Posts

Performance of Singapore Listed REITs in the Past 1 and 3 Years

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One month ago, I did a comparison of the performance of REITs i hold in my portfolio in this post , evaluating the impact of high interest rate environment of the REITs' earnings and distribution per unit.  In this post, I am going to just look at the performance of the share prices of the REITs in the short term (past 1 year) and medium term (past 3 years).  The following data are all taken from sg investors . Year-to-Date Performance (9 REITs in the Green) Year to date, industrial/logistics and retail REITs with at least a part of their properties in Singapore seem to perform better than others (with the exception of Cromwell European REIT), up by 0.9% to 18.6%.  However, performance is not consistent as retail REITs like Lendlease REIT and industrial REIT like Aims Apac REIT are not in the list.  One possible reason for Aims Apac REIT to be excluded from this list is possibly due to the price correction after the announcement of private placement and preferential offerings of sh
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A More Detailed Plan For My Barista FIRE

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Sometime in March 2023, a study surfaced and it caused a little stir in social media.  The picture below shows the cost for an American to comfortably retire in every country.  Looking at the numbers, it's a little surprising that Singapore topped the charts, needing a shockingly high USD 1.12M (SGD 1.51M based on an exchange rate of approximate USD 1 : SGD 1.35) to retire comfortably, compared to other well-known expensive countries like Switzerland and United States, which only require USD 831K and USD 703K respectively. As shocking as it seems, I think this chart only paints an accurate picture for the average American, and not for the general population.  As a permanent residence in Singapore, I understand and experienced that Singapore has provided many subsidies and rebates for its citizens.  Examples include subsidies in housing, medical, education, and rebates in conservancy charges, transport and utilities for eligible Singaporeans.  All these definitely helped to defray t
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Portfolio Update for May 2023

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This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month. For the month of May, it is a case of 2 different stories between the US Growth Portfolio and the SGX Dividend Portfolio.  For this month, the headline story is on the US debt ceiling issue, and that has definitely overshadowed the slight improvement in CPI.  Negotiations are ongoing regarding the debt ceiling.  Although the market broadly believes that the US government will not make the wrong move because of political disagreements to result in any defaults, any undesirable news out of the current negotiations will still send short-term shockwaves through the market.  On the other hand, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has signaled that there will be no interest rate hikes in June.  However, whether this is the beginning of the pivot or not, will very much depend on the CPI numbers in the coming months. As mentioned in last month's update, analysts have commented that 1 st quarter's earnings
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The Importance of Remaining Confident and Patient with A Great Company

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Google is one of the top 3 holdings in my US Growth Portfolio.  On 7th February 2023, its share price plunged from USD 107.64 to a low of USD 89.13 on 24th February 2023, a decline of 17.2% in just 2 weeks.  The reason for the decline is due to the Microsoft, another tech giant which is also one of the top 3 holdings in my Portfolio, incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its search engine Microsoft Bing and Edge  browser.  This move, though expected, came too soon and it caught Google off-guard.  In an interview, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that he wants to make Google "dance" with their new chatbot "new Bing". This move definitely created some stress within Google, and that 'forced' them to push out their own version of AI, Bard.  It was probably not ready and unrehearsed, as Bard gave an incorrect answer to the question posed during its presentation.  To make matters worse, in mid-April, Samsung released news that it may have the intention t
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The New FIRE- Financial Independence Recreational Employment

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The FIRE movement , which stands for "Financial Independence, Retire Early", has been around for quite some time.  As the movement grew, various forms of FIRE appear, including Lean FIRE, Fat FIRE, Coast FIRE, Barista FIRE etc, which I had introduced in an earlier  post , and in another post , discussing the challenges these strategies may face in high inflationary times like today.  Blogger Valuechampion also has a picture that illustrate the various FIRE. As FIRE movement became more well known to the public, it garnered much controversies.  There are little naysayers of the "FI" of FIRE, as attaining financial independence is an aim of many people, because achieving financial freedom allows individuals to have more choices in life.  However, the "RE" of FIRE has rather split opinions.   Proponents of "Retire Early" believe that retiring early will free up more time for individuals to pursue more important matters to them, such as, being able t
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