~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

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 qua...

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 inten...

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...

The REITs that I hold in my portfolio have all reported their latest earnings, therefore I think now it is a good time to review their performances to see the impact of the high interest rate environment on their respective earnings. The summary of the net income, distributable income and distribution per unit are tabulated below: From the numbers churned above, I believe the best performer is ParkwayLife REIT (PWLR), the top holding in my portfolio.  All 3 metrics have improved year-on-year, although there are other metrics under some pressure like slight increase in cost of debt and slight decline in interest coverage ratio, but generally it is still healthy overall. Capitaland Integration Commercial Trust (CICT) also showed resilient performance based on its improving net property income, and other improving metrics like improving occupancy rates and more importantly, positive rental revision rates.  However, a clearer picture will be required to assess the performance as s...

This is a relatively short post, and just to share a very useful credit card hack I learnt from another blogger/YouTuber Sethisfy .  Some of you may have already known about this hack, but to me, it is something I just got to know, and it is very beneficial to me! For individuals with chronic conditions, regular visits to polyclinics and or government hospitals may be required for consultations and checkups.  Following every visit, there may also be large quantities of medication to collect.  For Singaporeans and Permanent Residence, despite high subsidies by the Singapore government, the medical bills still add up to a considerable amount in the long term.  As I did not do intensive digging and research in this aspect, before April 2023, I have always thought that all bills from government hospitals and polyclinics, like insurance premiums, are excluded from cashback or miles rewards of credit cards. So, it definitely came as a pleasant surprise to me, when I came a...