Highlights From 2019: Finance, Family, Travel, and More
Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! Another year has gone and passed. I can’t believe tomorrow will be 2020 and the start of a new decade! As the year comes to a close, I wanted to take a brief moment to reflect on some of my highlights from 2019.
Finance Highlights
I didn’t announce any financial goals at the beginning of 2019 like I did the year before. The primary reason for this is because our finances are pretty much on cruise control. On top of our high combined income, my wife and I are natural savers who live quite a bit below our means and we invest the difference according to our investor policy statement.
When you have good financial habits and systemically automate savings and investments, there’s really no need to think or make specific goals. It becomes automatic. You just do it.
That said, we did very well financially.
Net Worth
With the stock market at all time highs, it’s not surprising that our net worth increased significantly.
At the beginning of the year, our net worth (I include the value of our primary residence) was a little over $1 million. Now it’s a little over $1.4 million, which is a gain of about $400,000. This net worth calculation was performed using my Personal Capital account.
Breaking it down, $150,000 of that gain was due to market appreciation of our house. $50,000 was due to debt pay down from our home mortgage loan. And $200,000 of it was from contributions and investment gains from our retirement accounts and after-tax investment accounts.
I’ve heard people say that once you make your first million, everything grows pretty fast from there. I can see what they mean now.
Spending
Without a doubt, our spending went up in 2019 compared to 2018. Part of the reason for this is because our spending in 2018 was exceptionally low. Don’t forget, my wife and I underwent a buy nothing challenge that year in which we didn’t buy any nonessential material things.
I didn’t keep track of everything we bought in 2019, but I can tell you that we definitely bought material things. We actually bought some clothes in 2019. My wife went back to work in May this year after a 14 month long maternity leave, so she needed to buy more work clothes. And of course we bought new, cute clothes for our growing daughter. I didn’t really purchase a lot of clothes this year but I did buy a few shirts and a pair of running shoes. We also bought a few baby/toddler toys too.
Career Highlights
Fortunately for me, I enjoy a lot of contentment and fulfillment in my career as an anesthesiologist and interventional pain specialist. The work I do is incredibly gratifying and I am fortunate to not experience burnout. Not only do I continue to work a manageable 40-48 hours a week (1-1.1 FTE), I also have great work benefits and enjoy ample paid vacation time which allows me to travel fairly often.
In the beginning of the year, I also had a huge pay raise. My base salary increased by about $60,000 a year. This definitely allowed us to spend quite a bit more in 2019 while still saving more than 50% of our income.
New Projects
A big reason why I find my work gratifying is because I get to choose projects that are meaningful to me. I have been part of the physician wellness committee at our hospital for the past few years. And recently, I accepted the role of co-lead physician and wellness project champion.
In this capacity, I’ll help develop projects and programs that improve physician wellness in multiple aspects of work and life including finances, health, productivity, lifestyle, diet, social and emotional support during times of adversity whether it’s professional (e.g. an adverse patient event) or personal (e.g. divorce), volunteer work, work place camaraderie, and so much more.
I’m really excited for this opportunity.
My Wife’s Career
As I mentioned before, earlier this year my wife returned to work as an attorney. This wasn’t the easiest decision for her to make. In fact, we were considering the possibility of her leaving her career and staying home to become a full time mom.
But in the end, she is very happy with her decision to go back. Not only does she find her work fulfilling, she also thinks that working allows her to be a better mom. Taking care of a baby/toddler can be very exhausting, especially for someone who is semi-obsessed with doing everything they believe is best for their child. Sometimes going to work forces you to take a step back and put things into perspective. For my wife, it allowed her to enjoy work that is intellectually stimulating, have meaningful adult interactions, and look forward to being a wonderful mom when she returns home from work. Fortunately for us, her father was willing to take care of our daughter while both us are at work. Grandparents are the best (and cheapest) child care :).
Another highlight is that my wife received a promotion this year. She earned a raise of about $30,000 more a year to her salary. More money to save and invest!
Family Highlights
There were so many family highlights from 2019 that I can’t possibly name them all.
Off the top of my head, here are some of the most notable family highlights:
- March – our daughter turned one and we had a family party
- July – she started walking by herself (after months of cruising and walking while holding our hand)
- August – she started speaking in two to three word sentences
Our daughter is growing up really fast. She no longer looks like a baby. Not at all. She already looks like a little girl. Overall, she is incredibly fun-loving, laughs a lot, and has a happy disposition. But she can have an attitude some times. She is quite a character.
Being a parent is not easy. But it’s actually more fun than I had ever imagined.
Travel Highlights
We traveled quite a bit more in 2019 compared to 2018. Flying to Orlando for FinCon18 was the only bit of traveling we did last year. Other than the fun I had at the conference, it wasn’t really a good travel experience mostly because traveling with a baby isn’t easy. My daughter was only 6 months old at the time; she wanted to crawl everywhere (couldn’t sit still for the plane ride) and was a terrible sleeper (she cried much of the night in our hotel room).
At the time, it didn’t seem like traveling with her was worth it and we weren’t sure if it would get better as she grew older. But nevertheless, we decided to bite the bullet and plan a few trips for 2019.
Luckily for us, she did become a better traveler. In total, she took 12 flights in 2019 and she did well in almost all of them.
Travel highlights from 2019 include going to places like:
- Cabo San Lucas
- Paris
- Rome
- Las Vegas
- Maui
By far, the best travel highlight of 2019 was going to Paris and Rome. Our daughter had a great time walking around the sights and hanging out with her grandparents and family.
Blog Highlights
The blog didn’t have a ton of notable highlights in 2019, but it did grow significantly in page views and readership.
Maintaining a blog is hard and it can consume a considerable amount of time. While I could have built the blog for even greater growth, I intentionally decided not to. The last thing I want to do is have a second full time job!
That said, it’s fascinating how much of a global reach and impact you can make by blogging. Not surprisingly, a vast majority of my readers live in the United States.
I guess nobody in Iran and the Sahara region of Africa is interested in reading my blog. And I’m assuming the polar bears in Greenland don’t have internet; sadly, they have other things to worry about like the shrinking polar icecaps.
My top 5 posts of 2019 were:
- Eat Better Than The Average American With A Grocery Budget Of Less Than $200 A Month
- Walmart Money Orders: Adventures In Manufactured Spending
- Our Crazy Rich Experience On Singapore Airlines Suites
- How to Buy Nothing And Earn Thousands Of Credit Card Points
- Chase 5/24 And How To Check Your Status
It’s interesting that a blog post that I had written in 2018 about buying good (and healthy) food on a $200 budget is still my most popular post this year. I guess you never know what people are interested in reading!
Final Thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed so many highlights in 2019.
Reflecting all of these highlights was a lot of fun and it makes me realize that there is so much to be grateful for.
I hope 2020 will be just as wonderful (if not better) than 2019.
Congrats on a great year. $400k gain in net worth is pretty awesome i have to say. Glad to have finally meet you at FinCon this year.
Thanks Bob! It was such a pleasure to meet you at FinCon, too. I hope 2020 is a wonderful for you and your family 😀.
You’re such a DrMcFrugal! And your kid is too stinking cute. I’m glad you gave the travel thing more whirls. Aging is a dynamic process and as parents we tend to think in static terms. Every 6 months you have a new kid. We taught our kids to sign so they were very “verbal” well before they could talk. Daughter 1 had an 80 word vocab at 18 months and could carry on complete conversations. She even made up her own signs. It was fascinating to watch her think and learn. She’s 23 now and no less insightful. We’ve traveled all over the world with them. When they were 3 they went to foreign zoo’s. At 21 she sang on tour at 12 churches in Italy including the Vatican and later this year will attend the Fincon of organ conferences in the Netherlands. All of those travel experiences maximize the portfolio of her life. The other one has done her share of travel as well. She’s always up for what she calls an “adventure”. Regarding your kid diminishing return is a waste of time. There is absolutely no developmental difference between 80% success and 95% success. Kids mature on their schedule not yours. It’s like medical school the concepts they wanted us to know were presented multiple times in multiple ways. At least one of those times was an adequate exposure. Same is true of your kid.
Take the clue of this years gains regarding your financial life and don’t over think it, nor obsess. To much electric ink and kilowatts of brain power is wasted on unhealthy financial obsession.
HNY Daddy-O! Knock em dead in 2020
Thanks so much, Gasem. Your well wishes and insight are always welcome and appreciated.
Communication, “verbal” or otherwise, is so important… for adult and kids. I think my wife and I should make it a goal to make sure our daughter is an effective communicator. In the immediate future, it’ll help prevent “Terrible two” type of meltdowns and in the long term I’m sure it will help her become a better human being.
Like you said, I think it’s so important to understand that kids mature on their own schedule. Sometimes it’s hard to come to grips with, but it is reality.
Thanks again!