How To Properly Start Over & Predictions for 2021
By: Mia Gradelski
Tags: Life Lessons, Opinion, 2020, 2021, Advice

Image by Markus Spiske

2021 is the year of the Ox. To be honest, I had to look up what an Ox was because I’m from NYC. As a refresh, this year was dedicated to the rat, clearly. An Ox, also known as a Bison represents abundance and manifesting goals. According to Astromatrix, “People with this totem are unafraid, often unpredictable, and willing to meet a challenge head-on. People are social creatures who work well in teams, but also have strong personal determination.” As with starting over, this will be your year.

Face it. New Year’s resolutions suck. They never work because they are unrealistic. That’s it. We aren’t going to lose those 40 lbs in 2 months, nor is it healthy or build a successful startup by May unless daddy funds it until he runs out of bootstrap funds. The world doesn’t work in our favor if we rush anything, so we must do more than just being patient becuase no one follows that rule anyway.

If there was a way to start and stay in motion, then we would all be accomplishing our dreams and not reading self-help guides like these. But life gets in the way. Whether its a once in a lifetime pandemic or a late train, we want to start properly but there are too many life errands to run that we would prefer to do instead.

Starting over is scary and not for everyone. We always want a push before we ride a bike and warm up before the workout to prevent injuries. We love kickstarts and help but when it comes to doing something we want, support will only hold you back. There are no helicopter parents or babysitters when deciding to start on something you never know will come out successfully. That is the scary thing about life and passive income. And yes, I always have to drag some financial advice into my articles as passive income represents the dedication, time, energy, and grit we must waste, yes, waste for no guaranteed return.

Higher risk = biggest reward but only if you are 110% committed until you really, truly cannot.

Image by Unsplash

Realism

There needs to be a different way to stop ourselves from making silly realizations or assumptions we will be able to do something. It never hurt to dream big but when it comes to our lives, being realistic is the best thing you can do for yourself. There is no one or nothing, I repeat, zilch, that can predict what will happen in the next year, let alone few days. With Operation Warp Speed’s predictions of 20 million people vaccines by the end of the year and only with 1 million thus far, as much as we want to have high hopes, there is just no way anything comes out the way we want. We can only hope and ride the waves, part of life’s promise.

Consensus

Thankfully prominent figures such as Dr. Fauci, VP Pence, incoming president Biden and even famous popes across the globe all got their shots promoting its safe and effective use, to relieve fears especially amongst the Latino and Hispanic populations who are wary the most. As with the markets, we can only predict it to get higher. At home stocks such as Slack and Zoom are here to stay as opposed to Peloton and Clorox are riskier. I believe WFH transitions will move into hybrid mode in mid-2021. 3 days at home, 2 days in the office preferable. As Tesla was added to the S&P 500 last Friday with a market cap of $600 billion more than all car companies combined and the market up more than 10% from last year, I believe there will be no slowing down of a bull market especially with .62% inflation and a cheap 30 year fixed rate mortgage at historic lows at 2.26% people want to take advantage of low rates on purchasing their first starter home. But this also means there will be more polarization between the economy and the stock market as there is record unemployment claims, poverty, job loss and insecurity, lower GDP and spending which doesn’t affect those who profit off the stock market, 60% of Americans, only the majority of Americans who never set up an emergency savings account will continue to live through the effects of this pandemic as stimulus negotiations are being postponed after an initial deal by Congress in the 11th hour for $600 which Trump refused as too little bumped to $2000.

If there is one slogan to live by: Plan for the worst, hope for the best and 85% of Americans wouldn’t have suffered during this crisis.

On the government front, hopefully with Biden in the White House, there will be less racial injustice, riots, and a heck of a lot of rebuilding for the country which also means more scrutiny. If an incoming president comes into office with a strong country and economy, they won’t be penalized as much as someone who has to deal with a pandemic and every measure will be evaluated. At least, as we say but is true, there is a light at the end of the tunnel thanks to this vaccine which miraculously was produced in 9 months by Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J who will be applying for FDA approval in the next coming days.

The tax rate is also something we haven’t had before at this rate, especially with our current president who believes it is ridiculous. He is also someone who doesn’t pay them himself. With Biden taxing households who make over $400k up to 30%, this is certainly a large percentage of paychecks that the rich are unhappy about. And when the rich are unhappy, they seem to make everyone angry as well. Not because they have more power than everyone else, but rather because tax dollars are intended to save poorer Americans. Less taxes to the rich, less money for the poor. As a result, more of a wealth gap.

Image by Unsplash

But this can definitely help propel the economy but for sure the rich will find their sneaky ways to stop providing for Uncle Sam’s paycheck. Either through tax havens, money laundering to storing money in non-corporate tax locations such as in the Bahamas. If there’s a will, there’s a way. An attorney is a rich man’s best friend.

Taxes are a burden but they do help the economy in ways that the government just cannot. New tax revenues from the rich are used to pay for increased stimulus for poorer Americans, on net that will stimulate the economy by increasing overall spending. Since the poor spend more of each additional dollar than do the rich, increasing the progressivity of our tax system increases aggregate demand.

Fingers Crossed

Now that the financial, economic and governmental predictions are made, let’s jump back to starting properly in 2021. Well, we will be having a president who has now ran for president 3 times and finally made it. Maybe this year is about Joe’s work ethic, especially since he made it on the Times Yearly Magazine cover, even though front line workers would’ve been more suitable. Anyway, his resiliency, patient, and dedication to keep fighting to make America __, not exactly sure what his campaign slogan was but must have been better than ‘Great Again’, should be a signal for all of us to be patient with the months to come. This virus will eventually end and hopefully, just maybe, China can pay a price for it? Regardless, we shouldn’t be blaming everyone. America isn’t a blue or red state. We are a community and so are our dreams if we stick to them.