Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 retirement nest egg, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how August 2021 went.

What’s my net worth?

As at 31 July 2021, my net worth was S$317,161, or US$233,748.

As at 31 August 2021, my net worth was S$317,771, or US$234,833.

(If you can’t view my asset allocation below, please refresh the page.)

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 retirement nest egg, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how July 2021 went.

A few things to note, as always:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
• But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.737.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 30 June 2021, my net worth was S$312,200, or US$231,028.

As at 31 July 2021, my net worth was S$317,161, or US$233,748.

(If you can’t view my asset allocation below, please refresh the page.)

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 retirement nest egg, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how June 2021 went.

A few things to note, as always:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
• But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.74.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 31 May 2021, my net worth was S$307,194, or US$231,931.

As at 30 June 2021, my net worth was S$312,200, or US$231,028.

Got a 1-month performance bonus, which was standard company-wide. I have to say that I was surprised, as I wasn’t expecting anything at all.

(If you can’t view my asset allocation below, please refresh the page.)

What’s my asset allocation?

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 retirement nest egg, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how May 2021 went, and I’m going to jump straight into the financial update (because I don’t have much time to post this and I’m a little lazy hahaha).

A few things to note, as always:

– I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
– But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
– At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.755.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

As at 31 May 2021, my net worth was S$307,194, or US$231,931.

This month was pretty flat, but I’m starting to build up my cash reserves again. It’s a matter of urgency now that I’m going to quit my job soon hahaha. I’ll just do my best with saving until I do.

(If you can’t view my asset allocation below, please refresh the page.)

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 retirement nest egg, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how April 2021 went, and I’m going to jump straight into the financial update (because I don’t have much time to post this and I’m a little lazy hahaha).

A few things to note, as always:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
• But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.754.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 30 April 2021, my net worth was S$305,213, or US$230,130.

So… I finally passed the S$300,000 mark! With the help of CPF retirement monies of course. One day I’ll get there without it

(If you can’t view my asset allocation below, please refresh the page.)

What’s my asset allocation?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 retirement nest egg, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how March 2021 went.

This month, I kept getting conjunctivitis (4 infections in 4 weeks), so I spent a LOT of my time cleaning out my room as much as possible. I threw most of my precious DVDs away, and started selling my books. I think most of the dust was generated from all the outdoor gear (for my niche site) in my room, unfortunately. Hopefully going forward, this won’t keep happening because it’s very emotionally stressful and very time-consuming, not to mention pricey.

Apart from my health issues (which took up a lot of time), not a lot happened this month. I finally got to try Sushiro:

– I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
– But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
– At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.746.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

As at 31 March 2021, my net worth was S$297,876, or US$222,215.

I wanted to save more money, but I bought a new iPhone 12 for the better camera, so poof went the majority of my part-time salary.

(If you can’t view my asset allocation below, please refresh the page.)

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how February 2021 went.

I also went to the River Hongbao with my girlfriend’s family and got to see lots of cool sights.

– I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
– But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
– At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.743.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

As at 28 February 2021, my net worth was S$287,258, or US$213,433.

During this month, I got paid back a massive amount of money that had been owing to me for a few years now, in cash. I never considered that part of my net worth before as I didn’t know if I would ever receive it. But now that I have, it’s awesome to see a huge gain in my net worth and a replenishing of my cash reserves. I’ve also started saving my office job salary to replenish my cash reserves before I quit my job. And I got dividends this month too!

Also, I think I mucked up my retirement account calculations earlier, but I think it should be accurate now (as at 28 February 2021).

(If you can’t view my asset allocation below, please refresh the page.)

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how January 2021 went.

On top of work and trying to figure the whole niche website/YouTube thing, I didn’t have much time left for myself.

After many months of exhausting my savings, I’m starting to build it back up again. I’ve got only 5 more months to go before I quit my job (most likely, but not confirmed), so I’m going to try and save what I can.

(If you can’t view my asset allocation below, please refresh the page.)

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how December 2020 went.

Life Updates for December 2020

December is usually a more chill month, and the festive period feels like a welcome break from monotonous office work. Christmas was everywhere, and while I didn’t go out that much, it was still nice to experience.

Christmas at Jewel, Changi Airport.

Christmas at VivoCity.

In addition to just going out and having fun, I tried to start filming for my YouTube channel. It didn’t go as well as I had hoped, but still interesting, nonetheless.

Filming YouTube videos for an outdoor niche.

Financial Updates for December 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
• But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.757.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

As at 30 November 2020, my net worth was S$263,606, or US$197,441.

As at 31 December 2020, my net worth was S$267,432, or US$202,446.

The drop in my cash again shows that I’ve been spending more than I’ve earned. At this point, I’ve gotten used to it and I don’t regret it a single bit.

It’s interesting to see that my net worth has again increased even though I’ve saved nothing and invested nothing. Super cool.

How was your financial progress for December 2020?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.  

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how November 2020 went.

Life Updates for November 2020

For part of October and all of November, I decided to take an extended break from blogging and my niche sites. While I did spend 1-2 hours a week throwing together a bunch of posts to keep up my weekly schedule on this blog, I didn’t do much more than that.

My time away gave me a lot to think about, and I do believe I have a clearer direction on where I should be headed regarding this blog and my niche site.

During my time away, I got to experience a slower pace of life, and got to see new things around Singapore.

Visting Haji Lane to eat some pies from Windowsill Pies.

Visiting Hort Park for some greenery and to buy some plants.

Scouting out places where I can start filming for my YouTube channel.

Financial Updates for November 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
• But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.749.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

As at 31 October 2020, my net worth was S$249,062, or US$182,064.

As at 30 November 2020, my net worth was S$263,606, or US$197,441.

Unfortunately, I’ve still be bleeding a lot of money because of my niche site. Outdoor gear is expensive, and my wallet certainly felt it. I’ve started to not only spend all my salary, but started to dip into my savings as well, as you can see from the drastic drop in cash.

On a positive note though, the stock markets went crazy (in a good way) this month. Although I no longer have any money to invest (I haven’t invested in months), my brokerage accounts went up by almost $19,000. That’s certainly an eye-popping number. Again, my net worth hits a record high despite my ridiculous spending on my niche site. Cool.

What’s my asset allocation?

How was your financial progress for November 2020?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.  

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how October 2020 went.

Life Updates for October 2020

Not a lot happened in October, though my girlfriend and I do have big (or maybe not so big) news to share in the future. That update should come either this year or next year.

In the meantime, more Japanese restaurant recommendations, anybody?

Itacho Sushi. Here’s some $0.60 and $0.90 sushi.

Sushi from Don Don Donki. This set of 12 sushi cost just $12.80.

Sushi buffet at Hokkaido Sushi. $47 per person after the 7% GST and 10% service charge. A little pricey, but absolutely worth it.

Financial Updates for October 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
• But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.731.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 30 September 2020, my net worth was S$252,458, or US$185,051.

As at 31 October 2020, my net worth was S$249,062, or US$182,064.

This month, I invested S$2,000 into a Singapore stock that my girlfriend had been eyeing for a while now. Other than that, I didn’t invest in anything else. My net worth has fallen across the board, but I hardly check the markets anymore so it doesn’t bother me.

As it has been the case for several months now, I haven’t been saving any money at all. I’ve been investing in gear for my niche site, and it feels like I’m bleeding money. My girlfriend even gave me some seed money for my blog this month, but that disappeared as quickly as it came in. Hopefully it pays off.

I have to admit that it’s not quite so exciting to track your net worth when you don’t save any money at all, but this will probably be only temporary.

What’s my asset allocation?

My asset allocation didn’t change very much as I haven’t done much to my investment portfolio.

How was your financial progress for October 2020?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.  

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how September 2020 went.

Life Updates for September 2020

I’ll keep this life update short, as quite a few unpleasant health-related scares and problems happened this month. The most important thing I learnt is this – Life is short. Appreciate what you have. Cherish your loved ones.

 For those of you who sent me emails and messages, thank you. I appreciate them. I apologise for the slow replies, but I’ll get to it soon

Financial Updates for September 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
• But I also include a conversion to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.733.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 31 August 2020, my net worth was S$251,293, or US$184,198.

As at 30 September 2020, my net worth was S$252,458, or US$185,051.

Similar to last month, I didn’t get to save much money this month either. I saved maybe $300 or so. A lot of money went to paying for niche site gear and expenses. While I don’t feel totally comfortable with this, I like to remind myself that it’s an investment worth making.

If things work out, I’d never have to work another office jobs. If things don’t work out, then I’ll take comfort in the fact that I’ve still learnt a lot, and that I didn’t lose that much money.

What’s my asset allocation?

In my book, “Become a Millionaire and Retire Early on a Modest Salary”, which you can find right here and download for free, I explained why I’m aiming for an asset allocation that looks like this:

And here’s what my current asset allocation looks like:

For the past few months, I’ve only invested in the US and international stocks, and I halted all investments into Singapore stocks. Progress is slow in getting to my ideal asset allocation, but I’m okay with that.

How was your financial progress for September 2020?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.  

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how August 2020 went.

Life Updates for August 2020

August for me was uneventful for the most part (which was nice), though a few unpleasant things did happen toward the end of the month.

Loved Ones

 I was fortunate enough to be able to see my girlfriend a few times this month, and we always eat up a storm when we go out, which is fun. We had one of our favourite ramen dishes, and indulged in sashimi.

Ramen from the Keisuke chain. Super delicious ramen for an affordable price (S$14).

Plates of sashimi from Sakae Sushi. They have a 1-1 promotion on Shopee, so that’s S$6.39 for 8 pieces of sashimi. I got the above on flash deals, so I paid S$1 for 2 plates (S$3 for 6 plates). Insane.

On top of that, I still get to spend a lot of time with my siblings, and I’m starting to see my close cousins more, which is nice.

There was also National Day, with nice fireworks.

Corporate Job

As at the end of August 2020, I’ve been working from home for a full 5 months, which has been heavenly, for so many reasons described in this post here. I believe that I’ll still be working from home in September, though I don’t know what my fate will be in October onwards.

Niche Site

A significant amount of my time goes toward my new niche site, and this month was no different. I spent at least 30 hours a week writing for the niche site.

Health

 Near the end of August 2020, my grandfather got hospitalised. He’s 89 this year, and I’m extremely worried about him. He survived his emergency surgery, but he can’t be discharged yet. It’s been difficult trying to cope with the fact that life is precious yet so fleeting.

Financial Updates for August 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$).
• But I also include a conversions to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.733.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 31 July 2020, my net worth was S$248,045, or US$180,577.

As at 31 August 2020, my net worth was S$251,293, or US$184,198.

Usually, at the end of every month, I would take screenshots of all my bank and brokerage accounts, to clock in their worth at that specific time. This month though, I completely forgot to do so. As such, all the information shall be based on 3 September 2020. (Better late than never, right?)

For the first time in many years, I didn’t save any money at all this month.

The moment my pay from my corporate job hit my bank account, I had to use it to pay for a bunch of bills (like rent to parents and expenses for my sites). My biggest expenses for this month were on website courses and niche site expenses.

I felt a little unsettled about this, because when I first transitioned to part-time work, I didn’t envision such high expenses for this year. But I got over it by reminding myself that as an “entrepreneur” (am I even considered one?), there will always be a lot of risk, including monetary ones. At the very least, website and other associated costs are much lower than if I were to open a brick and mortar store.

I’m also pleasantly surprise to find that despite the fact that I didn’t save any money, my net worth still went up, thanks to my international stock allocation.

I invested only about S$2,000, so I saw capital gains of more than S$2,000. Cool.

Here’s what my current asset allocation looks like:

My Singapore stock allocation has never been lower (at 59%, this seems laughable), and my US stock allocation has never been higher (22%). Not ideal again, as usual, but I’m slowly getting there.

I don’t include retirement accounts as part of my asset allocation as they are sitting in cold, hard cash. (I don’t have much control over these retirement accounts.)

How was your financial progress for August 2020?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how July 2020 went.

Life Updates for July 2020

As usual, because of the COVID-19 situation, there haven’t been many exciting events to update, but I’ll still try my best to make this as interesting as possible

Visiting Universal Studios Singapore

The most memorable event that I had the opportunity to enjoy this month was visiting Universal Studios Singapore (USS). Back in December 2019, I bought my girlfriend and I season passes (6-month passes) to USS. We were supposed to go frequently during the 6 months that we had our passes, but our plans had to be scrapped when USS closed due to the lockdown.

Thankfully, USS extended the validity of our passes and we were able to visit again sometime in July. It was lovely as usual, but there were insane queues to get in, and snaking queues just to sit on the rides.

I wasn’t comfortable with queuing up in an enclosed place with many other people, so all we did was sat on 1 ride (that didn’t have a queue), took pictures with animated characters, and then went shopping.

Taking photos of Universal Studios from where there aren’t too many people.

Shopping, because there was a sale for up to 70% off chocolates!

Having a beer in the morning in an empty restaurant. It was awesome.

I’m still working from home!

 Singapore is still in Phase 2, which means telecommuting is still the default. I’m extremely thankful for that, and I love working from home every day that I get to do so. I still don’t know when this will end, so I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

Productivity for the month

I started a new niche site in late June 2020, and I spent July 2020 churning out content for the site. Progress is slow, as things always are when you first start something new.

I’ll definitely be posting more updates on this niche site monthly, so do keep a look out if you’re interested in that.

Other than the niche site, I still have tutoring and my part-time job, which adds up to about 30-40 hours a month. I’m still debating on whether to quit my part-time job at the end of the year.

Financial Updates for July 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$)
• But I also include a conversions to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.728.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 30 June 2020, my net worth was S$244,676, or US$175,395.

As at 31 July 2020, my net worth was S$248,045, or US$180,577.

My net worth reached another new high this month, though it’s not much higher than the “new high” that I hit last month back in June 2020. My increase in net worth was mostly propped up by the retirement contributions made into my retirement account. If you’re wondering why it’s higher than normal, it’s because my retirement contributions were for June 2020 (when I received my bonus). I’ll get July 2020’s contributions only in August 2020.

There wasn’t any activity in many of my accounts this month, especially because I had (stupidly) forgotten to make my monthly investments in the U.S. and international stock market. It was only when I updated my accounts that I realised that it had slipped my mind. Oh well, not much harm done I suppose. I’ll just double my investment for next month then. ?

What’s my asset allocation?

In my book, “Become a Millionaire and Retire Early on a Modest Salary”, which you can find right here and download for free, I explained why I’m aiming for an asset allocation that looks like this:

Definitely still not ideal, but I’m slowly inching toward my ideal asset allocation.  

I don’t include retirement accounts as part of my asset allocation as they are sitting in cold, hard cash. (I don’t have much control over these retirement accounts.)

Also, I’ve decided to stop publishing the further details of my net worth. I’m not sure why, and it’s just a feeling, but I don’t feel too safe with excessive amount of financial details online anymore. I feel like the above provides sufficient financial information to follow along with my journey to financial independence and early retirement on a modest income, and I’ll continue to publish only the above until I decided to further tweak and update these monthly reports. ?

How was your July 2020?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how June 2020 went.

Life Updates for June 2020

TV shows, alcohol, snacks and late nights

I feel that I’ve become lazier, and less disciplined in the past month. Maybe I’ve been taking all my extra time for granted, and I’ve also picked up quite a few bad habits along the way, the worst of which is excessive snacking and staying up late.

I’ve been watching lots of TV shows on Netflix, and this year alone, I’ve gone through:

• All 9 seasons of How I Met Your Mother (Re-watch)
• Season 1 of the Witcher
• All 3 seasons of Attack on Titan
• Season 2 of One Punch Man
• Season 2 of Kingdom
• The first 3 seasons of Lucifer (Still watching)
• The first 2 seasons of Glee (Re-watch) (Still watching)

Honestly, I don’t regret watching any of these shows. My youngest brother loves to join me in my show-watching binge, and it’s usually a really fun time. I know I’ll probably look back on this time with some kind of fondness.

My brother and I enjoying a beer and chips while watching the Witcher.

But what irks me is that I have no self-control over my snacking while I watch these shows (because shows are always more fun when you’re snacking). I also usually get too hooked to an exciting episode, and go to bed way past my bedtime.

As a result, I’ve become a lot unhealthier (in terms of food consumption) and my bedtime is now regularly an hour or two later than it used to be. As a morning person, I always consistently regret my late-night decisions (although they feel so good in the moment).

I’m hoping to slowly turn this around next month though ?

Productivity for the month

I started a new site as a side project this month, in the hopes of beefing up my resume and also to earn a little money (hopefully).

Since I plan to focus the majority of my free time on this site (which I will definitely update on this blog in time to come), I decided to go from posting multiple times a week on this personal finance blog, to just once a week. I do feel that a weekly schedule is still pretty good though, and will be doing this for the foreseeable future.

Apart from these side projects, I was also slightly busier at work and tutoring. But I love that I still have money flowing in and increasing my net worth each month.

I just hope that I don’t get too busy, because my job isn’t my priority, whereas my side project is.

Financial Updates for June 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$)
• But I also include a conversions to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.717.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 31 May 2020, my net worth was S$235,085, or US$166,910.

As at 30 June 2020, my net worth was S$244,676, or US$175,395.

It was a very pleasant surprise to see a close to 5-figure increase in my portfolio this month. A big factor in this increase was a 2.25-month bonus that I received for the Financial Year 2019. This was supposed to have been distributed in March 2020, but they decided to (sneakily) push back the distribution.

After I received my bonus, I felt a little bit of regret that I had decided to transition into part-time work, which made me lose out on a few thousand dollars of bonus (due to my 40% pay cut). It stings a little, but I am really loving the part-time arrangement along with the work-from-home arrangement, so I don’t have much to complain about. ?

I also received a bunch of dividends this month, so that contributed to the increase.

After my net worth peaked in February 2020, coming in at about $242,663, the following months saw brutal cuts to my overall net worth due to the stock market entering a bear market. It’s since recovered significantly, which brings my net worth to a new high this month! Yay! (Or maybe I shouldn’t be cheering since I can no longer buy stocks at a massive discount.)

What’s my asset allocation?

In my book, “Become a Millionaire and Retire Early on a Modest Salary”, which you can find right here and download for free, I explained why I’m aiming for an asset allocation that looks like this:

Here’s what my current asset allocation looks like:

I realised that my May 2020 net worth update had mistakes in my asset allocation – for my U.S. stocks and international stocks, the amounts were in USD instead of SGD, which led to those parts of my portfolio being understated. Oh well. This time, I made sure the figures were correct. ?

Still not ideal, but I’m not investing as aggressively as I did before. I’ve gone back to my regular schedule of anywhere between S$1,000 to S$2,000 a month. But all of this goes straight into U.S. and international stocks, so my asset allocation should get better over time.

I don’t include retirement accounts as part of my asset allocation as they are sitting in cold, hard cash. (I don’t have much control over these retirement accounts.)

If you’re looking for more details of my net worth, here they are. ?

Brokerage Accounts

Singapore Portfolio

Bond Index ETF – S$28,035
Stock Index ETF – S$77,366
Individual Shares – S$25,303
Total – S$130,704 (US$93,715)

United States and International Portfolio

Stock Index ETF – US$19,813
International Stock Index ETF – US$3,024
Individual Shares – US$3,144
Total – S$36,243 (US$25,981)

Cash in Bank Accounts

Brokerage Account 1 – S$967
Brokerage Account 2 – S$41
Bank Account 1 – S$7,900
Bank Account 2 – S$631
Bank Account 3 – S$10,604
Bank Account 4 – S$505
Bank Account 5 – S$1,003
Cash on Hand – S$3,773
Total – S$25,424 (US$18,229)

Retirement Accounts

Retirement Account 1 – S$32,426
Retirement Account 2 – S$9,073
Retirement Account 3 – S$10,806
Total – S$52,305 (US$37,503)

How was your June 2020?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

Every month, I track my net worth progress towards my $1,000,000 milestone, which is how much I need to retire early. Let’s find out how May 2020 went.

Life Updates for May 2020

To my very pleasant surprise, the lockdown for Singapore got extended from 1 month, to 2 months. This means that May 2020 was another work-from-home month, which was heavenly. I hear stories of many people working crazy hours during this work-from-home period, but thankfully I don’t have to. That’s just one of the benefits of a job that doesn’t pay me more than S$2,000 a month in take-home salary. ?

Because we’re mostly trapped at home for the entire month of May, there weren’t many opportunities for me to go out and take many pictures. Nevertheless, I’ve still got some interesting (or so I think) memories to share.

My youngest brother recently got into water babies, which are little balls of water-absorbent material. Here’s what they look like after you soak them.

The tiny ones have just been put in, and have not absorbed any water, whereas the big ones are filled with water. It’s interesting. And also pretty.

I used to have so much fun with these back when I was his age (teenager). My friend and I used to grow cartons and cartons of these water babies, and we stored them around our classroom (until we got yelled at by our teachers).

Ah, nostalgia.

Speaking of nostalgia, my highlight of the month was finally getting to play MapleStory, a game I played almost every single day from the ages of 13 to 16 (I was addicted). After 10 long years, I finally got to play again, and it was fantastic. The gameplay isn’t as good anymore, and my online friends have all up and disappeared from my life, but I still cherish the memories from my past. Here’s what the game looks like, cute, right?

My girlfriend is already bored of the game after playing it with me so much, but I personally don’t think I could ever stop loving it.

Did I do anything productive this month?

Unlike in March and April, where I finished writing and editing an entire book, which you can find right here and download for free, my May was much more uneventful. I think I spent a lot of time doing less important things, like revamping the site and trying to sort out annoying technical issues. These things took days and days, and I personally want to stop doing these things, and finally get down to writing more.

Recognise this picture?

This picture was just 1 of the pictures I took to put on my homepage. I spent quite a few hours just on this 1 single picture, trying to get it to look nice. (I guess that’s where all my time went to.) But I do like the end-result, the colours, the scenery. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I also started publishing blog posts, the drafts of which have been sitting in my computer since February (I was procrastinating!). Most of the posts that I published in May 2020 were actually all written in February. That goes to show how much actual writing I did in May (Hint: Almost nothing.)

Apart from working on the blog, I still had to work and side hustle, which ate up a significant part of my time each week as well.

But at least I still have money coming in, which is still nice, considering the state of everything else in this world.

As you can tell, I had a pretty carefree month, unlike many other places that are experiencing unrest and tragedy. I know I’m privileged, and I don’t take a second of that for granted.

Financial Updates for May 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$)
• But I also include a conversions to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.71.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

What’s my net worth?

As at 31 April 2020, my net worth was S$231,276, or US$163,050.

As at 30 May 2020, my net worth was S$235,085, orUS$166,910.

I was a little disappointed that the stock market kept rising this month, as I still had bonds to divest and cash to invest. Oh well. At least I managed to get a little bit of investment in during the short downturn.

I invested mainly into the U.S. market and the international market, and I’ve since limited investments into the Singapore market. That’s why my U.S brokerage account increased (as I invested), and my Singapore brokerage account dropped (because I divested bonds. Also, because Singapore is a lot more sluggish than the U.S.).

What’s my asset allocation?

In my book, “Become a Millionaire and Retire Early on a Modest Salary”, which you can find right here and download for free, I explained why I’m aiming for an asset allocation that looks like this:

Aaaaand, here’s what my current asset allocation looks like:

Note: You can click on each slice of the pie chart below to find out the value of my holdings in each asset class.

Not ideal, at all, as it takes time to slowly build up capital and invest all of it in the U.S. and international markets.

But I guess I’ll just work on this, slowly but steadily ?

I don’t include retirement accounts as part of my asset allocation as they are sitting in cold, hard cash. (I don’t have much control over these retirement accounts.)

If you’re looking for more details of my net worth, here they are. ?

Brokerage Accounts

Singapore Portfolio

Bond Index ETF – S$28,305
Stock Index ETF – S$74,675
Individual Shares – S$24,087
Total – S$127,067 (US$90,218)

United States Portfolio

Stock Index ETF – US$17,829
International Stock Index ETF – US$2,371
Individual Shares – US$3,093
Total – S$32,842 (US$23,292)

Cash in Bank Accounts

Brokerage Account 1 – S$3,531
Brokerage Account 2 – S$27
Bank Account 1 – S$3,905
Bank Account 2 – S$631
Bank Account 3 – S$10,363
Bank Account 4 – S$504
Bank Account 5 – S$1,003
Cash on Hand – S$3,716
Total – S$23,680 (US$16,813)

Retirement Accounts

Retirement Account 1 – S$31,923
Retirement Account 2 – S$8,942
Retirement Account 3 – S$10,631
Total – S$51,496 (US$36,562)

And that’s it!

I hope to improve on these net worth updates over the months, in content and in form. Hope you stick around for that ?

How was your May 2020?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Like many other personal finance bloggers, I’m planning to rely solely on passive income in my early retirement. I expect this passive income to be derived mainly from dividends from stocks and bonds, as well as a little bit of interest from high interest-yielding bank accounts.

My goal is to generate passive income of between $30,000 to $33,000 a year (in Singapore dollars) when I eventually retire early at age 41. That’s about 14 years from now.

As such, I thought it would be interesting to chart my yearly progress towards this goal. This is my second passive income update.

Related Reading: What Was My Total Passive Income in 2018?

Sources of Passive Income – An Overview

 As at end-2019, I enjoyed passive income from my holdings in:

• Stocks;
  • Singapore stock ETF.
  • High dividend-yielding individual Singapore stocks.
  • U.S. stock ETF.
• Bonds;
  • Singapore bond ETF.
• Cash; and
  • Cash in high interest-yielding bank accounts.
• Retirement accounts.

In 2019, my passive income amounted to $4,280 from stocks, bonds and cash, excluding retirement accounts. Including retirement accounts, my passive income amounted to $5,646. All this is in Singapore dollars, and the breakdown has been provided below.

Dividend Income from Stocks

Singapore Stock ETF

The majority of my net worth is in Singapore’s stock ETF, as this was what I started investing in years ago. As of my net worth update in December 2019, I had $83,866 in Singapore’s stock ETF alone.

In 2019, I received a total of $2,592 from my holdings in the Singapore stock ETF.

Singapore High Dividend-Yielding Stocks

At end-December 2019, I had $8,583 in individual stocks in the Singapore market. I bought these stocks primarily because these are reputable blue-chip companies, which provide great dividends. These stocks provide dividends anywhere between one to four times a year.

In 2019, I received a total of $303 in dividend income from these stocks.

U.S. Stock ETF

When I first started investing, I was hesitant to invest in anything outside of the Singapore market, as I wasn’t sure of what I was doing. In 2019, I read up a little on international exposure, and decided that this had to change.

As such, I gathered some courage and now religiously invest about $1,200 a month in the U.S. stock market. At end-December 2019, I had US$8,726 invested in the Vanguard S&P 500 Index. This is about $12,391 in Singapore dollars.

In 2019, I received a total of US$52 in dividend income from this stock ETF. This amounts to about $74 in Singapore dollars. 

Dividend Income from Bonds

At end-December 2019, I had $43,677 in bonds, consisting of only the Singapore Bond ETF.

In 2019, I received a total of $958 in dividend income from this bond ETF.

This has provided some much-needed diversification in my investment portfolio, as I realise that the general trend is as such – when stocks fall, bonds rise, and vice versa.

Interest Income from Cash

As at end-December 2019, I had about $33,146 in cash. Most of this cash has been stuffed away in high-yield bank accounts, and a small amount is held in foreign currency.

My cash balance fluctuates throughout the year. If the stock market goes down, I go on a buying frenzy, and buy a lot more than I usually would. If the stock market keeps trending upward, I simply continue with my regular monthly investment in the U.S. stock market.

In 2019, I received a total of $353 in interest income from my high-yield bank accounts.

Interest Income from Retirement Accounts

A portion of my monthly paychecks are mandatorily shuffled over to my various retirement accounts, much against my will.

In 2019, I received a total of $1,366 in interest income from my retirement accounts, courtesy of the Singapore government.

Note: I don’t consider interest income from retirement accounts as a significant part of my early retirement plan. This is because I have no control over the money, and would not be able to withdraw anything until traditional retirement age. As such, my early retirement plan will have to exclude any earnings from my retirement accounts. Nevertheless, it’s still fun to be able to track how much I get.

Progress on Passive Income Goals

Since I’m aiming for passive income of at least $30,000 a year, which excludes retirement accounts, my passive income of $4,280 from stocks, bonds and cash puts me at 14% completion of my goal. That means I have another 86% to go.

I’m pleasantly surprised to find that my passive income has increased so much in just 1 year. (In 2018, I enjoyed passive income of $1,360, which is only about 4.5% of my passive income goal.) This is a direct result of me overcoming my fears of the stock market, and investing huge chunks of my cash over the past year.

In 2019, I started investing in high dividend-yielding stocks, as well as getting international exposure in the U.S. market. This has significantly increased my passive dividend income. Although my interest income from cash decreased, I’m happy to see that I’ve made significant progress in the stock dividend department.

Where will I be going from here?

In 2020, I hope to divest most of my bonds and invest most of my cash into stock ETFs and dividend stocks, as this will form the bulk of my early retirement portfolio.

It would be nice to see my passive income (excluding retirement accounts) hit at least $7,000 to $8,000 in 2020. If I include passive income from retirement accounts, my passive income might reach five-figures soon. Hopefully.

In addition, I hope to be able to enjoy passive income from passion projects as well, such as this blog. I do know that it’s extremely difficult to do so, so I don’t have very high hopes for this. If I’m fortunate enough to enjoy passive income from these sources, I’ll be sure to keep you updated.

I hope you enjoyed this yearly passive income update, and thank you for reading.

Like many other personal finance bloggers, I’m planning to rely solely on passive income in my early retirement. I expect this passive income to be derived mainly from dividends from stocks and bonds, as well as a little bit of interest from high interest-yielding bank accounts.

My goal is to generate passive income of between $30,000 to $33,000 a year (in Singapore dollars) when I eventually retire early at age 41. That’s about 14 years from now.

As such, I thought it would be interesting to chart my yearly progress towards this goal.

Background Context

I started dipping my toes into the stock market back in 2015, which was when I first started working (part-time, since I was still in university). However, I was young then and wasn’t really in it for the long haul. After selling whatever stocks I had, I watched with envy as the stock market reached new highs.

After educating myself a little, I got back into the stock market in late-2017. This time, for good, and for the long haul, of at least a few decades.

This meant that 2018 was my first year of seeing real passive income.

Unfortunately, I was a personal finance newbie then (still am, actually), and did very little tracking of my financial growth. To write this post, I trawled through old records, and had to make some estimations when I couldn’t find any. Just something to keep in mind.

And with that out of the way, let’s get into the good stuff.

Sources of Passive Income – An Overview

In 2018, I enjoyed passive income from:

• The Singapore stock ETF;
• The Singapore bond ETF;
• Cash in high interest-yielding bank accounts; and
• My retirement accounts.

My passive income amounted to $1,360 from stocks, bonds and cash, excluding retirement accounts. Including retirement accounts, my passive income amounted to $1,958. This entire post is in Singapore dollars, and the breakdown has been provided below.

Dividend Income from Stocks

Throughout 2018, I held stocks only in the Singapore Stock ETF. I knew nothing of high dividend-yielding stocks, nor of international exposure.

When the twice-yearly dividends were distributed in February and August, I didn’t have many holdings in the market. I started throwing more money into the market only nearer the end of the year, in a bid to increase my dividend income more significantly for the next year.

As such, dividends from stocks for 2018 totalled $639.

Dividend Income from Bonds

Throughout 2018, I held bonds only in the Singapore Bond ETF. This was advice I obtained from a book called Millionaire Teacher, by Andrew Hallam.

As dividends are typically paid out at the beginning of the year in January, I didn’t have much then. I started accumulating my bond holdings only after the dividends had been paid out.

Dividends from bonds for 2018 totalled $26.

Interest Income from Cash

2018 was the year that I discovered high interest-yielding bank accounts. I opened my first one in March 2018, and never looked back.

For much of 2018, I held a lot of cash in my bank accounts, as I had been afraid to invest. Total interest income for 2018 came in at $695.

Interest Income from Retirement Accounts

A portion of my monthly pay checks are mandatorily shuffled over to my various retirement accounts, much against my will.

In 2018, I received a total of $598 in interest income from my retirement accounts, courtesy of the Singapore government.

Progress on Passive Income Goals

Since I’m aiming for passive income of at least $30,000 a year, excluding retirement accounts, my passive income of $1,360 from stocks, bonds and cash puts me at just 4.5% completion of my goal. That means I have another 95.5% to go.

But since 2018 is my first real year of passive income, I’d say that the progress I made is decent

And that’s it for my first year of real passive income. Thanks for reading!

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth and life update.

April was an interesting month.

Work from Home Bliss

As the COVID-19 global numbers soared, Singapore was placed into lockdown mode, like the rest of the world. It was announced to be put in place from 7 April to 4 May, a period of 4 weeks. Just two weeks into our lockdown, the government announced that this would extend for another 4 weeks, until 1 June.

In other words, that’s almost 2 months of working from home! As someone who works in a super traditional company, which values face-time over productivity, this felt like a dream come true. (Only the work-from-home was bliss, not the fact that the entire world is under attack from the COVID-19 virus.)

And I must say that working from home is everything I ever dreamed it would be. There are so many wonderful benefits to it, like:

• No soul-sucking commutes.
• Less office politics.
• No distractions from co-workers.
• Less useless meetings.
• Double the amount of productivity.

This means that I’m able to finish my work faster, and I have more time leftover to do as I please. With the extra free time, I’ve been:

• Working out more.
• Writing more.
• Relaxing more.
• Drinking more alcohol.
• Gaming with friends more.

As a highly-introverted person, the past month has been fantastic, and I’m hoping for more of these work-from-home arrangements (although I know that it’s impossible once the lockdown ends, since my company would never allow that). So, in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. 

Indulging in nostalgia with a childhood game of mine, Club Penguin. It’s a kid’s game, but still adorable.

Financial Update April 2020

And now, let’s get into the financial aspect of things. A few things to note, as usual:

• I track my net worth in Singapore Dollars (S$)
• But I also include a conversions to U.S. dollars (US$) in my net worth update.
• At the time of writing, the exchange rate is S$1 to US$0.705.

Without further ado, here are all the numbers.

A $15,900 increase in net worth; that’s huge!

Last month I mentioned that I had lost so much money that even some part of my original capital had been lost. Well, this month I went from losing my original capital to now being in the green. Not that much in the green, but still in the green, nevertheless.

I know I probably shouldn’t be happy that stocks aren’t on bargain sales anymore (especially considering my long investment horizon), but I guess a part of me is relieved.

I would like to see more sales in the future though, as I still have cash and bonds to divest.

From this April 2020 net worth update onward, I’ve decided to switch up the format of my total net worth to better display my asset allocation. In my book, “Become a Millionaire and Retire Early on a Modest Salary”, which is a complementary resource available to you as a subscriber of this blog, I explained why I’m aiming for an asset allocation that looks like this:

I go into much greater detail in the book, down to the specific ETFs that I buy, but the above should suffice for the purposes of this net worth update.

And my current asset allocation looks like this:

Yikes. Still a lot of work to do to get to my desired asset allocation. But I’ve been slowly paring down bonds to invest in the U.S. and International stock indexes. I’ll probably also be using my spare cash to buy more stocks.

I don’t include retirement accounts as part of my asset allocation as they are sitting in cold, hard cash. (I don’t have much control over these retirement accounts.)

If you’re looking for more details of my net worth, here they are. ?

Brokerage Accounts

Singapore Portfolio

Bond Index ETF – S$28,737
Stock Index ETF – S$77,074
Individual Shares – S$22,133
Total – S$127,944 (US$90,200)

United States Portfolio

Stock Index ETF – US$16,188
International Stock Index ETF – US$1,016
Individual Shares – US$2,968
Total – S$28,644 (US$20,172)

Cash in Bank Accounts

Brokerage Account 1 – S$8,203
Brokerage Account 2 – S$26
Bank Account 1 – S$3,909
Bank Account 2 – S$636
Bank Account 3 – S$6,040
Bank Account 4 – S$504
Bank Account 5 – S$1,002
Cash on Hand – S$3,681
Total – S$24,001 (US$16,921)

Retirement Accounts

Retirement Account 1 – S$31,420
Retirement Account 2 – S$8,810
Retirement Account 3 – S$10,456
Total – S$50,687 (US$35,734)

And that’s it!

I hope to improve on these net worth updates over the months, in content and in form. Hope you stick around for that ?

Thanks for reading!

Hi! Welcome back to another month-end net worth update.

A few things to note before we delve into the net worth update:

• I’m from Singapore. Therefore, I will be tracking my net worth in Singapore Dollars. In short, “S$”.
• However, for the benefit of readers who are more familiar with the currency of US Dollars, I’ve also included a simple conversion from S$ to US$ at certain parts of my net worth update.
• At the time of writing this post, the exchange rate of Singapore Dollars to US Dollars is S$1 to US$0.702. Conversely, US$1 is equal to S$1.42.

Let’s start off with an overview of my entire net worth.

As the market slid into bear territory in March, I wasn’t particularly worried. I don’t need the money anytime soon, and I plan to stay invested until I reach retirement.

That being said, as I did the math to calculate my net worth this month, it stung to know that not only have my gains from the past 5 years of investing (I started investing in 2015) been erased, I even lost a five-figure sum of my original capital.

This means that if I had not invested at all, I would have more money than I do now. Damn.

But that’s the price of admission, and I’m willing to grit my teeth to pay it. I just hope to see a great investment portfolio by the time I’m ready to retire.

In March, I deployed a lot of my cash as well as bonds to buy stock. I bought stock both in the Singapore market as well as in the U.S. market. This resulted in the damage not being as large as I expected it to be.

I’m grateful that I had cash and bonds to invest in the first place.

If you’re looking for more details of my net worth, here they are. ?

Brokerage Accounts

Singapore Portfolio

Bond Index ETF – S$30,926
Stock Index ETF – S$72,687
Individual Shares – S$17,787
Total – S$121,400 (US$85,223)

United States Portfolio

Stock Index ETF – US$13,374
Individual Shares – US$2,718
Total – S$22,850 (US$16,092)

Cash in Bank Accounts

Brokerage Account 1 – S$11,326
Brokerage Account 2 – S$19
Bank Account 1 – S$2,113
Bank Account 2 – S$631
Bank Account 3 – S$1,949
Bank Account 4 – S$504
Bank Account 5 – S$1,000
Cash on Hand – S$3,710
Total – S$21,252 (US$14,919)

Retirement Accounts

Retirement Account 1 – S$30,918
Retirement Account 2 – S$8,679
Retirement Account 3 – S$10,281
Total – S$49,878 (US$35,014)

And that’s it!

I hope to improve on these net worth updates over the months, in content and in form. Hope you stick around for that ?

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Liz