Saturday, December 21, 2019

And it's a wrap! - Wedding Celebration Done (and some other minor updates)

Hey all! It's been quite a while since my last update, hope everyone's doing well!

Wedding Celebration
I'm pleased to announce our traditional wedding and the wedding banquet is finally completed. Better yet, I am thankful we broke even. Being the main person to manage our finances, that was my biggest source of stress and worry for the past several months.





Our families on both side, as well as our groomsmen and bridesmaid, also did a huge part in making the event a successful one, and I am really thankful for that.

Wifey also did exceptionally marvelous in supporting to keep our expenditure down, with her bargain hunting on Taobao for the wedding clothing, traditional accessories, as well as engagement of Emcee, Singer/Musician, Photographer/Videographer and hiring of groom car.

To that end, we have decided to share their contacts  If you are planning to "ala carte" on freelancing services instead of packages, you can consider engaging their services.


Emcee/Musician-Singer - PUDGY

Photographer/Videographer/Groom car
  • Frank (HP: 88136030, Whatsapp/Wechat)
Makeup Artist
  • Olivia (HP: 83637866, Wechat)
(No I'm not getting paid for this, haha - but these freelancers seriously deserve a shoutout as we were pleased with their services).

Outside of our wedding celebration, and aside from my investing journey, life's been busy but good.
  • We had spent some days taking care of wifey's families and relatives while they flew here to attend the wedding and enjoying a vacation.
  • It has been 6 months after joining my new company, and I have just been confirmed in my new job! So far, I am pleased with my experience here. There are plenty of things to learn, opportunities to develop, and colleagues are nice and down-to-earth. I hope to grow fast and be able to do outstanding stuff for my current organisation in my career.

What's next

Maybe Baby?
Generally, I don't wish to have one so soon. Having kids is going to be the ultimate commitment and I want to be adequately ready to provide for my family in addition to having the means to continue investing and adding position at a reasonable rate into the market.

But just how long more? Ideally, say, start trying in a couple of years to save up on an emergency fund as well as having a decent-sized capital to invest with.

And here's the dilemma - it is also is a race against time, being torn between wife's age (wifey prefers to have one sooner) and overall readiness - at minimal financial readiness. At the very least, I wish to save up 30K in emergency funds ("minimum savings target" for the remainder of this post), but I am having thoughts of extending the goal further to a larger amount - gonna say due to a couple of fellow bloggers' posts.

Mr & Mrs Budget - We Need To Save Up S$46,000 Before Having Our Baby! That’s A Bit Too Much.

Heartland Boy - My Cost Of Raising A Baby In Her First Year

I mean OMG, >$40K in the first year? We're so, so not ready.

Anyways, back to the savings goal. $30K is a more conservative sum aimed at surviving at least 6 months of expenditure (food, shelter, necessities and insurances) paid solely in cash. This sum do not take into account having access to CPF-OA to pay for HDB mortgage loan.

Assuming no unplanned expenditure, I should be able to expedite hitting the minimum savings target by end of year 2020.






Vacation/Honeymoon
Beyond our yearly trip back to wifey's hometown, we do have some vacation plans.

Wifey and I have plans to check out Japan at the start of 2021 - it's been on our bucket list for quite some time and we are well on our way to making it happen. Saving up for this trip will not affect saving for my minimum savings target.

But wait, where does that leave our honeymoon?

While we do want to have a honeymoon (in my mind, it will be a longer and more exotic trip to several countries in a continent), I imagine this then won't be anytime soon for again, monetary reasons, and we probably want to get this done before having a baby either.

Investing Front
Previously I have mentioned plans to write a dedicated post on Alita Resources (formerly Alliance Minerals / Tawana Resources) in here. While the planned contents have largely changed, and it has been past said several weeks, I have not forgotten about it.

In addition, I intend to write on or reflect on a investment recovery plan moving forward. With the wedding celebration out of the way, I finally will be able to have the energy to pen down my thoughts.

As with all failed investment, one has to write it off or cut losses (in my case, expecting to get nothing in return although we will have to see how things turns out), but behind every failures is a valuable lesson. I have plans for this to be a long detailed post and want to take it slow. Could even be likely it come after 4th Quarter Portfolio Update.

I suppose I should also be thankful for starting to add REITs at a time when I needed more diversification than only holding a significant position in Alita Resources.

Expect some new updates in the coming weeks. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance!

Thanks for reading.