Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Personal Experience on Saving and Investment Journey (Year 2016)

Hello everyone!

2016 is a pretty calm year for me as I did not switch job, did not do much investment and also not much changes in the financial plan for myself. The only big changes is my marital status, I am married last year!

My saving journey for the year of 2016 was quite stable and I did not really over spend too much although I have to cover the wedding expenses (which cost around 20K). Luckily my wife also tries to help me to ease my finance by chipping in in some of the expenses like our Korea honeymoon and furniture expenses.

With these, I manage to head towards my goal of 160K before I hit 29 years old (which includes CPF). I raise my expectation to 160K not because I want to achieve more (of course the more the better) but I want to have a buffer and able to purchase a bigger house for my family as 150K  can only translate to the home price of 650,000 worth and in the size of the flat it is just 592 square feet (if the price is $1100 psf). 592 square feet is pretty small, although might be okay for small family, but I still prefer to get a bigger size condo for my family and also high floor.

So with the raise of the target, it sets me go towards my goal in achieving that. I think it goes pretty well! Now I am in 91% and more will come and I believe (if my calculation is correct), I am able to hit my target in May (earliest) or June (latest)

One more thing to my reader, just focus on your goal but at the same time, do spend the money on yourself as you need to reward yourself during the process in the saving journey. This way, you then able to motivate yourself to work harder to achieve better results!

Last thing, my blog hit 100K view!

Thursday, March 9, 2017

On the way to getting my first property

Hi Everyone!

It's been a while since I have update my blog due to my busy schedule, I did not have time to post any update on my side. Despite my busy schedule, I still make an effort in working towards my goal in getting my first property. I am nearly there as you can see my target bar on the right side of this blog, I manage to hit 91% of my target.

This is definitely a good news for me because 9 more percent before I hit my target of 160k and with this amount I hope I can get a decent two bedroom condo for my family. So with 160k, what is the price I am looking at? I believe some of you might be looking at purchasing your property, so we shall do a simple math.

For a first time purchaser of property, you will need to take into consideration of these cost other than the purchasing price of the unit. You will need to take into consideration of stamp duty, legal fee, commission and etc. (there might be some other fees that you might need to take into consideration).

So for me, as I need to take a rough estimation, for my formula, I took the easy way of calculating 23% of the sales price of the unit. So if I am looking at a unit which cost 700K, 23% of 700K will be around 161K.

Of course, when purchasing a property, you also need to take into consideration of the loans that you can get from the bank or HDB loan if you are purchasing HDB.

For a condo, the size that I am looking for is a 2 bedroom condo, hoping to get a size of 650 square feet so the price per square feet should be around $1050. Certainly, if the PSF is lower, it would be great to purchase 2 bedroom + study (ideal choice for me). Of course, the public transportation should be good as well so that it is accessible for my family.

So with this, I am working towards my goal of achieving my financial goal, and of course do take note that I will not be in 0 dollar after my down payment of my unit. Because you will need to take note of the payment schedule (5% right after you confirm and within 2 months to pay the remaining 15%). So do plan well if you intent to purchase your first property.