Friday 31 December 2021

The year end resolution- Exploration

 Another year ending. Year 2021 has been eventful, marked with several changes and adjustments. 

My financial blueprint has more or less met its goals and targets. Firstly, my CPF combined amount has finally attained the retirement cap. Ironically, this was not achieved through my salary income, I did not do any voluntary cash top up, and there was not enough amount in my OA account to transfer to SA as I have to service my housing loans. Some 30% of of the SA amount was actually gains resulted from my 15 years of investments. When the government liberated the CPF special accounts (SA) to be used for investment, I dumped almost the entire volumes in my early 20s in several investment platform and forgotten about it. By the time I reached 42 years old, I decided to pull everything back into the CPF account. If I had not done so in my 20s, likely would need another 5 years to attain the cap purely through salary income. 

The housing loan has been neutralized to a comfortable amount where the existing CPF can now pay on its own without digging into my cash holdings. A long journey indeed. At least for now, I can sleep better without seeing a frightening high housing premium wiping off my monthly CPF. LOL.

Passive income has seen some huge drop last year by 30% for dividend income and one of the mechanism the DBS multiplier scheme no longer generate high interests return as before. Year 2021 proved to be a roller coaster year with the pandemic still causing havoc across the world with new waves of mutated virus. Most companies remained prudent to stay sustainable in tough time. Dividend income for year 2021 has recovered some 10%, not too bad in view of the seemingly unending chaos caused by the pandemic. For dividend income platform, it is unlikely there will be any changes to my existing approach.     

I started exploring a new platform in cryptocurrency. it has been gaining a lot of media attention lately and several trading platforms appeared in the market. To be honest, I have always been skeptical for this platform as I was more focused in dividend and the traditional rental income. As I studied and learnt about it, more and more cryptocurrency investment platforms emerged into the market offering better tools and methods. Just recently, I got my own first account in a platform in cryptocurrency and gotten some...well.....free cheap coins from it. A new journey begins, year 2022 likely will be a year of exploration into this new platform to use it as a alternative investment path. 

Apart from these financial journey, I started taking up short courses to get myself busy. Mostly enrichment courses and others to get connected with some of my childhood dreams. There has been several childhood wishes in my list, and I decided it is time to start fulfilling them one by one. I am getting older and less healthy, I felt I do not have much time left in my life, I decided that I do not want to leave too many regrets in my life. So, It is to start experience different thing.

So what did I learn? Well. I had some childhood dream about studying in NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts). Yes, I am into Arts. But I wasn't privileged in my life to pursue a profession in Arts. But I can at least do it as a part of hobbies. So I went NAFA studied watercolour painting for about 4 months and graduated in December. It has been a good experience. I also went learnt Zither music course, unexpected isn't it. LOL. I managed to learn to play around 4 songs.   

So whats next?

Hmmm, gonna continue to stay healthy and explore more around me. Who knows, some hidden paths waiting somewhere out there for me to discover. Life after all is a path of discovery. Why wait until dying on bed then start wondering whats happening outside the window.

 

     

Sunday 26 December 2021

Christmas Orchard 2021

Another year passed. And......the pandemic still wrecking the lives off people. Ah....well....life still goes on. 

Not much Christmas mood this year. Lighting and decorations are simple as last year. 

Paragon Orchard



 



Street Decoration



The entrance





Friday 3 December 2021

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.

Aye.... Christmas coming. Christmas means MORE spending for me. LOL. This month the passive income from dividends amounted to $2,477.01. Amount is definitely lesser than Pre-Covid 19 period. But the projected overall amount is estimated to be better than last year. Signs of recovery? Well, not until this Covid-19 things really game over, I suppose the economy recovery will remain uncertain. Rental income remains stable. Overall passive income for November amounted to $4,286.22.

Household expenses however shoot up to almost $2800. What's going on? LOL. Well, to be exact about one third of it goes to medical bills, Yes, its serious......overall medical bills for the month of November is almost $1000. Singapore does have world class medical facilities but there is a price for it. High standards = high pricing. And there isn't any large subsidies, we have to bear the huge cost of medical services. Pretty scary place to grow old. 

Portfolio remains unchanged, except for gradual increase of war chest. Nothing much happening in the market. Boring isn't it? LOL.


 


Tuesday 2 November 2021

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

Ho ho ho, it is a new quarter of the year and I can smell Christmas coming. But....with the stubborn Covid still wreaking havoc in our world, it is going to be another cold Christmas. No events, no celebration and no crowd. Well,,,life still has to go on.

October is the last cold month for dividends payout. The month of October only obtained $120 from a small counter in my portfolio. Rental income remain stable. 

Expenses however, continue to increase. Got a shock when I visited a food court and saw the price tag of one of my favorite Malay cuisines Nasi Lemak increased from $3.50 to $5.50. OMG! That was an increase of more than 50%!!!!!! Seriously!!! I think we are in for a long run of combat against high inflation. Ah.... the fate of a small nation heavily depending on food import......


 
Portfolio remained unchanged. Not much happening in the market. In fact, it was dead boring. Nothing happening. The portfolio not improving. Hmm, maybe I should start looking at something else. 
 





Monday 4 October 2021

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 fat month, with 4 sources of passive income total amount to $7,732.18. This brought the total passive income for the 3rd quarter to an amount of $16,769.24, average $5,589.74 per month. Not too bad. Ah..... still, the income from dividend is much lesser than projected. The situations surrounding the businesses due to the impact of Covid-19 is still pretty much evident. Household expenses are expected to increase as the prices of essential items such as food and groceries continue to increase. Eh..........the never ending war against inflation.

 

Not much changes on the portfolio. A small counter in the portfolio has just diversified and cashed out, added into the War Chest.  Although the market started seen some recovery in the early month, the deterioration of the Covid-19 cases forced Singapore into again strict restrictions, not much in view for any fast recovery of the market. Some analysis even speculate a possible downturn of the market in October. Well, lets see how it goes. 



Thursday 2 September 2021

What is important? Health or money?

Sometime, I wonder which is more important. As I thought about it, age it appeared has an influence on how we look at it through the years.

When we are young, not constrain by the limitation of our mortality. We tend to focus on making money, enjoying what life has to offer. As we started to grow old, our body functionality started to decline as we fought to contain it in various stages. It lead me to wonder, can money buy back the health we have lost?

Maybe some. But certainly not all. Money can buy the best healthcare, help improve well-being. 

But, what about those health issue that has no solutions or beyond the knowledge of the existing health industry. We more or less has to live with it. And more than often, spiritual prayers appeared to be the only console.    

Looking through my life, financially I would say I had done well enough. As for the well-being of it, I m afraid I am very far from it. In fact, I do not see any path leading to it.

Life is short. Enjoy while you can.  

Stone, Push, Overcoming, Obstacle, Rock, Boulder 

 

 

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.

Hmm how sustainable my portfolio would be. I asked myself many times through the years. Since the Covid-19 impacts, my portfolio has definitely saw some decline in returns. Some were delisted and wind up in business. Fortunately, these only form a small percentage in my portfolio. Some of the performing companies were able to sustain themselves during the hard times and recover slowly. Those who evolved shall live, those who do not or cannot shall disappear into history. Such is the nature of a cycle.    

This has not been a happy month. A series of misfortunes and domestic unhappiness plagued the household. The wellness being of family declined and few might have wonder where it had gone wrong. For now, we managed as best as we can, and hopefully can stay mentally strong for the tasks ahead. 

Passive income surged as numerous companies pay out for the 3rd quarter. Overall dividend collected amounted to $5,417.84. In addition to the rental income, this brings our passive income for the month of August to $7,227.45.


Portfolio remains unchanged. As funding from both passive and salary income flowed in. My cash holdings continued to grow. 



 

Tuesday 3 August 2021

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 a cold month for dividend! The month of July was a zero month without any dividend income. Well, after a big bonus on June, July dry out. LOL. 

Although I positioned a Fixed Deposit to cover for this type of cold dividend month, it got carried over to the next month, payment actually only comes in August this time. Ah well, just a few weeks delay anyway.

Rental income remains stable at an amount of $1800.  Added with the DBS multiplier, the month of July passive income amounted to total of $1809.61.

Portfolio adjusted a bit for July as I decided to subscribe to the rights issues of IREIT-Global as the price offered was quite attractive. As an existing shareholder, I was entitled for a certain amount of rights issue which I managed to obtain it at the end of the month. This further increase my holdings in that company. The investment allocated was partly covered by the huge dividend payout in June, so not much changes in my current cash holdings.


 

Saturday 3 July 2021

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.

June. Usually a fat month for dividend income. This month of June brought in a huge boast amounted to $6196.10. This is the highest returns since the start of the pandemic. 

Household expenses remains higher than usual due to long term illness medical expense. Well, nothing much we can do about it.   

Otherwise, the rental income remains stable. 

This closed our 2nd quarter with a total passive income of $14,602.38 which amounted to an average of $4867.46 per month. Not bad! Still above the monthly expenses. 

Portfolio remains unchanged as I continue to increase my cash holdings. Nothing much happening in the market anyway. The STI index hovered around 3000-3100.

Boring market isn't it?


 




Wednesday 2 June 2021

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.

Ouch! Dividend income has taken a hit! Yet again, the impacts of Covid-19 is still pretty much evident. The month of May usually boast a larger amount of dividend. This may take some time to recover. Dividends for the month of May amounted to $2544.86 which is just enough to meet the household expanses. 

Household expanses shot up due to medical expense. It has been a rather unhealthy month as 2 of my household members including myself fell sick. This may escalate to a long term medical commitment. Well, the journey of the aging process. :(

Apart from it. Rental income remains as stable as before. Aye! No delay. No hassle. And no conflicting issues occurred. Pretty impressive for its sustainability in view that it is just a normal HDB flat. I guess a 'quality' tenant counts more than just having high rental income when it comes to sustainability for consistent monthly income.  

 

Portfolio remains unchanged as the war chest continue to increase. The market however took a hit as Singapore experienced perhaps its worst convid wave as the mutated virus wreck havoc all over the nation. For the first time since 2019, community cases occurred as clusters after clusters erupt daily. Naturally. the market didn't perform well as it dropped swiftly in mid May.



 

 

 

Friday 7 May 2021

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 a cold month for dividend, only one counter paid out to an amount of $360. But I had positioned another war machine to cover this cold month. One of the fixed deposits matured and paid out an amount of $1450, a far cry compared to last year. The fixed deposit interest rate has been adjusted down by almost 70%!!!!! The pandemic certainly has hit a huge dent on the entire financial world. Well, I guess we are still good. The rental income remained stable and we could expect it to continue its stability for another year.

Household expense however increased in the month of April due to an increase in medical costs for treatments. Fortunately it was a minor illness. 

 

The allocation of portfolio changed for this month as one of the counters in the Reit- Soilbuild Reit divested and de listed. This increased my cash holdings.

 

The STI index broke through 3200 points. The 3 giant banks UOB, DBS and OCBC moved like roller coaster up the hill. Pity, should have purchase more when it was cheaper last year. Ah well.....



Thursday 1 April 2021

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 marked the 11th month of me working from home due to Covid-19, almost coming to one year. As more and more people are getting vaccine, the government starting relaxing some rules on the restriction, look like this working from home arrangements might be ending soon. Well, lets see how it works out.

This month passive income were boast by a larger dividend payout to an amount of  $3564.11. There are signs of recovering in the market, but certain business like tourism are still far from recovering. My portfolio are quite well diversified, so while some are still reeling from the impacts of covid-19, others are recovering enough to enter into positive range. 

Rental income remain stable and looks to remain so for another one more year because the tenants had expressed their wish to extent the tenancy. This will certainly boast our sustainability on rental income for another one more year. Nice! 

This closed our first quarter with a total passive income of $11,575.59 which amounted to an average of $3858.53 per month. Not bad! That is well far above the monthly expenses.

Portfolio largely remain unchanged in allocation with more cash holdings now increasing each month as I no longer need to divert additional funds to pay down housing loan. 

STI is clearly recovering as it broke through 3000 STI. As the market recovers, so does my portfolio which has been on negative for most of the months last year due to the impacts of covid-19 is finally entering positive. As seen from the chart below, if anyone had entered the market during March-April last year, most likely your counters would be in positive path now. Congratulation for those who got it at the right timing. LOL.


 



 

Tuesday 2 March 2021

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 a short February. And a rather boring Chinese New Year. Thanks to the pandemic, all the events are closed or sized down, confined to home entertainments. Even home visiting are restricted. Well, nothing much we can do about it. 

This is my 10th month working from home since April 2020, some of my friends are already getting bored and restless. Well, these are some of the social active guys. As for me, I gets even more busy. LOL. I got lots of things to do but,,,,,,no time. Sigh. And they wondered, why I got so much things to do apart from my job. Its the brain, or rather the mind that keeps pounding new ideas and knowledge that kept me occupied for days, weeks and months. It seem endless. LOL.

The market start roll forward with the first of the dividend month. The month of February yield a total of $2060.62. This is somewhat 20% lesser compare to last year. This is to be expected, with the pandemic still wrecking the global business and keeping the consumers at home, profits naturally will be lesser. As I always mentioned, I look for sustainability in an investment, if my portfolio can remain sustainable during a crisis, I can expect it to reward me more during a blooming period. A year has passed since the pandemic strike the world, and I am still getting dividend income on lesser scale, this does boast my confidence in the sustainability of my portfolio. 

Rental income still remains stable. This brings overall passive income for the month of February to an amount of $3869.89. 

The market continued to hover around STI 2800-2900. There has been some surge but otherwise, the whole market pretty much stagnant. Swinging here and there according to the armies of 'Shorters'. 

As my portfolio remains unchanged with no addition. My cash holding continued to rise as I no longer need to divert cash funds to finance my housing loan. So, in the months to come, I can expect to build a larger cash position.  



Monday 1 February 2021

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.

Ouch! Chinese New Year around the corner. But it is going to be rather boring festival season due to the unending pandemic. Crowd are restricted, events are cancelled...blah blah blah. Well, life still goes on.

Once again, it is a cold month for dividend. Only one company paid out dividend for the month of January, amounted to $510.00. Because the fixed deposit matured last month, it paid out one month earlier than I expected. I had previously positioned the schedule in such way to cover the cold month to ensure some form of consistency in monthly income. Rental income remained stable.

As the pandemic still running sore all over the world, the economy remains weak. The market however has begun to recover since November,  it has seen some downturn, but overall the STI Index remains at 2800. Most of the blue chips has seen some recovery in prices especially the bank stocks.

It is unlikely I will be investing anymore in current market, so I will be focusing now in increasing my cash holdings and wait.  Should the market sees another downturn, I want to be in a position to seize the opportunity. 


 


 

 

 

Sunday 3 January 2021

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 a new year!!!

December has been a rather long month, half of the month I was busy tidying up my affairs including the final down payment of my housing loan. Final payment of dividends by all the companies for December amounted to $4847.03. After reviewing the differences between 2019 and 2020, I realized my portfolio turned out to be much more resilience than I had projected. Early this month, I had projected a 30% less dividend income, but after final reviewing, it came to a rather surprising loss of 15%. This certainly reassured my confident in my financial sustainability in view of the pandemic. Still, it is unlikely the market will recover much for 2021, naturally dividend income may further cut for some companies.

Rental income remains stable. December however saw an early cash out of an Fixed Deposit which amounted to $905.00. The interest rate for the next one year dropped dramatically to less than 1%. It appeared that the passive income for the new year 2021 will face much challenges.

 
Portfolio remains unchanged for December, as the market slowly recovered back to STI 2800 range, there wasn't much to offer from Mr Market. But this month I finally finished the last down payment of my housing loan with cash. So I can now expected my cash holdings to increase faster than before.