2022 Year in Review and Looking Ahead to 2023

This time last year, I had a 2021 Year in Review and also a Round of Up 2021. I think it’s worthwhile to continue this practice as I account for my progress with my readers. So let’s get started.

Some notable highlights of 2022 are:

• Learning more about NFTs by being involved in STEPN
• Passing the CFA Level 2
• Completing a number of data analytics courses
• Transitioning out of public sector into the private world
• Hiring a domestic helper
• Wife passing her RES exam and considering a side hustle in real estate

Moving on to 2023, there will be bigger changes coming up, with our HDB hitting the minimum occupation period (MOP) in Q4. We have plans to arbitrage on rental yield with our “Buy to rent, Rent to stay” strategy based on 2022 Q1 prices, but it remains to be seen whether the strategy continues to be viable when the comes for us. It is still likely well-within our financial capacity because we have built up strong CPF OA reserves and savings in anticipation of the MOP.

In recent months, we have even seriously contemplated geographical arbitrage with a move to Johor now that working from home is a possibility and we already have friends on the other side of the causeway. Earning in SGD to spend in RM is something that everybody has been doing pre-COVID, but the real deal comes when we don’t have to commute and face the jams daily. So to make it happen, the stars have to align in terms of career plans, education plans and even social plans. Let’s see how that goes.

Now we move on to the overall portfolio update.

The financial markets have not been kind for most parts of the year and our stocks and crypto portfolio took a massive hit and we just slightly below expectations. Even the ETFs and Robo-advisors were not spared. For that reason, our CPF has grown to become almost 50% of our entire portfolio, up from 45% in the previous year. We initially projected to reach the $1m milestone by the end of 2022 judging by the trend in the past couple of years, but that didn’t happen. Overall, our net worth is still growing, just not as much as in previous years. That said, we haven’t accounted for the potential gains in our HDB (which comes up to about +$200K) but I rather be conservative and only account for it when the gains are realised.

What’s not reflected is our annual cash flow and how we manage our different pots of money over the course of the year. That might be something I’ll include in the next iteration.