Breakdown of our investment portfolio from 2017 - 2021 As a follow up on this post from 2018, it's time to revisit how our retirement savings strategy is going and review the breakdown of our investment portfolio. We're still in the accumulation phase and our savings/investments are pretty much on auto-pilot mode, with focus on maximizing all tax-advantaged accounts first. While we're nowhere near the withdrawal phase yet, it's important to do a periodic check to make sure our investment portfolio is 'well-balanced' for future withdrawals.
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5 January 2021 marks my 10th work anniversary. It's hard to believe 10 years have flown by since I first started work. Felt like it wasn't that long ago when we took the photo above during our new hire orientation at Sheraton Imperial KL.
Original post: 5/20/2018
Updated: 12/20/2019 For someone who enjoys traveling, the lucrative credit card sign-up bonuses in the US are amazing, especially when all you get for opening a credit card in Malaysia is a luggage bag. I was hoping to start building our credit card portfolio as soon as I moved to the US, however, I realized very quickly (when my Chase Freedom application was declined) that I wasn't gonna get approved for any credit cards without credit history. How many 'transactions' did it take to redeem our two tickets to Iceland over the course of 1.5 years? 23 to be exact...lol! If you look at my website, it's pretty obvious that I LOVE traveling. Of course, I love points and miles because they help reduce our travel cost. Over the last 2 years, we've upped our travel rewards game and were able to utilize points and miles to reduce our travel expenses.
Judge me all you want, but I'm an oddball female who doesn't like shopping and I have zero interest in buying trendy clothes. However, I have to at least dress decent and adhere to the business-casual dress code for work, and that's really my main 'motivation' to shop for clothes. I would happily wear uniform if it was an option, but those school days were long gone. =P Anyway, I'm the kind of person who will go shopping once in a blue moon, stock up on few outfits that fit me well, and wear the same thing over and over again until they tear (wear and tear literally).
When I first relocated to the US with my job 3 years ago, I remember being provided with a 47-page new hire benefits book during the orientation, and was immediately overwhelmed by all the new information I had to digest within a short period of time. The benefits book included information about all different types of insurance plans, savings plans, and a bunch of other benefits. It was also filled with jargon like High Deductible, HSA, FSA, 401(k), Short-term disability, etc.
We are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary this year. To celebrate this milestone, I decided to put together this unromantic and nerdy post of how much we spent on our wedding. =P Feel free to guess the total amount based on the following details:
Well, $413 to be exact. Of course, the answer is...it depends. Just like how some people think traveling is expensive, and wonder how we could afford traveling the world (while still being financially savvy).
Here are two separate round-trip flight tickets I booked recently, costing approximately $400 each. Hubby's retro haul from our recent trip to Tokyo. Many people have the misconception that saving money or being frugal is all about delayed gratification. While I do agree that some sacrifices have to be made now in exchange for financial freedom in the future, I am also a strong proponent of living in the present and enjoying the journey along the way. These two may sound contradicting but pursuing financial independence doesn't mean we should put off our happiness until we reach the finish line. After all, we never know if tomorrow or tragedy will come first.
In August 2017, we embarked on a trip around-the-world visiting 5 countries:
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