It’s doubtless that I declare 2024 as my most tiring yr of labor until date, but additionally one which has been financially rewarding as we reaped the fruits of our efforts this yr.
The end result? I’ve formally crossed the $1 million mark (the worth of my HDB flat isn’t included within the equation).
Wanting again, attending to $1M was attainable solely as a result of I repeatedly (i) grew my earnings, (ii) stored bills low and (iii) stored investing in shares and cryptocurrencies over the previous 10 years.
2024 noticed the inventory markets and cryptocurrencies explode to new all-time excessive, and my funding portfolio has been a beneficiary of that phenomenon. On the similar time, this yr was the yr the place my salaried earnings doubled and my aspect hustles took off exponentially.
If not for these, I in all probability wouldn’t have been capable of cross one million {dollars} this yr, however it nonetheless blows me away that this occurred in 2024.
In order the yr involves an finish, that is my annual assessment of my funds to examine the place we at the moment are in the case of our monetary objectives and progress. Throughout this yearly assessment, I usually look at my earnings progress, bills, financial savings, insurance coverage protection, and funding efficiency – which helps me to raised strategize for the brand new yr forward.
Time flies, and this marks the eleventh yr that I’m doing this on the weblog! Earlier than I am going into this yr’s assessment, right here’s a fast recap of my earlier years:
- 2014: Saved $20,000
- 2015: Saved $30,000 and grew earnings
- 2016: Saved $40,000 and grew earnings, hit $100k in internet price at age 26 together with CPF
- 2017: Saved $45,000 and doubled my internet price in a yr
- 2018: Saved $50,000
- 2019: Saved $35,000 (didn’t realise I utterly missed out on a round-up submit, however right here’s our child-related bills as an alternative)
- 2020: Saved $30,000 and achieved loopy (irregular) funding returns
- 2021: Saved $40,000, grew earnings however noticed decreased funding returns
- 2022: Saved $45,000 and battled a bearish funding local weather
- 2023: Saved $60,000 and investments turned the nook
Financial savings & Revenue
This yr’s financial savings hit an all-time excessive, largely fuelled by the expansion in my earnings. As an worker, I 2X my paycheck by placing in double the time at work. On weekday evenings and weekends, I labored on my aspect hustles which then did one other 3X this yr.
Right here’s my cumulative financial savings whole since I began monitoring on this weblog:
| 2014 | $20,000 |
| 2015 | $30,000 |
| 2016 | $40,000 |
| 2017 | $45,000 |
| 2018 | $50,000 |
| 2019 | $35,000 |
| 2020 | $30,000 |
| 2021 | $40,000 |
| 2022 | $45,000 |
| 2023 | $60,000 |
| 2024 | $200,000 |
I discussed right here final yr that I received promoted and was concerned in increase a brand new line of enterprise for the corporate, which was the rationale that my bosses supplied to double my wage final yr. Consequently, that stored me busy all through this yr, however due to working with one of the best colleagues and workforce at work, we pulled it off! The enterprise basis has now been laid and our CEO just lately gave me a shoutout throughout our year-end firm assembly – with a devoted slide to our line of enterprise (one which didn’t exist a yr in the past). I used to be additionally nominated as one of many firm’s 6 “rockstars” (an award for individuals who embody all 6 values of the corporate), so the large sense of accomplishment is indescribable.
Having the ability to do impactful work and get recognised for it? Superior.
My aspect hustles additionally took off this yr, as my Youtube channel lastly certified for monetisation. Phrase-of-mouth referrals meant that my e-commerce enterprise continued to see new clients, advisable by their family and friends members who had benefited from my store’s choices.
Whereas I slogged for energetic earnings, my passive earnings additionally grew considerably this yr because the shares I owned continued to lift their dividends, together with DBS and Keppel, amongst others. It was actually a bumper yr of dividends for me as an investor!
I additionally talked about final yr that I used to be attempting to construct a brand new supply of earnings for 2024 (teaching and talking), and I’m proud to say that it was an unbelievable success. A lot in order that I used to be invited to share about it onstage on the latest Nas Summit Asia in Singapore, the place I used to be seated subsequent to the IMDA workforce (Infocomm Media Improvement Authority) and had the privilege of assembly different international content material creators with tens of millions of followers, together with Jordan Matter and his youngsters, Salish and Husdon.
It’s price noting that a variety of 2024’s work accomplishments weren’t an in a single day success; quite, it was my observe file, outcomes and fame over 10 years of content material creation that compounded and bore fruit these few years. For that, I’m extremely grateful – particularly to all my readers and the manufacturers who’ve supported me all through this journey.
I’m trying to construct one other new supply of earnings for 2025, within the type of royalties. That’s as a result of my childhood dream to turn out to be a broadcast writer is about to occur; a global writer approached me to write down a e book and naturally I stated sure! Though that led to many sleepless nights as I labored on the manuscript, I’m positive it’ll repay in 2025 when the e book makes it to print, and I’m excited to see the place that can take me.
To sum up, my file earnings progress this yr was fuelled by the next:
- Salaried earnings (company)
- E-commerce enterprise
- Talking and training enterprise
- Content material creation (throughout varied platforms as Finances Babe)
- Passive earnings by means of inventory dividends
Nevertheless, I’ll must caveat that this progress in earnings got here at a value. My well being has suffered; I’ve largely been surviving on 4-5 hours of sleep every day for this yr, and it received to the purpose the place I skilled 3 bouts of debilitating migraine assaults which left me unable to work for a number of days every time. My immune system grew to become so weak that I contracted COVID-19 twice, regardless that none of my relations had it (and didn’t catch it from me afterwards both)!
Consequently, my focus for 2025 could be to construct again my HEALTH. I intend to decide to common exercises and go to the gymnasium extra usually – a behavior that I developed in 2022 – 2023 however fell off observe this yr on.
Well being is wealth, and I’m gonna get that again subsequent yr as an alternative of simply specializing in one aspect of the equation like I did this yr.
Bills
This marks the final yr we’ll be paying excessive childcare charges, as my eldest little one can be coming into Main 1 subsequent yr so our bills ought to go down consequently.
Our present month-to-month family spending this yr remained pretty just like what we spent in 2023:
| Nate: childcare & enrichment | $1,200 |
| Finn: childcare & enrichment | $1,000 |
| Helper wage and levy | $1,000 |
| Mortgage & residence insurance coverage | $1,300 |
| City council, carpark and utilities | $650 |
| Eating & groceries | $1,500 |
| Household insurance coverage insurance policies | $1,200 |
This excludes our particular person eating bills, the allowances that we give to our dad and mom (a 5-figure sum every year) and different miscellaneous bills that aren’t recurring in nature, so the precise sum is quite a bit larger.
Our family’s greatest expense this yr was on travelling. My husband and I went on a 2-week journey within the US in February/March, the place I received to go to my alma matter and greatest pal who lives overseas. Shortly after in April, I used to be despatched to New York on a brief 3-day journey to signify Singapore finfluencers on the NASDAQ headquarters, which was actually a second to recollect! As well as, my husband and I needed to make a number of enterprise journeys to Malaysia and China for my e-commerce enterprise, and the year-end holidays noticed us travelling to Batam and Shanghai upon the youngsters’ requests. I used to be too busy to essentially observe our journey spending this yr, however I estimate that it will have crossed $25,000 in whole (though not all would have been at our personal value since some had been claimable beneath enterprise bills).
Insurance coverage
We didn’t make any new strikes in our insurance coverage portfolio this yr, since there have been no new life milestones. Nevertheless, one spotlight was getting our portfolio reviewed by the specialists at Havend, and I used to be fairly proud to listen to that they too, agreed with the choices I’d made for our household insurance policies.
In case you’re on the lookout for unbiased insurance coverage recommendation and wish to have licensed professionals assessment your portfolio, I can not advocate the oldsters at Havend sufficient. Examine my expertise right here to determine if it’ll be price your time reserving a assessment with them!
Investments
I saved one of the best for the final, as a result of this yr was actually an enormous breakthrough for our funding portfolio. Anybody who has stayed invested all through the previous couple of years and stored shopping for ought to in all probability see their portfolio up by at the least 2 if not 3 digits too.
In case you thought the S&P500’s +25% acquire final yr was loopy, guess what? The index repeated its feat once more this yr, coming in at one other +25%. That is beginning to really feel a bit of bubbly although, so I’ve been paying nearer consideration to valuations as a result of I don’t wish to make the error of overpaying for shares on this local weather:
The bullishness of the markets had been attributed to the hype and pleasure over synthetic intelligence, which propelled NVIDA and Broadcom to new heights. I personal each shares, so I benefited from their surge. Right here’s a few of the extra notable features I loved this yr, which has now pushed my funding portfolio to new all-time highs:
| Inventory | Good points |
| Meta (purchased in ’22 and ’23) | 200% |
| C*** (secret, finance) | 180% |
| M*** (secret, healthcare) | 50% |
| Tencent (purchased extra in Dec ’23) | 55% |
| S*** (secret, knowledge) | 65% |
| DBS (new tranche purchased in Feb ’24) | 50% |
| Keppel DC REIT (purchased in Apr ’24) | 30% |
| Shopify (purchased extra in Could ’24) | 88% |
| Zoom (purchased extra in June ’24) | 45% |
| Amazon | 36% |
| Disney | 25% |
All of those led to some unbelievable features this yr, particularly liquidated ones like Nice Jap (the place I made near 50% in a number of months) as my thesis that OCBC would possibly privatise them materialised. Whereas there have been definitely some losers, the winners from my portfolio greater than dwarfed these losses by a number of multiples. I didn’t liquidate any shares at a loss although, as after analysing them I felt that the headwinds confronted are merely momentary, so I’ll be holding them till the enterprise recovers. I additionally moved aggressively to buy a number of shares throughout the August yen-carry commerce collapse, which turned out to be a terrific transfer and these shortly recovered to be within the inexperienced proper now.
Within the cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin went on to hit new historic highs because it broke previous $100,000 this yr. Older readers would possibly bear in mind me saying this could occur in due time as I predicted that Bitcoin would ultimately play a major function in traders’ portfolios as a substitute asset, particularly digital gold. That thesis performed out this yr because the SEC permitted spot bitcoin and ethereum ETFs, and re-elected President Donald Trump introduced his help for crypto in addition to his intentions to construct a Bitcoin strategic reserve for the nation.
I began shopping for crypto in 2017, however obtained a variety of flak between 2017 – 2021 over my vocal help for cryptocurrencies then (particularly as I’ve spoken quite a few occasions in regards to the potential of Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB and Solana), so this yr felt like a yr of redemption because the skeptics had been lastly silenced and governments worldwide stopped calling it a rip-off. The very best half? My crypto investments – the majority of which had been bought between 2017 – 2022, yielded me insanely good-looking returns. These are perks of staying the course and understanding totally nicely why you invested in it within the first place.
On the property aspect, I additionally purchased a brand new property overseas utilizing a few of the enterprise features that I earned within the earlier half of the yr. In Singapore, as costs are too excessive for our liking, we shelved our plans to put money into an industrial property this yr. As a substitute, we plan to buy one other property in both Malaysia or China throughout the subsequent 2 years, though it stays to be seen whether or not that can play out. The offers we noticed this yr haven’t been enticing sufficient to get us to half with our cash simply but.
All in all, my investments and money holdings have now crossed $1 million.
I by no means imagined that I’d turn out to be a millionaire earlier than 35.
Constructing my a number of earnings streams
I bear in mind after I first began penning this weblog, I used to be nonetheless very a lot a salaried employee (with a take-home pay of $2,000 after CPF) who dreamed of reaching monetary freedom by the age of 45.
Through the years, I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate that my content material on social media resonated with so lots of you, which then drew manufacturers and sponsorships which have enabled me to create a second supply of earnings through social media. Whereas I spoke without cost at occasions and conferences at first, manufacturers began paying me to talk afterwards as the facility of my speeches and supply grew to become evident. Employers began to interact me to run monetary literacy workshops for his or her staff, and I’ve since been capable of earn in many alternative methods due to the energy of the Finances Babe model as we speak.
In 2021 – 2022, my weight reduction journey unexpectedly led to one other aspect hustle within the type of my e-commerce store, which has since grown with each passing yr by the facility of profitable buyer testimonials and word-of-mouth referrals. I reluctantly gave up my tuition earnings to unencumber time for this, which, on hindsight, was a clever transfer as my enterprise earnings grew to exceed my tuition earnings in lower than a yr!
I began podcasting work (see right here) throughout the pandemic, and this began yielding earnings this yr as manufacturers began sponsoring the present and I received paid. One in all my aspirations throughout college was to turn out to be a radio DJ, so internet hosting a podcast is an effective way for me to attain that dream!
In 2023 – 2024, my passive earnings by means of dividends grew as corporations raised their dividend payouts (popping out from the pandemic disaster). I continued to make a number of investments into dividend shares, which elevated the passive earnings payouts I now take pleasure in – and I anticipate to take a position much more in 2025 to proceed constructing this in the direction of my retirement years.
In 2025, I’ll have a brand new supply of earnings (royalties) as soon as my e book will get revealed. I’ve been informed that authors don’t make quite a bit, so that you’ll have to remain tuned on this weblog for my subsequent few years of economic critiques to see how a lot this brings in!
The one draw back of incomes extra is that you just’ll must pay larger earnings taxes as nicely – each when it comes to my private earnings taxes and company earnings taxes (a painful 17%), however that is a matter I’ll gladly settle for as a result of with larger earnings, everybody should pay larger taxes anyway! After I look again at how my taxes payable has gone up over time, it’s a reminder to me that my earnings has risen over the identical time. What’s extra, I received to make the largest donation I’ve ever made this yr (as a tax discount transfer) to assist enhance underprivileged lives, so for that, I’m grateful.
Conclusion
Fact be informed, I wasn’t anticipating to cross the $1 million milestone this yr, and I’ve been so busy working all through 2024 that this didn’t even happen to me till I sat right down to work on my earnings (and tax discount strikes) final month.
In case you don’t know what to do to scale back your earnings tax invoice for subsequent yr, learn this text I wrote earlier this yr right here!
In case you’ve been following my journey, you’ll have seen my arduous work, sweat and tears.
This wouldn’t have been attainable if not for the help of my husband and relations. I’m blessed to have actually supportive in-laws, who’ve helped to step in and maintain the youngsters throughout the occasions the place we had been abroad. Whereas I can by no means shrug off working mum guilt, I’ve consciously carved out time a number of occasions per week to be with my children and browse them their every day goodnight tales. We’ve constructed a number of treasured reminiscences this yr as a household, together with our visits to the Disney exhibition at MBS, Inside Out at Gardens by the Bay, Disney at OCBC My Account launch, attending mates’ birthday events, a number of playdates and parent-accompanied college outings, celebrating Christmas early at illumina, and visiting the latest (and largest) Disneyland in Shanghai, amongst others. I hope that I’ve been function mannequin for my children as they see how arduous their mom works – and by no means offers up – even after I encountered setbacks and challenges all through the way in which.
I stated this final yr:
“We must always proceed to work arduous and construct by means of our 20s and 30s, in order that we will have a better time in our later years.”
This yr was a yr of reaping the fruits of our labour, and the seeds (from my investments) that had been planted years in the past. I’m not the one one; a number of of my mates who had additionally constructed diligently for the reason that early 2010s (across the similar time as I did) have additionally crossed the million-dollar mark this yr. They don’t observe or reveal their funds yearly like I do, so their wins are stored a bit of extra hush-hush, however I can attest to the truth that most of us who continued to earn, save, make investments and construct by means of the final bull-and-bear cycles ought to have seen our internet price climb to new all-time highs this yr.
For these of you who’re nonetheless constructing, I hope this conjures up you and reveals you that it actually is feasible to attain your monetary objectives. You don’t must be wealthy or working a gross sales job to turn out to be a millionaire; so long as you retain on the 3 basic guidelines of cash like I did, you’ll ultimately get there. The inventory market is actually a wondrous place whenever you’re in it for the long-run and make investments properly, and allocating a portion of my funds to cryptocurrencies again in 2017 proved to be a salient transfer.
What a loopy yr of progress it has been in 2024! Don’t neglect to remain tuned for my e book, which can be revealed subsequent yr someday in mid-2025. In case you’ve caught round these final 10 years, thanks to your help, and right here’s to extra to come back in 2025.
I’m excited to see what subsequent yr will deliver!
With love,
Finances Babe
