Simple Budget, Simple Life

 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 outlook in my company, com

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

In end 2021, I shared that I was hitting close to $700k in net worth. I did. On 1 Jan 2022.  But, things just went downhill from then on.  Here's a recap of my finances 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 2021 -  End 2021 Review - closing in to $700k net worth Targets review: These were what I set out for 2022: Aim to achieve $850k net worth in 2022❌ Bring my parents out for an overseas trip; if not make do with cruise trip❌ Grow crypto portfolio to 10% of networth❌ Material wants: buy a rolex and LV/chanel bag✅ (no rolex or chanel, but a LV) 2022 Review Here's a recap of what went by in 2022: Jan Started the year with $8728.48 in CPF interest Made my first CPF top up of $3k to MA in 2022 Shared I had $17k passive income for year of 20

This year is definitely going down as my WORST financial year. For the first time in my working life, my net worth DECREASED, although my income increased. But I'm still holding on some hopes till 31 Dec 2022.  Praying for better stock and crypto market. This year hasn't been kind. If not for my own intuition and initiative to job hunt, I'd be jobless. I am thankful to myself and any higher beings for blessing me.  I now have an inkling of how it feels like IF I had no income stream. While I have at least $100k cash savings across FD, banks, it's not as much as before. Most of it are stuck in stocks, for which I'd incur losses by selling now. A good portion is in crypto, which I'm preparing to write off as 0. I blame my poor planning and eagerness to strike it rich, fast.  If I had been more careful with my money, I'd be richer. I'd have more disposable cash to plonk into high interest accounts. I'd feel less jittery if I had no income for a while. B

This month has been rather unpleasant. 2022 probably isn't a good year for me. I look at my past posts and it's generally negative. Perhaps the macro environment affected me personally. Work I was complaining last month that I've subscribed to quiet quitting. Due to some changes at work, it made me see things clearer - that my boss sucks, the role is not gaining me any skillsets, and I need to move. So I started applying for jobs. Rather aggressively. So far, I've submitted 26 applications, got called up for 5 and got into 2nd round for 4.  I wonder if I should wait for my end year bonus. But I'm also doubtful whether I'd get any bonus. I don't feel my boss appreciates my work enough and I may well get 0.  However, I figured I should just see what leads me and decide one step at a time. It doesn't seem to be a good time to find jobs now. What's more, I've been hearing layoff news and this means the job market will be inundated with younger unempl

I had insomnia on and off since forever. Yesterday's sleepless night sparked me to write my thoughts down - yeah, my brain was drafting out what I should write today. I dislike how my overactive brain works. While this is not a financial post, it is my personal reflection post and outlet. These have been recurrent issues I face. I hope by writing all these down, I can get rid of my negative and worrisome thoughts. After all, the new year is coming, and I want a good start to it. Work I attribute yesterday's insomnia to insecurity at my workplace. Although I am rather senior in the team, I feel like an imposter. And I feel that staff are judging me.  I feel extremely inferior when I compare myself with my team. My team is made up of elites - academic elites from overseas top universities and top JCs and a handful are social elites with rich family background - whereas I come from local university and mid-tier schools. Despite having stronger  experiences, I feel that my staff do

This is a post to myself. I know you're a difficult person to please. You've expectations of everything. You take many things seriously. And, you play again and again in your head, what people said of you and to you. You wish to stop these thoughts from coming. But you can't. Those childhood memories keep flooding to you in your dreams. You dreamt about being looked down upon. You dreamt that you could hear what they were gossiping about, and it was all about you. You wondered how could they bear to say or joke about a kid. You were only a kid, you were only a teenager. What is there to compare about? You got frustrated. Why didn't your parents say anything? How could they allow people to say that you're stupid? How could they not shut them up? Thoughts like these still lingers and you cried. You also dreamt about the lack of parental love. You dreamt that your parents are biased against you. You remembered your mom coming out from the shower and spa