A Look Back at 2020
2020 is finally over.
It has been an eventful year, to say the least. For many people, this was one of the worst times in their lives. For me, I learned a lot and became more confidant of my future. While I experienced many negatives, I also had a lot of positives. I had the privilege of making the most out of this year, so now I’m taking the opportunity to reflect and document my journey.
Key Events
Learned about personal finance concepts, including retirement, tax, investing
Invested into the stock market for the first time
Invested into Bitcoin for the first time
Tried day trading (stock + options)
Took photography more seriously
Started making and editing videos
Won Fantasy Football in my league of friends
Laid off from my job
Moved back home with parents
Explored side hustles
As you can see, I feel like my year was quite eventful. Not everything was good, but I did learn a lot of new info that will be incredibly useful for my future.
I’m also being very objective and impartial on here, because this is a personal blog. I’m not trying to impress anyone, so I will be honest and factual about my accomplishments and failures. I always see on social media humble brags about how much someone has accomplished. You have to realize that they are never fully honest. These posts always embellish the details or just straight up lie. I detest those posts and those people. You will find none of that here, only honest facts.
Let’s dive in.
In order to best reflect on my year, I shall take a chronological approach. Chronological order will be easier to write and follow. I shall start with January.
January
I started this year at home in New Hampshire. Funny, I’m still here.
I was home for the Holidays as I took PTO from my job. I remember the first major world event that happened was the US assassination of an Iranian military leader. At the time, everyone in my generation was scared, because we legit thought that the US might go to war with Iran. Under Trump, I truly feared that war was a real possibility due to the upcoming election, and that his administration might restart the draft. Because of my age at the time, I would be eligible.
I was worried I’d be drafted to fight a war. First of all, I value my own life too much to go into war. Second, I would never fight for a cause I didn’t support. Third, I refuse to die for a country under any circumstance.
I was really worried.
All my friends were talking about it as well. Then a few days later, we all just moved on. I remember asking my Iranian coworker about it. She was scared, but a few days later, everything seemed to go back to normal. At least, until the next big event floods everyone’s mind. We got the news about the Australian wildfires. It didn’t affect me, but I thought about how terrifying that was for people who lived in Australia. That was probably an omen for the things to come.
My birthday is in January, so my company celebrated with me by getting a cake for all the Jan birthdays and took us out to the local bar after work. Our CEO bought me champagne, and we talked about photography. I think that was one of the reasons why my company asked me to take company headshots. After the bar, my friend and roommate took me out to our favorite pizzeria.
The next day, I hung out with another friend and had a photoshoot. She was kind enough to be my photographer, and I tried a couple of outfits. We went to a cool, outdoor exhibit in the Seaport District. We took some great photos. I felt like a social media influencer.
I didn’t want to work a traditional job. I wanted to travel and take photos. I figured that being a social media influencer would allow me to pursue those things. I was confidant that I can pull it off. It sounded simple in my head.
I still think it is possible, but it takes a lot of effort, luck, and privilege. If I want to do that in the future, I need to have steady income first. So, that became my goal in January. I wanted to travel the world and earn money while doing so. It’s a far-fetched dream, but there are people who do it. Why can’t it be me?
I got really into photography around this time, because my company asked me to take professional headshots. I accepted because I thought it’d be good practice. I knew they weren’t gonna pay me; that’s why they asked in the first place instead of hiring professionals. I didn’t mind.
I took my old, trusty Canon T2i and took some great shots. I didn’t understand photography concepts at all, but I knew how to take an appealing photo of someone. I must’ve taken headshots for at least 40 people. Throughout the process, I learned a lot. The biggest lesson was that the average person (most people to be honest) have no understanding of photography. I realized my limited knowledge was still far beyond that of others. That’s how I realized that I can definitely build on my photography career.
My friends also asked me to take professional headshots for them, which I was more than happy to oblige. Not only was it good practice for me, but I also got to help my friends and got paid in the process. I even brought one friend into my office, where I had a setup for the headshot, to take his photos. I consider these gigs my first professional photography jobs. I hope to do more in the future.
In late January, I went to a Lakers vs. Celtics game at TD Garden. It was one of the most anticipated games of the year. My roommate and I managed to get tickets at the last minute. They were expensive, but we decided that they were worth the price. I’m so glad I went. I never regret paying for experiences.
My roommate convinced me to wear a Lebron James shirt, so I got quite a few locals giving me shit for it. I thought it’d be funny, but in the future I’d avoid wearing an opposing team’s jersey. I did not like the extra attention. I felt self-conscious, and that distracted me from parts of the game.
I don’t care for wearing jerseys in general. I also don’t root for any particular teams, except for the Knicks, so I don’t like to wear team apparels. Next time, I will just wear normal outfit, so fans don’t chirp me every time Lebron missed a shot.
Toward the end of January, my parents came to visit me. Chinese New Years was coming up, we had lunch in Chinatown. At the time, Coronavirus was just spreading in China. China was severely affected, but the US was not affected at the time. Everything was still open, but people did their best to avoid Chinatown, so the restaurants were fairly empty. We didn’t think it was a big deal, so we went anyways. We also walked around the city afterwards. After lunch, we visited the North End.
It was at Mike’ Pastries when my mom told me to look at the TV. That was the moment I found out about Kobe Bryant’s death. It was shocking to say the least. I was sad for weeks, because I liked him a lot. He was the only celebrity death that has actually affected me. I had just watched him on TV a few days earlier.
Kobe always seemed invincible. Out of all players, I would never imagine Kobe to die such a tragic death. I almost cried a few mornings as his death was on my mind a lot. It was tough. I thought that would be the worst thing to happen this year. Little did I know…
One thing I took away from Kobe’s death is that anyone can die at anytime and anywhere. Despite all his success, Kobe still died in a freak accident. His death made me realize that we can all die at anytime. I think about this a lot.
Anyways, onward to February.
February
I started to take photography more seriously. Because I lived in the middle of the city, I often took the advantage of going out and taking street photography. I even bought a Go Pro as a Valentine’s to myself. My parents also bought me an expensive, new camera. I figured it was finally time to upgrade. I had the same camera for 6+ years. It was still great, but I wanted newer technology. They got a Sony A7iii, and I love it. I just wish I had more opportunities to use it.
Before I got my new camera, I took my old one to one more shoot, which was the Chinese New Year celebration in Chinatown. I knew Covid was already spreading rapidly in China, so I covered my face.
I got my new camera a few days later. I was so excited that I went out to shoot that very night. Check out my first photos here.
I focused on becoming a creator. I started this blog around this time. I also started my YouTube channel. I remember the first video I put on my channel. I used my iPhone to film myself walking to a local Mexican restaurant. It was terrible. My camera was shaky the entire time. I had no idea that walking would cause the screen to bounce up and down until I tried to watch it myself afterwards. This was my first of many lessons. Here is the video below.
As you can see, it’s not very good. I used Final Cut Pro, a free software that came with my computer. I had a lot of trouble editing the video using this software. I used to use iMovie, because it was simple. Eventually, I would download Premiere Pro, which is the industry standard.
Later in the month, my coworker got engaged, so our office decided to throw her a party. I decided to film it. I think it’s still one of my best videos, which is not saying much. I think I captured the emotions well.
I also went with my roommate to an Indian grocery store. It was my first time being to an Indian store. I was mesmerized by all the different kinds of Indian ingredients. We ended up buying a lot of frozen Indian food, because my roommate hated cooking. I didn’t mind eating frozen food. I got a bunch of frozen Curry and Masalas.
I also brought my camera there to make a video, but I ended by deleting most of the footage. I didn’t really like how it turned out. I was also the weirdo who was taking pictures and videos non-stop inside the store. I was sure the owners were sketched out. I was also sure that I was disturbing the customers. No one likes having a stranger take pictures of themselves, in public or private. Alas, no one asked me to stop, so I did it anyways.
Here are some photos I took during Feb. This was the first month I took photography more seriously. I used to just point and shoot. Now, I was learning to shoot with manual. Some of these photos are also from my phone, which is basically just an expensive camera that can text.
March
Who knew a pandemic would shut down the entire world?
Covid forced us all to work from home. I was happy at first, because I had wanted to quit my job for a long time, so the prospect of WFH indefinitely was fantastic. I didn’t have to go into the office and pretend to work. I could now finish work at my own pace and then do whatever I wanted. I played a lot of video games during the day. I would finish my work and then just move my cursor so I appeared online for the rest of the day. I’m pretty sure everyone else was doing the same thing.
Those first few weeks were great. I think everyone liked having a break. It felt like a mini vacation with minimal work. But we all thought this would be temporary, and we’d go back within a few months at the latest.
Of course, we never went back. The pandemic got worse. More and more people started dying. The NBA suspended its season. All the other sports followed soon after. The whole world shut down. The market tanked, not that I knew or cared at the time. I stayed in my apartment, just working and playing games. For me personally, life was okay. But now I couldn’t travel anymore. My dream of becoming a travel influencer was canceled. I did make a video on what Boston looks like during a pandemic.
Before everything was shut down, Boston had its annual restaurant week, where restaurants would offer steep discounts on certain dishes. My friend and I went to a few good ones. Here are some pictures to distract myself from the rest of this depressing month.
Since everything was shut down in the city, I eventually moved back home. I thought it’d be a small stint, but I’m still here.
My parents came to pick me up. On the way home, we stopped by a liquor store. I picked out a few bottles. That first night, I would finish half a bottle of whiskey by myself and put a dent in my computer. I also had a mental breakdown while drunk. My mom had to come check on me, because I was making scene in my own room. The next day, I puked multiple times and had to sleep until 1pm. It was also a work day. Thankfully due to working from home, I didn’t even have to pretend to work. I just slept through the morning with no repercussions. Since then, I haven’t gotten drunk. I still have a few beers here and there, but I’ve stopped binge drinking.
Here is what I got. I drank half of the Suntory whiskey on my first night home while playing Call of Duty with my friends. I haven’t touched liquor since…
My cousin was also staying with us. He is a student at Syracuse University. His school closed for the year, so my aunt and uncle asked us to take him in. I thought it’d be fun to have someone close to my age living with us.
Turns out, he didn’t really get along with my family. We were all glad when he left in early July. The language and cultural barrier made it difficult for me to hang out with him. My parents didn’t like how he stayed in his room all day. He also didn’t really contribute to the family. Not that we asked him to. We felt like he was a hotel guest, and we were the maids. It was rough to have him over to be honest.
For the rest of March and pretty much April, May, and June, nothing really changed. I was home and working. My parents were also home. The whole world was home. It felt hopeless, but at least we were safe.
April
The slowest month this year. I did buy a monitor though, so it was nice to stare at a bigger screen all day. I also wanted to try dropshipping but didn’t get very far. I couldn’t choose any products I particularly wanted to sell. I also couldn’t justify buying a cheap product from China and then marking it up to sell. I believe any of these cheap Chinese products would be profitable, especially with how long and expensive international shipping was at that time.
I started taking weekly walks with my mom. She would vent about life. I would talk about quitting my job. More importantly, she would help me take pictures around town. I made a post about it. Check it out here. I also made a video on it.
May
This month also didn’t present any changes. For work, I was put on an improvement plan due to bad feedback. I didn’t agree with the feedback, but I did my best to accomplish my tasks. In fact, my boss and client even praised me for my efforts.
I also started to learn about digital marketing. I believed that this was an area I can excel in, though I had minimal experience. I wanted to expand on digital marketing, so I can eventually do remote work and move abroad.
I discovered the concept of being a digital nomad. A digital nomad is someone who works remotely out of foreign countries. I want to be a nomad. I wouldn’t have any ties to a place. I could travel and see the world. I still want to be a digital nomad, but the situation made delayed that goal.
June
I passed my improvement plan. My boss said I exceeded expectations. Aside from that, I just worked and waited for the world to return to normal. Nothing really changed.
I did become obsessed with Attack on Titan, which is an anime. It’s the best show I’ve seen all year. I absolutely love the story. I read the entire manga first. Then I watched the anime. Then I watched other people watch the anime. Then I watched other people read the manga. Then I joined all the subreddits. It’s now the only fandom I’m a part of, and I participate frequently. It’s such a masterfully-crafted story. I’ve always been obsessed with good writing in TV and have always wanted to write my own screenplay. I appreciate how intricate and detailed the AoT story is, despite the initial plot being men vs. monsters.
July
I was stressed about finding a new place in Boston to live since my lease would end in early August. I didn’t know when we would return to our office, but I felt like I needed to still find a place. I didn’t want to, because I didn’t want to pay for rent while I lived at home. Fortunately, my office announced that we would be working from home until next year. It was a huge relief.
I also went back to Boston during the last week of July. I wanted to spend a few weeks there while I packed all my stuff to move out. Unfortunately, I was laid off. My boss told me that it wasn’t due to my performance. He said that the position has been made redundant.
I knew this was coming, so I wasn’t too surprised. We had just gotten a new CEO, who had a known reputation for cutting costs. During company meetings, he kept stressing about being profitable. It was his only goal. Since we were not bringing in additional revenue, the only other solution would be to cut cost. That week, a ton of us were laid off. Thankfully, I got lucky in not signing a new lease, getting severance, and being eligible for unemployment.
So, I packed all my stuff and got ready move home. I knew this was my last few days in Boston for the foreseeable future, so I wanted to make it count. There are only two restaurants in Boston I really love, and they’re not even local: Popeyes and Shake Shack. I prefer fast food over all other foods. I’d rather eat at McDonalds than at a fancy restaurant.
Anyways, I went to both of those multiple times within a few weeks. It was delicious. My only regret is that I didn’t go more. I also finally tried the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich, and it was absolutely worth all the hype.
August
I said goodbye to Boston and moved home for good. After spending 7 years in that city, I never thought it’d take a global pandemic for me to finally leave. I managed to compile together clips from my time in Boston into a short, farewell video. Check it out.
This was also when my family and I would frequently go out for hikes. We visited a lot of the local areas, some I haven’t gone since I was really young. It was nostalgic to see these places again. And it was peaceful to be surrounded by nature. The trails were less crowded than usual, which is good.
The first one we went to was Quechee Gorge. Here are some photos from that day. As we were walking back, it started to rain heavily. We waited for 20 minutes under cover.
This was also the time I really started to learn about finance. I began to take my personal finance more seriously. I learned about investing and trading. I decided on the goal of retiring early and getting financial independence. All my money at the time was in savings, so I invested part of it into index funds. I put another part into Robinhood to trade. I regret not understanding investing earlier, because I missed out on one of the greatest bull run in history from March onwards. But I’m glad I got into it now. It’s always better now than never.
I feel like most people, despite their age, do not understand finance very well. Not only do they not even have a budget, but they have no understanding of investing. I sometimes ask my friends about their investments, only to find out that they are barely saving at all. So many people I know are living nearly paycheck to paycheck, which is a terrible way to go through life. If you need a paycheck just to survive for a month, then you have no choice in life but to work for money.
This is the reason why I started to invest. I want to achieve financial independence as soon as possible. At the same time, I realize I might still die before that happens, so I do not want to waste my life only caring about saving and earning money. I want to live a fulfilling life, and that includes doing the things I love while making an income.
While traveling will inevitably cost money and delay my independence, I don’t mind because that’s the goal anyways. I want to retire early because I don’t want to have to work for someone else. I don’t mind working for myself or directly for clients. I want to achieve financial independence, so I can pursue things I’m passionate about. However, if I can do those things without the “freedom”, then I can still enjoy life while working towards those goals instead of waiting for retirement.
September
We continued to go out for hikes. I used the opportunity to practice photography and videography. I also started to monitor the stock market more closely. I would obsessively check my stocks. I also started to daytrade. I would only trade small amounts at a time, just so I can get used to it first.
It was also around this time that the leaves started to change colors. We got an early Fall.
Check out my Fall post here.
I also bought a bike. I really wanted to ride a bike, but my old one broke down. I visited a few local stores, but everything was sold out. I guess everyone wanted a bike due to the pandemic. I eventually managed to buy one from an online store based out of New York. I was initially skeptical, but the bike they sent was pretty good. I put it together myself and rode it a few times. I wish I had more opportunities. I also wish I got a mountain bike instead because of the terrain.
October
Not much changed between September and October.
We went to the White Mountains to check out the foliage, which was quite beautiful this year. I already made a post about it and linked it above, so I won’t post any more photos here to save space.
We also got Dominos fairly consistently. I love Domino’s Pizza. Because I prefer fast food, Domino’s is one of my favorite pizzas. I like being able to add any toppings I want. I also like the garlic crust a lot. Also, it is fairly cheap. My family likes it as well.
I also tried to trade options. I got carried away by WallStreetBets and thought I could at least stay profitable on a weekly basis. I was doing well for a few weeks following Theta Gang and buying cheap contracts. Then, I made one bad trade in selling puts for Peloton and lost hundreds in a few minutes. I had to close out my position, otherwise I would’ve lost even more. I’ve stopped options since. I don’t regret it. I might trade again in the future once I have a steady income, though I do think trading options is essentially gambling though.
We also set up our dining table as a ping pong table instead. Since we can’t really go outside anymore due to the cold weather, we’ve been playing ping pong at home, which has been pretty fun.
Later that month, we hired a contractor to cut down most of the trees in our front yard. I prefer having the trees to be honest. I like that it provided more privacy and cover to our house. We cut the trees down to have more sunlight, but these ones weren’t the trees covering the sun anyways. I’ve noticed minimal differences in sunlight.
I sold a lot of my old possessions on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. I liked Facebook at first, because it had no fees. Then, I ran into a payment dispute with a merchant. She got my used camera and complained that the box said “refurbished”, so she filed a chargeback with her bank. I didn’t get paid, and she had my camera. She also messaged me to complain that the camera wasn’t taking pictures properly. I asked if she had removed the lens cap. She stopped responding. I contacted Facebook, and they said that I had to wait for her bank to settle the dispute. Eventually, I did get paid, but it was not a good experience. There is no protection for buyers, which is probably why Facebook offer no fees.
I do like eBay because there are more protection for the buyers. I have sold a lot of stuff on eBay this year. The only bad part is the selling fee, which is always 10%. Also, eBay uses Paypal, which also charges a small fee. I also sometimes pay for shipping. In the end, all the fees really do add up. I now have a much better understanding of online sales, especially how costly it is. I realize how hard it is to be profitable. It’s good knowledge to have, because I’m sure I’ll sell something online again soon.
November
The first two weeks of this month was all about the election. My mom and I went to vote for the president for the first time ever, since we became US citizens after the 2016 election. It was exciting and anxious. The whole country was on edge all week, because the results were not decisive. Here is a video I made of election day, which was really election week this year.
Aside from the election, I didn’t do much else. I applied to jobs. I invested more in stocks. I collected unemployment. Life was slow.
I decided to buy an electronic keyboard, because I wanted to learn how to play certain songs. I tried playing the acoustic guitar earlier, but it was too difficult. I found the piano to be much more intuitive. All I had to do was hit the right key at the right time while I followed a YouTube video. I’ve been enjoying it a lot, though I can still only play Happy Birthday and My Hear Will Go On.
December
It was a battle to get a PS5. There was limited supply, so only a few people could get one. I sat by my computer and waited for supplies to drop every day. I would then refresh over and over until there was stock. I failed so many times too, before finally securing one as a bundle. Shout out to Antonline.com.
Can you see my excitement?
I had a few job interviews, all of which went nowhere, but at least they were good practice.
I also started to invest into BitCoin. I think there is a lot of potential with crypto currency, especially BitCoin. Back in 2017 when it hit the all time high, everyone was skeptical. When it dropped a few months later, most people lost faith in BitCoin. However, now more and more institutions are investing heavily into BitCoin, including big banks, hedge funds, and billionaires. This wasn’t the case before, so the world has started to embrace BitCoin. I see the potential but I’m still fairly risk averse. I only invested in a small amount and will continue with dollar-cost averaging for the foreseeable future.
Cyberpunk 2077 finally came out in December. I’ve been looking forward to this game for years, but I knew it would never live up to the hype. When I finally got it, the game was really fun. I still enjoyed it a lot, but there are a lot of elements missing that the trailers presented. I feel slightly deceived, because the game is not an RPG. It’s an action-adventure story game set in a shallow open world. While I loved the story for the most part, I don’t understand why they even bothered with such a big open world that feels empty and broken. My system also crashed over 30 times in my 30 hour play through, so that was really annoying.
We also had our first and only major snow storm this year. We got over 20 inches of snow overnight. It was probably the most I’ve ever seen over one night. We had to shovel the whole thing. I thought it wouldn’t be too bad, until the snow blower ran out of gas. Because we have a long driveway, we couldn’t go and get gas. We were stuck with shoveling the huge amount of snow. It took us hours, but we managed to do it eventually. Here is a video I made.
Christmas has passed, and now it is 2021. I won’t miss 2020, but I also think it’s foolish to think a new year will magically bring improvements and changes. I believe things will get better, especially with Covid, but personal improvements require personal actions. In order to achieve my goals, I need to be disciplined and focused. I need to take actions myself to improve my life.
I have several goals I want to achieve for this year. I will make a separate post since this post is already very long. It’s important to reflect, and now it is time to look forward.