Winter Reflection
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…and also the most reflective. As the new year arrives in a few days, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on this change-abundant year for me. I began this year similar to many of you — wondering when COVID would be over now that we had a vaccine, when we would return to a world where masks wouldn’t be necessary, and when we could collaborate with our colleagues again in person. It’s funny yet sad how a year has passed and nothing seems to have changed on that front. I am still working from home and have only met a handful of my teammates in-person in the past seven months that I have worked at Accenture.
I will focus this newsletter on my journey through the second half of 2021 as you can refer to my previous blog post for the first half. I completed my first project at Accenture as a member of the functional team. I learned a lot about how to write good user stories, conduct thorough testing in different environments, and use the Salesforce platform. After six crazy months of that project, I transitioned over to help another client on a change enablement initiative to increase end-user adoption of their new technology platform. This quick six-week engagement allowed me to lead a team of three, flex my consulting skills, and reignite my passion for change management work. I decided to take these last two weeks in December off over the holidays to rest and relax before embarking to find a new change project in January 2022 and going back to the grind. If you are interested in joining the Accenture team, please reach out. I am more than happy to chat with you about my experience and/or provide a referral.
One cool work-related event I participated in was an office tour at the beginning of November in the San Francisco Accenture Office located within the Salesforce Tower!
On a more personal note, I am no longer in a relationship. Although we have gone our separate ways, we remain on good terms. I have beautiful memories to look back on: traveling to new cities, states, and national parks; eating at Michelin Star restaurants, as well as local mom-and-pop shops; laughing and learning a ton. Now that I am single if you know of any fine gentlemen in the Bay Area looking to mingle, feel free to send them my way! Haha Just kidding. Or am I…maybe I’ll be ready to date in a few months. Who knows?
After recently moving back home to live with my family, I realize how much I want a home to call my own. I’ve been dedicating most of my time and energy to finding a home these past few weeks and will continue looking over the next few months. It has been a humbling experience as the housing prices in the Bay Area are INSANE! I can only afford a condo/townhouse since single-family homes are well over $1M in my neighborhoods of interest. My ideal home would be a move-in ready two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse with an in-unit washer and dryer located in the NOBE (North Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville) and/or Alameda areas under $800,000 with a maximum HOA of $500. If you know of any homes that fit this description, please let me know.
This year, I have been learning more about personal finance, the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement, real estate, and investing. I started reading books to educate myself and even opened my first IRA (individual retirement account) earlier this year! Woohoo! Below are the books that I read this year:
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- First-Time Home Buyer by Scott Trench & Mindy Jensen
- The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
- Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier
- Set for Life by Scott Trench
- I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
- Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
- The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin
- Playing with FIRE by Scott Rickens
- Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung — Favorite book that I read this year! Highly recommend!
- Get Good with Money by Tiffany Aliche
- Learning How Investing Works, Grow Your Money by Bola Sokunbi
These are books on my 2022 reading list:
- The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle
- Retire Early with Real Estate by Chad Carson
- Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Buy, Rebab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat by David Greene
- The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
- The Simple Path to Wealth by J L Collins
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
What other influential personal finance, FIRE, real estate, and/or investing books am I missing? Let me know if there are other books you recommend I read.
Growing up in a low-income household, I constantly heard my parents arguing about money — you’re spending too much money on soap, why are you bringing home take-out, we can’t afford to buy this new iPhone, etc. They were so focused on saving money but not on how to grow their money. Every transaction they made was in cash; they barely understood the concept of credit cards, let alone receiving points for purchases that could be used to redeem for flights, hotels, or cash back. Technology was NOT their friend so the possibility of opening a retirement account online and making regular contributions to it was a foreign concept. My dad never even worked at a job that provided health insurance or benefits, such as a 401(k), so saving for retirement in a tax-savvy way never crossed his mind. To my parents, putting money into the stock market equates to gambling — something they could not afford to do while raising two kids.
Needless to say, their lack of knowledge on personal finance, retirement options, and investing meant that I did not grow up with knowledge in those realms either. That’s not to say my parents didn’t pass on some useful skills and life lessons to me. Anyone who knows me knows I am all about the FREE and getting the best value for my money. I maximize on opportunities to get free food (via Yelp Elite), free fitness classes (via complimentary first classes and trials), and free money (via credit card sign-up bonuses). I learned how to save most of my income and live below my means. When you don’t come from money, you know how to make a dollar stretch. However, saving money can only take you so far. If you keep your money inside a bank account or in cash, you’re losing money every year due to inflation (which goes up a few percent every year — this year it’s almost 7%, which is super high). This is where investing comes in. With investing, you can beat out inflation and grow your money. Using low-cost index funds, your money will grow 100% of the time over 40 years in the stock market; I learned this on the ChooseFI podcast, which helps people discover and accelerate their path to Financial Independence (FI). ChooseFI has a ton of resources on their website to help you in your FI journey and Facebook groups to join and meet other like-minded people in your local area. If anyone is interested in connecting about FI, please reach out as I would love to exchange knowledge and resources.
After coming home last year to financially help my family since my dad lost his job due to COVID, I learned a lot more about my parent’s mindset and understanding of money. I think this experience also pushed me to want to educate myself more because I never want to be in a place where I have to be worried about finances or depend on someone else to make ends meet. Frugality is a major component of FIRE and while my parents are great at saving money, they’re not so great at investing it. I’m still trying to convince them to open an IRA and invest in the stock market so if you have any tips or tried and true methods that have worked with your family, please share that knowledge with me. I don’t think the money they have in their bank account is going to keep up with the rate of inflation and I’m worried they won’t have enough money to live comfortably in retirement.
While I can’t control what my parents do with their money, I can control my own financial decisions. In 2022, I plan to do the following to ensure I achieve FI as soon as possible:
- Max out my traditional 401(k) — way better for tax purposes if you think you will retire under a lower tax bracket, which you should with FI
- Max out my Roth (or backdoor Roth) IRA
- Max out my HSA (health savings account) — didn’t even know this existed until a few months ago
- Max out my ESPP (employee share purchase plan) — as an Accenture employee, I get a 15% discount buying a certain number of stocks each year so this is a good deal for me; plus I believe in the future of my company so I expect the stock price to continue rising
- Invest any extra remaining money into a brokerage account — low-cost index funds FTW
While I wish I started on many of these things years ago, I can’t change the past or go back in time. As someone once famously said, “The best time to invest was yesterday. The second best time is today.” I am learning (slowly but surely) the benefits of compound interest and its profound impact on my FI journey. The more I think about the FIRE movement, the more I wonder if my desire to purchase such an expensive home makes sense. While I could purchase a one-bedroom condo at a much lower price point, I think having a second bedroom to rent out is a smart decision to help with the mortgage. However, I also wonder if it makes more sense to first purchase a rental property in a cheaper area and generate more passive income so I can have more money to purchase a single-family home in the future. Let me know your thoughts and what you think I should do.
In addition to professional and personal development, I also love spending time with my family and friends. Below are some photos of those adventures:
Avenue of the Giants, CA
Fort Bragg, CA
Eureka, CA
Sequoia National Park, CA
Kings Canyon National Park, CA
Pinnacles National Park, CA
Los Angeles, CA — For those of you who don’t know, I go to LA every couple of months to eat good food and see old friends! #yum
Holiday Cheer & Festivities
To everyone reading this, THANK YOU for making a positive impact on my life. Whether you listened to me rant about work or relationships, gave me more insight into the FIRE movement, or shared home buying advice with me, I would not be the person I am today without your feedback and support. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and I will try my best to make it happen. Please reach out if you visit the Bay Area or live here and would like to catch up. I’m triple vaccinated and love to eat and talk! :)
With gratitude,
Cathy
