~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month. For the month of October, it is a disastrous month for my REITs-heavy portfolio.  With the US government raising money by selling loads of long term US Treasury Bonds, coupled with news that China and Japan are selling chucks of US bonds, it causes the 10-year bond yields to shoot up to 5%.  This is made worst by sudden outbreak of war in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel, which causes the oil price to creep up towards USD 90+ or even USD 100.  This is by no means favorable in any way for the inflation numbers, and that probably means high interest rates would probably remain high for longer duration.  All these news are negatively impacting my portfolio, and finally, my portfolio went down into the deeper red to near the levels back in October 2022. In addition, depending on the upcoming inflation numbers, we may have to deal with another rate hike this month in November or December.  Even

This is going to be a relatively short post and coincidentally, this is the 100th post of this blog!  Therefore I think it is a good time to evaluate how the different 'sectors' within my investment portfolio is doing over the past year till 20th October 2023 in such turbulent times of high interest rates and high inflation. SGX REITs: As seen above, the past one year has not been kind to REITs.  The sharp increase in interest rates over the past year has been a severe drag on the price performance of REITs, which is an interest-sensitive sector due to the leverage they are exposed to.  The past week, which has not been captured in the graph above, has been even more turbulent for REITs as the war in the Middle East and propelling oil prices are reigniting the fears of high inflation, and the creeping 10-year yields towards 5% yield is definitely exerting more stress and pressure on REITs.  Although it seems that the value of the REITs in my portfolio remains approximately cons

On 4th October, I tested positive for Covid for the first time (Yes I was fine through the peak of the pandemic, but fallen casualty now).  It felt horrible initially when I was running a high fever at 39.6 ͦ C, and suffered from body aches.  Thankfully after seeing the doctor and after 2 doses of Ibuprofen, the fever subsided and my body aches went away as well (learnt something new, that Panadol is only effective against fever below 38.5 ͦ C, anything higher will need stronger medication like Ibuprofen). Being a self employed, this meant a lot to me.  Principally, it meant a loss of income, as my body is unwell and that made me unable to even try to conduct online lesson.  So for one whole week, I could do little besides eat, sleep and repeat (thankfully I did not lose my sense of smell and taste, though food does taste a little weird, but it's back to normal after a while).  Although it only greatly impacted me for about a week, but it created uneasiness in me, because a self-em

I would like to first highlight that the title above is just to seek attention.  Personally, I believe there is no best investment strategy and techniques, because if there is one, there won't be so many school of thoughts surfacing on the financial sphere, claiming that their methodologies are the best.  In my opinion, the 'best' strategy is one that is most suitable for you yourself, as a trader, an investor or a speculator.  As such, I do not understand why there are investors out there who openly criticize, to the extent of condemnation, other investment strategies, where they use highly selective and biased data to show the cons of other strategies in order to prove their point that their selected strategy is the best.  I understand it is always healthy to discuss the pros and cons of every strategy, so as to provide various perspectives the supporters of a particular strategy fails to see.  However, berating other strategies is entirely uncalled for.  For me myself, d

'No More Bets' (Chinese:  孤注一掷 ) is a 2023 Chinese crime thriller film directed by Shen Ao and produced by Ning Hao.  " Programmer Pan Sheng and model Liang Anna were lured overseas by a supposed high paying job.  However, it turned out that the promised employment is actually a slave camp-like fraud factory.  Being imprisoned and abused by their handler, they are forced to commit cyber fraud on online victims.  Through their actions, a stranger Gu Tianzhi got addicted into online gambling.  After losing all his savings, Gu attempts su***de by jumping off a building.  Gu's girlfriend called the police.  Police Zhao Dongran started investigations and eventually cracked down the syndicate. " After watching the movie, it really send chills down my spine as it is so close to life.  How did Gu Tianzhi get hooked on online gambling?  It all started with a simple online gambling ad, which is so prevalent nowadays.  Just watch YouTube, and probably some gambling ads may p