Happy new year 2026! As usual, the start of the year is a great time to review the last. Since this is a family finance blog, I will review our investment portfolio, net worth, and share other relevant updates.

Investment Portfolio

Our family portfolio value increased by around S$160k or ~42% from S$380k to S$540k, with slightly more than half from cash injections and slightly less than half from investment returns. Excluding cash contributions, portfolio returns was ~18% which is somewhere in between S&P 500 return of 16% and Nasdaq return of 19%.

For this portfolio, I’m pretty happy with returns keeping up closely with Nasdaq, despite being heavy in global and US broad ETFs. Over the past few years, I’ve whittled down the number of individual stocks to now just 7 besides the ETFs. In the long-term, I’m trying to minimise the number of holdings in this portfolio to keep it low-maintenance and as close to passive as possible.

Net Worth

Since 2018, I’ve been taking snapshots of our family net worth every year end/start. So far, I find that tracking net worth helps me zoom out and take a bird’s eye view of our family’s financial health and direction. Without revealing actual figures, I wanted to share some of my learnings and insight from the data I’ve compiled so far over the years.

Latest snapshot as at end 2025 shows that majority of family net worth is pretty much split evenly between CPF, stocks, and property (net of loan). Our property is our residential home (not for investment) but included anyway for a complete picture. We don’t have any other investment property.

Over the years since mid-2017 when I started tracking net worth, our net worth has grown steadily as expected due to saving more than spending. One highlight is how much stocks (yellow bars) have helped grow net worth and I expect them to continue to be the heavy-weights to carry our net worth growth.

Besides total net worth, I separately break out liquid net worth as well excluding CPF and live-in property. One clear takeaway is how much faster liquid net worth is growing since 2023, in tandem with the bull market. 2022 was a bear market so net worth was almost flat that year. As our net worth becomes more dependent on stocks, we will probably need to turn more conservative as we approach retirement further down the road.

Overall in 2025, our total net worth and liquid net worth has increase by 14% and 25% respectively.

Other Updates

I’ve posted much less last year mainly due to a job change last February. The new job is a step into a different but related sector of the aviation industry, so I’ve been spending more time learning the ropes. Hopefully as the dust settles and I get more into the rhythm of the new role, I can find more time to post.

On a more reflective note, as our portfolio stabilises, career hitting maturity stages, kids going into school-going years, and as I turn the big four-O this year, I’ve been thinking a bit more about retirement planning.

Starting on retirement planning early is great but I do think that it’s tough with so many uncertainties ahead when you’re young. Now at a later stage in life with many big ticket items out of the way (and closer to retirement age as well), I do feel that there’s more clarity in the retirement planning parameters. I’ve spent some time projecting our portfolio growth, potential income, and family expenses to approximate the age we can “retire” (although we haven’t defined it for ourselves yet). Will share more maybe in another post.

Of course, there will still be many unforeseen surprises and we will never know for sure which path God will lead us on but I think there’s still wisdom in planning as long as we’re not fixated on the plan and outcome.

Or maybe I’m just getting old. Wishing you and your family a wonderful, fruitful and meaningful year ahead!

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I am not professional financial advisor nor do I work in the finance industry. Anything I write here is purely my personal opinion. Please do your own research and due diligence before investing into anything. All investments come with associated risks. Best to consult a financial advisor if you’re still unsure.

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