It hard to balance

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

Everyone wants to work on things that can generate results directly, instead of backend which seems insignificant.

And everyone wants to go after the big fish, instead of the small ones.

This is especially true when you go up.

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But more often than not, results are not entirely up to us. There are always factors we cannot control.

As a result, sometimes, the only thing we can do is the backend staff or the small thing.

In that case, doing the small things well is the only right thing to do.

It is hard because we have to convince or force ourselves to endure the boredom and suffer from the feelings that no progress has been made, despite our hard work.

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And then it comes the harder part — to sustain.

Are we sure these are the only things we could do now?

How can we be sure that we are not using the small things as excuses to avoid facing the bigger problems?

And sometimes, the questions are justified because we are using them as excuses.

So we might constantly swing between the two ends. The consequence is usually the worst — we accomplish nothing in the end.

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It is hard to balance.

But below can carry us a long way.

• Have a strong sense of security towards ourselves
• Maintain a cadence and habit that are satisfactory to ourselves
• Do not be a slave of laziness — do what you have planned

To us all!

My Market Transactions — Wk4 2023 - Again 0 allocation for T-bill

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil.

The 12-month T-Bill had cut-off yield at 3.87%, which was expected to be lower than 4%. Again, I got 0 allocation.

 

Have a great week!!!

2nd Working Day in the Year of Rabbit

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

Today is the 2nd Working Day in the Year of Rabbit and it is pretty full.

Same as yesterday, which was the 1st Working Day in the Year of Rabbit.

I guess there wont be any grace period after the CNY break.

With the macro being uncertain, I suppose some of you, my readers, might feel the pressure as well.

But I firmly believe the Year of Rabbit will bring us luck and carry us through.

So let’s look up and march together!

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Best Wishes for the New Year

 

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My Market Transactions — Wk3 2023 - 0 allocation for T-bill

    

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil.

The latest 6-month T-Bill had cut-off yield at 4%. I bid 4.1% and got 0 allocation.

I am not sure why the interest rate starts to drop, probably because it is over popular. Will continue following the subsequent issues.

 

Have a great week!!!

Happy Chinese New Year — The Year of Rabbit!

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Monthly Net-Worth Update — Jan 2023

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

We are already half way through Jan 2023. It seemed like yesterday that we were still talking about ending 2022. 

How time flies!

Wish all my readers a Prosperous, Happy and Healthy 2023!

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Regarding the monthly update, you might have noticed that the timing of update has been pushed to more of the middle of the month, rather than the end of the month.

This is because towards the end of the month, depending on the exact date of update, our salary may or may not have come in, which creates the undesired inconsistency in our monthly numbers, i.e. some months might include no salary while other months might include two months of salary.

Therefore, going forward, I will try to publish the update before 22nd of each month, which means our Jan salary will be counted in Feb and Feb salary in March etc.

This is not ideal, but at least the consistency is kept.

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Here is the snapshot of our Total Net-Worth for Jan 2023.

Net-Worth increase from last month: 34K SGD, -0.38KG Gold

Typically, we will have a bigger increase in Jan, due to AWS, bonuses, CPF interests etc. 

But this year, we were hit by further losses from my wife’s portfolio. She found time to do a detailed portfolio check, only to find out that our losses were far more severe than our quick estimate. 

The losses were recorded in this update.

On top of this, we also suffered some loss due to exchange rate in this cycle.

Luckily, the market has been doing well after the new year and our portfolio recovered a bit, which, together with our work income and CPF interest, was able to make up for the losses.

In terms of Gold, our little TNW increase was easily erased and more by Gold price increase. We had negative growth this month.

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Investment: -8.27% annualized return, incl. dividend

This is a big improvement compared to last month. But this is not a true reflection of our portfolio performance as this is mainly because we placed quite some money in T-bills and SSB, increasing our investment base.

In plain and painful words, our losses did not reduce significantly. We are still in deep deep RED.

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk2 2023

   

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil.

 

Have a great week!!!

“Being a manager means you cannot always be the nice guy you want to be”

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

“Being a manager means you cannot always be the nice guy you want to be”

I have been told this a while back. But I kind of refused to accept it.

So I have been trying my best to deliver quality results while being nice, even though this often means I have to work extra hard and even though sometimes I do not even get the recognition/understanding for my good intention.

But just as all people who do not accept reality, I come to the pivotal point.

I start to push harder and demand more, while knowing that this is still within the reasonable range.

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I know it is the right thing to do.

After all, the success of the team depends on every member of the team doing their part. 

Otherwise, the team wont be as efficient or effective as it should be, even though some members are willing to take the extra load.

Just imagine when such a team goes head to head against another team which has a manager who can ensure everyone in his/her team does their part.

The first team will lost, no matter how hard the manager works.

And when that happens and everyone in that team loses their jobs, it is hard not to pin the manager on the failure board. How hard he works does not matter.

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Again, I know that is the right thing to do, but what surprises me is team’s reaction.

There is no tough resistance. Some of them are even more motivated and happier.

They feedback that they have clearer idea on the expectation and what to do and are learning more. They have to work more, but it is worth it.

The outcome is that delivery improves and I work less.

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To ensure team productivity, there has to be someone in the team pushing the boundaries of possibility.

As the manager, there is no excuse.

A manager’s job is not to be a nice guy, but to lead the team to success.

To us all!

Till next time!

Library is a great place!

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

With WFH (at lease partially) becoming the norm, I find out that library is such a great place.

I can clear my head and focus on what I want to do, such as reading and sometimes even working.

Compared to staying home, there are so much less distractions, such as entertainment, noises, interruptions etc etc.

Of course, more than occasionally, there will be uncles/anties who watch drama on loudspeaker and cannot stop making wired noises, people who discuss/laugh/flirt loudly, people who just cannot stop shaking the shared table, people who would use up all the charge points on the wall etc etc.

Of course, more desks and a water dispenser would be welcome. 

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But it is still a great place to be.

Especially the regional libraries, where there are more spaces, desks, facilities.

The staff are generally nice, helpful and kind.

Most libraries are located in or near to shopping malls. So food/drink is not a problem.

Wireless@sg is available there. But mobile hotspot is safer if confidentiality is a concern.

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So if you also have trouble focusing in your own home, find out where the closest library is and give it a try.

If you do come, do behave, respect others and the staff and follow the rules. Afterall, it is up to every one of us to keep it a great place.

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk1 2023

  

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Below are the transactions for last week.

Capital injection: 22KSGD

1.T-Bill - 22k SGD

The cut-off yield was 4.2% and I got allocated 22K. The bill is for 6 months. 400+ gain for 6 months.

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Capital outflow: 0

 

Till next time!

Hit in the face…

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

At the beginning of the new year, I have been hit in the face by a few things. 

One of them is that further loss from investment came in as my wife did her year-end summary. I was expecting loss, but not this big loss. I will share more in the upcoming Monthly Net-Worth update.

The rest has to do with my own face-losing behaviors…But realizing them is a blessing.

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I take it as a sign that I need to be prudent, diligent and keep my feet on the ground in 2023.

I will do exactly that.

I would say this is one of the best openings for the new year!

Till next time!

2022 Year-End Summary — Financials

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

As we just entered 2023, I would like to share with you a quick summary of 2022 from the perspective of financials.

As you can see from the chat above, our Total Net-Worth (TNW) has been increasing every year, but the increment year-on-year has been dropping, which means we are further away from our 40/40 goal than 2019 while I am 3 years closer to age 40.

This is mainly due to our investment.

I was mostly out of a job in 2020, but our investment carried us through.

In 2021, it is the opposite. I got my salary back, but our investment tanked, resulting in an overall lower increment than 2020.

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2022, on the other hand, was a disgrace. 

Our investment continued the dive, but not as drastic as 2021. I was able to hold on to my salary for the most part and most of the pay for the freelancer work I did in 2021 came in 2022. But we still had a lower increment than 2021. 

Worse still, at the end of 2022, our actual TNW was lower than our conservative projection. This means we have fallen behind our projection in absolute terms, aka, we are poorer than we planned to be.

Again, investment contributed to most of it. Even we were conservative about our projection, we did not forecast a negative return on investment. But we have been in the red zone for the last 18 consecutive months.

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With the market showing some signs of recovery and my new start in career, we hope to reverse this declining trend of increment and catch up with our projection in 2023.

Let’s revisit the numbers by the end of 2023.

My Market Transactions — Wk52 2022 - stupid enough to miss Dec SSB

  

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil - because I was stupid enough to miss the SSB application deadline...

 

Have a great week!!!