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.