~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quick update: Basically, all this while I have combined the investment capital that I am managing for my family with my own capital.  Because of this, certain stocks in my portfolio are not shares that I would like to own, like Tesla, which is too volatile for my liking (just a personal opinion) but my family wanted.  The investment capital for family makes up about 10% of the total capital of my investment portfolio.  To simplify matters, I decided to take this opportunity to liquidate the portion of the portfolio (within the US Growth Portfolio) to return the capital and profits back to family.  Therefore, in this sale, I will sell all Tesla shares in the portfolio, and a larger composition of the shares that I would like to lower my exposure.  With this action, future quarterly updates of the portfolio will...

So, the magic has been broken.  Since its Initial Public Offering (IPO), ParkwayLife REIT (PWLR) has pride itself as the only REIT that has not launched any equity fund raising of any sorts, be it private placement or preferential offering.   However on 22nd October 2024, PWLR announced its first ever equity fund raising via public placement to acquire 11 freehold nursing homes in France, with 100% committed occupancy.  For quite some time, the manager has already planned to expand their strategic foray into a new third pillar besides Singapore and Japan, as a form of diversification to concentration risk and forex risk.  Therefore, this announcement came as no surprise (though investors were hoping that the manager decides to buy over a part of Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital). As the largest REIT holding in my portfolio, it is crucial that I take an in-depth understanding of this acquisition, and take a look at how this is beneficial to PWLR in the longer term...

"Time in the market is more important than timing the market" is one of those slogans you hear very often in personal finance circles that it almost feels cliché.  However, like a lot of these nuggets of wisdom, it holds serious weight when you unpack it, especially when you think of investing with a Barista FIRE mindset like myself, where the goal is financial independence with part-time work to supplement your lifestyle. As such, let us take a look into why focusing on time in the market is so crucial, and why trying to time the market can be a dangerous distraction. 1)     The Power of Compounding Over Time Investing is often compared to a marathon, not a sprint (traders may not agree but I belong to the clan of long-term investing).  When I invest consistently over time through dollar cost averaging (DCA), I am giving my money the chance to grow, not just linearly, but exponentially, thanks to the power of compounding (for dividend investors like myself, t...

Back in March 2024, I wrote in a post that I bought an 1 oz gold bullion bar from BullionStar, and got a free 1 oz Canadian Silver Maple Leaf bullion coin.  I also decided to include gold in my investment portfolio for the long term, which meant that I will buy 1 oz of gold yearly starting from 2024.  My intention for doing this is because with all the Quantitative Easing in both the east and the west, fiat may be losing their value in the long run and that makes gold investment more appealing than before (sorry, I am too timid for crypto).   Today, I am revisiting this topic as a record for myself, because year to date, the price of gold has continuously hit new all time high, and I probably need to do some logical thinking on what is going to be my next move.  To me, gold is more of a preservation tool rather than earnings tool, because I know that gold does not distribute any dividends, does not generate any earnings.  Its value is simply derived from d...

So, the time has arrived for me to settle the refinancing of my mortgage loan.  Kindly note that this is not a sponsored post, and the companies and parties mentioned below are involved in assisting me with the application process and completion of the refinancing procedure. My last mortgage loan is with Hong Leong Finance (and yes, I am a shareholder), which started in October 2022.  It was a 2-year fixed rate loan where I enjoy an interest rate of 1.4% in the first year, and 1.5% in the second year.  I was relatively fortunate, because I started looking around for mortgage packages since April 2022, before the crazy propelling of interest rates began, and thankfully, although I was a couple of months too early, Hong Leong Finance was able to lock in the rates for me till my previous lock in period ceased.  As such, I am able to enjoy the lower rates with peace of mind when the interest rates were crazily high in 2023 and most of 2024.  However all good things ...