- Market did not crash for the past 3 years in terms of equity or property. It stayed cool but there was no winter.
- I was recommending the STI ETF but in terms of capital gains, it was pretty flat for the past 3 years. Meanwhile, the US market continue to rocket. The dividend yield is still pretty respectable at around 3.6% based on recent trading price
- Interest rate continues to remain low which means prudent folks suffer because they stayed prudent while risk taking folks prosper in this environment of no crash and low interest rate.
For the past 3 years, I was also faced with some significant changes that had some financial impact.
- I sold my 4 room BTO HDB flat in the North East area for a decent profit after the minimum occupation period (MOP) of 5 years and moved to a 5 room resale HDB in the central area. On hindsight, it was not really a good move as I had to suffer quite significant cash outflow for the renovation since it is an older flat but I free up sufficient equity now in my CPF above the Full Retirement Sum (FRS) with excess to spare. On the other hand, my housing bank loan is actually less than 2% which is an oxymoron given that HDB loan is still at 2.6%.
- After surviving a retrenchment in my previous job as written in my last post, I found a new job with a pay increase. However, this new job lasted me for 2 years as I had a hunch that I would be retrenched in the next restructuring exercise which turns out to be true. As such, I left my previous job for the next job with a significant increase in pay. Looking back, my base pay has actually increased by more than 350% as compared to my starting pay 10 years ago. For most of us, our career still bring home more dough than the yield from our portfolio and career development is of paramount importance. Having a versatile and in-demand skillset is very important as my skillset has enabled me to work in 4 different industries to date.
- I became a Dad. Being a dad brings a lot of meaning to me in terms of my life experience, way beyond what I imagined before when my wife and I were DINK. Financially, it represent cash outflow all the way from birthing, nanny, diapers, childcare, hospitalization etc., not that it's a bad thing by itself but my planning at the start was insufficient to say and the journey is still a long way to go for another 2 decades at the minimum.
- I actually bought a car even though I loathe to own a car due to the cash outflow, given how expensive cars are in Singapore. I guess cars were made for babies since bringing a baby on public transport is challenging, especially when you need to change diapers a few times a day, not to mention staring eyes from strangers when the little boss cries and pooping incidents on the travel.
Meanwhile, I am still adding stocks regularly to my portfolio based on the principles that I have been blogging ever since I started this blog and I'm quite pleased to say that the portfolio size is of a 6 digit size, yielding close to 4.5% which has been sufficient to defray many of my significant expenses although still some distance away from financial freedom.
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