2018 Net Worth

Let me start by wishing everyone a happy 2019!

Time flies! Another year has passed in a blink of an eye, did you manage to achieve your 2018 new year resolutions? If not, it is ok (I have been trying to lose weight every single year and finally did it this year. Hahaha), just set new resolutions today and work towards them starting tomorrow!

Net worth is easily one of the most important financial numbers one should know. It is like your personal balance sheet.

This is the classic comic where everyone is actually poorer than the beggar who has a net asset of $2.73. Your friend/colleague may be living in a huge condominium, driving some fancy car but it could all be financed by debts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as their income allows so. You can refer to the following articles/google on the importance of net worth.

InvestmentMoats - Don’t Track Your Expenses or Budget First. Plot Your Net Worth Instead

Google - Importance of Net Worth

Cash

This is all the money we have in our savings accounts. You can read how we maximize the interest we are getting from our savings accounts here - DBS Multiplier + SSBs + Joint Account = Higher Interest! We are starting to build up our cash holdings for multiple reasons - our BTO house will be ready next year and we probably need a large sum of money for renovation. As you know, the market has been pretty volatile and hopefully, when it really crashes, we will have some cash to buy cheap :)

Our Cash: ~ $48,000

CPF

Every month, I will try to show CZM her net worth in order to motivate her to work harder towards financial freedom. However, she would always say I inflate her net worth because I included CPF. lol. I am sure some of you may have the same mentality but like I always tell her, CPF is our money and should be included as our retirement planning.

I am pretty excited to see the interest (estimated ~$7,000+) which will be credited soon!

Our CPF: ~ $219,000 (OA + SA + MA)

Investment

I have yet to blog about our portfolio performance (still in draft mode!) but it definitely underperformed the index :( Overall, we are still on the positive side (+0.18%) as of 28/12/2018. Not so positive if we were to look at the time-weighted return of -1.99%.

Our Investment: ~$352,000

Property

No change as compared to last year.

I believe that property should be included in the computation of net worth. If one excludes the value of the property, the money (cash/CPF) you use to pay for the loan/mortgage will be no different as disappearing into the thin air or throwing it into the sea. However, I would be conservative by valuing the property at cost/purchase price.

We have only paid the first 5% downpayment so far and yet to start paying for the housing loan (still building). So I will just assume that the remaining $402,420 will be financed by the housing loan/mortgage. That would mean the value of our property is purchase price ($423,600) - loan ($402,420) = $21,180. If you are wondering, it is a 4 room HDB at a matured estate. What is the probability of us being your future neighbour? lol.

Our Property: ~$21,000

Total

Our Net Worth: ~$640,000

Here you go! Our net worth pie chart, it looks pretty yummy to me :) CZM was asking if it is possible to hit $1 million by age 30... Shall try to estimate and forecast it another day.

Are you tracking your net worth?

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- 2017 Net Worth

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 :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Expenses - November 2018

November expenses were crazily high (5 digits!!) as well due to our honeymoon to the United States. You can read about our honeymoon here (more to come!):
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - The Private Room
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - SQ26 Singapore to New York
- Honeymoon to the United States - Renting a $275,888 Mercedes Benz Convertible with Hertz

Current Profile: 28 years old male who got married recently and is still living with his parents. Staying separately with his wife while waiting for the BTO project to be completed next year.

You can read more about how we manage our finances here. Removing our shared expenses which come out of our mutual fund (KPO Expense Fund), my expenses for October would be $11,180.72 - ($9,592.28 / 2) = $4,796.14.

Got to generate this to lie to myself that I actually did not spend so much money >.<"

Vacation
The bulk of my/our expenses came from our honeymoon to the United States. The total expenses are around $13k+ and I will be blogging about it in detail in a separate post.

Gift
Bought the Dyson Airwrap for CZM. If you have not heard of this, you must be living in a cave. All the girls went crazy over it (including CZM) and it was even out of stock for a period of time. I told her that it will be her present for the whole of next year. lol.

Gave a red packet for our nephew that turn 1 year old.

Parents
I previously blogged about my promotion and increment - Salary - You Are Your Best Investment and it was only effective from February so I gave my parents more allowance as well.

Insurance
This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization.

Food
My food expenses are exceptionally low because I stay with my parents! Most of it is incurred when I am out with CZM.

Me
The $69.97 is the installment for Surface Pro which I got about 2 years back. This should be the last payment!

Transportation

Public transportation seems a lot lower because of 3 reasons:
1. I am no longer using EZ Link Auto-Reload. Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) is a much better choice as you pay what you use instead of triggering top up where the money is stored in the EZ Link card. The best part is miles can be earned too (using BOC Elite Miles Mastercard)!
2. $0.50 Discount for commuters who enter stations before 7.45am on weekdays.
3. We went vacation for 2 weeks!

Treat

Treated CZM and colleague to drinks.

Summary
January 2018 - $2,256.43
February 2018 - $1,759.01
March 2018 - $5,049.79
April 2018 - $1,572.54
May 2018 - $1,863.74
June 2018 - $2,282.07
July 2018 - $2,197.94
August 2018 - $2,130.01
September 2018 - $3,011.75
October 2018 - $6,500.97
November 2018 - $4,796.14

Total expenses for 2018: $33,420.39
Average expenses per month for 2018: $3,038.22

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 :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

StashAway - November 2018

This is an extremely overdue post too! Blogging about our honeymoon was definitely more fun than the red red market/expenses. On top of that, I bought a new PS4 game so you can guess where my time went >.<"

1. ACCOUNT SUMMARY (as of the last day of the month)

Based on the statement (31 November 2018), we gained $31.75.

As of 23 December 2018, the total return went negative to -$653.99! We lost -$917.07 from investment returns with a currency impact of  $263.08. 

SGD time-weighted returns: -10.0%
USD time-weighted returns: -13.7%

Wow. I guess this is the first time I see a double-digit loss from StashAway. This kind of loss is enough to spook a lot of new investors but hey, it is still a better investment than Bitcoin/cryptocurrency. Besides, what is -10% compared to -64% (Ezion - Bleeding Stopped!)?

I think the big question now is are we going to continue our investment with StashAway? Of course! Generally, there are 2 schools of thought - one will predict the market is going to crash, hold cash, cash is king, etc... the other will not make any prediction but simply stay invested throughout and that's us. If you find yourself losing sleep/being distracted, it might be better for you to stay away from the market. In case you are wondering, I believe all the robo would have a negative return for the same investment timeframe.

2. PORTFOLIO DETAILS 

3. TRANSACTIONS

SGD $990.00 converted to USD $716.69 (USD $716.72 last month)
Exchange Rate:  1.3813 (1.3813 last month)

4. FEE CALCULATIONS

The fee stated is based on the monthly-average assets SGD $13,319.18 x 0.8% / 365 days * 30 days = $8.76

StashAway VS STI ETF
Since there is no way to compare the performances among the robo-advisors, I came out with a spreadsheet to track our StashAway portfolio performance (General Investing - Risk Level 28) against that of STI ETF which I will be updating on a monthly basis. For simplicity, I shall assume that one can either invest in Nikko STI ETF using POSB Invest-Saver or invest in Nikko STI ETF/SPDR STI ETF using SCB Priority Online Trading (no minimum commission). These would be the opportunity costs while we continue to invest in StashAway.

Apart from the absolute P&L, we should also look at the Reward-to-Risk Ratio where risk/volatility is taken into account. For more information, do read StashAway Clarifications - Reward-to-Risk Ratio. StashAway has the highest ratio of 1.25 which is significantly higher than the other 2 STI ETFs (< 0.4). Let me quote Freddy Lim (Co-Founder & Chief Investment Officer of StashAway), "for every dollar of risk taken, StashAway P28 is producing 1.25 times the return".

This month commentary: 
Like I mentioned above, all the investments would generally be in red. For the same amount of money invested, one will be losing lesser money in StashAway which is due to its diversification into other assets (bonds and gold). Going forward it will be even more interesting when the commissions/fees incurred by StashAway exceed that of POSB Invest-Saver. This will be a battle between cheaper/lesser fees and asset allocation/diversification...

My plan was to compile the daily amount and build a dashboard that will show the volatility/risk but I am just too lazy. The good news is that StocksCafe now allows one to add fractional shares and it already has lots of reporting tools! Why reinvent the wheel?

Looking at the time-weighted return, we can see that StashAway is "outperforming" the STI ETF. In addition, it has lower volatility and max drawdown.

Which is the best? Only time will tell :)

This is the link to our spreadsheet - KPO & CZM StashAway Portfolio VS STI ETF which I have also added to Our Portfolio page.

StashAway Referral Link for Our Readers
Here you go: KPO and CZM Referral Link

You might be interested in previous months update too:
StashAway - January 2018
StashAway - February 2018
StashAway - March 2018
StashAway - April 2018
StashAway - May 2018
StashAway - June 2018
StashAway - July 2018
StashAway - August 2018 + An Unpleasant Experience
StashAway - September 2018
StashAway - October 2018

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 :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Honeymoon to the United States - Renting a $275,888 Mercedes Benz Convertible with Hertz

CZM favorite car has always been a Mini Cooper (I am guessing she was under the influence of Mr. Bean). She wanted a Mini Cooper as our wedding car but both of us could not bear to part with $450-500 just for a day where we will barely get to use/drive it. In the end, we decided to save the money by not renting any car for our wedding and spend it on our honeymoon instead. However, after the wedding, we realized that Mini Cooper was not available for rental (most probably due to the location?). Not to mention, we will probably never get a car in Singapore. Hence, we decided to let it go and splurge slightly. That is how we ended up renting a convertible for our honeymoon.

Things we did before making the reservation:
- Sign up with National Car Rental and got free Emerald Club Executive membership using the Visa Infinite referral link (looks like there is a better link to get Executive Elite membership using the Amex link instead - MyMoneyBlog - Free National Emerald Club Executive ELITE Upgrade Sign-Up Link)
- Did a status match to Five Star with Hertz on their Gold Plus Rewards by sending them an email at hertzstatusmatch@hertz.com
- Tried to use Krisflyer Spree (ShopBack equivalent - unfortunately, Hertz was not on ShopBack) to accumulate more miles/get more value back but could never reach the final booking/confirmation page. I gave up eventually but do give it a try if you are booking Hertz in the future
- Book Hertz using the Partner Offers - Worldwide: Up to 2,000 KrisFlyer Miles and 20% Off (CDP# 1076431 & PC# 204820)

This was the car we booked - Ford Mustang Convertible at US$1,374.71 (~S$1,924.59 @ 1.40) for 11 days (~S$175 per day).

According to SGCarMart.com, the Ford Mustang Convertible (25 miles/gallon) cost S$222,000! At this price, one can even buy HDB!

Things we did over the counter:
- We "upgraded" the car insurance because the lady mis-sold and told us that we are only covered if other cars hit us. If we were to hit another car, we will be liable for the damages. We only realized that we have been cheated after we returned and reviewed the receipt below! Do take note that there is nothing more to upgrade if you already have Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) as it states that one will not be held responsible for damage to the Hertz car in the event that any damage should occur, provided the loss or damage was not the result of any prohibited use of the car. Premium Emergency Roadside Service provides a bunch of services that are pretty unnecessary, something we definitely would not have paid for. I have emailed them and is in the midst of disputing that charge.

After signing a few documents, she told us that we will be getting a complimentary upgrade to a Mercedes Benz C300 Convertible (not so complimentary after all). lol. Thinking back, not sure if it was due to our Five Star status or it was because we "upgraded" the insurance. The total charges of US$1,482.01 were paid using BOC Elite Miles (earning 5 mpd!) which came up to S$2,082.37 for 11 days (~S$189 per day). On a side note, we drove 1,756 miles (~2,826 km) which is equivalent to driving in Singapore from east to west and vice versa 56 times (assuming the distance is 50 km).

According to SGCarMart.com, the Mercedes Benz C300 Convertible cost S$275,888! What an auspicious price! It was the nicest car we have ever drove but will we ever pay that price to buy a car? Nah.

That's me. KPO in his not so complimentary upgraded convertible

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - SQ26 Singapore to New York
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - The Private Room

- Singapore Airlines Suites - Book the Cook

- Redeeming KrisFlyer Miles for Singapore Airlines Suites = 38.6% Cashback!

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 :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Portfolio - November 2018

I know that this is way overdue! We just came back from our honeymoon and CZM has been very hardworking, blogging about our wedding and suites experiences (to my surprise!) so I decided to take a step back and give her some air blog time.

Do take a look at these articles written by her if you have not. I think the way she writes is pretty entertaining! Well, I could just be biased. Hahahaha.

- An Honest and Brutal Wedding Vendors Review
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - The Private Room
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - SQ26 Singapore to New York

Our portfolio increase by 2.16% to $355,846 - $414.89 of capital withdraw and $7,929.23 of capital gain. The one in blue is the StashAway portfolio, green is SGX and the total is in black.

If you prefer to look at numbers, this is the raw data used to generate the above bar graph. These numbers are as of the last day of the month.

"Cash Flow" is the amount of money being injected/withdrawn from the portfolio (buying stocks = +ve cash flow while selling stocks and collecting dividends = -ve cash flow)

SOLD
None

BOUGHT
None

We were on our honeymoon and did not have the time to make any transaction for the month. However, we bought Geo Energy (after the huge drop?!) and Lion-Philip S-REIT ETF (for the month of November) on the first trading day after we returned. Shall elaborate more on next month update.

Dividends
The total dividends collected this month is $1,590.48. The breakdown is as follows:

Company	Symbol	ExDate	Amount	Total
Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust	RW0U	1-Nov-18	5,000	$96.30
CapitaLand Mall Trust	C38U	2-Nov-18	7,000	$304.50
Starhill Global Real Estate Investment Trust	P40U	5-Nov-18	12,000	$138.00
Far East Hospitality Trust	Q5T	5-Nov-18	10,156	$106.64
Ascendas Hospitality Trust	Q1P	7-Nov-18	15,000	$421.50
NetLink NBN Trust	CJLU	12-Nov-18	6,000	$146.40
Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust	BUOU	12-Nov-18	10,200	$262.14
Singapore Post Ltd	S08	15-Nov-18	7,000	$35.00
Sysma Holdings Ltd	5UO	26-Nov-18	10,000	$80.00

Total dividends collected for 2018: $13,622.06
Average dividends per month for 2018: $1,238.37

StashAway

Capital: $14,500
Current: $14,217.42 (IRR: -4.4%)

On a side note, one can invest in StashAway using SRS and I will be blogging about our new plan/strategy soon! Keep a lookout for it :)

You might be interested in previous months update too:
Portfolio - January 2018
Portfolio - February 2018
Portfolio - March 2018
Portfolio - April 2018 + What is Ezion W230416?
Portfolio - May 2018
Portfolio - June 2018
Portfolio - July 2018
Portfolio - August 2018
Portfolio - September 2018
Portfolio - October 2018

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 :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right -->)

Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - SQ26 Singapore to New York

Having only taken Economy flights for our whole lives, we are always envious of those people taking the premium flights as they are always the first to board and leave the plane. Hence, we were so excited when SIA make the announcement to invite Suite Class passengers to board the plane, to the envy of all other passengers (#childish).

As we entered the A380 plane, the air stewardess and stewards greeted us by our surnames and brought us to our seats. They self-introduced and informed us that they would be attending to our needs throughout the flight. They asked if we would like a glass of champagne and highly recommended the Krug and Dom Perignon to us (only available on Suites). We agreed though we didn't share the same enthusiasm as we aren't very into alcohol. KPO even commented that he preferred Baileys to Dom Perignon. HAHA (#cheapo).

As the plane started moving and about to take off, the stewardess promptly removed our champagne glasses. We then started exploring the Lalique amenity kits provided to us - the male and female versions in the pictures below. Basically, it includes body lotion, perfume/cologne, lip balm, and facial mist. We were also provided sleepwear (S, M, L sizes available), eyeshade and a pair of noise-canceling headphone by Bang & Olufsen.

Similar to the menu in the Private Room, the food menu on the plane is CRAZY. There are two pages dedicated to coffee alone. For coffee-addicts, the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is only available for Suites class and I loved it!

Jamaican Blue Mountain

Flight Menu from Singapore to Frankfurt 

For food, KPO ordered from BTC, while mine is a mixture of BTC and inflight menu - see Singapore Airlines Suites - Book the Cook. See below for some of the food porn.

For starters, we had garlic bread and Cauliflower Panna Cotta with Malossol Caviar. 

This was the first time both of us had caviar, and we absolutely loved it!

Next, KPO had some oriental pork broth while I had the Chestnut Veloute.

Oriental Clear Pork Broth

Chestnut Veloute

For mains, KPO had Grilled Beef Fillet with Balsamic Onion Sauce (BTC) while I had Roasted Bacon-Wrapped Beef Fillet in Red Wine Jus with Bone Marrow.

Personally, I think KPO's dish was just ordinary, but mine was fantastic! The beef was cooked just right and the bacon enhanced the flavour of the dish further. 

Grilled Beef Fillet with Balsamic Onion Sauce (BTC)

Roasted Bacon-Wrapped Beef Fillet in Red Wine Jus with Bone Marrow

For dessert, we were served the fruits platter and Moist Bitter Chocolate Tart.

After we are done with our supper, we requested to convert the seats to the lie-flat bed. In less than 5 mins, our room was converted to this:

The two bears in the photo are provided by SIA, not sure if they provided because they learnt that it was our honeymoon, or because they saw us taking photos of Donald and Piglet. First class service indeed! The bed is super comfy and both of us soon fell into deep sleep...

When we woke up, it was time for breakfast! KPO ordered the Kyo Kaiseki (BTC) while I ordered Fish Congee (BTC). No food photo for congee as congee just looks..well..like congee...

Kyo Kaiseki (BTC)

Surprise surprise! When we thought everything was going to end soon, the crew prepared something special for us with a congratulation card. Apparently, KPO told them that we were on our honeymoon when I was using the bathroom, and they decided to throw in a mini surprise for us. FYI, the congratulation card was hand drawn! So touched!

Thank you, crew of SQ26 SIN-FRA!

Before we knew it, we have arrived at Frankfurt airport! When we alighted from the plane, a staff was there to pick us and guided us to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge. She even offered to fetch and bring us to the boarding gate when the time is right which we declined. Needless to say, we did not eat anything as we were simply too full!

Our next leg was from Frankfurt to New York. It was basically the same experience, but shorter :( 

Flight Menu from Frankfurt to New York

KPO ordered the Boston Lobster Thermidor (BTC) while I ordered the Suckling Pig with Beer Sauce (BTC). FYI, the suckling pig is not the chinese kind where the skin is crispy, but nevertheless I still love it. KPO liked his Boston Lobster too, just that he preferred the lobster in the Private Room more. 

Appetizer - Marinated Lobster Medallion

Suckling Pig with Beer Sauce (BTC)

Boston Lobster Thermidor (BTC)

Lafer's Chocolate Kiss with Grand Marnier Cream

We took a short nap after lunch before ordering the last meal on the flight. KPO ordered Artichoke Tomato Crusted Loin of Lamb (BTC) while I ordered the Marinated Pot Roasted Veal Cheek with Dried Fruit Sauce (inflight menu). By then, we were already so full that even fine dining doesn't seem to entice us anymore. First world problems.

Artichoke Tomato Crusted Loin of Lamb (BTC)

Marinated Pot Roasted Veal Cheek with Dried Fruit Sauce

Bombe Chocolat Poivre

Once we are done with our meals, we were almost reaching New York. Both of us felt that this was the shortest long distance flight ever. We had never felt time passed so fast on a plane before, though the journey took almost 24 hours. Just like the SIA advertisement, the first class experience made us feel that they have lived up to their promise - no detail is too small. The service was impeccable, right from the moment we stepped into Changi Airport, all the way to New York. We will definitely miss this. Till we meet again!

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- Honeymoon to the United States - Renting a $275,888 Mercedes Benz Convertible with Hertz
- Singapore Airlines Suites Experience - The Private Room

- Singapore Airlines Suites - Book the Cook

- Redeeming KrisFlyer Miles for Singapore Airlines Suites = 38.6% Cashback!

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 :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)