While I have made sure to update the Net Worth Tracker graphic each month, my posting frequency has been awful for the past year. In fact, the last post I wrote was in March 2024 about the potential TikTok ban in the United States and here we are in the middle of January 2025 with the TikTok ban about to take effect this upcoming Sunday.
The past year has been a rollercoaster of emotion and events behind the scenes. The most significant being my packing up and relocating to begin a new job. I’ve also been continuing to take graduate school classes and even working on a potential business startup idea in the healthcare space. Unfortunately, this all meant that my financial blogging took a back seat. However, I am glad I continue to track my net worth on this blog and my monthly budget on my own. Over the past two years I’ve been employed, unemployed, consulted, worked remotely, and am now in a hybrid work environment. My hope is that this new position will be a long-term one as I enjoy the work and mission of my team a great deal.
I spent a lot more money than I anticipated in moving and furnishing a new apartment, so I’m very pleased to see that my net worth figures did not take a large dip during a period of under-employment. The investment landscape was very favorable throughout 2024. I am not including any of the furnishings as assets in my net worth calculation as the value will likely be significantly less when I sell them and I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon. That being said, I did work hard to find great deals on furniture, including two pieces from a French designer. I relied heavily on CapitalOne Shopping to make most of the purchases and have received several thousand dollars in cashback. I’ve stumbled across a trick to regularly receiving 20-30% cashback on every purchase and may share the details in a future blog post.
As for this blog, I think I am going to take a broader financial approach to it and use this as a place to talk about all things financial. That could mean personal finance, financial news and current events, behavioral finance, political issues, and anything else that I might feel like jotting down some thoughts about. With a new administration about to enter the White House, there is sure to be a plethora of financial events that will unfold in the coming months.