My Net Worth In 2018

2019 is finally here to stay for the next 360+ days, and I can’t wait to review my finances for the year. After my CPF interest has been deposited on the last day of 2018, I do have a rough idea on how well I did in my financial health for the year and I am very glad to say that it has been much better than I’ve expected it to be, though I fell very short on my expenses and exceeded my budget very… exceedingly due to some unexpected expenditures that were quite unavoidable and unaccounted for.

I guess that’s a way of how life throws a rock on your head and reminds you to always prepare yourself for unplanned circumstances, and that even if things don’t go the way you want it to be, it’s going to be fine because you’ll always find a way to make it work, and eventually maybe find other ways to make your situation even better.

Things can always be a lot worse.

That being said, I am behind time for my expenses report, portfolio update and goal settings for 2019. In the meantime, you can click here to read those that I’ve set for 2018 and my progress for the previous year:

2018 Goal Setting

My Cash Flow Statement in 2017

2017 Portfolio Update

As I was consolidating the numbers for my net worth, I have observed how I have allocated my funds differently in 2018 as compared to when I was accumulating wealth for the sake of just savings. In 2017, I pumped quite a significant amount of my savings into stocks (~55.9%) but the story is quite different in 2018.

Instead, a bulk of my additional savings went into buying SSBs instead.

Just coincidentally, since the stock market has been doing rather negatively to the general public (ES3’s performance was 6.63% in the red), with an average 10-year yield of 2.5% on my funds in the SSB, I have technically outperformed the STI ETF by 9.13%.

No seriously. I didn’t plan for this to happen. And of course, my actual portfolio didn’t do as well.

Okay, but it’s a small amount of money anyway. And I’ll place the actual numbers of my portfolio performance nicely in another post.

So as I was saying, the allocation of my funds were quite different in 2018 as compared to 2017.

As you can see, I have been actively pumping a significant amount of funds into SSBs, while maintaining the bulk of my investments in stocks.

I also have a fortified warchest (hopefully) always ready to deploy when opportunities present themselves.

I have no debt, so these are my net assets as directly tied to my net worth.

My Actual Net Worth?

Hehehe, asking questions that matter right?

I remember when I started the blog in May 2017, I recorded that my net worth is a low six figure.

Low as in, really low. As low as a Limbo stick can go.

1.5 years later at the end of 2018, my net worth stands at a very rough one-fifth of a 7-figure.

Not fantastic, but I am satisfied enough to know that there is good progress, and I’m working well towards my goal of $350,000 when I hit 30. 2 more years to go!

What’s Next?

In 2019, I do not intend to put a big sum of my money into buying SSBs anymore and focus on the building up my passive income through stocks. The stock market going down is good news as it is for many other investors, and I will be more diligent in stock hunting this year.

I have also since looked into the possibility of buying stocks that are out of the Singapore market, which I have already implemented thus far with 1 buy, and yet at the same time keep diversification to an optimum.

I would think that in the very long run, and as proven in history, that stocks will still outperform bonds in many percentage points.

In terms of building my net worth, it is pretty much the same from now on.

I have to find ways to increase my income and the ability to create more money with my existing money. I also need to be more diligent in reducing my expenses, and luckily for me I might have some plans on how to do that this year. There is definitely room for improvement and it helps even more when you know that there is someone beside you through it all. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and I hope that you had a great wealth building journey in 2018 as well.

Miss Niao xoxo.