Ha.
I prepped this headline, thinking I would write and publish it on first of January 2024 – lo and behold, it’s already 22nd January 2024.
But we got sick (yes, again eurgh) and it’s not a bad start though. Let me share with you how I started the year and what my plans are, and my hopes for you.
When 2023 was coming to an end, it ended with a lot of uncertainty and some anxiety, be it my health or my business. And I wrote how the high interest rates had been hurting our business, people’s spending (including healthcare spending) and the economy which in turn also increased costs of living and doing business.
It was hard.
First, my core business.
It was harder when one of my two anchor clients up-and-left after years of me taking care of her over her uncertain years, and when her uncertainties had cleared up, she gave her notice and left. Just like that, no room for discussions. To make things worse, she decided to follow me to learn the ropes of connecting with referral partners before leaving to start her own with another. She said she did nothing wrong, because she hadnt decided to leave yet, so that doesnt count.
Oof, that hurt.
Lesson #1: always deconcentrate risks and diversify. Life and business goes on, and I continue to build the business. I got a replacement therapist, who is an even better one, who had his own practice but needs structure and help.
One day it suddenly waned on me:
Lesson #2: Life is sort of balanced and fair – some may leave to open their own practices; some have practices failing to join me and bringing their clients to us too.
That led to my January 2024 numbers being a little healthier than the last quarter, and I’m layering onto it with more growth moves with marketing partners and other healthcare vendors.
Lesson #3: Sales & Marketing is perpetual. If you run a business like me, remember that you always need to dedicate resources (budget, time and effort) to sales and marketing, not leaving sales and marketing to last minute or when you need it. If you do it regularly, you’d never “need need” it, and if you only do it when you need it, it’s too irregular.
Investment
With the upcoming halving of Bitcoin (April 2024), the cryptocurrency market is heating up. The price of BTC, ETH and generally all crypto has increased and looks like this year may be a bull market.
I would say that it’s contingent on the Feds lowering interest rates (cheap money = more inflow) but I think that’s just one factor, added to other factors such as BTC halving, people turning away from central money etc.
Lesson #4: The goal for my crypto this year or during the bull run: to take profits at a bare minimum of 3X – 10X. It’s never shameful or stupid to take profits. I missed my chances to take more delicious profits (though I did cash out some to buy my apartment), and I wont repeat it this time.
I’m also getting used to the idea of investing into physical assets such as commercial properties which not only dont have ABSD (additional buyer stamp duty), but is something that I can operate my primary business with or at least, rent out for passive rental income.
Most of the time, commercial units in SG yield about 3% so that’s pretty low compared to index funds, but it’s not an either-or move, it’s a both move. I am getting more comfortable with the idea of buying a bunch of commercial properties to fuel our lifestyle, and a portion of the profits to invest in more commercial properties AND index funds.
Lesson #5: cashflow AND capital gains is the name of the game of money and early retirement. We all live on cashflow, income, so building and acquiring passive income assets needs to become our #1 focus if you want to retire early or retire with lots of options and income. Crypto for me was predominantly a buy-and-hold strategy, ie selling at capital gains, but there’s a lot of skills and things one can do for cashflow which I didnt prioritize.
For you, what to prepare for 2024
This year, I want you to:
- Save more. Cut out all the unnecessary stuff that you dont use. Subscriptions or whatnot – if you dont use it, lose it.
- Earn more. Ask for that pay increment. Hustle on the side. Whatever. Aim for at least an additional $1K/month extra (of course ideally more), which I want you to invest into:
- Passive Income Investments, such as index funds or REITs. Or if you can save enough for downpayment for rental properties. Reinvest half of any dividends, and spend the other 25% on fun stuff and the last 25% to
- Improve / Upgrade yourself: go for courses, buy books, learn and upskill yourself
Just do that first.
As your income increases be it from pay increment or your side hustles, put in more and more into the passive income investments. Ideally $25K or more per year.
All these leads to target destination: streams and streams of passive income.