2018 I had planned to save SGD 100,000. Did I manage to achieve this goal?
Portfolio update
To celebrate the end of the year, I created a waterfall chart. In 2018 my portfolio grew from SGD 251,603 by SGD 67,529 to SGD 319,132. As you can see, the markets were not kind to my portfolio in 2018 and before dividends my portfolio depreciated by SGD 30,138.
Investment vs. goal
At the beginning of 2018 I had decided to save up SGD 100,000 during the year. Sad to say: I failed. I only managed to save SGD 96,868.
As you can see, I had a great start to the year, but then things deteriorated at the second half. Reasons were my own company which I have been busy setting up. Unfortunately, I spent quite a bit of money on it, but I has been worth the learning and experience.
Dividends received
In total I received SGD 8,068 in dividends. Not bad! It is surprising how quickly the dividends have been growing. I expect this figure to slow down quite a bit – since I am now investing in accumulating ETFs to optimize taxes.
Where did all the money go?
At the beginning of every year I like to take stock of where my money is going. This is the result for 2018:
At first glance the picture looks quite positive: saving rate increased to 56% before tax, which is a nice increase. When zooming in, things do not look as rosy though:
In absolute terms it becomes obvious that I spent a massive SGD 73,203 on discretionary categories, such as food, travel, restaurants, shopping, my car, presents…
The first impression is:
A gigantic volcano of wastefulness. How could this happen? I spent the same amount as in 2017, when I even bought a new (to me) car for nearly SGD 20k. Something went quite wrong in 2018. I have decided to carefully track my spending in 2019 and work hard to get the discretionary spending below SGD 55,000 which is still huge.
Realizing my gigantic privilege
I know my income is rather high and I do not really deserve such as a paypackage given the work I do. I realize that I am very privileged and should not complain about my job so much.
Plan for 2019
- Invest SGD 100,000 – same plan as this year, but with more discipline
- Regular cardio exercise
- Track all expenses
Why do you not think you deserve that pay? do you think we should not be paid to do the kind of work?
My job is quite basic and not very useful in any way. I sometimes feel it is quite weird. Whenever I start hating my job (which is more and more often) I try to remember my blue collar jobs
Wow sounds like you’ve gotten the best job!
Haha is there still opening? Jokes aside, I’m just being curious as to what do you do for a living.