Migrating to Wordpress

Hi Everyone!

I will be moving to wordpress for a new start (also try out wordpress) so do linked me up if you want to. I have linked some of the blogs that I have followed. So if you want to linked each other up, do comment on this post or you can comment on my wordpress (any post will do)

Thank You

The link to my wordpress:
https://jyklmoneyblog.wordpress.com/

If you want to link me up:
https://jyklmoneyblog.wordpress.com/feed/

Thank You

[Final Decision] Change of Plan

Change of plan! I decided to go for a condo instead of HDB. The reason is because my girlfriend and I has been thinking that we should go for condo if we want to shorten the time to get our second property for rental yield. 

In the past few months, we have been contemplating on whether to go for HDB (resale) or go for private property. We got the result, which is going for condo instead because of various reason that we should go for.

First reason: shorten the time to get our second property - because my girlfriend currently owns a condo, so she can sell her condo to purchase another condo for rental yield. (2 to 3 years later after we have higher income and higher savings to get a better/bigger condo)

Second reason: Prevent selling at a loss - because the property market isn't going very well and we guess that next few years, the property price will drop slightly which will result in loss or just a bit of profit which is not the optimal result that we would like to see.

Third reason: Restriction - because if we purchase a HDB we will need to wait for 5 years in order to purchase second property. Secondly, we will need to wait till 35 years old in order to opt for single program, whereby either me or my wife can take off the name under the HDB flat and purchase the second property. If we do not choose this path, we will need to pay 10% stamp duty, which is too much and not really that worth it.

Understanding that there might be risk in purchasing condo as well!

First Risk: Deplete my savings after I make my down payment (should be around $130k to $145K), we aiming for cheap condo either next year or in year 2017 (like high park resident).

Second Risk: Got fired from my job - which is why my wife and I will wait for few years later when we have sufficient savings in order to purchase the condo, as my wife  and I will bear the condo installment (in the case I got fired). If not, I will pay for the installment by myself.

Third Risk: Interest rate increase, this one really no choice, we need to include the possible of interest rate increase into the calculation.

So these are the reason and risk that we have consider in order to come to this conclusion. So what do you think?

Financial Freedom

Hi Everyone!

Below is my video that I created on Financial Freedom. This video is for beginner and also my aim as well.




This video shows my spreadsheet that I am using to keep track of my own finance and spending.

SGX dividend is in! Raise my year end goal!

Hi Everyone!

SGX dividend is in today! For those who have bought SGX shares before 30 Sep 2015, you should have receive it today! Of course, the share price raise and jump to $7.5++, that's awesome! I am waiting for the October/November dividend :)

So now to the main part of this post, previously I have mention that I will try to hit $68K by the end of this year, if you can remember (if not is okay). I will be increasing my year end target from $68K to $70K.

Although is a $2K jump from the previous target, I think hitting 70% of my ultimate target this year when I turn 27 years old will be a good goal. Certainly I would hope that I can save more, but I will set 70% for now.

So my target by the end of 2015 is have $70,000 cash + stocks (Excluding CPF).

Just created UOB One Account Today!

Hi Everyone!

Today I just create UOB One Account and will be fully utilize it next month because I still need to wait for my UOB one credit card and have to make GIRO arrangement for three phone bills. So I will have to wait till November before I make any move.

The below is the illustration on what I am going to achieve.

I will satisfy the credit card portion and the 3 Giro transaction criteria in order to get the maximum amount of interest that I will get. This will give me 2.432% without including the rebate. It is better than OCBC 360 as OCBC 360 only gives 2.2% (Max) by fulfilling 3 criteria. 

So, am I going to close my OCBC 360 account? 

My answer is NO. The reason I am not closing this account is because I am greedy, I want the best of both world. for OCBC 360, I will try to get more bills to pay as now I have 3 telephone bills, one internet bill and one credit card bill. So I will need just one more, probably OCBC credit card bill in order to fulfill the 3 transactions. Adding to that, I will still be crediting my salary to OCBC 360. 

As I mention in my goal, I aim to have $100K cash, but I won't be focusing so much on stocks because I will need the money in two years time. So most of my cash are in banks which gives me 2% interest per year on average. 

Of course, I have set some cash for stocks because I want to generate more passive income (as much as possible) in order to hit $2400 per year.

Getting around $1.4K from UOB and around $400 from OCBC (basic projection, might be more or might be less, depending how much I invest in stocks). Dividends I hope to get around $600 in order to hit my target.  

Target for Monthly Expenditure 2015 and Cash Saving Target for 2015

Hi Everyone!

I understand that I was suppose to create one post per month but after reading some blogs, I felt that I should have some short term target in order to make sure that I am going to the correct saving path.

So I shall split them into expenditure and 2015 final goal!

I am to spend around $970 per month, I understand that it is very very little, but for me, this is my personal goal.

So this is how I am going to spend my money:

1) Food - $12 per day, assuming 30 days - $360
2) Transport - $150 per month
3) Bills - $120 per month (phone bills and internet bill)
4) Entertainment - $200
5) Others -  $40
6) Mum allowance - $100

Total of $970

Food - will be spending my breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30 days (very straight forward)

Transport - MRT, Bus and sometimes taxi fare

Bills - All the bills that I was responsible to pay (at the same time this is also my allowance for my parent)

Entertainment - weekend expenses can be reduce because I will try to spend less on this area

Others - emergency fund, in case if there is 31 days in the calendar month, it will be activated for food and travel expenses

Mum allowance - For now is $100 because I pay for the bill as well to support the family. Also I have set aside some of my saving (not included in the target I have shown) in a DBS account.

Will report the result on 1st of Nov 2015
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For my target, I hope to achieve 68% of my target. which means $68,000 <- 4k more to go! Hope I can achieve this target by the end of this year.

Shall see whether I can get the target.

Starting Off a New Start

Hi Everyone!

It's been a long time since I have write any post here. The reason is because of my busy schedule and a change of a new working environment. Yes, I have change my job.

So now I have some spare time to write some post which will write down my progress for investing.

As stated on the right side of the blog, the total passive income that I have earned this year (until September) is more than $2000!

This is certainly amazing and still got three months left. The leftover passive income that I can look forward for is 3 months of interest by OCBC 360 and SGX dividends, which provides the estimate of around $250++.

This year is a starting year so there is still a long way to go. Next year is a brand new year, which I aim to get around $2400 passive income which gives me around $200 per month extra!

Now, there is a twist in this scenario for next month whereby I have enough funds to move my money from OCBC to UOB account one. So the reason why I would do that? Let me do a calculation for you

Lets say if I have $60000 in my ocbc 360 account and I shift $51000 to UOB account which left 9000 in ocbc account.

Action need to be done -> Salary and bills to OCBC, credit card and bills to UOB.

$51000 -> $1216 per year
$9000 -> $153 per year

Total $1369 per year

However, if we put all in ocbc account

Action need to be done salary, credit card and bills to OCBC

$60000-> $1320

So you can see the difference, $49 more per year. But certainly, if you have more income coming it will be better to have two account (total up to $11000 earning safe interest)

With the month income just from this itself is around $114 per month. Which is quite good for me, extra $114 per month which is good, not including my dividends.

So next year, I am to get $200 per month for my passive income and also my target cash saving for next year before December would be $80000 to $85000.

So I have around $20000 more to go before I hit that target and we do a simple calculation, it would mean $1667 per month in order to hit this target.

That's my update. Do check out my updates next week as I promise, I will do a write up every month to keep my reader update about my status.

Small Updates of JYKL

Hi Everyone,

I have been inactive for quite sometime as I was busy with handling my career stuff, a job hop is the exact phase for my activity.

Yes, I am changing job, because I am still young so I am seeking for opportunity before I hit 30. Well at the same time I also intend to upgrade myself by getting myself certified as my goal is to become a project manager or consultant.

Well, enough about my career stuff, so I will start to share my portfolio status. Now I only left with 4 counters as I sold DBS for small profit aka kopi money (coffee money). So I have left with:

1) CCT
2) M1
3) OCBC
4) Keppel DC Reit


Now my realized profit and my unrealized loss adds up to a total of $0, so it means that I am back to where I am except that I still earn some dividends.

So this is my little update for my portfolio, as I am not as active as before since these will be my long term counters unless the profit is there, then I will take it :D

June Portfolio and Updates

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I have update my blogs as I am currently focusing on hunting jobs. (Hope got good news) But for now, I will update my current portfolio status.

Currently I have
1) DBS - 200 units
2) OCBC - 1100 units
3) Keppel DC REITS - 500 units
4) M1 - 2700 units
5) CapitaCommercial Trust - 5000 units

I have narrow down to 5 finalist for my portfolio and I will concentrate to gather more blue chips at the later part of the year as my cash flow is a bit tight from all these purchases.

Lian Beng

Hi Everyone,

Just an minor update today, as I have just bought Lian Beng shares today, which I believe is quite a fair value as of now. I use some of the information that I can find on the internet which includes the basic information such as business background, low PE, good dividends, positive news, the high TP from brokerage (more than 60 cents) and their recent revenue looks good. Thus, I decided to give it a go to see how far this shares can go.

I will be holding this shares for mid term, instead of long term because I am still conservative in terms of holding construction related shares for long term. The reason is because it can be highly volatile as in the past there are many construction company went bankrupt due to many reasons. Thus, I still have my reservation on this sector. However, the positive news really has overwhelm me with faith that this share will raise which is why I bought it.

So what is your view on this share?

5 Months of Investment/Trading

Hi Everyone,

Today is my five monthsary of my investment and trading journey. I certainly experience a lot of stuff during these five months. Things like learning about company, most company which I don't really seen before like Soilbuild, Cambridge industrial and many more. I also have learn from other people in the internet (hardware zone) for knowledge in trading as well as getting tips from them. I have also experience my unrealized loss which really made me worry during my episode with DBS. When I saw my unrealized loss jump from $12 to $100++, I was really panic at that point of time and was deciding whether to sell off my DBS shares because my emotion took over my sense during that point of time. 

But I manage to endure it and eventually I earn my first profit from DBS with $180++. Although is small amount of profit, but I am still happy as this is my first profit trade that I have ever made. The slowly, I sold off Sheng Siong, ST Engineering, Semcorp Industry, First REITS and Fraser Centerpoint Trust with all getting good amount of profits. Then I have shifted my attention to OCBC, M1, CapitalCommercial Trust and Q&M. 

Out of these 4 new shares, I am quite worried about Q&M at first when I purchased it at 78.5cents. Because there are many people saying that the price is quite high and it is not worth it to go in at that price. I did my homework and also do some ground realization about Q&M growth in Singapore before I purchase this share. Although the result of this is good and I was pretty shocked about it as well. 

Of course, nothing is perfect, I am still sitting on three red zones (unrealized loss) which are M1, OCBC and CapitalCommercial Trust. But these are not capital gain shares as I will be keeping them for dividends for at least 5 years. (Unless I need the money urgently hahaha)

For newbies like me, I felt that when we start off in investment/trading, it is better to invest /trade something that you familiar with rather than something that you do not know. These are the key points that I felt it is good to share with all newbies:

1. Tips are good, but you will need to do your own research before jumping in.
2. Go for steady blue chips if you are looking for long term investment. (At least if got bull, also wont die until that jia lat)
3. Understand the company background (business nature, future growth, news and etc.)
4. Learn the fundamental of investment/trading (dividends, types of period, and etc.)
5. Don't gamble, invest or trade within your limits. (VERY IMPORTANT)

Number 5 is super important, the reason because got burned is because they exceed their limit when do trading aka playing contra/shorting. If you are not sure what is contra/shorting, do read up a bit but better don't do it (Especially for newbie). I understand that profits is tempting, but still invest/trade within your limits.

Ok that's all for my 5 months experience. Enjoy investing/trading!

 

Q & M

Hi Everyone,

Today, I just saw an article about Q&M spend $203 million to purchase 8 clinic in Singapore. 

From the article

The first group of acquisition targets comprise Orchard Scotts Dental and the De Pacific Dental Group of clinics located at Ang Mo Kio, Balestier, Jurong West and Pasir Ris.

Q&M will pay $12.5 million for these clinics.

It will fork out $3.8 million for Tiong Bahru Dental Surgery and Bright Smile Dental Surgery.

Another acquisition target is Aesthetics Dental Surgery, located in Park Mall, for which it will pay $4 million.

Source:

http://www.theedgemarkets.com/sg/article/qm-dental-spend-203-million-buy-eight-singapore-clinics?type=Markets

In the view of this article, I can say that Q&M is pretty aggressive in monopolizing this market in Singapore. Of course, as an investor, I certainly feel good about it because the more market share they gain, the shareholder will get benefit more :D

So what are your views?

Portfolio in April 2015 and Updates

Hi Everyone,

I have sold some and buy some shares in the month of April which causes my unrealized gain to drop to 1.4% which is a bit sad by seeing the number drop. However, it is still a good news as I still have gains in my portfolio. I didn't include my dividends for the month in April yet (XD period) because I will only count when they are in my bank account. (Prefer to count it that way :D)

So tentatively, my earning is a bit more than what you can see on the portfolio above. 

So my actions in the month of April are:

Buy: M1, CapitaCommercial Trust and Q&M

Sell: First REIT, Sembcorp Industries and Fraser Centerpoint Trust

Due to my selling of shares with profit, it brings my passive/side/profit income raise to $455.25 for this month. (including profits from DBS)

Quite happy for the result for this month :D But May will be a tough period as there is a saying of sell in May and go away. Hope this don't create much impact but a good opportunity for me to buy in more.

OCBC 360 New Changes

Hi Everyone,

From today onward, there will be a some changes for the requirement for getting the interest.

This is how OCBC 360 works previously

By satisfying these requirement, you are able to obtain 3.05% pa. The capital limit for this is $50,000. Many people had been benefited from this, me too as well, although is just 5 months, but is better than nothing at all. However, in April, OCBC announce the new changes for these requirement which changes the whole game on how we going to play it in order to maximize the benefit from it.

So whats new about OCBC 360? The picture below will show you everything that you will need to know about the new OCBC 360 bonus interest catalog.

There are a few things to note, firstly the capital limit increase to $60,000. Great isn't it! However, the downside is that the interest bonus for bills and credit card spending seems to drop by half. As a person like me who do not get insured or invest with OCBC, I would probably only get 2.25% (0.05% is the based interest). In order to see how much I will earned from this bonus interest, I will do a simple calculation on the calculator that OCBC provides.

Let's say I have the based amount of $30,000 and include salary, bill payment, credit card payment and 1% incremental from previous month.

As you can see, the interest that I will get is $58 per month. Well it may seems small amount but if your balance is lets say $60,000, you will get $116.28 per month, which is still not too bad. So is up to your decision whether to stay with OCBC, For me I would because nothing much changes just that I will get lower interest bonus and also need to spend more for my credit card. Well, lets see how this goes :D

Changes in Portfolio

Hi Everyone,

Today I have made some transaction in my portfolio.

I have sold these shares

1) Sembcorp Industry @ $4.57 (with dividend of $0.11)
2) First Reits @ $1.44
3) Fraser Centerpoint Trust @ $2.10

The reason why I sold these three is because I want to redirect my focus to other shares which will give me long term investment and growth.  No hard feeling for these stocks.

I have bought 2 new stocks, please welcome them

1) Q&M - Growth Stock @ $0.785
2) CapitaCommercial Trust @ $1.695

I have added another 900 units of M1 today as well.

So in total I have 10 brand new stocks in my portfolio and I will only maintain 10 at one go.

Drop and Rise in my unrealized gain (Update on my portfolio)

Hi Everyone,

Last week is indeed a tough week for my portfolio because they is a slight drop in some of my counters, especially Sembcorp Industry and OCBC. Before the drop, my Sembcorp Industries has the unrealized gain of over 12% but now it had drop to 7% unrealized gain. Well, I gotten the dividend for this counter, so still not so bad. I will be looking forward at the performance of this counter on Monday to see whether should I add in more for short term trade. 

OCBC is another counter which drops but for this counter, I am still positive in its performance in whatever direction it goes. If it goes southward, I will accumulate more because now I only have 300 units for this shares and the dividend is 3%++ so it is still not very bad. 

However, despite the drop, there are also gain in my other counters like FCT, STE and Sheng Siong. These three counter really grow and Shen Siong and STE had unrealized gain of more than 10%! Which is good, especially for Sheng Siong as I am looking forward to it's growth in May. 

I also added M1 into my portfolio :D

The below is my updated portfolio: (My growth)

Purchased M1 Shares

Hi Everyone,

Finally, I have a telco shares in my portfolio which makes my defensive shares formation complete. So to summarize, my defensive stocks are listed as below:

1) ST Engineering - 1000 units
2) M1 - 900 units
3) OCBC - 300 units
4) SCI (Depends) - 500 units

The reason why SCI had the label (Depends) is because some people might not view this shares as a defensive stocks but for me because of its utilities business, thus I personally label it as defensive stocks. (Personal view)

Okay, so the reason why I purchase M1 shares is because it had dropped during the XD stage. I have been eyeing on Singtel or M1 or Starhub for a long time and I decided to go with M1 mainly on the business and the company portfolio as well as my girlfriend and I are the customers of M1.

With the recent news on SMRT collaborating with OMG in becoming the 4th telco, it certainly affects the investor point of view. However, I believe it will take sometime in order for the 4th telco to become a threat to the 3 main telco. The reason why I said so is because they are the new entrant to the market and the 3 main telco already had strong customer based. Of course, customers can choose to jump ship whenever they want however, most of the customers are either tied down with contract or loyal customer to the telco that they have sign with.

In addition, customers might want SMRT to focus on their core business instead of being a 4th telco and the reason for SMRT and OMG to become the 4th telco might be a strategy to drive away the potential threat coming from myrepublic. (Just my personal view)

However, if SMRT and OMG telco really come up with a great subscription plan (concession + data plan), it might really be a threat if they can prove that their services wont be like their own train services (up time of the mobile services).

After due consideration and the recent price drop, I have decided to go with M1 to join my portfolio in the telco business. 

What are your views?

Green Green

Hi Everyone!

It's mid week already and when I and all of you (those who invest in Singapore shares) might find that the STI hits over 3500! That is really awesome! My portfolio are green which means all my shares are earning capital gains already. I am really happy with the results although I am just a small investor and just a newbie, the positive results is quite a good start. Of course, I believe is because of luck whereby the uptrend is here and not because I am good in trading/investing because I knew that I am not. 

The below picture is my portfolio (From DrWealth): 

Unlike other big investors or experience trader, I still believe in playing safe for now because I still prefer to have 70% cash in my pocket for now until I am really confident in my investment method. (As you can see, the shares that I have is very little as compared to you guys) I believe that everyone will huat and hope more to come! Dividends is coming so I am waiting for it! May is the important period where my dividends comes into my bank account :D But DrWealth keeps the ex-div date and I believe is because after ex-div date, the dividend is certainly yours to grasp even though you sell it.

So huat ar!

Strategy Plus a Little Update

Hi Everyone,

First for the update of my passive/side income this month which is over $200++!!, $280 to be exact. The main portion comes from the profit after I sold my DBS shares and also the money that I have received from OCBC 360 interest. For OCBC 360, next month will be the final month for me to get the 3.05% interest, which is quite a pity since 3.05% is quite a good interest rate for us to get. But what over is over, we can only look forward to what I can do with the 2.05% or probably more depending on the two additional criteria that OCBC will be announcing in May 2015. Up to date, I have successfully achieve my target of having $120 passive/side income per month which is quite a good achievement for me. Will continue to monitor my own progress to ensure that I will it the target for the next 8 months.

OK! After a mini update on my status, now I will talk about my strategy, my strategy in investment and savings. The reason why I talked about this topic because I have heard from many people in the forum talking about their strategy in terms of investing. Some people want fast cash, which is why they bet on pennies while the others might have other strategy. Although newbies might have the urge of getting fast cash, thus, betting their money on pennies. But for me, I am going for blue chips and reits partly because of dividends and partly because of stability. However, I am still learning on investment, thus, I only put less than 30% of my cash to investment while rest of my cash sits in the bank to collect fat interest (one more month to go). 

So I believe slow and steady wins the race, so lets get down deeper, am I a long term investor or a trader? I believe my style is more towards a hybrid because my main goal is still dividends however, whenever a share or a counter (depending on what you used to say), hits my target point (one year worth of dividends + a bit of profits), I will let it go, which is what I did to DBS. The reason I do that is because firstly is to get my realized gain and secondly, I want to get the additional money to reinvest to gain more interest early. For example, lets say 2.05% for OCBC bank and I put $180 (profit from DBS) in it, with the compound interest, I believe I can get extra few dollars in a few months time. (I am measuring based on the time where I gain the yearly dividend from DBS. Although is just few dollars, but money is money. Certainly, reinvesting is also good but one more point I will take into consideration is the dividend rate as well as the volatility of the shares. DBS is too volatile for me so I prefer to shift to OCBC instead, a rather stable and less volatile than DBS.

Each people have their own way of investment, for me, I think betting on blue chips and REITs will be the best for me to start with :D How about you?

Annual Report

Hi Everyone,

I believe this period is the time where most investors getting the annual reports from the companies that they have shares in. I received mine ever since 2 weeks ago which is DBS (Although I sold it last week, might consider to buy it back if it hits the my target price) followed by ST Engineering, Semb Crop Industry and yesterday I have received annual report from Soilbuild Business Space and Cambridge Industrial Trust. 

As this is my first time receiving annual report from companies because I only started investing this year January 2015, I do a brief read through of each individual annual report to understand the company earning and how well they do in the year of 2014. It is pretty interesting for me to read this because I am not a business student and the numbers makes no sense to me at all. But before investing, I briefly read through their business background and decided to go with it mainly due to their business background and a bit on their management and diversification on their businesses. 

There are forms and also AGM to attend as it had been stated on the annual report but I didn't fill out the form nor going to the AGM as I am still in the process of understanding and learning, I believe it is not wise for me to make any decision yet (Let those pros handle it) and I am just a tiny shareholder :D As for AGM, I won't be attending because I cannot attend due to work unless I got time off but I don't think it is worth it for now but only if time allow then I will go, if not I will wait until next year or next next year before going to AGM :D

I got a stack of annual reports and was wondering what do you guys do with the annual report after reading it? Throw away or keep it for future reference?

DrWealth Review

Hi Everyone,

Last month, I have discover a portfolio management website called DrWealth, which I have wrote about http://jyklmoneyblog.blogspot.sg/2015/03/drwealth.html. I mention that I will do a review on DrWealth website based on my experience on using it. 

After using it for around 20 days, I find that this website is quite good as it helps you to track your own investment, your cash and also recommend you on your portfolio health. Well I am not sure whether about the recommendation because they did not take into consideration of my OCBC 360 interest. But nonetheless, I still like it interface, although you will need some time to picked it up but overall the user experience is quite alright. 

On top of that, they also provide weekly report on your performance, if I remember it correctly, it should be every Tuesday/Wednesday. The report will show you your overall performance and indicate which stocks is your major player (in terms on getting profits)

I did not tried it on the mobile simply because I seldom go to the website to look at my portfolio unless I have done a transaction in shares whereby I will go and update my portfolio in DrWealth website.

There are certainly lots of functions that an experience portfolio master will be able to use, as for me, I only go for a simple and straight forward functions which is to keep track on my investment (in shares) and my current assets (Cash).

So overall, this website is quite good but as for advance functionality, I not sure about it as I seldom use. Oh yea, one more thing, they also provide useful articles in savings and investment, so if you are interested, do take a look :D

Endowment And Insurance Saving Plan

Hi Everyone,

Recently, I have met up with one of my friends for lunch. Over the lunch, he talks about whether do I have financial planning for my future? Well he is not an insurance agent or something like that. I told him that I have just a simple financial planning for myself. I told him about my portfolio whereby 25% of my money goes to stocks and the rest of my money, which is 75% of my money, parked at my OCBC 360 account for the 3.05% interest. 

I was wondering why he asked me this question so in return I asked him back about his financial plan and why he suddenly talked about this topic. He told me that he was told by one of his insurance agent about an investment plus insurance plan where the investment will be invested in secure shares. He didnt told me about what kind of shares that the plan will be invested by I presume that it would be blue chips (Correct me if I am wrong). 

I myself have went to NTUC income to asked more about endowment plan because it is better to diversify my portfolio in this area as well. But when my girlfriend and I went down and hear the agent's explanation, we felt that it is not really that worth it. Okay, not say totally because in the end, you will be able to gain some money out of the 10 or 20 years of "investment". We did see the chart and saw that for more than first half of the investment period, we will be losing money, so in any case whereby we need cash urgently, we will be losing some of our capital. Of course, this is the penalty but would be too harsh if it eats up our capital instead of just forfeiting our interest.

Well, I do not have much understanding about endowment plan yet, but if I am going for one, it will not be for me but will be for my children so that after 20 years, my children will have enough money for his university education without me having to crack my head to pay for it. After that he/she will be on his/her own (after graduation).

So what is your view on these two plan? Will you be going for it?

Is Great Financial Crisis aka bear bear coming?

Hi everyone,

I have been hearing people talking about Great Financial Crisis in short GFC is coming. Well, some of the people say GFC won't be coming in the next few years but as a newbie in investing stock, I really do not have any idea whether or not GFC will be coming now or later. For what I know, GFC will come sooner or later but as for when, I am not sure. 

As I am still learning how to become a better stock investor/trader, I am still holding back my funds for stock investment. Which is why I spending less than 40% of my available funds for investment. I hope to hold back some funds so when GFC comes, I can truly activate my funds to purchase more blue chips stock which mainly includes Telco like Singtel, Bank like DBS and Retails REITs like CapitaMall Trust. For Singtel and CMT, I will be keeping for long term whereas DBS, I hope to buy low sell high so that I can gain profit out of it. 

Well not sure whether this will work because either I will be waiting for a GFC which will only come 5 or 10 years later, or will come very very soon. But as a conservative investor/trader, I will still keep the current ratio of 60% - Cash and 40% - investment so that the risk will be minimal. 

For my current shares, I will be purely waiting for dividends and these are the shares that I will be keeping for long term unless I see if there is a need for me to sell it away.

So how about you? Do you think GFC will be coming soon?

Portfolio Template from Investment Moat

Hi Everyone,

Just today, I have started using the portfolio tracker from investment moat. Although I have heard of this portfolio template/tracker few months ago even before I started investing, however, due to the fact that the functions and the usability is quite unfamiliar to me (mainly because of my lack of knowledge in stocks) which deters me from using this portfolio done by Investment Moat. 

A few months later, which is today, I decided to use this template for my portfolio update for this blog as well as a spreadsheet to help me track my progress. After 15 mins of understanding how it works, I manage to did up my portfolio using this template done by Investment Moat. 

I am happy about the results and I believe that this is a good initiatives by Investment Moats to help us the investors (probably small/retail investors) to keep track our personal portfolio record. The below is my portfolio using the new template

As you can see from the above portfolio, it is much clearer about my progress as compared to my own personal spreadsheet that I have created by myself. It also keep track of the stocks I have sold and the dividends I have collected. This makes the entire process runs even smoother for me and good for me to keep track of my own personal record.

So, for those who have yet to have a portfolio tracker, do use this, it is quite a good one :D

You can get this portfolio at this link: http://www.investmentmoats.com/stock-market-commentary/portfolio-management/introducing-our-free-stock-portfolio-tracker-spreadsheet/

Just follow the tutorial and it will get you to what you need :D. 

6% GST Implemented in Malaysia

Hi Everyone,

This morning, as today is a public holiday, my girlfriend and I decided to go for a short trip to Malaysia - Johor Bahru to eat, watch movie and shop for my new working shoe. As expected, there are lots of people going to Malaysia which I believe is because of the long weekend and most people decided to go to Malaysia for a short trip to relax their mind, well some people might be going back to their home to visit their family members.

So long story short, when my girlfriend and I reached Malaysia, our first destination we headed to eat fish head curry for our lunch (Jin Long Curry Fish Head, quite nice). However, my girlfriend notice the price difference as compared to the last time that we go there to eat. Not just that, but all the stuff in Malaysia had increased their price because of GST 6%. 

Although I have heard it on the news that Malaysia had implemented 6% GST on the starting of April, but having to experience GST in Malaysia is really a first time for me. However, this will not stop my girlfriend and I from going to Malaysia to shop, eat and watch movie because we still like to eat curry fish head and Zhi Bao Chicken in Malaysia hahaha.

At the same time, I saw some posters in City Square Mall to educate the citizens on how to calculate the 6% GST, which I think is quite good because this is the first time that Malaysia is implementing this. Thus, I believe educating the citizens is necessary as this will be a long term policy.

I do not have views about the implementation of 6% GST or whatsoever, I am just a normal people going to Malaysia to shop, eat and watch movie :D

Dividends Collected Up to Date

Hi Everyone,

As a dividend collector, I have collected some tiny amount of dividends for February and March. But first, I would like to update my current portfolio.

As you can see, I have sold DBS which I have previously mentioned in my previous post and purchase OCBC also mentioned in my previous post. Do check it out if you want to find out more about it. 

Dividends Collected:

February: $23.26

March: $14.15

Total Dividends Collected for 2015: $37.41

Dividends Per month: $3.1175

Well, although this is quite a small amount but the major hits will be coming in April (which is this month), May and June. Since I place a small emphasis on REITs which is why the current dividends collected is quite a small amount. 

But nonetheless, the progress is still there and I hope I will do better on next year February and March :D

Adjusted Projected Passive Income

Hi Everyone,

Due to the huge adjustment from OCBC 360, my projected passive income (in Dividends Section), will be largely affected because most of my cash are in OCBC 360. So after doing some calculation based on the interest rate of 2.05%, I have calculated at an average monthly interest of around $61.50. Personally, I believe is still quite alright since the risk is super duper low and I will be looking forward to the two new criteria for earning additional interest. 

From my point of view, I believe that it will goes the same way as what DBS does with it's multiplier programme, in other words, I will have to open an trading account with OCBC or if they allow blue chips investment plan, I will gladly follow it. (But lets just see how it goes)

At the same time, I am looking forward to the new Singapore Saving Bonds (SSB). If it comes out in the this coming quarter or next quarter, I will put 80% of my cash into Singapore Saving Bonds if the interest rate is more than 3%. 

So either way, I am still trying to find out the best way to maximize my passive income by looking at various low risk options. 

OCBC 360 Interest Rate Down to 2.05%?!?!

Hi Everyone,

Today I have received a news about the upcoming revised interest rate for OCBC 360, which will be down from 3.05% to 2.05%.

Here is the changes that I have gotten from OCBC website: http://www.ocbc.com/personal-banking/notices.html

Although they have change the current interest rate of paying bills and credit card expenditure from 1% each to 0.5% each, I am still looking forward to the two new interest categories that they might be coming up with. So for now, we can only see what are the new interest categories, if the new arrangement is not to my advantage, I am ready to focus on putting it to Singapore Saving Bonds if the interest rate is more than 2.05% :D

Singapore Saving Bond

Hi Everyone,

I believe most Singaporean or people here had heard about Singapore Saving Bonds.

A short description:

Singapore, 30 March 2015…The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today provided more information on the features of Singapore Savings Bonds. This followed Senior Minister of State Mrs Josephine Teo’s announcement that the Government and MAS would introduce the Savings Bonds programme to provide individual investors with a long-term savings option that offers safe returns . This will expand the range of simple, low-cost investment options available to individual investors to help them meet their long-term financial goals and retirement needs.

The basics

.    Principal guaranteed: Investors will always get their investment amount back in full. In other words, they will not suffer any capital losses.

ii.    Term of ten years: This allows individuals to save for the long term and receive higher long-term interest rates (which comprise what investors call “term-premium”).

iii.    Step-up interest: Investors will earn interest that is linked to long-term Singapore Government Securities (SGS) rates. Unlike SGS that pay the same coupon each year, Savings Bonds will pay coupons that “step-up” or increase over time. As a result, the average interest rate is higher the longer the Savings Bonds are held.

iv.    Monthly issuance: This makes Savings Bonds accessible on a regular basis.

v.    Flexible redemption: Bond-holders can choose to get their money back in any given month, with no penalty. This means that individual investors do not have to decide upfront how long they wish to invest.

vi.    Small minimum investment amount: A minimum of $500, and in subsequent multiples of $500 up to a limit to be announced later. A limit will help to maximise participation and to ensure a broad reach.

vii.    Only individuals can apply for and hold Savings Bonds.

Personal View

For me, I would think that it will be a good way to diverse my portfolio as my current portfolio only consist of OCBC 360 account and equity. I did not touch on any bonds yet so this might be a good bond for me to go into. 

The risk is minimal as the principal is guarantee, which is suitable for people like me who seeks for low risk. So if you are seeking for low risk investment, I believe this would be a good bond to invest. However, we would still need to wait for the final information about this bond to come out before making any rash decision.  

Sold DBS Shares

Hi Everyone,

I have sold DBS shares today with a profit of more than $180, which is more than a year worth of dividends plus a tiny bit of profit. DBS really gives me hard attack during the month of February when I purchase this stock. The reason is because I bought it at 19.7 and suddenly it drop to 19.2 flat. Which makes me wondering whether my decision of purchasing this stock is really worth it. But I persevere and finally I can see my results :D Which is not a bad one because I gain one year worth of DBS' dividend and a tiny bit of profit like around $12 (Well better than nothing :D).

With that said, I have earned the passive income of around $180++ which I will included this month's calculation. For those who are still holding DBS stock, I hope everyone of you huat ar! I will certainly buy DBS shares again when it drops to 19.xx range. So for now, see ya DBS, I have a nice ride from you :D

Now, my focus will be on OCBC, hope OCBC can hit $11 mark and huat ah!

March Report - Portfolio and Passive Income Result

Hi Everyone,

Today is the last day of March, thus, I will do a consolidation of my activity for this month.As you can see on the dividend's column, you will know that I did not hit my target of $120 for this month. The reason is because I only have AIMSAMP CAP REITs for dividend collection and OCBC interest rate. $23.72 more to hit my target but oh well, have to see month effort on reaching the goal, which is highly possible due to the fact that I will be collecting dividends from ST Engineering, which gives a dividend of $110 in the month of April. Plus OCBC 360 interest rate, I should be able to hit that target.Now I am a bit worried that my company did not cash in my salary to OCBC 360 account on time, which leads me to lose 1% of my interest rate for this month. Hope they can get it done as soon as possible :D

This is my updated portfolio:

OCBC is the latest member on board, welcome OCBC :)

OCBC Bank

Hi Everyone,

After a long period, I decided to go with OCBC Bank which I have bought 300 shares of it. OCBC shares, I will keep it for long term because it has over 3.05% dividend yield (3.3%). The reason why I bought OCBC is because I am currently using OCBC 360 and Frank credit card. So, in the sense that I am it's customers and I hope that OCBC will do well in the future, 

Although I bought at a quite expensive price, but since this is a long term investment, I will average down when necessary so that it will drive up my dividend yield. 

Now currently I have two banks shares (DBS and OCBC) which I am quite proud of because DBS is doing very well and will sell it soon if the time is ripe. The reason why I wanted to sell DBS is because of it's low dividend yield, I would, might as well put it in OCBC 360 or buy other shares with higher dividend yield, like OCBC, to earn my passive income. 

Of course, many people mention that bank shares are for capital gain, but for me, I am looking at both sides of the world. If both dividend yield and capital share increase, it would definitely benefit me a lot. 

Welcome OCBC on board!

Breakeven

Hi Everyone,

Today I have come across an interesting topic in HWZ forum where there is a new investors talking about calculating break-even for a counter.

When he/she asked that question, in my mind, I already had my own way to calculate my break-even point. So I explain to him/her my point of view. 

This is the example that I provided:

[(Current Share Price * Number of Shares) + Dividends collected up till date] - [(avg share price purchased * Number of Shares) + commission (both selling and buying)] = x

If x < 0, it will mean that you are still losing money 

If x = 0, break-even

If x > 0, profited from your investment 

Of course, this is just a standard way to calculate break-even, or let's say explain about break-even.

For me, I take a step more when it comes to calculating break-even point. My personal formula adds a bit of thrill in it  

My formula:

[(Current Share Price * Number of Shares) + Dividends collected up till date] - [(avg share price purchased * Number of Shares) + commission (both selling and buying)+ (number of year invested*dividend per year)] = x

If x < 0, it will mean that you are still losing money 

If x = 0, break-even

If x > 0, profited from your investment 

*I will be doing a round up to the years, for example 1 year 1 month, I will round up to two years worth of dividend

So the final portion is the additional thing that I have take into consideration, which is the dividend * number of year invested.

So why do I do that? The reason is because I want to take into consideration of opportunity cost. For example, if I invested $5000 in Sheng Siong, I will have $5000 less in my OCBC 360 to collect interest or other methods of investment. So in order to make sure that my money stays in a good shape, I will always include one year worth of dividend into my calculation before selling. 

If I can hit the break-even point in just a few months (like 2 to 3 months) I will sell it to lock my profit. I believe this can be done for growing stock and other blue chips which had sudden spike in it. For REITS, I will be putting there for a few years before selling it. 

How about you? How do you calculate your own break-even point?

Temptation of Locking Profits

Hi Everyone,

I believe every investors have felt this way before, the temptation of locking profits. I am just a two months old investors and I already have this feeling of locking profits from DBS share. The reason is because it is going to hit my target price, which will be around one year worth of dividends (from DBS) plus a bit of extra coffee money. 

My criteria of locking profit is simple, if it hits one year worth of dividend, I will locked it. Although other people my disagree with my action because there is a possibility of the share growing even more. However, I am not an expert in reading fundamental analysis and technical analysis, I wouldn't bet on that especially for DBS because DBS really is a roller coaster. I prefer something like a stable stock like Starhub or M1, which is one of the shares that I will go into when I cash out from DBS. 

My eyes are on Starhub or M1 or maybe both depending on the cash flow I have. Then after that wait for a while to see if bank stock will fall back to it's normal state before going in again to earn some profits. (These are just my personal views - do not follow)

Well, lets see tomorrow whether DBS will hit my target price. If yes, there will be a change in my portfolio. If not, then will probably need to wait till next week, or get my dividends first.