Networth as of Feb 2010 is estimated around $652,000. A slight drop from Jan 2010.The decline in networth was due to a slight drop in my entire investment portfolio as a result of the market correction.
Also worrying is my negative cash flow at the moment as the net income that the entire family is drawing in is less than our expenditures. It is likely to stay that way for sometime unless a job comes along soon.
Hi,
ReplyDeletecan i ask how old you are? been reading your blog and always been curious
28. It is written in my about me page =)
ReplyDeleteI do feel like I am thirty though sometimes.
what kind of jobs are you looking for?
ReplyDeleteHi SgFF,
ReplyDeleteI always wonder if you served NS. I really don't see how I can reach 650k by age 28, that's like next year?
Leave out market value of house and mortgage from net worth to get liquid net worth. That's more prudent. And I would also recommend not including CPF balances as they are NOT liquid.
ReplyDeletePlus, just curious, how can market value of car be equal to car loan amount? So you mean if you sell your car now the OMV will net off your car loan and you will breakeven?
Regards,
Musicwhiz
Leave out CPF SA and MA. These are untouchable ones and subjected to changing CPF rules.
ReplyDeleteHi Tang,
ReplyDeleteI am looking for a job in investments hopefully. But it does not seem that I am getting anywhere closer to it due to what I studied in school.
JW,
I added in my house and CPF amounts into my networth calculation. That is how I got so high a figure. Yes, I served NS.
MW,
I know you have been harping on the fact to leave out house. But imagine if someone bought a 3 million condo and is practically using a lot of his free cash to pay for his house. He will have close to nothing in terms of other assets. Let's say he has zero dollars in his bank account and only his 3 million dollar house with already 2 million paid up in mortgage loan. Are you going to say that his networth is ZERO dollars? That simply cannot be the case because he has spent lots of his money on his mortgage loan. I agree with you that at the end of the day, liquid networth is more prudent.
My car when sold would surely pay off the remaining car loan and maybe slightly more. So i just equalised it.
CW8888,
Yep, I could leave it out. But I would just like to compute everything that I own into here. Too troublesome to leave some things in and leave some things out. My records at the end of the day are for my own monitoring purposes and not so much for competition if you know what i mean =)
SgFF,
ReplyDeleteRespect. 2 years NS, come out still can have $186k in savings + stocks. Add in kids, car, house, into the equation... Wow!
And I don't even have as much insurance as you....
Oh ya, add in Unit Trusts, that's near to $250k 8)
ReplyDeleteHi FF,
ReplyDeleteI would never feel comfortable enough to share exact figures regarding my wealth so openly. It seems like you are an open book which is a rarity these days.
I hope you will find that ideal job soon and I look forward to reading more of your thoughts and adventures here. :)
I am only an "open book" online. Guess it is what you can call my online persona.
ReplyDeleteIf you know the real me, I am actually very reluctant to share information about myself.
Hi FF,
ReplyDeleteI agree with AK71. I would never share my net worth so freely on the Internet. Not even my spouse knows my net worth to the detail that you have shared. I think this blog could be an asset to your CV. It shows your interest in investments (and along with it, displays your investment style, analytical skills, thought process) as well as your writing and communication skills. It can actually be a pretty good marketing tool for yourself.
If I were to try and find a job in investments without the relevant degrees, I would definitely leverage this blog to make me stand out from the other candidates.
But can you imagine your prospective employer coming into this blog and read about your net worth?
Just some of my thoughts....
I am the opposite. I would share me and my wife's net worth with my wife in great detail, but will not disclose so much details on the Internet, for obvious reasons.
ReplyDeleteBut, to each his own. I admire your candidness, FF !
I only disclose online to a certain amount, probably as much as MW did.
ReplyDeleteBut I share with my gf much more freely.
wow, you are doing great FF! but is this total net worth for you and your wife, or just you alone?
ReplyDeleteHi Tang,
ReplyDeleteWow. I really never thought of using this blog in my CV. In a certain sense, I feel that this blog just isn't good enough and potential employers might flee away from me when they see it. After all, it does have some politically incorrect statements here and there. But then again you are correct. With no background in investing or finance, perhaps this is the only way. If I had a blog like MW's one, then the chance would be higher.
I think that as a family, you should share about financial matters openly. The decisions of one member alone will have consequences on all the other members. I feel that you should at least share the info with your wife.
MW himself is already in the financial world, as you can see from his blog. I'm sure his credentials in the real life is better than at his blog.
ReplyDeleteYep, I definitely can tell from his writings =)
ReplyDeleteHis writings are pitched at phd level kind of readers.
Hi FF,
ReplyDeleteFunny that you had assumed me to be a guy. Why? :-) Yes, I do share my finances with my spouse (husband in this case), just not to that level of detail.
Women always know how to keep money "somewhere"
ReplyDeleteOops Tang,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the assumption. Just got so used to thinking that majority of those who read this blog are guys. It is very rare to find women who are interested in personal finance matters.
My wife knows how to keep her money in the bank =) That is good enough for me as long as she is not spending it on shopping.
I am not sure how true the saying is that mothers have always taught their daughters the need to keep some money away from their husbands, just in case anything goes wrong (e.g divorce, etc). I don't know whether females still do that in Singapore.
why are there 2 figures for each CPF component? is this a combined figure together with the wife?
ReplyDeletesorry if you have answered this question in previous posts
yup. This is a combined figure for both me and my wife.
ReplyDeletestill very surprised and jealous about your nw at such a young age. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteAt 29, my net worth was only 3000 bucks.
ReplyDeleteSo, it seems you have done a good job establishing your financial freedom. Not there yet, but more than half way there.
Even stripping aside your house as an asset (since it is not paid up), you have managed to garner decent assets within 3 years of working . (assuming you graduate at 25 or 26. Well done. Kudos to you.
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments.
There is nothing to be jealous about really =) First of all, I think everyone has different situations. Some people graduate from university with a study loan to be repaid while others do not even go to university. As such, the starting points for each individual is VERY DIFFERENT.
It is my personal belief that before the age of 30, it is very hard to see who is better at managing money. This is because at the early stages of our lives, we have different starting points as well as different events like marriage, children, buying of house, car, etc, etc. So the variance should be quite big.
In the long run though, by the age of 40 ++, any variance is due to one's money habits. By then, if one realises that they are not managing their money well, it might be a little too late.
For example, a bachelor who is the same age as me might have much more money than me because he has not spent any money on his wedding, house, etc, etc. I think it is only fair to start comparing networth when he is married and has settled down. In that sense, it is a MORE EQUAL comparison. Not too sure whether I am making any sense to you guys.
It's not a competition remember =). Let's run the race TOGETHER. Oh my..i sound like a motivational speaker...
Hi
ReplyDeleteNice to see your blog. I am also like you.
Just wondering how many kids do you have and how old are they ?
Cheers
Vic
Is this combine household or just yours?
ReplyDeleteOnly one kid. Less than 3 years old
ReplyDeleteHi there FF,
ReplyDeleteI've been reading your blog for some time now. Your Networth is surprising and shocking yet still inspiring. I'm that age and still a long way off from where you're at. Congratz! I'm pretty sure it's more now since it's abt 8mths since you posted that.
Would you like to do a link exchange btw? I've already linked you.
Cheers,
~K
Thanks for the link exchange.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a long time since I updated my networth. Main reasons for not doing so is because some people think that CPF monies and house value should be excluded. However, I think very differently. For a self-employed person who has no CPF versus an employed person with CPF, even if both take home the same amount in cash every month, their state of affairs (financially speaking) will be very different. For the employed person, he/she will still have additional contributions to his/her CPF that can be used to pay for housing etc. To exclude CPF in networth calculation is as good as saying that CPF money is not $$. That is difficult to accept. I do note that banks probably do not take it into account when assessing a persons worht, etc. But I believe that is from a totally different angle. The banks just want to see how much money they can get you to put with them. So they are of course not looking at CPF monies but AUM.
For housing, it is also a conundrum. I recognise that a house is not part of your liquid assets. But to exclude it totally sounds wrong. Imagine a person who has a house valued at $10million versus somebody having a house valued at $500k. Their networth figures are surely worlds apart. In addition, the person with a $10million house will have to pay up a lot more in terms of mortgage loan repayments. So in terms of liquid assets, he might have less compared to the person with a house worth $500K. All things being equal, if we were to exclude the value of the house, we might be led to think that the person with a house worth $500k is actually richer or on par with someone who has a house worth $10million. This certainly cannot be true.