My Life In 2015 And New Year Resolutions for 2016

This is the last week before the year 2015 comes to an end. Another year went pass just like that again. I wrote some reflections for the year 2015 at the beginning of this month. You can read the post here if you've missed it out.

I did not write much about my investments and also my financial journey in that previous post so I will put it in this post.

Stocks Investment for 2015

This year was not really a good year for investments. A couple of the stocks which I invest in were down quite badly with a few others gaining such as the biggest holding in my portfolio, Saizen Reit, which was acquired by another company. This helped to offset the losses on the other stocks in my portfolio. Overall, the STI is down about -15% for the whole of 2015.

To date, my portfolio is close to $40K now which is about 50% of my investment capital. I have added in some counters such as the banks (DBS and OCBC) and the STI ETF when the market went down badly. All these which I added recently are all in positive territory at the moment. Overall, the portfolio is only up by about 3%. In total I have 14 stocks in my portfolio now. The returns are not that fantastic but I should be happy that my portfolio is not as bad as a -15% loss as that of the STI. 

Income and Expenditure for the year 2015

Having a financial blog is incomplete without writing on my financial journey. This blog is about my financial journey and how I strive to achieve financial independence. Although money is not the most important thing in life, it is still necessary to provide for our families and for our livelihood. 

Since I started this blog, I learned to create more income including passive income. The main purpose of this is to not rely just on my main job for income but to create contingency plans. I have seen people, both young and old, being retrenched by their company and its not a good feeling to have. 

My income now comes from these sources: Salary from job, income from blog, dividends from stocks and commissions from freelance consultancy work. 

Here's the chart which shows my financial journey:

My expenses has increased which is what I also wanted. I am going to focus on creating more income instead of just saving for the sake of saving money. I want to live a more fulfilling life where there is certain enjoyment and spending more on my love ones.

Passive income and other income has been rather consistent this year and adds up to about $9K for the whole year of 2015.


New Year Resolutions for 2016

2015 has been a year of experiences for me again. I felt like there were a lot of things happening and felt tired for the year. I haven't took much leave this year and no MC as well. In fact, I only took 2 days of leave so far for the whole year.

Nevertheless, it was a fulfilling year. The people I met, the new things I embark on and starting a new relationship was the summary for 2015. Now, its time to look forward to a new year 2016. This is what I hope to achieve or do next:

1) Advancing in my career

I've been in the same job for the past 5 years plus. Its a long long time especially for young people nowadays who change jobs every few years in order to advance and climb to a higher level. It seems like in most companies, employees who stay long do not advance as fast as people who change jobs.

I have been looking for more opportunities and will continue to look for more opportunities to advance in my career. I hope to at least get to the management level where I can do more and learn more. This will also greatly increase my income. I will be looking into policy or research related jobs which has been my interest all these while.

2) Eating Healthily and exercising

I have been eating more vegetable and more salads and will continue to do so next year. I have also been going to the gym every week and will continue this habit that I build into the new year. All these were a result of motivation of my girlfriend who is health conscious. I am happy to live more healthily. Health is wealth.

3) Having a more balanced life   

As mentioned earlier, I will be less tight on money and will spend when necessary. For example, I seldom took taxi in the past but am taking more now to save time. I am increasing my expenses but will still keep it in check. I have almost doubled my expenses as compared to the beginning of this year. Its not so scary to spend a little bit more money on people and things that matter to us.

4) The 100K savings challenge

I set a financial target of $100K to reach by year 2016 since I started this blog 2 years ago. Next year is the year already. I am on track to reach that target by mid of 2016. The focus will still be on increasing my income. Its not just about earning money but about believing that I have the potential do more and achieve more.

5)  Loving people in my life 

Life is all about relationships. I've been meeting many people since I started blogging. In the midst of busyness, I will constantly remind myself to set aside time and love the people who are in my life. In the new year, I will make more effort to keep in touch with old friends and continue to spend time with my family and also continue to put in effort for my new relationship with my girlfriend. I am looking forward to the new life I will embark on with her.



Its the new year in a few days time. I will be going for a short overseas trip over the new year to recharge and relax to prepare for a better 2016. Thank you all readers who have been supporting and reading my blog all these while.

Here's wishing all of you Happy New Year and a greater year ahead!

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