My Full Year Financial Report for 2010 (Jan 10 to Dec 10)

Year 2010 is almost over, and now it will be a good time to generate my full year financial report for 2010 (Jan 10 to Dec 10).

My Monthly Expenses:

For my monthly expenses, it has gone up by $200. The increase is due to my utility bills which gone up by $50, and I have catered $150 monthly for my toddler enrichment classes. I always keep my expenses as low as possible by not spending money on the things that I will not need. For this part, I will give myself an "A" grade.

My Passive Incomes:

For my passive incomes, I have managed to increase it from $1640 (Dec 09) to $1953 (Dec 10). That is about $26 increase per month. In my New Year resolution for 2010, I have set two milestones for my journey towards financial freedom. The first one is to achieve a total passive income of $2000 by end of June 10 and the second one is to achieve a total passive income of $2400 by end of Dec 10. Though I have missed both my targets, I will still give myself a "B" grade.

My journey towards financial freedom:

I am getting closer to achieve my financial freedom. I will need to generate an additional passive income of $1247 per month (Total Expenses of $3200 - Total Passive incomes of $1953) in order to achieve my aim.

My Assets:

These are the assets that I have. I am proud to say that I do not have any liability.

My Passive Income (Month of Dec 10)

CPF(OA): $204 (from interest and dividends)
Cash: $1749 (from dividends and other passive incomes)
Total: $1953
Target: $3200
Achievement: 61%

I had posted recently in this blog that my expenses have increase from $3000 to $3200. So I have to adjust my total passive income target to $3200 in order to gain financial freedom.

There are no changes in my passive income 1 and 2.

For passive income 3, there is an increase as I have bought two more lots of Singtel shares.

For passive income 4, there is an decrease of $40. However since it is still in the building stage, I will be expecting it to go up and down. In my post "Forget about achieving Financial Freedom if you do not have perseverance or refuse to learn.", I have mentioned that it will take time and effort to build up passive income.

How I spend my year-end bonus for year 2010?

Year-end holidays are approaching and finally I have gotten my year-end bonus. So how I will be spending my year-end bonus? After some thoughts two months ago, I have decided to spend my bonus on two things.

The first thing is to go for a holiday trip to Taiwan with my wife. I feel that now is the time to pamper (reward) myself and my wife after working for the whole year. Beside the expenses for the trip, I also got myself a cheap portable camera to take pictures there.

The second thing is to change my whole bedroom set. This includes buying of new bed frame, mattress, pillows and bolsters. The current set is about for seven year old. Hopefully the new set can solve my wife recent backache problem.

A thought after watching Disney animated movie “Tangled”

Last weekend, I had brought my wife and daughter to catch Disney animated movie called “Tangled”. It is a great movie and my family enjoyed it very much. This movie is about a girl named Rapunzel who was kept in the tower by her “mother” for 18 years. Rapunzel greatest wish was to go out of the tower to watch the floating lanterns. She was “saved” by Flynn to get out of the tower who promised to bring her to see the floating lanterns. Along the way, she was feeling some sort of insecurities in her mind and was thinking of going back to the tower again. But eventually, she managed to overcome her fear and fulfill her wish.

In our life, we somehow have to move out of our comfort zones in order to achieve more. As for me, I have chosen to take a path to get out of my comfort zones in order to achieve financial freedom. I have overcome my investment anxiety and fear of losing money by equipping myself with financial knowledge. Whether I can fulfill my wish of gaining financial freedom is no longer important as I have really done my very best!

Rome wasn’t built in a day, so as wealth

I don’t believe that wealth can be built up within a day or a short period of time. As for my case, I have been patiently accumulating my wealth since Sep 09. At the start (Sep 09), I am only able to achieve a passive income of $600. By the end of Dec 09, the amount has increased to $1640. And currently, the amount has increased again to $1961. The below is a simple chart on my monthly passive income.



I believe that if the amount can be increased by $300 per year, I should be able to achieve my financial freedom in four year time. Nothing is possible if you have a plan and patient to achieve it.

Switching from Double Income to Single Income

My wife and I have been discussing whether to switch from the current double income to single income. And we have decided to switch starting from beginning of next year. After the switch, I will continue working whereas my wife will quit her current job to become a stay-at-home mum.

What is the motivation behind for switching to single income?
Double income family is seen as a norm in today modern society as it can greatly lower down the family financial burden. In spite of that, why are we deciding to switch to single income?

As parents, we foresee the need for an adult to be around with our toddler so as to teach and discipline her directly. It is no rocket science to know that our education is getting tougher. Sending her to playgroup or child care might not be a good idea in our opinion as teacher attention level will be split among many students. It will definitely affect her study if she is not focusing well enough. We also find it very tiring to teach my daughter after coming back from work.

We would also like to send our daughter to a better primary school. In order to stand a better chance for our daughter to go to a good school, we will have to become parent volunteers for the school of our choice. So with my wife as a stay-at-home mum, she is able to commit her time as a parent volunteers so that I would not need to take leave from my work.

Are we able to live comfortably in today’s society on a single income?
I have been keeping track of our expenses and have a good understanding of our current financial situation. After deducting our expenses from my active income and my passive incomes, we are able to save a decent amount of money each month. So we will still be able to live comfortably on a single income.

My Passive Income (Month of Nov 10)

CPF(OA): $198 (from interest and dividends)
Cash: $1763 (from dividends and other passive incomes)
Total: $1961
Target: $3200
Achievement: 61.3%

I had posted recently in this blog that my expenses have increase from $3000 to $3200. So I have to adjust my total passive income target to $3200 in order to gain financial freedom.

There are no changes in my passive income 1 and 2.

For passive income 3, there is an increase as I have got two more lots of Cambridge shares in the recent preferential shares offering.

For passive income 4, there is an increase of $1. However since it is still in the building stage, I will be expecting it to go up and down. In my post "Forget about achieving Financial Freedom if you do not have perseverance or refuse to learn.", I have mentioned that it will take time and effort to build up passive income.