📅 2024 in review
Came in a bit late on this one, but regardless, it's the perfect time to review how things went in 2024. I feel like it was a good one that opened my eyes to some larger themes.
👩❤️💋👨 marriage
Gaby and I hit our ten year anniversary this year, and things are going great! We had some very real and tough conversations, but we handled them extremely well and I think it allowed us to be more raw and honest with each other than ever before.
While we did try out some new things, like a spur of the moment Wilco concert and a few ideas from the Date Night book, we didn't do as much as I would have liked to in this area. But we've got some major things cooking for 2025 already.
🏃🏼♂️ fitness
Although I didn't run the Dallas Skyline Half Marathon due to a massive thunderstorm, I went home and ran the half marathon all across Pflugerville. I beat my goal of two hours with a final time of 1:52:58! I've kept running in my workout regiment, but the pivot back to strength training has been nice.
I did pretty good on cutting back whiskey while alone, but the end of the year vacation has brought many excuses to kick back and relax.
👔 career progression
I told myself I had to move up or move out of Atlassian, and it turns out I kinda did both. I gave my two weeks notice on the same day that I was promoted. As bittersweet as that was, I had a much better opportunity ahead of me at Stripe!
While I didn't give proper conference talk at THAT Conference, I spent lots of time on stage with Compressed.fm. We interviewed guests, had panel discussions, and provided great discussions during downtime.
I also attended lots of meetups this year, including Remix Austin, Austin JS, and React ATX. It's been great getting out into the community, and I've met a bunch of online friends in real life now!
💵 finances
I made major leaps in finances this year after I hired a financial advisor. I now have a set plan on how to approach savings and money management, and I feel like I have a better grasp on what retirement looks like.
Now I maintain accounts for 401k, investments, checking, savings, and side income, and I know how to move money between them and invest where appropriate. I also track everything in my own personal spreadsheet, like my investments and net worth over time.
Having someone to talk to about all this stuff is great, but I'm considering doing all of this on my own in the coming years after I prove that all of the systems I have in place are working as expected.
💰 side income
This year I made $6,469.18 in side income, mission accomplished! This is the most I've made in side income on a given year. And I have more work lined up with Cloudinary for early 2025.
| Source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Consulting | $6,119.13 |
| Apps | $250.00 |
| T-Shirts | $70.44 |
| Affiliate Links | $23.61 |
| GitHub Sponsors | $6.00 |
| Total | $6,469.18 |
I did not succeed in making an application, mostly due to all the framework thrash in the industry this year. I am being very purposeful now about picking a boring technology stack this year and sticking with it.
I also didn't succeed in getting monetized on YouTube, mostly because I wasn't building anything, so I didn't have anything to talk about. I have plans in place to fix this next year, by just building and exploring things that interest me, which should lead to more content ideas.
✍🏼 writing
While I did publish six posts on my blog, it wasn't nearly enough. Very similar to the YouTube issue, I wasn't building things, so I didn't have things to write about.
I constantly have an internal debate on where to publish content. Publishing to YouTube can lead to monetization, but I don't see that kind of future for my personal website. I also just don't really want to monetize my website with ads or anything to cheapen the experience.
In the end my own website serves as a great playground for experimentation, and maybe that's good enough.
📚 books
I read nothing this year. Yep, I admitted it.
🎮 games
My lack of reading books turned into a reinvigoration for video games. I played some great Nintento Switch games and I won a custom Playstation 5 from Sentry that got me back into console gaming. While a part of me wants to feel guilty for doing this instead of working, it's been too much fun!
Here are the standout games that I've played this year:
Nintendo Switch
Playstation 5
I'm just starting to sink my teeth into the Diablo endgame, and I'm also really looking forward to trying out Wayfinder and Balatro.
🎬 conclusion
I realized this year that all of my side hustle work seemed to take a back seat to family and life, yet I was still able to accomplish so much of what I set out to do, and even more that I haven't named here. This shift in perspective is revealing to me the true order of importance in life.