Monday, December 10, 2018

Networth update in 2018

2018 is a rather slack year for me. I don't think I work as hard as I do in previous years in terms of work, so the time that is otherwise spent working is channeled to my family, especially my growing child. This year is also a bad year for those who invested in equities. It seems like if you put money under your pillow, you'll end up being better. Will it affect my net-worth? Let's see.

The last I wrote on my net-worth was back in 1st Dec 2017, here. I'm going to do the same below.

There are so many ways to calculate networth, but I've always done mine this way. It's essentially assets minus liabilities but how you define assets and liabilities makes all the difference. Like in the past, I excluded the asset part of my stay-in property, but included the liabilities portion. This year I incurred new debts too, in the form of a car loan of 3 yrs. I'm also not going to include the value of my car in the assets part, but will include the liabilities part.

The assets part include:

1. Cash in my wallet
2. All the money in my various bank accounts
3. Cash holdings under mattress and milo tins at home
4. Money in my paypal account
5. All the money in the 3 accounts in my CPF
6. Money market fund account
7. Marked to market investment portfolios
8. Surrender cash value of whole life insurance plans

Again, I do not include the value of my 5 room flat that I'm currently staying in, and also the value of the family car that I own.

The liabilities part include:

1. Credit card bills
2. My portion of the HDB mortgage loan (total remaining loan amount divided by 2)
3. My portion of the car loan I took this year (total remaining loan amount divided by 2)

Here goes:

2014: Assets: $226k, Liabilities: $220k, Networth: $6k
2015: Assets: $295k, Liabilities: $207k, Networth: $87k
2016: Assets: $351k, Liabilities: $188k, Networth: $163k
2017: Assets: $449k, Liabilities: $182k, Networth: $267k
2018: Assets: $483k, Liabilities: $191k, Networth: $291k




There's a few things I should be glad and grateful for in 2018. Firstly, despite the downturn in the stock market, my networth is still up. Of course it didn't go up as much, like the crazy almost 100k increase from 2016 to 2017, but the fact that it is still positive is good enough for me. This year is also when I paid a hefty down payment for my new car, so that is also why the asset didn't go up as much. Secondly, overall I saved about 55k this year and that surprises me. These days, I no longer consciously check how much I saved. Just perhaps a brief look every half a year or so to make sure I'm generally on the right track. Not all the savings are in cash too, because I transferred a part of it into my CPF to fulfill my self-employed contribution, and also to shore up my OA for my reserves. My work income dropped a bit, but my dividends pushed it up, so net net I'm not that far off. That is exactly what the dividends are for, and I'm thankful for stabilizing my income.

Market can go up and down, but my net worth must go up all the time. That's the philosophy that I adhere to. If not, there's nothing to show for at the end of a year of hard work.

Financially, there's more things to look forward for year 2019. It looks like my work income is going to have a boost as I have a very robust order book for the coming year. If all things go according to plan, I should be running when Jan 2019 comes, instead of strolling. There's also more expenses to come, because I'm sending my child to a child-care center next year.

Till December 2019 then!

13 comments :

Anonymous said...

I get depressed whenever I put in mortgage, really renders everything negative... =(

la papillion said...

Hi anonymous,

I was like that for a few years too...until I get a near $0 net worth (from -ve) and I was so glad! Continue doing what you are doing!

Sillyinvestor said...

LP,

U dub include HDB as asset but include it as liability.

Too conservative la.

Sillyinvestor said...

But surprise u include SA and MA of CPF as money... hahahah

la papillion said...

Hi SI,

Haha, my HDB is a resale flat and it will really go down to 0, so it's practical to include liabilities but not asset value of hdb... don't start on this, a lot of people will start flaming this method of calculation already haha

I voluntarily contributed to SA and MA, so of cos these are my money haha

Singapore Man of Leisure said...

LP,

Order book?

LOL!



Oh yah!

A freelance tutor's income can be "lumpy" like the cyclicals ;)


Those who prefer to have stable and consistent income will never freelance, start their own businesses, or do commission-only sales!

No wonder the concept of Earn More is more "foreign" to them...


For us, its more intuitive.

We just switch from strolling to running!!!

Ha ha!


Run butterfly run! Opps!

Fly butterfly fly!


Kevin said...

Nice! Even after the car plus your method of calculating net worth, your numbers still went up!

la papillion said...

Hi SMOL,

Haha, it's easier to see things once I see myself as a company :) I have an order book to take in students for the year, so during the end of year lull period, I'll take the effort to build up my order book. How fast I can build it up will tell me roughly what kind of income I will have for the coming year.

Freelance is too exciting...up and down up and down, like the market haha

la papillion said...

Hi Kevin,

Thankful for that, even though this year I did spend quite a bit, esp on the car haha :)

floorfilla said...

Hi LP, for liabilities why u divide by 2 for both remaining balance of mortgage and car loan?

la papillion said...

Hi floorfilla,

I divided the liabilities by 2 because I'm doing the networth for myself, not for my whole household. Since I didn't add in the assets for my wife, I would think it's only fair to divide the liabilities we both owed by half too. My family practices equal sharing, so both me and wife pay half of mortgage, car loan etc.

pallavi said...


Nice Article. Thank you for sharing the informative article with us.
buying and selling
capitalize

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