Happy New Year and Goals for 2021

Today is New Year's Eve, the last day of 2020. It has been a super "boring" year and we are not out of the woods yet, especially for the tourism sector.

I started 2020 with 8 goals (those directly mentioned in this blog), let's see how I have done:

Goal No.1 - Increase net worth by $250,000

A highly unusual year where Covid hits around the time where my pay and bonus was being decided. I will spare you the drama but yes, both were affected. Lol. Having said that, the Company recognised that 2019 was the best year we ever had and decided not to be overly harsh. Coupled with no need and nowhere to spend money on traveling and leisure, this goal was achieved. The goal for 2021 will be to repeat this

Goal No.2 - Passive income of $150,000 (excluding CPF interest)

As I mentioned before, this was achieved through a leveraged bond portfolio. With a low interest rate environment, this may not be a feasible strategy in future. While I have generated a nice 6 digit passive income from my bonds portfolio, the CHF and JPY loans which i have taken out to buy some of these bonds are currently "in the red". In other words, sitting on significant unrealised forex losses. The USD has been extremely weak against all major currencies since April. 

With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been wise to switch back into USD loans on the onset of covid. 

Lesson learnt - best to take the loans in the base currency as the bond instruments  

Without including the CPF interest and the unrealised losses from the forex loans, total passive income this year was $138,934 where bond interest income was $127,163 and dividend income was $10,247 and interest income made up the balance.  

Goal no.2 was not achieved. I will maintain the same goal. The new goal for 2021 will be to maintain this goal and try to hit it again.

Goal No.3 - Build a stock portfolio of $1m by 2025

This goal is still work in progress. I mentioned I "relocated overseas" after July 2020. Besides Singapore which I have almost given up, I am pleased to have expanded to Hong Kong, Japan, Europe and the United States. I am still a newbie in these geographies and have been deploying rather slowly into companies.

After 5 months of nibbling and trading, I find Hong Kong and the US markets most interesting. These two markets have depth, volatility as well as high quality global companies. Some of the stocks I have or have touched included Alibaba, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Zoom Video, Haidilao and Meituan Dianping. The beauty of these markets are the ease of selling short or gaining exposure via ETF as well given the depth and volume.

Goal No.4 - IPO tikams of $10,000

Miraculously, the IPO market here revived and I managed to make $14,295 from 3 IPOs that came to market in Q4 2020. I don't think this is sustainable, given how poorly I view our state of the market. 

I will maintain this goal at $10,000 for 2021.

Goal No.5 - 8 new places or experiences

I frankly thought I was "on my way" when I blogged about my trip to Alcatraz in Jan this year. Lol. Given the situation caused by Covid, I will "play cheat" and include some other places I visit in Q1 2020, where I happened to be in Europe. Lol. See my pictures below for the additional places and experiences. 

I am sure you will agree that I have "achieved this goal", so i will maintain it for 2021 and hopefully I will not need to take a ferry to Kusu island or bike in Pualu Ubin or visit the great landfill at Semakau.

A visit to Stanford University near Silicon Valley 

Trying Impossible Burger for the first time!

Visited Fifa World Museum - rented at "unfavorable terms for $360m". It's a real sham!  

Lake Lausanne - scenic and peaceful 

A visit to Olympic Museum near the Lake

The source of Evian, apparently with healing properties

Went up James Bond mountain - Schilthorn on Her Majesty Service

Having beer at the foot of the mountain

Old Town of Lausanne

Goal No. 6 - Lower weight to 82kg.

Drum-rolls please. I was a "beneficiary" of Covid-19. The lack of traveling, jet-lag, and working from home and eating healthily actually made me lose a fair amount of weight. 

As last count and with less than 12 hours to go and being fully clothed (*ahem), my weight is ... 80.6 kg. Goal achieved. 

Eating and drinking is my favorite activity so I will not try to achieve this meaningless goal lol. I will only maintain it, i.e. keep my weight below 82kg. 

Goal No. 7 - Read 6 new books 

I have been lazy. Didn't read as many books as I would love to but watch Netflix instead, which is equally mind stimulating. Lol. Watched a few documentaries and original Netflix series such as Money Heist and Queen's Gambit. Failed! 

I will replace this goal with a healthier goal. I was tracking my average daily steps and it has steadily declined from 8,324 (2017) to 6,457 to 5,376 to a record low of 3,724. Toot.

My new goal no. 7 is to average 5,000 steps daily for 2021, meaning I can rest and nua today. Lol.

Goal No. 8 - write 26 blog posts for 2020 

On a happier note, I had 33 blog posts (excluding this last post as well as my write ups on Singapore IPOs). I will maintain this target of 26 blog posts for 2021.   

Conclusion

It has been an interesting Covid year and I definitely learned a lot more about myself and see some areas where I can continue to improve further, either as a person or investment acumen.

I hope it has been an equally fruitful year for you and I wish you 

To summarise for easy reference in future:

Goal No. 1 - Increase net worth by $250,000

Goal No. 2 - Generate passive income (excluding CPF) of $150,000

Goal No. 3 - Build a stock portfolio of $1m by 2025

Goal No. 4 - IPO Tikams of $10,000

Goal No. 5 - 8 new places or experiences

Goal No. 6 - Maintain weight of 82kg or less 

Goal No. 7 - Walk average daily steps of 5,000

Goal No. 8 - Write 26 blog posts for 2021

Wishing all my readers a Happier, Healthier, and Huatier 2021.