[lesson] 6 months into my financial awakening, close to achieving 100K by 30 yr-old ( as of year)

Long story short, basically I saved up initially but bad habits crept in quietly, and my saving rate plateau-ed.

Do not blindly follow for passive income, review your financial decision periodically to see if it makes sense.

Enforce the fact that what you can't measure, you can't improve. by being able to quantify, it helps you identify more critical areas.

assets will reach $100k by the end of this year.

I remember reading some article on the straits time that goes along the line whether saving 100K by 30 was feasible. (read here http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/is-it-possible-to-have-100k-by-30)

back then, when i first started out as an engineer, i earned $3,050 a month.

And my annual package was around the 15 month mark ( 12 months + 2 month PB + 1 Month AWS)

however my annual increment was in the region of 1.9 to 2.4%.

i saved up about 1K out of the 2.5K of my disposable income, and saved up all my bonuses and AWS. however i did have big ticket expenses on a yearly basis ( holiday to japan & europe) and i did my masters (cost me $8K, not sure if it is an investment or an expenditure up to this day).

My savings grew quite quickly initially when i first started working from 2-3K ( in savings account depleted by my university spending) to $10k then $20k within the first year or so. but the account level remained at that level for the next 2-3 years, with some gradual increments creeping to 30K on my 3rd year working.

so the big change came, when i realised my salary was nearer to $3k then it is to $4k after working for 4 years and i sought a change in career direction to allow myself to grow to reach my financial goals. That year (4th year working), i got promoted ( increased to just beyond the $3K middle mark), got a 6 months bonus ($20K+ of cash) and landed a new job that paid me $1k more (on a 15month package). and my financial awareness awakened.

My savings in my bank after that moment increased rapidly, from 20+K to 40K then to 60K by the time i left my first job. I was on the OCBC 360 account that earned me 3.05% of interest but only up to my first 60K. and sometime during that period, OCBC 360 changed the conditions to earn 3.05% and i could only earn the max of 2.2%( 1.2% from salary; 0.5% from 3 online transaction; 0.5% for spending on credit cards) earning this 2.2% which meant about $110 a month meant i had to do all the following and SPEND $500. I realised that passive income is not as passive, there was work needed, and sometimes the work was not worth the "gains", in this case to earn $110, i had to spend $500, this promoted consumption.

i also used the Ibanking facility to track my general expenditure, and found out that i spent quite a fair bit $29K in the year of 2015 (in total). i spent quite a fair bit on wedding banquets, eating out at expensive restaurants (once every week), and drank lots of bubble tea and starbucks (whenever out with friends). the realization of  such expenditure caused me to think twice on many of my spendings and now i can say my spending have reduced (from average of 2.4k a month to less than 2K a month) this translates to increased investing pool by 20%. this proves the point that to improve ourselves, there must be some means of measurement, so that we can quantify and give ourselves a pat on the back.this also allows ourselves to put in effort where it will be effective. e.g. there is no point trying to save the 20-50cents by getting cheaper brand, when you can instead do without certain stuff saving 5-6 dollars at a go. by doing do, i went to reduce my expenditure by tackling the low hanging fruits, instead of going through a massive change which was more palatable.

So going forward i started my investments in equities,i've managed to lose some monies (early impulse buy and sells) to actually making modest gains ( money invested in equities: $57.9k; value of portfolio: $60.2K) of 3.8% over the last 5 months. but today most importantly i am closer to the $100K by end of year mark (see chart).

The chart value underestimates my holdings' value as i was tracking the money i have put into equities and lost. more accurately it should be  the market value of the equities and the actual cash holdings. my last count, i actually have $91.5K in equities and cash. this is really close, in fact i may even hit the 100K by my 30th bday.

this is real exciting times ahead!