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Showing posts from June, 2023

Portfolio Update Q2 2023

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This month marks the end of the 2nd quarter of 2023. Thus it's definitely a good time for me to record the performance of my portfolio to track how it has been. To recap, I started my SG Dividends Portfolio in late 2017, and I began tracking the dividends and all reinvestment done starting 2018. To date, my SG Dividends Portfolio consist of banks, REITs and defense technology. On the other hand, I only started the US Growth Portfolio in late December 2021. Currently, my US Growth Portfolio consist of mainly big tech names, bank and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Being a relatively conservative investor, I prefer to dollar cost average (DCA) into the market to slowly build up my portfolio. The advantages of using Interactive Brokers to buy the US shares via DCA are undoubtedly the low fees and ability to buy fractional shares of mega-cap technology shares like Alphabet and Tesla. The latest FED meeting in June showed that the FED will not pivot in 2023, and instead, there migh

Which is More Essential in Personal Finance- Cash VS Cash Flow

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Both cash and cash flow are important aspects of personal finance, but they serve different purposes and have different implications. Cash refers to the physical currency or funds held in bank accounts, including savings, fixed deposits or investment accounts.  It represents the actual amount of money (usually a lump sum) you have available at a given time.  Cash is essential for meeting immediate financial obligations, such as paying bills, making purchases, or handling emergencies.  Therefore, having an adequate cash reserve is crucial for maintaining financial stability and flexibility. Cash flow, on the other hand, refers to the movement of money in and out of your personal finances over a period of time.  It considers your income (from active work, dividends, rental etc), expenses and measures the net change in your financial position.  Positive cash flow occurs when your total income exceeds your expenses, allowing you to save, invest, and build wealth gradually.  On the flip s

How Artificial Intelligence Is Slowly Making My Job Obsolete

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is definitely the hype word of 2023.  It rose to wide-spread recognition after the introduction of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, to the world in November 2022 by the company OpenAI.  ChatGPT functions to provide detailed responses and articulate answers across many domains of knowledge, which was made possible using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques.  Although there is still room for improvement for the quality of its response, ChatGPT is already widely used by many, especially for non-crucial planning like coming up with travel itineraries, and finding answers to simple enquiries. So why do I say that it is going to make my job obsolete.   I am a full time private tutor since 2011, specializing in the teaching of Chemistry in all levels, from O levels, A levels to IGCSE and IB.  I have always thought that working in the education field in Singapore is rather recession proof, as proven during the height of the pandemic in 2020.  With the annou

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

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