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End 2021 Review - closing in to $700k net worth

I started prepping this post at the start of Dec. My initial draft indicated that I reached $700k net worth. As the clock strikes 31 Dec 2021, despite my pay coming in, I've not reached this figure.  I probably jinx myself by drafting too early. Back in early Nov, my net-worth was at $690k. I thought I would make it to $700k soon! Alas, my net-worth fell due to lacklustre performance of my stocks and crypto. The only avenue that is growing is my CPF (thanks govt). If I had held cash massively like what I did in the past, maybe I'd have hit $700k net worth soon 😅 Here's a recap over the years: 2016 -  Unexpected review of 2016: hitting $200k in net worth 2017 -  End 2017 review - net worth at $287k 2018 -  End 2018 review - net worth at $372k  2019 -  End 2019 Review - inching close to $500k net worth  (~$440k) 2020 - End 2020 Review - net worth at $550k Targets review: These were what I set out for 2021:  Aim to achieve $650k net worth in 2021✅ Grow my stock portfolio to $

Best time to lock in your 62 yo withdrawal age is now - Endowus $40 referral bonus (usual - $20) till 31 Dec 2021

I've earlier shared that I finally set up my SRS with DBS bank and l ater registered for an account with Endowus. These were the rewards I'm expected to receive: 1. DBS Bank - $100 - $50 cash to open SRS with DBS and contribute $10,000 - another $50 cash by investing $10,001 I've not gotten the cash rewards as T&Cs indicated "The Cash Gift will be credited by 28 February 2022" 2. Endowus - $20 - $20 referral credit You can refer to my registration guide here . Earlier, I signed up using someone's link for only $20 referral credit.  Today, Endowus released a limited-time referral bonus of $40 up till 31 Dec 2021 . You can refer to the T&Cs here.   If you wish to withdraw your money from your SRS account at 62 years old, the best time is to sign up for your SRS and make your first contribution by 31 Dec 2021. 22 days left to 2022! Referral If you are keen to embark on Endowus using your  SRS, CPF OA or even cash , you may wish to use my link to  enjoy $

CakeDefi Part 3 - Update of SGD$100 experiment 3 months later

Back in late Aug 2021, I shared about my SGD$100 experiment into CakeDefi . I was lured by the attractive % and also wanted to venture further beyond the usual BTC, ETH buys. 3 weeks later, I provided an update here. Now that it's been 3 months+, here's how my gamble went: Here are my thoughts: The Yay 👍 My entry price was at SGD$3.90. With the price at SGD$6.35 now, coupled with the interest generated + US$30 referral reward earlier, I'm sitting on SGD$470.41 gain The Boos 👎 I don't wish to paint the pic that I'm always sitting on paper gains. DFI coins is VOLATILE - I have not been monitoring this SGD$100 gamble much, but the few times I glanced at the DFI coin, it was a laggard compared to other coins. However, it is interesting that despite the BTC drop of 20% yesterday, DFI coin has held itself well. APY% has been dropping. It started with 88.9% in Aug, to 73.6% in Sep, to 41.9% today. I haven't been monitoring the rate daily but it's great that I s

Too many things to buy, but not enough bullets

As someone who held massive cash (in proportion to my networth) previously, it feels scary to see that I'm running out of cash. For context, just 1 year ago back in Aug 2020, I talked about having $300k CASH before reaching 30 and the breakdown is here. Few days after I posted, I came upon Tiger Brokers (see my guide and referral here)  and have invested heavily since. I grew my Tiger Brokers portfolio from $0 to $28k (one month later)  to $70k (five months later)  to $95k (eight months later)  to $136k (eleven months later)  to $170k now (1 year 3 mths later). And unfortunately, I am sitting on paper losses amounting to close to $9,000 now 🙃as a bulk of my portfolio is in HK/China stocks 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃I'm the donkey. I've depleted more than half of my CASH warchest just on stocks alone. I also started my crypto journey in Feb this year.  From $0 to close to $30k capital pumped. Though the good news is I'm seeing gains of around 20-30%. Not an amazing feat compared to pe

Part 5 - Happy news on CRO and Crypto.com Ruby Card

Ever since WFH, I haven't been suffering from Monday blues as much. I guess I only hate Mondays because I need to step into the office. Anyway, happy news to share. Firstly, congrats to those who signed up for crypto.com account when I posted about it (search my blog for crypto.com tags). Back then, I shared about their amazing sign-up promotion where you'd get SGD$100 CRO coins back with SGD$100 deposited.  If you've signed up when I spoked about them in Part 1-Part 4 of my posts, you'd have seen good % increase on your CRO token! Personally, my CRO coins have now > doubled! As of writing, the price has reached ATH. However, because these are staked, I can't cash any profits out, but it feels good to see the price appreciation!😬 Secondly, belated news but I've gotten my Crypto.com Ruby Metal Card! This is actually my 2nd metal card, the first being SCB X card that I signed 2 years back. As of now, I've only used my card for transport to get back 2% cas

I just dug deeper into the crypto rabbit hole

<pic from google images> I just dug deeper into the crypto rabbit hole. I started the journey just in Feb this year, starting off with Ge mini where I earned free US$10 in BTC lol. It took me 6 months to pump in more money in Aug and decided to generate interest on my coins via Hodlnaut and received a US$20 signup bonus. Thereafter, within the month, I set up another staking account with Celsius where I gained 8.88% APY on stablecoins and received US$50 BTC reward on US$400 staked. In the same month, I signed up for Cakedefi because I was lured by the 88.9% APY.  In Sep, I registered for the Crypto.com account given it's attractive promotion of SGD100 in CRO coins . Psst, it's recent run-up has been giving me quite a good % gain 😊 Now in Nov, within just these few days, I ventured beyond buying coins from the CEXs. I transferred, swapped/bought new coins sitting in my crypto wallet. I gambled and got my first meme coin. I participated in my first liquidity pool at 377% A

Maximising my $10,001 SRS top-up with Endowus

In my previous post, I blogged that I've finally set up my SRS....with DBS.  While there was a hiccup i.e my SRS account was missing from ibanking page and app, it was resolved after a few days. No apologies from DBS - they just told me to rest assure that my $10k is intact. It better be. Anyway, now that the issue is resolved and I finally have access to my SRS account number, I needed to maximise my SRS money. As explained by this Seedly post,  " you’ll  need to invest your SRS funds  in order to minimally beat inflation and grow that fund for your retirement." Their table also shows the list where you can park your funds.  I'm not keen to use my SRS on bonds, ETF, FDs, REITS, shares as I already have these investments using my cash. I wanted my SRS to take a separate investment route and decided that robo-advisor was my best choice. As such, I decided to sign up an account with Endowus. Why Endowus I shan't explain who/what Endowus is as you can google it.  My

I will become a Millionaire, for sure

The title is not a clickbait.  In all honesty, I am going to become a millionaire for sure in my lifetime (assuming I don't die young, choy!). I am very sure I'd become a millionaire, at least through CPF. Yup, 1M65, 1M48A is going to be a reality for me. Based on my CPF projection, these are what I realised: Next year, my OA + SA will reach FRS  At 35, my SA alone will reach FRS (which means I can't do RSTU and get tax relief) At 42, my SA alone will reach ERS  At 47, my OA + SA + MA will reach $1m combined But I am still not satisfied. I don't think this is something worth shouting at. Millionaires decades ago vs today are vastly different in riches - what's more millionaires decades down the road. It's like me cracking lame joke in Indonesia that I'm a rupiah millionaire. By the time I reach 50-60, I am sure there'd be many fellow millionaires. Everyone is so financially savvy these days. Heck, even students are multi-millionaires . And by then, being

Tiq 1.62% 3-year endowment plan

It has been 10 months since I last talked about Tiq. Back then, they were advertising for a 1.68% 3-year endowment plan  which I got for my mum. This time, they are rolling out a 1.62% 3-year endowment plan with a minimum saving of $10k. If you have extra cash lying around and wants a low risk avenue to park your $ (instead of dumping to crypto or REITS with volatility), you can consider this plan to diversify your money. I believe for those who jump into the crypto rabbit hole, these 1+% interests looks darn pathetic. I feel you. But crypto ultimately holds some risks as there's no strong regulation backing; even stablecoins. So I'm considering placing $10k of my cash here. Also, this beats my DBS Multiplier interest of 1.60% and I had to jump through hoops ok.  Registration What I love about tiq is their fuss-free and simple sign-up. You can refer to my past posts where I blogged about my "investment" into them. I treat these as an alternative savings plan with add

I finally set-up my SRS account and then DBS screws up

I've finally set up my SRS account. In the past, I didn't feel the need to do so and these were my thoughts: no need for additional tax savings since I'm doing annual CPF top-up no clue what to invest using SRS funds  don't want my $ to be stuck in an account till age 62. That's another 30 years (and I've only just passed thirty years on earth!) However, circumstances have changed. As my income grew, I needed more avenues to reduce my tax. Not that I'm earning a lot, but the intent was the same as me doing my annual CPF top-up i.e I'd rather save the tax monies and channel to my mum and I, than doing nothing to my tax relief and paying 100% to the govt - likewise, topping up to my SRS would work the same way. The chart from DBS web below would serve as a good example of the potential tax savings we could save.  More importantly, the call to lock-in my retirement age at 62 has pushed me to take action because 2021 is the last year/chance before the statut

My Daily Apps Routine 2021

In Mandarin, there's a phrase called 手机不离身. To translate, this means our mobile phones being an integral part of our life/body - we need to constantly hold and have it near us. I got reminded of this phrase as I was about to jot my thoughts. That came from my mum.....who nags that we are constantly on our phones haha I used to have a habit of turning off my phone at night to: - save battery -remove radiation - prevent calls/msgs from disturbing me But I no longer do so. In fact, my phone is on 24/7, and I even put it beside my bed while I sleep. The phone is smart enough to set "Do Not Disturb" mode come bedtime as well.  Anyway, this post serves to share the apps I used the moment I wake up and throughout the day. Perhaps years down the road, new apps would overtake the old ones?  And yup, first thing I wake up is to grab my phone! Tiger Brokers App Daily routine to collect tiger coins. I currently have 7000 coins, still far from the 18k coins to claim a $88 stock vouche

Part 4 - Crypto.com referral bonus of USD$50 and NFT reveal (underwhelming)

Oopsie. I was supposed to reveal my NFT but work caught up and I've forgotten about it. Until, I was reminded by a cryto.com notification that there's a special referral promotion running now. 2 things: 1. NFT reveal Earlier, I shared about the enticing promotion by crypto.com  here . By signing up as a new user, you'd get $100 CRO coin plus a NFT! Unfortunately, this promotion has ended. It was a great promotion for me though - especially after crypto transactions via Binance would be greatly limited. Anyway, for those who are curious how the NFT look like, it was pretty underwhelming. At first, when I saw it animate, I thought it would "crack open" and reveal a unique character or something.  You can search for mooncake in their NFT platform or visit here  to see how it looks like. That's not mine btw. I don't intend to sell mine, neither do I think anyone will buy it😬...unless they come up with a use case (hopefully?) 2. USD$50 referral bonus If you m

Enjoying the mundane rhythm of 2 years and hoping it lasts

I've always been appreciative of WFH. Even before the pandemic, I enjoyed telecommuting because it gets me away from office politics and tensions with people. I really hate (fake) social interactions. So after close to 2 years (time flies), I'm documenting my quick thoughts about my mundane rhythm so that I can look back fondly if we were to ever be forced to return to office😠. For context, I love staying home. I'm glad to be able to move into my house and settled the renovations before the mass disruption. Having 3 bedrooms meant my husband and I have our own room for work. We started off working in the same room, but given the number of calls and meetings we need to attend, it was difficult to be together. Nope, we didn't quarrel. Now that I reflect upon it, it seems like my husband is the BEST co-worker I've ever worked with! We are comfortable with each other, and shoot what we think, yet are respectful of each other space. He doesn't judge me regardless o

Rude shock from Klook 😡staycay byebye

I was anticipating my upcoming staycation when I received a rude shock from Klook...without any explanations. Pissed with such an email, I msged Klook's helpdesk, only to be given template answers. After probing and waiting, I was told that JW Marriott's SHN is extended to 2022, hence the cancellation.  I was extremely pissed with Klook. No explanations were given on this sudden refund and cancellation. I had to ask and their customer service were not understanding of my situation🤮 While I empathise with the current situation, I'm peeved with Klook's (lacking) service. I am ok to postpone my hotel stay after 2022, but the Klook helpdesk told me the JW would not entertain postponement. Their iterations seem to put the blame that JW was the one who asked them to cancel bookings. Realising I can't put any sense to their helpdesk, I just quit the chat. Grrrrr! Time to think where to spend my $100 SRV again. I guess I will have to stay away from staycations....

Part 3 - Crypto.com SGD$100 and NFT update

Quick update. Just early this month, I shared the crypto.com promotion here  which ended on 22 Sep 2021. I've also blogged a part 2 about why I signed up . Interestingly, with the latest news on Binance , crypto.com serves as an alternative for buying and earning coins. Anyway, for those who took action after my post, check out your email from CRO! Here's the snapshot informing me about the incoming rewards! SGD100 CRO coins and my very first NFT ! Whee~~~ I'll update next on how the NFT looks like once I get hold of it. Can't wait! Referral reward Unfortunately, the SGD$100 promotion has ended. However, if you are looking at crypto.com as an alternative to Binance, do use my  referral link  or code below! You will get US$25 referral reward with S$500 CRO purchase (you dont have to buy it in one shot).  ybm9v5zhv7 The  registration guide can be found in my previous post here .