Year 2020 Budget Review. COVID Edition.

​Covid sucks! London in Tier 4 lockdown, new Covid mutation spreading in the UK and everywhere else, many are still hospitalised and die on a daily, Christmas is de facto cancelled. When is this global nightmare going to end? Nobody knows for sure and even the medics and epidemiologists are as equally baffled. However, life has to move on and therefore, I'll review my 2020 budget and check how COVID impacted my overall inflows and outflows for the year.
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Screen-grab 1 2020 Budget Summary

Income 1 is my main salary as a nurse (after taxes and pension contribution); Income 2 is my supplementary active income (Overtimes and Agency Shifts). I automatically invest (45%-70%) once I receive my salaries (Save First) but the total invested amount will be more as I invest my end-of-month spare change as well. Therefore, my total income for the year is £34,084.72 and my total investment is £20,109.43. I've lost potential agency shift earnings of approximately £1500 due to COVID. This is because, my employer has to cancel all elective cases to convert our Operating Theatres into ITU to accommodate ventilated COVID patients. My investments are spread into 4 accounts, Investment1, Investment2, Investment3/4, and Investment5.
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Screen-grab 2 Expenses

​My top 3 expenses are rent (59%), giving (20%) and food and beverages (10%). Overall, I spent £13,653.44 which is less than my budget of £14,400/year. Without COVID, I would probably spend a bit more on eating out, Caffe Nero cappuccino, Lions games tickets and lager. I haven't bought clothes this year. 
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Screen-grab 3 2020 Remittance

I would also like to include the total remittance I sent to the Philippines which is not entirely part of the budget table.
Reasons for these remittances are educational support for my brother, back-up support to my retired parents and opening a new business venture. Over half a million pesos sent this year.


Overall, I did well this year despite COVID. The 20K investment (nearly 60% Savings Rate) is a great achievement considering I live in Central London. Given the above data, I could retire in 8.3 years as per Networthify retirement calculator.
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2021 Forecast

• My basic salary will increase to +£30,000 + allowance, equals 35000 per year (before taxes).
• Agency shifts income will be £10,000 (after tax).
• Rent will likely increase by 4%.
• Going-out related expenses will increase post-lockdown and population vaccination.
• Savings Rate will increase by 4%-5%
• Cap remittance to £5000.

​End.