~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month. For the month of April, it was a turbulent month of severe downs and ups.  The “Liberation Day” on 2nd April 2025 has caused the markets worldwide to crash by minimally 5% upwards.  The reciprocal tariffs and base tariffs imposed on almost all countries caused massive fears of uncontrollable inflation to return.  After the markets crashed for 1 week, the spike in US 10-year bond yields to above 4.5% levels inevitably freaked out investors further, and the probably the US Government as well.  Hence it lead to Trump's decision to delay the implementation of the reciprocal tariffs by 90 days, except for China.  This sudden 'flip-flop' in decision caused a major rally in the stock markets worldwide, exacerbating the volatility in the markets. Nothing much this month, except my regrets for not being able to buy more stocks during the crash on hindsight.  There was sufficien...

In recent months, the global economy has been rattled by a resurgence of trade tensions, most notably between the United States and China.  This modern-day tariff war, escalating into a full-blown geopolitical standoff, has created uncertainty in markets across the globe.  Amid this turmoil, gold prices have surged to new all-time highs, day after day. while silver has conspicuously lagged behind.  This divergence has puzzled many investors and prompted serious questions about whether now is the right time to continue to invest in these precious metals, especially when we start hearing more uncles and aunties beginning to talk about investing in gold (shoe-shine boy theory). Gold’s Meteoric Rise: A Flight to Safety Gold, together with the long term US Treasury bonds, have historically been viewed as a “safe haven” asset, one that holds or increases its value during periods of economic and geopolitical instability.  The first time I blogged about gold was back in...

This post is written with the help of ChatGPT, as I lacked the necessary in-depth finance knowledge.  There are some points here that are written and has been fact-checked with the relevant information from other sources. In early April 2025 after the "Liberation Day", where Donald Trump started imposing reciprocal tariffs to almost every country, besides the sharp plunge in stock markets which caused my portfolio to drop below the SGD 600K market value "support level", a bewildering sudden and sharp spike in US 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields (more specifically between 9th to 11th April) occurred and this caught markets off guard.  Investors were rattled because usually when stock market crashes occur, investors tend to move funds into the US Treasuries as a form of flight to safety, which tend to lower bond yields.  Hence when the 10-year bond yields suddenly spike from around 4.0% to above 4.5% in a couple of days, media headlines screamed about a potential b...

When I first joined a Telegram discussion group focused on dividend investing, I was looking for an environment with like-minded investors where insights, strategies, and real-world experiences are widely shared from fellow investors.  While I had a basic understanding of dividend investing, engaging in discussions with very much more experienced individuals exposed me to deeper perspectives and valuable lessons that are shaping my investment philosophy. Through my participation, I have come to embrace three key principles:  1)     The importance of staying invested rather than frequently trading; 2)     Managing portfolio allocation wisely to mitigate risks;  3)     Maintaining a calm and patient mindset while enjoying the rewards of dividends.  These lessons have helped me refine my investment approach and reinforce my confidence as a dividend investor. 1)      Do Not Buy and Sell Shares Frequently: Time...

This is not really a post on personal finances or sharing of any little financial knowledge I had.  Instead, this is just a personal record of my current life journey, on how I choose to view the small hiccups in life positively and make changes to my life. The past couple of years have not been great for my health.  In the pursuit of FIRE, especially after Covid, I began to work choose to work 7 days a week, though just for a couple of hours of work daily.  However, with no full day of rest, I find that I have gotten more unhealthy (in terms of dining and lifestyle), and it started to show.  To make matters worse, things got tougher on the work front too.  Due to the large number of students graduating by November 2024, it has been hard for me to get new students to fill up the slots since the end of last year.  This meant my working hours per week have dropped drastically since November and December 2024 (and evidently, I did not get many new students in ...