Last Updated on December 13, 2021 by Izza of SavingsPinayPH
Today I’m doing my Mid-Year Financial Review for 2021!
I did this in 2017, 2018, and 2020.
Constant review is important especially with our finances. I will reflect and look back on how the first six months of 2021 has been for me financially and share the result with you.
Here are the areas I’ll zero in:
My 2021 Financial Goals
My Current Spending Habits
My Extra Income Projects
My Mid-Year Net Worth
My Next Actions to Finish the Year Strong
If you haven’t performed a mid-year financial review I highly suggest you do one now.
Select a specific date where you can sit down with pen and paper ready to do this activity. If you are part of my email list you have free access to the Mid-Year Financial Review workbook.
The Mid-Year Financial Review Workbook includes the following:
1. SMARTER Financial Goals Worksheet
Are you struggling in reaching your financial goals? Then maybe you need to revisit your goals and make them smarter. This worksheet will help you do that exactly. I devise a worksheet that will assist you in goal-setting with the corresponding next actions you need to do.
2. Your Daily Spending Tracker Worksheet
Tracking your day-to-day spending is essential to keep up with your budget. Isn’t it nice to know exactly where your money goes? Let’s make tracking our daily expenses easier and more convenient with this free worksheet. You can print and cut it, turn it into a little handy notebook and bring it with you anywhere.
3. The Side-Hustle Worksheet
If you are living on one income then you are doing it wrong. I’ve talked about side-hustling every now and then to encourage you to step up and earn extra income too. If you don’t know where to start then this free worksheet is for you. I included helpful tips and questions to ask for you to determine the best side-hustle to have this year.
4. Calculate Your Net worth Worksheet
Any financial review is not complete without calculating your net worth. This is an essential step to set a map on how your finances should be and would be in the future. The tool included in this free The Mid-Year Financial Review Workbook will be your guide in correctly computing your current net worth.
5. My Next Actions
Lastly, you will get a free My Next Actions List to jot down what your possible area of improvement will be to finish the year strong.
I also added two new freebies in the library that can be helpful tools when you do your own Mid-Year Financial Review – The 6-Months Goals Workbook and The 30 Days of Actions Challenge.
Again you can download The Mid-Year Financial Review Workbook + the newest freebies in the SavingsPinay Resource Library. Now let’s begin with the financial review!
My 2021 Financial Goals
I made a separate post on 2021 goals you can view here.
My financial goals for the year:
- End with Php 500,000 net worth
- Grow Side Hustle Income to Php 100,000 net
- Total Money Saved in Invested to Php 100,000 net
- Finish my 2021 Sinking Funds
I also listed my Personal, Blog and Business as well as my Fun goals as follows:
- Upload 2x/week on YouTube
- Blog 100 times
- Update blog Main Menus and Archive
- Reach $500 Total Google Adsense Payout
- Read 20 books
Now let’s take a look at the progress I made for the first six months of 2021.
Goal 1. End with Php 500,000 net worth
For 2021, my number one financial goal is to end the year Php 500,000 net worth. I started the year at Php 338, 457.22 and at the moment my net worth is nearing Php 390,000. From the time I’m writing this I already reached the Php 400K mark and this will be reported on my next net worth update.
So I feel confident that I’ll hit the goal. I am excited to reach such a milestone and I am hoping I can even exceed it.
Goal 2. Grow side hustle income to Php 100,000 net
In my 2020 Side Hustle Income Report I got to almost Php 53,000 net income thanks to paid webinars, money coaching, graphic design work and Google Adsense.
For 2021, my goal is to double that side hustle income by doing the following:
- Market my services more specially as resource speaker for webinars
- Release at least three (3) paid products and market them well
- Publish new YouTube videos so I can increase my watch time and hopefully get eligible in the YouTube Adsense Program.
After six months I haven’t fully committed to the projects that I set at the start of the year. I haven’t marketed my services as a resource speaker, no new product release, and still haven’t been eligible to the YouTube Adsense Program.
Even though the plans I had at the beginning of the year didn’t happen, there is much I’d like to still celebrate in the area of my side hustles.
- I already have two Google Adsense Payout
- I have two Money Coaching Students at the moment
- I got two paid long-term projects I’m working with
- I have a banner advertising client! This is the first time that a company trusted to rent an ad space in my blog.
- I’ve revived my YouTube channel and uploaded two new videos after two long years of hiatus.
- I’ve been guesting in Calamansi shows, almost four shows already at the moment. Calamansi is a live audio streaming app.
- I’ve been invited to do talks for schools and other companies. If you are interested in organizing a financial wellness session with your employees, you can send me an email at izza@savingspinay.ph.
- I continuously receive possible paid opportunities for SavingsPinay.
The current side hustle income I have is Php 38,543.60 (net) and still far from my target.
Am I adjusting my goal? No. For some reason I am still confident that I can hit the mark in the next five months.
Goal 3. Total Money Saved and Invested to Php 100,000 net
For 2021, I want my total money saved and invested to be at least Php 100,000 net.
So far I’ve been following my saving and investment rate as well as my schedule pretty well. I am still on track in achieving this goal and I’m proud of that. I also added a new investment vehicle in my portfolio that’s been doing well, it’s a Feeder Fund that invests in US tech stocks like Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.
Most of my investments are doing better as well thanks to the current market condition.
With this I know that I can also achieve this goal.
Goal 4. Finish my 2021 Sinking Funds
I have two different lists for my sinking funds – Blog and Business and Personal Sinking Funds.
For Blog and Business Sinking Funds, I am saving up on the following:
- Work Space Renovation
- SSL cost of the blog
- Domain and Hosting
For Personal Sinking Funds, I am saving up on the following:
- Gift for my new “pamangkin”
- Gift for my cousin
- Non-Beauty Wishlist
- Insurance Renewal
- Christmas 2021
So far, I’ve done one for each of the Blog and Business Sinking Fund and Personal Sinking Fund. I am still working for the rest of my sinking funds. I want to make sure that I achieve them all.
Goal 5. Upload 2x/week on YouTube
I’ve mentioned this while making my 2021 goals that my biggest to do list this year is to make a YouTube comeback. I’ve been meaning to create YouTube videos again and this time I really want to make this goal happen.
Finally, in April I was able to set up my own filming station and even uploaded two new comeback videos. I am hoping I can maintain uploading videos on my YouTube channel.
Please do follow me on my YouTube channel.
Goal 6. Blog 100 Times
Among my goals for 2021 this is where I feel disappointed. My goal was to publish 100 posts and within my schedule of every Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, I haven’t been blogging lately. For the last three months I’ve only been posting 1-2 posts a month.
I know that I have the power within me to change this. I can still make it up for the rest of the year. My plan is to post 3-4 times a week instead of the usual two just to make it up for the missed posts.
Goal 7. Release at least three (3) paid products
Last year I was able to launch my very first paid product, The Budget Template.
It was such an achievement on my part and I’m so happy I did it.
For 2021, I want to release at least three (3) paid products. I’m targeting each end of the quarter for this.
However, I didn’t do any releases for the last two quarters. Thus, I’d like to change this goal to at least one (1) new paid product before the year ends.
Goal 8. Get one (1) month ahead of blog posts
For 2021, I want to get at least one (1) month ahead of blog posts. But for the past couple of months I’ve been out of my schedule. Blogging has been the least of my priorities and I will always feel lazy and procrastinating to do it.
I hate that this has been happening to me and I do want to counter this. Even if I just do two weeks in advance.
Goal 9. Update blog Main Menus and Archive
I’ve been wanting to update my Main Menus in order to achieve a reader-friendly blog. Last April, I got a VA to have an Excel File of all the posts I’ve done in SavingsPinay. The only thing that’s left for me to do is to apply it on the blog. As for my personal lifestyle blog, izzaglinofull.com I am still contemplating if I will get a VA to do it or I’ll do it on my own.
Goal 10. Reach $500 Total Google Adsense Payout
I set an ambitious goal of hitting $500 Total Google Adsense Payout and I’m not backing out of this goal.
I’m now at the $300 mark and still with high hopes I’ll get two more payouts before 2021 ends. In order to do this well I have to make sure that my traffic will get better.
My plan is to have my VA do Pinterest work for me. I used to get a lot of Google Adsense pay when I had traffic from high-paying countries like the US, UK, and Australia. The only way I can have international traffic for the blog is to market again on Pinterest like before.
Goal 11. Read 20 books
Sadly, this is another goal that I’m finding difficult to achieve. I haven’t been reading that much. I’ve only read 4 books so far which should have been at least 11 if I am still on track with my reading challenge.
Because of this I am lowering my target reading to 15 books instead of 20.
Click here for a review of all the books I read last year.
Highlights for 2021 so far
Here are some of my highlights both for SavingsPinay and on my finances in the first six months of 2021.
Living Alone
One important highlight for the year is that I started living alone. This brought a lot of changes in my daily routine.
It was a real adjustment since for 27 years I’m used to having my parents and any of my siblings with me. Unlike before when I had my mother to cook meals, now I have to do it on my own. Same as with cleaning the house, washing the dishes, washing clothes, etc. And I didn’t realize those tasks do take time.
But I still count this experience as a highlight as it’s opening a lot of room for learning. I remember when I made my Financial Goals I want to Hit before 30 post where I listed having my own place and living independently as part of it.
Truly, God’s plan is still way better. He blessed me with the opportunity to experience living alone without the additional cost. I am treating my current living situation as a great way for me to learn things. I will trust God’s timeline in terms of my real dream to invest in my own place, either a condo, an apartment or a real house.
New investment vehicle – Feeder Fund
In May, I received my mid-year bonus and allocated some of it for a new investment vehicle – Feeder Fund. I’m so happy and satisfied with what’s happening to my new investment. It’s been going nothing but up for the last two months.
My plan for this Feeder Fund is to withdraw my gains and reinvest it to the fund. This is in contrast with what I’m doing in my other funds which I just continuously top up.
Ending of the SavingsPinay Podcast Season 1
After a year I was able to finish the Season 1 of the SavingsPinay Podcast.
I will always count The SavingsPinay Podcast as one of the projects brought by the enhanced community quarantine last year. If it weren’t for the newfound time we had because of working from home, I would never be able to fulfill one of my childhood dreams – to host my own radio/audio show.
The listener count of my podcast also grew little by little. It even got into the Chartable Podcast Charts and Ranking. On a weekly basis we have 48 unique listeners and that is A-MAZ-ING!
My 2021 Current Spending Habits
2021 has been a good year in terms of my spending because I worked fully from home from March to June. However, because I started living alone my spending habits also changed come April. I’ve been doing my grocery shopping and I can’t help but buy the things I want.
I also made my first major expense for the year when I bought a ref in cash! I’m forever grateful for the provision to do it. Aside from that there’s no other big expense I made so far.
For the blog expenses I invested in a hard drive this year. I did this to help in organizing all of my files.
My 2021 Extra Income Projects
My focus has always been to make extra income from my blog. However, I can’t seem to make my way to do it. As I’ve mentioned in the beginning, blogging became the lowest priority in the first six months of the year.
I’ve been procrastinating a lot, especially since April started when I’m living on my own. Also, I got two paid long-term projects which are keeping me busy.
But I don’t want to lose hope. I know I can still reverse this.
How do I plan to grow my extra income before 2021 ends?
- I will do my best in the two long-term projects I have at the moment. The goal here is to create a relationship with the two brands and hopefully keep the project as well to next year.
- Publish new YouTube videos so I can increase my watch time and hopefully get eligible in the YouTube Adsense Program.
- Release the Season 2 of The SavingsPinay Podcast and look for possible sponsorships.
- Release a paid product.
- Leverage my email list and do Pinterest again to gain more traffic to the blog.
- Gain paid webinar opportunities if I can.
My 2021 Mid-Year Net Worth Update
Finally, here’s my latest net worth so far.
Why should you compute your net worth?
- It reveals your current financial status.
- It helps you create possible next action to stay on track with your financial goals.
- It gives you an idea on how much you really owe and what area you can adjust to pay-off your debt.
- It motivates you to strive and to hustle more.
Want to Calculate Your Own Net Worth? Sign Up and download the Simple Net Worth Tracker in the SavingsPinay Resource Library.
If you want to know more about Net Worth and how to calculate it, please read this post – Net Worth – What, Why, and How.
My Next Actions to Finish the Year Strong
With my 2021 goals revisited, spending habits reviewed, income projects launched and net worth revealed, below are my the main areas I will be working harder on:
- Get at least a month ahead in my blog posts. Doing this will autopilot the success of both SavingsPinay and IzzaGlino this 2021. This will also free me up of the pressure and make sure that I add value to my audience.
- Work on my extra income projects – From the two paid projects I got to releasing products, kailangan doblehin ko yung sipag ko. I badly need to make up for all the wasted moments in the first six months of the year.
Final Notes from SavingsPinay
Do Your Own Mid-Year Financial Review Too!
Constant review makes a lot of difference. Mid-year reviews give you the chance to make adjustments and can help you to stay conscious throughout the year. To recap this is how I do my Mid-Year review:
First, re-evaluate your financial goals.
If you set your goals at the start of the year then you can revisit each and review the status. What goal/s is/are done or accomplished already? Is there any goal that’s not relevant anymore?
Second, review your spending habits.
Find out who and how you are when it comes to spending your money lately. Are you a saver or a spender? Do you spend more on your needs or your wants?
Third, start your side hustle.
Think of a passion project you can do on the side in the next six months. It is not too late to change your 2021!
Fourth, calculate your net-worth.
To give you a concrete road map you need to calculate your current net-worth. I provided a simple template for you to use.
Lastly, list down your next actions. Once you’re done with steps 1-4, you can now make an action list. Commit yourself to doing the items written in your next action list to finish 2021 strong!
Join the SavingsPinay Mailing List and download the Mid-Year Financial Review Worksheets I have prepared for free.
