Thursday 31 December 2020

The year end resolution- The Transformations

A year end. And begins another.

Many things had happened for year 2020, the most dramatic was none other than the covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the world. Not only it had inflicted loss of human life, it had transformed the life of many people around the world. The borders between countries were forced to close, trade halted, people were trapped at home with limited human interactions. Fear and panic occurred on different scale across the countries affected. The race against time to find a cure til now is still on, although vaccine has been developed, its results is yet unknown as the pandemic continued to work its havoc over the world of human race.

The pandemic has brought about drastic changes in human movement. Gone are the days of an vibrant office environments, meetings now has to be held through Skype and Zoom, more than ever now we have to rely on technology to get their messages across and assignments to be carry out. 

Singapore as a small nation relying on foreign investments and international trades faced its greatest challenges since the financial crisis 2008. As a city state, the vibrant scene of shopping malls and tourism has been the main features of the country. The impacts of pandemic has changed everything, retail business struggled to sustain in the face of shrinking customers and the loss of tourists. When the storms end, our world will never be the same again.  

45% of Singapore population are foreigners working or staying in Singapore as work permit holders or permanent residents. The transformation of the working environments meant that works and assignments are transmit through network. This totally closed the physical barrier of  distances between the parties involved, without the need to meet at a designated location or venue. What would be the impact on us? If the foreign executive talents can fulfill their assignments working from home, it is likely they could do it from their own native home without the need to come to Singapore. 

First thing that comes to mind, when these pool of foreign executives no longer need to stay in Singapore to fulfill their jobs, this may indirectly results in shrinking pool of potential tenants. Rental income especially for higher grade accommodations like condominiums which has been among the favor type of house for executives may faced difficulties in future. 

While the pool of potential executives tenants may shrink in future, the pool of skilled workers however should continued to remain in demand as the job scopes of skilled workers required them to remain in the country due to the nature of their jobs. These group however are not among the higher tier salaried jobs, and tend not to look for rental house in condominiums as these require higher maintenance and expenses. 

Our own experience with the impact on the rental market occurred in April and May as Singapore government enforced the first phase of the covid-19 restrictions, our tenants are a group of skilled workers whose livelihood were affected as they were forced to stay at home with no salary. In view of the events, we lowered the rental by 30% to help our tenants as half of them were unable to generate income due to the working restrictions. While this lessened our passive income, it provided better sustainability in retaining the tenants. I believed landlords should adjusted with the changing times to constantly meet the market demand to ensure more sustainability and stability. 

On personal level, this month sees the end of my 18 months journey in paying down my housing loan. Starting in January 2021, I no longer need to finance my house with cash, as the CPF itself is now sufficient to service the loan on its own. This neutralize the threat of a main liability and free up more funds to increase my cash holdings. 

So, whats next?

For now, I am still working from home. Even with the opening of phase 3 in Singapore, it is unlikely there will be much changes in my job. There have been some plans laid out for 2021, but the pandemic has brought about some uncertainly in my plans that will require further reviews. Until then, we shall see. 

Stay strong, mankind. Nothing last forever. So does the pandemic.  


Friday 25 December 2020

Christmas Orchard 2020

Times passed, its Christmas again. 

This year Christmas however is rather quiet in Orchard Road due to the impact of Covid-19. Performances were cancelled, social gatherings restricted, decoration much simpler. Even the traditional giant Christmas Tree that used to highlight the entrance of Ngee Ann City is replaced by the set up of Covid-19 contact tracings facilities. 

Although the Festival moods is still evident, it is foreshadow by the presence of Covid-19. The crowd is much lesser than before.

Paragon Orchard still the same as before.
But CK Tang below certainly has changed, no shiny lights. Notice the bus stop in its front, less crowded and this is Christmas Eve, a far cry from the old time scene when it was usually crowded with people.

 
The traditional entrance into the main shopping district of Orchard Road still look shiny as before.
  

This clearly shows the impact of the Covid-19 on the retail business of shopping malls, with lesser retail crowd, business owners now have to rely on online sales and delivery orders to sustain their business. I witnessed one restaurant at Wheelock Place where while they were still serving retail customers within their restaurant, they were busy packing delivery meal orders on one side of the restaurant. Such a sight was never seen before the impact of Covid-19. 
 
This send a clear signal to all business owners. The world has changed, it is unlikely the past of glory will ever return, business now has to evolve to keep up with changing time.  

 


Tuesday 1 December 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

Wow, another month breeze passed. And its December, the last month of the year. The month of November has been rather eventful, suddenly I was washed with plenty of innovations and ideas to do something different. LOL. The brain overactive. Ops. Enough blabbing, lets review our finance for November.

Dividend income has lessened in the mist of the covid situation. Payout from several companies has been reduced. Total amount received was $2,765.49, almost 30% less than the projected amount. Well, it is more than our monthly expanses. Rental income remain stable. 

Portfolio remains unchanged with no addition of any counter. As such, my cash holdings continued to grow and reached 5%. And it appear that I will not be adding anymore in near future, because Mr Market has begun to climb back up the slope.

After almost 6 months of weakness hovering around STI 2500s. Mr Market begun to recover in November climbing up the slope to as high as STI 2900. With the recovery, my portfolio also begun to regain some positive results. As I mentioned before, the market eventually will recover. It is just a matter of time. 

Still, there is no improvement in the pandemic around the world. Until then, border crossing and businesses will still be affected limiting the recovery of Mr Market.
  



Wednesday 4 November 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

The last quarter of the year, Christmas is coming. Well, with this covid-19 situation it is going to be a rather gloomy festival seasons. 

It is a cold month for dividend, and with the business still badly impacted by covid-19 the payout has become quite unpredictable. This month dividend collection comes to an amount of $618. But we got a fixed deposit matured in October which vastly boast our passive income for that month. 

Prudent investments and careful positioning of wealth helps maintain sustainability in the event of any egg basket went burst. Although the profit returns is not as pretty as those who adopt focused investment, it gives us a peace of mind. For ordinary folks like us. a peace of mind is far better than the excitement of staring at the jumping numbers of the market.

Portfolio adjusted a bit. One of my investments has just divested their assets and paid out in cash. This increased my cash holding to over 4%. 

Some of my friends asked me whether this portfolio included my emergency funds. The answer is no. This portfolio pool of money is purely used for investment purposes in the stock markets, which is why my cash holdings is usually less than 5%, some 95% of the soldiers are holding their ground in several companies generating passive income for me. In the event the investment goes haywire my financial status will not be seriously crippled, as these group of soldiers are meant for fighting the war at the front line,  causalities is expected but will strive to avoid losses to the best of my abilities. 




 

Saturday 3 October 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

The 3rd quarter of the year closed with a passive income of $3,817.22, this brought the total amount of passive income for the 3rd quarter to $12,036.61, an average of $4000 per month. Not bad. The interest rate of DBS Multiplier has been cut really low, but still it doesn't cost me any effort to earn that small pocket money. 

Dividend income however is certainly much lower than before, the Covid-19 impacts on the business is still pretty much evident. Some of the companies has delayed the payout date til much later, overall I am still getting paid for all those soldiers parked inside the companies. Household expenses continued to be maintained around $2000.


Portfolio adjusted, with some funds diverted to pay off the housing loan. This weakened the amount of war chest, but still maintained around 3% allocation. Other than that, nothing much change.


 

Friday 2 October 2020

Accordia Golf Trust completes divestment

 Well, while the world still reeling from the impact of the Covid-19. Business still as usual for companies.

And this.....company is finally on the move. Link

 

 

This has been going on for a long time, finally its going to be divested. I been holding this for almost 5 years, and the offer price is .....well just somewhat better than my purchased price. So, one less company from my portfolio. 

Based on the news, there will be a second tranche of payment before delisting from SGX. Although it has not been a gold mine investment, it has been steady and paying me for the past 5 years. In other words, it has served its purpose in my portfolio as part of diversification. Thank you, Accordia.

 



Tuesday 22 September 2020

The Winter is coming.....

A short quote from the drama series ' The Game of Throne'.

But for here, its something else.

Many had said Covid-19 would gets under control during the warm seasons. June.....July.....August.....and now Sept is ending soon. The cold seasons is near. Winter is next. The Pandemic might just gets a boaster that will sweep across the world like a curtain of death. Hmm.. not too encouraging...isn't it.

And then we gets this. Pandemic 2022

Oh uh, its likely going to be a 2 years affairs!! In 1918, the Spanish Flu wipe out 500 million people over a period of 2 years over four successive waves. And....we are only seeing just one wave of Covid-19. 

 

Will the Pandemic be much worse than the Spanish Flu above? Although we are in modern times now. but the truth remains. Until there is a direct cure to it. this thing will stay on much longer because humans engagements remains. Things like social distancing and border restrictions will be around for a long time.

That said. The impact on the economy and the market is obvious. THE MARKET will likely not recover within 2 years. Its always seem like 2 years is an average time for a situation to recover. 2008 Global Financial Crisis and Oil Crisis of 2015/16. Both took 2 years to recover. 

So what do we do?

We continued with our lives. Eat healthy, live healthy. Whatever investments we have, we stick to the rules. Stay sustainable. Investments that can sustain during a crisis will likely recover when the situation recovers. If 2 years is the standard formula for recovery, it is possible to see the market recover by 2022.

Its a long wait!!!

Yes, so does the world. Humanity has learned to live with crisis and disasters since the beginning of time and survived. If they had done it, so can we. Ahem, assuming a meteor do not suddenly decide to end our existence like they did to our dinosaurs. Ops...

So how do we survived?

Stick with the old plan. Don't spend unnecessary. Keep a watch on our investments. Be ready to divert to less risky portfolio if need to. Many banks has cut interests. dividends has been cut as well, profits and returns will be lesser, bonuses and promotion might be lesser or worst....zero. These are the likely things we will experience for the next 2 years. If this pandemic vanished early, good for humanity. If not, harvest the will and the determination to survive it through.

Lets us stay strong. Our forefathers has survived the centuries. It is our time now.     



Friday 4 September 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

This month passive income got a nice boast from dividend income totaling an amount of $4,317.96. However, the DBS Multiplier account has revised the interest rate due to covid19 crisis, its much lower than before. Rental income remains stable. This brings the total amount of passive income to $6,152.99. Household expenses maintained around $2,000.....with around 10% of it spend on medical bills. Well...eh.... not much I can do about it.

Based on the projection, the amount of dividend received is much lesser. The covid19 crisis has impacted many of the businesses, most of the companies has to cut down dividend payout to stay competitive. Some however, still managed to grow despite this challenging times. Overall, I would expected dividend income to be lessen by around 20-25% for this year. But as usual I am not alarm as I am not heavily dependent on one source of passive income, and I constantly believed in staying sustainable by moving in two directions - 

1) increase/maintain passive income

2) reduce/maintain expenses

This will maintain the ratio gap between income-expense and enable us to remain sustainable for long term.


Portfolio once again remains unchanged. Funds were generally diverted and placed in war chest which grew slowly to 4% allocation. I see no immediate recovery in the market, in fact I do not think there would be any. As long as border remains closed with limited international trades, the economy will not see any drastic changes. 



Friday 21 August 2020

4 months working from home, so what have I been doing?

4 months has passed and I am still confined at home. Am I bored? Actually no, I brought out a lot of things to settle. Working on hobbies that has been sitting on shelf and boxes for years, reading or re-reading some books, reviewing my financial status, reflection on my life and planning for the future. Seriously, I need more time!!!

If anyone managed to visit my Art Room, you will see what I have been working on. An army of miniatures to assemble and paint. All manual works, pure focus and dedicated works. 

And I think I am running out of storage spaces for it. LOL!!! Ah well, someday will dig out some spaces for it.

Books! I got a small library here. Hundreds! But no time to read. Now I am finally starting to read them. Sometime even into the late night.....omg. My readings do not just restricted to books, even magazines like these.

These are quite ancient copies, collected over the years. Oh...I just love geography and history. I always got good results in school for this two subjects, but FAILED HORRIBLY in Mathematics....and yet I am working in Engineering field.....which is why I never manage to perform in this career...ah well,,,,

So what is going on with the market lately?

Nothing.

Yes. nothing at all. The STI index been hovering around 2500 point with little signs of recovering, in fact it might just gets worse. Mainly because Singapore is heavily dependence on international trade and transition. The closing of borders due to the covid-19 proved damaging and perhaps one of the most challenging crisis this small nation has ever experienced. Never before in history that so much of the national reserves was utilized to sustain the economy and helped the needy.     

Although in difficult times, I am still sticking to my plans in neutralizing the housing loan and planning for the future. 

So, what's in my future?

I will be moving on with my life, I had always been wanting to pursue my passion in Arts. I have been busy exploring the possibility of pursuing a discipline in Arts - full time. Oh yes, full time. That would means I will be leaving the employment eventually, and no more salary income thereafter, This is the main reason why I wanted to achieve financial independence, the day may comes when I can finally leave the rat race and pursue my passion.

Well, until then. Stay strong and focus, dare to dream. I dreamed a lot, and still dreaming about the future. :)

 



Monday 3 August 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

Its another cold month for dividend income. Only one company pay out in the month of July for a total amount of $174.00. And the bad news is DBS multiplier has revised the interest %, so its much lower now. In view of this Covid-19 crisis, we can expect income from dividend to be reduced in the coming months. This was expected as companies impacted by the crisis need to reserve more cash to remain competitive. Tough time call for tough measures. Rental income however remain stable.
 

Portfolio once again remain unchanged. Market has yet shown any signs of recovery, in fact we can expect the market to remain weak for a long period.


Friday 31 July 2020

Banks to cap (cut) dividends - Ouch,,,

Local well known banks OCBC, DBS and UOB has been called upon MAS to cap dividend.

Link Straits Times




What that means?

Cut dividend payout lor.

This spell troubles for many retirees relying on these bank stocks for their expenses. 
Crisis period require measures to remain sustainable, reducing dividend payout to conserve capital is a typical move to adopt to ensure the company remain competitive. 

While some might curse and swear about this, but we should look at it from the rational angle. 

Classic example : Asian Pay TV 
This company consistently payout high yield dividend yearly, even when the cash flow begun to dry up, they still commit to paying out as high as 9% yield which is obviously not sustainable in a long run. Not only this resulted in lower savings but also lesser cash flow which restricted the company for further growth  the result was, the share price of the company crashed down and the company has no choice but to dramatically cut dividend. 

As the old saying' In the time of crisis, cash is King'.

A company with huge cash reserves has better chance to remain sustainable during crisis and perhaps even cater for further growth. Reducing dividend definitely is a painful decisions, but this is a necessary action in the period of tough time.    

Yes, I understand its painful to our pockets, but remember there are people who are far more worse in some part of Earth. Ration our resources, cut down whatever unnecessary expenses or even find a part-time job to compensate. 

I am sure we can survive through. What?! Do not tell me anything about your children music lessons or missing a Starbuck coffee. You pay for what you get and so naturally you will have to bear the consequences of financial difficulties.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

A cat within its own world

Amidst the chaos and panic caused by COVID-19.
Someone still business as usual.

They had a fairly simple state of life. Eat and sleep. Making use of a cardboard as its improvised bed.
How.....carefree.

Human race has certainly gone pretty much away from Nature. Nowadays becoming number one seem getting more in human mind, and much worse for those lagging behind within the rat race. Can't we have a simpler life.....like this cat.

Ops,it wakes and saw me.
No, No. I had no food for you. Shoo! Shoo! Go back to sleep!



Wednesday 1 July 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

So a new month begins. As soon as our government relax the rules on Covid-19 entering into phase two. Our medical expenses shot up for the month of June! Well, acupuncture services are back and here we go again.

This month saw the closing of 2nd quarter as all the remaining companies paying out the last of the 2nd quarter dividend which amounted to $4856.20. Rental income remained consistent. A new addition is the DBS multiplier's interests, which I had blogged early in June about how I have tested it and turned it into another money generating tool, following along the concept of money makes money on its own without me looking over its shoulder.

The 2nd quarter closed for us with a total passive income of $17,322.19 received, this amounted to an average of $5500 per month. After offsetting the monthly expenses, we manged to save around $11000. Well, so far so good. At this rate of saving, by next year we might accumulated enough to buy another fixed deposit.

Dividend Portfolio remains little change. I invested a little bit into the market when it weakened in the 4th week of June. But overall, it did little to change my overall allocations of the investments. My war chest still retain at 3%, so I am still able to buy into the market should it present any good opportunity.





  

Saturday 27 June 2020

A moment of Serenity at Lorong Chuan MRT

It has been raining since morning, the sky was cleared at a brief moment in early afternoon. I was alone and walking along the path outside Lorong Chuan MRT. There was this long wall of leaves lining the path. The rain has just stopped and it was a scene of quietness and calm along the path. A sense of Serenity. 

The wall was a mixture of yellow and green offering a different view from a wall of bricks and stones that we are used to seeing in a highly developed urban city.

Sunday 21 June 2020

Creation of the 4th War Machine - DBS multiplier

Ever heard of this DBS multiplier? It is a special account offered by DBS to allow us to leverage on its higher interest rate through various components within its structure. 



Wait? Isn't this been around for very very long time? Why did I added this thing in as a valid passive income generator now?

In the past, this account has one mandatory condition that for its main component must be a 'SALARY' income to be qualified to obtain higher interest. As I mentioned in this blog often, my goals is to achieve financial independence and at the same time remain sustainable in the event that I am to lose my salary income. Therefore, any component that require or involved salary income, I do not consider it as an 'sustainable' source, and so will not include it into my strategy. 

But, this changed early this year.

In February 2020, our local bank DBS revised their policy and recognized 'Dividend' as a valid income component. 
Omg! Suddenly, my First War machine - the dividend income is now recognized by DBS as an income component under the DBS multiplier. And the best part is, my emergency fund which is sleeping inside a normal saving account can now be transfer to this DBS multiplier account to leverage on its higher interest. 



So in March 2020, I applied and created this account to test it out. Although the monthly interest payout is modest but it was far better than the payout from a normal saving account, enough to cover some of my monthly bills. This 4th war machine could work almost consistently for every month because my dividend payout occurred on average of 9-10 months annually allowing the account to generate higher interest leveraging on the sleeping emergency fund. 

This is as I had mentioned often is my favorite concept of making the money work harder rather than I working for money. This DBS new policy has one shot expanded the job scope of both my dividend war machine and emergency fund and I do not have do anything about it after it was set up except to pay my monthly bills with credit card. 

Thank you DBS for allowing me to further utilize the functions of my first war machine and emergency fund.


Thursday 4 June 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

The month start with the gradual re-opening of businesses. Whether will things start improving or not we shall see. This month expenses are still low as usual, except for some medical bills. Ah....the journey of growing old.... 

Most of the companies delayed the payment of dividends, as such the month of May which usually boast the largest portions throughout the year was lower than before. Dividends received for the month of May was $2242.09. 

However, our rental income got revised up for this month due to the entry of one additional tenant. Maybe we agreed to lower down rental for the last two months to help them tide over circuit breaker period send a good impression around the people. Well, I guess good reputation do attract business.

Market rebound this week as we enter the phase 1 of the circuit breaker. STI rebound to 2700 points on Wednesday. 

Will there be a rally? I don't know. lol.

It doesn't impact me whether rally or not anyway. I am committed to hold long term, if rally do comes early, well good lor. If it doesn't, I wait. But if really want my opinions. I would say very unlikely. The whole world still reeling from the impact of Covid-19 and anytime will explode again, hardly in a good position to boast a rally.

Portfolio remained unchanged, except my warchest recovered back to over 3%. But with the STI now recovering, I may not be adding anymore to portfolio. 




Sunday 31 May 2020

My Art Room is finally up for viewing!

I have been busy. 
After months of preparation, exploring and designing. I finally uploaded my second blog. It took quite while exploring other platform for its features but in the end I decided to use blogger for its simpler features.


This second blog mainly showcase some of my artistic works in my life. Although I am trapped in a world that do not belong to me with little chance to pursue a life involving in the making of Arts. But that do not stop me from cultivating and honing my artistic skills. You could also view it through a link I created in this blog. 

Arts is a form of creativity and imagination. A vision of what we can shaped in our mind and brought to the reality form in many ways. Even my hobby in miniature assembly and painting required a degree of imagination to visualize the form of end product which I want. The whole process speaks of a long period of patience and persistent to see its final form, which thus form the traits of my investment formula in achieving financial independence.  

For those who have been wondering how on earth I could stay at home for long hours without getting bored. These are your answers. My passion in creating Arts has no limitations. Be it in a form of miniature hobbies, writing, photography and exploring the world around us. And this is the reasons why I wanted to achieve financial independence, so that one day I can put my whole heart into my passion. 

Until then. We wait. 
Patience is Virtue. 


Sunday 17 May 2020

An experiment living a life of being 'Financial Indepenence'. Part 2

We are now 6 weeks into the period of circuit breaker and already starting seeing some crazy people reacting irrationally doing crazy things. Well, I guess these group are social active people who just cannot seem to stay at home at ease with themselves. 

So what have I been doing? Apart from my works, I got more time for my passions. The thirst for knowledge knows no bound, before I finished one idea another inspiration comes. I went into the frenzy process reading every information about the solar system, there are numerous platform to seek for knowledge namely wiki, youtube and countless other articles. As usual, I can read well past meal time or worse....the midnight clock. Ops. Not too healthy.
Our human race has just managed to explore the dwarf planet Pluto and Charon in depth when the latest spacecraft flew back the planet in 2019, that really stirred me into reading everything they had found so far. Most intriguing part however are the latest findings on the Moon Titan orbiting around the Planet Saturn, it got almost the same condition as our own Earth except that it has methane sea instead of water sea. LOL. Ok, I guess really a lot of readings for past 6 weeks.

So what has been happening in the market?
Nothing much actually.

As I had mentioned before, the market has stabilized ever since the implementation of government measures. We can expected to see the market hovering around STI 2500 point for a long long time. So, don't bother bombard my phone crying why no climb no increase no rally. Come on, we are still the period of crisis and it could take 2 years to recover from it. 

Will the companies recover? It depend on how strong their cash flow and holdings. Really, cash does matter in whatever period. Whether to survive a crisis, to further grow or pay more dividend. The companies with the ability to make more cash will have more potential to stay sustainable in these competitive world. Recovery and growth takes time, with proper measures and policies. It is not an overnight affairs, some investment may take years to see it bear fruits while some may doom to fail. Prudent is vital, patience is virtue and persistent is commitment. These factors can help minimize the risks of failure but all these will still failed if we lose to ourselves- the human emotion. it is easy enough to become panic or desperate. 

Learn to control ourselves and we will be a step toward a better life. Ok, this apply to diet as well, when was the last time we cut down our sugar or salt intake? LOL.



 

Wednesday 6 May 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

It's another cold month for dividend payout. But as usual I am not overly dependent on just one source of passive income to stay sustainable. We are now in the second quarter of the year and rolling off with it is a nice whopping start with the maturing of our largest fixed deposit. As I mentioned before, I like to play with fixed deposit maturing period to strategize the placement of its interest payout on the cold months. 

What? No dividend payout? Never mind still got other source of income. 

As you can see, the amount of fixed deposit payout is rather big. Yes, the principal amount is the largest we have in this platform, and the interest rate is quite high. 

The rental income however got revised down to $1300. The lock-down measures has stop all non-essential services in Singapore. Some of my tenants were forced to stay home with no salary income for the month, so to help them relieve some financial pressure, we agreed to lower down the rental for that month. 

It is the period of crisis, let us help each other. 

Here is my portfolio update and as anyone can see. I am in trouble. LOL.
My war chest went down to less than 3%. But I manage to increase some holdings in Blue Chips counter. Ahem, at a comfortable price. Don't ask me which one and how much. Different people got different risk level and comfort level. No point asking which promotional item in supermarket to buy from passerby.

At this stage, I am more or less done with my portfolio and will not be adding anymore counters unless the price is very attractive. 


Sunday 26 April 2020

An experiment living a life of being 'financial indepenence'.

Ever since the unleash of circuit breaker measures, things have been running wild. All of sudden, we become trapped at home. LOL. I started working from home since early April, my usual jobs are mostly field works and with this circuit breaker period all operation has been temporary lessen. So I stayed at home for most of the time, checking emails now and then, but I ended up more busy than before!!!

Huh! What's going on? More paper works? Actually, it is still same as before.

As I have mentioned before in my blog, my goal to pursue financial freedom is not about getting freaky rich, but it is to free myself from the rat race so that I can freely pursue my passions and interests. And my interests involved writing, reading and exploring the world, all these can be done at home without the need to step out of my house. 

So now I'm a reclusive hermit with all my books and scrolls. Anytime someone disturbed me from my studies, I would watch them with an eye of a annoyed cat. Meow..... what do you want?
As usual, some of my friends thought I am a weirdo. More than half of them are already screaming with boredom and nothing to do at home. And yet here I am, got so much things to study but no time sob sob. 

Over the years, I had built up much collection of books and articles in my small little library. Hundreds of them! Some of articles were actually written by me, lol. Ahem but for my eyes only. These are my friends now, keeping me focus and very very very busy. How could anyone be so busy with just books!!!! Well, I can keep reading them but still find something new, a new inspiration or a new revelation.  There seem no end to it. Ah.... life of a hermit.

In fact, this has open a new exploration for me. How would it be to live a life of financial independence without the need to run in the rat race. For the past 3 weeks, I woke up at 8 am without fail, after my breakfast I begun my works immediately, half works half studies. As the time goes, I spend more and more time studying and reading even to the point of forgetting my meals. I find myself even more busy then before, the thirst for knowledge seem endless. Every exploration begun with a single thought, answer comes from books or online wiki. I even written a 15 pages article about.....ops secret. It appeared that the life of being financial independence is going to be far more committed than before.

Ok. Apart from endless reading. I have been monitoring the stocks market as well. As expected, the economy packages released by the government has stabilized the market. The STI index ever since then has been hovering around 2500 points. Movement were relatively small. 

During these period, I had taken some opportunity and purchased some counters to balance my portfolio. With the current situation, I do not think the market will see any rally or even uptrend for a long time. The crisis this time has been much damaging, it would take an estimate 2-3 years to recover from it. My purchases were for long term and so I am not expected to see any real profits in short term, in fact I might even see some paper losses should the market continued to become weaken. As usual, I am not in a hurry. All these investments have been made with a vision in a distance of the next 3 years, as long as the companies continued to pay me annually even with reduced dividends, I am ok with it as I do not fully depend on one source of income.

Until then, I wait. 

Now, where is that book about the Roman Emperors I read last night? Look at all those books piling up around my table, under which pile is it at? Ah well.....
 




Wednesday 1 April 2020

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

A rather turbulent month. The coronavirus has now affected the world on global level impacting the flow of day-to-day life of the people. Singapore for the first time is facing a long term recession ahead. As such, I can foresee the lowering of dividends payout from all the companies in order to stay sustainable. 

Dividend collected for the month of March was $1.587.82, much lower than projected. I changed my table to reflect only the passive income received, the monthly expenses generally was consistent throughout the months. To make things simpler, I decided to focus on keeping track of the overall passive income of each month. 


I had activated half of my war chest and acquired some stocks in my watch list in this market crash down. Most significantly was the increase in the allocation of blue chips counters as I believed these should remain sustainable in the face of the crisis and have better chance to recover as the world recover from the impact of the crisis. 

   
This was the month that saw the STI index crashed down all the way to 2,200 points, a market crash that most of the dividend investors would have been waiting for years. But none would have expected it to come at such speed, and damages it inflicted to the world. While the crisis of 2008 and 2016 had pulled down the stock markets level, it had not resulted in mass death of the people. As I entered the market to buy up some stocks at a lower price brought down by the impact of the crisis, I remained consciously aware that ten of thousands and thousands of people are still suffering around the world. The crisis of 2020 shall always be remembered in my memory that it had come and remind mankind once again of the limits of mortality.

So guys, while the crisis had offer the opportunities we all had been waiting for. Let us also be reminded that this crisis had involved causalities upon human race, lets join our hearts to pray and offer our condolences to those who had lost theirs love ones in this crisis. 



Sunday 29 March 2020

Is it the end of rollar coaster ride?

After two weeks of roller coaster ride, the market finally seem to recover after Wednesday. The announcement of financial aids by the government has certainly helped to stabilize the market sediment. Prior to such announcement, the STI index at its start on Monday crashed down to its lowest point at 2,208 points.

 
And that was when I decided to enter the market. Some 30% of my war chest was activated. This was my second activation of the war chest since early this month. Thereafter the STI started recovering and ended at 2,528 points on Friday. Phew, I guess I got the lowest bottom this time. But is it the end of the roller coaster ride? Hmm, that is still pretty much early to say. 

This virus will not die off so easily, most of the general outlook on the event is this virus will eventually be contained by the Month of May, so that could means we still got 2 months to endure. The market can still be very much unpredictable, for now, with flowing in of government financial aids the market could see some stability but overall market is still pretty much vulnerable.  Countries like Italy, Spain and even our neighbour Malaysia are still in the early stage of the struggle and things could become worse.

This is a crisis which everyone has to overcome together. Until there is any effective cure for it, our body is probably our best defense against this global enemy. Sleep well, drink more water, stay healthy.

Saturday 21 March 2020

Another week of roller coaster ride

Following the crash down last week, it was followed by more bad news on Monday triggered by the lock down of Malaysia for 14 days. This triggered another crash down of the stock market to 2500 points and it was followed up with another bad new on the closure of Europe Union borders on Thursday which send the STI tumbled down to 2300 points. 

What a ride dive down the rail!!!

Yet again, this is the first time I see the STI crashed down so swiftly ever since I begun my journey in the stock market. The Covid-19 has triggered numerous series of bad events within a short period. While not as deadly as SARS, it spread more easily like a wild fire. Many countries subsequently implemented measures to contain the spread. With all the locking down and closure of borders, all trans international business are impacted.

I had been holding myself back for this week despite the weakness of the stock prices, I had since activated my armies a little bit during the early downtrend, so at the moment I am not entirely in a hurry to move into the market to average down my counters in the view that the situation could get much more worse. But that doesn't mean I am just sitting around praying for a miracle. LOL. 

I had spend my time working out my own positioning and comfortable entry prices on selective counters, putting them on my watch list. It is just not possible to determine the bottom of the prices, so it is better to determine my most comfortable entry prices and grab it when it hit my target price. After all, my investment lore are mainly focus on building a sustainable future, not much on profits. 

So guys, no need to ask me when to buy la. I also donno lor, because I donno your sizing, positioning and risk level. Lol.   

Until then, stay strong, be healthy and wash your hands often! :)


Friday 13 March 2020

A week of roller coaster ride

It has been a week of roller coaster ride. Starting with the breaking through of STI 3000 points, followed up with up and down before finally plunge dive down to STI 2500 plus on Friday.

Wow. What a ride!

The roller coaster ride doesn't just whack my IPAD where my eyes constantly on the movement of the market. It whacked my phone and desk as well, as people come and goes asking me, 'Oh NO!!!!!!'....or 'Is it time ah'?..........or.....'how, which one can buy?'......

Hey! I am not god!!! I am as blur as you all. LOL.

The truth is, this is the first time I see the market reacted so fast. The past crisis of 2008 and 2016 was a gradual effect, build up over a period of time before hitting a low point. But this week was a roller coaster that suddenly plunge nose down like an World War 2 dive bomber.

 

Ok. Let us be frank. Some people are clapping hands...'Finally, crash liao' while some are crying inside blanket,'Die liao, my money...'

In this situation, there are some who find themselves trapped and wondering whether to take losses and sell. If we have the holding power and the companies we invested have the ability to recover itself as the market recover, it is thus just 'a matter of time'. If you find yourself unable to makan your food without brooding over the losses or even sleep in peace, hmm try think something else. 

Some asked me will it ever recover? The market eventually will recover, but not now, not tomorrow and certainly not next week. It took almost 3 years to recover from the 2008 crisis. The question now is can we hold that long to see another 'bull' market. There was indeed some which never recover from the shock, one example was the Singapore Airline which hit its highest point of $20 before the 2008 crisis, and another height at $16 in 2010. Thereafter, it hovered at the range around $10 for 10 long years. 

As I mentioned many times, we should not treat the shares market like a casino speculating its rise and fall. To me, it is just a platform to invest into a company, and because I have limited resources I would prefer to invest only during the period of crisis to ensure a good entry price.

Remember this facts!
All investment has risks! If we cannot understand the concept between losses and gains, then it is best to stick to the fixed deposits and bond.