Ringgit Freedom’s September 2024 Updates

Updated October 4, 2024

~6 mins read

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!

My Life & Mental State

Quarter 3 in 2024 have been kind to me. I've started to create more pockets of time to spend some quality moments with my mom, amidst my chaotic working schedule.

Not just with family, I've also been spending quite some time (and money) in aspects of self-love and self-care. Went for a personal colour analysis session to better understand suitable colour (and fashion style) for myself and this gave me a good reason to start some spring cleaning exercise on my wardrobe.

Doing all these as a start so that I can learn to better appreciate both my natural beauty - and most importantly my flaws. Approaching it step by step seems like a good way to start, considering that I've never really "cared" too much about my skin or fashion. Gotta start taking care of my skin before it's too late!

And not to forget, finally, my braces are off too! Now I've gotta learn how to smile... confidently. Something that I've never done in my current lifetime.

On the not-so-bright side though - I had a chance to snatch some last minute ticket for IU HEREH ENCORE Concert @ Seoul as some people gave up / refunded their seats 72 hours before the concert. I was literally at the check-out page and was inputting my card details!

And what took it away? My own hesitation. I wasn't really sure if I could commit to such a last minute trip, and was also worried about the flight & accomodation price due to the short notice. In that span of the moment of checking flight ticket prices, the transaction got timed out and I lost my chance altogether :'). On one hand, it's a semi-good news where I avoided a financial disaster for September (you'll see why in a bit...) but on the other hand, the sad reality struck me as I instantly felt the regret of "not trying" than regret of "doing".

Made it to the checkout screen 72 hours before concert cause someone refunded their ticket...
Only to lose the seat to my own hesitation. Error message basically says "Invalid sales, please try again".

Guess this will be my mantra going forward - better regret for trying than to regret for giving up. Heck, I've even applied & secured K-ETA approval and was prepared to fly on a short notice... why the hesitation 🙁

Now, going back to our usual monthly update for my finances and portfolios.


My Financials

Expenses

Jul - Sep 2024 Expenses At A Glance

I've decided to change the format a little. Rather than should Year-to-Date figures which is quite difficult to make comparisons to in later part of the years, I'll just do quarterly expenses review and only show the Year to Date in the final yearly review.

Just as the first two quarters of 2024, half of my expenses were actually put into my mortgage - both principal and interest included. If I can keep this up, it shouldn't take more than 5 years for me to write off my mortgage loan. May not be the best thing to do from financial numbers perspective, but I'm doing it anyway. The thoughts of being debt-free to me is priceless, no matter what the math says. Just treating it as a premium to be paid for peace of mind.

Aside from this, I've spent quite some figures (up to 20% of total expenses) on purchases for either myself or my family. For one, I've finally pressed the 'BUY' button and managed to get my mom an iPhone 15 - her first iPhone ever. This is also probably 3rd "new" phone she ever owned - with the first two "new" phone being sub-RM500 phones. Whilst she doesn't say it and kept nagging me on how I've wasted money on her, I can see her smile deep inside. That is definitely a worthwhile experience for me especially since she liked taking photos. Bought it right before iPhone 16 too - not the best, but god a pretty good deal at RM3100 for 256GB iPhone 15.

From another front - just as the last couple of years, September is usually my "spending" month where I splurge on self-care as I've mentioned in the opening of this post. Definitely should start tightening my spendings and bring it back in control - otherwise I'll be missing this year's saving rate target for sure...

Savings Rate

Savings Rate as of September 2024

Yup. As explained earlier - September definitely is not looking good. As a matter of fact, the last couple of months weren't looking good as well. Quarter 4 will be the deciding moment on whether if I'll miss my savings goal target for this year

Savings Trend as of September 2024
Savings Target as of September 2024

Emergency Jar

Nothing much to be said for the Emergency Jar - still there for the day that I wish will never come.

Savings Jar as of September 2024

My "Freedom" Investments

Performance

Freedom Portfolio Launch-to-Date Performance as of September 2024
Freedom Portfolio Year-to-Date Performance as of September 2024

Activities

Right before the end of September, China decided to do something which helped them to finally rally their stock markets, helping me to boost my portfolio value. At least my China ETFs are no longer in the red, which is a good sight after a depressing 3 years.

On the other hand, since I do have quite some subtiantial holdings denominated in foreign currencies like USD, SGD, and AUD - the recent strengthening of Ringgit (which is a good thing) definitely hit my portfolio hard. On paper, I'm losing at least 8% - 12% alone between the start of Q3 until today just from currency alone. But it's all on paper anyway so I don't really care. In any case, I am overweighted on MYR for sure, considering my EPF alone already exceeds the size of my self-managed Freedom Portfolio.

Good thing is that the US stock market index continues to rise so that kinda offset the "losses" too - but honestly not sure for how long. Everything feels overvalued nowadays.

Allocation

Freedom Portfolio Allocation by Region/Asset Group as of September 2024
Freedom Portfolio Allocation by Sector as of September 2024

Snapshot as of 30 September 2024

Note: For the definition of snapshots, please check My Portfolio where I elaborated it in detail.

Sold (Retired) Portfolio (accumulative)
IRR: 0.44%
ROI: 0.67%
Profit/Loss: RM 1,971.97

Active (Invested) Portfolio
IRR: 12.49%
ROI: 20.26%
Profit/Loss: RM 82,282.73
True Cost: RM 366,513.82
Total Value: RM 487,698.67
Entrance Value: RM 386,803.42
Portfolio Value: RM 472,470.22
Nett Dividend (2024): RM 3,230.64

Active Portfolio as of September 2024

Oh - I've also just created this new chart and decided to add it to my blog as well - basically to show the Realized Gains/(Losses) and Dividends that I've received so far, in comparison to the paper gain/(losses) which are still unrealized to date.

Year-over-Year Freedom Portfolio Performance as of September 2024 (excluding EPF)

Net Worth Updates

My net worth continues to climb this quarter - primarily attributed to the soaring stock market both in the US and China.

Net Worth Tracker as of September 2024

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

This article was originally published on October 4, 2024
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