Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Added Frasers Centrepoint Trust
Friday, September 02, 2022
How I Achieved CPF 0.5M3X !
After a decade of working and manipulating with my CPF savings, my CPF balances have crossed SGD500k.
This is a psychological milestone that I am happy about.
Definitely there will always be CPF naysayers who claim CPF monies are locked up and not our monies. Goal post can keep shifting as Full Retirement Sum keeps increasing to ensure most peasants will never get to touch their own CPF savings until they end up in grave and so on.
I still believe that CPF is our monies as we could use it to pay for housing, education and medical needs other than food, clothes, car and entertainment.
How I managed to hit 0.5M3X?
a. I started working odd jobs in my teens and got CPF contributions.
b. I also transferred funds from OA to SA when I started working after graduation from university.
c. I made CPF SA contributions under Retirement Sum Top-Up scheme for tax reliefs.
d. I refunded back the CPF OA amount used for HDB BTO downpayment.
e. I grinded in a job that allows me to hit $6k monthly salary within 6 years of working, to max out both employee and employer CPF contributions.
If I can do it, anyone can do it too. In fact, I slowed down the transfer of OA to SA in order to slow down hitting CPF SA Full Retirement Sum early so as to enjoy a few more years of RSTU.
Thanks for reading!
Thursday, September 01, 2022
Double Up on my Fixed Deposit Interest Rate
I placed a fixed deposit with OCBC in May at a rate of 1.28% p.a. for 2 years.
That was one of the best deals months ago before recent surges in interest rates.
I woke up today to see a higher rate offered by UOB.
The main catch is the placement must be at least S$20k of fresh funds.
Hence I instinctly decided to cancel my fixed deposit with OCBC, wasting 4 months by getting 0.05% board rate interest and principal amount back.
Then I place the fresh funds with UOB.
There it goes!
1.28%@24 months to 2.7%@15 months which is not shown on their website!
I acknowledge that this is not the best deal and interest rates may go up higher in next few weeks but I prefer to lock in my money at around CPF OA rates in local banks such as UOB and OCBC, which coincidentally I "own" shares in, rather than foreign banks which offer even higher interest rates.
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Portfolio Update August 2022
It is time to update my investment portfolios on the last day of August 2022.
The stock markets remained volatile and uncertain under the immense noises engulfing Fed tapering, interest rates hikes, inflation fears, recession fears, pandemic fears, rise of US Treasury yields, Ukraine war, poor company quarterly results and so on.
I stay unswayed and steadfast in my pursuit of financial freedom quest. I am on standby to deploy more of my war chest in S-Reits and US growth stock while collecting option premiums for fun.
My idle cash remains in fixed deposits and money market funds such as Philip Money Market Fund, Fullerton Cash Fund in Moomoo and Singapore Savings Bonds generating average yields of above 2%.
My SGX Income Portfolio value falls to $283.5k from $292.5k last month mainly due to fears about more interest rate hikes by the Fed to curb inflation, and post XD weakness of the share prices of most Reits.
Nil
Portfolio Dividends
1. Received $370.20 of dividends from UOB on 22 Aug.
2. Received $96 of dividends from Sembcorp Ind on 23 Aug.
3. Received $90 of dividends from Wilmar on 24 Aug in SRS.
4. Received $456 of dividends from Mapletree Pan-Asia Com Trust on 25 Aug.
5. Received $960.12 of dividends from OCBC on 25 Aug in SRS.
6. Received $186.56 of dividends from Ascott Trust on 29 Aug.
7. Received $120.95 of dividends from Suntec Reit on 29 Aug.
8. Received $213 of dividends from Comfortdelgro on 29 Aug in SRS.
9. Received $307.42 of dividends from Keppel Reit on 29 Aug in SRS.
10. Received $233.50 of dividends from IREIT Global on 31 Aug.
SGX Income Portfolio
SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio
Thank you for reading.
Monday, August 29, 2022
Allotment Results for Singapore Savings Bonds (SBSEP22 GX22090Z)
Thanks for reading. Invest safe and remain focused as always.
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Applied for "CPF OA beating" Singapore Savings Bonds (SBSEP22 GX22090Z)
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Net Worth Update Aug 2022 | SGD1.3m Surpassed!
S$1.315m
My net worth increases 1.4% to $1.315m from past month.
Another all time high.
This is after collecting my August 2022 salary, July 2022 CPF contributions and more dividends from my SGX income portfolio and paying off all my credit card liabilities and bills.
The increase was also contributed by strong recovery of stock prices in my portfolios in recent weeks before the retracement in recent days.
I have completed SRS contribution of $15.3k, $8k RSTU of CPF SA account and $8k RSTU of my mum's CPF RA account for the year, reaping all the low hanging fruits of tax reliefs and guaranteed risk free yields.
Cash is a great performing asset in such high interest rate environment and I have deployed my war chest into Fullerton SGD Cash Fund by Moomoo yielding on average 2% and into Money Market Fund by Phillips Capital yielding around 1.2%.
I have also renewed expiring fixed deposits from 2021 yielding 0.5% to 2.3%!
Cash is still King!
I plan to subscribe for the next few months of Singapore Savings Bonds, which should hopefully still yield more than 2.5% on average for the next decade.
The remaining months of year 2022 remains challenging and turbulent. Another round of 0.5% to 1% interest rate is on the cards of the Fed to curb immense inflation which could have already peaked but the pace of increase could slow down. Global supply chain crunch, high oil prices and the Ukraine war have caused the prices of food and necessities to remain high. Prices of large items such as properties and cars continue to rise despite more costly mortgage loans.
The stock markets remain volatile and unpredictable but I still believe every dip presents a great buying opportunity to increase our investments in especially high quality income-producing Reits and growth tech stock.
Continue to invest for more passive income. Cashflow is also King! Continue making our monies work harder and own more income producing assets for more cashflow! Own more streams of income besides our salaried job.
Life is great in an endemic world. Ignore the noises. Stay focused. Remain on track. Be greedy when others are fearful. We will get to our goals and dreams. En route to financial freedom!
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Portfolio Update July 2022
Today is the second last day of July 2022 and it is time for me to update my investment portfolios.
The stock markets have rebounded after months of volatility and uncertainty under the immense noises engulfing Fed tapering, interest rates hikes, inflation fears, recession fears, pandemic fears, rise of US Treasury yields, Ukraine war, poor company quarterly results and so on.
Whether it will stay as a new bull uptrend or merely just a fake breakout remains uncertain. Nevertheless, time in the market always beats timing the market. Every market tank leads to a rebound, stronger than ever before.
I remained focused and steadfast in my pursuit of financial freedom quest. I have started to deploy some of my war chest in S-Reits and US growth stock while dabbling with options for fun.
I have also channeled idle cash into money market funds in Philip Money Market Fund, Fullerton Cash Fund in Moomoo and Singapore Savings Bonds to let my monies work hard to generate yield from 1% to 3% respectively.
My SGX Income Portfolio value increases to $292.50k from $268.9k last month mainly due to the share price recovery of many of the S-Reits which are now cum dividend mode after announcing their 2Q 2022 or 1H 2022 financial results. Furthermore, I injected capital of around $14k to add Mapletree Commercial Trust during the preferential offer period and initiated position in IREIT Global.
1. Bought 12,000 shares of IREIT Global at $0.605.
2. Bought 4,000 shares of Mapletree Commercial Trust at $1.78.
3. Rolled down 1 unit of BAC Put Option by closing BAC220715 put option with $31 strike price at US$118 and sold BAC221216 put option with $26 strike price at US$138.
4. Sold 2 units of PLTR Call Options PLTR220812 with $11 strike price at US$25.
5. Bought 20 shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) at $106.30.
Portfolio Dividends
1. Received $117.50 of dividends from Savings Bonds on 1 Jul.
SGX Income Portfolio
SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio
Thank you for reading. As always, invest safe and remain focused as always.
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Allotment Results for Record High Yield Singapore Savings Bonds (SBAUG22 GX22080V)
Thanks for reading. Invest safe and remain focused as always.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Added Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Friday, July 22, 2022
Applied for Record High Yield Singapore Savings Bonds (SBAUG22 GX22080V)
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
6 Takeaways from Mapletree Industrial Trust AGM
I took some time to attend the Mapletree Industrial Trust 12th Annual General Meeting physically today at the Mapletree Business City auditorium.
Physical attendance was poor from the large number of empty seats as the AGM could also be watched through live webcast online.
Let me summarise the 5 things I learnt from this meeting.
1. Strong income producing ability
Distributable income in FY21/22 is $350.9m increased by 18.8% year-on-year. DPU of 13.8 cents. This is great for investors.
2. Great financial flexibility
3. Strong financial results
4. Strong Balance Sheet
5. Hedged from interest rate impact
The management plans to maintain hedged loans at between 70% and 80% instead of 100% in order to preserve some financial flexibility and the hedges come at a cost i.e. 3% interest cost effectively immediately with an impact on DPU.
6. Portfolio Highlights
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Net Worth Update July 2022 | SGD1.3m In Sight
My net worth increases to $1.296m. On the brink of breaching $1.3m.
This is after collecting my July 2022 salary, Jun 2022 CPF contributions and more dividends from my SGX income portfolio and paying off all my credit card liabilities and bills.
I received a boost from the maturity of proceeds of an Great Eastern endowment plan purchased a decade ago. As a result, the portion of insurance drops to 5% and my cash war chest increases to 20% of my net worth.
I have completed SRS contribution of $15.3k, $8k RSTU of CPF SA account and $8k RSTU of my mum's CPF RA account for 2022.
For my SGX income portfolio, I have increased my investments by initiating a position in IREIT Global and adding Mapletree Commercial Trust for more dividends in future.
I plan to subscribe for the next few months of Singapore Savings Bonds, which should yield more than 3% on average for the next decade.
The coming months of year 2022 remains challenging and turbulent. Another round of 0.75% to 1% interest rate is on the cards of the Fed to curb immense inflation which could have already peaked. Global supply chain crunch, high oil prices and the Ukraine war have caused the prices of food and necessities to remain high. Prices of large items such as properties and cars continue to rise despite more costly mortgage loans. The stock markets remain volatile and unpredictable as to when is the bottom.
In such monetary environment, I still believe that Cash is King! Cashflow is also King! We should demand higher yields from banks, bonds, Reits and be more prudent with spending our monies. Continue making our monies work harder and own more income producing assets for more cashflow!
Life is great in an endemic world. Ignore the noises. Stay focused. Remain on track. Be greedy when others are fearful. We will get to our goals and dreams eventually.
Friday, July 15, 2022
"Subscribed" to Mapletree Commercial Trust (SGX:N2IU) "Preferential Offer"
I added 4,000 shares of Mapletree Commercial Trust (SGX:N2IU) at $1.78 today after upping my initial bid at $1.76 which was unfilled for 2 weeks. I am keen to get this deal done before XD for the clean-up distribution next week.
I will now own 15,000 shares of MCT, positioning for the new era after merger with MNACT to become the third largest Reit in Singapore and top 10 largest Reit in Asia.
Even though MCT will no longer be a pure Singapore Greater Southern Waterfront commercial property asset play, its dividend yield should at least remain steady, if not grow after the merger and continue to play an income producing role for investors.
Today's high interest rate environment will not last forever. The FED will hike interest rates this year until there are signs of inflation slowdown and onset of economic recession which will probably induce the FED to stop raising interest rates and perhaps slowly reduce back the interest rates in 2023 or 2024.
I believe that MCT will continue to suffer in terms of price weakness and volatility in the short-term but in the long run of next decade or so, it will definitely thrive and its share price will slowly climb back above $2.
How I utilised my NS55 $100 credits
I finally utilised my NS55 $100 credits stored in the LifeSG app today.
I decided to do what is most practical in today's high interest rate environment.
I did not purchase anything.
I merely paid $100 off my Citibank credit card bill on the AXS e-station website.
Using PayNow QR, there it goes. Paring $100 off my liabilities from paying Telco and Town Council bills using credit card.
Wednesday, July 06, 2022
Initiated position in IREIT Global (SGX:UD1U)































