Net Worth and Life Update (August 2020) – S$251,293

Minimalist Table with Laptop on it
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Written by Liz

Just your regular 27-year-old, queer, super-introverted, FIRE-chasing, frugal Singaporean, who lives a pretty good life while earning only a modest salary, but still plans to retire at age 40 with $1,000,000. Click here to read more

September 6, 2020

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.

Bowl of Ramen

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

Sashimi plates

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.

National Day Fireworks Singapore

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?

Net WorthAs at 31 July 2020As at 31 August 2020Gain / Loss
Cash in Bank AccountsS$26,804S$25,599(-S$1,205)
Brokerage (Singapore)S$128,341S$127,711(-S$630)
Brokerage (International)S$37,966S$42,183(+S$4,217)
Retirement AccountsS$54,934S$55,800(+S$866)
Total Net WorthS$248,045S$251,293 (+S$3,248)

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.

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:

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.

Become a Millionaire and Retire Early on a Modest Salary Book Cover

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4 Comments

  1. Budget Life List

    Hey Liz, I am sorry to hear about your grandpa. I hope he will recover soon. I’m express shipping some love. ❤️

    I can’t believe how cheap you paid for SUSHI! Well, it doesn’t help that I am landlocked and our seafood is usually much less fresh. And cheap, for that matter!

    I am so glad that your investments have increased with little effort on your part! I started keeping track of my net worth too and found out my net worth increased $6,000 last month! I am still shocked! I don’t know how long this wave will last but I am need to surf it for as long as I can! 🏄‍♀️

    • Liz

      Hey BuLL thanks for dropping by and for your concern. Appreciate it loads.

      HAHA yes it’s super affordable sushi. I’m sorry to hear that you don’t get good sushi over there. If you’re ever in Singapore, I have lots of recommendations for fantastically affordable restaurants!

      And congratulations on your $6K net worth increase last month! That’s awesome. It’s great that you’re keeping track of your net worth now. It’s fun, right? 😉

      • Budget Life List

        Yes, it is fun keeping track of my net worth. It is already feeling like this weird competition with myself. How can I make my net worth expand even more….

        I nerded out even more and figured out my lifetime net worth which was good and bad. Anyways, now I keep track of how much I saved in my entire lifetime. AND I keep track of it via percentages, I am at 20% but I want to get that to 50% someday!

        • Liz

          Wow that’s awesome BuLL! That’s a LOT of stuff that you’re keeping track of, and I hope that it motivates you to reach FIRE soon (although it’s the journey that counts)! 20% is a lot and you should already be super proud of yourself. Do update me when it increases and hits 50%, I know you’ll get there 🙂