~~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 volatile month.  The first half of the month was the extension of the mood back in December which was rather pessimistic.  The main reason lies with the worries of sticky inflation stemming from potential policies to be implemented by incoming US President Donald Trump.  This was worsen by the December US Payrolls, which grew by 256K, exceeding expectations by a huge margin.  In this period, good news is bad news, as the strength of the US economy means that the FED has no reason to cut interest rates in 2025 in the face of possibly looming reignition of inflation.  This is clearly shown in the bond market as the 10-year treasury yields shot up above 4.75% and reached a high of 4.817%.  All these caused the markets to pivot and began its downward movement.  Thankfully after the release of the Producer Price Index (PPI) and C...

Back in April 2024 , I tried to rebalance my portfolio for the first time to lower the weightage of the REITs and increase exposure to the banks specifically.  It was a partially successful attempt where I only managed to add fewer number of shares of Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) and United Overseas Bank (UOB) into my portfolio than I would like to have.  As such, when the opportunity presented itself in August 2024 during the Yen carry trade "mini-crisis", I managed to add more shares of DBS and UOB into my portfolio by reducing the number of Hong Leong Finance (HLF) shares in my portfolio.  However, the percentage of REITs in my portfolio remained high and I was waiting for another chance to rebalance (55.6% SG REITs, 34.9% SG non-REITs and 9.5% US Growth based capital injected).  In fact, September 2024 actually presented a very good opportunity for me to rebalance as prices of REITs recovered greatly, but guess what?  Greed prevailed and nothing happ...

As we step into the New Year with a new start, it is probably a good time to look back and revisit some timeless investments quotes and advices that remain relevant and impactful to myself till today.  I believe these advices can help myself remain focus in my investment journey this upcoming year, while offering guidance, clarity and inspiration. 1)     " Do Not Save What Is Left After Spending, But Spend What Is Left After Saving. " – Warren Buffett Residents in Singapore face high costs of living, but the principle remains universal, which is to prioritize savings and investments before discretionary spending.  It will be good to be disciplined in managing money, which in my order of priority, is to contribute to Central Provident Fund (CPF), set aside a comfortable amount for recurring investments in shares or ETFs, and finally set aside the fixed amount meant for mandatory expenses, before allocating the remainder for discretionary expenses. 2)  ...

I was contemplating whether I should write this post, because this trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL) in December 2024, for me as a Malaysian, was not considered an overseas trip but a domestic one.  However, I still decided to go ahead because after some thought, I believe I should promote tourism in my country to readers of this blog! For this trip, I decided to fly a little differently, to make this trip a little cheaper than usual.  I decided to fly budget from Johor Senai Airport this time instead of from Changi Airport, since I had also planned to go back to my mum's place in Johor the day before.  This is also my first time taking Batik Air (budget airline) and I must say, it was a rather pleasant experience.  Anyway at the airport, there was no lounge for me to rest (or maybe I do not know where it is), so I just waited around the gate.  Due to the heavy rain, there was just a 15 to 20 minutes delay, which I am thankful for.  By the way, this is my first tim...

One of the biggest perks of blogging is I can easily look back at previous posts and compare which are the goals I have successfully achieved and which has fallen behind.  In this second last post of 2024, I will like to reflect upon 2024, and compare with what I had written in this post one year ago to assess my achievements. 1)     Changes To The Way I Manage My US Growth Portfolio The first point proved to be a failure, not because I failed to execute the change, but this whole idea to change the way I manage my US Growth Portfolio proved to be a failure.  In my wish-list, I hope I can try to do a little timing of the market to partially sell some shares when they reach all time high.  Just one month later in February 2024, I posted how this idea became a huge mistake.  Another event to slap myself is to sell half of my US Growth Portfolio in late October to return the investments to my family.  This caused my family to miss out of a low 5 di...