Financial Independence – June 2019

Hi everyone! Here is my FI update for June 2019 end of 2019Q2. My FI goals are outlined here! Last FI update as at 2019Q1 here! For 2019Q2, we were again great savers with very few surprise expenditures. Even with our Wedding occurring in this quarter, we came out with very positive financial results. Broadly, …

Booked: Mastering the Market Cycle

A little while ago, I read a book by the title of "Mastering the Market Cycle" written by Howard Marks. Howard Marks is an investor and writer, who began his career at Citibank. Eventually, he'd start up his own Capital Management firm, Oaktree Capital Management. Interestingly, Oaktree focuses on what's known as Distressed Securities, and …

Wedding Recap!

Well it finally happened - Mrs FN and I tied the knot this past May! All went well and we had beautiful weather. Family and friends arrived safely and in good health. We had no shortage of drinks or great food. As we did not want any physical items, we had kindly requested to receive …

Financial Independence – March 2019

Hi everyone! Here is my FI update for March 2019 end of 2019Q1. My FI goals are outlined here! Last FI update as at 2018Q4 here! For 2019Q1, we were superb savers with very few surprise expenditures. Equity markets also rebounded (for now) driving up our net worth to a very important number in my …

Study Up On: Wealth Factors

A little while ago, my Dad sent me an interesting read on Business Insider discussing wealth factors. Read more here. The article discusses survey results of 600 American millionaires. I'm not aware of how the survey result data were collected, filtered, and cleaned, but they state they found 6 common factors among the millionaires which, …

Utility Theory and Happiness

Well I've finished my last actuarial exam (should be the last...but who knows with these things, they keep cropping up!) and feel liberated. I wrote this exam to finalize my suite of professional designations which were long term goals of mine over the last decade! Mission accomplished. Having an extra couple hours a day really …

Financial Independence – December 2018

Hi everyone! Here is my FI update for December 2018 end of 2018Q4. My FI goals are outlined here! Last FI update as at 2018Q3 here! For 2018Q4, we had a number of large expenditures, repayments and the downturn in the broader equities market. Large expenditures - I'll admit, we spent a fair chunk of …

Thankful for the Health of My Family

It has been sometime since my last post. Life has been very hectic between a new job, wedding planning, and winding up the year end with family/friends. However, I wanted to take some time to write out some brief thoughts about a recent personal event. None are likely to be uniquely insightful and may just …

What’s the Impact of Social Media on Your Savings Rate?

It has been a busy few weeks for me as I am acclimatizing to a new and much busier job. In addition, Wedding tasks have been getting done and I was in need of some downtime. So the blog was put on hold. I am also going to be needing to write another actuarial exam …

Financial Independence – September 2018

Hi everyone! Here is my FI update for September 2018 end of 2018Q3. A month late is better than no update, right? My FI goals are outlined here! Last FI update as at 2018Q2 here! For 2018Q3, we didn't have any extra large expenditures. We spent some time in Germany but those flights had been …