As the year 2016 ends, I just want to share an update of my financial freedom journey that started the same time I built this blog.

I was inclined to write this post after I read Bro Bo’s Year-end letter to Truly Rich Club members.

In the letter, he discussed where his financial journey is right now and where is he headed this coming 2017.

So I decided to analyze my journey too to also know where am I right now.

Before the year ends, here’s a recap on what I did and where I’m planning to head on.

#1 My Savings And The 52-Week Money Challenge

Fig. 1 The money I saved by doing the 52-Week Money Challenge.

I consistently saved 5% of my salary into my savings account to build my emergency fund little by little. I will continue to do this 2017.

I also started doing the 52-week money challenge this year and the money I saved was spent to reward myself this Christmas.

The lesson I learned here is that it isn’t impossible to save as long as you have conviction in doing it. I’m planning on doing this again. But this time, I’m going to triple the weekly increments.

The 52-week money challenge is a fun challenge to do especially if you can save more like the guy who went viral by saving a staggering P68,900 pesos in the news clip below.

The guy is a perfect example of a goal-driven saver. Learning the habit of saving is hard, but it becomes easier if you do it with a system like this one.

So this 2017, I hope you start saving too.

#2 My Investments In The Stock Market

91% of my current wealth is invested in the stock market while 9% is cash. This doesn’t include any material properties and money owed to me by other people. It makes sense because I don’t plan on selling them and if the money owed to me turns bad, I may not be able to get that money.

Notice that I’m heavily invested in stocks even though the market is on the downtrend right now because I do value-based investing philosophies; buying companies at depressed prices and waiting for the markets to recover. From a 25% gain last August, I’m down at -15%.

I have bought a fair amount of undervalued stocks. I’m confident at the prices I bought them and will continue to average down if the markets continue to offer wonderful discounted prices.

If the markets continue to go sideways, I’ll continue to average down my holdings and maybe buy some of the stocks in my watch list that’s worth buying.

I need to invest aggressively if I want to become financially stable at the age of 40. This is something I’m really passionate about in achieving.

I also realize that investing is not enough. I have to increase my income and that’s what I started doing this year.

#3 My Multiple Streams Of Income

Apart from my day job salary, I have also established a passive income of my own. Currently, I’m now earning an 11% average of my active income in passive income. The income varies every month but it has been consistent this whole year.

I want this coming year to double it or at least reach as high as 25% and continue to double it at the succeeding years. I can’t go full-time right now because of my job commitments. I’m just lucky enough that I have a job where I can also monitor my stock investments and passive income streams.

One of my goals is to surpass my active income by my passive income. Doing so will enable me to invest more and start thinking about getting an insurance for my protection.

#4 My Insurance

I’m currently insured in Truly Rich Club’s free insurance worth Php 100,000 pesos. Bo mentioned that he’ll offer a Php 1 Million life insurance on a very affordable price of approximately Php 2,000 pesos based on my age bracket. If that will push through this 2017, I’m going to get one.

I also realized the importance of having an insurance. But with my present cash flow, I just couldn’t afford it.

Well, I can afford it but I would sacrifice the funding of my investments which I’m not willing to do. For now, the only way to get one is to earn more in my passive income and use those earnings to buy this cheap insurance that will be offered by Truly Rich Club.

So for now, Php 100,000 pesos will do until I get my hands on TRC’s 1 Million life insurance.

#5 The Blog And My Plans For It This 2017

If I have a choice, I would want to make stock valuation posts three times a week. I tried it this year but I failed. I just don’t have enough time.

Valuations take a lot of my time that’s why I wasn’t able to do most of the requests. Most of my time is spent in reading articles and books about the stock market and Internet Marketing.

Funny is that I really don’t fancy reading back then when I was financially illiterate. Financial literacy really changed me. I’ve transformed from a “watching TV all day” guy into a “reading stock market books” guy. I become hungry for knowledge and the knowledge I learned is now being shared with you in every posts I make in this blog.

I’m planning to dedicate a lot of time in this blog this 2017 so that I can share a lot of my insights and investing strategies to those people who would benefit from it.

I would also like to thank the readers for making this blog a success. I started this blog with the intention of just documenting my investing journey but has slowly transformed into a value investing blog because of the wonderful messages I received in my inbox and private messages.

To those that criticized, I also thank you because I used those criticisms to improve my knowledge and wisdom. I don’t want to become the smartest guy in the group. I’m always seeking people who are better than me to get their insights, learn from them and imitate their success. I love learning from different kinds of people.

If you learned something from this blog, I hope you will be able to apply them in the real world and become successful in your own efforts.

I’m looking forward to more value posts this 2017 and I hope to receive more feedbacks from my readers.

My Final Thoughts This 2016

My financial journey has just began. The goal to financial freedom is still very far from my reach. But with the developments I’m seeing, I’m positive that it wouldn’t be long to become financially stable.

My final message is to you is to arm yourself with a lot of financial knowledge this 2017. Take into action on everything you learn and prepare to lose some to gain more.

Learn to save, invest and increase your cash flow. That’s it from 2016 and I hope that we be blessed this coming 2017!

So what are your financial plans this 2017? I would really like to know. Kindly leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Merry Christmas to you!