I have decided to write down on a monthly basis all my thoughts, feelings, progressions, decisions made throughout my financial journey and anything about life really. Hopefully this will shed some insights for all readers, and even myself when I look back onto the past. If you're interested in my past month updates, take a look at Monthly Updates and I hope you enjoy reading!
The last six months have been a continuous sprint through relocation logistics, career transitions, and cross-border adjustments after moving to Hong Kong. In case if you have missed it, I've documented a little on why & how I ended up in Hong Kong today, instead of Australia: 2025 in Review: The Pivot.
In the first 3 months, I was chasing one timeline after another - rushing against a deadline to quickly secure and sort out a long-term lease and also furnishing an empty unit to make it my "home" across the border for the next few years. Just when I thought I could finally rest after moving to my new apartment - nope - there were still plenty of unfinished household chores, personal & business travel plans, Chinese New Year, as well as a very last minute trip to Australia to activate my Permanent Residency (within 12 months from grant date) before I lose it for good.
By April, I've gotten so worn out - but I needed to hang in there and finish the last-mile furniture assemblies so that my family can have a comfortable place to stay in during their holiday visits in Hong Kong. In the end, after all the chores and family trips, I was able to have a quick little weekend getaways in Switzerland (after my work trip) and have a quick mental reset.
On top of adapting to these challenges at personal level, on the career front, I was also trying to learn as quickly as possible in my new role which requires me to drastically change the way I work - by managing senior leaders instead of managing the outputs directly. It required a total recalibration of my management approaches as I learned quickly that high-level hand-waving produces zero output, but micro-managing execution destroys team velocity just as fast.
And finally, on the financial front, which I've documented some of it in my recent post: How Moving to Hong Kong Changed My Wealth Strategy; relocating across borders completely shifted how I view currency risks, taxes, and where my money should sit in the long-term. Having moved to Hong Kong with much higher cost of living forced me to rethink my investment setups as I am no longer building a portfolio focused sole on retirement in Malaysia - but potentially retiring abroad. This required me to build a sustainable portfolio that can absorb shocks and booms at different levels whilst protecting & growing my capital in the long-term.
Now, going back to our usual monthly update for my finances and portfolios.
Back in my Ringgit Freedom’s March 2026 Updates, I was actually struggling to analyse my expenses after moving to Hong Kong - due to the trendline break and also dealing with multiple currencies between MYR, HKD, and AUD. Took me a while but I ended up going back to my good ol' excel (in these days of GenAI huh...) to combine numbers from all three different Actual Budget Files in their respective currencies.
With these, I was at least able to do a general comparison during my mid-year reviews to assess my year-to-date expenditures below.
From a quick glance - my expenditures have more than doubled compared to the same period last year, having risen by +123% from RM80K to RM179K primarily driven by the Home & Roofs category which surged by RM74K - rising from 15% of total spend to nearly half my total spend. This shift reflects the baseline cost of maintaining dual-country housing overhead alongside Hong Kong’s high per-square-foot rental market, rather than an increase in personal consumption.
Outside of ongoing rents, there are also one-off capital expenditures associated with my move to Hong Kong. Whilst most of the migration costs are fully covered by my company (such as immigration fees, relocation consultants & house search fees, property agents' commissions, etc.), I had to pay upfront the full cost of furnishing an empty apartment - which thankfully are offset later by company allowances. These non-capitalized, one-time migration and setup expenditure costed me an approximate amount of HKD 55.7K (~RM28.3K) - but was important to provide me with the baselines needed to make my new home a comfortable living space.
What surprised me most was that my discretionary spendings (My Rich Life & Guilt-Free Spending) didn't break the budget. Setting clear caps meant I could enjoy the money leisurely without the usual post-purchase guilt. Whilst it is important to boost my savings rate to allow for compound interest to work its magic, it is equally important to be present and live life - as the future that we know is never a guarantee.
These saving rates are partially normalized - not fully - as it still includes some of the one off capital expenditures that I mentioned earlier when furnishing my new rental home in Hong Kong. This largely explains the dip in January where I spent (almost) all of my salary just to make my place feel home. Nevertheless, thanks to the higher income now in Hong Kong - it allowed me to maintain my strong savings rate even when faced with the 1.5x ~ 3.0x higher cost of living here.
At this rate, I'm not quite sure if I can hit the ambitious target of 65% annual savings rate, and only time will really tell.
Continuing the trends over the last few months - my Malaysia's emergency fund were mainly drawn to cover the ongoing costs back home (mortgage, bills, family, leisure, etc.) but building my Hong Kong's emergency fund in parallel. At certain point, when the time is right, I will probably start converting some of my HKD back into MYR to cover those costs (and refill my jar).
Performance wise, not much has changed for my Freedom Portfolio - as a large contribution of the returns were driven by both the US Market and the Gold Market. There'll be a granular version of the current performance by individual funds in the subsequent section when we move to the Total Portfolio.
Nevertheless, most of these are still 'paper gains' and are not materialized as I do not have plans to sell them in the short term.
Looking closer into my fund allocations within the Freedom Portfolio, we'll start to notice the exponential growth of my exposure to crypto (mainly Bitcoin), almost tripling in allocation when compared to last year's snapshot. As explained in my revised wealth strategy, crypto will play an important role in my portfolio to become the systemic shield, guarding us from the currency debasements.
Note: For the definition of snapshots, please check My Portfolio where I elaborated it in detail.
Sold (Retired) Portfolio (accumulative)
IRR: 0.41%
ROI: 0.57%
Profit/Loss: RM 1,982.38
Active (Invested) Portfolio
IRR: 12.07%
ROI: 28.31%
Profit/Loss: RM 183,920.54
True Cost: RM 634,956.32
Total Value: RM 833,610.11
Entrance Value: RM 651,837.70
Portfolio Value: RM 748,758.90
Nett Dividend (2026): RM 2,600.57
When it comes to my Total Portfolio, it is still largely split into two main categories:
The overall size had grown by approximately +RM245K when compared to December 2025. With the MPF Hong Kong in play, which technically allows active fund selection (albeit limited) like EPF i-Invest, I plan to eventually decommission the EPF i-Invest so that my Malaysia provident fund can return to its origin role: providing a safe compounding interest; and leave the risk taking to other parts of my portfolio.
Nothing much to really talk about here - but when assessing my investments holistically as a Total, the crypto allocation suddenly looked much more palatable - considering the significant fixed income weightage I have through our EPF Malaysia's exposure.
One new addition that I have added to my magical excel was to allow me to take snapshots of the individual fund performances from the entirety of my total portfolio. At this point - I'm mainly leveraging the IRR (which measures return over time, annualized) and the ROI (which simply measures profitability of investment) to identify any outliers and support me in making investment decisions.
On the execution side, my 2026 YTD additions have leaned heavily into Bitcoin at different price points throughout the year - basically DCA-ing on a monthly basis. I've also sold some of the funds from my VWRA and i-Invest Principal Global Titan Funds, mainly as an act of rebalancing and to offset the equivalent amounts put into US index funds via MPF Hong Kong.
And finally - our net worth update since my 2025's detailed update.
As I wrap up the Quarter 2 of 2026, my net worth currently sits somewhere at ~RM2,123K which means that I have finally crossed the two millions' mark! 🔥🎉 This was a significant increase of approximately ~RM439K versus the end of last year.
With this new achievement, the original chart no longer serves the purpose as I hit the ceiling in my previous chart at 2mio. However, the essence and journey that brought me here today remains an important element that I do not wish to 'forget' hence in the reworked new charts, I've decided to keep the original snapshots embedded within my new chart which provides the direction needed to chart towards the future.
Just like last time - THE FREEDOM ARC (2025 - 2038) chart aims towards the 'Impossible' and we'll see how far we can get. To keep myself in check, I've built into it the financial goals I'm currently working on: FAT FI/RE: Overseas Emigrate Edition, which aims to allow me a retirement lifestyle in country of my choice. I'm not sure if I'll ever achieve this goal, as I didn't want to only work soullessly from one goal to another and forget to live life.
But one thing's clear to me: it's better to sail with some direction in mind, than to wander mindlessly with no objectives and goals.
Just in case for those who are reading my year review for the first time - for my net worth calculation, I exclude the primary residence that I’m currently staying in, in the essence that it generates all the expenses/liabilities associated with home-ownership with no ability to generate income. Even if I choose to sell it, there'll be heavy costs associated with it when time is not on my side so I took an aggressive $0 value assumption for such primary residence.
This concept was popularised by Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad. However, I know that some of you, especially finance enthusiasts and/or accountants would prefer to stick with the standard accounting principles so there's also an additional dotted line for that which accounts for my home value based on past transaction values with a haircut of ~10% for miscellaneous fees associated with sales of a home.
Overall, whilst the first few months of the year were brutal, I’m really starting to enjoy the fruits of it and my new life in Hong Kong. At the very least, some of the old fears I’ve carried for years are finally gone. There’s an undeniable weight lifted when you can simply live authentically as who you are every day. To a certain extent, I feel far better protected legally - and truly accepted - in a modern city built on immigration, compassion, and opportunity than back in my own home country of Malaysia. Something that even our very constitutional rights - which was supposed to protect me - could not.
And it really got me thinking - what actually makes a place feel like home, and where is that supposed to be? I guess, in the end, as a social minority group, there's always a price that we have to pay. I'm just glad that I can finally allowed myself to live life without fears. As I am writing and posting this, Malaysia celebrates our 69th Merdeka. A truly meaningful number indeed. Selamat Hari Merdeka!
If you're interested in my past updates - do check out my previous Monthly Review or Year In Review!
As always, thanks for reading and I will see you again in my next post! If you haven't already, be sure to follow me on my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for the latest updates!
Cheers,
Gracie