The Sacrifice We Made To Obtain $1.5 Mil of Dividend

My last post on “ 3^rd Qtr 2018:Dividend and Portfolio Update”  draw much attention as to how we would be able to accumulate $1.5 mil of dividend without support from family and purely by ourselves. Some readers sent me an e-mail asking how we did that and some with complement and kind words, which I really appreciate. 

My friend LP ( BULLy The BEAR ) suggested that I should write another follow-up post to highlight how much we have sacrificed in order to obtain such amount of dividend we have today.  Another friend of mine B (A Path to Forever Financial Freedom ) even help me to think of the title of this blog post. Hahaha…

With this short supplemental notes, I hope to provide a more “balance and holistic” view on how we would be able to achieve what we have today and what was the sacrifice we made or need to be done in order not to give the wrong impression to readers that it is easy to achieve this.

As I repeatedly mentioned in my earlier post, If we are not born with silver-spoon, we will have to try and work harder to achieve the target of getting F.I.R.E

The Power of Saving ( link)

Before we talk about investing, obviously saving is the only source of capital if not from F.A.M.A (Father and Mother Association ). :D

I don’t have the detail of % we save as you know I’m not a “figure” or detail person but roughly and easily we saved more than 50% of our salary, this was also partly because we worked part-time as well. 

We worked part-time as “indoor-sales “ at one of my wife’s uncle shop at Bugis, after worked from 6-9.30 pm and even Sat & Sun, so basically it was 7 days a week unless there was some occasion or going back to my hometown.

This continued for about 7 years before we have our 1^st child in 2002. Another “cheapo” the thing we did was buying “milk-powder & diapers “across the causeway, it can easily save us more 20% in total bill, remembered 积少成多.

The Importance of “Human Capital” in Financial Planning (link)

This is another important aspect of accumulating your capital to invest, other than your saving rate. 50% of $10K definitely has much impact on your saving amount ultimately as compared to 50% of $3K. 

We will have to work hard and work smart to climb the corporate ladder and STE is happy that he will be able to climb the ladder smoothly from just a junior executive to Deputy General Manager in 18 years before he steps down and do things he likes now. I am happy that this higher than average & stable “active income” or human capital, whatever you called it really assist me in accumulating my capital for investment in a much faster pace.

So, don’t forget about the human capital part of you and build a good career path to assist you in accumulating your “investing capital”.

先苦后甜 vs 先甜后苦

Yah, I think this is the “trade-off “ or choice you have to make, either enjoy first or later.

Our wedding party/dinner was simple and in Malaysia, I still remembered it cost around RM$550/table and we invited only relative and some very close friend, with total of 10 tables. 

Also, no fancy honeymoon destination, guess where we go? Yes, one of the beach resort at East Coast of Malaysia. I think for a young couple nowadays, most would have to spend around $30-50K on their wedding including banquets/ photography, rings/Solemnization/honeymoon etc, depending on how “Grand” they would like it to be.

Live Within (Below) Your Means

I think this is rather important  for example housing, a young couple tend to eye for a bigger house after they got married, of course, it comes with a cost and eventually you may need to sacrifice a bit of your saving on retirement.

image credit to financialsumo.com

When we bought our first re-sales HDB flat in 2000, it was a 3-rooms flat which cost us around $124K at that time and we try to pay off the loan asap. We sold it at around $238K in 2009 and shifted to our new 5 rooms flat as our daughters have grown up and need more space. We live happily in HDB till now ….

Personal Finance is Really Personal (CPF / Insurance/ Housing /Saving /Investing etc)(Link)

Well, other than saving for capital, the other part of the equation with be your R.O.I . which ‘luck “ might have some role to play, at least for me.

I will not try to elaborate more about my investment results here, but you can find more about how the “Luck Factors “ play during my investing journey especially in 2008/09 . ( How Much Luck in Investing Success? My Experience in 2008/09: here )

You may notice from my “dividend chart “ that how the amount had increased tremendously after  2009 where we bought more REITs at that time, some with double-digit % of Yield.

The rest is just history, now we are enjoying our fruits and going holidays where we want ….of course “freedom to choose “, spending more times with family.

Cheers !!