2020 Review: A Weird But Successful Year?

With 2020 over, a review of not only my portfolio but also the milestones I set myself is in order. Throughout 2020, I updated my milestones, but now it’s time to hold them against the light and see which milestones I reached in the end.

In 2020 a number of things happened that had a large impact on my goals.

First, we went to visit my wife’s family in her home country at the end of January. This was right before the pandemic broke out in full swing so we got very lucky. During this trip, I took the opportunity to propose to her at sunset in the desert. This was not foreseen when I did my Milestones for 2020, that’s for sure!

Like I said earlier, we got lucky because as we took the plane back home the first signs that this coronavirus was about to become pervasive surfaced. Lo and behold, a month later, in March, the Belgian Lockdown was a fact. It brought life as we knew it to a complete halt.

Surprised. If I had to put it in one word how I felt when I received the inheritance from my grandmother. After her passing, she made sure her grandchildren all received something. That something was a life insurance divided over her 8 grandchildren. In absolute figures, each of us received ~27K EUR.

You probably won’t find it hard to imagine then, that instead of the planned 10,000 EUR, I deposited 15,000 EUR into my personal LYNX investment portfolio.

I’ve been working from home since mid-March. Ever since then I haven’t been to the office. You’d think I would be able to save a great deal by not going anywhere, especially since I literally couldn’t go anywhere for several months due to the lockdown. You’d be wrong.

Now, that isn’t to say I didn’t have some spectacular months -in particular, May because of the inheritance- but I had more sub-50% savings rates. Adding all of my Savings Rates up gives me an average Savings Rate of 45.59% in 2020.

A pandemic leaves a lasting impact. Because it put life on hold for most of us, it also left many companies with a serious headache. Some companies, such as my employer, could make everyone work from home. Other companies, like those in the entertainment sector, had less flexibility. This duality also shows in my dividend payments.

While I have stocks that kept paying dividends (real estate specifically remained consistent), Kinepolis scrapped their dividend for the unforeseen future. Finally, there were those that lowered it. As a result, I also missed my target for the dividend payout. I stranded on 328,19 EUR for 2020; 71.81 EUR away from my target of 400 EUR. Lets do better in 2021!

Eventhough I started reading 2 books:

• The Common Sense on Mutual Funds
• Your Money or Your Life

I didn’t finish either. That’s anything but amazing, I know.
My intentions were good though! But that doesn’t mean anything now at the end of the year. I have nothing to show for it. So what’s next?

Just like last year, I won’t give in. I actually made progress. I’m halfway through Your Money or Your Life, so I need to keep pushing and overcoming my procrastination.

While I have covered my 2020financial and personal milestones, I didn’t go into the nitty-gritty of my finances, specifically, I didn’t cover my personal portfolio nor the other funds I hold over different banks and brokers.