Portfolio Update Dec 2021

Year 2021 has come to a finale and it is time to review my investment portfolios.

Technically, the stock markets have corrected and rebounded under immense noises engulfing Fed tapering, interest rates hikes, Omicron variant fears, rise of US Treasury yields, looming market crash and so on.

My stance and plan are clear. To stay invested, slowly and steadily increasing investments in income-producing assets or growth businesses regardless of economic nor financial conditions.

My SGX Income Portfolio value increases to $272k from $264.9k last month.

My US Growth Portfolio value increases to US$6.9k from US$3.5k. I started another small portfolio on Tiger Brokers and injected capital of $2k or US$1.4k in order to redeem discounted Disney shares awarded by Shopee and to receive a free Apple share upon depositing $2k. I also injected around US$2k into Moomoo trading account to beef up its cash levels for selling puts.

My SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio value increases to $102k from $88.3k. The increase is mainly due to my contribution of $10.5k this month to my SRS to max out the limit of $15.3k for 2021.

For the entire year of 2021, I have received dividends totalling $15,807.02. See Passive Income in 4Q and entire 2021. 

Portfolio Actions

1. Subscribed 2,000 shares of Mapletree Logistics Trust from Preferential Offering at price of $1.84.

2. Rolled over 2 units of Palantir, PLTR211210 put option to PLTR220123 put option with $22 strike price at US$3.50.

3. Redeemed 1 share of Walt Disney 20% discount at price of US$116.60 on Tiger Broker.

4. Received 1 share of Apple Inc. free from Tiger Broker.

5. Redeemed 1 odd share of Alibaba (HKG.9988) at HK$68.10.

6. Bought 100 shares of Alibaba (HKG.9988) at HK$111.

Portfolio Dividends

1. Received $119 from Savings Bonds on 1 Dec.

2. Received $128 of dividends from Netlink Trust on 1 Dec.

3. Received $225.55 of dividends from Mapletree Industrial Trust on 3 Dec.

4. Received $173.84 of dividends from Mapletree Logistics Trust on 14 Dec.

5. Received $462.60 of dividends from Frasers L&C Trust on 16 Dec.

6. Received $800 of dividends from Aims Apac Reit on 17 Dec.

SGX Income Portfolio

US/HK Growth Portfolio

SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio

Thanks for reading. Stay Strong, Play Safe and Happy New Year to all!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Reflection on Year 2021 - 11 Things I experienced for the 1ST Time

As year 2021 is nearing an end, let me reflect, highlight and share on the 11 things I experienced the very first time for the past 12 months.

1. Changed Job

First and foremost, I changed job for the very first time in my life, in line with the Great Resignation trend globally. This decision came after much deliberate thought, analysis and when an opportunity comes at the right time, I simply grabbed it and moved on. I have shared on the 10 reasons why I was quitting job. Our job yields the greatest dividends from us trading our time to produce work for our employer. Our remuneration usually is a measure of the perceived intrinsic value of our investment in own education, knowledge and gaining of past experiences.

2. Stayed in Singapore Hotels

With SingapoRediscover vouchers given by the government to support local tourism business, I happily redeemed the vouchers for staycations in Singapore hotels. Prior to the pandemic, I have never stayed in local hotels before. Refer to previous blogs on my staycations in Yotel Air Changi Airport Jewel and Hotel G.

3. Cryptocurrencies

As the price of bitcoin peaks at record high of US$69k in Nov 2021, the FOMO feeling in me was ignited. A decade ago, I thought that cryptocurrencies were worthless as dirt, not supported by underlying authorities, businesses and assets, and were merely gambling instruments. However, in recent years, my opinion of cryptocurrencies completely changed. When bitcoin has emerged as the primary dominant "digital gold" asset in recent years, I have been procrastinating and wondering when would be the best time to get onto this wave. After Facebook changed its name to Meta, I decided to open crypto exchanges accounts to kickstart my crypto journey. The realization of the upcoming Metaverse awakened my instinct in the need to own digital currencies now and for the future. The best time to invest in crypto was a decade ago and the next best time is now.

For those of you interested to sign up for Crypto.com exchange platform, you may use my referral link here. We both can get USD25 worth of CRO tokens when you stake $500 of CRO tokens for a Ruby card or above.

4. US/HK Stocks

I opened low-cost brokerages - Moomoo and Tiger Broker and funded them to enjoy free Apple shares. Like cryptocurrencies, I have been wanting to get on the journey of owning the world's most popular tech and consumer businesses such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, McDonald's, Nike, Walt Disney, Alibaba and so on. Having traded and invested in SGX stocks for more than a decade, it is evident that the local stock market lack enough growth businesses as only banks and Reits are worth investing. The old school blue chips in SGX have faltered, stagnated and failed to grow at decent pace anymore. 

Thanks to the low-cost brokerages, I managed to create new portfolios containing US and HK growth stocks. I plan to accumulate more growth stocks slowly through dollar-cost averaging over the next few years, en route to financial freedom journey.

Get your free Apple share from Moomoo using my referral link.

Get your free Apple share from Tiger Broker using my referral link.

5. Bought HDB

I made the down-payment of a 3 room HDB BTO in Jun 2021 together with Ms Doraemon. The property is located in District 13 city fringe beside an MRT station and will be ready in 5 years time. This is another life decision. The plan is to use the waiting time to build up savings in CPF OA account and then fully pay off the HDB flat when collecting keys. To be able to sleep peacefully every night with no liabilities nor debts is a divine gift. To be able to own a roof over our heads without cash outlay is a feat only easily achievable on this Singapore island.

6. WFH for most number of days a year

Out of 261 work days in 2021, I worked in office not exceeding 50 days. This means I work from home more than 80% of this year, which is a record ever since my working life. Prior to the pandemic, I seldom work from home as I prefer not to work in the place where I enjoy quality sleep and 'me' time. This pandemic has provided an opportunity to mix work and rest together, giving pros and cons. As I saved more time commuting and money on lunches, I put on weight and felt the extra inches while wearing those old pants.

7. Met the least people

As virtual meetings on Webex, Skype, Zoom and Google Meet have become the norm, I met the least number of real physical people this year compared to all other years in my life. Besides meetings during work, even AGMs, courses, webinars are conducted virtually online, allowing us to siam all the physical real people, which can be a good thing for introvert like me. 

8. Cashed out from this blog website

On 23 Sep 2021, I cashed out dividends from this Live Rich Life Free blog. Google Adsense paid me $156 for the ads rendered or clicked on this website since Jan 2020. I did not expect such monetary incentive when I started this blog close to 2 years ago. Nonetheless, such incentive would motivate me further to create more financial content for sharing to the investment community and world.

9. Passive income exceed $15k

For the first consecutive year, I received passive income from dividends and interests amounting to more than S$15k. Prior to 2020, my investment portfolio was too small to yield decent amount of dividends. Before 2015, I was merely trading stocks to reap short-term gains and did  not adopt a long-term stance for investments. I am happy with the investment journey so far and will continue to build up the SGX income portfolio for more dividends in future years to come.

10. Investment in Self

With more time at home, I invested aggressively in myself to learn, gain knowledge and broaden horizons through attending many courses, webinars and workshops. I then obtained the most number (>5) of professional certifications and accreditations ever in my life this year. Getting certified by Microsoft and Google do boost my credentials and recognise my expertise and skills in the computing world, thereby helping in my career progression in the future hopefully.

11. Millionaire for the entire year

Last but not least, my net worth stayed above SGD 1 million throughout the year and increased by around $150k from Jan 2021. I did not invest aggressively this year as my strategy was to grind at work, earn the monthly pay cheque, save up, sit back and let the equities recover in tandem with the economy, while collecting dividends. My main track is to slowly increase investments. On side tracks, I explored into cryptocurrencies and started new mini growth portfolios in the US stock market.

Conclusion

Despite the ongoing pandemic, 2021 has been a breakthrough and revolutionary year for me. I look forward to the coming year 2022 and hope it will bring greater opportunities and dreams.

Have you reflected on your achievements for this current year?

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Last Investment Of The Year | Nibbled Alibaba (HKG.9988)

 

I smelt plenty of blood on Alibaba stock (HKG. 9988) and sensed opportunity.

It is a falling sword that cuts through the fleshes of many retail investors and even institutional big boys.

Its share price has plunged below all possible supports till there is no support left based on technical analysis and is even lower than its IPO price in 2019.

It is now or never.

Alibaba is the largest e-commerce business in China with platforms such as Taobao and Tmall, and owns an ecosystem of Alipay, Alicloud and Caibiao Logistics. Entertainment media platform such as Youku Tudou contribute further to its income streams. It is still a profitable, undervalued tech company with immense growth prospects, albeit subjected to crackdown and regulatory risks introduced by the communist government.

I decided to get on this boat today. 

This will be a long-term, high risk high returns play. 

My last Investment of the year. There it goes.

Should its share price plunge further, I am prepared to average down at 10%, 20% or even 30% lower.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Redeemed Alibaba Share at 40% discount on Tiger Broker

 

I earned a 40% stock discount Alibaba (HKG:9988) voucher on Tiger Broker's Santa Monopoly game.

I redeemed this voucher today to purchase my first share of Alibaba at only HK$68.1.

This is a steal, a small great deal which provides a good headstart and foundation for me to accumulate more Alibaba shares.

I think Tiger Broker has done a great job to instill confidence in retail investors to make small steps towards investing. By giving stock discount vouchers through in-app games, it really helps and encourages amateur retail investors to overcome their psychological barrier.

The share price of Alibaba has weakened severely in the past year due to immense bad news and crackdown by the Chinese government. 

Fundamentally, Alibaba is still a strong, undervalued but profitable company underpinned by thriving e-commerce, Internet, artificial intelligence, video streaming and growing cloud computing businesses.

If we allocate a small fraction of our investments to Alibaba, we could mitigate and manage the risk well, and still get to ride on Alibaba's recovery should it really happen.

Be greedy when others are fearful. This is how Warren Buffett acquired undervalued businesses to hold and thrive in the long-term.

If you are interested to kick-start your journey in stock investing in Hang Seng or US markets, do use my referral link to register for a Tiger Broker account, fund it with at least S$2k to get a free apple share worth US$170 and 60 commission-free trades for 180 days.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Redeemed Discounted Disney share on Tiger Broker

 

I earned 2 stock discount coupons (20% off Disney stock) from Shopee.

They have to be redeemed on Tiger Broker app.

Hence I funded my idle Tiger Broker account with $2.2k today and still qualify for an apple share despite having opened the account many months ago.

I then input the voucher code in Tiger Broker app.

Redeemed 1 Disney share for US$116. 54 today. I intend to redeem the other share at a later time within next 2 weeks.

1 free Apple share and 2 discounted Disney shares to lay the foundation for me to build up a new US stock portfolio.

If you are interested to kick-start your journey in stock investing, do use my referral link to register for a Tiger Broker account, fund it with at least S$2k to get a free apple share worth US$170 and 60 commission-free trades for 180 days.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Bought $500 of CRO to stake for Crypto.com Ruby Steel Card

 

I made another small step towards crypto journey today.

As the price of CRO token retraces to test support of USD$0.50 (S$0.70), I bought 704 tokens worth S$500 and mentally prepared to lose everything.

It is not easy to time the purchase of cryptocurrencies because they are very volatile. 

I have staked these 704 CRO tokens for a Ruby Steel card for a period of 180 days, thereby unlocking 111.6 CRO tokens which were worth the free USD25 upon sign up months ago from referral link.

I was waiting for the price of CRO to drop below S$0.30 at that time but its price keep climbing up and even rocketed to a high of S$1.20 before retracing. 

The benefits are 2% cashback for all purchases and Spotify rebate up to US$12.99 monthly.

I am optimistic about cryptocurrencies and believe in risking a small portion of fiat monies to purchase digital currencies used in metaverse. Only high risks will generate high returns.

I have finally started my crypto journey Have you started yours?

For those of you interested to sign up for Crypto.com exchange platform, you may use my referral link here. We both can get USD25 worth of CRO tokens when you stake $500 of CRO tokens for a Ruby card or above.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Passive Income in 4Q and entire 2021

The year of 2021 is coming to an end.

It is time to track the passive income I have received in the pursuit of financial freedom journey.

From 1 Oct to 31 Dec, I have received the following dividends.

$98 Savings Bonds (1 Oct)

$113.68 Keppel DC Reit (20 Oct)

$114 Savings Bonds (1 Nov) 

$139.16 Capitaland China Trust (8 Nov)

$43.60 Ascott Reit (9 Nov)

$270 Guocoland (25 Nov)

$182.67 Frasers Centrepoint Trust (29 Nov)

$111.60 Suntec Reit (29 Nov)

$482.90 Mapletree Com Trust (30 Nov) 

$119 Savings Bonds (1 Dec)

$128 Netlink Trust (1 Dec)

$225.55 Mapletree Industrial Trust (3 Dec)

$173.84 Mapletree Log Trust (14 Dec)

$462.60 Frasers L&C Trust (16 Dec)

$800 Aims Apac Reit (17 Dec)

All add up to $3,464.60 in 4Q 2021.

My passive income for the first 9 months of 2021 is $12,342.42.

Altogether, my passive income for 2021 is

$15,807.02

This is lower than the $17,093.12 of passive income for year 2020.

Last year, there were one-off capital returns such as $2,590 from Capitaland Commercial Trust after merger with Capitaland Mall Trust and interests from higher fixed deposit rates of above 1.5%.

I also have not included the paltry amount of dividends collected in my US growth portfolio. I think the total amount is less than US$100. I considered income from options trading as another source of active income from part-time job, hence did not factor it in.  

2021 is still a fruitful year despite the ongoing health pandemic, or rather endemic that humans are slowly getting used to while putting lockdowns and curbing measures that heavily impact lifestyle at the back of our memories.

I am optimistic and believe that year 2022 will be a better and greater year. Let the economy recovery continue, more borders to reopen, "low" interest rate environment to sustain after rate hikes and Reits to collect increasing rentals and pay higher DPU. Let's also look forward to the interests from CPF in early Jan 2022. 

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Net Worth Update Dec 2021 | ++$150k in 2021

S$1.162m

This will be the last net worth update for year 2021.

2 weeks away from the new year and I have collected almost all the salary income, bonuses, CPF contributions and almost all dividend payouts for this year.

My net worth increases $10k from mid Nov 2021.

My net worth increases around $150k from exactly a year ago, when it surpassed $1 million for the first time.

At this rate, let me now set a target net worth of SGD 1.3 million dollars to be attained by 15 Dec 2022.

The benefit of setting small targets or goals in life is that we will be close or not very far off from our targets or goals even if we missed it.

This month, I completed the maximum contribution of $15.3k to my SRS account.

Earlier this year, I completed the $7k RSTU for my CPF SA and parent's CPF RA account.

I have also refunded the down-payment amount of $21.5k for HDB BTO used from my CPF OA account.

2021 has been a tumultuous year for us dealing with impact from the pandemic and learning to live with the virus in an endemic society. Global economies have begun to recover and will continue to do so. There will be noises, fears and concerns as usual, regardless of economic conditions.

We need to stay focused, be staying on track in pursuit of our own objectives and aims in life. 

For me, the ultimate aim is financial freedom. This journey will not be plain sailing but it definitely is not impossible.

I envisage that 5 years from now, I will be shaking leg, drinking coconut by the pool in a resort, working when I want to and not because I need to. 

Momento Mori.- "Remember that you will die"

Thanks for reading.

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Subscribed to Mapletree Logistics Trust Preferential Offering Shares

 

The dateline to subscribe for Mapletree Logistics Trust Preferential Offering Shares is 9.30pm on 14 Dec 2021 for electronic applications and 5.00pm on the same day for banker's draft/cashier's order.

I currently own 8,000 shares and intend to round it up to 10,000 shares through this exercise without incurring any brokerage fee.

See related posts:

Added Mapletree Logistics Trust in first investment of 2021

Applied for Mapletree Logistics Trust Preferential Offering Shares (2020)

Nibbled Mapletree Logistics Trust and Sembcorp Marine

There it goes. My subscription for 2,000 shares (including entitled and excess) at $1.84 per share.

Hope I can get them all.

Slowly but steadily, I am building up positions in high quality Reits in my SGX income portfolio.

This is the second time I am using PayNow to participate in corporate action to save the $2 fee from using ATM.

The new Preferential Offering Shares will be credited to CDP and commence trading on 22 Dec 2021, 9am.

I would expect the share price of MLT to remain weak and may possibly fall below $1.84 in the short-term. 

As this is a long-term income play, I will not be concerned about short-term volatility.

Thanks for reading. As usual, stay safe and remain strong.

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Completed SRS Top-up in 2021

One of the last financial tasks for 2021 is to complete the maximum contribution of $15,300 to the Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account.

The main benefit is to save taxes aka cash outlay to the taxman next year.

Another benefit is to build up a cannot-touch ultra-long term portfolio using SRS funds.

There are also other options of endowment or insurance plans, annuity plans, bonds, funds or robo-advisor investment portfolios that we could invest with SRS funds.

However, SRS savings may not be for everyone because of the long lock-down period. We can only withdraw up to $40k from SRS tax-free for 10 years from the first penalty-free withdrawal, upon reaching the statutory retirement age (62 in 2021 and 63 w.e.f 1 Jul 2022). There is a penalty incurred for withdrawing funds from SRS prior to retirement age, on top of being slapped with tax on the withdrawn amount.

I believe SRS is only beneficial for people who are having income at least in the 7% tax bracket.

I have already contributed $4.8k to SRS early this year, leaving remaining $10.5k.

See related post: 2nd Top-Up To SRS in 2021

There it goes. $10.5k to complete the quota for this year!

Have you topped up your SRS account this year?

Do you want consider open an SRS account now to lock down retirement age at 62?

Thank you for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

 

IPO Allocation Results of Digital Core Reit

The IPO of Digital Core Reit to 13.4m retail investors was 16.1 times oversubscribed.

The above is the allocation table.

I applied for 5,000 shares of Digital Core Reit IPO yesterday.

Today, I got my monies refunded entirely, less the 2 bucks.

This means I got nothing. 

No luck. At least I tried though.

If I were lucky, I could have gotten 1,500 shares.

Moving forward, what will be my strategy for this new data centre Reit?

I intend to monitor the price movement for weeks.

Then be a sniper to fire first shot to initiate a small position when the opportunity arise.

Dollar cost average over time and build up a position of freehold data centre assets.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

 

Applied for Digital Core Reit IPO

 

The dateline for IPO application for Digital Core Reit is 12pm on 2 Dec 2021 today.

I just applied 5,000 shares via OCBC Internet Banking.

I have briefly shared on the 5 reasons why I decide to apply for this IPO here.

Wish myself and all applicants good luck!

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Portfolio Update Nov 2021

It is the last day of November 2021 and it is time to review my investment portfolios.

Generally the global stock markets started correction in recent days due to fears and uncertainty about the new Omicron virus strain. Whatever goes up will come down and the stock market will not rise in a straight line. It is pretty normal that every now and then, there will be "noises" that cause the stock markets to "crash". Will this time be another crisis or opportunity?

My SGX Income Portfolio value plummets to $264.9k from $277.6k last month.

My US Growth Portfolio value increases slightly to US$3.8k from US$3.5k. Besides selling put options to collect premium, I have initiated a small position in Palantir.

My SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio value drops to $88.3k from $92.2k. I have deployed my idle SRS funds to initiate a small position in Wilmar, an agriculture conglomerate. I have yet to contribute the full $15.3k to my SRS for 2021. I intend to top up another $10k to my SRS in Dec, after which I will leverage on opportunities to invest my fresh SRS monies.

I have collected more than $1k of dividends this month, built war chest for subscription of Mapletree Logistics Trust preferential offering shares and will be applying for Digital Core Reit IPO.

Portfolio Actions

1. Sold 18,000 shares of Sembcorp Marine to Temasek at price of $0.08.

2. Bought 1,500 shares of Wilmar at price of $4.33 in SRS account.

3. Sold 2 units of Palantir, PLTR211210 put option with $22 strike price at US$0.62.

Portfolio Dividends

1. Received $114 from Savings Bonds on 1 Nov.

2. Received $139.16 of dividends from Capitaland China Trust on 8 Nov.

3. Received $43.60 of dividends from Ascott Reit on 9 Nov.

4. Received $270 of dividends from Guocoland on 25 Nov.

5. Received $182.67 of dividends from Frasers Centrepoint Trust on 29 Nov.

6. Received $111.60 of dividends from Suntec Reit on 29 Nov.

7. Received $482.90 of dividends from Mapletree Commercial Trust on 30 Nov.

SGX Income Portfolio

S$264.8k

US Growth Portfolio

US$3.8k

SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio

S$88.3k

Thanks for reading, As always, stay safe and remain strong.

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

5 Reasons Why I Would Apply For Digital Core Reit IPO

Digital Core Reit, a pure Data Centre Reit sponsored by US listed Digital Realty Trust, has lodged its prospectus today on 29 Nov 2021 for an initial public offering (IPO) in SGX.

13.4 million units are allocated for the public and 253.7 million units are reserved for the institutional placements.

The price is US$0.88 and converted to S$1.21 per unit as determined by the manager.

Application has actually commenced from today 9pm and will end on 2 Dec, 12pm.

Digital Core Reit will be listed on 6 Dec 2021, 2pm on SGX.

Let me share on 5 reasons why I would apply for this IPO.

1. Pure Data Centre Play

Digital Core Reit will be the only pure data centre Reit on SGX because the likes of Mapletree Industrial Trust, Ascendas Reit and Keppel DC Reit which recently invested in mobile and fibre assets, do not purely own just data centres.

A data centre is a facility hosting digital infrastructure and provides a secure and reliable environment to host servers, network equipments and data storage equipments. 

Data centres are a unique property asset class which commands long weighted average lease expiry (WALE), compared to commercial, hospitality and industrial properties which tend to have much shorter rental agreements. 

2. Gain Foothold into Proliferation of Cloud Computing and Metaverse

The exploding data due to Internet of Things, applications, games and social media will drive strong  demand for data centres and such needs will only set to grow exponentially due to proliferation of cloud computing adoption by companies and the advent of Metaverse.

By owning the land and the facilities which host the digital infrastucture and computing equipments powering the IT applications in the world and the Metaverse, we can safely and peacefully make money while we sleep.

3. 100% Freehold

Digital Core Reit owns 10 100% freehold, mission-critical, institutional quality data centres located in key strategic markets across the US and Canada. Occupany is 100% in all 10 data centres. 4 are located in Silicon Valley, a fertile ground where many tech firms are built up. 2 in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, 1 in Toronto, the business and financial capital of Canada and 3 in Northern Virgina which is the largest data centre market in the world.

4. Inflation beating Triple Net Lease with rental escalations

This Reit promised a yield of 4.85% for 2022 and 5% for 2023.By having triple net lease for the lease of its data centres, the tenants will liable to pay for all the expenses of the data centres. This help to reduce operating costs and thereby ensuring that our DPU remains sustainable. Coupled with the 1% to 3% rental escalations, the DPU is set to increase slowly and steadily to beat inflation if we have the patience to hold this Reit for the long-term horizon.

5. Attractive Valuation

Last but not least, we need to ensure we get the best bang for our buck. The net asset value is US$0.84. By paying US$0.88, it is 1.05x NAV only, compared to around 2x for Keppel DC Reit and around 6x for Equinix, which is the largest data centre Reit in the world. I believe this is a steal.

In conclusion, I would be trying my luck for this largest IPO in SGX of 2021, hopefully to get a slice of this data centre pie to gain a foothold in the digital economy and Metaverse.

Thanks for reading, As always, stay safe and remain strong.

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Mapletree Logistics Trust Shopping Spree!

After the previous preferential offering by Mapletree Logistics Trust (SGX:M44U) in Nov 2020, it is time for another round of equity fund raising.

Actually, I have been quietly anticipating for any of the Mapletree Reits to announce acquisitions and equity fund raising throughout the months and it has finally arrived. I like preferential offerings because it is a seamless and fuss-free way to add shares to increase investments in high quality income-producing Reit without incurring commissions and trading fees. Usually when such acquisition news are released, the price of the Reit will take a beating and undergo some weakness for a period of time, presenting opportunity to also add shares from the market.

On 23 Nov 2021 today, MLT has announced a proposed acquisition of 17 grade-A logistics properties in China (13), Vietnam (3) and Japan (1) for $1.4 billion. The 13 China properties will be acquired for 1.15 billion yuan (S$243.6 million) in cash, while the remaining amount will be inter-company loans worth 1.77 billion yuan that MLT will pay through cash and new units, as well as 1.24 billion in bank loans. The Vietnam properties will be paid US$14.4 million in cash with the rest via inter-company loans. The Japanese property will be paid fully in cash at 1.7% discount to the independent valuation.

An equity fund raising will raise around $700 million. The fund raising comprises of a private placement of between 209.3 million and 215.1 million new units at an issue price of between S$1.86 and S$1.91 per new unit to raise around S$400 million. A non-renounceable preferential offering of up to 163.4 million new units to existing unit holders at between S$1.82 and S$1.87 per new unit will raise about S$300 million.

What is my take?

As of time of writing, details on the preferential offering for existing unitholders are not released yet.

There is an advanced payment of between S$0.0145 and $0.0147 on 12 Jan 2023 in lieu of the enlarged unitholdings after the private placement exercise, which will be a test bed for the institutional investors on the popularity of this equity fund raising to determine the exact unit price for the non-renounceable preferential offering.

I will participate in this equity fund raising of preferential offering as I believe in the riding on the waves of booming e-commerce underpinned by Asian thriving logistics hubs of China and Vietnam for the long-term. Mapletree Logistics Trust has a great track record of rewarding unit holders with consistent, increasing income through aggressive expansion of its footprint in the Asian logistics markets. This time will be no different.

Thanks for reading, As always, stay safe and remain strong.

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Net Worth Update Nov 2021 | Surpassed SGD 1.15m

 

S$1.152m

My net worth increases $5k from mid Oct 2021 to cross S$1.15m.

This is after the latest round of salary income, dividends passive income and CPF contributions.

I completed the voluntary housing refund using cash back to my CPF OA, which has been used for down-payment of a HDB BTO flat in Jun 2021. The refunded amount includes accrued interest too.

I have started my crypto currency journey this month. Currently the portfolio is valued at around $500 which is too insignificant to be factored into my net worth.

On the investment front,  I have done little to add on to my US portfolio, other than nibbling some Palantir shares using my spoils from selling put options. In my SRS portfolio, I initiated a small position in Wilmar for the long-term.

I believe and hope that my net worth will continue to rise over the months and years by continue to be frugal and stay invested in income-producing businesses and assets. 

I do have a target net worth of SGD 2m before age 40 (financial freedom target age), SGD 3m before age 45 (financial independence target age) and SGD 4m before age 50 (my retirement target age). The magic of compounding shall perform its wonders for my wealth.

Related post: Where are you in the 7 Stages of Financial Life Cycle?

Thanks for reading, As always, stay safe and remain strong.

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Initiated a small position in an Agricultural Conglomerate in SRS

I nibbled 1,500 shares of Wilmar International Limited (SGX:F34) in my SRS ultra long-term portfolio today.

Wilmar Internation Limited is an agricultural conglomerate that encompasses the entire value chain of the agricultural commodity business, from cultivation and milling of palm oil and sugarcane, to processing, branding and distribution of a wide range of edible products in consumer, medium and bulk packaging, animal feeds and industrial agri-products such as oleochemicals and biodiesel.

It owns more than 500 manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network covering China, Indonesia, India and some 50 countries and regions. Being the largest raw sugar producer and refiner, it is also the largest manufacturer of bread, spreads and sauces in Australia. In Indonesia, it is the largest producer of branded consumer pack oils. In Russia, it is the largest manufacturer of consumer pack margarine and mayonnaisse.

This is a good enticing piece of business to own. Hence when its share price retraced in recent days from $4.50 to $4.30ish, I have been monitoring and intend to add it into my ultra long-term portfolio.

The opportunity came today when my order got filled.

The company has target prices ranging from $5.80 to $6.67 set by the various broker houses after announcing earnings of US568.7 million for 3Q FY2021, up 6% year-on-year. The analysts predicted that Wilmar could potentially achieve a record year in earnings of up to US$1.7 billion for FY2021 due to improving economy in China and high commodity prices.

The company has also been occasionally buying back its own shares ranging from the highs of $5.38 to $4.33 which was made yesterday. This indicate the confidence by the company that its own share price is below its intrinsic value.

As my investment portfolios are heavy on Reits and property development businesses, it is great to add this piece of agriculture business for diversification. Despite having growth potential, Wilmar offers an attractive dividend yield of around 4.7% based on 20.5 cents paid on in 2021 at share price of $4.35 at time of writing. It also has a track record of paying dividends for the past 14 years.

There are definitely downside risks for investing in such an extensive global agriculture business. High Capex operating costs, geographical and regulation risks are inevitable for operations all over the world. Its ROE is also relatively low due to low profit margins. Nevertheless, I am optimistic for Wilmar and believe that the reward to risk ratio is relatively high and could be rewarding in the long-term.

Thank you for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

 

Nibbled Nano and Holo

 

I started my crytocurrency journey days ago.

Today I initiated a buy into nano to test water as its price was retracing. The price continue to drop after I bought.

Nano is a promising altcoin leveraging on direct acrylic graph technology instead of public blockchain. Its advantages are unlimited scalability, instantaneous transactions and no fee due to no mining. It could potentially be the digital currency of the next era but there is no guarantee in its increased adoption rate as bitcoin and ethereum are still largely recognised by the masses in the digital currency world. I decided to initiate a small position in nano to poise for the future and will continue to add more tokens as its price drop.

I also initiated a small position in Holochain (Hot) tokens.

Holochain is an alternative to blockchain on which bitcoin and ethereum operate on. Their differences are summarised in the table below. Holochain seems to offer an improved solution to blockchain in terms of scalability and efficiency. If it could increase its adoption rate and market share in the future, its price will balloon. Again, there is no guarantee and I believe the reward to risk ratio is great hence I decided to wager small money on it to punt on its potential success.

Thank you for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Dabbled in Cryptocurrencies for the first time

Happy Diwali or Deepavali!

To celebrate the festival of lights, I announced that I have begun my journey into the world of cryptocurrencies.

I have been late into this game but it is better to be now or never.

I am not encouraging everyone to try out cryptocurrencies because I believe it is a form of speculative "investment" aka gambling.

Unlike financial instruments such as  stocks, Reits or bonds, cryptocurrencies do not have underlying fundamentals or assets as collateral backing and are mostly unregulated albeit being a more secured form of digital asset compared to cash and coins. 

However, if we occasionally bought Toto, 4D or other forms of lotteries that are forms of gambling to test our luck, I believe it is of little harm if we only allocate a small percentage of our net worth or liquid cash into Cryptocurrencies to test our luck too.

Afterall, high risks offer high returns at the expense of losing all money.

To begin with buying cryptocurrencies in Singapore, we have to register for a cryptocurrency exchange account first. 

There are many crypto exchange accounts to choose from, of which many are unregulated by MAS. The only regulated crypto exchange by MAS is Independent Reserve. Gemini and Crypto.com are the other popular exchanges which are granted exemption from MAS from holding a license under the Payment Services Act for a specified period of time. Not to mention other popular exchanges such as Coinhako, FTX, Huobi Global that also offer great platforms and low costs but not yet regulated in Singapore.

I decided to open accounts with Crypto.com and Gemini to try out cryptocurrencies. The account opening process was smooth and seamless. For Crypto.com, it was required to take pics of NRIC and for Gemini was using Singpass to retrieve personal info. I managed to get both accounts up within an hour.

The next step will be to fund the accounts. I then realise there is a payment middleman called StraitsX XFER used for digital asset, B2B or C2C forms of payments. So I also opened an XFER account which is to be linked to our bank account. This XFER account can be used to integrate with the crypto exchanges account to transfer funds from bank account using Fast at no fee.

For Crypto.com there is no fee period of 30 days for using credit or debit cards to buy cryptocurrencies upon account opening. I tried adding my Citibank and Stanchart credit cards but the bank rejected the transaction. In the end, DBS credit card was accepted and I tried using it to buy my first crypto coin, which was Cardano (ADA) at $2.76 each.

I then checked my Crypto wallet to see the 10 Cardono coins being deposited there.

Upon sign up of Crypto.com account through referral link, there is a free USD25 in the form of CRO coins paid to both referral and new account holders when the account holder deposit $500 to buy CRO Crypto.com tokens and stake it for 180 days for a debit card. By staking different amounts, we can get cards of various tiers. However, the 111.64 CRO tokens worth USD25 is already reflected in my wallet though yet to be unlocked.

I will continue to monitor other promising cryptocurrencies i.e. XRP, Doge, Holo, Matic and possibly nibble them. I will also purchase and hold $500 of CRO tokens to get the Ruby steel card and unlock USD25 worth of CRO tokens.

For those of you interested to sign up for Crypto.com exchange platform, you may use my referral link here. We both can get USD25 worth of CRO tokens when you stake $500 of CRO tokens for a Ruby card or above.

I am excited to begin this journey into Crypto. The excitement is like stepping into a Casino.

Thank you for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always. 

With love & peace, 

Qiongster