I outlined my financial intentions for 2021 but sitting down to define concrete steps was overwhelming. I have many interests, but only so much money to play with each month. It’s not practical, given the strategies I want to employ, to dive into multiple asset classes and industries at the same time. Instead, I’m taking a step back and only focusing on the next 3 months.

This year is about growth stocks, specifically finding the Amazons before they become Amazon. I have determined a few industries and business models that I believe will have a long term impact on our society, and I’m looking to capitalize on that. I’m all-in on the philosophy that we overestimate the short-term impact of technology but underestimate it in the long run. 2020 accelerated future growth and open my eyes to a lot of this given Communications and EdTech platforms, whose value wasn’t recognized until the moment arrived.

Given I’m focused on future disruptions, I wanted to begin in a sector that I know well and I’m personally invested in FinTech. I have spent the past few weeks identifying stocks or businesses in the public and private sector that I believe have the potential to succeed in the long run. I have looked at businesses that most serve the US and China, given that the best way to stock pick is really to focus on areas that you truly understand. My thesis is designed around a 5-year hold, and it’s difficult to have such conviction without in-depth knowledge of where I’m putting my money.

Apart from spending my short-lived career in FinTech, I added this sector to my future growth list due in part to my experiences abroad. The amount of leapfrogging happening globally for payments is baffling. I remember the first time I tried to use cash in China and the cashier looked at me funny. The QR code, a digital identifier for every facet of life, really was eye-opening and unbelievably convenient. I remember their introduction in middle school, but the American public seemed wholly against them. They’ve made a comeback this pandemic in restaurants, but that infrastructure is still behind what I’ve seen abroad.

I’m convinced that it won’t only be payments and investment platforms, but I expect wealth management for retail consumers to get better. At some point, the activists will converge and aim to reduce economic inequalities through technology and attempt to democratize wealth transfer. That being said, I do think that’s a state far in the future, but today I am seeking the companies who could provide these services to the public as well as the service providers for those companies.

When considering these investments, I am taking a hard look at taxes. I believe that some of these speculations could pay off, and if I was to find the next Amazon, I am not keen to lose my gains at my current tax rate. Thus this quarter’s growth investments are mostly within my Roth IRA, while my 401k is divided up amongst target-date funds, indices, and ETFs. This keeps my long-term accounts separate in terms of risk profile and thesis.

Lastly, given I have a level of diversity in other accounts, I am concentrating my investments on a handful of opportunities, public and private. This ensures I have the time to put into my research, which in turn gives me full confidence in my decision making, without regard for public influences on the markets.

I remember waking up in Venice panicked that I had missed my train, but there was just enough time to toss my things in a suitcase and sprint to the water taxi. Along the way I gave myself 30 seconds, 1 minute tops, to grab some cash from the ATM, but that turned into 3 minutes and 5 minutes when my card repeatedly declined. Logging on to the app, I realized that there was NOTHING in my bank account. What I never fully appreciated is that when you are moving money from one account to another, or you pay for things via PayPal or Venmo, or anytime you’re purchasing from the internet there is often a lag in those charges.

Born out of necessity and disdain for financial surprises, every day for the past year I have been closing my books; tracking every cent in and out of all accounts, including my wallet. It has been tedious and exceptionally arduous as I, the FinTech product manager, found something wrong with every single app out there marketed to do this work. Instead, I took on the anachronistic chore of maintaining a financial ledger detailing each transaction using AirTable, think user-friendly .xlxs that allows for deeper linking akin to relational databases. My only goal was to create a system that could tell me what is in my accounts in real-time, as my bank can’t seem to do so.

A year later and I have profited tremendously from tracking my expenses as I now have so much data on myself such as my total spend across several categories like my monthly utilities or how much Uber is profiting from me alone. While this was never the purpose, I also have an easy way to track my Net Income. More recently, I began tracking my portfolio’s P&L and my Total Debt, specifically my student loans to see how quickly interest is accruing and I am making payments. Collectively this provides a snapshot of my real-time Net Worth.

Having a high-level view of this information has made it easy for me to define this year’s financial resolutions. While my AirTable has taken a year of cultivating with periodic changes, it truly simplifies my decision making as the scope of my finances is easily accessible. When building products, it is important to do something that doesn’t scale so you can collect random bits of data, sift out what’s not important, and then iterate on the solution in a more systematic way. That’s exactly how I’ve been approaching my finances

My Financial Tracker

I’d love to blame my faulty relationship with money on the global pandemic, but tbh we weren’t really close before the ‘rona. It had a way of finding me, and I had a way of spending it. As someone who is building a career in finance, it’s truly appalling that I know what to do but often find myself choosing a different path. It wasn’t until the world shut down, that I had time to assess my financial affairs. Over the last year, I gained an understanding of my assets and liabilities alongside my life goals, which in turn has enabled me to produce a flexible action plan for my money.

Step 1: Envision your ideal life and identify the aspects that will cost

• [emergency fund]: I don’t believe this is the last pandemic or economic crisis in my lifetime
• [student loans]: I left business school after one year, and eventually I plan to finish
• [rent]: If and when the COVID dies down, I’ll be moving back to New York
• [cost of living]: New York
• [wedding]: I really love a good party
• [children]: I know that at some point I want a family
• [house]: I hope to buy a home individually or with that family
• [car]: If and when I leave New York
• [children’s college tuition]: Does one need children?
• [late-term medical bills]: As an American, it will be a cause for concern as I age
• [retirement]: With enough money to float emergencies that arise

Step 2: Determine if these are short-, intermediate-, or long-term costs

• [short]: emergency fund, student loans, rent, cost of living
  
• [intermediate]: wedding, children, house, car
  
• [long]: children’s college tuition, retirement, late-term medical bills, retirement

Step 3: Establish your financial focus for the next 12 months

1. Given the uncertainty felt from COVID19, I would feel more comfortable if my emergency fund covered me for an entire year.
2. I want to focus on growing my net-worth, by reducing my liabilities, specifically my student loans, and in turn growing my assets by investing in new asset classes
3. I need a plan to reduce my taxes because it is my largest, uninformed expense
4. Set a new strategy for my stock portfolios, including my retirement fund

Step 4: Craft a high-level plan to help move the train in the right direction

1. [emergency fund]: Over the next year, 25% of my income will be deposited into a high-yield savings account, granted the rates are low
2. [student loans]: I plan to set a date by which my loans are paid off, based on the excess capital from my monthly budget
3. [taxes]: For once I want a clear understanding of the tax code so that I can take full advantage of the credits and deductions
4. [investing]: I’m refocusing my active portfolio on private investments, currencies, and real estate while maintaining a passive investment fund for retirement.

Step 5, 6, 7… is really to go deep, so you can put dates and deadlines on the calendar as well as set habits to achieve these goals. It will be a lot of planning, strategy, and perhaps a bit of research, but your finances will be all the better for it.