BTM’s Year 2020 in Review (Financial)
Happy new year!
It’s that time of the year where everyone refreshes to conquer the new year.
Have you made your resolutions?
I find that new year’s resolutions don’t work well for most people, me included. Something like this always happens…
So instead, I’ve opted to engage in a new approach a few years back.
As my wife tells me, “just treat what you do in life like how you would at work and you’ll see things get done.”
And yes, you read it right. Entertainment is a goal too because we must always remind ourselves to have a little bit of fun in life. As they say:
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
English Idiom
BTM’s New Year Ritual
My new year ritual now goes something like this:
- Review last year’s achievements (and non-achievements)
- Set this year’s goals based on last year’s “performance”
- Draft out actionable plans for each goal
- Put it somewhere that is a constant reminder – for me, it’ll be the whiteboard in front of my bed
- Get going to conquer the year!
- Remember to review it frequently (at least once a month)
My Financial Review of Year 2020
The focus of this post is to take a look at the finances for the year 2020.
Refer to my previous post for my mid-year (July 2020) review.
Over the last 6 months, my net worth increased by 25%!
*pats myself on the back*
Let’s start this off is with a pie chart of the distribution of net assets.
You may download the Excel template via the the Templates section in BTM’s website to assess your own.
Not included in this are:
- Properties – It is currently negative equity value based on the market value
- EPF – It carries a very heavy weight in my total net worth (over 50%) and will skew the rest of these (net) assets
This is a year on rebalancing (shifting some of my portfolio to low risk assets) and adding on new asset classes.
High Risk:
Total Weightage = 66%
Equities investment – Combined Malaysia and US portfolio represents 31% of this total financial position. My favourite asset class and will remain to be so for a long time. Can check out my Malaysian equities portfolio here and my US equities trades here. I have stopped adding on to the Malaysian portfolio for now and focus on the US trades as that is yielding me a consistent return (at least in the past 1 year @ 26%).
Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) – Invested in a growth fund under Affin Hwang. Hence, a high risk fund and represents 14% of total financial position. It has grown about 17% from July 2020 (inclusive of my monthly contribution to this fund of RM250). It yields a total return of 34% to-date.
EPF i-Invest – This has a 9% weightage and was invested a long time ago, which I have also stopped a long time ago. It is invested in 2 funds – Affin Hwang (35% returns) and Public Mutual (12% returns) – which are also growth funds.
Mutual Funds (Equities) – At 6% weightage, this is a legacy fund that was invested in my early years of investing. I have 2 funds under Public Mutual, with one yielding 16% returns (>10 years) and another 60% returns (>5 years). Further to the July 2020 review, I have transferred some to start a bond fund to rebalance the risk. Sometimes, I question why I still keep the money in here…
Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) – A new addition this year! In support of a friend, I invested into a business via an ECF platform in Malaysia – PitchIn. This will be my long term hold and currently sits at 3% weightage.
StashAway (30%) – The 30% represent the risk index level set on the robo-advisor – StashAway – with 36% being the highest risk index available on the platform. This forms only 1% of my portfolio. I have not added much into this after the first deposit (only 4 times over 2 years). This is currently yielding around 36% returns over 2 years.
Gold – A new addition this year! Investing via HelloGold by dollar cost averaging, this holds 1% weightage. It is currently at roughly breakeven. Will review this after hitting the 12 months’ mark.
Cryptocurrencies – Another new addition this year! This is possibly the champion of the year. I’ve invested RM1,000 into BTC and ETH and it ballooned to over 3x the original capital within half a year. Now it sit at 1% weightage. A pleasant surprise.
Low Risk:
Total Weightage = 11%
Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad (ASNB) – Finally began my ASNB journey! This refers to only the investments into the 3 ASM accounts. I managed to invest a few times over the last 6 months into the accounts. This brings my ASNB investment from 0% to 6%!
Mutual Funds (Bonds) – Solely in Public Mutual and was invested by transferring from the equities fund that wasn’t going anywhere. Takes up 4% of my financial position. Currently loss position on this.
StashAway (10%) – Similarly to the mutual funds, this was started by transferring from the 30% risk index portfolio. Takes up 1% of my financial position and is also at a loss position. Bonds not doing well, eh?
Others
Vehicles – I have one 6 years old car and still paying car loan on this. Well apparently there’s value for the car in the market that is above what I owe for the loan. 6% weightage.
Cash at bank (& StashAway Simple + e-wallets) – Cold hard liquid cash. Sitting at 17% weightage, it holds my annual insurance payments, investment funds and emergency funds. Still in the works to build a 6 months emergency fund.
Year 2021 Planning
That wraps up the closing position of year 2020.
I have managed to start positions in low risk assets. I have mentioned before that I’ll aim to get 50:50 in high:low risk assets by age 35. This is a good start and will aim to continue rebalancing as I see fit in the next few years.
For Year 2021, my focus will be to grow my net worth by 50% by the end of the year. There are a few avenues that I can work on to achieve that… and it has a heavy focus on the high risk asset classes. Apart from increasing income streams, of course.
Feel free to let me know how did you do on your portfolio / net assets / financial positions of year 2020!
