It’s my final article for 2024. Before I step into 2025, I like to pen down financial highlights and as well as some personal thoughts and lessons learnt throughout 2024. If you find them helpful and practical in your finances, that’s awesome! It’s great for us to journey together towards achieving financial abundance. Without further ado, let’s begin:
1. I Renovated My Property
I started 2024 with an empty property, which was vacated by my tenant. My family and I decided to renovate it into a “retirement home” for my parents. The total cost was RM 30k and it included mainly a paint work, kitchen cabinet and sink and floor works. My parents bought furniture. Plus, my mother decorated the property with her artwork and plants, turning a property into a home as she is artistic. Since then, we thoroughly enjoyed the property. So, I guessed the renovation cost was worth every penny.
2. I Travelled The Most This Year.
Credits to my wife as she is adventurous. Locally, we’d visited Kuala Sepetang, Balik Pulau, and Malacca. We had our first Club Med experience at Kuantan (Half-sponsored by my wife’s former company), which was superb. Internationally, we had visited Singapore briefly 3 times and finally went on our 18-day honeymoon trip in New Zealand, covering both the North & South Island. As I recount, I believe I spent some RM 20-25k (on my part) on travels this year. 60-70% of the cost was spent on the New Zealand trip, mostly on airfares, hotels and skydiving.
Here, I would like to share 2 thoughts on spending RM 20-25k on travels. They are inspired by a book titled “Die With Zero” authored by Bill Perkins.
According to Perkins, he wrote about the utility of money, where he suggested that money would be best-enjoyed when we are young and energetic, not old and frail. Sure, the RM 20-25k would be valuable capital that can be invested. Let’s assume that I can 5x the money to RM 100k, after having invested it for 10-20 years. At that time, I could buy more travel tickets. However, would it (the trips) be 5x more enjoyable when I’m nearing 60 years old? I doubt so. That is call the utility of money. So, my first thought is – “Our enjoyment of wealth shall diminish over time.”
With this in mind, does it mean a good time to spend RM 20-25k on travels is in our 20s? Well, it is indeed a yes if we are “sponsored” or could afford it. But, many of us started our 20s with a lot of youth but not wealth. Many who spent such money for travel in their 20s are now facing tough decisions on emergency funds, savings, investments, insurance, home and family building. A lot decided to delay or simply give up as it is too overwhelming. So, my second thought is – “Sure, it is great to enjoy wealth today but not at the expense of our financial future.”
Balancing between wealth accumulation and wealth utilisation requires thoughtfulness. I believe I have become more purposeful and appreciative of the wealth accumulated, health built, and as well as relationships possessed upon reading “Die With Zero”. I believe you should read it.
3. I Started My Growth Portfolio
For years, I kept investing for dividends. It’s always a joy to buy golden goose (shares) that shall lay golden eggs (dividends). The more shares, the more dividends. I kept on with this recipe and have been earning and accumulating more dividends. It’s a no brainer if I invest in Malaysia and Singapore where tax policies on dividends are friendly. But, if I invest in U.S. stocks, such would be a different story as there is a 30% withholding tax on dividends. Ouch!
In 2024, I began my growth investing journey with a US stock that pays negligible dividend yield. Sure, it ticks all the boxes in its business model, financials, growth strategies and valuation. But, I have to learn to be comfortable with receiving “no eggs” from this stock as the goose continues to grow in size. I believe such investing style requires more practice and such would be the case for me in 2025. Hopefully, I would fund my American goose with some golden eggs laid from the goose in Malaysia and Singapore.
4. Overall, Still a Slow Growth in Net Worth
Work wise, it was stable. I converted case studies and slides for both Dividend Vault and Growth Vault into one comprehensive note for each stock in their respective lists. It’s more development on content rather than “marketing” so income in 2024 was comparable with 2023. Considering a hike in expenses due to renovation and travels, it is a blessing to still have a minor growth in net worth, which I track diligently on a monthly basis since 2020. The key sources of this growth are capital appreciation from my bank shares in Malaysia & Singapore and my brand new American goose and continuous mortgage and insurance payments which was offsetted by a depreciation in my portfolio of Singapore REITs in 2024.
What’s Ahead in 2025?
I have an eventful 2024. I guess I would focus on building more income sources by working on a few Chinese online courses: Dividend Vault & Growth Vault (Chinese). I’ll aim to expand my own US portfolio by purchasing more American geese. My travel costs may come down if my wife & I travel within 5-6 hours flight distance from Malaysia. Even if we’re back in New Zealand, I think I would spend a lot less as the travel itinerary would be more targeted.
That’s it for 2024. I shall resume my writings in 2025. Happy New Year!
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