My Personal Finance Journey

Personal finance observation, musing and decisions in a journey toward financial independence by 2020 with at least $3 million.


By Topics

Overall:
0. About (10)
1. My Progress (139)
2. Car & Home (107)
3. Credit (138)
4. Banking (33)
5. Saving (49)
6. Investing (308)
7. Taxes (89)
8. Spending (74)
9. Misc (97)
A. Archive (49)



MONTHLY ARCHIVE

Feb 2014 (3)
Jan 2014 (6)
Jan 2012 (1)
Apr 2011 (1)
Mar 2011 (1)
Feb 2011 (1)
Jan 2011 (1)
Dec 2010 (1)
Oct 2010 (1)
Sep 2010 (1)
Aug 2010 (1)
Jul 2010 (1)
Jun 2010 (1)
May 2010 (1)
Apr 2010 (1)
Mar 2010 (6)
Feb 2010 (2)
Jan 2010 (7)
Dec 2009 (3)
Feb 2009 (4)
Jan 2009 (8)
Dec 2008 (1)
Jun 2008 (2)
May 2008 (2)
Apr 2008 (5)
Feb 2008 (3)
Jan 2008 (15)
Dec 2007 (32)
Nov 2007 (6)
Oct 2007 (8)
Sep 2007 (9)
Aug 2007 (24)
Jul 2007 (2)
Jun 2007 (1)
May 2007 (3)
Apr 2007 (4)
Mar 2007 (4)
Feb 2007 (13)
Jan 2007 (6)
Dec 2006 (3)
Nov 2006 (7)
Oct 2006 (7)
Sep 2006 (6)
Aug 2006 (4)
Jul 2006 (10)
Jun 2006 (1)
May 2006 (3)
Apr 2006 (2)
Mar 2006 (6)
Feb 2006 (6)
Jan 2006 (3)
Dec 2005 (1)
Nov 2005 (9)
Oct 2005 (8)
Sep 2005 (13)
Aug 2005 (25)
Jul 2005 (16)
Jun 2005 (17)
May 2005 (19)
Apr 2005 (20)
Mar 2005 (24)
Feb 2005 (23)
Jan 2005 (36)
Dec 2004 (40)
Nov 2004 (34)
Oct 2004 (17)
Sep 2004 (21)
Aug 2004 (59)
Jul 2004 (37)
Jun 2004 (31)
May 2004 (29)
Apr 2004 (52)
Mar 2004 (49)
Feb 2004 (49)
Jan 2004 (31)
Dec 2003 (48)
Nov 2003 (52)
Oct 2003 (29)
Sep 2003 (8)
Aug 2003 (5)
Jul 2003 (2)
Jun 2003 (2)
May 2003 (5)
Apr 2003 (2)
Mar 2003 (2)
Feb 2003 (3)
Jan 2003 (29)



 

Bye Bye 2008

Contributed by mm | December 31, 2008 2:51 PM PST

2008 is finally around the corner now. What a busy year! Now 2008 will soon be a memory, I took the chance to write a final annual summary so the year will be remembered when I looked back decades from now.

Family

What's Good: My wife, my son and I, as a family, has much stronger bonding compared to last year. We enjoyed a lot of precious family moments. My wife continues to have success in her great freelance job, and my son, now at grade 2, is starting to having fun in his school. Everyone, including my extended families, is still healthy.

What's Not So Good: Really nothing. I feel blessed our family is growing in the right direction.

Work

What's Good: I'm taking much more responsibilities at work than a year ago and received an important promotion as a result. I continue to feel valued and am excited to come to work on most of the days. I derive a lot of fun working with my team, including my new boss who was parachuted to us 6 months ago.

What's Not So Good: For the entire year, I was essentially taking the workload of two, and the financial crisis has been challenging the effectiveness of our team to optimize resources. Many times, I felt I am consumed by the work by having to get up 6am in the morning and attend late-night calls. Also, I took more business trips than last year -- I spent altogether over 100 days on the road for business. To some extent, the economic crisis and accompanying reduced level of business travel is a blessing :-) In all means, 2008 is simply the busiest year ever I had in my career.

World Exploring

What's Good: My job keeps taking me to new places of the world (that it, before the financial crisis hits us and we mandated a travel freeze), and we as a family continue to enjoy from traveling. New places visited: Vietnam, Taiwan, Spain, Belgium, Netherland and Denmark. Family trips: Seattle, Los Angeles and Sanya -- we love beaches, isn't it?

What's Not So Good: There are still many fascinating places on our plan for a long time but we never made it to our itinerary. On the watch for 2009: Egypt and Greece.

Financials

What's Good: If I have to pick up some silver linings, that'll be that I still have a highly paid job that is safe, and I can still provide for the family and keep a highly positive cash flow without dropping quality of life.

What's Not So Good: Our portfolio of $800k at the start of the year is not spared of the financial crisis and the worst stock market performance in decades. Albeit the positive monthly cash flow we used to infuse our portfolio, we ended the year with less money than we started the year with. 2008 might be remembered as the year that is lost.

Blogging

What's Good: Hmmm … thank you for still reading this post after the seven-month drought.

What's Not So Good: I can make excuse about heavy workload, writer's block or blogging fatigue, but the fact is I do feel bad I didn't keep the blog alive for the most part of the year. Let me make a wish to do better in 2009 -- after all, the bar I set in 2008 is low enough to cross.

So Bye Bye! Sayonara! Adieu! I look forward to a different 2009 that will bring new surprises and happiness.

More PFBlog Articles You Might Find Interesting ...


This Post Has Received 5 Comments. Share Your Opinions Too.


K Commented on January 1, 2009

I still check in from time to time, so I'm glad you're back, and despite ending the year below where you started at the beginning of 2008, you seem to have been spared more than most in terms of total percentage down. Hope you find the time to post more regularly next year.


S. Commented on January 2, 2009

Hello, we missed you. I was actually worried since we didnt hear from you since China quake. And I kind of thought that you were in China. Please let us know how come you had such a long absence. I'm sure many readers are wondering.

Good to see you back.


fast personal loan Commented on January 8, 2009

Be it a big businessman or a common worker, anybody can face immediate need of money. It can be a repayment of previous debts, home improvement, medical emergency or any other requirement that drives this requirement. As you need the cash immediately and do not have time to go through long formalities for loan approval, instant approval personal loans comes to your rescue in such a situation.


Arthur C. Lee Commented on January 9, 2009

I am glad that you kept the blog going. I am a regular reader.


SS Commented on January 15, 2009

Dude!!! where have you been? I seriously thought something bad happened to you...jeez. I even posted on savingadvice.com to see if anyone knew. Really glad to see you and your family's well.



Read More ... 139 Posts In The Same Category










This page was last rebuilt at January 27, 2014 07:33 AM PST.
 

RSS FEED





PERSONAL FINANCE BLOGS I READ

Consumerism Commentary
Get Rich Slowly
My Money Blog
All Financial Matters
The Simple Dollar






.

Error 500 - Internal server error

Error 500 - Internal server error

An internal server error has occured!
Please try again later.



Copyright 2003-2014, PFBlog.com. All Rights Reserved. (Privacy Policy)