~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month. For the month of August, volatility continues to be the main theme in the world markets.  In the first half of the month, markets was submerged in a positive note.  The good news of lower-than-expected CPI data of 8.5% vs estimated 8.7% helped to propped up the US markets, and finally pushed my US Growth Portfolio back into the green!  However, doubts of the economy, lingering problems with the looming recession and persistently high inflation caused markets to crash in the second half of the month, especially after the speech by Jerome Powell at Jackson Hole.  As such, my US Portfolio is back into the red. Closer to home, my SGX Dividend Portfolio is also under pressure.  As Jerome Powell said that “rates will rise until 'job is done'”, this causes the 10-year yield to rise above 3% again.  This creates pressure on the REITs, and that does not bode well for my portfol...

I believe many Singaporeans have read the interview regarding a Singaporean who sold his HDB and used all the proceeds to buy just one SGX listed company- Singapore Post. I am not here to judge him, because I am in no position to do that. Is he wrong?  Maybe not, because I have heard of individuals and even YouTubers who kinda “all in” to one stock like Tesla, or some individuals who “all in” to cryptocurrencies as well.  So, I believe he is not the only one who did this, only probably the one who is public about it. So which stock will I choose if I were ever 'forced' to put all my money into just one stock?  I will do things a little differently here, and instead, give top 3 choices of mine, 1 exchange traded fund (ETF), 1 real estate investment trust (REIT) and 1 company share. 1 ETF: Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (VOO) VOO tracks the performance of the top 500 companies in the US.  This is a conservative approach, because by itself, VOO is a diversified inve...

Many successful advocates of the various FIRE strategies will recommend having multiple streams of income.  This can help to expedite the growth of your portfolio and hence push forward your plan for FIRE, and also act as a buffer to protect your portfolio against market volatility.  Just a quick search online will yield findings that show many financial Youtubers and bloggers talk about having 7 streams of income to become a millionaire.  I do not know why 7 seems to be the magic number, but I know I am far from that (both having 7 streams and becoming a millionaire).  Hereby, I shall disclose how many streams of income I have managed to built to date. 1)      Active Income from Tuition I am a full-time private tutor, and has been tutoring full time since 2010.  I was initially working for a Tuition Centre, where I learn how to deliver lessons in a way that students can understand better.  In 2015, I left the Centre and became self-employe...

As shared in a previous post, Parkway Life REIT is the largest REIT holding in my portfolio.  Today I am sharing why I am comfortable with Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) being the second largest REIT holding in my portfolio. Although MIT is regarded as a data center REIT, unlike Keppel DC REIT (KDR) and DigiCore REIT (DCR) which are 100% focussed on data centers, MIT has only approximately half of their asset under management being data centers as of 2022.  The remaining assets under management include Hi-Tech Buildings, Business Park Buildings, Flatted Factories, Stack-up/ Ramp-up Buildings and Light Industrial Buildings.  Recently, their share price had experienced downward pressures due to several factors. 1)    Data Centers are highly correlated with the technology sector and even cryptocurrencies. With the NASDAQ falling into the bear territory this year and the “crypto winter” that is still ongoing, they will pose negative sentiments around these REIT...

To start things off, kindly note that I am no expert in property, neither am I good in investing in properties.  This is just a sharing of my personal opinion, so if anyone intends to invest in Malaysia properties, kindly do your own due diligence.  For heads up, I am a Malaysian.  Hence, I am not restricted to certain policies that foreigners have to adhere to when buying properties in Malaysia.  However, to make this discussion fair and as unbiased as possible, I will be discussing the following points from the perspectives of a Singaporean/ foreigner who currently owns a property or multiple properties in Malaysia. I decided to write about this topic because I am in a Whatsapp group together with many other Singaporeans who have bought a property in the same project in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.  A couple of them has expressed their concern with the depreciating Malaysia Ringgit (MYR) against the Singapore Dollar (SGD), and are worried about the outcome of their...