Simple Budget, Simple Life

For years, I've done CPF cash top-ups in a bid to reduce taxes. I typically did them at the start of the year. I had an inkling I wasn't earning a lot to warrant the tax reliefs, but felt compelled to do so to make it seem like my money in CPF was working harder.  Afterall, 4% on SA was much greater than leaving it in the banks. No doubt, these were money "stuck" until I could only withdraw them when I cross 55. In the past 2 years, I became more apprehensive of topping-up at the start of the year. I only did it for MA, but for SA, I decided to wait...till I had more cash on hand. This was because I was running out of cash reserves as I threw in quite a bit of cash in 2021 onto stocks, cryptos....and unfortunately, was not savvy in making good returns.  I had to rebuild my cash reserves. That meant just aggressively saving, without investing. This may not be the wisest, but I needed comfort and security that my cash nest is being built back to the original state. Fast...

As of 8 Dec 2024, I have officially unlocked the milestone of $1m networth 🎉 This is all thanks to the increased in value of my crypto holdings as well as my US stocks. My HK/CN stocks are still in bad shape. On stocks front, truthfully, my overall investments is still in the red. I had made mistakes in stock picking and has not taken the opportunity to cut losses. I had the view to hold and pray those stocks in deep red would go up - after all, I told myself I don't need the money right now. On crypto, given that BTC has bounced back, I'm sitting on decent profits. I've been cashing out bit by bit. The last I spoke in Mar , I cashed out a rather sizeable amount of BTC at 50% profit. On hindsight, if I had waited till now, I could have cash out 3000 SGD more. Anyway, this time round in Nov, I cashed out 2 times, at a 70%-80% profit. Not bad considering the rest of my investments. As long as there are no major global events impacting the markets negatively, I believe I woul...

Another blink, another year ending soon. How have you guys been? I wonder who else is still monitoring my blog despite my lack of updates. Again, so much has happened, but not much have changed. I travelled well, continued with a 3rd round of IVF egg retrieval (result was extremely poor), and went through uncertainty at work due to restructuring but was thankfully able to keep my job. I still haven't fulfil my dream of being a mother. Though honestly, it now feels more like a checkbox to be unchecked than the actual fulfilment of wanting to nurture and grow a child. I think the weariness is getting too much. I will embark on my final transfer within these few months. This would be my 7th transfer. If it fails, I'm likely going to stop further treatments. I have already done the best at my "peak".  I am telling myself that my life is still amazing despite these hiccups. Anyway, onto my financial goals. Back on 31 Dec 2024, I posted my goal to achieve $950k networth by ...