Misleading Article that suggests path to FIRE is by Trading

 

There is a misleading article in the news on last Sunday, about an executive from the Saxo trading platform that seems to hint trading enabled her to retire by her early 40s.

Yet her top investing tip is:

If you are not investing, get started now because with each passing day, you are losing out on your share of the world's eighth wonder: compounding.

True enough, she set up investment accounts for her children, so as to make them more interested in investing at an early age. 

I believe she said what she said simply because she wanted to promote the company she works for and keep her bosses happy. 

Trading and investing are totally different things. In investing, you hold for the long term and reap the benefits slowly, most likely benefiting from the periodical dividends as well. Trading, however, you hold for a short-term maybe days, weeks, or at most a couple of months.

I started off with trading in my early journey, thinking I could 'beat the market'. Took me a while to realize I could not do it consistently. Moreover, the roller coaster ride gave me undue stress and made me lose a bit of focus on my regular work. I believe the sooner one realizes this the better. 

I have since switched to long-term investing and never looked back. 

My Monthly Passive Income - Nov 2023

Sharing my passive income for the year 2023:

Basically, I am collecting $3101.26 in passive income monthly this year, compared to $1922.07 last year.

This is cumulative sum from stocks, bonds, ETFs, SSB, TBills, fixed deposits, bank deposits, MMF.   

Here's what it looks like on a chart:

The increase in my monthly passive income is going as planned. 

Particularly cool to see the upward hockey stick curve.

Onwards!

Portfolio Returns for Nov 2023

I felt it would be good to track the returns on a regular basis since the returns will fluctuate from time to time depending on the stock market. 

Here are the movements for this month:

The USA portfolio and SPY Fund rose, but the SGP portfolio took a small hit. 

Cryptocurrency portfolio rose, though still heavily negative.

Here's a recap of the major market events (positive events in green and negative events in red):

Bad: The Ukraine war has no end in sight - in fact, both sides are talking of a 'stalemate'

Bad: Israel has now moved into the Gaza Strip, causing much suffering for the residents of Gaza

Good: Inflation is coming down - https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/current-inflation-rate/

Good: F2F meeting between Biden and Xi - https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/snap-insight-biden-xi-meeting-us-china-ties-trade-military-communication-taiwan-3925446

Wrapping up my Fifth Month of FIRE

 I just finished my fifth month of FIRE in Oct 2023. 

Below are what I ate, what I did for fun, and a record of my expenses. 

Eating

As I age, I've come to realize that home-cooked food is the most delicious.

Home-made salad!

Fun

There wasn't much fun this month. I was engaged in a 10-week course. But I did celebrate a birthday:

Expenses

I busted some of my expenses this month. All in, I think it is reasonable. 

Eating Out Target: $650

Eating Out Actual: $726.36 (some family dinners)

Household Target: $600

Household Actual: $560.44

Travel Target: $100

Travel Actual: $0

Entertainment Target: $50

Entertainment Actual: $15

Personal Target: $100

Personal Actual: $150 (made a donation to charity)

I only managed to find time to do a few food deliveries this month. All in, I only managed to earn $14.40 this month.

Onwards to the next month of FIRE!!

Dividends for Oct 2023 [Financial Independence]

 Here are my dividends for Oct 2023:

So I collected $319.25 in dividends for Oct 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:

It is clear from the above that traditionally Oct is a low-dividend month. 

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

Additionally, I share the interest I received from the various banks this month (referring to Oct):

So I collected $428.80 in interest payments this month. 

Onwards!