Review of 2014 Goals

Year 2014 is going to end soon. Generally it is a great year for me.

At this time last year, I have actually written down my goals in this blog. However, I didn't publish it. I can still find the draft in this blog.

I divided my goals to short term (1 year), mid-term (2-5 years) & long-term (>5 years).

I don't have too many goals for 2014, similar to Liverpool FC in the second half of 2014.

I have only 3 specific short-term goals to achieve this year, which are family trip abroad, house renovation & having my third child. Thankfully all have been accomplished.

The best gift of the year will be undoubtedly my baby born in December :)

Financially it is another money out more than money in year, after year 2012. 

While house renovation takes up a big chunk of spending, having a baby does not come "cheap" either.

For those future father & mother, here are some expenses to anticipate in the first 30 days:

• Normal delivery at private hospital (general room) - RM2400
• Confinement fee (at home) - RM3700
• Traditional massage - RM950
• Traditional medicine & items in confinement - RM1500
• Full moon package & vouchers - RM1000

So, it is approximately RM10,000 extra spending in the first month after having a baby!

Anyway, this will differ between every person. If the baby is born in government hospital, or your mother can do the confinement for you, then you will save a lot of money.

For the renovation part, RM30,000 was "sacrificed" as planned. However, there was another RM8,000 unexpected extra renovation job...

Family trip to China earlier in mid-2014 has eaten up another RM10,000.

Do not think the this amount of money is small case for me, it actually hurts my net worth significantly.

I need to sell quite a lot of shares in the end of this year to pay for these expenses, and the timing is bad.

As the market drops tremendously during this time, what should I sell and when should I sell? This really gave me some headache.

Not only I missed out again the chance to buy cheap shares, I need to sell the shares cheap.

I think I should keep enough cash.

However, after selling some shares, I even think of buying some other shares, and I nearly do it!

How many times have I said that I want to keep cash?

As for my shares portfolio, even though the return has dropped tremendously in the last 3 months, I guess YTD result still manage to stay in the positive territory (I hope so).

I will only calculate the investment result in the end of month, but surely it will not achieve my target of 30% annual return (please don't shoot me for having such ambitious target).