~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

The past couple of weeks had been a sobering reminder that the path to financial independence is rarely a straight line.  When the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran escalated at the end of February, markets reacted immediately.  Energy prices surged, volatility returned, and the calm and optimism that had slowly built up in the markets earlier this year in January was suddenly replaced by uncertainty.  For someone like me who has been planning for Barista FIRE, moments like this force a pause for reflection, fearing the negative sequence of returns. Higher energy prices do not only impact price of oil and oil related industries.  They eventually seep into everything.  Transportation costs rise, logistics becomes more expensive, and businesses pass those costs down to consumers.  In other words, inflation has a way of resurfacing quietly but persistently.  When inflation creeps back into the system, the biggest challenge for someone pursuing FIR...

This post is just for personal reference, to record my personal income and expenses in my journey towards Barista FIRE. For the month of March, I believe this is a better reflection of my average monthly expenses from the quarterly spending, due to the maintenance fees and sinking funds that are paid only once per quarter.  Spending this month is more than income, but from a quarterly perspective, it is still positive overall.  Seems like I am in the right direction after all. This month's miscellaneous spending is a little high due to preparations for my upcoming trip with my mum.  Definitely excited about the trip, and hopefully it will create more wonderful memories for us.  Barista FIRE, here I come...!

This month marks the end of the 1st quarter of 2026.  Thus it's definitely a good time for me to record the performance of my portfolio to track how it has been. To recap, I started my SG Dividends Portfolio in late 2017, and I began tracking the dividends and all reinvestment done starting 2018.  To date, my SG Dividends Portfolio consist of banks, REITs and defense technology.  On the other hand, I only started the US Growth Portfolio in late December 2021, but I have since liquidated my entire US Growth Portfolio in September 2025 to pay off my Malaysia mortgage loan.  In March 2026, I started the MY Dividends Portfolio, which currently consist of only banks and REITs.  The purpose of this is to complement my SG Dividends Portfolio, and hopefully generate dividends in MYR to hedge against forex risks when I FIRE.   Being a relatively conservative investor, I prefer to dollar cost average (DCA) into the market to slowly build up my portf...

As someone who has spent years building an investment portfolio in Singapore, I finally made an important financial move to open a Malaysian investment account with FSMOne Malaysia.  Starting in the second quarter of 2026, I plan to begin a new investment journey focused on Malaysian dividend stocks.  This decision is not just about diversification, it is also about currency strategy, retirement planning, and income stability. Why I Am Investing in Malaysia Instead of US Market Retirement Plans in Johor Bahru Although I currently work and invest in Singapore, I am Malaysian and intend to retire in Johor Bahru in the future.  As such, my retirement expenses will likely be denominated in Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) and building a dividend investment portfolio that generates MYR income makes perfect sense.  Instead of the need to constantly converting Singapore Dollars (SGD) to MYR and inevitably worry about the foreign exchange rate, I can rely on dividends paid by Ma...