Year-end Health & Fitness Report 2024

 

As I mentioned during in June, I will issue my investment portfolio report together with a "health report", since "health is wealth." One should not try to increase monetary wealth if it causes health and fitness to decline. 

I am pleased to note that I am on track with my fitness goals. I have no plans to aim for a VO2Max increase to elite (top 5%) levels as that might result in overtraining and injury.  Instead, I will just do what I am doing now, and we'll see where that takes me. I'm also happy to report that I managed to lose a little bit of weight since June 2024 and my BMI continues to be in the healthy range and a little further from the 23.0 overweight zone.

One thing that I have learnt in my current health journey is that the negativity surrounding ultra processed foods is totally justified. If you are going to spend money on health & fitness, you don't have to spend it on expensive and unnecessary gym memberships. Instead, you should purchase & consume whole foods with as little processing as possible.

Unfortunately for fitness enthusiasts, a lot of protein supplements fall into the borderline ultra-processed category, so if you can eat sashimi instead of a protein bar, that may well be better (Salmon sashimi is cheaper and has lower mercury content than tuna sashimi by the way - so I save my tuna sashimi consumption for my Japan holidays...) 

Year-end Portfolio Update 2024

 

This is my semi-annual portfolio update. As I am trying to reduce the number of counters that I hold, I do not expect many more additions to the list. I might possibly want to accumulate more Legal & General. Singtel has dropped to the medium category because I sold some at 3.33. If it drops below $3, I don't mind buying some more though. 

The HK market had a bit of a rally in 2024 and together with my regular RSP, 2800.HK has moved back to the large category.

My Gold Bars having finally moved into the medium category (based on spot price rather than bar resale price). I haven't bought gold for maybe 7-8 years, so this is just the result of gentle price appreciation. Finally Nike is something I have bought for short-term trading, but since I am a fan of Nike apparel, it is something that I may be buying and selling frequently in the course of the year.

Financial Independence & Term Insurance

 

There was a discussion in the forums about Term Insurance with one user "complaining" that the premiums increased significantly past age 62. Actually the premiums usually increase every 5 years by quite a bit, so by the time you hit age 60+, the premiums may more than tripled versus age 40.

The usual response is that at age 62, you should not have any more dependents who need to be 'protected' against your untimely death or TPD.

I have a term policy and since I have set up GIRO payment the premiums get auto-deducted so I haven't paid much attention to it.

But now, after thinking about it, it really seems that Term insurance is not particularly important to me now that I am financially independent with a steady stream of passive income. Furthermore, my cash and cash equivalent holdings exceed my term insurance coverage by quite a bit.  

I'll think about it some more, but I should set myself a to-do list to discontinue my term plan within the next few years.  After a few years, my passive income should have grown even further (and so will the cash-equivalent holdings), which means there is even less reason to have a term policy

Dividends Collected: Nov 2024

 

$200k reached for 2024. December is usually a quiet month so this is more or less the final amount plus or minus a couple of thousand.