Both our parents visited us and the baby today so it was a whirlwind of activity until now. Got some time to rest and relax before we head out for dinner later tonight. Anyway, the last update I provided on Smartly was that they were going through a major platform upgrade and had to temporarily stop new deposits and sign ups.
I checked in with Smartly recently and found out they are slated to resume their services after CNY 2020. So probably around end Jan 2020. This is good news for us and I’m looking forward to reviewing what their new platform looks & feels like. I can’t wait to restart my monthly deposit into it to keep my regular investing plan going.
I know there has been a recent run up of global equity markets to record highs. The Singapore equity market has been going sideways and rather disappointing. But it’s not going to stop me from investing in both overseas and local equity markets regularly. It’s important I stick to this strategy for the long term to yield results and it fits our lifestyle.
My wife and I graduated in 2009 and started work in 2010. Can’t imagine it has been a decade into our career. In the past 10 years, there has been a number of economic crises that we had to navigate through in terms of our investment portfolio and jobs. It was not easy but was made less difficult by the fact that we were young with no kids. And had little in the way of assets (cash, investments & retirement funds) and even liabilities (mortgage & credit card).
This is the year 2020 and everything has changed. I keep using the maritime analogy to describe our lives because it really does feel like we are navigating a ship through open waters. Our ship has gotten bigger and sturdier since we started on this journey but we now have a baby onboard. And more problems to solve when managing a larger ship.
Eventually, we are going to hit storms along the way. Some we can see from a distance and start preparing beforehand to get battered. Some we can’t see coming at all and get smashed. If we don’t capsize, we can keep going but with more experience and hopefully ride out the next storm in a better ship. Or the same one but repaired well. If we capsize, good luck to us.
At this time, our asset allocation is 50% cash, 30% retirement funds and 20% investments. The actual balances grow every month but the percentage stays the same. Because our monthly income after expenses is diverted into each portfolio in this allocation percentage order. It’s conservative and I was planning for us to be more aggressive.
But having a kid changed that. I look at my wife & baby and think about how I want our lives to be happier and better. I need money for that and I can’t afford for the ship to sink now. The fastest way to do that is for an overexposure to investments with the highest risk of losing its value compared to cash and retirement funds.
I don’t want to lose sleep over my investments, given how precious rest time is for us. I’m okay to have lower returns on my asset portfolio but worry less about it. I’m happy to plod along and not rush for higher returns. Give it time I keep telling myself. Eventually, I will have more than I think and need.