State of the S&P500 and STI

 I took a look at the charts today.

Typically, I do not follow technical analysis religiously, but thought I will just take a look and make a note.

S&P500 broke out of the long-term downtrend around 24 Jan 2023, which bodes well. But now the S&P500 dropped after a short bull run. From the charts, it looks like it will continue dropping to 3870 to 3890 area before a rebound. 

The Straits Times Index is a bit harder to call:

It recently broke through the resistance level at 3302. Also, there is a bearish crossover of the 10 and 50 day simple moving average. Room for further fall, before a rebound. 

Only time will tell, let's see. 

Spotted ANOTHER Misconception about FIRE

 Recently there is another comic published by TWS which really resonated with me:

https://www.facebook.com/2250666538582187/posts/pfbid0J56M6pCuB6jsGUBpkdXnKvX8E5PoALfhbAuK1fYoLyfvrPsePpR1EZ87DUC23dz7l/?mibextid=cr9u03

It started off well with the couple celebrating their valentine's day:

However, things started to go wrong when the girl gifts the guy an expensive gift and he does not agree:

I have no issues with the comic itself, it is simply pointing out a difference in opinion. To each his own, as they say. It is up to the individual whether he/she wants to pursue FIRE or not. 

However, I have issues with the comment given below, where an individual uploaded this in her comment:

I believe what the individual wanted to say is: "No point saving up so much money now and not spending it, by the time you realize it, you will be on your deathbed and have no more opportunity to spend it".

How wrong this is!

The whole point of FIRE is that you can retire BEFORE you hit your deathbed. Imagine! If you can retire at age 45, how much time you will have to enjoy life! 

If it were up to me, I will insert another pic in between the 3rd and the 4th in the above illustration to show the character enjoying her life because of FIRE, BEFORE hitting the deathbed. 

Taking Stock of my Financial Independence 3.0 Journey

I achieved FI (Financial Independence) 2.0 in Jun 2021.

I have been aiming for FI 3.0 since Dec 2021 (see this post: http://financeopti.blogspot.com/2021/12/revisiting-my-fi-fi30.html).

As per usual during this period of the year, now is the time to take stock of my FI 3.0 journey and see how I stand. 

Firstly, a recap of what is FI 3.0. It has a few buffers baked in:

• CPF is not included in the Starting Balance - this is the first buffer
• Withdrawal rate is reduced from 4% to 3% - this is the second buffer
• Certain expenses are assumed to last till perpetuity, even if it may not be the case. An example is childrens' pocket money. 

This is where I am now:

Based on my tracking of daily expenses in 2022, I also made a few adjustments:

• Personal spending is increased from $50 to $100 a month
• Travel spending is increased from $50 to $100 a month
• Eating out spending is increased from $600 to $650 a month
• I have also increased the spending for CNY Ang Bao based on previous experience

With the above considerations, I re-calculated my FI, and found that I will need 1.5 million to achieve FI 3.0. I have 0.62 more months to go to achieve FI 3.0:

I'm excited! Have to be really careful with my spending and money now! It is close!

Dividends for Jan 2023 [Financial Independence]

 Here are my dividends for Jan 2023:

So I collected $2644.74 in dividends for Jan 2023. 

In case you are wondering, some stocks are repeated because I have 2 brokerage accounts. 

Here are my monthly dividends over the last 5 years:

Here are the dividends I collected every year until the current day:

Let me know if anything else you want to know about my dividends?

Onwards!