Reflections For 2025- What I Have Achieved This Year And What I Hope To Achieve In 2026?

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One of the biggest perks of blogging is I can easily look back at previous posts and compare which are the goals I have successfully achieved and which has fallen behind.  In this first post of 2026, I will like to reflect upon 2025, and compare with what I had written in this post one year ago to assess my achievements.


1)     Liquidating My US Growth Portfolio

This has been a huge debate with myself this year, whether I should continue investing in US Growth stocks, or liquidate the portfolio to pay off my Malaysia mortgage loan.  In the end, I chose the latter, and enjoy the peace of mind and positive cashflow with my finances in Malaysia.  I know I may miss out the huge upside (and facts has shown that), but I am not regretting what I am missing out, instead I am cherishing and looking forward to a slower pace of life next year, with lesser financial stress from the mortgage debts that I have.

Will I restart and rebuild this US Growth Portfolio?  Personally I do not know.  Currently I do not have any plans to do that as valuations for US stocks are too rich currently.  However if any major form of correction occurs in future, it may be a good time for me to rebuild this portfolio when the time comes.  See how it goes.


2)     Hitting Basic Healthcare Sum (BHS) And Staying Above Basic Retirement Sum (BRS)

I first achieved the BHS in late 2023.  Since then, it has been relatively easy for me to continue hitting the new BHS yearly as I am still working and still contributing to my Central Provident Fund (CPF) Medisave Account (MA) to fulfill my Medisave liability.  In 2026, BHS is going to increase once again to SGD 79K, and I believe I should be able to hit the new BHS once again soon.

Coming 2026, BRS is going to increase to SGD 110,200.00.  I am happy that my balance in CPF remains above the new BRS.  This means that I am baby steps closer towards FRS.  Though the progress is slow, at least it is moving in the right direction.  In addition, for 2026, I decided to pay for my Singapore mortgage loan fully with cash, and let my CPF OA grow at a faster pace (previously I was paying my mortgage partly with cash, and partly with CPF OA).  As I am still working, despite at a slower pace due to the onset of Phase 1 of my Barista FIRE journey, I believe I can still grow my CPF balance.  Onwards to FRS.


3)     Including Silver Into My Portfolio

After including a 1 oz gold bar into my portfolio in 2024, prices have shot through the roof.  At the start of 2024, spot price of gold was about SGD 2,750.00 per troy ounce, and at the start of 2025, spot price of gold was about SGD 3,580.00 per troy ounce.  As the price was getting out of reach for me personally, I decided to change my target to the more affordable silver.  

In February and May 2025, I bought a silver bar and a few silver coins when the price was hovering around SGD 44.00 per troy ounce.  I guess I was lucky.  Fast forward to December 2025, the spot price of gold is now hovering around SGD 5,550.00 per troy ounce, while spot price of silver is now hovering around SGD 91.00 per troy ounce, which is an alarming 55% increase for gold, and 111% increase for silver from my initial purchase price.  This is a huge jump for an asset that does not generate income or growth.  Although both gold and silver just occupies a very small percentage of my portfolio, but the run up in prices will make me hesitant to increase my holdings (though I just bought a few more 1 oz silver coins in December 2025).  I think for now, I will just hold on to my physical precious metals and do nothing.  If there is correction, I may continue to add silver into my portfolio.


4)     Rebalancing My Portfolio To Improve Dividend Yield

With the tremendous run up in share price of Singapore Technologies Engineering (STE) in my portfolio, it has grown to the top allocation within my portfolio.  With such a large allocation coupled with yield compression to less than 2.5% yield, it cause the market value yield of my portfolio to dip below 4.5%.  As such, I have done a few rounds of rebalancing by reducing my allocation in STE to other dividend paying stocks like ComfortDelgro (CDG), HRNetGroup (HRNG), Riverstone (RVS) and CFA ETF.  Hopefully I can boost my portfolio market value yield closer to 5%.


5)     Bring My Mum To More Places She Wants To Go

After the mega travel year in 2024, this year was a little more subdued.  This year, I only brought my mum for 1 overseas trip to China in November!  There are many precious memories created in this trip, especially seeing the Avatar mountains.  The work of nature is just amazing.  Hoping for more new adventures in 2026!


6)     My Portfolio

At the start of 2025, I had set the goal of achieving an annual dividend target of SGD 30K, and my portfolio value to exceed SGD 675K by the end of 2025.  I am excited to announce that I have achieved, and exceeded both my goals, as the annual dividends collected for 2025 hits above SGD 31K (details shared in my quarterly update) and the portfolio value has exceeded my goal, reaching SGD 714K at the end of 2025!  However this meant that the yield on market value is only 4.4%.


In conclusion, I am glad that this year has been a great year for my portfolio, and for my travel adventures with my mum!  Wishing that 2026 be a better year ahead, hoping that I can continue to improve my SG Dividend Portfolio and increase dividends collected with an annual dividend target of SGD 36K, and portfolio value to exceed SGD 750K by the end of 2026 with a better yield of about 4.8%!  Barista FIRE, here I come...!

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