The best of 2020 from Empathic Finance (yes, there can be a “best” in 2020)
By: Mike Pumphrey
Tags: Personal Finance, Money Management, Year In Review, End Of Year List, Best Of

A look back at the best posts of 2020 on Empathic Finance, including both my favorites and the ones readers viewed most.

It has been a year of changes, to say the least.

I went full-time as a money coach, as well as totally redesigning this site to reflect that.

Meanwhile, the world went into lockdown, people lost their minds, and the end isn’t quite in sight yet.

So I can’t blame you for not wanting to look back at the year at all.

But there were some good moments to the year for sure, so it definitely wasn’t all bad.

And just like I’ve done every year since I started this blog, this is my “year in review”.

In this post, you’ll find the top five most read posts (as determined by pageviews) and my own top five favorite posts of the year.

Since I post over 50 times a year, I can’t blame you for missing a few here and there. So this is a chance to get the best of it all.

Enjoy!

Your top 5

Let’s start out with the posts that got the most traction online. Usually these are surprising to me, but I guess it goes to show that I never know what is going to resonate with people.

5. Why I’m going for my AFC® certification-It turns out that people were interested in certification, either the AFC® in general, or my decision to go for it. That’s a good thing, as people want to know that they are working with properly vetted professionals. So when all this is done, I’ll have two ways to show that I can help you: through a certification and through my testimonials.

4. Course review: How to Win the Game of Advanced Personal Finance -Ramit Sethi still doesn’t know who I am, but you certainly know who he is. And the makes sense, since he is the author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich and a number of online products, one of which I purchased (with my own money) and reviewed in this post. He may hate the name “Mike”, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

3. I am not me: Capital One and the failure of Know Your Customer-This was primarily a rant on a terrible customer service experience, but given how frequently this was viewed, I clearly am not the only one who has had this kind of treatment.

2. How to create buckets in an Ally savings account-I’ve been a fan of Ally for a while, but their “multiple accounts” experience used to suck. However, I’m happy to say that process has improved, and they even use my terminology of “buckets” to denote multiple savings accounts. (I won’t charge them.)

1. What does the data say? Reading The National Study of Millionaires-Clearly I need a shout out to all the Chris Hogan fans out there. He, as part of the Dave Ramsey team, commissioned the largest study of millionaires ever conducted, so as to answer the question of what it takes to become wealthy in this country. I remain a little skeptical that this study answers this question (since correlation doesn’t imply causation), but read this post (and the study) and see for yourself.

My top 5

I want to post my top five posts too, as they encapsulate most effectively the work that I do and the mindset that I offer. If you’re interested in working with me, this is information you want.

1. Why I want to be the “Dave Ramsey for the heathens”-I was very inspired by Dave Ramsey when I first found out about him and his work. But his political views and naked intolerance didn’t just upset me, it also gave me clarity in terms of who I want to work with and help. (I went into more details about the catalyst for me in a YouTube video.)

2. The pastor and the flood: A parable on who can save you-This story and its implications profoundly affected the course of my life, and continues to this day.

3. How to pay off a $10,000 debt-Sometimes, you just need a plan to deal with something really big. This post is about that plan. (I made a YouTube video about this too.)

4. Freed from the golden handcuffs: the surprising joy of being laid-off-In a year of adjustment, this might be the biggest one of all for me. But I also know that so many of you out there may have the feeling of golden handcuffs, even if you don’t realize it.

5. Offense and defense: What chess can tell us about financial wellness-Sometimes the subject of money feels so heavy that I don’t find it easy to explore a topic with humor. But the ridiculous chess board setups I created to talk about how to approach your finances had the rare effect of making me laugh at my own jokes, and even now looking back it still makes me giggle. Hopefully it’ll have the same effect for you too.

Looking back and ahead

This year hasn’t been all bad. Even still, it’s good to take stock of the year and see what you can take from it with you as we move into the next one.

One thing is for sure: I could not ever have imagined at the beginning of the year that I’d be where I am at the end of it. And I mean that in the best possible way.

If that doesn’t sound like your situation, just wait; next year might be your year. And I’d love to help be a part of the transformation.