~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

This month marks the end of the 4th quarter of 2023.  Thus being the last post of 2023, it is 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 December signals...

As we progress to the final week of 2023, it is also the time where many Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PR) in the financial community flashing and showcasing the interests that they earn from their Central Provident Fund (CPF) account!  This seems to be a yearly affair for many individuals out there, and seeing all those eye-popping numbers definitely inspire and motivate me to try to push my numbers up (yes, I take this positively as a form of motivation, and nope, I am not jealous, probably just envy, lol).  As stated in my previous post, I have managed to reach Basic Healthcare Sum (BHS) in 2023, but with the increase in BHS limit in 2024 to SGD 71,500.00, my monthly CPF contribution will still need to flow to my Medisave Account (MA) to achieve the new limit.  For Special Account (SA), I am still very far away from the Full Retirement Sum (FRS), so just got to continue with my contribution and hope to build up soon. Back to the topic of CPF, it has been a hot ...

Last year in September 2022, I wrote in this post the 8 reasons why I plan to retire in Malaysia, or more specifically, Johor.  Fast-track one year later, it seems evident that more and more people are also interested in the idea of retiring in Malaysia.  Johor and Penang are the two popular regions for retirement, with Johor in close proximity to Singapore, and Penang with great food and with ethnicity composition similar to Singapore.   So one year later, are there any changes in my plan?  The answer is no. Do note that the following points are solely from my perspectives, and only for my situation.  Being a Malaysian, Singapore Permanent Residence, I do not have any issues with lengthy stays in Johor, and I am privileged to be able to travel between Singapore and Malaysia as frequent as I wish, as long as my renewal of the re-entry permit in Singapore is successful.  Therefore, please do your own due diligence if Visas or any permits for long term ...

Recently the idea by Bank of Japan to follow the rest of the world's central banks to raise interest rate for the very first time since 2015 has rattled the markets quite a bit, most notably on the forex rate.  With the December meeting by the Bank of Japan coming up next week on the 18th and 19th of December, investors are betting currently on a 45% chance that Bank of Japan will raise the interest rates this month as of 8th December.  This caused the Japanese Yen (JPY) has strengthened by 4.4% against the USD in the past month, and up 3.1% against the SGD.    So how will this news affect me and my finances directly or indirectly?  Do not get me wrong, I am not any big shot or savvy trader who does carry trade by borrowing JPY and invest in USD or SGD to earn the difference in interest rates and the strength of the currency pair.  The main concern I have is with my investment in ParkwayLife REIT. It is no secret that ParkwayLife REIT has a natural hedge ag...

As we enter the last month of 2023, it will be a good time for a review of my goals, whether I am keeping pace of my timeline, and what will I need to do moving forward to ensure things go according to plan.  This is also the right time as the results of all the companies have been released and I have recorded the total amount of dividends I have received for the whole of 2023. Revisiting this post in March, the most optimistic projection is to achieve my Barista FIRE number of SGD 24K dividend per year by end of 2024 (SGD 25.75K to be exact) and my FIRE number of SGD 36K dividend per year by 2027.  I am pleased to announce that for the whole of 2023, the total dividends collected is SGD 23.29K, and that means I am a mere SGD 710 away from my Barista FIRE number.   In my March post: With the continuous dollar cost averaging I am doing, I am quite confident that I will be able to hit my Barista FIRE number in 2024, even if the REITs are under pressure from high inter...