Quarterly Report: 2Q2021

Unbelievable, we're halfway through 2021already. I feel like this year is going definitely faster than last year. Indeed, last year felt surreal due to the pandemic. Financially, I started my journey to financial independence in earnest then, so it was not all bad. 2021 is shaping up to be a good year when it comes to money.

My net worth increased to 18.82% from Q1 to Q2! This was mainly due receiving a big refund from my rental deposit, selling a shit ton of furniture, clothing, and books on FB Marketplace in April and May (just in time for moving), not spending basically any money besides necessary expenditures, and throwing everything into my inyova, Selma and brokerage accounts. Nonetheless, this represents a big jump compared to end of Q1 2021!

Let's break it all down:

• My retirement accounts increased to +3.5%.

• My cash balance declined by -32.1%.

• ETFs/Stocks/Crypto accounts increased by ~150%.

• I've now achieved 14.6% of my goal net worth and 64.4% closer to putting a deposit for a home.

• Managed an average savings rate of 74% over the past three months.

My current allocation looks like this:

My retirement accounts still make up a large portion of my net worth, but clearly, my investment accounts are catching up. I hardly contributed to my retirement accounts this quarter, so the increase is mainly due to the underlying positive performance.

How does all this compare to my Q2 2021 goals?

For Q2, I had the following goals:

• increase net worth by 6%

• read 4 books

• increase investment accounts to 20% of portfolio

• increase crypto account to 5% of portfolio

Hmmmm, unfortunately, I only met one of my goals, and completely overshot it in a good way!

I managed to finish one book back in April (I think) and haven't read any books in May or June! Truly, not good.

However, on the portfolio-side, I nearly hit my goal to increase my crypto account, but then the market tanked by 50% and is yet to fully recover. Hopefully, it'll have recovered again by the end of next quarter.

For my other investment accounts, I was close to hitting my goal, but I was too hesitant to move cash from my Fuck Off Fund into investment accounts and "only" deposited what I got from salaries and my passive income. Compared to end of March, my ETF/stocks allocation went up a good chunk from 9.4%. My cash balance decline was mainly due to dipping into it for moving related costs.

I can definitely improve in generating more passive income. Indeed, I've lost focus on creating more products for my Etsy shop. I'm considering opening a Society6 account, as I could put all my digital designs on various products without holding inventory. It's something to look into during July.

At any rate, Q2 was a busy quarter with selling a lot of my belongings, to moving into a new apartment, switching jobs. I am doing my earnest to keep up the trend of increasing my net worth for next quarter as well. It will be one of my main goals again for Q3.

Why I don't disclose hard figures:

Although it is super fun to run the numbers and compare them quarterly or monthly and sharing with you all my money successes and failures, I don't share my hard figures. This is mainly because I don't want to engage in any comparison games (a la "comparison is the thief of joy"). Occasionally, when I browse other financial blogs or instagrams, it can be quite overwhelming when large numbers are posted -- a bit of jealousy could creep in. So, I've decided to give percentages in my quarterly updates and most of my other posts, because it's not about trying to compare my money journey to yours or theirs; these blog posts are meant to 1) keep a simple record for myself and 2) inspire you to start tracking your own net worth and other metrics without the pressure of keeping up with anyone.