Q4 2020 Review
This is my fourth quarterly review. It's a reflection on my goals for the fourth quarter of 2020. I plan to conduct these quarterly reviews to track my progress on my ten year plan, which I published at the end of 2019 and suggest you read to get the most out of this article.
I'm posting this publicly as a way to hold myself accountable and so others have a framework to follow if they so choose.
First, I want to reflect on some of my progress against my ten year plan. I don't typically do this in the quarterly reviews, but since it's been a full year, I'd like to reflect briefly on a few topics.
More fitness: I remained consistent with my annual, quarterly, and weekly steps outlined in my ten year plan. This resulted in considerable progress for the year, even with several months out of the gym due to COVID.
More risks: My execution on this has been a little different than I outlined in my plan, but I'm still embracing risk. I have 5% of my net worth in cryptocurrency and about 4% in small cap stocks (both discussed below). I don't consider either of these to be super high risk, but they have big upside. I'm not having quarterly conversations with experts about risky investments, but I am making consistent progress in growing my network, which I believe will lead to investment opportunities.
More money: I set a net worth goal of $2 million by age 37. This year I was exceptionally fortunate, and my net worth grew by 89%. I doubt I'll see this again, but even if I can realize 25% annual growth, I'll hit my goal early. A large part of my plan included adding $1,000 per month in passive income every two years. I took a step in the opposite direction this year by selling all my rental properties, but this put me in a cash position to strike when a good opportunity arises. I've been consistent in revisiting my investing strategy on a quarterly basis, and I've increased my automated saving and investing amounts.
More philanthropy: I started making some very small donations to the Equal Justice Initiative this year, but more importantly I joined the Big Brother program as a mentor. The major portion of my philanthropic goals will be realized in ten years, and they are closely tied to my net worth goals explained above.
More readers: I set a goal to have 50,000 email list subscribers by age 37. I started the year with 178 and finished the year with 454. I'm slightly frustrated with the progress because the total number is still small, but the growth for the year was 155%. If I can maintain this growth rate, I'll hit my goal early in year seven. My goal for 2021 is to hit 1500 subscribers.
Complete Successes:
These are the goals I nailed.
One investment program analysis
After moving a large portion of my real estate proceeds into the market in the third quarter, my investing activity was much lower in the fourth quarter.
I decided to sell my positions in my airline stocks for about a 30% loss and roll those into existing positions, primarily in FSLY, NFLX, and SPOT. My thinking here was that I could make the money back more quickly in the above companies than in the airlines, and I could use some losses in my brokerage account on the year. At this point, I probably would've been better off holding the airline stocks, but in the long term I think I'll be better off with making the move I did.
I added a couple shares of SHOP on a down day, and I sold my only share of AMZN to buy more MELI, SE, and BOMN. While I like AMZN, the funds I hold are heavily weighted with AMZN - so I have exposure - and I think the other three companies I bought have much higher upside.
I'm still holding all 26 small cap companies I mentioned in my Q2 update. I deployed the second round of capital in November, purchasing equal amounts of all 26 holdings. I view that investment as its own fund, and it's been doing quite well. As of this writing, the "fund" is up about 58%. I will deploy the third and final round of capital in Q2 of 2021 and continue holding for at least four years after that.
Finally, I continued adding to my cryptocurrency positions, bringing my total holding to about 5% of my net worth. This is spread about 80:20 BTC to ETH. I'm comfortable with my current allocation and don't plan to add any more for the time being.
I expect Q1 of 2021 to look similar to this quarter in that I'll continue DCA'ing into VTSAX and VEMAX, sporadically adding to my existing positions, and holding for long term growth.
One workout program analysis
At this point, I've been back in the gym consistently for five months, and I'm seeing great progress. In mid October, I tested some of my 1 rep maxes and adjusted my lifting program based on those numbers. I'm now lifting in six week cycles where each week I work with 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, and 85% of my 1 rep maxes.
My lifting workouts still include one push day, one pull day, and one leg day. And I'm still running about two days per week.
I'm happy with my progress, and I'm excited to test my fitness benchmarks again in January like I did last year.
Send 13 newsletters
This one is pretty straight forward. I sent 13 issues of The Lake Street Journal - one each week. I completed 52 straight weeks of sending a newsletter, so I'm 10% of my way to the goal I set out in my visions for the next decade. I'm really proud of this start.
My list grew by about 29% during the quarter (compared to 6.5% in Q3). I'm thrilled with this growth and hope to keep it going into the new year. I think the difference maker this quarter was consistently publishing something new every week - either an article or a podcast - and publishing a lot of Twitter threads.
I'll continue these strategies going forward and hopefully add others. I'm joining the On Deck Writer's Fellowship, which I think will also help my growth. I would also like to create better landing pages, transition to Convert Kit - which I hope boosts open rates - add email captures on more pages of my website, and improve my start here page - which is where most of my signups occur.
One afternoon volunteering
I continued participating in the Big Brother program that I mentioned last quarter. Unfortunately, we were't able to meet up at all due to COVID, but we had a Facetime call every week.
Publish one curation piece
I hit this goal by publishing my curation of The 2020 Lake Street Journal. I'm starting to doubt the value of doing these curation pieces every quarter, as I'm not seeing a huge conversion of subscribers as a result. The only worthwhile curation piece so far was the one on Morgan Housel.
I'm removing this as a goal for next quarter since it's not super fruitful or enjoyable for me.
Journal at least twice per week
I wrote 31 journal entries - at least two per week - for a total of 9,191 words. This is fewer total entries and words than I wrote in Q3, but they are spaced more consistently over time, so I think they give me a better record of the quarter than they did in Q3.
I'm happy with this goal and will continue it in Q1 2021. The frequency isn't so much that it becomes overwhelming. When I sit down to write, I feel like I have something to say. And in the weeks where more things happen, I have the freedom to write as much as I want.
Eventually I might get to a daily journaling habit, but I'm happy with the progress I'm making right now.
Add one interesting person to my contacts (who I speak with 1-2 times per month)
I have two people in mind who I started interacting with this month. Both are very interesting people. What remains to be seen is if I will continue to interact with them.
I like this goal because even making loose connections is valuable. As I mentioned earlier, I'm joining the ODW fellowship starting in January, which I think will be very helpful in achieving this goal next quarter.
Publish six podcasts
Pretty straight forward. I planned to publish a podcast twice a month and I followed through. I published episodes with:
I plan to keep this going through Q1 of 2021. If you have any podcasts guests you'd like to hear, let me know!
Publish six articles
Also pretty straight forward. I planned to publish two articles per month and I followed through. They all revolve around the theme of greatness. Each article focuses on a specific characteristic of greatness, and I illustrate it through stories of exceptional people. I wrote about people like Pat Tillman, the Wright Brothers, Stephen Schwarzman, and EB Sledge. Here they are:
This will also continue through Q1 of 2021. If you know of any exceptional people I should learn about, let me know!
Partial Successes:
These are the goals I didn't quite nail but I didn't strike out on either.
ROMWOD every day
ROMWOD is a daily stretching routine with video instruction. I highly recommend it.
Although I didn't accomplish this 100%, I'm happy with the result. I only missed four days during the quarter (down from six last quarter). Two misses were on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas. The other two came on days where I had a lot going on and I didn't manage my time appropriately.
At this point, I've done a ~20 minute stretching routine on 260 of the last 275 days, which I'm very happy about. Stretching has become a habit at this point, and I plan to continue doing it forever.
Failures:
These are the goals I didn't accomplish. They serve as good lessons and points of reflection.
One podcast appearance
I didn't make it on any podcasts this quarter.
Podcast hosts seek out guests who have interesting things to say. If I'm not getting requests to be on podcasts, it's probably because I'm not saying enough interesting things. I'm going to scratch this goal from the list for now for two reasons:
I haven't done anything to try to make this happen, so I must not care about it too much.
I should be focusing all my time on doing things worth sharing on a podcast and promoting those things so I get some invitations.
Conclusions:
As I've said before, writing these reviews is one of my favorite things to do during the quarter. This one is even more meaningful because it completes my first full year of deliberate action and consistent meaningful reflection.
Consistency is difficult to maintain in the beginning because the results aren't always exciting. Only when you can string years of consistency together do you begin to see the power of compounding returns. The fact that I've been consistent for a full year now is a good sign of things to come. I'm confident I can continue stringing little wins together in furtherance of my ultimate vision for the next ten years.
It's encouraging to see my failures becoming fewer with each additional quarter. It's also encouraging to watch how I'm eliminating the goals I don't find as useful and adding new ones with potential. Self improvement is a constant, iterative process, and having a record of that iteration is helpful and fun to look back on.
These quarterly reviews are keeping me accountable and keeping me in the game. If I remain consistent, success is inevitable.
Q1 2021 Goals:
One workout program analysis.
One investment program analysis.
Send 13 newsletters.
One afternoon volunteering.
Publish six articles.
Publish six podcasts.
Publish 4 Twitter threads per month.
ROMWOD and/or The Ready State every day.
Journal at least twice per week.
Add one interesting person to my contacts who I speak with at least 1-2 times per month.
Add 150 newsletter subscribers.
Read a lot about decision making and take good notes.
