2020: What We Learned

We’re a week and a half into the New Year and … wow. Not gonna lie, I did think things would get a teeny bit better. Instead, I’m already fondly looking back and reminiscing, Remember when people only dressed up as Vikings for football games and not while storming the Capitol? Good times!

To be fair, the year was not all bad … or even all that different than, say, 2019. After all, we didn’t have the kids in a ton of activities to begin with, we cook and eat mostly at home, I’ve been working remotely since 2013, and it’s not like any previous winter found me oot and aboot, eh? I was already familiar with leggings.

Team LBYM stayed healthy, employed, and together. So. Very. Together.

For (most of) these, we are grateful. Still, the sheer scale of COVID-19 and our collective response to it (or lack thereof) – combined with a contentious presidential election, racial justice protests, cataclysmic climate events – meant that our lives in 2020 couldn’t help but be impacted in ways large and small, altering both our day-to-day routines and our longer-term plans. And, as is often the case when the usual order of things is upended, we even learned a few things along the way.

In no particular order …

The local Asian grocery has the best price on boneless chicken thighs.

Do you remember in the early days of the pandemic when all sorts of stuff was out of stock and hard to find? Like toilet paper and yeast and … meat? The hubs eats just about the exact same thing for lunch every day and given that inflexibility, we always need a particular cut of chicken. I’d never considered buying meat at my local Asian grocery because the refrigerated case looked so … small, but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Turns out, the store doesn’t have a huge selection of fresh meat, but the turnover is rapid and the prices on what they do carry are better than anywhere else I shop.

Staycations are here to … stay.

In August, after about five months of family togetherness, I needed to go somewhere and do nothing. I didn’t relish the thought of getting on a plane or a bus, so it had to be somewhere within driving distance. The farther I had to drive though, the less time I had … for doing nothing. Which is how I found myself at a Hilton hotel in downtown Madison four and a half miles from my house. I am a genius. This isn’t a poor man’s Shangri-La or some sad substitute. This is better. Lake views, room service, pool, hot tub, cable TV, and zero pressure to sightsee? My kind of trip. So good that I’ve gone back enough times since August to be on a first-name basis with the front desk staff – “Hi, Will!” – and feel rather proprietary about parking space 217.

You can join AARP before you turn 50.

I don’t know if we can lay this one at the feet of the pandemic since 2020 happened to be the year Mr. LBYM turned 50. As I researched whether joining the organization was worth it, I discovered that all full members get a free secondary membership for another household member regardless of that household member’s age (*raises hand*) and, in fact, anyone under 50 can join the organization as an Associate member. It’s pretty easy to make back the annual fee – the AARP rate is often the best one at, umm, Hilton hotels – and you get a sweet membership card to flash all the haters and a Jitterbug phone … ha, no phone … yet.

You can tap your retirement accounts before age 59 ½ without penalty.

Nothing like a one-two punch of a pandemic and turning 50 to make you consider your pending mortality and how you really want to spend your time until then. So when the hubs asked whether we could swing him retiring in the next five years or so, I gave him a withering, yet loving, helping-people-set-and-achieve-financial-goals-is-literally-what-I-do glance and got on it. While I knew you could access retirement accounts such as IRAs before age 59 ½ without the 10% early withdrawal penalty in certain circumstances – to pay for college, a first home purchase, or certain medical expenses, for example – it turns out that you can also do so for no reason at all.

Why didn’t I know about this before 2020?!? Is it because the financial services industry makes its money when people keep their money invested rather than – here’s a crazy idea – using it to live the life they want? Hrmph.

The withdrawal is called a 72(t) distribution, and while I agree it’s not for everyone, I work with enough clients who inherit IRAs to think long and hard about accessing these funds sooner rather than later.

Don’t make voting fraud jokes in a high-stakes election.

(thanks for all you do, Vik, and everyone else who texted me)

Wisconsin borders Michigan.

Yeah, I didn’t know this until the two states instituted different COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and news outlets started reporting that one state’s residents were visiting still-open bars on the other side of the border. 

Mind. Blown.