As we just entered 2023, I would like to share with you a quick summary of 2022 from the perspective of financials.
As you can see from the chat above, our Total Net-Worth (TNW) has been increasing every year, but the increment year-on-year has been dropping, which means we are further away from our 40/40 goal than 2019 while I am 3 years closer to age 40.
This is mainly due to our investment.
I was mostly out of a job in 2020, but our investment carried us through.
In 2021, it is the opposite. I got my salary back, but our investment tanked, resulting in an overall lower increment than 2020.
Our investment continued the dive, but not as drastic as 2021. I was able to hold on to my salary for the most part and most of the pay for the freelancer work I did in 2021 came in 2022. But we still had a lower increment than 2021.
Worse still, at the end of 2022, our actual TNW was lower than our conservative projection. This means we have fallen behind our projection in absolute terms, aka, we are poorer than we planned to be.
Again, investment contributed to most of it. Even we were conservative about our projection, we did not forecast a negative return on investment. But we have been in the red zone for the last 18 consecutive months.
With the market showing some signs of recovery and my new start in career, we hope to reverse this declining trend of increment and catch up with our projection in 2023.
If I look back at 2022 a few years later, I suppose it would be significant to me. As we approach the end of 2022, I would like to write a quick summary for it.
2022 started with an excitement(1) for me, but that excitement quickly turned into a long, hard and miserable struggle(2), which caused me self-doubt(3) but also pushed me to rethink about a lot of things(4) in life. Just when all that misery peaked and I started wondering how I could ever get out of it(5), I was extremely lucky to land on my feet(6) in the last month of 2022, which granted me a new start(7) in 2023.
The situation seemed hopeless and I was in deep self-doubt and despair.
I started to lose myself.
On one hand, I accepted people’s comments about me, no matter whether they were appropriate or justified. I just did not have the stamina or courage to argue.
On the other hand, I could not help doubting people’s intention. I had always been a guy who assumed best intention of others. But I could no longer keep myself on the “best intention” path at that time.
What’s worse, I also lost all judgement. I could not tell what comments were good for me or for my sake and what comments were not…
I was a mess by July and decided it was best to walk away.
After I walked away, I started to look for a new path and at the same time, I got the break I needed.
I did not actively or deliberately think over what happened, I just waited to let things sink in. Gradually, different perspectives came to me, some of which were completely opposite to what I had believed in.
I started to re-think about the real meaning of life and re-evaluate the importance of money and how much I really needed. I thought about social dynamics, being smart vs dump, hard work vs smart work etc etc.
This lasted for 4.5 months. I experienced countless rounds of emotional roller coaster. But I needed this recovery period.
By Oct, I started to panic and wonder whether I would ever find my new path.
After a few seemingly-sure-win opportunities did not work out, that panic and self-doubt got worse. Even though my wife was so understanding and only comforted me, not adding a single bit of pressure, the pressure inevitably built up.
I started to reset my expectations and was ready to compromise more. Nevertheless, there was not much I could do. That feeling was not good at all!
After a few weeks, the opportunity seemed good. I again have a new start for next year. I can even say that I am again excited for next year.
But I will be more prepared this time, speeding up my learning and growth, and at the same time, anticipating signs of danger so that I do not walk into the same struggle.
2022, to me, was everything but meaningless. Like all my frustrations before, I am sure I will feel fortunate having experienced 2022, if I look back a few years later.
