SG Young Investment
A journey into the world of finance and investments. Learning how to manage money to achieve financial freedom. Making Finance simple in a complicated world
Monday, May 16, 2022
How Will Our Lives Be Impacted In The Face Of Rising Interest Rates
Friday, December 31, 2021
Reflections for year 2021
2021 has come to an end. The year flew by in an instant as there were quite a few major changes to my life. I got married earlier this year in Jan and moved to a new house in Oct. This was in the midst of a busy work schedule as I continued to work in a public hospital in Singapore. There were a few waves of COVID-19 infections and everytime there's a new wave, the hospital scrambles with everything its got to support the country in need. Every employee plays their part in this fight against COVID-19 no matter if they are doctors, nurses, allied health professionals or admin workers.
I've learnt a lot through the experiences I've had this year. I learnt that life is fragile, I've seen deaths. I've seen how people come together to help each other when in crisis. These are the experiences I get from my work which can be emotionally draining sometimes but it helps me grow stronger.
I've not written a blog post for quite a while now while I was busy settling my reno and moving to a new home. Its a transition in life and one thats well worth it to spend with someone I love. In a relationship, we learn to care for each other and not just think for ourselves. I'm not perfect but I'm learning as time goes by.
On finances, I'm still doing relatively well. Despite spending on wedding and reno, I still manage to have extra savings after deducting all my monthly expenses. I got a promotion in Jan and continued to get good bonuses while working in the healthcare sector. All these helps grow my wealth.
On investment, my portfolio continues to grow with more stocks being bought as COVID-19 continues to put a dampen on the stock market. However, total returns (calculated by XIRR) is only 3.54% for the whole year for me. This is largely due to a write off in a total loss in Hyflux, which has collapsed totally without any compensation. I'm lucky in a sense that despite the loss, my other stocks gains manage to cover the losses and still eek out some gains. Moving forward, my portfolio will continue to focus on building dividends and continue to sustain a 5 figure dividend annually.
How has your year been so far? If its not so good, have faith that year 2022 will be better. If this year has been good for you, I sincerely hope that year 2022 will be even better for you. One last hope I have is that COVID-19 will be gone from our lives soon so that we may live normally again. Our world has changed because of it while we adjust to new ways of living. But as all things goes, it will one day come to an end and all will be good again.
Stay safe and have a good year ahead everyone. Happy new year 2022!
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Why Do I Keep Worrying About Having Not Enough Money?
The fear is real... the worry of having not enough money is causing me sleepless nights sometimes. Is this normal I ask myself? I have savings, I have a stable job and earn a decent fixed monthly salary. I have enough to live my life and still having savings every month. But there is one thing I am constantly worried about, and that is having not enough for retirement.
No matter how much I budget and plan and forecast, there is still a lingering worry in me even though I try to assure myself as much as possible that its all ok. There is one reason I identified, the reason is the future is so unpredictable that there is no way to actually predict what will happen. Even if I plan all the way, the outcome may still be not what I want it to be.
Life throws in all kinds of nonsense at you along the way. I'm lucky not to have met too much nonsense thus far but I've seen nonsense being thrown at people and depletes all their savings instantly due to high medical bills and long term healthcare cost.
There are many Singaporeans who do not have to worry about money. We can see it on social media channels Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok. Many people have the means to renovate their house nicely, buy a car, buy a luxurious condo, stay in 5 star hotels and eat good food all day. Some are spending beyond their means, some do not plan for the future but there are some who really have too much money to spend because they earn extremely a lot too.
For me, spending money was a taboo all my life. Yes its hard to spend money because we always didn't have much anyway. When its my turn to spend money, I buy nice furniture for my house, eat good food, spend on luxurious staycations because I can afford it but guilt sets in. Its a funny feeling of enjoying but at the same time fear.
Psychologically, I would think I need a breakthrough. Its like when you first started investing and you are brought on an emotional ride of thrill when the market goes up and fear when market goes down. Its not easy to overcome but as years goes by, you get better at it.
I'm not sure if anyone has the same thoughts and experience as me but if you do, I would encourage you to keep going when it gets tough. The light is always at the end of the tunnel. Worry is a normal process and it should spur us to achieve more in life.