Portfolio Transactions Update - Jan 2021

Sold:

• 1,000 shares of HMN.SI (Ascott Residence Trust) at SGD 1.1 (closed +SGD 193.15) 
• 40 shares of BAC (Bank of America) at USD 33.26 (closed +SGD 273.58)
  

Bought:

• 12 shares of BABA at USD 233.80 
  
• 16 shares of AAPL at USD 132.50 
• 9 shares of AAPL at USD 128.50
• 10 shares of SQ at USD 216.00 
• 3 shares of TSLA at USD 693.04
• 9 shares of TSLA at USD 874.00
• 11 shares of ARKG ETF at USD 95.00

Total current stock portfolio value: SGD 35,609.86 

Closed positions in HMN.SI and BAC as part of streamlining my portfolio and don't have much faith in those stocks for the long haul for various reasons, although BAC seems to be in a strong upward trajectory atm.  

DBS, SEA are doing great. Holding some Singtel... which is not doing much for me😶, so just monitoring.    

Bit concerned that the US stock prices seems generally inflated now, so probably going to DCA conservatively into US stocks moving forward over the next few months. Also probably going to build up a decent dividend portfolio as well - so ideally 70% in growth and 30% in SG dividend stocks overall.   

In other news, Malaysia has commenced their second round of MCO (lockdown), a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol in Washington D.C. last week and Trump is being impeached a second time, and it has been raining in Singapore for what seems like a month already. We live in interesting times....   

Take care and thanks for reading! 

List of Monthly Investments through Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)

These are my monthly DCA commitments for now: 

Robos

S$500 Cash - Syfe Reit+ (100 REIT)
S$500 Cash - Stashaway Risk Index 22%
S$1,115 CPF OA - Endowus on 60/40 'Measured Portfolio'
S$1,000 SRS - Nikko AM STI ETF, OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plan (BCIP)

In Dec 2020, I set up my SRS and transferred $12k into it for tax savings and to seriously kickstart my retirement savings. Out of this 12k, a lump sum of $6.5k was channelled into another Stashaway portfolio with 22% risk index. To balance out the risks, the remaining amount in my SRS will be DCA-ed monthly in $1k portions to invest in the STI ETF. I will reassess the returns in a couple of months to see how well this works. 

Stocks

USD $2,000 (approx) - TSLA 
USD $1,500 (approx) - AAPL

I am in a portfolio building phase and have set aside a 'war chest' of around S$60k cash to be deployed over the next few months whenever good opportunities arise, but for now I will be committing to DCA monthly into the above 2 stocks in 2021, which I feel most confident about. 

Bitcoin

S$500 - Coinhako 

It has come to the stage where it is impossible to ignore Bitcoin! Anyway, am thinking of changing platforms to Binance later on since I've read some reviews it is more "secure" and the rates could be better. Until I have time to do a proper comparison, will stick to Coinhako for now.  

Others

$500 - Aviva MoneySmart - Ladies Investment-Linked Policy (ILP) 

Unfortunately back in 2008, I signed up for this ILP with a policy term of 15 years and have been religiously paying $500 a month from the past 12 years 😒It's a pretty horrible investment, and I am still working out whether it is worth to continue paying for the next 3 years or surrender it. 

I am actually committing a large portion of my monthly salary for the above investments... trying to reduce my spending as much as possible so I have more to invest 💪

It's almost midweek.... may the weekend come soon!! 

Foray into CPFIS and Endowus

It's been raining in Singapore for 3 consecutive days... brr.... 

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm looking to maximise my CPF interest returns and have decided to do so by: 

1. Topping up my CPF-SA with $7,000 yearly up to the Full Retirement Sum (FRS), although the FRS is going to be like a moving target! Bonus is that I'd get $7k in tax relief for FY2021 too and transferring in January each year will ensure the maximum interest to compound during the year.
2. Investing $10,000 lump sum + $1,000 monthly from CPF-OA via Endowus. The main reason why I wouldn't invest more than this is because a guaranteed 2.5% with zero risk is hard to beat and I am concerned about taking too much risk in the current bear market... 

On point 2 above, I've considered just transferring $10k+ from OA to SA to earn 4% interest (like how I did a lump sum last year) but this action is irreversible, and I want to have a cushy buffer in my OA just in case I need the funds for housing in the next 3-5 years.   

Signing up for the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) and Endowus was easy enough. 

Steps to take:

1. Complete CPF's Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) here. You'd need to log in via your SingPass. 
2. Go to your bank (DBS, OCBC or UOB) to apply for a CPF Investment Account (CPFIA). Note that if you don't complete Step 1 above, the bank may not approve your CPFIA application. I'm using OCBC and it took me just 5 minutes to apply for a CPFIA via ibanking. 
3. Sign up with Endowus and fill up your risk profile. Once signed up, they'll send you a couple of helpful emails with instructions on how to link your CPFIA with Endowus via the CPF website (once your CPFIA is ready). 
4. If like me you don't fulfil the criteria set out in Endowus' Client Knowledge Assessment, you'll be made to take an e-learning course and assessment here and upload the completion certificate - gah troublesome😶, but I'll take it as a learning opportunity. 

Last month, I've also created a Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account in a bid to reduce my taxable income + for retirement planning - will blog about this another time. 

Enjoy this long weekend while it lasts!! 

Starting 2021 with $4,638.85 in CPF interest

The CPF website was laggy all day on New Year's Day lol. 

Guess everyone was curious about how much interest they've earned on their CPF balances from FY2020! 

This is actually the first time I logged in to check. I couldn't be bothered to check in previous years. I'm a changed person now haha. 

Transferred $30,000 from my OA to SA in May 2020, as I felt confident I didn't need that amount to pay for any immediate housing commitments, and this generated better interest at 4%. However on hindsight, I should have transferred more to SA, as it didn't make sense for extra money to be sitting idle in the OA at only a 2.5% interest rate.  

But $4,638.85 in total... not TOO bad, seeing how my CPF interest for FY2019 was only $3393.54. 

Hope to get better returns this year, and therefore I'm looking into investing my 'extra' CPF OA monies (above the $20k minimum). Most likely through Endowus, which is currently the only robo-advisor that is allowed for CPF-OA monies. 

Will update on how this goes! 

First Post

Happy New Year! 

Started this blog to document my investing and money management journey properly - so far I have been painstakingly documenting my trades and investing notes in a notebook by hand😅. 

Hopefully, I will also be able to share my experience as a newbie investor through this blog, and also bounce ideas off and learn from others. Please feel free to share with me any tips along the way!  

I've always understood the importance of investing but have never gotten serious enough about it until 2020 happened and changed my perspective entirely. 

Covid-19 has opened my eyes and made me really realise that: 

1. It is imperative to develop MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS. The retrenchments, unemployment and business closures in 2020 across the world have really made me aware of how risky it is to rely solely on a monthly paycheck, and how our livelihoods hang by a thread if we do not secure alternative channels of income. Investing prudently can give me another source of income.   
2. It is dumb to place all my cash in FIXED DEPOSITS. Before 2020, almost all my spare cash was in FDs. But I realised to my horror that banks can change their interest rates at any time. The interest rates for FDs were basically more than halved in 2020. Also, "high interest" savings account are not a guarantee either. I was disappointed (but not surprised, given the shitty economic situation) when OCBC lowered their interest rates substantially for my OCBC 360 account.  
3. I am relatively young at thirty-something and I can take CALCULATED RISKS. I grew up being told that investing in the stock marketing is "too risky" and that one may lose all their money. Even though as I grew up I knew this not to be entirely true, I was super hesitant to dabble in the stock market. When I shared this sentiment with a friend, she replied, "Err... but you're young, have more than 30 years of working life ahead of you and you have time to recoup your losses if you make any!" That really hit me. 
4. Managing my money can be FULFILLING. In the past couple of months, I spent more time at home and tried to educate myself about investing and money management by reading blogs, articles, books and studied the best ways to manage my finances. I found the entire process to be enriching, enlightening and fulfilling. I now see managing my investments and being up to date with financial products as a way of life. 
5. It is time to plan for RETIREMENT. I do not want to work all my life and I hope to retire by 45 years old to live a financially free life. Nothing much to say about this, except that obviously I hope this would be sooner rather than later.

Cheers to a better year ahead to everyone!