~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

My Central Provident Fund (CPF) is one of the less exciting parts of my financial journey is also one of the most important. While many investors spend countless hours searching for the next winning stock, the next high-yield REIT, or the next investment opportunity, my CPF simply sits quietly in the background, doing what it has always done - compounding steadily year after year.  I have never invested a single cent of my CPF monies. As of today, my CPF OA and SA combined are still below SGD150,000.  It is slightly above the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS), but still a long way from the Full Retirement Sum (FRS).  Yet I have no intention of using CPFIS or trying to squeeze out a higher return from these funds.  Instead, I treat my CPF as the bond portion of my portfolio.  For me, CPF is not a tool for maximizing returns.  It is a tool for managing risk. Building Stability While Taking Risk Elsewhere My investment portfolio already provides enough excitement...

One thing I have learned from investing is that nobody knows where the next crisis will come from. Every crisis feels different while it is happening.  The headlines are different, the causes are different, the fear is different.  Yet when I look back at history, I notice that the lessons are often surprisingly similar.  Markets panic, asset prices collapse, people become fearful, and eventually, life moves on.  As investors, we do not get rewarded for accurately predicting every crisis.  We get rewarded for surviving long enough to benefit from the recovery. That is why I find it useful to study past crises, not because I think the next crisis will look exactly the same, but because understanding how previous generations navigated difficult times can help me better prepare my portfolio, my finances, and my lifestyle for whatever comes next. When I look back over the last few decades, four major crises stand out: the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2000 Dot-...

When I was younger, I never viewed Central Provident Fund (CPF) very positively.  Like many Singaporeans and PRs, I saw it mainly as restricted money.  It was money deducted every month from salary, locked away for decades, and inaccessible during the years when financial pressure felt the heaviest.  At that stage of life, CPF did not feel empowering.  It felt limiting.   However somewhere in my late 30s and early 40s, my thinking about money changed quite significantly.  I stopped viewing investing mainly through the lens of maximizing returns.  Instead, I started thinking much more about stability, future vulnerability and long-term survival, basically, managing an entire portfolio as a whole.  Aging changes financial psychology very deeply.  Once parents grow older, healthcare risks become more visible, and retirement starts feeling real rather than theoretical, stability suddenly becomes extremely valuable.  That was when I slo...

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 first post of 2026, I will like to reflect upon 2025, and compare with what I had written in this  post  one year ago to assess my achievements. 1)     Liquidating My US Growth Portfolio This has been a huge debate with myself this year, whether I should continue investing in US Growth stocks, or liquidate the portfolio to pay off my Malaysia mortgage loan.  In the end, I chose the latter, and enjoy the peace of mind and positive cashflow with my finances in Malaysia.  I know I may miss out the huge upside (and facts has shown that), but I am not regretting what I am missing out, instead I am cherishing and looking forward to a slower pace of life next year, with lesser financial stress from the mortgage debts that I have. Will I restart and rebuild this US Growth P...

With the popularity of AI currently, I heard of many folks asking AI how well their portfolio is, and what be done to further improve their personal portfolio.  To join in the fun, I decided to the same, and asked ChatGPT the following questions: 1)     How does my current portfolio compare to the All Weather Portfolio (AWP)? 2)     Is my current portfolio sustainable for preserving and growing wealth? 3)     Can my portfolio reliably support living off dividends within 4 years (when I retire in JB)? The following are all the responses and analysis generated by AI. 1)      How does my current portfolio compare to the All Weather Portfolio (AWP)? Asset Allocation vs. All Weather Portfolio Key Differences: a)     Still very equity-heavy (73% vs. 30%) – more volatile and growth-prone, but riskier in downturns. b)     Low allocation to hard assets like gold/commodities. c)     ...

As 2025 unfolds, savvy investors in Singapore are watching closely as a combination of macro-economic shifts unfolds: T-bills' interests are softening, the Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) are offering declining yields, high-yield savings accounts like UOB One and OCBC 360 are trimming their headline rates, and the much-loved Central Provident Fund (CPF) Special Account (SA) for individuals aged 55 and above has officially closed. With these traditionally safe, fixed-income options becoming less attractive or obsolete, the big question on my mind is "will this wave of capital now turn towards the Singapore stock market, particularly into high-dividend plays like REITs and bank stocks, and push their prices higher"? Why I Think More Liquidity May Enter the Market And Boost Dividend Stocks 1)      The Income Substitution Effect With the erosion of “safe” passive income options like T-bills, SSBs, and high-yield savings accounts, income-seeking investors, especially retir...

After discussing about how I perceive mini-Retirements in my previous post , and looking at my current circumstances and regrets in my financial journey, I find that time is actually one of the most critical factor in personal finance.  The way one manages financial decisions early in life can significantly impact financial security in later years.  Whether it is leveraging the power of compounding interest, tackling debt before it spirals out of control, or making smart investments, time can either be an ally or an adversary.  Below are some key examples of personal experiences of how time plays a crucial role in financial well-being. 1)      Early Central Provident Fund (CPF) Contributions: The Power Of Compounding Interest One of the best financial moves a young working adult in Singapore can make is to aggressively contribute to their CPF accounts, particularly the Special Account (SA), as early as possible.  I came to realize this only recently ...

Recently, I have just completed reading Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money", and finally digested some of the contents within the book, which are valuable lessons that can further help me improve in my journey towards achieving Barista FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early).  For those unfamiliar, Barista FIRE is about having enough passive income to cover your basic needs, while working part-time to maintain a balanced, fulfilling lifestyle.  It is about finding financial freedom without retiring completely.   Living in Singapore currently, with its increasing cost of living, this goal can feel challenging (that is why returning back to Malaysia for retirement is always in my mind, and I am definitely working towards that too).  Thankfully, some of the lessons from this book have molded my approach towards dealing with money more conscientiously and live life fully within my means.  Below are some of the key things I learnt and how they have gui...

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 first post of 2025, 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 digit re...

In the world of personal finance, the journey to achieving one's Financial Independence (FI) number is as unique as one's fingerprint.  Yet, it is easy to find ourselves caught in the web of comparison, measuring our progress against others who seem to have it all figured out.  This is especially the case when we are now near the New Year, where on 1st January, a wave of "amount of Central Provident Fund (CPF) interest collected" post will flood the finance community such as Seedly Personal Finance Community. On other days, in Dividend Investment Telegram Group, we will have members showing the amount of dividends they have collected over the year(s).  Do not get me wrong.  Personally, I do not view these postings negatively.  Once a while, it is natural to feel a twinge of envy or self-doubt, whether I will be able to accomplish something similar, but more often than not, I enjoy participating in all these discussions and chats with all the members in the Tele...

This post is written based on personal opinion and circumstances, and it is definitely not applicable nor suitable for everyone.  It is just to record my personal thoughts and actions moving forward, and it is definitely not any form of financial advise. The Central Provident Fund (CPF) is Singapore’s most well-structured social security system.  Besides providing Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PR) a reliable way to save for retirement, CPF also offers attractive benefits like guaranteed returns of between 2.5% to as high as 6% (depending on the account and age band of individual) and tax relief.  Personally, I love how the CPF system works, but being a self-employed person since 2015, I did not benefit from employer's contribution of 17% to my CPF account in the past 9 years.  However, as I believe the CPF system is a reliable and a technically risk-free system that works like a guaranteed-bond, I religiously contribute 37% of my annual net trade income to al...