2024 has been a relatively peaceful year. So peaceful that I have read countless novels and other books, met my sports buddies almost every weekend and picked up horticulture.
Physical and mental health
As we say, health is wealth. I have stuck fairly consistently with my exercise regime and tried to include more fruits and vegetables in my meals (although I eat out more and cook less these days). My weight, BP and cholesterol levels are doing ok. For those 40 years and above, remember to get your subsidized health screenings from the government.
Working less and meeting up with friends more contributed to an improved mental health. I see that the government has stepped up on initiatives in the community but work place initiatives from employers still seemed lackluster, especially for those who can't WFH and need to commit 44 hours or more a week at frontline work.
I have also started a Gratitude journey to celebrate all my little life milestones.
Financials
Investment wise there's nothing exciting for me this year.
My SG portfolio has made a recovery, uplifted by the bank stocks, except for sg REITs (which took a hit in the high interest rate condition) and China-related stocks (Lion-HST ETF and CapitaLand China Trust). I have let go of a couple of rotten apples, picked a few unripen pears.
My Endowus funds have also recovered and gave decent a return of double digits. The purpose of having this portfolio is to garner some DCA effect and exposure to the foreign markets with ample diversifications.
My US trading account was doing well until I dabbled with Tesla and blew off about 4k from it. I think my psychology is not suited for such highly volatile stock trades. I am still into options, they give fast returns. However, I need to fine-tune my strategies and be more vigilant on the macroeconomics that are influencing the price movements.
Fixed incomes - I have almost turned over my whole SSB portfolio to take advantage of the higher interest rates and have been farming T-bills' high yields from last year. With uncertainty on the interest rates come next year, I am toning down on this. I have also bought some USD when it was low to put into the bank's fixed deposit account and have recently converted them back to SGD on maturity.
Cryptocurrency - After the massacre that happened just two years ago (recall nightmare of Celsius and FTX collapses), crypto has made a huge come back with president Trump in the house. I regretfully sold some of my BTC after the Yen carry-trade induced market flash-crash, as I was afraid that the price recovery was a dead-cat-bounce. Sigh. A good thing is that my Ledger's cold storage remained untouched simply because I was too lazy. Last year I mentioned that I wrote off my late mother's Celsius asset. Lo and behold, this year I managed to claim them using the Letters of Administration. (You can read about my experience in getting the LOA without hiring a lawyer in my post here.) Basically I got a bit scarred by the crypto misadventures and decided not to chase coins anymore.
This year I have made the biggest purchase decision in my life. I have finally bought a resale flat after many arduous months of searching, viewing and offering. Resale flat prices have risen rapidly after the COVID period and I regretted not getting my flat sooner. The high cost wiped out my entire CPF OA, more than half of my cash holdings, even with a mortgage. Nevertheless, I am grateful for this milestone and hope that 5 years later the property price will rise enough for me to sell it at a profit. Fingers crossed.
I was reviewing my assessable income for 2024 to see if I need to top up my SRS account for more income tax rebates (you can review your assessable income by logging in to your IRAS account and downloading the document from your inbox). I have already maxed out my CPF retirement account top up of 8k. One question I pondered was whether I can still claim the parent relief. To my relief, the answer is yes - I can still claim it even though my mother passed away last year. According to the IRAS website, the relief would cease from next year onwards.
Other life musings
I managed to travel a bit this year to different parts of Malaysia. Tried snorkeling and water rafting for the first time. It's a great deal of fun. In budget travel, there's surely some discomfort or inconvenience (be it in accommodation or transport wise) but that doesn't make the trip less fulfilling. To me, the top priorities are safety and gaining new experiences. I might try a solo travel next year. It's been a while since I solo to Melbourne.
Some new gadgets that I bought to try out this year - air fryer, DC motor fan and motion-triggered lamp. Air fryer is basically like a compact version of an oven, I have yet to explore all the funky recipes. My DC motor fan is really cool (pun intended) with 12 speeds, an all-angle rotatory head and super quiet operation. The motion-triggered lights are good for wardrobe and corridor where we only need the light for a short duration.
For an MCA court order under the Mental Capacity Act, I found out it is also possible to apply for one without hiring a lawyer. There's a simplified track and normal track. I managed to get one for a kin this year after two hearings via the normal track and saved a few thousand bucks of lawyer fees. Here's a quick reference guide.
I have dropped out of the blogging rat race, partly because I couldn't keep up with creating non-personal "fast food" finance contents and partly because I don't see a point to share very personal updates as my blog has became less anonymous over the years.
That's all for now. I may update this post if there are more things that pop into my mind.
Hereby wishing everyone an advance Merry X'mas and happy 2025!
This is a good quote I saw recently:
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Thanks for reading!
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