Skip to main content

Already 5 years into the workforce. What have I built?

It was a sudden awakening - I've already worked for more than 5 years.

But what have I achieved?

I stepped into the rat race as a noob (nobody uses this word now, I admit I'm old), being tekan by unhelpful "seniors" who thankfully left after 1+ year of torture and earning lesser than my peers, to slowly building up my confidence, emerging stronger and being more courageous to say "No", proving myself along the way and getting rewarded with better bonuses and increments.

I know I'm working just for the money (and the medical benefits that comes with it).

If I look at the money, so far, I should be doing it right in my career. I've decent bonuses and decent increments. I'm in a general profession, but I'm doing pretty ok.

So what has my 5 years of work got me?

Money. 

Through employment, coupled with my thrifty habits, I managed to hit $100k savings at 25 years old. And it took me another 2-3 years to get another  $100k at 28.

But, along with it, came stress. There were many instances where I wanted an exit, an escape.

After experiencing a burnt out last year, I questioned whether that extra low 4 digit figure bonuses was worth it. Should I learn to cruise along in my new job? Should I take a step back when there are high profile works to prove my worth?

All I want is just a decent income, and time to spend on life, time to date my hubby, time to travel.

But the more you work, the more things get piled onto you. After all, we are trading our time for money - we are paid employees. If you don't do it, someone else can take your job and your salary.

So, 5 years down, other than hitting my $200k cash saving goal, and building a relatively good net worth as an average 8-5 office employee, I still am not ready to retire.

For one, a bulk of my money sits in my CPF which will only say Hi to me when I'm 55 (that's a good 20+ years, whattt!).

Two, I don't have enough passive income to get back. My portfolio only net me $3k dividends at max, a year. Comparing to a blogger who have $1-2k a month in dividends.....I can only say, I really envy their foresight and courage!

Three, I don't have a good plan when I should retire. Is it at 35, 45, 50 or 55? Would I dare to retire? Honestly, seeing that monthly income rolling into the bank feels good. And, if I don't work full-time, what am I going to do?
.
.
.
.
to be continued...

Comments

  1. Hi Cherry,

    Just stumbled upon your blog. Saving this much at a young age without crazy investment returns or high salary is really impressive!

    You are actually very close to having 1k a month in dividends. 200k at a 6% yield means 12k per year or 1k per month. In terms of capital, you're already there. Having 800k at 6% yield will get you 4k per month, which can replace your income. At that point, you have the option to retire if you want to.

    Jia you!

    WGM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your kind words! Unfortunately, bulk of my cash savings are at 1-3% saving yields because of my low risk portfolio hahah. Will try to work smarter so that I can be FI soon :)

      Jiayou to you too!

      Delete
  2. 200k at 28 is a big deal compared to most of ur peers at ur age i believe. And yea making the transition to the nex stage is difficult especially when u alr spend a long time in it. But dun force things n burnout often. Health before wealth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Totally agree that health is more important than wealth after going through a shitty period at work previously.

      But, while we all know health is more important, sometimes when the load gets piled on you, the only way is to grit your teeth and see things through....there were times when I wanted to quit; but I can't quit without another job, haha so I hung on.

      Delete
  3. Jia you! I am having sort of the same dilemma - to chiong or cruise. Haha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha easier said than done right? I'm trying to cruise now, but I get hints/sour remarks from colleagues that I shouldn't cruise at my age. Not very nice to hear those remarks but I can unds where they are coming from. Sometimes I just need to chant to myself - this is just a job, not my life.

      Delete
  4. Hi. Have you considered attending Christopher Ng's course?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

No rude messages please. Unkind messages and spams will be blocked and deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

I finally cross $700k networth, after 1 year 4 months

I wondered how I should kickstart this post - should I be positive or negative about this? After 1 year 4 months, I finally crossed $700k in networth - returning back to where I've been at, back in Dec 2021.  I am disappointed.  For the past many years, I've always been growing my networth, at around $100-$150k/year. I had big plans to hit a net worth of $850k by December 2022, but the universe had other plans for me. Instead, I only managed to reach $646k, leaving me with a $204k gap to my target.  Ever since I became more aggressive in my "investment" portfolio in 2021, being sucked by greed to deploy most of my cash into stocks and crypto, I fell heavily, along with the crashes. Crypto wiped out 5 digits savings, so did the stock market.  To be honest, ever since the crashes and a bad hit to my net worth, I actually didn't do anything special to improve. I didn't make drastic spending cuts, I didn't stop my holidays, I didn't continue investing (no

First CPF top up in Jan 2023 and tax relief concerns

Detailing my yearly CPF top-up and thoughts.  This is my 8th year of top-up. 1. Top-up $2.5k to Medisave via Paynow Did a $2,500 top up to my Medisave, bringing it to 2023 MA ceiling of $68,500. Done the same for my husband as well. 2. On hold - To top up $5.5k to SA or no? Contrary to the past where I top-up at the start of the year, I have decided to hold off the top-up. A) Running out of cash Firstly, I'm running out of cash. I'm berating myself for degrading to the past where I look forward to my monthly income for cashflow. So I can build up my $100k capital in savings account again, given the current high interest environment.  B) Hitting FRS soon = no tax relief Secondly, I'm concerned about reaching FRS too soon.  The FRS this year is $198,800. I'm now sitting on ~$157k SA which means $41,800 away from reaching this ceiling.  I know some people encouraged maxing this out ASAP. But, as I've crossed 6 digits annual income, maxing FRS soon meant lower tax relie

Starting 2023 with extra $9,979.20

Happy 2023~! I woke up feeling not very positive. It seems like I've brought forward my 2022 negative thoughts along. I ought to be more optimistic! Anyway, my best way of welcoming the new year is to count the new inflow of $ and here's my CPF interest for 2022: Have you check your CPF interest yet?