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.

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.

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.