Wow, I didn’t realize it’s been so long since I last posted. It’s been an interesting and challenging year, but with being on holidays over Christmas and January 1st coming around, I got a renewed motivation to update all my tracking spreadsheets and start writing again.
Like other spreadsheet junkies, I enjoy when I get to update them. This occurs regularly on the first of the month, but when January hits it extra fun because you get to compare your yearly data, roll-over, and start fresh!
With that renewed excitement, I bring to you my 2020 financial review.
A “Just Get By” Sorta Year
To be honest, it felt like a coasting year. I’m fortunate my job wasn’t impacted by Covid and I was lucky to find tenants, so I maintained 100% tenancy. I kept my February bonus in savings, and we used it as our second income while my wife was on mat-leave until the fall. Our savings plans weren’t affected, as that was our plan before Covid hit. We just needed to get by.
Other than the extras we bought to survive with 3 kids at home, we ended up saving more money by not having the kids in preschool. We also deferred large purchases like building a new deck. That will be in the cards for this year.
Net Worth: +$64,230
Our net worth increased $64,000 this year, the bulk of which was from debt pay down and savings. The market helped a bit but was a smaller portion than the rest. That gain is lower than the previous year ($90,680), but decent considering our lowered savings. In my opinion, net worth doesn’t represent how successful the year was. Where the actual work is done is shown in what you save.
Savings Rate: +26.30%
I’m happy with our family savings rate while we were partly living off savings. My individual savings rate was 28.93%, down from 38.24% (-9.31%) from the year before. I calculate my savings rate based on net income and add back in any matches and extra cash we get. It also includes debt and mortgage principle pay down.
That puts us in the 21-34% “Living a healthy financial lifestyle” category according to the Power Percentage Scale.
Consumer Debt: Paid in FULL!
For the first time I can remember, I don’t have a line of credit to pay off. I’m so happy that I stuck it out to pay it down instead of using savings. I could have wiped it out in February but stuck with my pay down plan.
Unfortunately, we still have a lot of mortgage debt but it’s manageable. I would love to chip away and put extra to the mortgage, but I know that trying to max our RRSP’s and TFSA’s is the better money move. The mortgage has to wait.
Did I Reach My 2020 Goals
Yes, I would say so. I paid off my debt, had a reasonable savings rate, and we are better off financially than when we started the year.
I also learned a lot more about myself this year. My priorities and what types of spending makes me happier. I expect 2021 to keep moving in a positive direction.
What are my goals for 2021?
I want to get my savings rate back to over 35%. As a family, I want to hit 40%+ within the next two years. I’m proud of where we are but compared to other people in the FI community (who hit 50-80% savings rates), these are rookie numbers!
Final Thoughts
This is my first year in review post. It’s been enjoyable as it helps put things into perspective. All year we felt like we didn’t have money. That we were scraping by. But in reality, we stuck to our plan and squirreled away what we could.
Adding everything up and excitingly updating my spreadsheets, I can see we had a good year. There weren’t any large hiccups or missteps given everything else going on in the world. Things could have turned out differently.
For that, and the health of my family, I am thankful. I wish health and wealth to you and your family.
2021, here we come!
You did great this year! Your saving rate is nothing to sneeze at. The important thing is your taking action and aware of your money. If your can get the rate higher, great. If not, you’re still doing far better than the majority of people!
Happy New Year to you, and ask the best to you and your family in 2021!
Oh my gosh. Apologies for all the typos! I need to read what I type before I post! 🤦♀️
Happy New Year to you as well! It does feel good to put up some solid numbers. I’m planning more action for 2021. 🙂
I changed little this year as it was so mentally challenging. Similar to your post, I was not okay. The difference being my worries were internal. I’m feeling better now, and planning for it to continue. We really only have up to go from here!
Congrats on having a solid year. Agree with you, 2020 was like a “just get by” year. Hitting 40%+ savings rate would be great.
Thanks Tawan! I think we can hit 40% this year with planning. My wife is a teacher and has a buy-back option for her pension. We’ll be dropping a decent sized lump-sum for that. Then grind the rest. Thanks for the comment. 🙂