My Achievements and Reflections of 2024

It’s been another very interesting year. Trump, Syria. AI. Raygun.

As the year ends, I’d like to share my achievements and reflections. Not to brag, but to (1) celebrate successes, and (2) reflect on some thoughts in my mind. Putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, is a great way to sharpen thinking.

It’s also a great way to get different perspectives and for others to identify blind spots in my thoughts and mental models.

So, let’s get started with my achievements for 2024. Some are career or personal development-specific, but still relevant to personal finance.

Achievements

Growing wealth – Great increases in net worth

Likely to end the year up ~18%. Not as good as the S&P 500, but then again, 2024 was a year of increased family size, additional spending, and 1-2 months without income whilst transitioning careers. Also at my net worth, it gets harder to increase net worth percentage-wise due to the additional drag and focus on protecting wealth. In actual figurative terms, I’m happy with the number
90% of (old) FIRE target – I stopped having FIRE targets, as I don’t plan to retire early. However, I did look back at my (FAT)FIRE target, and I’m actually at ~90% of it. Goal posts have shifted since then anyway

Protecting wealth – Closed out some gaps

Hired a financial advisor. I have my plans and models, but I wanted someone to help me find blind spots. Also helps to have someone with who I can talk about personal finance in detail. Not easy to have finance conversations with family and friends
Created a “trust fund”. My advisor identified this blind spot. I had wills, but (1) they can take months to execute and access the funds since you need to go to court to get a probate, and (2) it doesn’t cover scenarios where I’m alive but incapable of managing my finances, such as a coma, mentally disabled, missing persons, and so on. So I got a trust set up which activates in these unfortunate scenarios
Updated wills. Changing family circumstances meant I had to make updates. Nothing much interesting, but important to always keep updated

Helping others – Entering new territory

Donated a decent sum to charity. As a matter of preference, I rather donate to a cause focused on financial literacy. I haven’t found an organisation which resonated and gave me confidence that they’re impactful. So I donated to a cause focusing on improving education in rural Malaysia, which is the next best thing.
Helped someone with personal finance issues. I normally would never do this. Even for family. Someone reached out to me, asking for financial support and assistance. I won’t go into detail about what support I provided, but what I will say is that I’m happy with the outcome, and my impact on this person’s life.
Started an online persona. I’m creating financial literacy content and sharing my thoughts through Reddit and this blog. I don’t intend to monetize, I don’t need the money. I’ve put affiliate links because it’s good to learn, but I’m not spamming ads or going to do paid content.

Pursuing growth – Making strides

Started a new job. I’ve “pivoted” careers! I’ve always been the banking/consulting guy. Now I’ve moved to tech, but still doing strategy. I’m enjoying the work, work-life balance, people and culture. That’s more important than retiring early. It’s good to know that my skills are valued and transferable to other industries
Prioritised building my network. I wish I had taken this seriously earlier. I’m now making up for it. I update a “CRM” weekly to manage my network, and am building a habit of catching up for coffee or lunch once a week with someone on my list
Read 4 finance-related books. I actually read 17 books this year. Favourite book? Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger. Most thought-provoking book? The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson. Next year I’m going to read fewer books, but spend more quality time thinking and reflecting on each book

There’s also been a lot on my mind. For some of these, I’m still working through my thoughts to get to the answer.

Reflections

My success(es) has been a lot of hard work, and a lot of luck

Previously, I attributed my successes to hard work. I believe that’s due to survivorship bias. I also realise that many circumstances, coincidences, opportunities and people had to align to get me to where I am today.
It’s miracles upon miracles. From the moment of conception until now. But, hard work is equally important. You need hard work to leverage the opportunities that are bestowed.
I think those perceived as lucky/privileged without having done the hard work are really unlucky. Think about what happens to lottery winners without financial discipline, or the trust fund kid without a purpose in life. I wouldn’t want to be either.

Markets have been on a tear

In the past 10 years, my NW only dipped twice, -3.4% in 2018 and – 2% in 2022. Other than that I’ve been happy with my NW growth. Market crashes have not significantly affected my portfolio, reflecting on annual performance. This is due to a good savings rate, which offsets any portfolio value decline (although actual monthly dips in NW have occurred, my partner and I were able to ignore the dips)

And that makes me scared. Did I really pass previous tests and weather the storm?
The time to be fearful is when everyone is fearless. The AI boom, crypto boom, inflation is softening, COVID has passed, etc.
Am I ready for the next crash? How will it start? I’ve been through a few recessions and market crashes, since the Global Financial Crisis. Can I, and how will I weather the next crash? Will I react differently?
It’s good to be fearful, to not be complacent. Having dependents in life changes your risk tolerance, and protecting wealth becomes an increasing priority. I’m planning to rebalance a bit more to fixed income/cash, more so because I have some big expenses coming up in the next few years and I don’t want to liquidate during a downturn.

Bitcoin has also been on a tear

I don’t own any crypto. I don’t have FOMO. I understand it (or at least I believe I do). I still don’t see crypto assets belonging to my portfolio

What I need to believe to invest in Bitcoin or any other crypto:

It must create value – I don’t invest in assets that only store value. I invest in businesses and innovation which results in value creation. I have yet to see a use case for Bitcoin that creates unique, effective, long-term sustainable value as an asset class. Based on underlying fundamentals, bitcoin and crypto don’t meet these criteria
It must survive the test of time – Will it be around and valuable 50 years from now? It’s the slowest payments platform alive, aside from cheques. As a currency? Sorry, currencies aren’t for investing. They’re meant to be a form of payment/store of value, not an investment. And currencies are backed by the sovereignty of nations. Bitcoin being decentralised has no backing. It’s also ironic that the principle of Bitcoin being decentralized is why many say it’s valuable, but in reality, most people need centralisation and regulation. Else crypto exchanges and stablecoins wouldn’t exist. I believe it will continue to stay in the fringes, like tokens and loyalty points

Helping others anonymously vs publicly

I’d like to do more social impact work to help others and share my knowledge. But the more I do, the more I make myself known. Is it possible to be completely anonymous all the time?
There are benefits of maintaining anonymity which I value. Privacy and safety for myself and my family. Fewer complications in my life. How sustainable and effective can I be remaining anonymous whilst having an online persona, in the age of finfluencers and social media?
Or is it my ego, a fear of being judged if I’m known publicly and make a misstep? Does being anonymous enable me to feel superior and judge others without the consequences, which protects my ego?

Not exercising my spending muscle

In my defence, I freely spend on smaller ticket items. Food delivery, coffee, restaurants, massages, kid’s education and domestic help.
One thing I learned from Ramit Sethi is to try to go shopping without looking at price tags. It’s so hard and out of character for me. I can’t help but look. Then I start thinking that it’s a lot of money and how much it takes away from my net worth (but it really doesn’t make a dent)

Looking forward

What’s in store for 2025? There are lots of exciting things that I’m looking forward to doing. Many of them related to me building out my social impact efforts through my online content and also in person. But that’s for another post.