Let KPO start by wishing all my readers a Happy and Healthy Chinese New Year! 恭喜发财，身体健康！Huat ah!
It has been 2 weeks since I last blogged! CZM (being one of my readers) reminded me that it has been a long time! What have I been doing for the past few weeks? Busy playing Monster Hunter World! Hahahaha. I am currently at HR (Hunter Rank) 52 and have clocked > 80 hours of gameplay till date. Shall stop here, CZM is already complaining she has lost her bf.
Apart from gaming, I am also busy preparing my wedding video speech for our parents (it is so hard to write mushy stuff in Chinese). To save money, I will be making all the wedding videos! We will also do without actual day videography since we are keeping things as simple as possible such as no gate crashing and everything (fetching the bride and tea ceremony) will be done at the hotel! Contemplating if we should be renting a wedding car on the actual day...
The last 2 weeks, all the markets were in red and I received FB messages and emails asking what to do, etc. My reply to them is the same, we are not doing anything and there will definitely be volatility in the markets. Technically, we did something, we bought 1,000 units of STI ETF @ $3.40 and was queuing for Singtel last week but did not get it. We are using money which we do not need in the near future to invest and we are prepared even if the market crashes and our portfolio drops 50%. The last 3 weeks, we have seen our portfolio decreased by $17,158.59 but life goes on :) Numbers are relative right, what is our loss compared to theirs - These 10 Billionaires Lost $40 Billion This Week As Stocks Plunged.
One can argue that protecting the capital is important, a drop of 50% would require a 100% gain to break even, etc. Honestly, who knows what is going to happen? There are studies that show missing out one of the good days can be just as painful - Cost of Missing 10 Best Days. At the end of the day, there are really no right/wrong/best financial decisions. Make one and live with it. We are investing for dividends, hence we are not too concern with the ups and downs of the market.
My dad recently received the "Retirement" letter from CPF informing him that he can withdraw his CPF money soon. If you are interested, you can find it here - CPF Retirement Booklet. As usual, he would ask me to explain what is happening and I told him that the government is giving him money, $5,000.65 to be exact. He was pretty happy and was saying that our government is good. To put it into context, my dad has been working in Malaysia for many years and is currently a taxi driver. As a result, he does not have much in his CPF, ~$6k+. He is probably one of the rare ones that can get close to 100% out! Today, the government announced that the GST will be increased to 9%, he said government not good. lol. I have not been following it closely but came across the condensed version by Seedly which I thought is pretty neat - Seedly Singapore Budget 2018.
Danger danger! New readers/investors, please do not follow or read further! As you might be aware, we are pretty aggressive in building wealth and we do not really have an emergency fund or a "war chest". We are exploring the possibility of using leverage to 1. further build wealth and 2. serve as our "war chest". People investing in properties and companies raising debts are all forms of using debts to grow wealth/assets. So what is stopping us from doing the same? We are looking at Standard Chartered Secured Wealth Lending specifically since our investment is with them. We were quoted a fixed rate of 1.6% + 1-month SIBOR (which has been increasing!). I guess this can be a separate post itself.
Back to MHW!
It has been 2 weeks since I last blogged! CZM (being one of my readers) reminded me that it has been a long time! What have I been doing for the past few weeks? Busy playing Monster Hunter World! Hahahaha. I am currently at HR (Hunter Rank) 52 and have clocked > 80 hours of gameplay till date. Shall stop here, CZM is already complaining she has lost her bf.
Apart from gaming, I am also busy preparing my wedding video speech for our parents (it is so hard to write mushy stuff in Chinese). To save money, I will be making all the wedding videos! We will also do without actual day videography since we are keeping things as simple as possible such as no gate crashing and everything (fetching the bride and tea ceremony) will be done at the hotel! Contemplating if we should be renting a wedding car on the actual day...
The last 2 weeks, all the markets were in red and I received FB messages and emails asking what to do, etc. My reply to them is the same, we are not doing anything and there will definitely be volatility in the markets. Technically, we did something, we bought 1,000 units of STI ETF @ $3.40 and was queuing for Singtel last week but did not get it. We are using money which we do not need in the near future to invest and we are prepared even if the market crashes and our portfolio drops 50%. The last 3 weeks, we have seen our portfolio decreased by $17,158.59 but life goes on :) Numbers are relative right, what is our loss compared to theirs - These 10 Billionaires Lost $40 Billion This Week As Stocks Plunged.
One can argue that protecting the capital is important, a drop of 50% would require a 100% gain to break even, etc. Honestly, who knows what is going to happen? There are studies that show missing out one of the good days can be just as painful - Cost of Missing 10 Best Days. At the end of the day, there are really no right/wrong/best financial decisions. Make one and live with it. We are investing for dividends, hence we are not too concern with the ups and downs of the market.
My dad recently received the "Retirement" letter from CPF informing him that he can withdraw his CPF money soon. If you are interested, you can find it here - CPF Retirement Booklet. As usual, he would ask me to explain what is happening and I told him that the government is giving him money, $5,000.65 to be exact. He was pretty happy and was saying that our government is good. To put it into context, my dad has been working in Malaysia for many years and is currently a taxi driver. As a result, he does not have much in his CPF, ~$6k+. He is probably one of the rare ones that can get close to 100% out! Today, the government announced that the GST will be increased to 9%, he said government not good. lol. I have not been following it closely but came across the condensed version by Seedly which I thought is pretty neat - Seedly Singapore Budget 2018.
Danger danger! New readers/investors, please do not follow or read further! As you might be aware, we are pretty aggressive in building wealth and we do not really have an emergency fund or a "war chest". We are exploring the possibility of using leverage to 1. further build wealth and 2. serve as our "war chest". People investing in properties and companies raising debts are all forms of using debts to grow wealth/assets. So what is stopping us from doing the same? We are looking at Standard Chartered Secured Wealth Lending specifically since our investment is with them. We were quoted a fixed rate of 1.6% + 1-month SIBOR (which has been increasing!). I guess this can be a separate post itself.
Back to MHW!
Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
Hi KPO,
ReplyDeleteHappy Lunar New Year to you and your family, not forgetting CZM! Wishing you a blessed, prosperous and healthy year ahead!! :)
I’m surprised by the later part of this post on exploring on leverage for wealth building! Indeed, leverage is a very beautifully crafted double edge sword. Just like how property developer and banks have been using it to fund their business.
I respect your call and risk appetite onto this venture and can’t wait to read more from you about this! Good luck!!
Hi sleepydevil,
DeleteThanks for dropping by! True true. A bit more context, we do not plan to get second property hence the thought of using leverage. Still evaluating though :)
Hi KPO,
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
The KPOUN effect is in force. Singtel and Thai Beverage are bleeding, LOL!
Hi UN,
DeleteOMG! I forgot about this totally! It seems that you are right! We must keep this KPOUN effect in mind going forward. lol.