Tag Archives: Finance

2023 The Shape of Net Worth Growth


Net worth growth from 2008 to 2023
Net worth growth from 2008 to 2023

Net worth grows 29.31% this year compared to the beginning of 2023. The growth is mainly contributed by saving, dividends and capital gains (on paper).

The shape of net worth growth of Warren Buffett

Image credit: https://finmasters.com/warren-buffett-net-worth/#gref

AgeYearNet Worth USDNet Worth USD (Inflation adjusted to 2023)
1419445,00087,230.40
1519456,000102,350.33
19194910,000129,013.03
21195120,000236,193.08
26195626,000293,504.63
3019601,000,00010,373,344.59
3319632,400,00024,082,431.37
3519657,000,00068,233,555.56
37196710,000,00091,931,437.13
39196925,000,000209,162,806.54
43197334,000,000235,129,144.14
44197419,000,000118,336,085.19
47197767,000,000339,478,828.38
521982376,000,0001,196,385,243.52
531983620,000,0001,911,361,646.59
5619861,400,000,0003,922,184,306.57
5819882,300,000,0005,969,715,131.02
5919893,800,000,0009,409,627,419.35
66199617,000,000,00033,268,750,796.69
72200236,000,000,00061,444,335,742.08
83201358,500,000,00077,106,433,805.38
922022109,000,000,000114,361,821,940.51

The table above shows the net worth of Warren Buffett by his age.

I am using this calculator https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ to adjust the USD amount of respective year to USD of the year 2023.

Warren Buffett was a few hundred times more productive than I am when I am at his age. The gap only gets larger over time.

That is the power of finding your passion young and focus on your passion for a long period of time for compound interest to work its magic.

Stream of dividend incomes

I treat this post as a shareholder letter to myself. I will report my dividend incomes for the year 2023.

Below are the total dividend collected for the whole of 2023 from Malaysia, America, Singapore, Europe and Hong Kong.

Year-MonthMYRUSDSGDEURHKD
2023-122652.48348.751280.4720.711270.73
2023-11684.12144.99136.41.27180
2023-102611.8643.37363.1342.642271.42
2023-092541.1287.771691.0267.176271.06
2023-081439.44252.22104.4542.644236.15
2023-072392.1498.84122.13130.384235.9
2023-061900.7235.961700.2139.312557.8
2023-051739.8895.473854.34873.641742.3
2023-041939.57140.55304.7813.85368.1
2023-032540.3207.78785.8756.391427.2
2023-02482.94100.82302.922.63120
2023-011490.58165.0624.7553.121172
Total over 12 months22415.112121.5612670.471343.7525852.66
Total over 12 months in MYR22415.119748.5644111.046828.8515217.38

The table above shows the monthly dividend collected for the past 12 months in respective currency from the countries where the dividend comes.

The last row converts the amount to MYR (ringgit) using these conversion rates as of 29 December 2023 from Google:

  • MYR/USD = 0.2176279
  • MYR/SGD = 0.2872403
  • MYR/EUR = 0.1967752
  • MYR/HKD = 1.69889

Total dividend collected for 2023 in RM 98,320.96.

This is roughly RM 8,193 per month or RM 11.20 per hour for the whole year.

Whether I am sleeping or busy having fun, these countries are working hard to make me wealthier around the clock. Life can’t get better than that.

Musing on investing

I spent a lot of time thinking about investing. What is investing in a nutshell? Below are my views after getting burned and making endless mistakes over more than a decade of investing in stock market.

Picking bad stocks does more harm than missing out on big winners elsewhere.

Good investing skill is about preventing future disaster. Good understanding of the market reduces risk by more effectively preventing disaster.

Prevention is more effective than cure. But cure grabs headlines. Prevention work that is done well is like nothing ever happened.

Investing is prevention work. What the wise does in the beginning that the fool does in the end. Avoid delusion to prevent disaster.

After you become good at preventing disaster, ensure what you own are what you really want. Know what you want to know how to choose. Each choice is an investment decision in disguise.

A bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush. Play whatever cards that are dealt well. Treasure what you have, make the most out of them. Double-down on winners.

Hindsights are sources of insights. You see better after-the-fact, when the dust settled following the well beaten path. This is counterintuitively the path less taken by the majority.

Midas touch: whatever you touch becomes gold is a game for the fools. Whatever is gold, you touch. Play predictable games where you have better odds of winning. Use common sense. Thinking things through. See things as they are and beyond. Buy productivity.

Recognise good behaviour and bad behaviour. Good behaviour prevents disaster. Good behaviour is what matter in investing.

Happy new year.

2022 The Shape of Net Worth Growth

Net Worth Growth Chart since 2008 till end of 2022

Net worth grows 12.66% this year. This is the second lowest growth rate since 2018 where it grew at 12.31%.

I work harder this year even though the return is lower. This is fine as the outcome rarely correlates perfectly to the effort we put in. The world is more random than we thought.

I gained new investment insight this year which is that ensuring portfolio longevity is more important than getting high return in any particular year since most of the gains in the market are driven by tail events that are unpredictable. We will benefit from these events eventually if we survive long enough in the market regardless of our investment skill.

In other words, large margin of safety eliminates the need of investment edge.

In investment world, as well as in life, behaving well is very rewarding as it increases our chance of survival. It is especially critical during crisis. When we survive longer, we are automatically exposed to the unlimited upsides from the market. We become the inevitable beneficiaries of whatever the market produces in the future.

There is no need to chase returns.

We think linearly and the world does not work in a linear fashion. By the time we see good returns from other people investing in certain assets, it is too late. Also we will not be able to recognise that particular investment as a good investment in the first place. It is just an illusion caused by our own bias and incompatibility between linear thinking and non-linear reality.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that impatience is greed in disguise: the urge to want everything and to want them now. And we are greedy by nature. Impatience causes us to misbehave. We can’t have everything from economic perspective and not to mention everything at once. Knowing this fact is a huge investment edge.

Good behaviour is knowing what is good and is actually doing it.

Be patience is a timeless investment principle. When we are doing something that is timeless, it is as if we are already living in the future. We bring the future forward since there is no difference between now and the future when the time is not a factor. Speed is pointless in a timeless world. Chasing returns is pointless and exposes us to risk of ruin.

In a nutshell, slow is faster. It is more enjoyable too as I have plenty of time and peace of mind. Peace of mind is priceless in a noisy world.

Contrarian is by default unpopular and misunderstood by the majority. Sometimes it even looks dumb. Contrarians are those who choose the road less traveled which makes all the differences in investing and in life.

2021 The Shape of Net Worth Growth

Net Worth Growth Chart since 2008 till end of 2021
Year Growth (%)
2008 19.62
2009 37.46
2010 59.38
2011 26.47
2012 28.38
2013 27.55
2014 35.23
2015 47.25
2016 24.29
2017 44.62
2018 12.31
2019 38.29
2020 25.86
2021 47.36

The net worth is growing at roughly 35.58% per annum since 2008.

In another words, the net worth grew roughly 56-fold over the last 13.22 years since I started tracking my finance.

To put things into perspective, here are the performances of legendary investors:

Investor Return per annum (%) Multiplier Period
Warren Buffett 31.6 17.2 (in less than 11 years) 1957 – 1968
Peter Lynch 29.2 28 (over 13 years) 31 May 1977 – 31 May 1990
Nick Sleep 20.4 9.21 (in less than 13 years) 2001 – 2014
Charlie Munger 19.8 10.5 (over 13 years) 1962 – 1975

It is very challenging to find investments with that kind of returns that last for more than a decade.

As Warren Buffett said, “The best investment you can make is in yourself.”

It is true. It works!

Invest in myself gives me the best returns so far.

I need to learn more to earn more. This is an unbreakable financial law.

There’s no limit to what I can learn with an open mind. This means there’s no limit to what I can earn which I don’t mind. 🙂