Now that the marks for 31 Dec 2024 have come through, here's completing the review for 2024 and I'll touch on a bit of my plans for 2025.
Financials
Taking reference from my post on net worth update for the calendar
year ending 2023, as of 31 Dec 2024, this is the split of contribution for
items 1 to 4:
1) Cash (inclusive of ST Trading) - 9%
2) CPF/SRS - 18%
3) AUM - 70%
4) OI - 3%
The breakdown is roughly similar when looking back.
The positive thing is that all categories have seen increments
in value.
11 1) Cash (inclusive of ST Trading) – Down by 0.4% (contributed largely by rebound in tech stocks and Chinese counters that helped to almost make whole my cash spend for the year)
22 2) CPF/SRS – Up by 13.8=9% (general market increase, especially in the STI and other ETFs invested through Endowus precipitated the increase. My CPF OA is more or less fully invested externally.)
3) 3) AUM – Up by 8.8% (general positive global market increase)
4) 4) OI – Up by 46.8% (crypto prices really rebounded)
As a result of the above, Total Resources (combining all of the above) increased by 9.6%.
This is quite a different “F.I.R.E” + 1.5 years financial picture
compared to the first time I did so back in 2018, where looking just at the
main components of liquidity, 31 Dec 2020 closed at AUM decrease of 3% and cash
position actually (naturally) being lower than the “F.I.R.E” start date of 31
Aug 2018.
I guess I was lucky to benefit of a different “sequence of
returns” this time around, while being gainfully unemployed.
I do have to admit that I picked up the process of selling
options in 2024, which yielded me a small inflow of c. US$5k, but other than that and going back for 2 weeks of reservist duties and getting S$500 for my IPPT gold,
that really was the entirety of my “earned income” for the year.
From a financial perspective, I think nothing much to worry about.
Only real concern is underperformance of one of the funds I’m invested in, and
I might pare down some monies and reallocate to other funds, but that’s a
consideration to ponder on.
Health
I put on 3 kg in 2024. And I don’t think the majority of it
is the good kind of weight lol. Diet in 2024 wasn’t really the best with
minimal controls of input and alcohol consumption – basically it was whatever
works whenever I want.
So even though I do exercise quite regularly, given the diet,
the weight gain was not really a surprise. I guess given I’m turning 40 soon,
the metabolism isn’t exactly the best. Same goes for the recovery time that I
need when I exercise.
I’ve also gotten back into Yoga in 4Q2024, and am enjoying
the process of turning up for classes, and enjoying the stretch in.
Day to Day Life in 2024
Sans
travels and the associated planning for them, I spent quite a bit of time chilling,
exploring and picking up new hobbies, such as kombucha brewing, sourdough baking,
cooking for the wife, reading and gaming. Only kombucha brewing has been discontinued
because of my gastric reflux issue.
I
think I read more than 10 different books (I only started tracking my books
read towards 3Q24) of wide ranging genres in 2024 and the two that immediately
comes to mind was “The Fund” by Rob Copeland and “Floating on a Malayan Breeze”
by Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh.
A
bit of a reminder that there is more than meets the eye than public image, and
how some things don’t or take a long time to change, with fissures being structurally
exacerbated.
Gaming
took up a fair bit of time. Had the opportunity to engage in some really good ones,
such as Baldurs Gate 3, Death Stranding, Dying Light, Horizon Zero Dawn, and EAFC24/25.
Some of these titles were pretty awesome with great storylines. But the one which
really took up quite a fair bit of time was ultimate team on EAFC24/25 – don’t
get me started on why.
I did
spend quite a fair bit of time with my family here, having had the chance to
bring my parents for a couple of short overseas trips while they are still in
good health. I have siblings who were spending some time transiting jobs / on
sabbatical as well, so it was nice to have them for company on off-peak
activities, especially for nice value lunches and off peak gym classes.
I do
think the only “work” I really had to put in in 2024 was taking the real estate
salesperson (i.e. real estate agent) course and taking the licensing exam.
In
light of potentially selling my own BTO 5 years down the road, a high
likelihood of my parents downgrading in the next few 5 to 10 years, and marred
by my own experiences of considering property purchases back in the days of
employment, I decided that it might be worthwhile to go through the process of
the course, exam and license, so at least I know whether someone else is
smoking me / I can actually conduct my own sales and save fees, so I went ahead
to do that.
I also
deduced that in the event I would like to ramp things up again, I’ll have some
transferable skills and still be able to have full autonomy over my time.
Anyhow,
the course was conducted by zoom and took up 8 full weekdays, which was simple enough.
The exam was over an entire weekend but the prep work that went into it was
substantial. And to be honest, it wasn’t straightforward nor easy. But I guess
I got lucky and passed that, so now I am a licensed agent.
Plans
for 2025
I
think I mentioned this earlier but there isn’t much travel on the cards. Only
in March am I traveling for the full month and I might go to Sri Lanka in June
for a week or so.
I have
signed up for a yoga teacher training course set to be conducted over the
weekends of late June, July and mid August, so if that comes to fruition, this
would be something I’m really interested in doing.
We have to move to our new BTO by early 2026, given the lease on our current
place expires then. So that would take up some mindspace as we plan the
renovations and execute the move.
I’m
looking into rebalancing some of my financial portfolio, so that will also take
up a bit of time in 1Q as I look to get the research done.
I’ve
also decided to launch my services as a licensed relator to my network of friends
and family on social media such as Linkedin and Facebook recently, on the
unique selling point of my professional background and that I’m financially independent
since 2018 thus having no commission driven bias.
Realized
creating that awareness of my offering could be pretty interesting as I think I
do have the ability to help people make better decisions when making what could
be the biggest purchase or sale of their lives, and I gather it could also help
fill up the meter gauge for social interaction together with the application of some professional skills.
Whether
or not this model of real estate advisory takes off, who knows? But I gather I’ll
be better for it through the expansion of my domain specific knowledge base and
expanding other skillsets which could be useful in life.
In any case, let’s see how things go.
Here’s hoping 2024 was kind to you, and also wishing all you
guys best of luck and health in 2025!
