Okay, so the year is over...
The first thing that needs to get out of the way in case I read this 10 years from now: It was the year of COVID. Or Corona Virus, whatever you prefer.
It was one of the most uneventful years for me personally. In March, I was on a vacation in Wernigerode, including a mountain over there. When I came back from that vacation, my workplace was closed and I was told via e-mail not to go to work. Everyone was panicking about a global pandemic.
The stock market crashed, and since I was active there investing, it offered me a good chance to buy stocks at a crazy cheap price. My best buy at that time was a couple of shares of Broadcom, a company that was usually yielding a 3% dividend yield, but when I initially bought in mid March, the dividend yield was at 7%, that's how low the price was. In the end, my dividend yield for that company is at 6% total after a dividend raise, which is nice.
My investment portfolio changed drastically that year. The only stocks from the year before that I still hold at the end of 2020 are BAT, Abbvie and Capitaland. On top of that, I now own Fosun International, Broadcom, Medifast, Tesla and China Maple Leaf Education, among others.
I spent many months at home after this. In total, I "worked from home" from March 16th until some time around July. Even then, I still had "Home Office" twice a week. Something I could definitely get used to. Towards the end of the year, in late December, we were again ordered to stay home, but by that time my holidays had already begun.
I have to admit I don't remember much about this year or the years prior. I remember that I changed jobs in 2015, there was also a migrant crisis that year, and that I went to Singapore. I also went to Singapore in 2016 and 2017, and in 2017 I was in 3 different places for vacation (Ireland, Amrum and Singapore).
Strangely, I get the feeling that time passes a lot quicker these years. It's important to build more memories. But for the foreseeable future, my focus will be on saving money for investing, so that life gets easier in later years.
Not much else to write about this weird year. There was so much time spent at home that the months flew by without much effort. In some way, it was a good year that way, because I had a safe government job that paid me all the way. I was even double lucky because my contract was for a 30 hour week, as opposed to a 20 hour week that I usually have. I had that 30 hour contract until the end of September, so I benefitted from a lot of free time.
My goals for next year.... well, save money, sit tight and then ease the money saving a little bit. We'll see. In 2 years, I think it will be a little different again when I turn 40. I'm about to be 38 in January 2021. Let's see what kind of year it will become.
When I turn 40 in 2 years, I should start going on vacation again and enjoying life a little more actively day by day and year by year, and not look too far into the future as I do now.
