2024 Recap
2024 Recap and review
Another year passed, time flies! Here is a recap of 2024.
Painted my apartment, finally… I spent 2 years thinking about what color to paint. Love the new look, especially together with my new ambient lighting from Ikea, Fado and Dejsa. I have almost stopped using the big lights in the living room, it’s so cozy with just the ambient lights. I often find myself turning on the ambient lights and just chill on my foam roller without turning on the TV.
The first half of the year I exercised 2-3 times a week doing group lessons, with a good friend. But after summer when she moved away I have only been doing 0-1 times a week, I should prioritize doing more exercise in 2025.
Spring and early summer was full of sunny days by the ocean with friends, I really enjoyed the summer this year!
In July I was three weeks in Vietnam with two good friends, it was full of memorable experiences as we traveled from south all the way north up into Ha Giang Loop in the mountains, the views where amazing and the group we traveled with where even better! We even got to see the Chinese border (5 meter from the fence).
The last half of the year has been going pretty much on repeat, friends, work, beer, friByte and Kvarteret IT, relaxing and partying. When writing this I quickly forget all the people I met and the great social evenings I’ve had, but when going through pictures I see that this year has been very good for my social life.
Overall a very good and social year! Lots of fun and quality time with friends, still single, but I’m still working on that part.
How did I spend my days?
| Activity | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friends | 212 | 246 | 240 | (Missing some data) |
| Work | 206 | 217 | 204 | (Missing some data) |
| Relaxing | 118 | 139 | 176 | +37 |
| Sun | 187 | 190 | 147 | (Missing some data) |
| Beer | 23 | 115 | 119 | +4 |
| Cloudy | 70 | 63 | 89 | (Missing some data) |
| Rain | 76 | 98 | 86 | (Missing some data) |
| Tired | 62 | 71 | 85 | +14 |
| Good food | 131 | 104 | 82 | -22 |
| Programming | 67 | 65 | 77 | +12 |
| TV Series/Movies | 103 | 87 | 74 | (Missing some data) |
| Family | 78 | 82 | 69 | -13 |
| Weight lifting | 54 | 62 | 65 | +3 |
| Party | 93 | 60 | 60 | 0 |
| YouTube | 19 | 41 | 36 | (Missing some data) |
| Travel | No data | 26 | 34 | +8 |
| Cabin | 29 | 22 | 20 | -2 |
| Hiking/walking | 9 | 7 | 19 | +12 |
| Bath in the ocean | 26 | 18 | 18 | 0 |
| Snow | 15 | 28 | 18 | -10 |
| Dates | 28 | 11 | 16 | +5 |
| New experiences | 23 | 16 | 16 | 0 |
| Practical work | 17 | 39 | 14 | -25 |
| Skiing | 10 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| Gaming | 4 | 3 | 4 | +1 |
| Disc Golf | 9 | 13 | 4 | -9 |
| Bouldering | 49 | 10 | 3 | -7 |
| Sick | 7 | 6 | 2 | -4 |
Note: I lost data for April and May due to water damaged phone. So I spent some time looking through photos, BeReal and calendar to backtrack what I did. In general it seems like I have done pretty much the same as in 2023, which is good, I like to keep myself busy.
Last year I wanted to do more bouldering, go on more dates, be less tired and finish some hobby programming projects outside of volunteering in friByte and Kvarteret IT group. -> This year I only fulfilled going on more dates.
I am surprised that I have an increasing trend of being tired, does it come with age? I hope not. I should probably reduce amount of days I go out, instead of friday and saturday, maybe just saturday and keep friday for cozy dinner night with friends.
It’s concerning that I have less days with good food, I should arrange more dinner parties in 2025.
Finances 💰
2024 has also been a good year financially despite the same high interest rates and inflation as 2023. The stock market has risen and I have invested 63% of my income in addition to increasing my mortgage even more to invest. Overall my network increased by 56% this year (50/50 saving and stock market). I ended up losing money on crypto this year, even though BTC has increased over 150%, this is due to having money in ETH and Polygon instead.
The decision of buying currency secured index fund has been a bad bet this year, as the NOK has further decreased, the effect is quite neutral from start, but I suspect I have lost around 5% compared to not having currency secured index fund. I will continue holding it throughout 2025, but I am considering moving a portion of the investments into high yield market, we’ll see.
Spending categories
Here is a selection of my spendings, I have lots more categories, but these are the most interesting ones.
| Category | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Difference 23-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | 27035 | 33545 | 48000 | +14455 |
| Food | 19306 | 33626 | 25000 | -8626 |
| Fast food and restaurants | 14200 | 27291 | 31500 | +4209 |
| Electricity | 22508 | 10462 | 13500 | +3038 |
| Clothes | 5560 | 10590 | 9900 | -690 |
| Vacations | 30100 | 29000 | 34000 | +5000 |
| Bus, flights, train, ebikes | 12945 | 12114 | 13500 | +1386 |
| Mortgage (interest + payment) | 143055 | 232681 | 176426 | -56255 |
In general I have spent more money on going out this year, but less on food. When I go out I think less about the price of beer, so it’s easy to spend more money. Overall my spending increased by 7% compared to 2023, which is pretty reasonable.
As last year, I’m quite neutral on my spending, as I still manage to invest a lot of my income.
Some random consumption statistics
| Category | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trekroneren sausages | 15 | 42 | 54 | +12 |
| Beers at Akademiske Kvarter approximately | 75 | 120 | 125 | +5 |
| Kebab | 41 | 34 | 43 | +9 |
- I have consumed more of everything compared to 2023, but that’s no problem.
Career
2024 has been good as well, I have learned even more about leadership and the career progression to my “dream job” of CTO is looking good. This year I have continued to mentor the junior developers which are making good progress, I would not call them junior anymore.
I have progressed more into product management (new title Head of Products) where I have worked on proposals for technical roadmap (future of ScanReach seen from a technical perspective, maybe another blog post?), and spent more time together with sales and leadership to plan and prioritize 2025 roadmap based on projected sales. This is very fun and challenging even though it’s more meeting and less coding.
As always: life is good, I’m happy and looking forward to 2025! 🎉
Word Count: 2562
Tags: general