The Year Of Resilience: 2020 Goals & Accomplishments

Throughout the year, I jot down new things I learned, read, watched and experienced to try and remember what that year involved. I then summarize all of that in my annual goals and accomplishments posts. The goal of these posts is not just to curate what I’ve been up to, but also to document how I have changed from one year to the next and how I have grown as a person.

What's the longest blog post y'all are willing to read? I'm thinking about breaking my Annual Goals & Accomplishments post into 2 parts because I just started writing it and it's already 4000 words😬.

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) November 12, 2020

I did the very helpful (yes this is sarcasm 🙂 ) poll above on Twitter to see if I should break this year’s post into multiple parts because of its (excessive) length, but most of y’all say you’re cool reading infinite words. So, feel free to grab a snack, sit back, relax and we can dive into everything I’ve been up to this year 🙂 .

And wow – what a fucking year it’s been 🙂 . I must admit, I’d never seen anything like it before. 2020 (the year) has become so prolific it now has its own category of memes. I doubt I need to list all the reasons this year was difficult, but for posterity and Future Purple, I’ll do so anyway 🙂 .

On the negative side, 2020 included a global pandemic (that as of this writing is still raging out of control in the US), the death of many greats (such as the legendary Ruth Bader Ginsburg), an impressive stock market crash of 33%, a nail-biting presidential election and record breaking natural disasters (such as the wildfires that overtook the west) among many other horrible things.

On the positive side, for me, 2020 was the year I became a nomad, moved to the east coast to be near family, and quit my job to retire at 30. It’s been a ridiculous year on all fronts and one that for (I hope) obvious reasons, I’ve termed “The Year Of Resilience.” This year has tested me in ways I couldn’t have even imagined a year ago, but I’ve emerged stronger than ever.

So now I’m going to go through everything I did this year. It included a lot less accomplishments than I originally planned (2019 Purple had no idea what was coming at her 🙂 ), but I’m still happy with this list because it includes more than just “laid curled up in a ball on the couch crying” so I call that a win!

HEALTH

Physical Health

Understandably, my physical health goals went out the window around March of this year. After tightening up on my keto and calorie goals to shed some holiday pounds, lockdowns started and I basically said “Fuck it.” If I was going to watch the wonderful year I was looking forward to (that included a badass start to my retirement, travel and time with loved ones) slip through my fingers, I was going to eat all the Cheez-Its I wanted.

I gained back my holiday pounds and then some. It obviously didn’t help that my previous love of walking around our city for hours also stopped abruptly as I became almost mentally paralyzed with fear of spreading a disease we didn’t even have testing in my city to detect.

Interestingly, after it sunk in that this pandemic life was going to be our new normal for the foreseeable future, I was able to get myself back together. I started eating well again, started walking daily around my neighborhood and started losing the weight I had gained during lockdown. I was feeling good.

Then, something interesting happened 🙂 . We became nomads after selling all of our possessions in July. We had monthly Airbnbs in other Seattle neighborhoods in August and September and understandably wanted to explore our new neighborhoods. Food has always been a big part of exploration for me and so we became takeout and delivery fiends and I regret nothing 🙂 .

This year has been a yo-yo of many things and my weight and thoughts on food are among them. I’m currently of the mind that I value trying new things and having new food experiences with the people I love, over fitting some beauty ideal that’s been shoved down my throat my whole life. So I’m eating yummy food, loving life and trying to embrace my new label of thicc 😉 .

Dental Health

Excuse my French, but my teeth genes can suck my balls 🙂 . I was so proud of myself – after lockdowns went into effect in March, I started using a checklist with my partner to make sure we did all the things our bodies needed to be happy.

For me that included: dancing, writing, going outside and doing a full bedtime dental routine that included flossing with ridiculously thick and awesome Weaved Floss, using my fancy Sonicare Toothbrush for 2 minutes, and rinsing for 1 minute with ACT Flouride. I did this every day for 12 weeks and couldn’t remember a previous period of time where I didn’t miss even one day of a good dental routine.

Heading to the dentist for the first time in a pandemic world🦷. Let’s see how this goes😬… pic.twitter.com/NeRasPg3jI

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) August 28, 2020

I felt prepared to take on the dentist when they finally reopened and I also felt comfortable going, which turned out to be in August. I was waiting for them to tell me that my teeth and gums look awesome after all I did for them only to be told…I had 5 cavities. HOW?!?!

I was legit shocked and asked how that could be possible when I did everything they asked me to – and the fact that I rarely eat sugar. They said that it comes down to genes and even all of that wouldn’t combat what I’m working with. Wow…how encouraging 🙂 .

So I ended up having to go back to that dentist two more times the following month to get those cavities filled before my partner and I left Seattle and I quit my job and subsequently lost my current dental insurance – fun stuff 🙂 . Fuck dental genes.

Alcohol

I think this says it all:

That was 5 months ago and I’m happy to report that not having a job has (as I suspected) changed my relationship to alcohol. Knowing I have the time to process my emotions and also work on accepting and then changing them, has made all the difference. I don’t need to stuff my relaxation into work schedule approved windows and that has changed how I view alcohol.

It’s no longer an aid that helps me enjoy not thinking about work the few hours I’m allowed to step away. Instead it’s now a part of a meal – it’s an additional flavor that’s enjoyed as a group, instead of alone while watching a YouTube video for the millionth time. I did catch myself wanting a glass of wine when life got overwhelming or stressful, but I tagged that for later reflection.

Just being able to tag an urge and think about objectively is something new and exciting though. As I’ve mentioned many times before, my relationship with alcohol will always be something I keep my eye on since it is by definition an addictive substance. If I’m able to find balance, like I have later this year, I’ll keep it in my life, but if not, I’ll cut it out. It is poison after all 🙂 . I’ll keep y’all posted on how this continues to evolve.

Checklists

As I mentioned above, I was kicking ass with checklists this spring and summer. However, after retirement, they kind of went out the window. Similar to my keto food consumption, I discovered that is very difficult for me to keep up these daily routines when every day looks different.

For example, all my work days looked basically the same: I would wake up, brush my teeth, make coffee in our French Press and then settle down to start ticking things off my checklist before opening my work laptop, banging out work and then closing it 8-12 hours later before seeing what else needed to be done on my checklist, reading a bit and then going to bed.

By comparison, every day is different in retirement. I don’t always wake up at the same time for one thing. And when I do awaken, it’s usually because I’ve thought of something (like a blog idea I start writing right then and there) or I hear something like a bird song or my baby cousin fussing or my Mom in need of help around my cousin’s house (while I was visiting Connecticut).

There are entire days when I forget to take out my checklist. I thought I could combat this by moving it to a digital checklist, but that didn’t work either. I also really enjoyed not having a set schedule or having every day look similar. I’m enjoying having nothing I ‘have’ to do daily. I’m enjoying the freedom away from basically everything, so my records have been sporadic at best since leaving work and that’s ok with me for now 🙂 .

Hobbies

I had such big plans for my hobbies this year. I was going to learn Spanish before spending the month of November in Argentina. I was going to start learning Thai before visiting Thailand again in February 2021. Obviously both of those plans were scrapped and with them my motivation to learn those languages.

To be fair though, this year it seemed to take more energy to do basically anything, so I’m giving myself a pass. Instead, my hobbies this year mostly revolved around my love of blogging, this FIRE community, and getting rid of all my stuff this summer.

Blogging

My biggest hobby was of course this blog! I have yet to miss a Tuesday post and at times got so excited that I posted twice a week. The end of this month marks 6 full years that I’ve been doing this hobby, which is by far the longest I’ve done anything 🙂 .

I’m going to write a commemorative post about it next month so let me know below if you have any specific questions you want me to answer. Anyway, it’s been an amazing 6 years filled with so much inspiration and motivation from y’all and a shocking amount of recognition for what I do, so for all of that I just want to say THANK YOU!!!

One thing that did change this year about my blogging experience is that (1) I no longer give a shit about trolls and (2) I am no longer nervous doing podcasts. For the trolls, I actually marked the date: as of April 28, 2020 I am no longer bothered by trolls. In fact, I don’t even remember most of the nasty things people have said to me anymore and that’s awesome! People being intentionally nasty is not worth the attention I would give to it.

As for podcasting, in contrast to not being able to sleep because I was so nervous before my first podcast recording ever in January 2019, I am now cool as a cucumber and hop on a podcast a few minutes before without wondering what dumb shit is about to pop out of my mouth. I just roll with it 🙂 . I assume this is mostly because of practice. This year I’ve been on the following podcasts:

Not bad for never having sent a podcast pitch email 😉 . We’ll see if people keep reaching out to chat with me, but in the meantime, I’m just going to revel in feeling like I’ve kind of mastered the art of not being debilitated with nerves about these things 🙂 .

The Accountability Beast 

In case you haven’t heard, I have an alternate persona on Twitter called “The Accountability Beast.” Basically, I bother people every Wednesday to accomplish goals they’ve sent me in advance. I’ve been doing this for almost 2 years and was bullied into creating a Patreon for it a year and a half ago for people who wanted to compensate me for helping them reach their goals.

Most people are still on my ‘free’ plan 😉 , but getting a few dollars for something I have done and would do for free is cool. Since then, a few readers have joined just to throw a few bucks my way to say thank you which I appreciate as well. Obviously, I don’t need the money (I hope I make that super clear!), but knowing my writing is valued feels good.

The Wednesday beastly reminders have also been an amazing way to stay connected to this community, especially since I have basically stayed home since March. I had originally thought about stopping these weekly reminders once I retired since I was curious what it would be like to have absolutely no obligations week to week, but I decided against it. Talking to y’all through my comments section and social media, are highlights of many of my days, so I’m keeping it up for the foreseeable future 🙂 .

Watercolor, Calligraphy & Coloring

I was forced to dive back into these hobbies as a part of my declutter efforts. I used all the extra paper I was going to recycle anyway to practice my calligraphy and used my watercolors before giving them to a friend before we left Seattle. I did end up bringing my calligraphy pens, one pack of colored pencils and 2 coloring books with me to the east coast, but everything else was given away.

I do love myself a deadline, so knowing time was counting down for when I could use these items did help me get to it! Maybe I should create artificial deadlines to get into other hobbies…but somehow I think I wouldn’t fool myself 😉 . Anyway, since then, surprisingly the extent of my calligraphy hobby has gone digital. I now practice my calligraphy on my beloved Moto G Stylus. It’s funny how things change.

NaNoWriMo

I completed NaNoWriMo and I totally count this accomplishment as a new skill! NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and the writing community challenges every person to write 50,000 words during the month of November.

For comparison, that’s just a little longer than one of my favorite books The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (at 46,333 words). I haven’t successfully completed this challenge since high school and even then, I only completed it once. So it feels super good to know that retirement is indeed helping me be able to do things I wasn’t able to while I was working or even in college 🙂 .

New Skills

Shockingly, I did gather a few new skills this year even before I retired, which is better than I expected!

Transcription

One of my favorite blogs, Bitches Get Riches started an amazing podcast a few years ago and this year, I noticed that they mentioned they would like to create transcripts for their episodes, but didn’t have the money to do so. I was curious one morning so I dove into an episode and transcribed it to see how hard it was and how long it would take.

It turns out: not a ridiculous amount of time with the help of Otter.ai. So I sent them the transcript, mentioned my attempt and asked if it was garbage and if not, if they would like me to do their remaining Season 1 episodes. And they did! I ended up transcribing all of their Season 1 podcasts for free – it was an interesting project and also I guess a skill I could fall back on if I ever want to make a little extra cash for some reason 🙂 .

Meditation

One of my checklist items for a few months, was daily meditation and as I always do, I accompanied this with library books on the topic as well (which you’ll see in the list of books I read below). In the end, I found meditation helpful, but I don’t think I did it long enough to get the life changing effects I kept reading about.

Overall, what I took from it was the ability to tag when I’m having an emotion and examine it instead of being swept away by it. That has served me well on top of retirement in general giving me a lot more time to examine what’s happening inside my head instead of just trying to fight it or hide it to get through the work day.

Pandemic Living

Exactly that – I learned how to live through a pandemic. At first, I went full on scared hermit, but after several months of this life, we adjusted. I learned how to make a make-shift mask and then bought a shitton of actually well made ones 😉 , stocked up on hand sanitizer and changed our usual call when leaving the house from “phone, wallet, keys” to “phone, wallet, mask.” No keys when you’re a nomad 😉 .

I learned how to quickly get in and out of grocery stores while avoiding others and abiding by one-way aisle markers. I learned what parks in Seattle are walkable and not crowded so they’re a good place to meet people outside to hang out in a distanced fashion.

I learned how to have countless movie and game nights via video chat. I learned to cope with our new reality and with it came a whole host of these types of skills – some of which I might keep up because I prefer it (oops…#introvert).

I also learned how to attend a protest while masked, gloved and (as best we could) distanced from others:

I also learned how to plan road trips to minimize stops and time around others as well as how to survive flying cross-country during a pandemic. Lots of skills I hope I won’t have to use again after this is all over, but that will probably help me if an actual zombie apocalypse hits 🙂 .

Exposure Therapy

I experienced my first real stock market crash and got to see if my 5 years of daily net worth checking, aka exposure therapy, worked. I’m happy to report that it did and I didn’t bat an eye at my portfolio plummeting – even when it did so 10% in one day.

I never even got close to that panicky “maybe I should sell” feeling while others were texting me just that. I had to talk several friends off the ledge of selling their investments at the bottom. Luckily, they all listened. So I experienced my first crash, recession and (short lived) bear market without freaking out. All that preparation and daily checking of the stock market and my portfolio seem to have paid off 🙂 .

TV Pilot Writing

So this is random, but I wrote 5 pages of a TV pilot with my cousin and we submitted it to a Sundance Film Festival program. She wanted to submit a project, but wanted a partner and I had a rare lull at work, felt like a challenge, and offered my services.

It was fun to collaborate with her and submit something – though sadly we did not end up reaching the next stage of the program. Still, it was cool to try something new and this makes me curious what other shenanigans I’ll get up to in retirement 😉 .

Minimalism

After selling everything we own, we became nomads and moved to monthly Airbnbs in Seattle before flying across the country to live in a shed turned tiny house in Georgia for the foreseeable future. Obviously, to live in a small space together, we had to keep up our minimalist tendencies and it’s been a fascinating experiment!

Luckily, the tiny house is about the same size as the studio my partner and I happily lived in together in Manhattan for 2 years, so that wasn’t a problem. In fact, it’s been even easier this time around since we have a whole yard at our fingertips as well. I was curious to see if I would miss any of the ‘stuff’ we used to have and I’m shocked to report: I don’t. Not at all. In fact, I keep thinking of more things to get rid of because even with my parred down belongings, I still don’t use all of it!

For example, I went to Connecticut for 3 weeks to help my cousin and I brought my 40L backpack and a canvas bag – not a lot of stuff compared to what I would previously take on vacation, especially for a 3 week trip and one during the colder months. However, 2 weeks into that trip, I still hadn’t worn half the clothes I brought. Parring down further is a real possibility. It’s awesome to realize all the things I don’t need if I base what I keep on what I actually use – wild concept 😉 .

Nomad Living

Related to minimalism, we learned to work with what our new monthly digs provided. When living in monthly Airbnbs, we learned how to grocery shop and cook in kitchens that we didn’t stock with appliances. I was quite diligent to pick Airbnbs that have had several people stay previously for long amounts of time so they always had everything we needed, but cooking in a new space and figuring it out was still a different feeling and a new skill to learn.

Hair Cutting

This happened:

So I've trimmed my own hair for years, but if I want a more drastic cut I go to a salon and pay $40+✂️. This morning I decided to try it on my own and cut off 10" of hair (yes I measured it). It looks good. I think I've unlocked the next level of #frugality 🔓🤣. pic.twitter.com/BUJd275eUa

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) March 1, 2020

After taking the scissors to my own hair, my partner wanted in on the action and with the help of video chatting his brother, I learned to cut his hair with a buzzer and scissors!

I just cut my partner's hair for the first time and unlocked the highest level of frugality🔓. Shockingly, it looks good. Me after I put down the ✂️: pic.twitter.com/b2if3smuGl

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) April 8, 2020

New side hustle? Sadly, he refused to pay me even after I declared my rates had increased exponentially…I guess 5x $0 is still $0 😉 . Anyway, I continued to hone my skills after the first time and have continued to improve my haircutting prowess. I guess this is one way the pandemic has made us more self-reliant.

Foundation Advisory Group

I was asked to join the Advisory Group of the Plutus Foundation, so basically I’ve become a stereotype of a retiree 😉 . The group meets once a quarter to discuss issues within the finance community and we offer suggestions to the Executive Team for how to respond to those issues. Once a year, we also meet with the Board of Directors.

So basically, my love for this community and finance has turned me into something I never thought I would become and I couldn’t be happier 🙂 . I guess I need to take my own advice of “never say never” a bit more seriously…

Astronomy

So I’ve always been a bit obsessed with space. The poster next to my bed growing up was of the solar system with facts about the planets. One of my original dreams was to become an astronaut and I freaked out when meeting Sally Ride at a female science camp. I even went to Space Camp where I unfortunately learned that space is terrifying and I have no interest in being in it 🙂 . It’s good I discovered that before I got up there though!

As I got older, my dreams shifted to a more planet-side appreciation of the stars, but I kept making the ‘mistake’ of living in major cities with so much light pollution that seeing anything but the brightest planets was impossible. Luckily, after moving to Georgia, (outside Atlanta) I was able to reignite my love of stargazing and did so with a fury!

I now know north/south/east/west no matter where I am so I can pinpoint where a planet or star should be in the sky at a certain time. With the help of the (free!) app Star Walks 2, I’ve identified every planet that can be seen with the naked eye (such as Mars, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter), countless constellations and almost infinite stars 😉 . This renewed hobby makes the nighttime, (previously an almost dreaded time of day for me since I love the sun) infinitely better and more magical.

Nature Identification

I’ve always been curious about the world around me and wanted to learn more about it. Well now, I have the time and have been making it a priority! So far, I’ve learned how to use apps and the wonderful world wide web to identify all finds of flora and fauna – from birds to insects to reptiles, trees and flowers. To figure all this out, I’ve been using the below awesome (and free) mobile apps to identify my worldly neighbors:

• Audubon
• BirdNET
• iNaturalist

Retirement

I think the most significant new skill I’ve learned this year is how to live a retired life. And like all skills, it will continue to evolve, but I have now adapted to having no schedule, no plans and no (or few…) restrictions after a lifetime of nothing but that. Ever since I first went to kindergarten, there have been set timelines and rules and the absence of freedom (even though I did attend Montessori school, which had many less restrictions than ‘traditional’ schools).

The closest I had to freedom previously were our summers from school, but even those weren’t free for me. I had to attend camps for most of the day so my Mom could work and was given summer reading and projects on top of that. Now that I’m writing this I’m realizing: I’ve never felt full freedom before. Not as an adult who can go anywhere and make their own decisions (compared to a toddler or baby for example who also doesn’t really have a schedule).

Anyway, based on the comments I receive online (but strangely not in person…) people on the interwebs seem to be concerned about the level of freedom retirement affords, but I’m happy to report that it really suits me and I’m thriving – even without a schedule or routine. In fact, that might be one of my favorite parts of retirement.

I used to cling to my schedule with two hands – not just at work, but at home. At work, my job did entail constant changes, which grated at me, but I worked with and around them. However, this bled into my home life because if a plan or schedule changed then at the last minute…..I didn’t take it well 🙂 .

In comparison, now – I’ve been more spontaneous and open to spontaneous events than I ever have before. A friend knocks on my door and I hadn’t seen her text that she was dropping by with extra N-95 masks for me and my partner? Let’s hang out on the porch! A friend messes up which day we’re going on a hike and happens to be outside my house? Come on to the backyard and we’ll chat! Instead of my dumb work brain freaking out about a change in plans, my new retired self almost revels in it.

It’s not a big deal if my plans change because I can rearrange my life if needed because I do want to see these people and I want to spend time with them and now that I’m not working…changing plans isn’t a big deal 🙂 . There is time to re-arrange and stuff everything important into my day compared to when I had maybe 1-3 hours between closing my work laptop and passing out on my pillow before doing it all again.

In response to the other concern I hear on the internet about retirement: I have also shockingly not become a daytime TV watching blob in retirement – even though that kind of was my goal! I wanted to relax and catch up on books and shows I hadn’t had time to get into while working.

But damn it, I did it all wrong 🙂 . I’ve prioritized (safely) seeing family and close friends during this pandemic, which helped me keep what’s important in perspective and as a result – I haven’t had time to watch many things. I still read a lot, but my Netflix queue is still stacking up because I’m busy hanging with the actual humans living in my commune. Wild 🙂 .

And yes, some days I just lay on the couch and read and watch the sun go across the sky and those are lovely days too, but those are infinitely more rare than I had ever imagined. So I’m learning how to be an early retiree…and loving every minute of it 🙂 .

Retirement To Do List

However, before I retired, I had a lot of to do list items to get ready for that life change, so I want to gather those all up here for posterity (and to make me feel more justified in lying facedown for the foreseeable future 😉 ):

1. Rolled my HSA over to Lively
2. Scheduled and completed all Doctor’s Appointments
3. Set up Traveling Mailbox
4. Rolled over my 401(k)
5. Signed up for World Nomads Travel Insurance
6. Changed my Vanguard Taxable Dividends from being reinvested to being deposited into my checking account every quarter
7. Renewed my Driver’s License in Washington State
8. Got a Charles Schwab account for free international ATMs

Other Skills

I was going to expand on all of the skills I learned this year, but then I realized if I did that, this post would literally be the length of a novel, so in no particular order here are some of things I learned and improved:

• The Military Alphabet
• Nail Painting
• Singing
• Language Learning
• Dance Choreography
• Bread Making
• Submitting DMCA claims for websites that steal my articles – and getting them taken down 🙂
• Pandemic Road Tripping

New Experiences

Food

Early retirement has been a delicious adventure so far:

Even when I switched back to keto it continued to be delicious 😉 :

And I even learned new things thanks to my partner:

Community

Friendship

Ever since I was last funemployed 4 years ago, I’ve made it a priority to keep in touch with the long distance people in my life. One silver lining of this pandemic was that even though I no longer saw people in person, I did see them way more often virtually. In fact, at times, I saw them more virtually in a month than I had in years. Here is a sampling of the ways I’ve been keeping up friendships this year:

• I’ve continued my weekly calls with my ex-college roommate that lives in Argentina. I was supposed to actually be visiting her in person for the month of November – it would have been the first time we saw each other in person in like a decade so that was sad to cancel, but I’m looking forward to rescheduling whenever it’s safe to do so
• I’ve started having bi-weekly virtual movie nights with my former college suite mates, which has been fun. We rotate who picks the film and at times just postpone it to talk shit instead 🙂
• My partner started doing weekly crossword puzzles online with his dad – and while I’m not directly involved, I usually can help them get one right answer so I’m listing that here to get full credit for my assistance 😉
• We’ve had way more video chats with my partner’s whole family than ever before – I think we ended up doing one every other month, which is awesome
• I moved my previous monthly happy hours with Seattle friends online and that’s been fun as well. After 6 months, we did see each other (masked, distanced) in a park and it was nice to see their faces in person quickly before we left Seattle
• I’ve had countless movie nights with other friends with the help of things like Netflix Play
• I started having a Sci-Fi show watch party with All Options Considered where we tried out multiple sci-fi TV shows on Netflix
• I did a bi-weekly Twitch stream with Fetching Financial Freedom for a few months while we played my beloved Sims 4 as well was Stardew Valley

Joined Other Twitter Worlds

So there are all different kinds of Twitter – Personal finance Twitter, TV Twitter, Birder Twitter, Art Twitter, Gaming Twitter etc. And this year I intentionally expanded outside just Personal Finance Twitter and I’m happy to report that people are just as lovely and welcoming over there as well. The internet can be a magical and warm place if you know where on each site to look – Twitter and Reddit included 😉 .

TRAVEL

Obviously my travel this year looked nothing like I planned, but this year I did travel to the below places:

1. Georgia
2. Hilton Head, SC
3. Connecticut
4. New York State

And did these new travel experiences:

• Flying cross-country during a pandemic
• Traveling in a sleeper car during a pandemic

WATCHED

So, I absolutely love film. In fact, I wanted to be a film major, but that wasn’t ‘liberal arts’ enough for my college, so I ended up just taking all the classes I could on the subject and declaring myself another major.

Anyway, below is what I watched this year along with my ratings of the films and a link to my Insta mini-reviews if I did one. This list is way shorter than I expected given we’re in a pandemic – maybe I need to focus more on watching TV and movies next year 😉 .

Movies

The Kitchen (2/5)
The Matrix (Re-re-re-re-re-watch) (5/5)
Miss Americana: Taylor Swift (4/5)
Knives Out (5/5) – My review is here.
Frozen 2 (2/5)
Inside Out (3/5)
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (Re-Watch) (5/5)
El Camino (4/5)
Marriage Story (2/5)
Angel Has Fallen (4/5) – My review is here.
The Old Guard (4/5) – My review is here.
Lovebirds (4/5) – My review is here.
The Mummy (Re-re-re-watch) (11/5)
Hamilton (5/5) – My review is here.
Eurovision (4/5) – My review is here.
The Villainess (4/5) – My review is here.
Extraction (1/5)
The Cabin In The Woods (re-watch) 5/5 – My review is here.
The Lighthouse (3/5)
The Wave (Re-watch) 5/5 – My review is here.
The Quake (4/5) – My review is here.
Blade (Re-watch) (3/5)
The Spy Who Dumped Me (4/5) – My review is here.
Klaus (re-watch) (5/5) – My review is here.
The Invisible Man (4/5)

TV Shows

The Witcher (4/5) – My review is here.
Big Mouth S1-S3 (3/5)
Our Planet (5/5)
Brooklyn 99 S7 (5/5)
The Wire (Rewatch)
Westworld S3 (5/5) – My review is here.
Steven Universe Future (5/5)
Castlevania S1 (4/5)
I Think You Should Leave (3/5)
The Good Place S4 (5/5)
Top Chef All Stars S17
Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America (4/5)
Sex Education S2 (4/5)
Homestead Rescue (3/5)
The Profit (3/5)
My 600 lb life S8 (3/5)
Restaurant Impossible S16 (3/5)
Catfish S8 (4/5)
Gordon Ramsey’s 24 Hours To Hell And Back S3 (3/5)
Homicide For The Holidays (3/5)
Pete Davidson: Alive From New York (5/5)
True Detective S1 (5/5) – My review is here.
Schitt’s Creek S1 (3/5)
Broad City S5 (5/5)
Lost In Space (4/5)
The 100 (1/5)
Another Life (3/5)
McMillions (1/5)
Devs (5/5) – My review is here.
What We Do In The Shadows S1 (5/5) – My review is here.
Motherland: Fort Salem S1 (2/5)
Veronica Mars S1
Avatar The Last Airbender (Rewatch) (5/5) – My review is here.
I’m Sorry (3/5)
Killing Eve S1 (5/5) – My review is here.
Away (4/5) – My review is here.

YouTube

About a year ago, I started getting really into YouTube. Here are my channel obsessions this year:

Media
DangeloWallace
TiffanyFerg
Jenny Nicholson
ContraPoints
Smokey Glow
Munecat
Luke Alexander
Cruel World Happy Mind
Jordan Theresa
Swell Entertainment

Science
Kyle Hill

Film
Patrick H Willems
Jeremy Jahns
Lessons From A Screenplay
Just Write
FoundFlix
Corridor Crew (VFX Artists React)
Gamespot (Westworld Analysis)

Comedy
Dead Meat
Pro ZD
Darius Benson
Theresa Is Dead
Drew Gooden
Danny Gonzalez

Food
Babish Culinary Universe

Music
Ale Madsen

Finance
rich&Regular

READING

Another goal of mine this year was to read one non-fiction book a month and given the hellscape of 2020, I did not hit this goal for the first time. I’ll try harder next year – being retired will surely help 😉 . Overall though, I needed the escape of fiction this year and I won’t apologize for it! In 2020 I read:

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics
Come As You Are
The Head Trip: Adventures On The Wheels Of Consciousness
Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions
Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
…and about 1 million fanfics

Next year is already looking brighter fiction reading-wise 😉 :

Y'all – I just realized I currently have enough mental energy to read a NON-FICTION book📚! This is the first time in like 8 months. Maybe all that napping is finally paying off🙌🏾! pic.twitter.com/Jmf0SatLYd

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) November 28, 2020

PLAYED

I love a deadline 🙂 . Since I knew we were getting rid of our gaming PC before leaving Seattle, I felt the pressure to play the games we had already bought on there so this year I played:

• Sims 4
• Cities: Skylines
• Stardew Valley
• Kentucky Route Zero
• Virtual Games with friends on Jackboot.tv

However, I didn’t know that my partner’s first order of business after we moved to Georgia, would be to build another gaming PC 🙂 . Still, I’m glad that (apparently) fake pressure led me to check out more games this year and am happy that I can continue playing them now.

LISTENED

I listened to over 71,257 minutes of music in 2020, which was actually significantly higher than previous years (29K in 2019) and as a result, I found even more new artists and albums that made my heart sing.

If you’re interested in stats, in 2020 I listened to 578 artists including 215 new ones and explored 190 genres including 94 new ones. Here’s the best music I found this year:

Albums

• Palo Santa – Years & Years
• Doom Days – Bastille

Soundtracks & Scores

I love film soundtracks and original scores so here were the ones that I couldn’t get out of my head this year:

• The Witcher Original Score
• Westworld Season 3 Original Score (“Wicked Games” in particular)
• Hobbs & Shaw Soundtrack
• Hamilton Soundtrack

Artists

Here are all the new artists I’ve discovered and become obsessed with this year:

• Gary Clarke Jr.
• Dermot Kennedy
• Colter Wall
• Bastille
• Years & Years
• Cobi
• Citizen Shade
• Jonas Blue
• Léon
• Daya
• PVRIS
• Imagine Dragons
• George Ogilvie
• Emily King

Songs

These are my favorite songs that I listened to in 2020:

• “Breathe” Mako (This was my most played song at 696 times and I’m not surprised because it’s extremely appropriate for 2020)
• “The Best of You” Andry Grammar and Elle King
• “The Last Of The Real Ones” Fall Out Boy
• “Walk The Moon” morgxn
• “Pray for the Wicked” by Panic! At The Disco
• “Bad Guy” Billie Eilish
• “Husavik” – My Marianne

Lyrics

I don’t know why these lines stayed with me, but they have. I’m making calligraphy doodles of them. Stay tuned for that 😉 .

“I’m in love with how your soul’s a mix of chaos and art and how you never try to keep them apart”

“My hand fit in yours like a bird would find the breeze”

The Purple Grammys

For the first time, I’ll be giving out awards, which consist of my unending gratitude…what a great prize 🙂 .

Best Music Video

The most hilarious and amazing music video of the year award goes to: Think About Things by Daði Frey

Cry Baby Award

This is the song I cried to the most and the winner is:

“Husavik” – My Marianne, From Eurovision

If you’re curious why this song turned me into a weeping child even though it’s within a silly movie, it reminded me of my time in Italy and the revelations I had there.

Dance, Dance Award

This is the song I danced to the most and since it’s the only song that inspired me to choreograph a dance for the first time in years the award goes to:

“Lost” by Dermot Kennedy

Finance

This year I helped a few friends (at their request) improve their financial lives! This included:

• Moving checking account money to investments for colleague/friend
• Showing a colleague how to move into index funds within her 401k
• Helping a friend choose between index funds and ETFs
• Assisting another friend open a new 401K account
• Helping a friend roll multiple 401Ks into Trad IRA at Vanguard
• Sharing JL Collins’ amazing Stock Series with my step-brother after he asked me how to get started individual stock investing when the market declined (Spoiler: I told him don’t you dare)
• Helping a colleague invest in index funds within their 401K
• Checking back in with a friend who in 2013 invested money and immediately ‘lost’ it. I gave her a pep talk and I told her not to look and then in 2020 she did look after the market recovered (despite my warnings) and said “HOLY SHIT” with how much she had
• Teaching a friend that you can invest your HSA and helping her choose a fund and then do it!
• Helping my cousin’s husband set up an HSA with my provider, Lively
• Having an interview with my hosting provider Bluehost and the interviewee increasing his 401k contributions after talking to me and also opening an IRA for his wife 🙂
• Helping 2 friends with 401K rollovers
• Chatting with a teacher who reached out to me on Instagram asking if I would create a lesson on finance for 7th through 12th graders and answer their questions on a Zoom call. I declined, but found it interesting the random things that come out of the woodwork in retirement
• Discussing if another friend should do an after-tax 401k contribution
• Chatting with someone who asked if I would do a coaching session with them for money…I said I’d think about it 😉
• Saving another friend from buying into an annuity that was masquerading as a 401k

Conclusion

So that’s everything I got up to during this dumpster fire of a year 🙂 . I’m clinging to anything positive in this world so I’m going to call this a win! Let’s hope 2021 has something better in store for us 😉 .

How was your year? Did your goals go out the window like mine?