Finance Smiths

Personal finance apprentices-in-training

End May 2021 Net Worth Update

by //

I have a new senior manager that joined this week who will be heading up a new team that I’m transferring to along with my manager. Our job scope is probably going to expand at the same rank and pay level. While I’m okay to learn more technical and advisory skills, it would have been nice to get a bump up to reflect the increased workload. That’s the thing about a corporate job in an office, it’s just a matter of time before something like this happens. Either I find a way to adjust or I look for a way out.

Anyway, I know we are getting to the end of the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) period but I have been feeling the effects of the additional restrictions more so this week. Working from home every day for the entire week and minimal social interactions with colleagues & friends is taking its toll. It can feel like the day is repeating itself as I go through the same routine. I’m looking forward to the gradual lifting of the restrictions after the end of the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) period just so I can get more variation with my schedules on the weekdays and weekends.

pexels-photo-2068975.jpeg
Photo by Alexander Mils on Pexels.com

Trying to cope with feeling down and finding ways to motivate myself to get through the day has contributed to the delay in posting my end May 2021 net worth update. I finally got to it and updated my net worth numbers on our Google Sheet. It’s a decent increase from last month with most of it coming from the property sale proceeds CPF refund and remaining cash paid. The rest of it is due to the continued rise in our investment portfolio value due to the regular investing we do every month.

Adopting a more aggressive cash investing strategy especially when there are dips in the equity and crypto markets is paying off. I’m still putting aside a certain level of cash to invest during market crashes but it’s not as large a sum as before. The wait for market crash to invest strategy that I was using before only paid off marginally during the Covid 2020 market crash. And it was mostly due to the quick recovery in markets in the same year that allowed for it. Even then, I didn’t invest as much cash as I could have because I was waiting for a further drop in the markets.

I should focus on better positioning my investment portfolio in terms of exposures to ETFs, dividend stocks, growth stocks and cryptos from the onset. Be more consistent and aggressive when regularly investing in each component during dips depending on how bad the drop in markets is. While keeping some (but not too much) cash on the side for investing during market crashes. I’m interested to see whether I get a better result on my investment portfolio performance in the next few years.

End Apr 2021 Net Worth Update

by //

I updated the net worth figures and portfolio positions on our Google Sheet and blog pages. The numbers are ok as an increase in our Singapore equities portfolio is offset by a decrease in our Overseas equities portfolio. I continued with my monthly Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) into the robo advisors portfolios and added some new positions to my US equities and crypto portfolios. Resulting in an overall rise in the value of our investment portfolio and its proportion is reaching 50% of our total assets.

It’s obvious that we are using more of our cash to invest now as its proportion has dropped to 20% of our total assets. My CPF balances had a boost due to the additional CPF contribution from my bonus whereby the cash amount was credited in Mar and the CPF amount is credited the following month in Apr. Its proportion has increased slightly to 25% of our total assets. The remaining 5% is made up of the cash value of our whole life insurance policies and is rather stable.

When the sale of our 2 bedroom apartment is completed this month in May, I expect an increase in the proportion of our cash position and CPF balances. Contributing to an overall increase in total assets and net worth due to the mortgage being paid off. The double payment of rent expense and housing loan instalment will stop after that, easing the cashflow drain so we can better manage the childcare expense that will start in the same month.

Anyway, I was reading a news article about how couples at various life stages and income levels are struggling to enter the current property market because it’s running hot. This has impacted their lives by delaying wedding plans, moving out to a place to live together and starting a family. A buoyant property market causes the people that can least afford it to suffer while benefiting the people that can most afford it. It’s even worse if the parents step in financially to help because their retirement funds are now directed into the children’s property purchase instead of their own enjoyment. Delays in construction works have also worsened the housing supply and demand problem causing the property prices to rise. There’s no easy solution to this as Covid-19 continues to cause manpower shortages.

It’s difficult to break this vicious cycle in the property market unless the Government steps in with cooling measures to do something about it. They need to stop the current low interest rate and loose monetary policies environment from squeezing people out of the property market or saddling them with high household debt due to taking on a large mortgage. My family is financially fortunate enough to be able to rent a big enough apartment in an area we want to live in while we find a way to navigate this tough property market. Even then, it’s sad to hear about the struggles of first-time homebuyers and I hope the situation improves for them.

End Mar 2021 Net Worth Update

by //

I have updated the numbers on our Net Worth Google Sheet and blog page. Another increase of S$25,000 i.e. +2.30%. The Singapore stock market has been going up recently and this contributed to most of our net worth increase. Overseas stock markets have been rather flat except for China and US stock markets that have gone down. I invested more of our cash into these falling China and US stock markets to buffer against the losses.

Salary income had a boost from receiving the annual bonus for my performance last year (2020). But our cash position has dropped quite a bit as we bought into the dips on tech stocks and cryptos. I expect our CPF balances to go up more than usual in the next months due to that bonus payment and refund from the sale of our property. Overall, Q1 of 2021 has been positive for us in terms of our net worth growth.

It has also been a period of adjustment as we settled into a routine of us dropping our boy off at my parents-in-law’s place on weekdays so we can focus when working from home. The weeks when we go into the office are tough because it means they have to come and pick our boy up earlier in the day. And we don’t see him until later at night. It looks like Q2 of 2021 will be another period of adjustment as we may have to head into the office more often and our boy is starting preschool at 18 months.

While our financial progress is important, our overall well-being means even more to us. And this is where we are putting most of our effort and time into nowadays. Building a daily life that makes our family happy. It’s incredible when we think about the amount of juggling and balancing we do in all aspects of our lives to work on this. Everything affects one another and when any area starts to deteriorate, it spreads until our overall well-being begins to decline. Such a delicate ecosystem that we really have to keep watching over it.