Personal Financial Review - Ended 31 Dec 2008

I just sorted out my finances for December 2008 and found that my expenditure for the month was about $500 less than budgeted. Happy.

The habit of updating my personal income statement and balance sheet was just adopted in November last year. Before that, I relied on bills and bank statements to keep track of my finances, which provided me with a vague idea of my financial health but I could never achieve such clarity on my financial standing had I not started active management.

From the last I tabulated, the ratio of my equity investment (market value) to cash is 13%:87%. Ridiculously conservative, I know. The cash is held for the following purposes (in descending order of priority):
- Family emergency fund
- Parents' allowance (12 months - to be dispenses during CNY)
- Short-term needs (wedding + new flat & renovation)
- Personal emergency fund (9 months of personal expenses)

Besides the short-term needs which account for the largest proportion, I view the rest as essential liquidity cushion, I don't want $$$ issue to add to the stress during rainy (stormy) days. All savings in excess of the above requirements will go into my investible fund.

The good thing is, my investible fund has turned positive - a grand $228.86! (Yeah!!)

Now, my investment portfolio consists of only Singapore equities, of which E&E accounted for over 50%. My investment plan for 2009 is to build up on ETFs and global equity index fund (unit trust) to achieve diversification.