Man, I cannot believe I haven't put in a post for this long now.    I have been very lazy with the writing recently and have completely ignored this blog plus any other extracurricular activities I used to have regularly.    TBH, its been a whirlwind of sorts in both work and family.   

Good thing is the new year presents new opportunities and I wanted to start it off with a new year update on my financials too!   As an update, I finished and paid off the 1st of 5 mortgages I had!    Woohoo!  I then also am well into my 1st condo, purchase, completing the down payment as well as the renovation costs to make it into a pretty cushy crashpad for myself while I work in Manila.    Both are positive updates but one increased my net worth while the other really just was an expense (although I think its well worth it to live in a space that you feel relaxed and super comfy in).  How about you folks, how was your 2018?   

One of the things I committed to write about was around the process of "getting there".  "There" defined as eventual Financial Independence.    I think one of the things I have left out describing over the years is how much time and effort I have devoted to planning.   As a background, I am an avid reader and do subscribe to the thought that "fortune favors the prepared mind" (quote from Louis Pasteur).   Prior to the journey to FI, I would plan out the next 2 to 3 years of what else I would be doing in my life whether its career or pursuing a hobby.   I'd create my own list of things to accomplish for the next year and what goals I need to hit to make constant progress.   In 2014, I realized I needed to plan even further as it became necessary for me to think about my far future and my kids futures as well.   Part of that planning process is this blog, and other parts are in excel sheet which i have meticulously maintained over the past 5 years (the NW snapshots I post come from that excel sheet).   In the same spreadsheet are multiple tabs for Budget, NW tracking, progress on major goals (such as the house fund or the payments for mortgages which i now have 5 of), some notes for my wife in case I die suddenly (estate stuff), and some additional goals that I would move on if my income increase or...... decreased.   Yes, I plan for job loss or emergencies as well.   

My wife has made the comment on how OC I am about our personal life and has compared it to how I work.  I told her, if you cant take care of your own personal finances, how can you be responsible for other people?   Which to me just makes sense.   Before you even try to be responsible for others (hint to parents), please ensure you got your own shit sorted out).   Hence all the planning I have devoted.   I also plan for how I can increase my income yearly and plan out 5-15 years out where before I only do 2-3 years.    

If you ask me, thats probably the one key thing that has helped me out these past 5 years.   You reduce unplanned and unnecessary purchases.  You plan for major expenses in advance and are able to allot money for it  (such as vacations).   You can also plan for emergencies without having to go into debt (hello hospital fund).   And again, I have planned around increasing income as well and if i see myself falling short for the year, I do act to cover the shortfall (such as when I sold a condo to earn some side commission). 

  Planning allows me to not be a passive participant in life and financials.  I see many comments from Pinoys complaining about increasing taxes on certain goods and complaining about "tingbits" (why not just dont buy that expensive sugary drink and bring a reusable bottle instead).   I see that as poor planning PERIOD.  (and before you judge me and say that I am lucky to have a big income now, note that I started off doing side gigs even before becoming employed with minimum wage to start).    I used to eat bananas and peanuts for lunch since that was all i could afford (and I planned for that too so that I would have some leftover money).      But I digress, planning allows me to actively take hold of my life, for good or bad.   Reacting and proactively anticipating different circumstances in life.   I actually have a list of things I can do, if I suddenly lose my job tomorrow (such as selling off a few things and cancelling subscriptions etc).   Planning ensures I am accountable for my own actions and can at least steer the ship of life.   There will be things I wouldnt have been able to plan for that will happen, but then there will be a huge percentage that I would hae and that makes all the difference.   

So if you want to get to FI, what's your plan?

Its bear season in the PH!  So my entire portfolio is glowing red and gives me anxiety with just the color of it.   However, we FI chasers should treat this like our very own SM 3 day sale (although yeah it will probably last longer than that.  

That said, I did sell off some of my losing stocks, making about 500k in paper losses into a reality.   But hey, thats how it works so will buy into some of favorite stocks soon as I scrounge up some cash.     April NW down below with 2 pending items for updating---Condo 1 of which I had already paid  a reservation fee for but has not started paying for the DP yet and Condo 2, of which I had also sent in my check for reservation.     Both are properties I am truly excited about as they mean FI for me once I get to pay them off.  One is a studio in a high end area (its a few floors above a hotel) and the other (a 2 bedroom unit) is right smack dab in Ortigas.  It will be painful paying the mortgage off every month but again, these are investments and hopefully appreciate in the next 5 years or so.

Several key updates for this month including the new condo reflected in our Net worth reflected in both my asset and liabilities section.   I haven't deducted anything yet on the condo payments as we have only paid reservation fees as of this time.  We plan to have the condo rented out as part of our long term income strategy.  

This month, we did take a hit on stocks with both my COL equity and my daughter's trust fund taking a hit due to lower stock values on the majority of the companies we invested in.   As I don't plan to encash anytime soon, the paper losses don't really worry me so far. In particular, as I look back on the goals I set for my daughter's trust fund, I am happy with the progress she's made versus our goal.   I was planning on a 1m nest egg for her once she reaches 18 and so far, we are way ahead of the step goals there (in fact, I have adjusted the goal to give her at least 2m by that age, which is about 10 years away still).   

I also prepaid and spent some cash on a vacation planned for May, paying for airline tickets and our Airbnb stay now (about 120k so far) so that we I only need worry and budget for our pocket money by that time.   Its a well needed break for me and good quality time with the family so that expense is well spent.    

Lastly, would you believe I broke 13m in NW this month?   If I look back on the money goals I had 4 years ago, I was actually expecting us to just breach 10m in 2018, so thats going better than planned.  I may be able to wrap up all our goals in about 7-8 years instead of the 11 years I anticipated for early retirement.    That said, I may continue working up until 2028 just to get extra cash in the bank (I'll be 50 by then) and enable some extra travel around the world during those retirement years.   

One of my biggest worries currently is that we rely on just one income to support the household.  Same income pays for household maintenance, debt payments as well as investments and savings.    In order to solve for this, I've decided to build up some secondary sources of income (if you recall, we tried out a donut business last year that went bust) that are low maintenance and can be managed remotely.   First off the bat is dividend income with my COL account being built up with high div payment stocks such as Glo, Mer and Shng.   I plan to invest about 4m in the dividend bucket so that I can earn around 200 to 250k in dividends annually.   

Second in the plan is to build up a small portfolio of rental income, with our current house being put up for rent once we finish building our retirement home.   Incomes from this should at least be at the 300k annual range as we do live very near a good school and accessible to 3 major roads in Cebu.   I do plan to add 2 more rentals with 1 condo being slated for Airbnb.  We chose a condo near a commercial area, with strip malls and a starbucks right across.  We also saw that the developer is building a commercial area on the first 2 floors of the development.   We plan to earn a gross income of about 300k from this second property.    Lastly, we are looking for one more property either in Bohol or Manila for long term rentals.   As Airbnb is highly seasonal, I do want to balance the incomes on off months with a long term tenant.  

My target income from the above is about 1m annually, more than enough versus our expenses and hedged against rising school costs.   We can actually live on about 900k annually based on current expenses and can cut down to about 500k if need be (eschewing helpers and luxuries).   

How about you, whats your plan after attaining FI?  

So we didn't start the year well from a family health perspective.   First off, my wife spent the new year in the hospital taking care of her father,  who had an aneurysm (survived it and recovering).  Second, my brother had a heart attack after routine eye surgery (recovering now) and lastly my son, went to the emergency room for a bad case of the flu.   Notwithstanding the cost of all these (I pitched in)  I am just glad all are recovering and on course to better health.      

In order to recover financially, I did have to sell our second car (which I love more than any other car I have and have had).    It made sense and was the logical step as I wasnt using it and was pretty much abandoned in Cebu but was still painful to sell.    Bye car!  Hope the next person takes care of you!

That said, overall still grateful as we are continuing our slow and steady progress on track for our 2018 step goals (15m net worth by the end of the year).  

I may need to update my tracker next month as we did send in our reservation payment for one new condo property in Cebu (we plan to rent it out) so I will reflect that both in the asset and liability section below.   One of my long term goals is to create some side incomes.  I plan to build up our airbnb portfolio to about 3 properties by 2022 (so currently I have 2 in the pipeline, with one being the house we are living in today and will become a rental property when we move to the new house in 2021).  

PS.  Thank you for all the support Pinoy PF community!