Portfolio Update January 2023

Today is the last day of Jan 2023.

Let me provide a quick update of my investment portfolios.

My SGX Income Portfolio value grows to $304k from $286.2k last month. 

My US/HK Growth Portfolio value increases to US$14.7k from US$13.4k last month.

My SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio value rises slightly to $120k from $112k.

The Fed will slow down interest rate hikes and global recession is on the cards. The stock markets have displayed signs of bullish reversal amidst immense volatility in a high inflationary environment still clouded by immense noises and fears. We should remain calm and clear-minded and make the best out of current situation by investing and deploying our financial resources into assets tactfully in 2023.

Portfolio Actions

1. Sold 1 unit of GOOGL230113 call option with $93 strike price at US$0.47. 

2. Sold 1 unit of GOOGL230120 call option with $94 strike price at US$0.35. Rollover by closing at US$2.66 and sold 1 unit of GOOGL230127 call option with $94 strike price at US$3.43. Rollover by closing at US$5.05 and sold 1 unit of GOOGL230203 call option with $95 strike price at US$5.35.

Portfolio Dividends

1. Received $117.50 of dividends from Savings Bonds on 3 Jan.

SGX Income Portfolio

Portfolio Value = $304k

US/HK Growth Portfolio

Moomoo

Tiger Broker

Syfe Trade

Portfolio Value = US$14.7k

SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio

Thanks for reading. Stay focused and remain steadfast as always!

With love and peace, 

Qiongster

5 Reasons Why I Just Topped Up CPF Retirement Account of my mum

  

I just topped up $8k into my mum's CPF Retirement Account today.

Let me reiterate 5 reasons why I did so instead of giving cash to her.

1. Tax Relief

For selfish reason, I would like to enjoy tax relief of up to $8k per calendar year for topping up my parent's CPF Retirement Account under the Retirement Sum Top Up (RSTU) scheme.

Assuming my tax bracket is at 11%, a relief of $8k will save me $880 of taxes in cash, which is enough to eat more than 100 plates of $4 cai png (vegetables rice) at the coffeeshop.

The tax relief is also applicable to family members such as parents-in-law, grandparents, grandparents-in-law, siblings and spouse.

2. Compounding growth at 4%

CPF Retirement Account yields at least 4% and up to 6% for senior folks risk-free and guaranteed by the Singapore Government. Monies growing at compounded rate of at least 4% will double in 20 years hence, by leaving cash in CPF RA account, they will grow much faster than inflation rate to preserve and uphold its real value.

3. CPF Life

In order to qualify for CPF Life, one need to have at least $60k in their CPF retirement savings before reaching 65 years old. I am helping my mum to boost her CPF retirement savings to qualify for CPF Life as she does not have active income and CPF contributions.

CPF Life offers payouts perpetually for life but is a debatable subject because its pros and cons varied across individuals' opinions. If one's CPF RA does not have $60k before reaching 65 years old, then he or her will only rely on Retirement Savings scheme to draw down their CPF savings till it is depleted.

Having at least $60k in CPF RA will offer extra choice of being able to qualify for CPF Life scheme to enjoy perpetual monthly payouts.

4. Matched Retirement Savings Scheme

Under the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme (MRSS), the Government will match every dollar of cash top-ups made to the Retirement Account of eligible members up to a cap of $600, which can amount to $3,000 over 5 years. To be eligible, the person has to be aged between 55 and 70, has a CPF RA of less than the current Basic Retirement Sum of $96k, has average monthly income of less than $4k, live in a property with annual value less than $13k and not own any private property.

By topping up at least $600 to a qualified family member's CPF RA account, we can milk the $600 of free money from the Government every year.

5. CPF is like golden ATM for senior citizens

For senior folks close to reaching the 55 year old and 65 year old milestones of being able to touch their CPF monies, their CPF accounts are like golden ATM that offer high interest rates for "withdrawable" cash with the click of a button. This is unlike younger folks who could only stare at their CPF balances as numbers. Hence, the concept of 1M65 is indeed beneficial and practical to people who could really live beyond 50s or 60s and on the brink of drawing down cash from their CPF balances. People who lived past 50 years old should try to pump more monies into their CPF accounts, by all means, in order to reap the risk-free guaranteed returns on their monies.

In conclusion, I top up my mum's CPF RA account with cash instead of giving cash, in order to maximise the value of money. For the $8k topped up, I can enjoy $880 of tax savings myself, let my mum earn at least $280 of CPF interests for 2023 and attract another matched $600 from the Government. In addition, there is compounding effect from future years' interests and being eligible to qualify for CPF Life for perpetual monthly income payouts. Overall, I feel that it is an awesome deal.

Thanks for reading. Stay focused and remain steadfast as always!

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Test My Luck on 1 Year T-Bill (BY23100X) using SRS funds

   

Happy Lunar New Year!

I still have idle funds lying in SRS account earning meagre 0.05% after the partial allocation in previous T-Bill application.

Great opportunity costs incurred from waiting on the sidelines to add investment for local banks such as OCBC or UOB shares into my SRS portfolio.

The share prices of local banks have no sign of weakening in the short-term hence I decided to deploy the idle SRS funds into this latest tranche of Treasury Bill.

The auction date for latest tranche of T-Bill is on 26 Jan 2023 and I decided to try my luck to auction for this tranche of T-Bill, a short-term government debt security with 12 months tenor, fully backed by the Singapore government and having an AAA credit rating.

The issue date is on 31 Jan 2023 and maturity date is on 30 Jan 2024. Results will be out on 26 Jan 2023, 1pm.

There it goes.

There is no admin fee for internet banking applications unlike SSB.

I look forward to a successful application and hope to lock in my SRS funds for 12 months at above 4% yield before getting it back to apply for SSB early next year.

Thanks for reading. Stay focused and remain steadfast as always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

3 Reasons for my Voluntary Top-Up to CPF Medisave Account

 

After the latest contributions for Dec 22 salary and interests, my CPF Medisave account balance is as follows:

I just contributed $1,820.10 to my CPF Medisave account using eNETs (to be discontinued in Apr 2023) which will take one day for the amount to be credited to CPF. 

I tried using PayNow but was hit by a $1k limit which will take 12 hours to effect limit change. The benefit of using Paynow is to credit the monies to CPF almost instantanteously.

This irreversible action will max out my MA at the basic healthcare sum of $68,500 for 2023.

Let me share the 3 reasons why I did so.

1. Tax Relief

The first and foremost motivation is to enjoy tax relief for the amount I contributed to CPF Medisave Account. I would rather pay cold hard cash into my own illiquid vault which can be used to pay for insurance premiums as well as medical expenses if necessary in future, rather than contribute to nation building which is a rather intangible thing that I can enjoy. Do note that the tax relief for Medisave voluntary Top-Up and Retirement Sum Top-Up (RSTU) have a combined cap at $8k.

2. No More Retirement Sum Top Up

As I have attained the Full Retirement Sum (FRS) in CPF Special account last year, I am no longer able to make RSTU into my CPF Special Account despite a higher FRS of $198,800 this year. This is thanks to the interests from Special Account which far exceed the increase in FRS amount, allowing my Special Account to be above the FRS forever. Thus, it is financially beneficial to achieve FRS in our lives as soon as possible. Since I cannot top up Special Account anymore, I can only make voluntary top-up to my Medisave Account.

3. Compounding Effect

Besides enjoying at least 7% of tax savings in my case, the CPF Medisave Account pays at least 4% of interest per annum. Altogether, I get to reap at least 11% of returns on my cash contributed into Medisave Account. Like the compounding effect for Special Account, once we have attained basic healthcare sum (BHS) at any point in our lives, our Medisave Account should compound at 4% and automatically stays above the BHS forever, assuming no large drawdowns of Medisave savings for medical expenses. By maxing out the Medisave Account, our CPF contributions from work will overflow into the Special Account, which has become harder to grow after attaining FRS.

Moving forward, I plan to top up my Medisave Account after deductions for CareShield and MediShield Life premiums as there is up to $8k of tax reliefs and I gotta milk as much of it as possible.

Thanks for reading. Stay focused and remain steadfast as always!

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Allotment Results for T-Bill (BS23101S)

 

The allotment results for Jan 2023 Treasury Bill BS23101S are out!

While the cut-off yield is 4.0%, it is disappointing to find out that only approximately 16% of competitive applications at cutoff are allotted.

I applied for $10k competitive bid and was allocated only $2k. For non-competitive applicants, they will get 100% of the amount they applied for.

Currently, there is another tranche of 1 year T-Bill (BY23100X) open for application for auction on 26 Jan 2023. Hopefully the cutoff yield can remain above 4%. I am contemplating whether to apply again using SRS funds.

Thanks for reading. Invest safe and remain focused as always.

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Net Worth Update Jan 2023

  

S$1.38m

Welcome to my first net worth update in 2023.

My net worth rises $33k or 2.4% to $1.38m, another all time high!

The increase is mainly due to CPF interests for 2022, CPF contributions and savings from Jan 2023 salary.

My CPF forms the bulk 38% of my wealth. Though illiquid, it is my safety net to be unlocked if I could live beyond 55 years old. I have already achieved full retirement sum in CPF SA and could only top up my Medisave account to the basic healthcare sum of $68.5k. I will also top up $8k into my mum's CPF Retirement account.

My stocks and Reits in SGX income portfolio forms 22% of my net worth. I will slow the pace of adding high quality S-Reits as low-risk assets such as fixed deposits, short-term government bonds are yielding more than 4% in today's high interest, inflationary environment.

SRS forms 7% of my wealth and i accounted for it using the cost amount of contribution rather than market value. I have used the idle $10k of funds in my SRS account to apply for the recent tranche of T-bill.

In terms of US growth tech stocks, I plan to just dabble with options to collect premiums this year. I have no plan to increase exposure to HK or china equities.

I am stashing away cash in Fullerton cash funds under custody of Moomoo and Tiger Broker yielding above 3.5% daily interest. I plan to subscribe for the next few months of Singapore Savings Bonds, if they yield above 3% for the next decade. Ultimately, I hope to max out SSB individual limit of $200k by end of this year.

My conservative strategy of building a well balanced portfolio for my financial assets involves hoarding cash to earn decent risk-free interest rates above 4% short-term while waiting for greater opportunities to slowly invest in income-producing assets and growth tech businesses for the long-term.

My allocation of cash (19%)/risk-free bonds (7%)/CPF(38%) to equities (22%)/SRS equities (7%) ratio is around 64-29, which provides a rather huge defensive safety net.

I am not putting in additional effort to deploy my CPF OA funds to T-bills or fixed deposits for additional yield as I am lazy, contented with 2.5% and prefer to earn fuss-free passive income which do not require time queueing or waiting at the banks or stress over the luck-dependent system of T-bills cutoff rate. I also believe in money abundance and we should not be greedy to earn all the money in this world.

Life is exciting in an endemic world. Ignore the noises. Remain on track. Be greedy when others are fearful. Be hungry when others are contented. We will get to our goals and dreams. En route to financial freedom!

Thanks for reading. Stay focused and remain steadfast as always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Test My Luck on T-Bill (BS23101S) using SRS funds

  

I still have idle funds lying in SRS account earning meagre 0.05%.

Great opportunity costs incurred from waiting on the sidelines to add investment for local banks such as OCBC or UOB shares into my SRS portfolio.

The share prices of local banks have no sign of weakening in the short-term hence I decided to deploy the idle SRS funds into either this latest tranche of Treasury Bill.

The auction date for latest tranche of T-Bill is on 18 Jan 2023 and I decided to try my luck to auction for this tranche of T-Bill, a short-term government debt security with 6 month tenor, fully backed by the Singapore government and having an AAA credit rating.

The issue date is on 25 Jan 2023 and maturity date is on 25 Jul 2023. Results will be out on 18 Jan 2023, 1pm.

There it goes.

There is no admin fee for internet banking applications unlike SSB.

I look forward to a successful application and hope to lock in my SRS funds for 6 months at above 4% yield before getting it back to apply for SSB later this year.

Thanks for reading. Stay focused and remain steadfast as always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Free $16k from CPF!

  

Happy New Year 2023! 

The first thing I did when I woke up today is to check my CPF savings accounts.

Very happy to receive more than $16k of interests from CPF!

Another important step in the journey towards financial freedom and retirement.

Even though CPF monies do not seem to be like real monies, I believe they are still illiquid monies that can be used to fund our retirement in our late lives, purchase properties, pay for education fees of children and pay medical bills.

Here are my CPF interests for 2022:

In total, I received this amount of interests from my CPF savings:

$16,739.56

This is a 16% increase from $14,365.69 which is received for 2021.

The interest of $2.6k earned from Medisave account can easily cover the premiums for Careshield life and Medishield life. In a way, it is possible to enjoy free insurance by using passive income from CPF savings to cover the insurance premiums. This can be achieved if we bother to top up our own medisave account and strive to hit the maximum Basic Healthcare Sum limit of $68.5k in 2023 to let the 4% interest rate do its compounding work. 

I am certainly pleased with this sum of passive income as it certainly boost my CPF total as well as net worth on the first day of a brand new year.

Let's hop and bounce towards financial freedom in this Rabbit year. Huat ah!!

Thanks for reading. Stay focused and remain steadfast as always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster