019 we are planning on more. What are all these mileage points for, anyway?!
Consistency & Content Creation: I have been pretty inconsistent in when I create content, which I think has been holding me back. Even just spending fifteen minutes a day or an hour a week would pay huge dividends! Lately because of this, I haven’t created as much content as I could have this year.
Perfectionism/not publishing: Despite the fact that I’ve created a decent amount of content in the last several months, I haven’t published anything. That’s a bit of an eye-opener when you think about it, but luckily I believe it has an easily identified (and hopefully corrected) cause. I want my content to be perfect before I release it to the world! I want it to be the best version it can possibly be to appeal to the latest audience and help them the most possible. Meanwhile my content is still gathering dust on my personal drive, where it has zero probability of helping anyone. Here’s to publishing, even if it’s trash, to make room for the good stuff and get it out there, even if it only helps one person.
Saying No: As 2018 drew to a close, it became increasingly clear that I had a problem saying yes to things; I was consistently over-committing and double-booking myself, which sucks both for me and the people I’m letting down. I’m not used to feeling out of integrity but it happened quite a bit in this form this past year.
Someone mentioned recently that every time you say no to something you’re leaving yourself options, but every time you say yes to something you’re saying no to every other possibility. That resonated with me and I am also realizing that there are a lot of opportunities that I would like to do or would be nice or fun, but that I need to be more discerning in choosing only those things that are a solid ‘Hell Yes!!!’ or really important for me.
Fitness: 2018 has been my worst year for fitness in the last four to five years. This is definitely directly related to the amount of stress I’ve been under, the amount of change going on in our lives, and my mother’s health, which I experienced minor depression about off and on during some parts of the year.
I went from working out in some form or other 3-5 times a day and getting into the gym 5 days a week to only hitting the gym 1-2 days a week, although I still generally get at least a few mini workout in daily as part of my morning routine. Fitness has been a huge stress reliever and
Being Social: With everything going on this year, being social (including taking Mrs. Wallet out on dates) really took a back seat to being productive and saving money. While those are worthy goals, life is meant to be lived and it’s important to be social. It’s almost like working out, reading, or eating – spending time with people socially is just something I need as a human and I would be remiss if I went through life without enjoying and sharing it with people.
Stress & Emotional Awareness/Management: One thing that surprised me about 2018 was realizing that I was stressed, at times a little depressed, and not managing it as well as I could be. Now don’t get me wrong, even when I was experiencing minor levels of depression, I was somehow also extremely happy and having the times of my life, literally. Which is what made it a bit confusing for me to figure out.
I am used to being calm, centered, and joyful. That’s usually where I live for the most part. At some point, though, it seems that turned into a story that I was always living there, or that living there meant I wasn’t stressed or depressed in any way. With everything else going on this year and in particular reflecting on my mother’s health, some depression definitely crept in there in the background.
While I was often able to pour myself into the other areas of my life, that was denying what I was really feeling to a certain extent, and when I did that important cornerstone habits that I’ve relied on and maintained easily for years began to become a real struggle. That, in combination with the fact that I became much more easily stressed and shorter with loved ones luckily clued me
III. What did I learn?
Side Hustles can make a huge difference. I was blown away with how much extra cash we were able to generate in November and how easy it was. While some of the opportunities we took advantage of were seasonal or one-time opportunities, this really opened my eyes to what’s possible with pretty minimal effort. Whether you’re hurting for cash, trying to pay down debt, or trying to sprint to retirement, it’s worth trying out some side hustles. I’ll be posting more on this soon.
Pick the Low Hanging Fruit! There was a lot of low hanging fruit that I didn’t pick this year. To name the top few, I’d say credit card signup bonuses, tax loss harvesting, and incorporating and expensing for our business. It’s worthwhile to step back and see if there are any high return activities that require minimal effort that you can take advantage of instead of always just working harder at whatever you’re already doing.
It’s more important to create and get it out there than for it to be “perfect”. I came up with a lot of ideas in 2018 and even wrote a decent amount of content, both of which are great, but I didn’t publish almost anything. I’m not getting feedback on what I’m creating, and I’m also not helping anyone if I’m not sharing the knowledge, insights, and wisdom I’m gaining. A close friend recently remarked to me that “if you’re not embarrassed by what you started out publishing, you waited too long.” That strikes me as true.
If you’re going to commit, be specific and deliver. I made more commitments I didn’t keep this year than in recent memory. It would be easy to write it off as due to external circumstances, but the truth is that’s not it. If I decide to commit to something, I need to have a specific plan for accomplishing it or there’s a good chance it’s not going to happen if it’s outside of my existing routine.
Travel and being social are important; productivity and saving money aren’t everything. While I “know this” intellectually, this got away from me a bit this year. I poured myself into a lot of projects, and while said projects were rewarding, what is the real point? If I’m working so hard to free myself up to spend time doing what I love that I’m neglecting doing what I love – I’m missing the point.
Don’t let yourself be constrained by ideas of what life “should” look like. Our culture has a lot of ideas about what your life should look like, and much if not most of it is garbage (I don’t think this is exclusively true in the states). As a result, not only do we box ourselves in and limit the way we live and express ourselves, but we limit others. My journaling dilemma is a great example of this. When you are telling someone (including yourself) that they should do something, there’s a good chance you’re being critical and it’s a good idea to step back and reevaluate. Don’t should on others, because you’re probably shoulding on yourself, too! (Nobody likes to should on themself!)
Each moment really is a gift. Spend time with the ones you love. It’s so easy to take life, your health, and your loved ones for granted. The truth is, the only thing that’s guaranteed is that it will all dissipate into a fine dust one day! Really, though, the things you love and appreciate can disappear or change in an instant. Cherish each moment. And call your grandmother!
The Sky’s the limit on working smarter not harder. I was blown away by how much work I was able to eliminate and how much more I got done in 2018. Spending time to step back and think critically about how you’re tackling a problem or project instead of just throwing more of your time and energy at it doing the same old thing you’ve been doing and getting the same old results you’ve been getting has the potential for massive returns on time and energy invested. I can’t recommend it enough. And if you’re stuck and need ideas, there is a vast sea of books and articles filled with what people in both the past and present have found to work for them.
Life is about questions. Much of what we think and do is driven by the questions we ask ourselves, so asking quality questions is extremely valuable. This is true both of ourselves and others. I am a strong believer that we hold all the answers we need inside, but you have to ask yourself the right questions in order to tease them out. Conversely, much of our work involves working with others and being able to ask quality questions that help people provide you the information you’re looking for is a valuable skill.
Here are a few questions that I find valuable:
- What am I grateful for today?
- If there was a simple solution to my problem(s), what would that look like?
- “What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” ~ Tony Robbins
Trials are opportunities for growth. This is an incredibly important shift in perspective I’ve been working on putting into action for some time. A defining characteristic of most successful people (especially wildly successful people) is that they don’t view failures as just failures that signify the end of something.
Jeff
This speaks to a framework commonly employed by successful individuals in any arena of viewing “failures” as important data – opportunities to learn and grow. This also makes failures much easier to take in stride mentally and emotionally. By shifting to asking “what can I learn from this?”, you move from a place of feeling that something happened to you that’s negative to using that as more fuel for the fire.
It’s okay to say yes to yourself and no to others. One lesson that 2018 repeatedly tried to drum into my thick monkey skull is that you can’t say yes to everything, even if it sounds good or fun or positive. I think that lesson is finally settling in for me, although I’m sure I will repeatedly forget this. I have this odd aversion to telling people no, and the way I’ve framed it to myself in the past is sort of negative. In reality, the only way to truly say yes to yourself, particularly when you’ve got a lot going on, is to sometimes say no in certain situations.
Furthermore, it’s okay to feel sad, and there doesn’t always have to be a reason! This is sometimes just part of the human experience. If you are feeling down, the best way to snap yourself out of it is often to return to the basics: eating well, sleeping enough, moving your body, and meditating.
Even when you’re having the time of your life, it’s possible to feel depressed in other areas. It’s important to be aware of, feel, and fully express the whole gamut of your emotions. This was an odd lesson to learn. There’s so much to be grateful for in my life, I feel as if my cup isn’t just constantly full – it’s overflowing! I’m constantly looking for how I can pass it along because it’s too much for one person, much less little ole me! Emotions that are suppressed or unaddressed will generally boil up inside and come back to bite you much harder for not addressing them head-on. It’s important to step back and reflect on what you’re actually feeling and what’s going on behind the mask.
Pain and suffering are teachers, but that you can become attached to them and they are not necessarily needed in this way. It’s common in our society to believe that in order to grow and succeed, it has to be tough and painful. While it’s true that our pain and suffering (like our failures!) are often important teachers, it’s also possible to grow and succeed quickly and easily with more grace and ease. If you believe it’s going to be tough and painful, you will create that for yourself.
You can empathize with people’s experience without validating or invalidating it. This lesson was really important in developing acceptance and support in my personal relationships, and I’m still working on it. Often I found that when Mrs. Wallet would complain to me about something going on in her life, I would invalidate her experience by either explaining “logically” why that didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things and she shouldn’t be so bothered by it or trying to “fix” her problem with some type of solution or plan for action. I think this is a pretty common mistake guys make when relating to women, and it was very confusing for me, as it mostly just upset her more.
I didn’t understand that from her perspective, I was invalidating her experience. Eventually, I caught on that this wasn’t working, so I stopped doing that, but then I didn’t know what to fill the gap with. I either wouldn’t say anything or would give some type of basic acknowledgment of what she said like “I’m sorry you’re feeling that way” or “Okay”. As you can imagine, this wasn’t very effective either.
I finally stumbled across some material in various places that helped me find a better solution in these situations. Instead of invalidating or validating the experience, I found I could simply empathize and ask for more information. So instead of “that doesn’t make sense because…” or “I’m sorry/you’re right/that sucks” it becomes “I’ve seen/I see that… I know how that feels/must feel… What was/is that like for you?… Tell me more.”
While I’m definitely still working on this one, this has been a big improvement and has allowed us to stay in connection through these interactions. I leave the situation feeling like I was able to help her feel better and she leaves the situation feeling like I heard her and understand and relate to what she’s experiencing, which is a big improvement.
That’s it! Happy 2019!
Footnotes: Thanks to James Clear for the inspiration for this annual review format.
