Financial New Year Resolution for 2026: Galloping Ahead in the Year of the Horse!

Holy shit, I'm already 35. Time sure pass quickly when you're in your 30s. Hence, as 2026 just started, its time to review my new year resolutions and set a few clear and measurable financial goals. This post is written in reference to my previous year's post "Financial New Year Resolutions for 2025," as this allows me to see my progress in achieving what I set out previously and to see if my "financial goalpost has shifted."

1. Gun for $1,000 per month passive income.

Previously I didn't review my month passive income, but given that some visible numbers make for a richer discussion, here we go. Once again, disclaimer that everyone's financial situation is different, hence whether $1,000 monthly passive income is "enough" for you really depends on your personalized situation. 

Why $1,000 per month? 2 simple reasons. Firstly, $1,000 per month represents a sizeable enough amount that allows you to off-load some bigger ticket expenses like your parents allowance, subscriptions, yearly dental visit etc. Secondly, $1,000 per month would be the first 4 digit passive income achieved and such financial milestones would certainly be psychologically encouraging. 

Did I hit $1,000 per month passive income in 2025? Drum rolls...NOPE. Haha ok so here's the serious numbers. What I can reveal, is that I hit a total $11,193 in annual passive income for 2025. Hence, $11,193 / 12 months = $932.75. Well I didn't hit my target, but as least you know the saying, "aim for the moon and you fall at least on the skies." This marks some serious progress towards building a sustainable secondary stream of passive income that is predictable, reliable and well-diversified across local blue chip stocks, REITS, stock ETFs and fixed income ETFs.

2. Yes boring works. For 2026, I'll aim to maintain an 80:20 equity-bond portfolio as per previous year.

Ok good people. Listen, everyone have different risk appetite and investment objectives, hence, what works for me would likely not work for you (unless we have exactly the same set of life circumstances as me, which lets just say is upright impossible). Wise investment gurus traditionally recommend that your age should determine the proportion you allocate into fixed income instruments. Hence, if I'm 35 years of age, 35% of my portfolio should be in fixed income instruments. To that, I say that's a sensible guiding principle, but it doesn't work especially if you wanna retire earlier. Moreover, the growth and higher income given by equities outweigh the stability of fixed income pay out at this point of my life.

And yes, I managed to maintain this 80:20 equity bond asset allocation in 2025. That works for me in balancing between growth and income. I may further reduce this to a 85:15 equity bond asset allocation, if the markets present a favorable buying opportunity in 2026. Besides, my equities do pay out heavy dividends too, and I'm not at the stage of life where I need to rely on predictable pay outs from my portfolio. Hence, this asset allocation guideline represents a potentially "shifting goal post target."

3. Accumulate my growth portfolio and seize opportunities during market corrections.

Ok, this is gonna be a sticky point. Having just Singapore equities, REITs and the STI ETF is not gonna cut it. Period. Ask anyone worth their weight in salt in investing expertise, and they'll tell you that having a globally diversified portfolio reduces the risk and captures growth opportunities more effectively versus putting all eggs in one single market. This is not a binary discussion and it never has been.

As I previously stated, of course I believe in passive income, but as a Singaporean investor, it would be almost foolish not to take a bite off the growth engine of the US and global equity markets. Hence, I'll aim to accumulate this growth portion of my portfolio should markets correct and valuations (from a price-earnings and price-book perspective) become more compelling. For me personally this makes sense as my total returns from the Ireland domiciled S&P 500 ETF and global equity ETF is almost 70% up. And that's only across a 3 years plus period, from around mid-2022. Hence, having this growth engine will help to ensure the portfolio is "inflationary-proof." 

Besides the nice surprise from my growth portfolio was a total annual dividend of about SGD $772.60 if converted from USD. Although I will reinvest this dividend, it certainly is nice to receive an ever-increasing dividend payout from the growth portion of my portfolio.

All right good people, that sums up my 3 financial goals for 2026. Saddle up, hunker down and lets gallop ahead financial in this year of the horse. 

Yours sincerely,

Finance Kaya Toast

Disclosure: This article was written as me talking to myself as an ordinary Singaporean, wishing to achieve financial freedom. It does not represent any financial advise. All opinions are independent and represent just my two-cents on all matters financially-related.  


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