Monthly update: March 2022: restarting car-free lifestyle

March marked the official last month of my Europe assignment. How did my investments do during these turbulent times?

Life updates March

In March my Europe assignment officially ended, but as my “employment pass” work visa is not yet approved, I get to stay in Europe a bit longer.

As my time in Europe is ending I also got rid of my car – thanks to generous company relocation subsidies and a crazy used car market I could sell it for nearly the same as I bought it five years ago.

Not having a car is a big relief, as I do not have to take care of it anymore. Mechanic visits, tire and oil changes, check engine light coming on, yearly car inspections, petrol stations, yearly taxes, car insurance – I am glad not having to deal with this anymore.

Excluding depreciation, having a car cost me about SGD 5,600 (~USD 4,100) last year – despite hardly driving it during mandatory home office periods.

As my Singaporean work permit is not ready and the new startup did not give me a formal offer I am still stuck in Limbo.

Portfolio in March

In March my portfolio dipped severely because of the Ukraine / Energy crisis, but gained back some ground towards the end of the month. The portfolio value slightly increased by SGD 3,369 to SGD 802,837. This was driven by fresh investments of SGD 9,643 and paper losses of SGD -6,274

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Expenses

March was another high expense month, mostly because of moving costs. I spent SGD 5,794 (~USD 3,778) and managed a saving rate of 67%

Also I had to pay rent, something I have not done for 5 years now :)

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Portfolio changes

I decided to optimize my portfolio, consolidating my positions. My plan is to further reduce REITs and picked stocks and put everything into accumulating index funds.

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Outlook

Looking forward to when I finally have clarity on whether or not I will be able to move to Singapore or not. Hopefully, the formal offer from the startup will come soon and I can then only have 1 job. 2 jobs at the same time is tiring.

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