~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month. For the month of January, it is a rather negative month.  After the release of the hotter than expected December CPI numbers, it makes investors wonder if inflation is going to be more sticky than expected.  On top of that, the crisis at the red sea exacerbate inflation issues, with prices of crude oil inching towards USD 80.  All these issues sent conflicting signals regarding the timeline for rate cuts.  Markets were expecting rate cuts to begin in March 2024, and the December 2023 rally had priced in this timeline.  As such, if rate cuts do not happen in March 2024, that may bring about more selling pressure in the markets as expectations are not met.  Such volatility has appeared this month, as more FED officials are hinting that the number of rate cuts will probably be lesser, and only happen later.  Currently, expectations have postponed to May 2024 timeline amid the volatility and data relea

In my previous post , I associated my shares in my SG Dividend Portfolio with the various advisors of Shu in the "Three Kingdoms".  After much deliberation, I decided to expand my portfolio with a tinge of diversification by adding a counter into my portfolio.  Many will think that this is not much of a diversification, as it is a business trust, but I see it as a form of diversification as it is involved in the hospitality industry, which is something that I do not own in my REITs portfolio.  This counter is none other than Capitaland Ascott Trust (CLAST-费祎). I decided to add one more counter to my portfolio to reduce the weightage of some shares.  CapitaLand Ascott Trust has always been in my list, but I have yet to include it in my portfolio as previously when my capital was lower, too many shares will cause the little capital I have to be spread out too thinly.  Currently when the portfolio market value (including realized profits from partial sale of some shares) is abov

This post is a continuation of the previous post to see how I associate the shares in my portfolio to the famous generals and advisors in The Three Kingdoms era, more specifically, the generals and advisors of the Shu Kingdom (my favorite in the novel, followed by Wu and lastly Wei).  I have 2 portfolios, the SG Dividend Portfolio for accumulating Singapore listed shares to build up passive income, and the US Growth Portfolio for growth and hopefully generating capital gains.  I have shared my thoughts on the SG Dividend Portfolio in Part 1, and in Part 2, I will share my thoughts on my US Growth Portfolio. For my US Growth Portfolio, I have 7 shares.  These 7 shares act as the front-runner for my portfolio, where I have decided to start doing some form of trading in an attempt to achieve capital growth.  This may or may not go well as this means I am trying to market time, and that is something I am bad in, but I shall give myself one year to try it out to see my progress.  As such, t

This post is to join in the fun to see how I associate the shares in my portfolio to the famous generals and advisors in The Three Kingdoms era, more specifically, the generals and advisors of the Shu Kingdom (my favorite in the novel, followed by Wu and lastly Wei).  I have 2 portfolios, the SG Dividend Portfolio for accumulating Singapore listed shares to build up passive income, and the US Growth Portfolio for growth and hopefully generating capital gains.  I will share my thoughts on the SG Dividend Portfolio in Part 1, and US Growth Portfolio in Part 2. For my SG Dividend Portfolio, I have 9 shares.  These 9 shares act as the base and foundation for my portfolio, which I will continuously accumulate to grow all of them.  As such, they are like the advisors of the kingdom, strategizing every move of the portfolio to see how the portfolio can eventually grow and expand, slowly but surely.  After much deliberations, I associate the shares as follows: The top advisors of the kingdom t

In a blink of an eye, we are already in 2024.  2023 has been a year of surprises, ups and downs.  As a lousy predictor of events, many of my predictions for 2023 did not come true.  The recession that was announced by analysts and economists since 2022 did not materialize even till today.  Will it happen in 2024?  It is anyone's guess.  I am no longer concerned by such events that are beyond my control, and I just want to concentrate on the things that I can manage.  The purpose of this post will be for me to record my hopes and wishes for the year ahead, and some of the things that I will do to my portfolio, and also certain plans for my friends and family. 1)     Changes To The Way I Manage My US Growth Portfolio It is rather embarrassing to talk about this at this point in time because it took me so long to realize this issue and take action.  Being a passive investor, my aim in investing is to continuously accumulate shares in strong companies that I have conviction in, and hol