Goodbye 2024, hello 2025! 🎆 After my last Mid-Year check in post, I took a hiatus from the blog feeling like I didn’t have anything particularly newsworthy to share.

However, in reflecting back on my 2024, I realized I had quite a fun, busy year! As always, I tried to find a common theme to define my year and this time, it was an easy choice: 2024 was definitely the year of exploration. 

It was an exploration in travel but more importantly, it was an exploration in saying yes to more experiences, trying new hobbies, and overall saying YOLO, let’s do it!

It’ll be hard to recap my entire year in one post, but I’ll start with some highlights then dive into the numbers of 2024.

Travel

If last-year-me thought I was on a travel revenge, it was clearly because she hadn’t seen this-year-me yet! I went on four trips this year: one domestic and three international!

In February, I set out on a mission to catch the Northern Lights by going to Alaska. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side. But Alaska is still so beautiful!

In June, I ventured to Peru. The weather was absolutely crazy! It was raining in Machu Picchu the day I went, but luckily the clouds cleared up enough to reveal the beautiful view! 

It was snowing when we attempted our hike to Vinicunca (known as Rainbow Mountain) so we ended up getting rides on motorcycles. Then we still had to walk through a very slippery icy path to get to the viewing point. 

I was seriously fearing for my life at that moment. One woman in my tour group even fell off the motorcycle because of how slippery the road was. But on the ride back down, I was able to take a breather and found a moment of calm to reflect. When else would I get to ride a motorcycle up and down a snow-covered mountain in Peru? A once-in-a-lifetime experience!

In September, I took my longest vacation yet since entering the workforce—a full two weeks in Australia. I checked off some major bucket-list items, including visiting the Sydney Opera House, diving into the Great Barrier Reef, and driving the iconic Great Ocean Road on the opposite side of the road!

I even took a dip in one of those picturesque ocean pools I’ve always seen in photos. It was still pretty cold at the end of September but I had to do it.

Finally I ended the year with a short Thanksgiving getaway to Mexico City! A sunrise hot air balloon ride over the Teotihuacan pyramid was such a highlight!

Hobbies

This year, I really gained the courage to say “yes” to many more things and tried to really do everything that I’ve wanted to do. While I am fortunate enough to be in good health, I know that I’m not getting any younger. I know that as I get older, I will only lose courage and strength to be able to do the things I can do today so I didn’t want to leave anything to tomorrow.

A big part of this shift came from achieving a level of financial stability that I hadn’t had before. Let’s face it, many hobbies come with a price tag. In the past, I held back from pursuing some of these interests because I was focused on paying off loans and building my savings. It was hard to justify spending money on “fun” when I didn’t even have an emergency fund back then. But now, in a much better financial position, I did not hold back (ok just a little!).

So here are just a few things that I did this year for fun:

• Concerts – I went to two amazing shows this year: Niall Horan and IU who were both amazing!
  
  
• Dance class – I have no dance experience at all and am pretty bad at learning choreography but I plucked the courage to go to one dance class this year. Not my cup of tea but I’m glad I gave it a try!
  
  
• Puzzles and legos – I must admit, I’m easily influenced. I’ve picked up legos, puzzles, and even wooden puzzles thanks to my friend who is very much an aficionado. I even amassed a little pile that I have yet to start.
  
  
• Crocheting – During our trip to Australia, my friend bought an adorable amigurumi (crocheted plush toy). We then said to each other, we can probably make these ourselves. Lo-and-behold, when we came back to our respective cities, we both bought crochet kits without knowing the other had done the same! I haven’t finished mine, but I can say it is harder than I expected. My “beginner” kit has at least taken me a few weeks and I’m barely halfway there.
  
  
• Online dating – I said yes to creating an online dating profile and actually went on some great dates! I did a recap when I first started my profile in my 1st Quarter of 2024 post. I will say, like most things I was a little overzealous at the start and probably burned myself out a bit. After only a few months, I decided to pause the app but I’ve really learned more about myself and what I am looking for in a relationship.
  
  
• Reading – I managed to read at least 12 books this year! I forgot to keep track but that’s at least 10 more books than I read last year. I’ve been really loving listening to audiobooks on my runs which is how I was able to complete most of my books this year.
  
  
• Strength training – I suffered from knee pain a couple of times when I picked up running so this year when I decided to run again, I made sure to also incorporate strength training.
  
  
• Running – When the weather started to warm up earlier this year, I decided I wanted to get back into running. Then thanks to TikTok algorithm hitting me with running clips one after another, I am back for good!

My running journey started in 2021 with one full year of running during COVID thanks to not having anything else to do. While it is nothing compared to 2021 when I ran more than twice the distance, I ran 174.9 miles this year. That is a huge improvement from 2023 when I ran a whooping 12 miles over 5 total runs for the whole year 😅!

While I feel my fitness has gotten better, I really have a goal this year of becoming faster. I run a very slow (and yes, I know slow is relative) 13 min pace on average! Any slower and I might as well be walking. I can’t even manage a 10 minute 1-mile run! I’ve been able to increase my distance because I’ve learned to just slow way down to go as far as I need to go. But I really want to become more comfortable being uncomfortable going at higher paces.

My ultimate goal is to hit 10-minute miles before I join a run club—my fear of being “dropped” is holding me back.

Thanks to Strava, I’ve also become addicted to finding new routes. This year has throughly been an exploration even in my own home as I look for new routes to run around. Maybe that’s why my runs are so slow—I’m always stopping to take pictures 📷.

Spending

Last year I titled this section, “Overspending”. Is it still overspending if I spent the same as last year 🤪? Technically my “spending” is less this year since I paid off my student loans in 2023 but I’ve always placed student loan payments in a different “bucket” than spending so it’s pretty much the same. But deep breath… here are the numbers. In 2024, my total spending comes out to $74k!

Umm… yes, there goes any credibility I could ever have as a personal finance blogger! And since I’ve lost said credibility (if I ever had any to begin with!), I might as well round all my numbers to the nearest thousand for simplicity. I promise, my actual budget excel has everything down to the cent!

All jokes aside, this number shocks me too and this is exactly why my original $625k FIRE number no longer works. Recalculating my FIRE number based on 4% withdrawal rate and $74k spending means my new FIRE number is $1.85 million ☠️!

$44k of that total went towards homeownership (mortgage, HOA fees, and property taxes). I don’t regret buying my home—especially in a HCOL city where homes in my area cost about the same to rent as what owning a home currently costs me. Could I have opted to live in a more affordable area or even moved to a less expensive state? Sure, but the trade-off would’ve been a noticeable drop in my quality of life.  The way I see it, if I’m really in a pinch for cash in the future, I can always rent out my place and live in a lower cost area. Maybe I’m just stuck in an old mindset, but owning a home does give me a better sense of peace for my future.

Moving on to the next highest category in my spending, no surprise here, it goes to travel which amounts to $10k. 4 trips this year will do that to you. Again, no regrets.

That leaves $20k as my remaining spending for 2024. Surprisingly enough, as I was reading back on my 2021 post where I originally calculated my FIRE number prior to home-ownership, I listed these as my spending for the previous 3 years:

2018 Spending: $21,686
2019 Spending: $27,950
2020 Spending: $23,553

What this shows, is that although lifestyle inflation has definitely hit me, other than home costs and increased travel, I’ve kept most of my spending pretty consistent. I’ll take that as a small win.

I completely agree with Paula Pant when she says, “you can afford anything, but not everything,” which is why I don’t feel bad spending on the things I truly care about because I know I’ll take a step back and spend less on the things I don’t.

Investment

Here comes the fun part! I contributed $62k in 2024 across all my investment accounts (401k, Roth IRA, HSA, and brokerage) which is $10k more than I was able to contribute last year! This makes sense as my spending and salary pretty much stayed stagnant since last year. The money that I used to finish paying off my student loans in 2023, I was able to add to my investments this year.

The market in 2024 continued to shock me with a 25% return! I gained $97k from the market increase. The power of compound interest continues to 🤯. I almost made six-figures doing nothing! 

Ready for the next 🤯? This market gain actually would’ve covered my entire year of $74k expenses! And still leave me with a $23k saving 😉.

To round out my investment summary of 2024, after adding in employer match and subtracting fees, my investment increased by $170k this year, which I only contributed 36% of! 

Net Worth

December 2024 Net Worth: $571,866

Year-to-Date Change: + $176,862

My net worth increased by $176,862 in 2024 thanks to the continued market gain this year! In 2023, I was super close but unfortunately did not hit $400k net worth by the year end. This year I touched both $400k and $500k net worth!

Since 2018, I’ve averaged ~$100k gain per year, so I’ll be more than happy to see that trend continue. Especially if the trend from the last 2 years of $100k+ increases continues, I could be hitting the 7-digit in as little as 3 years! We’ll see where the future takes us. I can’t be too optimistic with all these talks of a recession happening, but here’s to hoping for the best.

2024 Goals Review

Time to review the goals I set at the beginning of 2024:

1. Hit $500k net worth. In keeping with the tradition, the first goal is going to be net worth related. I’m really hoping for another $100k+ increase this year. How amazing would it be to finally hit half a mil??!

This was a resounding success! $500k goal was hit by mid-year and at points throughout the year I thought it might be possible for me to even hit $600k by the end of the year. That did not happen but I am more than satisfied ending the year with $571k net worth!

2. Exercise regularly. Exercise at least twice a week. I have a bad habit of going all out and then getting burned out. So I’m going to start small which is to exercise at least twice a week. I know that January will be a success with the ongoing 1 mile a day challenge. Hopefully it will continue for the rest of the year!

I’ll give this mostly a success. As predicted, I did have a mild burn out from going all out in April after injuring my knee. But I restarted in August and finished strong to end the year.

3. Learn a new skill. I would love to learn something new this year, whether it be coding, or a new language, or maybe a much-needed tax preparation course. I’ve always loved learning and it is one of the things I miss the most about being out of school.

I’ll consider this one a success as well! While I have tried crocheting many years back, I pretty much had to re-learn when I restarted this hobby. I also picked Duolingo back up. My Spanish skill was decent enough to get through Mexico City and I also started picking up Mandarin for my 2025 trip to China!

2025 Goals

1. Hit $700k net worth. I’m not quite as optimistic on the market for 2025 after two amazing years of 20+% returns. I’m hoping now that my nest egg is at $500k, even with a less than stellar market returns, I can still see some gains.
   
   

2. Run 5k in 30 minutes. While I know many people have running a marathon as their goal, I honestly have no intention of subjecting myself to that much training as I know I will burn out. I do, however, want to be able to run more casually but at a decent enough pace. I want to increase my fitness enough to be able to hit a 10-minute mile routinely and eventually hit a 5k in 30 minutes.
   

I can’t think of any other concrete goals for 2025 so I’ll leave it at that. Cheers to a successful 2024 and here’s to hoping for an even better 2025! 🎉