2024: Year in Review
Year of Feeling Settled
Happy new year y’all! We’re still in January so I hope it’s not too late to wish this 😛. This past year has certainly felt like the one I can call as the year of feeling settled. It was my 4th year living in the UK, 3rd full calendar year [for those fact-checkers] and this year marked quite a few milestones which one would consider a “settled person” to have reached. All in all, 2024 turned out to be a good year offering lot of happy moments spread throughout the year with everyone around me staying healthy and in good shape. Cheers to that 🍾
To everyone who I met, interacted with and shared these moments, thank you once again, you’ll are awesome! Stay that way ❤️
To everyone who has had a tough past year, it’s well behind us. You’ve been brave and shown great resilience. More power to you! The best times are ahead of us 🤗 Stay on course 👍
With that, let’s dive into how this past year unfolded for me, starting with the positives 💫
⭐️ Highlights
I can’t begin to talk about 2024’s highlights without acknowledging the introduction of my niece 👶🏻 to this world. Admittedly I’ve no role to play in this highlight, I just wanted to call it out nonetheless. This is tacit acknowledgement that some highlights aren’t necessarily an outcome of your doing, they just happen to you. And that’s completely alright. With that, I can move on to the highlights that I influenced:
🇬🇧 Indefinite leave to Remain
In June 2024, I completed 3 years as a resident in the UK making me eligible for ILR [permanent residency]. This was definitely one of the anticipated milestones for me personally — a checkpoint, one step away from the citizenship goal. On a day-to-day basis, there’re no material changes to the way I operate, given that the previous visa [Global Talent] already provided me immunity from layoffs & 60-day timer 💣. But psychologically, it’s relieving to know that I’m on a permanent residency which puts me on track 🟢 to secure British passport in couple more years 🤞 Good night’s sleep is so under-rated 😌
This accelerated pathway towards permanent residency is definitely one of the advantages the UK has over other countries such as USA. It’s astonishing how many years of immigration and visa-related struggles I’ve been spared by making the move to this side of the Atlantic.
🏠 Home & Car 🚙
Arguably two of the biggest highlights for me personally this year have been the acquisition of two key material possessions viz. home and car. After months long process of research, deliberation and groundwork, I’m glad both these belongings have been secured this past year. It marks the accomplishment of a long-cherished dream, something I’m relieved and happy about. I’m glad I build on to 2023’s highlight of securing UK driving license and bought the compact SUV. This should unlock freedom and give us opportunity to travel more in addition to improving our day-to-day quality of life [grocery runs & gym trips].
🎾 New hobby
One big unlock 🔓 of 2024 was discovering a new hobby in tennis 🎾 Since moving across the pond, I was in search of the right time to pick up a sport and make it part of my daily routine. Due to myriad reasons, it kept getting delayed and somehow sport was yet to become a prominent part of my life in 🇬🇧. However, I turned a page in 2024 and have started playing 🎾. It is indeed a sport with a steeper learning curve, compared to other racket sports [certainly more challenging than pickleball].
🗺️ New Countries (2023:2, 2024: 1)
Whilst the number of new countries is lower than last, it was great to unlock a new continent visited for the first time in 2024. Morocco in Africa 🇲🇦 was quite a treat, offering a unique cultural experience — mix of French, African and Arab culture. We visited Marrakech, the popular destination and it was delightful. The bustling souks [markets], vibrant hues, stunning architecture and sunshine [in February] — we loved all of it. This takes my “countries visited” tally to 10 ✅ and the “continents I’ve stepped foot on” to 5 📍
📔 Journaling (2023: 300, 2024: 339)
Keeping up with the new section of tracking my journaling habits, I’m glad to have stuck with this habit and exceeded the last year’s tally. It’s also great that penzu makes it easy to track your entries. I love it when products just work as expected 🤌🏼
Journaling for 339 days out of 366 is a 92.62% completion rate, which means I still have decent room for improvement. Something I wish to improve upon in 2025 👍
🏦 Personal Finances (2023: +136.82%, 2024: 71.18%)
Overall, I’m happy to see my combined networth outperform S&P500 on an annualised basis. I use a slightly unusual metric to calculate my networth — which excludes real-estate investments. Instead, I’m looking at the networth as total value of all the assets invested in financial markets or are liquid [available to invest]. Psychologically, by not accounting for the real-estate asset class, I can get a better picture of my net worth even in worse case scenario [if equities take a hit or personal emergency arose].
Commentary
I’m cognizant of the pervading market sentiment regarding lofty valuations and potentially overpriced company share prices. I personally feel there’s some merit in that, given the large swaths of companies priced at 30–40–50x multiples. With that in mind, I’m prepared to see some drawdown in the valuations across the market as well as my investment portfolio. Regardless of how the market performs in the coming year, I plan to stick to the index-fund focused investing strategy. Since I’m in this for the long haul, I hope to ride out any wave, including the impending downturn.
US networth continues to outpace UK networth throughout the year, as has been the story since moving over to the UK. I anticipate 2025 as the first year, UK networth might start surpassing US 🤞
New pastures
I’ve zero exposure outside the jurisdiction of US & UK, until end of 2024. This might change in the coming year as I lament on the potential benefits of expanding investments in India, my homeland. Aside from the administrative challenges of operating investments in India from UK and the exchange rate risk, the allure of tremendous growth potential in India and contributing to its growth story has started to weigh heavy on my mind. It remains to be seen if I indeed bite the bullet and introduce another country in to the mix.
📉 Lowlights
🧘🏼♂️ Meditation
I’m yet to find a consistent way to commit to meditation. I’ve realized the distinction between meditation/mindfulness from journaling/diary-writing. Whilst both of them are deeply engaging and associated with brain 🧠, the act of meditation to me is directly correlated to a better mental health whilst the act of journaling has second-order effect of stabilising the mind by virtue of record-keeping. I’m calling this out lowlight for numerous reasons
- I haven’t found an easy way to track 🔬 how often I meditate
- I reckon I should prioritize 🥇 meditation this year
- I sense the potential of exercising this muscle and it’s positive impact on my life
One easy way for me to know if I’m grounded enough or in better mental shape — would be to observe how I behave in uncomfortable situations, those nervy moments where one tends to react & lose composure. It’s a work-in-progress 🚧 for sure.
🏋🏼 Gym/Physical exercise
Sidebar: Ignore the emoji as it doesn’t represent what gym/physical exercise means to me at all [I have never lifted the barbell above my head, let alone squat while doing it!] Keyboards need to adopt better emojis for representing various gym equipment / exercise.
I believe I’ve been more regular in exercising physically in 2024 compared to 2023. Yet this features as a lowlight, due to couple reasons
- It’s an opportunity I consider as lost, to be more consistent when it comes to physical exercise [I remember days when I could have exercised but chose not to]
- Yet another thing I don’t track well enough.
Yes I could resort to my go-to tracking methodology of using Google keep. But I’m deliberately avoiding it to reduce cognitive load of an additional task. I wish there was an easier way to do this. I’m unsure if I’m hoping against hope.
Wish you all a healthy, hearty, successful and prosperous 2025 🥂
Monthly Takeaways
Jan ’24 — Lot of house viewings;
- Estate agents work for the seller and their incentives align with the sale closing at highest possible price. Hence, it’s crucial to not be sucked into their sweet-talk.
- Crucial to know exactly what you’re looking for. Being more specific makes life easier.
- Apartment vs House; Number of bedrooms; Location / radius; Neighbourhood
We were searching far and wide in Jan only to realise we need to go back to the drawing board and revisit our search criteria.
Feb ’24 — Marakkech, Morocco 🇲🇦; Agafay desert, Dar El Bacha cafe; Jardin Secret; family dinner at Brasserie Zedel [nice steak];
2 day trip to Canterbury — nice city in Kent, England ⛪️
Mar ’24 —Tasty dinner at Srilankan restaurant Kolamba in SoHo; English Sunday roast at The Red Barn; team dinner at Colonel Saab; nice lunch at Yoko’s Sizzlers in Stanmore, London; long-weekend trip to Fareham
Apr ’24 — Hike @ Colley Hill in North downs Surrey; saw Twickenham stadium from outside, home of English Rugby; nice lunch @ Tampopo; move out from Wimbledon 😅
May ’24 — First House 🏠 ; New pixel 📱;
Jun ’24 — First car 🚙;
Jul ’24 — Loft ladder installed 🪜; Parents in London; Day trip to Brighton
Aug ’24 —Housewarming w/ friends, Gokulashtami @ ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Manor Watford, Rakshabandhan
Sep ’24 — 3x Ganpati darshan in Surrey; CCTV installed 🎥; Boston trip 🇺🇸; niece 👶 first glimpse 💛; Acadia National Park 🏞 Maine w/ besties;
Oct ’24 — Boston (cntd.); Baba Falooda 🥭 in Tooting 😋
Nov ’24 — Diwali lunch at Yaadein; India trip 🇮🇳, wedding 🕺💃 ; Work trip 💻 to Lisboa 🇵🇹
Dec ’24 — India trip 🇮🇳, family time, niece ❤️
