A warning: This post is going to be lengthy and full of text. Feel free to stop at anytime to take a break and pick up where you left off. I will try to to break this into sections to make it easier.

This sheet lists all my holdings in detail and shows

• Ticker. You have to input this cell manually
• Name of the company.
• Number of shares and the cost basis
• Current price
• Today’s Change in price (in $ and %)
• Total Gain/ Loss (in $ and %)
• Annual Dividend, Dividend Yield & Yield on Cost
• Account that purchases the stock
• Sectors and Assets Type
• Allocation of the stocks in proportion to the whole portfolio
• Real time currency conversion based on USD

The Layout

You should create your stock portfolio overview in a new sheet and it can look however you want it to look. Personally, I lay out my cells in the following way.

In this page, I only need to input

• Cash available in each account,
• Ticker symbol the first time the stock is purchased
• Account that first time purchases the said stock.
• 1 of 6 Currency available (converted from USD)

Everything else will automatically be populated by the spreadsheet.

A note about the currency conversion. All currency is converted from USD, so based on the currency chosen, every information in this page will be in the selected currency.

This is particularly useful when you are investing in the U.S stock market but your capital is from a different currency, like me.

Key Info Section

I put my cash balance and, total gain/ loss, annual dividend and income on the top of the sheet because you don’t want to scroll all the way down just to find key information about your portfolio.

Now for the header of the portfolio section, I include horizontally:

1. Name of the company
2. # of shares
3. Cost Basis
4. Total Cost Basis
5. Current Price
6. Today’s Change (in $ and %)
7. Gain/ Loss (in $ and %)
8. Total Gain/ Loss for that stock
9. Annual Dividend Income per share
10. Dividend Yield
11. Total Annual Income of the Dividend
12. Assets Type
13. Sector
14. Account that purchases the stock
15. % allocation to the portfolio for the stock

Since I am using screen shot, I am sorry for the quality of the picture but here goes:

The Formula

The Basic

A lot of the formula that I used is just designating the right cells for the formula to refer to in the equation, thus a basic understanding of how Google Sheets’ formula works will help in understanding the rest of this post.

=sumifs

A formula that tells the spreadsheet to sum specified cells IF a number of criteria is found.

‘Sheet name’!A1

The cell will go to sheet “Sheet name” and refer to that sheet’s cell A1

Name of the company

=googlefinance(B16,”name”).

B16 is the cell for the ticker that you want the spreadsheet to refer to when fetching the name. For example, if you put “AAPL” in B16, then this cell will refer to “AAPL” and produce “Apple Computers Inc.”

# of shares

=SUMIFS(‘Trade Log’!$E$1:’Trade Log’!$E$1000,’Trade Log’!$C$1:’Trade Log’!$C$1000,B16,’Trade Log’!$B$1:’Trade Log’!$B$1000,”Buy”,’Trade Log’!$D$1:’Trade Log’!$D$1000,W16)-(sumifs(‘Trade Log’!$E$1:’Trade Log’!$E$1000,’Trade Log’!$C$1:’Trade Log’!$C$1000,B16,’Trade Log’!$B$1:’Trade Log’!$B$1000,”Sell”,’Trade Log’!$D$1:’Trade Log’!$D$1000,W16))

‘Trade Log’!$E$1:‘Trade Log’!$E$1000 = Column E1 to E1000 of the Trade Log sheet where you input # of shares bought or sold

‘Trade Log’!$C$1:’Trade Log’!$C$1000 = Column C1 to C1000 of the Trade Log Sheet which is the column where you input your ticker symbol

B16 = The cell where you input the ticker symbol for the stock in the equation

‘Trade Log’!$B$1:’Trade Log’!$B$1000, “Buy” = Column B1 to B1000 of the Trade Log Sheet which is the column where you input the action relevant to the stock. In this case, you are telling the cell to refer to column B of the Trade Log Sheet to search for action “Buy”

‘Trade Log’!$D$1:’Trade Log’!$D$1000 = Column D1 to D1000 of the Trade Log Sheet which is the column where you input the account that holds the stock

W16 = The cell where you input the Account Name for the stock in the equation

Essentially, with this formula, you are telling the cell to look in the Trade Log Sheet for the ticker symbol (B16) and the Account Name (W16) that has the action “Buy” (Column B in the Trade Log Sheet) and deduct amount by the same ticker symbol and Account Name that has the action “Sell”, giving you the final amount of shares that you own.

Cost Basis

=((SUMIFS(‘Trade Log’!$H$1:’Trade Log’!$H$1399,’Trade Log’!$C$1:’Trade Log’!$C$1399,B16,’Trade Log’!$B$1:’Trade Log’!$B$1399,”Buy”,’Trade Log’!$D$1:’Trade Log’!$D$1399,W16))/(SUMIFS(‘Trade Log’!$E$1:’Trade Log’!$E$1116,’Trade Log’!$C$1:’Trade Log’!$C$1116,B16,’Trade Log’!$B$1:’Trade Log’!B$1116,”Buy”,’Trade Log’!$D$1:’Trade Log’!$D$1399,W16)))*$F$6

‘Trade Log’!$H$1:’Trade Log’!$H$1399 = Column H1 to H1399 of the Trade Log which is the column for the total price of the stock purchased/ sold.

If you follow along the explanations above, essentially this lengthy formula is telling the spreadsheet to sum up the total purchase price for a stock divided by the number of shares purchased (which the formula will validate from action “Buy”) giving us the average cost basis. We then multiply this number by the currency exchange rate (which the formula will find from cell F6)

Don’t worry about the currency exchange formula, as it will be explained in future posts.

Current Price

=GOOGLEFINANCE(B16, “Price”)*$F$6

Again B16 is the cell that has the ticker symbol we want the equation to look for

F6 is the currency exchange rate

Today’s Change (in $ and %) & Today’s Change Total

=googlefinance (B13, “change”)

This formula will return today’s change in $ of the stock ticker in cell B13

=googlefinance (B13, “changepct”)/100

By default, Google Sheets will returns this formula as an absolute value, for example 1% will become 100, so I divided by 100 to get the right value.

You would then go to Menu > Format > Number > Percent to get 1%

In order for you to get your Today’s Change Total, simply multiply the cell for Today’s Change (in $) with the cell for # of Shares

Gain/ Loss (in $ and %)

To get your gain/ loss of the stock,

=(Current Price Cell) – (Cost Basis Cell)

and to get the %

=(Current Price Cell) – (Cost Basis Cell)/ (Cost Basis Cell)

and to get the total gain/ loss for that stock, just multiply the cell for gain/ loss (in $) with the cell for # of Shares

Annual Dividend

Brace yourself, this will be one of the lengthiest section of this post. Here goes:

=iferror(iferror(if(B16=””,””,split(index(importhtml(CONCATENATE(“https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=”,B16,””),”table”,9),7,2),”*”)),if(isblank(B16),,GETDIVIDEND2(B16,$N$9)))*$F$6,”-“)

B16 = The cell where you input the ticker symbol for the stock in the equation

N9 = The cell where you input your IEX Token Key

F6 is the currency exchange rate

With this formula, you are telling the spreadsheet to find the dividend yield from finviz.com (don’t worry about the table 9, 7, 2. That’s simply where the dividend yield information is located in finviz.com)

The iferror formula is telling the spreadsheet that IF the spreadsheet generates an error return when trying to get the information from finviz, it will switch to another formula where it will get the information from IEX Cloud. IF that also generates an error, then the cell will show “-“.

The formula to get the dividend yield from finviz.com is

=iferror(if(B16=””,””,split(index(importhtml(CONCATENATE(“https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=”,B16,””),”table”,9),7,2),”*”)),”-“)

The back up formula is

=if(isblank(B16),,GETDIVIDEND2(B16,$N$9))

This is not a Google Sheets formula but a script that you need to create in Google Sheets. A custom formula so to speak.

In order to create this custom formula, you need to go to Menu > Tools > Script Editor like so:

You will then see a new screen like so

On the right side is where you are going to insert the code. Just copy and paste from this link, click save, name your code whatever you want and your formula is good to go.

Dividend Yield & Annual Income

To get your dividend yield, you need to input into the cell

= (Annual Dividend Cell) / (Current Price Cell)

To get your annual income from that stock, you would use

= (Annual Dividend Cell) x (# of Shares Cell)

And that’s it. You have just finished creating your Stock Portfolio Overview Sheet.

Pat yourself in the back, because this was a long tutorial and you have made it to the end.

As usual, leave a comment or hit me up if you have an suggestions on how you think I can do better or to show how you create your Trade Log.

If you can’t wait and you want to get your hands on the final product as soon as possible, this template is available to purchase from Gumroad.

Also, don’t forget, when you use my referral links, you will be able to claim your free stocks from Robinhood and WeBull. You will help support this blog and I’ll jump and click my heel in gratitude.

Honestly, nowadays since most brokers have offered free transaction fee, if you are not going to invest using margin, you can’t really go wrong with online brokers. Especially those that give you free stuffs upon signing up like WeBull and Robinhood.

I have been recommending WeBull & Robinhood to my friends and family, even those that are still on the fence. I figure, while they consider whether they should invest or not, by registering and getting free stocks, they already have 1 foot in. If they end up deciding not to invest, they can always sell the stock and make some money out of it.

Disclaimer: This is not a financial advice because currently, I have no plan in selling any of this holdings. I got them for free anyway and I am curious to see how they perform in the future.

If you are still on the fence on which broker to use, then I suggest you sign up for both WeBull & Robinhood while you decide and get your free stocks using the link below.

I, myself use TD Ameritrade as my main broker but I do keep my WeBull & Robinhood account as my “Hail-Mary” account. I am not going to sell any of my positions in those account because I am curious to see how they perform.

WeBull

WeBull is one of the 2 online brokers that offer you free stocks upon signing up and depositing. They also consistently have promotions where if you refer friends, you can get up to 5 stocks for free (valued up to $1,400) or if you refer 3 friends you can get up to 17 free stocks.

Personally, I have found WeBull’s app to look very good and my only gripe is that they do not offer DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Program). Also, they could benefit from a speedier customer service.

However, their constant free stocks promotion make it worth it to at least register and deposit. There are many posts online where people actually get MSFT (Microsoft) or even TSLA (Tesla) as their free stocks.

For example, for the month of July 2021, if you register using my link below, you will be able to get 3 free stocks and I have been referring them to friends & family who are still on the fence about starting a portfolio.

S (Sprint)

I received a share of Sprint when I first register and open an account with WeBull. Ever since then, Sprint has merged with T-Mobile and since WeBull does not allow fractional share, the share is considered sold.

• # of Shares: 1 Share
• Valued at: $5.82
• Current Value: Sold due to the merger with T-Mobile at $9.26
• Gain/ Loss: $3.44 (59.1%)

ISBC (Investors Bancorp, Inc.)

ISBC is a banking company in all regards that you expect them to be. They deal with loans commercially and to individuals, insurance offerings and bank accounts.

• # of Shares: 6 Shares
• Valued at: $11.99 (Average over 6 shares)
• Current Value: $9.25
• Gain/ Loss: -$16.45 (22.86%)

I kept them in my account because they are a pretty stable company and they do give out dividend. I believe once the pandemic is over, the stock will rebound.

SNAP (Snap, Inc.)

SNAP is the company that created Snap Chat, Spectacle and Bitmoji.

• # of Shares: 1 Share
• Valued at: $18.23
• Current Value: $38.54
• Gain/ Loss: $20.31 (111.41%)

I am absolutely out of my depth with SNAP but like ISBC, I am planning to keep it and see how it goes. The fact that it’s been up 111+% doesn’t hurt

VG (Vonage Holdings Corp.)

Vonage is a telecommunication company much like AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint & Verizon.

• # of Shares: 1 Share
• Valued at: $9.14
• Current Value: $12.11
• Gain/ Loss: $2.97 (32.49%)

My only exposure to them was 2 years ago when I was in Europe and used their pre-paid SIM card. I had good experience using their SIM card and I had reception everywhere. They are also currently up and I am just going to let it ride.

AGI (Alamos Gold Inc.)

AGI is a Canadian gold and other precious metals mining company

• # of Shares: 1 Share
• Valued at: $9.48
• Current Value: $9.06
• Gain/ Loss: -$0.42 (4.43%)

I have absolutely no idea what this company does.

ZNGA (Zynga Inc.)

Zynga is the company behind the hit mobile games and Facebook games like Farmville and Words with Friends. I honestly don’t know how well their game styles will perform since I believe it lacks economic scalability.

I also think that their market tends to get bored with their games easily because their games are usually meant to be quick games and do not have high re-play value.

• # of Shares: 2 Shares
• Valued at: $8.66 (Average over 2 shares)
• Current Value: $8.14
• Gain/ Loss: -$1.04 (6%)

Robinhood

Robinhood is the other online broker that offers free stock upon signing up and depositing to the total of 2 free stocks.

Usually, I recommend everybody to sign up for WeBull and Robinhood because well, free stocks is free stocks.

In the end, it all comes down to which platform you are more comfortable with and you can’t really go wrong with either ones. Once you get your free stocks, you can either sell them or transfer them to the broker that you prefer.

Right now, if you click and register using the link below, you will be able to get 2 free stocks when you register and link your bank account.

BCRX

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company that develops oral drugs. One of their drugs is RAPIVAB which is used to treat flu symptoms.

• # of Shares: 1 Share
• Valued at: $2.97
• Current Value: $4.45
• Gain/ Loss: $1.48 (49.83%)

GPRO

GoPro needs no introduction as one of the first company in the world that develops and market action camera successfully.

Around 5 years ago, I wanted to invest in the stock market and despite research and recommendations, I did not want to invest in index fund. Instead I chose to invest in company where I like the products. GoPro was one of them and at the time, GPRO was trading at high $50.

I decided to purchase 100 shares of the company and a few months later, my $5,000 has plummeted to $800, which was when I decided to exit my position.

What did I learn from this?

A well-made product is not necessarily made by a well-run company.

• # of Shares: 2 Shares
• Valued at: $4.05 (Average over 2 shares)
• Current Value: $7.34
• Gain/ Loss: $6.58 (81.23%)

GME

GameStop. They. Are. Dying.

• # of Shares: 1 Share
• Valued at: $5.99
• Current Value: $12.06
• Gain/ Loss: $6.07 (101.34%)

Update #1 (June 2021): I know I said they are dying, but in February 2021, there was a short squeeze happening to GME that causes the price of the stock to skyrocketed to $300. I ended up selling all my shares at $265

PLUG

PLUG is a company that develops alternative fuel cells for use in equipment and vehicles. They have customers like Nike, Wal-Mart & BMW.

• # of Shares: 1 Share
• Valued at: $4.02
• Current Value: $25.00
• Gain/ Loss: $20.98 (521.89%)

Like SNAP, I am out of depth with PLUG but they have been up 521.89% so I am just going to leave it in my Hail-Mary account.

To Sum It All Up

Like I said above, my WeBull & Robinhood account is not my main brokerage account and I am not planning to sell any of my positions in these 2 accounts. I am doing this to highlight even though it’s free stocks, well, it’s still money, $187.68 to be exact.

Update #1 (June 2021): As of June 2021, I did made a profit of selling my $GME stock at $250 in February.

The trade log functions as the database for your tracker because this is where the spreadsheet will get most of its data to populate your other sheets.

I lay out my trade log like so.

• Date
• Action (Buy/ Sell)
• Ticker
• Account that purchase the stock
• Shares bought
• Price of shares
• Commission/ Adjustment
• Total Price
• Note

No need to go fancy because this is where you will manually input your transactions. In fact, it should be as simple as possible so that you can manually input each transaction as efficient as possible.

Action

For “Action”, I include the options Buy or Sell because later on I will use a nested argument in my “Stock Portfolio Overview” sheet (Don’t worry about it for now)

Commission/ Adjustment

I have this column because my broker used to charge me per transaction and I would like to include my transaction fee in my cost basis.

Now that most brokers offer free transaction fee, I leave this column in for adjustment. Sometimes when you enroll in DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Program), the brokers will use 4 decimal points in their price for the shares reinvested but round up the total price to 2 decimal points which create a discrepancy in the cost basis between your sheet and their record. For example:

If I don’t include the $0.01 in the first row for SCHD, my purchase price for that transaction will be $8.96, however in my TD Ameritrade account, it shows my purchase price for the transaction to be $8.97, and so I have to add the penny.

You don’t have to do this, but I am a little OCD about having as close cost basis as possible to the data in my brokerage. If you don’t have this column, your cost basis will probably only differs around a few pennies with your broker’s.

Total Price

For the total price column just use the formula

=IF(B2=”Buy”,(E2*F2)+G2,(E2*F2)-G2)

B = Action Column

E = # of Shares Column

F = Price of shares column

G = Commission/ Adjustment Column

By inputting this formula, you are telling the cell

if B2 shows “Buy”, then (# of Shares) x (Price of Shares) + (Adjustment).

if B2 shows anything other than “Buy”, then (# of Shares) x (Price of Shares) – (Adjustment).

You don’t have to use the IF formula, but it comes in handy if you have a broker that charges you different rate whether you are buying or selling shares.

In the next post, I will show you how to create a Stock Portfolio Overview sheet that pulls data from the Trade Log that we have created.

As usual, leave a comment or hit me up if you have an suggestions on how you think I can do better or to show how you create your Trade Log.

If you can’t wait and you want to get your hands on the final product as soon as possible, this template is available to purchase from Gumroad.

Also, don’t forget, when you use my referral links, you will be able to claim your free stocks from Robinhood and WeBull.

Update #1: Continue to Part 3 (“Creating a Stock Portfolio Overview”) HERE!

The way I allocate my portfolio is called Lazy Core-4 Portfolio by Rick Perry and it consists of:

• 0% – 20% Total U.S Bonds
• 50% after bond allocation into Total U.S Stock Market
• 40% after bond allocation into Total International Stock Market (outside of U.S)
• 10% after bond allocation into Total U.S REIT Index

By holding these 4 index funds or ETFs (I explained about index funds and ETFs in this article), we minimize risk during economic downturn but our portfolio goes up with the economy when the economy is improving. At the same time, we will be able to collect monthly dividends as long as we own the portfolio.

The logic behind this portfolio is that, study has proven that even the best portfolio managers have not been able to consistently beat the market in the last 15 years (Source; you can google for more). Even the great Warren Buffett, himself stated that if he was to pass away, he will recommend his family to invest in the S&P 500.

If you are here reading this blog, you are probably not going to do any better than the portfolio managers mentioned above.

So, this portfolio allocation is meant to follow the world’s economy during its downturn and upturn to net you a gain of ~7%/ year spread over a long term period.

First Thing First, Get a Brokerage Account.

You need a broker if you don’t have one yet. Nowadays, most brokers offer free transaction fee which is good. The next thing you want to consider when you are getting a broker is whether they are FDIC insured. Do not be afraid to use online brokers if they are FDIC insured and offers free transaction fee.

If you are in the U.S, a few online brokers that have garnered quite a good reputation are M1 Finance, Robinhood & WeBull.

Robinhood and WeBull have also started offering free stocks (valued up to $1,400) when you register and fund your account through them. If this is something that interests you, you can click the below links to register for an account. Don’t worry, this post is not going anywhere. We’ll wait.

In this post, I will show you how I use Google Sheets to create an automated portfolio tracker that requires minimal input from the user.

I am planning for this post to be a series where I will break down the features of my spreadsheet in different posts and show you how you can create one of your own from scratch.

Why Have More than 1 Account?

Free stocks, that’s why.

In the past few years, investment brokers are starting to offer free stocks whenever you sign up with them and I am never one to pass up on free money/ assets.

For example, for the month of October, when you sign up for an account on WeBull using the link below and deposit $100, you will get 2 free stocks valued up to $1,600. Even if you ended up not buying any stocks and withdraw the $100, you still get to own the 2 free stocks

You will then repeat this process with Robinhood, where you can get a free stock when you use the link below.

So, in about 15 minutes worth of work, you just get 3 free stocks with virtually no capital.

Different Account Serves Different Purpose

Another reason is because you may have a tax advantaged account, retirement account and a regular tax-able portfolio account.

Just from the above reasons, if you are like me, you are going to already have at least 4 accounts which may belong to different brokerages.

Spreadsheet to the Rescue!

Anybody that knows me knows that I am a huge spreadsheet nerd. So, when I couldn’t find a portfolio tracker that ticks all the boxes like I need it, I decided to create my own using Microsoft Excel at first and later, Google Sheets.

I knew when I started my portfolio tracker, I wanted:

• Low maintenance (preferably once a month or once a quarter) and requires minimal input
• Cost Basis for my stocks after DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Program)
• Number of shares after DRIP
• Dividend Tracking
• Deposit/ Capital Tracking
• The ability to access the spreadsheet anywhere

Portfolio Dashboard

The first page in my spreadsheet is my portfolio dashboard where I can see key information of my portfolio in a glance:

• Portfolio Value and total gain/ loss
• Cash available to purchase securities
• Average dividend yield of the portfolio and the yield on cost
• Annual income from dividend

I also included key charts and graphs because I like colorful things and charts and graphs allow a different visual perspective of my portfolio.

Charts and graphs include:

• Holdings by sectors
• Holdings by companies
• Monthly dividend income year to year

There is absolutely nothing that I need to input in this sheet and this sheet is strictly for aesthetic value and when I just need to look at key infos.

Capital

The next sheet is the capital page and where I keep track of how much I have invested into the accounts.

Every time I inject more capital into my portfolio, this page is where I record the entry, whether or not I purchase anything with said cash

Stock Portfolio Overview

This sheet lists all my portfolio values and holdings in detail and shows

• Ticker
• Number of shares and the cost basis
• Current price
• Today Change in price (in $ and %)
• Total Gain/ Loss (in $ and %)
• Annual Dividend, Dividend Yield & Yield on Cost
• Account that purchases the stock
• Sectors and Assets Type
• Allocation of the stocks in proportion to the whole portfolio
• Real time currency conversion based on USD

In this page, I only need to input cash available in each account, the ticker symbol the first time the stock is purchased and the account that purchases the said stock. Everything else will automatically be populated by the spreadsheet.

Lately I have been having problems with Google Sheets’ function to fetch the dividend information, as it keeps on timing out and returning “#N/A” result or errors. To tackle this, I set up 2 back-up functions using add-ons and iex token (which I will elaborate more on how to set up in my next posts).

Essentially when Google Sheets’ function returns an error, the spreadsheet will automatically fetch the dividend information using the iex token method or the “IMPORTFROMWEB” add-on method

I also included a real time currency converter in this page so based on the currency chosen (converted based on USD), every information in this page will be in the selected currency.

In the near future, I’m planning to make the cash part to be populated automatically by the spreadsheet based on the information from the capital sheet

Trade Log

This sheet records all trade transactions that I have done and will automatically update all the information in the stock portfolio sheet.

Every month, I recorded all the reinvested dividend, stock purchase or sales and my cost basis and number of shares will be updated automatically.

Dividend Overview

This sheet is where I keep track of everything dividend in my portfolio.

• How much dividend I earn by sector
• How much dividend I earn every month year to year
• How much dividend I earn by account

Of course I included charts.

I do have to input the monthly dividend manually because I set up my portfolio to reinvest its dividend but my plan is in the near future, even this will be automated based on the information from the trade log sheet.

Future Updates

I constantly update this spreadsheet based on my needs and suggestions from people that use this tracker.

For now, I am planning to include the following in the future updates:

• Automated available cash information
• Automated monthly dividend earned information
• Notifications via email when certain cells (e.g stock price, gain/ loss %) reach a value that interests the user
• Options contracts

Where Can You Get This Spreadsheet?

Like I mentioned above, I mean to create a series of posts where I will explain in detail how you can DIY this spreadsheet from scratch and this first post is just meant to be a walkthrough of what I am using

But, if you can’t wait or the DIY road is not something that you are interested in, this spreadsheet is also available for purchase via Gumroad.

Also, don’t forget, when you use these links, you will be able to claim your free stocks

As usual, leave a comment or hit me up if you have an suggestions on how you think I can do better.

Update #1: Continue to Part 2 (“Creating a Trade Log”) HERE!

• Highlight(s) and whether I achieve it
• What made me happy today?
• What am I grateful for today?
• What makes me excited today?
• What made me unhappy today?
• Mood level (1 being extremely unhappy, 10 being extremely happy)
• Overall grade (1 being extremely bad day, 10 being extremely good day)

Highlight(s)

For highlights, I keep track everyday on what is my highlight because in the past I tend to cram too much highlights in my day which made it harder for me make time for.

I started doing highlights log after I read the book “Make Time” and while the goal was to have highlights that you focus on achieving for that day, cramming too much highlights will create stress.

By keeping a log of my daily highlights, I will notice if I crammed too much highlights in my day.

I am happy to report that I have not overload my days with highlights and I have consistently achieved my daily highlights.

For this month, my highlights pretty much consists of

• Reading at least 3 books with Mason
• Running & stretching
• Researching and planning on a certain business opportunity that I have been keeping on the back burner

What Made me Happy Today?

I am one of those people who have to be constantly on the move and ever since I had a baby, my days start to feel like whirlwind of emotions. By keeping track of this event, it makes me focus on the simple things (or even large things) that makes me happy.

This daily log of “What made me happy today” often times give me the “Aha” moment of realizing that my day was not as bad as I thought.

What I noticed is on most days, I answered

• Hanging out with my brother and having a good talk
• Hanging out with family
• Having a good proper lazy day so I can rest

There are a few days where my source of happiness is my employees showing improvement in their work or other things involved with work, but those days are rare. I am actually quite pleased that work is not my only source of happiness

As planned, this question makes me think on simple things that made me happy, for example on 15 August, it was “Playing hide & seek with Mason” or on 24 August, it was “Mason’s excited expression when he realized I am done with work and we are going to play”. Even now, as I am writing this, I remember his expression again and it makes me happy.

What am I Grateful for Today?

Similar to what made me happy today, what am I grateful for today is for those events where you are not happy but you are grateful for like “Family and the safe space it creates”

I am going to sound very cheesy, but I did put down “Family” on the top every day. I am grateful that no matter how much of a bad day I have, my son will always be excited to show me his toys when I walk through the door. No matter if I don’t feel like eating dinner, my wife will always have a home cooked meal for me that she doesn’t pressure me to eat (I eat it, always)

What Made me Excited Today?

This is to keep track whether I am moving “forward” or not. By having something that excites you, you are moving forward because excitement implies something in the future.

I am happy to say that I always have something that makes me excited every day. I am currently researching a business opportunity (which I will write about if it comes to fruition) and it has been keeping me excited.

What Made me Unhappy Today?

Pretty self-explanatory. Often times, we don’t realize something is a big source of unhappiness until we force ourselves to realize it.

It was from Steve Jobs’ biography where he said something along the line if something makes you unhappy for a quite period of time, it’s time for you to change your situation.

Unfortunately for this one, most of my unhappiness comes from work and usually from the problems that I have to solve for the company.

Mood Level

This may make me sound like a depressed person, but keeping track of my mood makes me think on why I am grading my daily mood level a certain way.

As of August, I graded my mood levels on average a 7/10 and I am pretty happy with it. I am not trying to have an every day of 10/10 because I wouldn’t think that’s normal. Nobody is happy all the time, and nobody should be sad all the time.

A 7/10 means that on average my mood is pretty neutral while leaning more toward happy.

Overall Grade

This is similar to my mood level but while mood is intrinsic, overall grade will have extrinsic factors calculated. I can have an unhappy day but if I achieve what I set out to achieve, just maybe not in the way I preferred, my overall grade will be higher than my mood level.

I noticed there are a few days that my overall grade is higher than my mood level because I have busy days that I cannot spend enough time with my family but I was productive. On average, however, my overall grade usually matches my mood level and I am fine with that.

So, What did I learn?

I am glad I decided to do this daily journal even if I did not expect much from it in the beginning. The reasons being:

Daily Logs Help Shape your Day

Knowing that I have to fill out this daily logs make me plan my day that I don’t want to answer it with something I will regret.

I have a bad habit of going straight to my computer to work after dinner, but after filling out the questionnaire for a few days, I realize my family is my source of happiness and work can wait another 12 hours

Doing Logs for a Month Re-aligns my Value

Even as I am writing this, I realize where my values lie. Sometimes when you are in the habit of doing things, you forgot why you do it in the first place.

Why do I always work? well, it’s because I want to make sure even after I am gone, my family will be taken care of as much as possible. But, there are days where I am working just because that’s what I do. Instead of spending time with my family while I can, I was working to make sure that they have enough when I am no longer able to spend time with them. You see what I mean? it’s a circular reasoning that I am not proud of.

What’s Next?

Honestly, I don’t think I will continue to do this log every month but I am planning to do it once in a while for the reasons above. Let me know what you think.

A long while ago, somebody said something to me that has stuck with me almost half of my life now, “A defeated man’s song is tragic to hear, but very easy to sing”

Honestly, I don’t even remember who told me this, but it took me a while to understand it. Even when your friends and family feel sorry and understanding because your song is tragic, let’s face it, choosing to admit defeat instead of fighting on is always the easier alternative. For anybody that said otherwise, I call bullshit.

Ever heard of “When life gives you lemon, make a lemonade out of it”? Yeah, I am sick of hearing that too. Sometimes, when life gives you lemon, guess what, you have to suck it up, smile and say “Thank you for that zesty lemon”.

This philosophy bleeds into my leadership style in my company. Generally, the higher your position is in any organization, the more people want to see how you react when shit hits the fan. They want to see if you are sweating. Never, ever, ever sweat.

It’s not because your underlings do not like you (some of them may) or because they want to see you going through hard times (again, some of them may), but they are looking at you to see if they, themselves should panic.

Now, what happens when that zingy lemon that life hands you seem to be in harvest? and you seem to keep on getting lemons among oranges?

Do you feel the anger? good, use it. Feel that anger rises from your middle region radiating outward. Feel it numbs your fingers. Now smile and say Thank you. Do not act rashly. Do not bottle it up, anger is one of the 8 basic human emotions that prove you are human. When your head is calmer, remember the anger you feel. Use that cold blue fury and plan how you can move forward.

Use the anger to pursue your goals, not as a revenge. Anger can be good if you utilize it to get to where you want to go, it can be destructive if you let it lead you.

In the end, when life gives you lemon and you feel angry, use that anger to motivate you, so next time you will see the lemon coming and you will have a peeler ready to make that lemonade.

My house is not all white and gray and spacious. Sometimes when I am cooking, I have to cut my ingredients on my dining table because my kitchen counter looks more like a liquidation sale shelf.

However, I do not like to spend money on things I do not need. I guess you could say I am an “Essentialist.”

I do not get rid of things just for the sake of getting rid of things or because it doesn’t spark joy anymore, but rather because I do not like owning more things than I need to.

I have the same work bag that I used to travel, however I will not use the same bag when I am going to a sleepover because the 2 bags do not serve the same purpose.

I do not spend money on clothes but instead of having a minimal amount of the same clothes, I will buy more of the same clothes just so I do not have to do laundry every couple of days.

When you have more things that serve the same purpose, you have to maintain it and take care of it. Honestly, I am just too lazy for that.

Minimalist would prefer to have as little material things as possible, I still have stuffs that I like to collect and own. I have 6 pair of headphones, I have a number of watches (an interest that I share with my dad) and many others.

I could download a digital version of a song, but if I am a fan of the music, I will buy the CD.

My de-cluttering report that I have done last year was true and honest but I had been having trouble throwing or donating the rest of my stuffs because I do keep mementos from my childhood, friends and family.

Something that I can relate to when it comes to minimalism, however is collecting experiences and traveling.

A friend of the family once told me,

“You don’t look twice at souvenirs that you got from traveling, and you may forget what a place looks like if you travel enough, but you always remember the feeling being somewhere, because feeling is not done by your head, but rather by your heart“

I promised my wife when Mason was born that every year we will travel at least once to a place that we have not been before.

When I travel with Mason and my wife, I could give my full attention to my family.

The face that Mason makes the first time he was on the beach.

The face (even his cries) that he makes 2 seconds later when a wave came crashing on him.

The happiness that my wife feels when she finally gets that perfect picture of her OOTD (“Outfit of the Day” for those that are not in the know).

Risking sounding dramatic, for these few moments, life clicks and I found the reason why I welcome hard work and things I have to deal with at work.

Due to the pandemic, this year I have been reluctant to travel but I hope when this all dies down, I can start traveling again.

The kid is asleep, dishes are put away and you have ticked off the final to-do on your to-do list.

You finally have some time for yourself.

Now, what do you do with this time before you are ready to go to bed?

In this post, I want to share with you 3 questions I ask myself almost every night when I finally have time for myself.

1. Did I do something that makes me learn today?
2. Did I do something that makes me healthier today?
3. Did I work on a hobby/ task that helps me create today?

I know, at this point you are thinking “Oh heck no, this post is a clickbait” and you have probably heard these 3 questions before. But before you click the back button and call me a no-good-lying-sack-of-red-beans, please bear with me and let me try to explain to you why these 3 questions deserve your reflection every day.

1. Did I Do Something That Makes Me Learn Today?

I am not asking if you learn something new today, but did you actively tried to learn something today. This can be as simple as reading a book for 5 minutes in the morning, or watching a 7 minutes tutorial YouTube instead of the news.

There is a boatload of research (which I could link, but you are most likely not going to click on) that links dopamine (that chemical in your brain that stimulates happiness) to learning in children and grown adults among other benefits.

Proactively trying to learn something everyday make you able to relate to more people because there are more topics you can talk about. It helps you learn new things faster in the future because your brain, like a muscle is better conditioned to absorb new information.

For me, I have been trying to read a book as I drink my breakfast and coffee in the morning (I wake up before my wife and kid). On days where my eyes are just about 3 Watt (very dim) in the morning, I watched tutorial on YouTube for Filmora Video Editing.

2. Did I Do Something That Makes Me Healthier Today?

For this, it’s simpler said than done. But did you order the salad instead of the burger? Did you buy the skimmed milk instead of the full cream?

I am not saying that you should suddenly become a vegetarian, just a small change in behavior to kickstart what hopefully will become a good habit. If you usually order a large soda with your lunch, maybe this time order a medium.

For the longest time, I can honestly say my answer to this question is a “NO!” Like I said in my last post, I used to wake up with shoulder and neck pain due to bad posture. I got sick easily because I don’t watch my diet.

Starting October of last year, I started a smoothie breakfast diet every day and I noticed I rarely get sick. Granted, I was lazy to prepare breakfast and it was not because of a specific health choice.

But the smoothie diet snowballs into more healthy decisions. Starting 6 months ago, I started running because I have more energy. Running everyday boosts my energy level even more.

When your body is healthy, the world just seems that more colorful, you are less cranky and your body just feels…stable.

3. Did I Work On a Hobby/ Task That Helps Me Create, Today?

Now this is a tricky one. Where the first question deals with your intelligence and the second questions deals with your physical health, creativity does wonder for your heart and soul.

When you create something out of nothing, you feel pride, you feel better about yourself. Again, I am not saying that you should be the modern day Leonardo Da Vinci, but work on small things that help you create everyday.

If you always wanted to learn graphic designing, sharpen your pencil and put it on your desk today. Tomorrow, use that pencil to draw a line. The next, draw another line. Whatever it is, as long as it helps you create something everyday. Baby steps is fine, baby steps is great. That’s how everything starts.

During the COVID-19 lock down in May, my business couldn’t operate because of government regulation, so I decided that I wanted to paint my PC case. I finally finished painting 3 panels in 75 days. Not because I picked a hard design or my PC is full of corners and crooks (the panels are flat metal plate in case you are wondering), but because of baby steps.

There are days when I spent 5 minutes picking the colors that I want. Another day when I browsed the internet looking for design for 30 minutes.

At the end of the 75 days, I have PC panels that probably look better before I painted it. But, it is my PC panel. It is my work. I created the shapes and color that people see when they look at my PC.

Now, It’s Your Turn.

There. Hopefully I changed your mind regarding this post as a clickbait. I know how it feels when somebody show you a result of their work without knowing how they achieve it (washboard abs, 30 minutes animation video, a 300 pages book). But everybody starts somewhere and most of the time they started small and simple.

If you find that your answers to the above questions are “No,” don’t beat yourself up. Your situation is not the same with mine or other people. There will be days when you just can’t find the time to create something, learn something or eat healthy. Do not give up, keep fighting that uphill battle until you get at least 1 “Yes” out of 3, the rest will take care of itself.

The point is for us to continuously work on it everyday that one day we can look back and see we have made a mountain out of a molehill and that…feels empowering indeed.

But, until that day,

Try.

You promised yourself to wake up at 5 am to go running in the beginning of this year when you made the resolution to be healthier.

6 alarm snoozes from 4 different alarms later, you finally got out of bed and you are back to your old habit: same waking up time, washing your face and brushing your teeth to get ready for work.

Well, after intensive and rigorous research, I finally cracked the solution…if you can’t wake up to run, then run when you are already awake!

Brilliant and eye-opening, is it not?

Overwhelming? maybe, but don’t worry, in this post I will explain to you my process, my reasoning and why night time running is the best idea since sliced bread for you to get healthier.

Why Nighttime Running Works

1. Things Slow Down at Night.

Usually around 8:30 – 9 pm my kid is already asleep. If I were to run in the morning, I will be outside thinking “Is Mason awake yet?” every few minutes.

Night time is when things slow down and there are less things that require your attention.

2. If you can’t Wake Up to Run, Run When you are already Awake.

If you are like me, being able to wake up should already be an achievement. I am so lazy in the morning, that I literally blend my breakfast so I don’t have to chew it (I even post my recipe here). Morning jogging is just not going to work for me.

3. A Chance for you to Unwind and Reflect on the Day.

Exercising and unwinding may not the be the words that you think should go hand in hand, but running can help you de-stress.

I look forward to my running session because it feels almost meditative, a chance for me to think about my day, problems that I haven’t had a solution for yet. Yes, your body will feel tired, but your head feel clearer after a run

Why I Start Running at Night

I read a book by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, where he outlines that even dealing in corporate business, you have to have a “Heart of a Hustler.” Despite the sound of it, what this simply means is that it is not enough for you to want to work hard and be successful.

You have to commit to lifestyle choices that allow you to have the energy, focus and stamina to actually do the work and the way for you to do that is to prioritize leading a clean lifestyle and proactively try to preserve your body. The best way you can do that is through eating right and working out.

Jackson, 2020

Despite what you think about his public persona, if a guy is pushing 50, looks like Curtis Jackson and have the success that he has, he might be on to something.

At that point, I had been having shoulder and neck ache almost daily due to bad posture. There were days where I couldn’t even turn my neck 45 degrees to the side and my fingers feel numb and tingling (The chiropractor says that because of my posture, there were nerves that are pinched around my shoulder cuff area which leads to the numbness)

It was the quote above that made me really think about my health at the time. I do not doubt my work ethic and willpower when it comes to business but I do not think I will be able to maintain if I wake up in pain everyday at my age.

The Beginning

Admittedly, in the beginning it was difficult to get used to running at night because I am used to unwinding in front of my laptop or iPad after 8:30 pm. I had to keep reminding myself that my day is not over until I ran.

There are days when I don’t feel like running. On those days, I tell myself that I will just go out for a walk. Usually after walking a distance from my house, my body just go into “might as well make the best of it” mode.

The point is not to be too hard on yourself, a short run is still better than no run. A walk is still better than sitting on the sofa in front of the TV for the rest of the night.

If you ran for half a mile today, great, if you walk for a quarter mile tomorrow, that’s fine. Just get in the habit of walking out the door to exercise. Before you know it, even when you are not motivated, you will fall into the habit of running just because it is a routine.

One hack that I used is the “2-Days Rule.” Allow yourself a break or a cheat day, but do not go 2 days without running (hence the 2-days rule). You can learn more about this rule from Matt D’Avella’s YouTube Video here.

The Result

As of the time of this post, I have been running an average of 3 km (or 1.86 miles for my imperial system using friends) everyday, which I plan to increase gradually.

I wish I can tell you that it has been life changing and I feel drastic improvements. I don’t, but what I do notice are

• No more shoulder & neck pain. There are still days when I feel a little pain, but in general it has been very manageable.
• Weight loss. This was not my primary motivation, but I noticed a significant weight loss (3 kg) without changing my diet the first month I started running.
• Much better energy level. I cut down my caffeine intake from 7 – 9 cups of coffee a day to 2 – 3 cups a day just because I feel more energy throughout the day.
• More healthy decisions. Running leads me to drinking more water. Now I automatically reach for water instead of coffee when I am thirsty. This is also why I have been drinking less coffee. On days that I can’t run (rain or Mason), I also find more activities where we can be more active (chasing a balloon in our front yard).
• My body moves better and less sluggish. It’s not like I suddenly turn into Spider-Man but, I feel like my body moves a lot better, which may also due to the lack of shoulder and neck pain.

Note that the above results are based on my observation and not something that happens overnight. I slowly notice that I can play with my son longer without running out of breath. I woke up more often to find that my neck could turn with my body without feeling pain. Everything comes gradually.

How about you? have you been on the fence about running but couldn’t wake up in the morning? well maybe you should give night time running a try. Put on your headphone, play your best playlist or that podcast you have been wanting to listen and just run.

Come back and tell me how it goes.