January

• Closed on my first home / investment property in SF! This has been a plan years in the making, so it was amazing to accomplish 😊

Here is the list (ones completed are crossed out):

After spending 2 weeks in northern Utah, I embarked on a national park tour the last week of September with a few friends. We hit all five national parks in Utah, as well as one in Nevada. I’ve detailed below a day-by-day itinerary of our schedule and activities, as a guide for anyone looking to do the same!

This past holiday weekend, I decided to make pumpkin pie as a final hurrah to the pumpkin season. Instead of making a full 9″ pie, I made little tarts so I could gift some to my friends. With smaller tarts, there was no need to blind bake the crust and it also resulted in a higher crust to filling ratio, win-win! These tarts blew away all my expectations and I’ve deemed them the best pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. The silky pie filling contrasted well with the flaky butter crust, and it was lightyears beyond the drabby refrigerated pumpkin pies that we bought in previous years. Needless to say, I will be making my own pumpkin pie from now on!

My 23rd year started with a big goal to purchase a home in San Francisco. I had been planning for this milestone since I was 18, and actually predicted (or hoped) it would happen by age 22/23. By this time last year, I was deep into the house hunt and had been analyzing the market for months. Despite the winter slowdown in inventory, I pushed forward with the search and finally in late January, closed on my first duplex.

In today’s world, we are persuaded to believe that doing what others expect of us is the answer to a happy life. External expectations and norms shape us as individuals and influence our aspirations. Work the 9-5 till you’re 65, and then you can start living. Surely, society benefits from the long work-life of citizens, and individuals have bought into the idea that these jobs are necessary. It adds no advantage that the easiest way in life is to follow that paved path, and not to question what you truly want to accomplish.

The week before this flight was absolute chaos and very likely the most stressful time of my life. More to come on this in a future post, but it was such a relief to finally put that behind me. Originally, I had a flight scheduled for Sunday, Sep 13, but had to reschedule it due to house renovations. I truly didn’t know if I would ever make it out with all that was going on, but I finally departed on Tuesday, Sep 15!!

This post is not as morbid as the title may allude to, but more of a necessary and realistic reflection on life. I’m 23 now, almost a quarter of my life has passed (fingers crossed I’ll make it to at least 100), and with each day and year that goes by, time is becoming more precious to me. I realize the imminence of death and that, truly, our time here is short.

My first pair of knitted socks!! Needless to say, knitting has become my favorite quarantine hobby, and I’m so grateful for it. In the last few months, I’ve really had to push myself to maintain my interests (running, reading, podcasts, etc.), sometimes without much success, so I’m thrilled that I’m passionate about this activity.

As I prepare my first series on this blog on real estate investing (REI), I thought I’d share an introductory post on why I even chose that route to begin with. A lot of people have asked me if I prefer real estate over stocks, or what the difference is from an investment perspective. Here is my take on it, based on my experience.