Before year 2023 turn into history, let me reflect and share on the 10 things I experienced for the first time over the past 12 months.
1. Job
Since I changed job for the very first time in my career during the pandemic in 2021, I transited from a technical role to a technical management role in IT. This year, I was redesignated back to a leading technical role as my organisation recognised the need to strengthen internal cloud engineering capabilities instead of heavy reliance on vendors.
Our jobs yield the greatest dividends from trading our time to produce work for our employer. Our remuneration usually is a measure of the perceived intrinsic value of our investment in own education, knowledge and gaining of past experiences. I am glad that my monthly income exceeded S$9k to hit a new high in my career.
2. Fitness and Health
I adopted an agile and flexible approach towards improving my fitness instead of having a rigid regime. I got the chance to exercise in various 4-Star hotel gyms via ClassPass Membership. I also participated in free high intensive internal trainings held in parks from booking sessions in Health 365 app and NS FIT programmes.
On some days, I merely did static exercises such as push-ups, squats and planks in the comfort of my room. I am happy to be able to exercise in different places freely and flexibly, gaining great fitness experiences. I have also passed my IPPT with incentive for the 19th consecutive year since ORD from full-time national service.
Having exercised more, reducing intake of ice cream and meat, my weight fell from 78kg to 72kg and on track towards achieving back my lean and shredded body of the younger days. My latest blood test result has also shown improvement in the level of cholestorol at 4,83 mmol/L compared to 5.3 mmol/L during the pandemic days in 2021
3. Interest rates
During the pandemic, I opened low-cost brokerages - Moomoo and Tiger Broker and funded them to enjoy free Apple shares. In the high interest rate environments of past year, I stashed away my cash war chests in the Fullerton Cash Funds offered by these brokerages and earning daily interest rates of above 3.5% p.a for Singapore dollars and above 4.5% for US dollars.
I added more than S$50k into Singapore Savings Bonds, locking down average interest rates above 3% for the next decade.
I also renewed more than S$200k worth of fixed deposits at more than 3% for the next year.
In total, I amassed more than $10k of interests from Cash Funds and Fixed Deposits and they are not excluded from the computation of my passive income for the year.
However, high interest rates have an impact on my investment portfolios which are heavily into REITs. At least S$30k of paper value had been wiped off my portfolio and net worth earlier in 2023 and recovered only recently.
4. Refurbish home
For the first time in my life, I bought Nippon paints and brushes from Shopee and painted my entire home on DIY mode with the help of my mum. It was very exhausting but nonetheless rewarding to give a fresh coat of paint on the ceilings and walls after 3 decades. The entire process took more than 10 days and costs less than $400 for a 4-room HDB.
It would have cost more than $1,800 to engage professional painters to paint the home and I am glad to be able to complete the feat.
5. Hybrid Work
Post pandemic, I get to fully experience what hybrid and flexible working entails in this year.
On paper, I am supposed to work in office 3 days and WFH 2 days in a week. However, due to hot desking, I do not really enjoy working in hot desks as the desks are dirty with no privacy and I do not feel a sense of belonging with small lockers to contain my stuffs at the end of day.
So practically, I "appeared" in office only for physical meetings while working from home most of the time. However, sometimes there are ad hoc meetings organised suddenly on the day in office. So I had to travel from home to office just for 1 to 2 hours meeting and then went home after the meeting ends. I will also occasionally work in meeting rooms, in other co-work offices or even when travelling on public transport.
6. Investment
I added high quality stocks such as DBS and Parkway Life Reit into my SGX Income portfolio for the very first time. The past year presented great opportunities for investment in Reits. I doubled up my position in Mapletree Logistics Trust and increased my investment in Mapletree Industrial Trust, while also expanded my positions in Aims Apac Reit, IREIT and Ascott Reit via preferential offerings. With the potential reduction in interest rates, I believe these stocks and Reits are poised for a strong performance in the new year.
7. Passive Income
As a result of my growing investments and higher Singapore Savings Bonds, my official passive income exceeded $27k which is a major feat in my financial journey.
My unofficial passive income also grew to above $10k. They are from sources such as bank interests from fixed deposit and savings accounts, sales on Carousell, cash outs of Google AdSense earnings from this blog, dividends from US stocks and profits from options trading, surveys rewards and so on.
I am pleased with the progress of my investment journey so far and will continue to build up the SGX income portfolio for more dividends in future years to come.
8. Travel
I applied and gotten a new passport with 10 years validity in Feb 2023. I managed to travel to Ho Chi Minh City in Apr 2023 and set foot on Seoul, South Korea in Sep 2023 for the very first time in my life. I am enthralled to be able to fly, experience freedom and travel without restrictions again after the 3 years of hiatus.
I look forward to visiting more destinations and cities to broaden my horizons in the new year.
9. Investment in Self
I continue to invest aggressively in myself to learn, gain knowledge and broaden horizons through attending many courses, webinars and workshops. I renewed more than 8 expiring professional certifications and obtained 1 more new accreditation. Getting certified by tech giants, Microsoft and Amazon will boost one's credentials and allow prospective employers to recognise my expertise and skills in the cloud computing world, thereby helping in my career progression in the future hopefully.
10. Net Worth
Last but not least, my net worth remained above USD 1 million or S$1.4 million throughout the year and increased by more than 10% or around $150k from Jan 2023. Most importantly, my net worth exceeded S$1.55 million recently to hit new record high.
I did not invest aggressively this year as my strategy was to grind at work, earn the monthly pay cheque, live frugally, sit back and let the equities recover in tandem with the economy, while collecting dividends. My main track is to slowly but steadily increase investments and build up passive income, inching towards financial freedom.
Conclusion
2023 has been a decent plain sailing year for me.
I look forward to the coming year and am optimistic that 2024 will bring greater opportunities.
Have you reflected on your achievements for this current year?
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