StashAway - April 2019

Clearing overdue post after vacation... You can read how one of our Prada bags got stolen without our knowledge here. My mum and sister did some research and showed me how easy it is to unlock the luggage last night.

Anyway, we have 3 portfolios on 2 accounts now due to our new strategy - New Strategy: StashAway + Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS):
KPO and CZM Cash - StashAway Risk Index 20%

KPO SRS - StashAway Risk Index 13%

CZM SRS - StashAway Risk Index 13%

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

KPO

CZM

Based on the statement (30 April 2019), KPO made $409.39 and CZM made $12.50.

KPO

CZM

As of 25 May 2019, these are our portfolio performance:
KPO: $862.86 (+9.8% - Capital: $18,500)

CZM: $24.77 (+4.0% - Capital: $1,000)

2. PORTFOLIO DETAILS 
Note that these are reported in USD.

KPO and CZM Cash - StashAway Risk Index 20%

KPO SRS - StashAway Risk Index 13%

CZM SRS - StashAway Risk Index 13%

Our StashAway SRS accounts are showing a slight difference now due to fees being deducted from my account.

3. TRANSACTIONS

KPO and CZM Cash - StashAway Risk Index 20%:
SGD $490.40 converted to USD $362.21
Exchange Rate: 1.3539 (1.3561 last month)

KPO SRS - StashAway Risk Index 13% + CZM SRS - StashAway Risk Index 13%:
There was a delay in deposit/transfer so it will only be captured in the May statement.

4. FEE CALCULATIONS

KPO

The fee stated is based on the monthly-average assets SGD $18,483.75 x 0.8% / 365 days * 31 days = $12.56 but I am getting first 10k off for referring CZM + some credits for charging the fee wrongly last month. Hence, the final fee is just $0.54.

CZM

No fee for CZM for the first 6 months.

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 is updated till 25th May 2019 and is based on only 1 of our portfolio - KPO and CZM Cash - StashAway Risk Index 20%.

This month commentary: 
After just 1 month of all the simulated investments being green, the STI portfolios are losing money again. 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...

StocksCafe

Looking at the time-weighted return (so huat - 8.88%), we can see that StashAway is "outperforming" the STI ETF (excluding fees). 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 - December 2018
StashAway - January 2019 - $16,051.10
StashAway - February 2019 - $17,397.81
StashAway - March 2019 - $18,780.96
StashAway - April 2019 - $19,702.85

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 - April 2019

Long overdue post because I was on vacation! Just came back from a Europe Trip with my family a few days ago. It was nice to be able to spend time and travel with my parents (it has been a long long time since we travelled overseas). Unfortunately, the trip was not perfect because Europe just isn't safe. We bought a Prada handbag (Euro $630 = ~S$945) at Designer Outlet Parndorf on day 6, kept it in the luggage (locked whenever we leave the room or on the tour bus). We were trying to repack the night before our flight back home only to discover that it has magically disappeared from our luggage on day 9. Tried to make a police report (to file for insurance) in Munich but the police officer refused/rejected us because the suspected loss was not in the same country (we were in Austria from day 6 to 8 and Germany on day 9). Oh well, Europe remains one of my least favorite places.

Our portfolio increase by 2.65% to $410,873 - $3,803.44 of capital injection and $6,805.98 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
- Ascott REIT (3,400 units) @ $1.18

After selling Hong Fok last month, we wanted to redeploy the money back into the market.  Assuming if the DPU remains the same going forward, the dividend yield should be around 6.07% and that is above our target. It is worth noting that Ascott REIT and Ascendas Hospitality Trust is in a pretty interesting spot after CapitaLand acquired Ascendas-Singbridge. There is also an open letter by Quarz Capital proposing to merge these 2 REITs due to their overlapping investment mandate.

Dividends
The total dividends collected this month is $3,101.95. The breakdown is as follows:

Company	Symbol	ExDate	Shares	Total
Frasers Commercial Trust	ND8U	30-Apr-19	7,500	$180.00
Mapletree Commercial Trust	N2IU	30-Apr-19	500	$11.55
City Developments Ltd	C09	30-Apr-19	1400	$196.00
Soilbuild Business Space REIT	SV3U	25-Apr-19	15,000	$179.70
CapitaLand Ltd	C31	23-Apr-19	9,000	$1,080.00
First Real Estate Investment Trust	AW9U	17-Apr-19	11,009	$236.70
Pacific Century Regional Developments Ltd	P15	5-Apr-19	14,000	$1,218.00

Total dividends collected for 2019: $5,569.79
Average dividends per month for 2019: $1,392.45

StashAway

KPO

CZM

Capital: $19,000.00
Current: $20,093.55

You might be interested in previous months update too:
- Portfolio Performance in 2018 - $354,145
- Portfolio - January 2019 - $376,381
- Portfolio - February 2019 - $379,814
- Portfolio - March 2019 - $400,263
- Portfolio - April 2019 - $410,873

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.)

BTO HDB Key Collection & Door Opening Ceremony

Yay, we have finally collected the key to our BTO HDB after waiting for around 4 years!

Let me share what was the process like and the things we did to prepare for it!

1. When the time is right, you will receive an SMS/email from HDB.

SMS came first

2. Logged on to HDB to retrieve your Letter of Appointment.

It looks something like this.

Under normal circumstances, one would not need to prepare so much cash on the appointment date. Ours was so high because we applied for the BTO many years back when we were on a single income. CZM was working while I was still in the university. As a result, the HLE we have gotten then (~$200k) was not enough to loan/cover the remaining amount (~$400k). Anyway, a few weeks before the scheduled appointment, you should have received an email/letter asking to review/update the HLE. Do that and most should be fine.

3. Buy Etiqa Fire Insurance

This is probably the cheapest insurance you will ever find. The premium is < $10 and it is for 5 years. The caveat is that it does not cover the home content among other things. We have yet to research/compare further on home insurance because the house will be empty anyway for the next few months. You can either buy it online (< 5 minutes) and print out the policy or buy it on the day itself at HDB hub.

4. Open an SP (Singapore Power) utilities account

Similarly, this can be done either online or on the day itself at HDB hub. The benefit of doing it online is that it takes time to process/open the account and we were able to activate the electricity and water in advance/same day as the key collection. You will be prompted during the online application to select an appointment and the good news is you do not need to be present.

5. Discuss and plan your finances

Regular readers will know our strategy which is to pay the bare minimum (another 5% + fees) and loan for the longest possible time (25 years). In the past, HDB will wipe all your CPF OA and to prevent that, we have been transferring our OA to SA.

The good news is HDB announced last year that they will allow flat buyers to keep up to $20k going forward. Finally making some sense, after all we should have more say in our CPF money right? Anyway, we calculated our total OA and made another transfer to SA ($1k each) to stick to our strategy. Using an amortization calculator, we knew roughly how much we will be paying monthly too.

6. Prepare for the big day! (May not be relevant to you)

Apart from the documents (HLE, marriage certificate, fire insurance, etc.), we were also preparing for some ceremony under the request of our parents. Similar to our wedding, doing small little things to keep both sides of the parents happy. Otherwise, we will just buy a pineapple, roll it, shout "Huat ah" and done. lol.

Our parents brought us to those neighbourhood Chinese traditional shop that sells incense, hell notes, etc. Told the lady boss we are moving to a new house and she sold us the above "package" (~$5) to pray/seek blessing from the Home Spirit as part of our door opening ceremony. We were also told to prepare fruits in multiple of 5 (no idea why).

These were what we prepared:
- 1 pineapple
- 5 apples
- 5 oranges
- bunch of 5 banana
- salt, rice, green beans and temple/praying flower (my mum calls them 花水)

7. Big Day - Key collection at HDB Hub!

We reached about 30 minutes before our appointment time, took a queue number and shortly, we were attended to before the scheduled time.

1. Signed a few documents after the HDB officer verified the relevant documents
2. Take turn to log into CPF
3. I told the HDB officer that we would like to keep $20k each in our OA (default is they will just empty your OA) with a 25 years loan
4. Once the relevant numbers have been entered into the system, you will be told the monthly mortgage to be paid going forward
5. Answered some health-related questions to purchase the home protection scheme (HPS)

The whole process was pretty quick and before you know it, you now have a huge debt... Remember to take some Instagram worthy shot with the bunch of keys.

8. Go to your new house!

You can pick an auspicious date first. We merely check some online lunar calendar if the date of our key collection was inauspicious. lol. Before heading to your unit, find and open up your letterbox, there should be some documents/instructions manual + some equipment to "open"/turn on the water.

These were the things we did:
- Knock on the door
- CZM prepares to take Instagram worthy video while I opened the door, rolled the pineapple in and shout "Huat ah"!
- Say some auspicious phase e.g. 开门大吉, 身体健康, 平平安安
- Open up all the windows and doors
- Mixed the flowers with salt and water and sprinkle the "holy" water around the house
- Sprinkle rice and green beans around the house
- Place all the fruits in the centre of the living room. Light the candles and joss sticks, pray and burn everything in the "package"

We certainly enjoyed ourselves as this was another one of our milestones - our first home!

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.)

IPO - ARA US Hospitality Trust VS Eagle Hospitality Trust

I usually don't look at stocks/REITs in overseas currency but given how the yield of the local REITs have been compressed (~4/5%+). I took a quick look at these 2 US hospitality trust.

ARA US Hospitality Trust
There are 38 hotels/properties, 4,950 rooms by Hyatt (Hyatt Place and Hyatt House).

Offering Price: US$0.88
NAV: US$0.86
PB: 1.02

Estimated/Forecast Dividend Yield for 2019: 8.0%
Estimated/Forecast Dividend Yield for 2020: 8.2%
Gearing: 35.9%

Closing date and time for the Singapore Public Offer: 7 May 2019, 12pm

The revenue was lower for FY2016 due to the disruptions from renovations while the decrease in FY2018 was due to the following: 1) disruptions in operations from the marketing sale process of the Initial Portfolio by the previous owner and 2) supply increases in certain markets that diluted demand temporarily.

Naturally, we will see the same trend in the NPI.

RevPAR of around US$90+.

Eagle Hospitality Trust
There are 18 hotels/properties, 5,420 rooms across different brands - IHG, Marriot, Hilton, and Independent.

Offering Price: US$0.81 or US$0.82
NAV: US$0.89
PB: 0.91 - 0.92

Estimated/Forecast Dividend Yield for 2019: 7.9% to 8.0%
Estimated/Forecast Dividend Yield for 2020: 8.1% to 8.2%
Gearing: 38.0%

Increasing Revenue, NPI and distribution income year on year.

RevPAR of around US$90+ too. They are expecting RevPAR to improve due to newly renovated or refurbished hotels and rooms or improved revenue management. Certain hotels are expected to generate increased room revenue from contracts with corporates or government agencies. Room revenue at Holiday Inn Resort Orlando Suites – Waterpark is also expected to improve from potential partnerships with certain brands to improve occupancy rate in the off-peak season

KPO's Thoughts
I prefer Eagle Hospitality Trust over ARA US Hospitality Trust for a few reasons. The hotels listed by Eagle Hospitality Trust are by different brands and are of higher "quality" as compared to ARA US Hospitality Trust. People that stay in the above hotels are probably better off and would not mind paying more for various reasons or have some form of hotel loyalty/membership. The problem with ARA US Hospitality Trust is that it will probably only attract Hyatt members. Otherwise, for that price, Airbnb might be a better option?

In addition, the above numbers speak for itself. I am not sure if ARA US Hospitality Trust deserves to be trading at PB 1... For all we know, it may even be snatched up by yield hungry investor to sustain the above book valuation. No crystal ball to tell you what will happen exactly.

Last but not least, do take note of the exchange rate risk. You may be looking at capital gain for your investment but in actual fact, the return could be "countered" by the exchange rate. Having said that, it can also work for you and give the return a boost.

We will be sitting out for ARA US Hospitality Trust IPO. All the best to those that are applying for them! Huat ah!

You can find their prospectus here:
ARA US Hospitality Trust
Eagle Hospitality Trust

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.)