Simple Budget, Simple Life

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 ...

My first foray into crypto was during the hype. Back in Feb 2021 During Feb 2021 to Jun 2022, I added in bit by bit - DCA as what they say. BTC, ETH, MATIC, SOL and even the horror LUNA. Thereafter, as crypto crashed, I stopped, praying one day it will rise back. And today, as I found that BTC is now at ATH, I decided to cash out 1/4 of my BTC for some profits. It's still a far cry from the amount I've lost, but I'm glad I could recoup some losses. Just to detail for my future reference, I transferred my BTC from ledger to coinbase. And sold my BTC on coinbase to SGD, incurring an atrocious fee of $130 and GST of $12. Gone are the days of cheap transaction fees.  Please let me know if there are wiser/cost effective options. In total, what I took back was a profit of 50%.  May BTC rise up more so I can cash out at 100% profit next. -dated 9 Mar 2024-

Happy Lunar New Year! How has everyone spent their lunar new year?  On the first day of LNY, I woke up early to catch the sunrise, soaked in the sunlight and prayed for a good year. This LNY has been rather peaceful for me, as with the past few years - I was done with visiting on the first day, works well for my introverted personality. I confess I'm not an approachable aunt - I don't actively reach out to the younger relatives - I have no clue what to say; small talks are just not for me. So far, the start of the dragon year has got me checking off a few superstitious acts, just to make myself feel better for the new year. As I mentioned in my previous blog posts , my job is getting shaky again. I have no clue if my role will be affected, neither do I have inertia to find a new role; there's too many companies that I feel uneasy heading to.  Next, I thought I'd be celebrating the new year with a pregnancy. Alas, my fifth ivf transfer failed. It's draining my energy...

 2 weeks into 2024. Crazy. Crazy that time flies, and how the first two weeks of this year were marred with negative news - earthquake in Japan, plane crash, tuberculosis cluster, layoffs... On a personal front, negativity hits again. First week of the year set out ok, I was hyping myself up - new year, new thoughts - good thoughts only. The second week got me back to old thinking. Anxiety and self doubts are creeping in again. I previously mentioned in my  end 2023 review post  that company is undergoing restructuring and my job security is unknown. Closing in to my mid 30s (to think I started this blog in my mid 20s) is scary. I didn't feel like I've grown. As much as my networth increased from  $200k in 2016  to  $819k in 2023 , I surely didn't feel that I've grown  better. As I age, I feel more depressed.  I don't know what I am living for.  For now, work is a key part of my life. And work thoughts consumed most of my time. The current ou...

  Earlier in my post , I mentioned that I will be topping up $2k+. Silly me. That was before the MA interest gets rolled out. Today, I made a top up of $3,000 via paynow. This is because my company contributions usually come in on 7th or 8th of the month.  Now that this is out of the way, I will have $5,000 more throughout the year to top up. Will ponder about this later. Till then :)

This always boost up my mood every start of the year 😊 My beloved CPF interests. This time, I crossed 5 digits interest, clocking in $11,291.01 for 2023. Back last year, I was receiving $9k+ interest. I will be topping up  $2,085.62  max out my MA and for tax relief purposes. I didnt hit BHS as at 31 Dec 2023 as my MA was deducted for my surgery.  -- Last night, I slept early and didn't do countdown. My hubby lie on the bed with me a while and hugged me. He wished that in 2024, I will be happier and able to achieve my goals, whatever that may be. He said he wished I will go back to my young happy self years ago, and the depressed me will go away. I cried. I recognised that I've become unhappy and unsettled easily, especially in the past few years.  I don't know if my younger me was really happy, but I do know as I grow older, negativity has been clouding me. He told me to cry out and let out my concerns. I wasn't able to articulate what's making me depressed. ...