Hey guys, happy new year 2022! Hope everyone’s been doing fine. It’s not been an easy 2 years unless you’ve been living under a rock and not aware of COVID-19. I’ve not posted for a while, but I will jump onto the ‘net worth update’ bandwagon to end off 2021.
In 2021, I technically reached a million Singapore dollars in net worth. I have no idea what’s the median for 38-year-old married males with no kids. However, this is more for personal tracking than anything else.
Finances Versus Emotional Fulfilment
The past year has taught me that net worth has nothing to do with how happy you are, nor how fulfilling life is. I say this not because I feel I am comfortable (or uncomfortable) in terms of finances. I feel I am doing fine, but not spectacular. Made some good decisions, and some bad ones the past few years. Of course, all these are subjective. Everyone has their own path to take, different aspirations and ideas of what’s important in their lives.
Interestingly, I tend to be having more conversations with people who are experiencing some mid-life crisis of sorts, where fulfilment is more important than financial situation. I guess it’s not that people find money isn’t important, but years of being in the workforce tends to make one jaded.
A Technical ‘Millionaire’
Back to the topic – to be precise, if I include my half-share of the matrimonial HDB flat (and the HDB loan debt of $60,156.60), my net worth is $1,073,660.10. I also include CPF. If we are totally honest, this is a nerfed value as CPF is a controversial component. However, I vehemently believe that CPF is still our money that contributes to retirement in the form of CPF LIFE! Further nerfing things is including HDB value. Technically, this allows me to call myself a ‘millionaire’; call it a cheap thrill!
Nevertheless, if we take away the HDB value (which at the moment my wife and I have no plans to sell off), net worth drops to $763,160.10. My short to mid-term goal would be to have a net worth of $1m excluding the HDB flat. A mid-term goal would then be to exclude CPF value and yet have a $1m of ‘truly liquid’ net worth.
In terms of segmentation, I try to keep my cash low. $10,000 in cash looks scary, but being a dual-income-no-kids household, I don’t worry that much. I have also a Syfe REITs portfolio that I sort of look upon as a ‘cash with growth potential’ fund that I have no qualms to cash out if need be. ‘Policies’ are ILPs at current surrender values.
2021 Strategy
The things I’ve done in 2021 are pretty much boring and following the same principles I’ve set for myself (and I believe that’s how investment should be)! Main highlights:
- Managed to max out my CPF SA (my wife did the same too)!
- Continued allocating accordingly to my Bogleheads portfolio.
- First foray into NFTs (still experimenting both as a creator and an investor, but I’m careful not to go overboard). The creator part is mostly passion (making any money would be a bonus)!
- Stopped leasing home for production shoots due to COVID-19 concerns (a chunk of passive income eradicated as a result)! I refrain talking so much about this due to sensitivity issues (looks around with shifty eyes).
We all keep hearing that getting to the first $100,000 is a challenge and that the rest gets easier, as well as the first $1m being more of a challenge compared to getting to $1.5m and beyond. I could definitely feel that $100,000 milestone a few years ago. So to everyone on a similar journey, let’s take baby steps and get there! Wishing everyone good health (physically and mentally) for the rest of 2022. Hopefully I will be motivated to post more!
PS Do you include HDB and CPF in your net worth calculations? Leave comments below and discuss!
Featured photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels
