Money Updates
So just a mere 6 months after writing a 'I have a bad feeling about this market post', my networth hit 600k thanks to the market. It's pretty wild to have a 50% networth jump in a little over 2 years. This just goes to show how correct my money motto 'The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent' is.
In terms of investments, I'm still about 95% invested with 5% set aside in cash. I'm mostly a passive investor so most of my money are in ETFs, work RRSP programs etc. I do have some Enbridge stock, it tickles my fancy to seen dividends roll in. So if my portfolio is doing so good, I can't imagine how much someone with a more adventurous portofolio must be making out like bandits.
Life Updates
I got BTS concert tickets!!! To every stop I wanted. Great lower bowl or soundcheck VIP tickets for the most part, Never been happier say bye to my money. For any ARMY out there who stumble upon this post. The best thing you can do for ticketmaster ARMY presale is to have a group of 4+ ppl all ticketing together, some of you are bound to have lower ticketmaster queue numbers (it's not completely random).
In February I went on a Mediterrean cruise with my parents. Unfortunately due to rough sea conditions, they swapped the stop I'm most looking forward to (Malta) to Naples. The silver lining is I really did enjoy Naples. We had amazing pizza (and it didn't even have cheese!).
Barcelona was my favourite cruise stop, I thought the city was vibrant, and we enjoyed incredible tapas and seafood paella.
As we had incredible timing, we were in Barcelona on my birthday and it just so happens it was the day the central tower of Sagrada Familia was finished. In addition, we docked on Genoa on the last day of the Milano Cortina winter Olympics. And just so happens one of the excursions offered by the cruise was a bus tour to Milan, so I got to see the Olympic flames for the first time in my life! As a huge figure skating fan, that was a big bucket list item for me.
Overall though, I'm not sure if cruising is really for me. I got seasick on the first day and I didn't like how little time we had to explore the port cities.
Then in April, I went to Seoul for the BTS Arirang tour opening night. It rained steady and heavy the whole night, I was soaked from head to toe, but I had an amazing time. It was a historic moment and this is a group of generational artists. How fortunate I was to bear witness to it.
My mother even joined me for a few days in Seoul as an extended layover on her way to Shanghai, and we got to experience cherry blossom in full bloom together.
Whenever the wind blows, petals would flutter down like snowflakes. It was dreamy.
And as always I had great food.
Entertainment Update
I loved Project Hail Mary, what a great movie! I loved Rocky so much. My friends and I started speaking in Rocky for a bit after the movie. I listened to the Project Hail Mary audiobook, rewatched the Martian (same author). And started the audiobook for that as well.
Speaking of audiobooks, a friend of mine has been recommending Die with Zero for a while. The author is a huge advocate for meaningful experience.
I think this book is a great companion to personal finance reads and introduced some concepts or ways of thinking that I found quite enlightening. First, that your memories are like experience dividends. So every time you speak about the experience or remember it, it pays you happiness/joy/enjoyment dividends. Second, think of annuity like an insurance product instead of a financial one. PF circles usually dismiss annuities as terrible investment products but for people who have a fear of running out of money, this is actually a great product if you think of it as insurance against running out of money.
The one thing I want more of however, is some degree of certianty, or...a calculator to calculate one's personal peak networth. I think this can be achieved through some combination of a Retirement free /Barista FI calculaor.
Alright, I'll probably do a Q2 or Q3 update this year too, stay tuned! XD
