$$$ KPO and CZM $$$: November 2020

Thursday, November 19, 2020

1 Million Combined Net Worth By Age 30

We have achieved another one of our goals - $1,000,000 net worth by age 30! We ended 2019 with a net worth of ~$886,000 and was hoping to achieve the goal this year. When covid happened and the stock market crashed in March, I told CZM that it's not happening this year since the majority of our wealth is in the market. Surprise surprise, the market has recovered even before the pandemic is over (technically the vaccine isn't out yet, the economy is still bad and we still can't travel).

Let me introduce the concept of net worth and its importance once again for the new readers.

Net worth can be calculated by taking all the assets and subtracting away all the debts/liabilities. This is the classic comic where everyone is actually poorer than the beggar who has a net worth of $2.73. Your friends/colleagues 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 but anything can happen! Do not be the The "Poor" Pilot With Multiple Properties. You can refer to the following article on the importance of net worth by InvestmentMoats - Don’t Track Your Expenses or Budget First. Plot Your Net Worth Instead

In our previous net worth update, I simply share the numbers but since this is a special occasion, shall share some screenshot too :)

Cash
This is all the money we have in our savings accounts.

KPO DBS Accounts

CZM DBS Accounts

I have blogged about how we used the Multiplier as our main savings account and the use of a joint account to achieve higher interest previously. The last/latest article can be found here - DBS Multiplier Upcoming Changes

KPO UOB Account

The UOB account was created when we refinance our HDB housing loan/mortgage to UOB. I usually keep this around $1k to avoid the fall below fee and it just went below $1k after the giro deduction for my credit card bills. I also have multiple SCB accounts that have $0 balance (no fall below fee for priority customer) which I will show later for a different reason.

Regular readers will know we are investing aggressively that we hardly keep/hold onto cash. No emergency fund as well which I do not recommend since it is personal finance 101. We felt that there's no need for it at the moment, will probably work start saving when we get older.

Our Cash: ~$16,000

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 part of our retirement planning.

KPO CPF

CZM CPF

At the start of our career and before we got our BTO, we transferred everything in OA to SA to take advantage of the higher interest in SA. However, the plan now is to leave more money in OA to act as a buffer for our mortgage. As of now, we can become jobless for ~3.6 years without worrying about the mortgage. Another reason why I stopped transferring to SA is for tax optimization purposes. The option to top up SA up to $7k yearly will disappear once FRS is met. You can how I reduce our taxes by performing Voluntary Contribution (VC) to CPF Medisave and RSTU (Retirement Sum Topping-Up to SA).

Our CPF: ~$308,000 (OA + SA + MA) 

Investment
Our portfolio has grown to >$600,000 (another record high!) after the news of the vaccine came out and since our last update (Portfolio - October 2020 - $567,374).

All our investments are tracked using StocksCafe (including StashAway and Syfe) except for the Endowus portfolio.


Hence, our total portfolio is ~$625,000 currently (including leverage).


The only 2 stocks in my CDP were from an IPO (Just Another Netlink Trust IPO Analysis) and the one time when DBS/Vickers thought I was an accredited investor and offered a private placement (Keppel DC REIT Private Placement). Probably applied too little and the banker found it suspicious. Stopped receiving all those HDB bonds/private placement emails shortly. Oh well.


The majority of our investments are with SCB in 2 different accounts and one of them is a lien account where I pledge shares in order to borrow money from the bank at a lower interest. You can read more about it here - Leverage - A Double-Edged Sword.


The account highlighted in yellow is the leverage/amount I am borrowing from the bank to invest. $15k Euro was used to invest in Cromwell European REITs. Although you see $51k, $20k were used on Singlife for 2.5% interest (ignore it since I did not include it in the cash section) and $31k were invested - Biggest Losses in a Day + Start of Leverage.

Total Leverage: ~$56,000

Our Investment: ~$569,000

Property
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. Hence, I will be valuing the property based on the total payment (interest + renovation cost) till date. This ensures that our money will not "disappear" and act as a floor/minimum amount (total payment + remaining loan + markup/profit) to sell in the future.

I can imagine people selling their house at market value + markup, thinking that they made money from the sale but it is totally possible that market price + markup < total payment + remaining loan. Does this make sense or is it too confusing? lol.


Property value based on total payment (including interest + renovation cost): ~$514,000


Valuing at cost + total payment is pretty conservative as the market valuation is ~$635,000!


Our Housing Loan: $365,000

Our Property: ~$149,000

Total


Our Net Worth: ~$1,042,000

The question is how to achieve something similar? Honestly, there's no get rich quick scheme. In my opinion, it always boils down to the followings:

1. Work hard to increase your salary/career/business

Unfortunately, this will always be your main source of income, not from dropshipping or owning multiple properties. I have blogged about this previously - >100% "Return" on Salary and your salary growth should not be linear especially at the early stage of your career. If you are below median income, work towards it. After that work towards getting $6k for maximum CPF contribution rate and towards the next tax bracket and so on. Work for your promotion, if there's no growth or you are getting too comfortable, change a company. The best way to differentiate yourself is to learn programming and automate some manual tasks e.g. Python to automate the boring stuff.

2. High Savings Rate

Our savings rate is around 60-70%. Ignore the last 3 months as I have not tabulated our expenses and they are after deducting those fixed expenses only (e.g. housing loan, parents' allowance, insurance, etc.). To do that, cut down on your expenses. Determine what are your needs (e.g. food) and wants (e.g. new shirt/bag). In addition, we made a decision that we will not get a car (even after Baby Ong is born).

Anyway, multiple bloggers have blogged about this previously. One of the more popular ones would be from Mr. Money Mustache - The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement. If you are only saving 10% and leading a YOLO life, good luck to you!

3. Invest and do not time the market

We continued to invest regardless of the market movement. We have a monthly investment plan through StashAway, Syfe, and Endowus and we stick to it. If you are constantly holding on to cash waiting for the next big crash that may/may not happen, you are losing money - the opportunity cost to invest and grow your money. 

In the past, to invest/DCA, one will have to either purchase ILP or do it through a unit trust/fund sold by the banks. All these have a very high cost/expense ratio. However, with the various robo-advisors currently in the market, there is really no excuse not to invest your money when they make it so hassle-free and cost-effective. In addition, remember that you are investing for the long term, there's no need to think about selling/withdrawing them when you see a little profit. Sharing this old article again - Never Ever Buy Investment-Linked Policy (ILP)

At the end of the day, everyone's journey towards financial freedom is different. Let's work hard towards them! Start by tracking your net worth :)

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
2017 Net Worth: ~$510,000
2018 Net Worth: ~$640,000
- 2019 Net Worth: ~$886,000

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.)

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Syfe - October 2020

We just went on another staycation!

The Capitol Kempinski Hotel

Shall blog about it some other time as I have something more interesting to share! Meanwhile, you can read Milelion's Review: The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore Staycation.

Our Syfe Portfolio
Composition: 100% REITs
Dividend: Reinvest
Monthly Investment: $1,000

Composition: 100% Equities
Dividend: Reinvest
Monthly Investment: $500

Account Statement (Lifetime)


Our current tier is Blue (<$20,000). This is determined by the size of the portfolio (currently $9,029.29) which in turn determines the fees to be charged. The statement lifetime return is $829.29 which includes a $1,200 referral bonus. The actual lifetime return would be -$370.71. Thanks to our readers for using our code!

Account Statement (October 2020)


The return for the month is -$490.58 which includes a $20 referral bonus. This means our actual return for the month is -$510.56.

As of 17 November 2020, this is our portfolio performance:


Capital: $6,000.00
Current: $7,083.56 (17.34% - return is skewed due to referrals)


Capital: $2,200.00
Current: $2,709.87 (37.76% - return is skewed due to referrals)

Transaction Breakdown


There are too many so I will just share a snippet. Anyway, if you want to extract the transaction information from Syfe, do take a look at this article - Syfe Transactions Parser. Anyway, the parser will not work for the Equity100 and Global ARI portfolio when there are small transactions (<0.01). You can refer to this for more information - Syfe - July 2020. The parser will work if Syfe is willing to change its UI and display more decimal places...

REIT+

Equity100

After parsing them into a csv file, I pivoted the data to get the following view.

Management Fee


The management fee can be obtained by $8,418.88 x 0.65% / 366 * 31 ~ $4.61.

StocksCafe
In my opinion, the return captured by StocksCafe will be a more accurate representation of our portfolio return as the referral bonuses are treated as capital. Having said that, I can also understand why Syfe treats them as a return instead of a deposit too. Just a different perspective.


Anyway, looking at the time-weighted return (14.51%) for this year, we can see that Syfe REIT+ 100% is outperforming STI ETF (including fees) but underperforming when compared against SPY or IWDA. In addition, if we were to look at the projected dividends till the end of the year based on the existing investment, we can expect $139.68 of dividends or $12.70 per month. Since the dividends >> fees, this is a pretty sustainable portfolio assuming if there's no capital loss.

New Syfe customers will have their first $30,000 managed free for 6 months when they use our new referral code (KPOCZM). We will be receiving a $10 cash incentive for our portfolio if you invest $500 or more.

If you are interested in the smart portfolio tracker (StocksCafe) which I am using as shown above, sign up using my link for a longer trial period :) Refer to our Referrals page for more information.

You might be interested in previous months update too:
Syfe REIT+ (100%) Review
Syfe - May 2020 - $1,135.43
Syfe - June 2020 - $2,558.58
Syfe - July 2020 - $3,872.68
Syfe - August 2020 - $6,260.30
Syfe - September 2020 - $8,019.86
- Syfe - October 2020 - $9,029.29

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.)

Friday, November 13, 2020

Endowus - October 2020

How was your 11.11? We bought a lot of random stuff for 10 cents or less with free delivery! lol.



Anyway, Endowus recently launched a new product/portfolio called Fund Smart which allows an investor to decide and select what he/she wants for his/her portfolio - Endowus Fund Smart Review.

Risk Profile
Goal type: General wealth accumulation
Risk tolerance: Maximise returns (loss tolerance -60%)
Monthly investment using SRS: $740


I have modified my monthly investment in order to max out my SRS contribution for the year.

Account Summary


Capital: $9,670.00
Current: $9,665.59 (-0.04%)

There are quite a few differences as compared to StashAway. Firstly, all the cash has been invested while StashAway keeps 1% of the portfolio in cash. Secondly, the fees are not deducted on a monthly basis. The Access Fee charged by Endowus will be deducted at the end of each quarter as stated in their FAQ.

As of 12 November 2020 (in just a few days), the portfolio value is $10,485.32 (+8.45%).


Asset Allocation


This shows that the number of shares for each fund that I owned:
- Dimensional Global Core Equity Fund (157.9510)
- Infinity US 500 Stock Index Fund (1,792.1900)
- Dimensional Emerging Markets Large Cap Core Equity Fund (63.8060)
- Dimensional Pacific Basin Small Companies Fund (56.5250)

It will be great if they actually showed my average price vs the current market price.

Transactions


I received my first trailer rebate this month. More information can be found in their web application. 


Speaking of which, Endowus has finally launched a mobile app:
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.endowus.mobileapp


Oddly, the trailer rebate transaction is missing in the mobile app. Anyway, the trailer fee was refunded back to my SRS. So I supposed if you are investing using cash or CPF, it will be refunded to its original source. I'm hoping that they can introduce a dark theme for their mobile app and a couple of the functions/features (e.g. preference) redirect you back to the web application, definitely room for improvements!

That's all! Overall, I think the statement is pretty straightforward and easy to read. On a side note, StocksCafe does not has the ability to track funds, hence unable to do any form of comparison/benchmark.

If you are interested in Endowus, do use our referral link for our readers! You will get S$10,000 managed free for 6 months ($20 equivalent) and we will get $20 too!

You might be interested in previous months update too:
Endowus CPF/SRS Review
Endowus - January 2020 - $3,692.02
Endowus - February 2020 - $3,704.57
Endowus - March 2020 - $4,153.50
Endowus - April 2020 - $4,849.67
Endowus - May 2020 - $5,797.36
Endowus - June 2020 - $6,471.66
Endowus - July 2020 - $7,455.96
Endowus - August 2020 - $8,588.83
- Endowus - October 2020 - $9,665.59

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.)

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

The "Poor" Pilot With Multiple Properties

Being a pilot is definitely one of the coolest jobs in the world. 

You get to fly a plane, travel to different places, and get paid highly (5 digits salary monthly). What could go wrong? Today published an interesting article on how the various pilots are coping with their lives during this pandemic after SIA announced/implemented the retrenchments or pay cuts  - One sees his flying dream cut short, other SIA pilots become delivery drivers, retire early.

The above pilot probably got the most attention when he is still earning $13k a month (after the pay cut) but claims that it is not enough because his monthly expenses add up to $19k a month. Many (including myself) would think that $13k is more than enough but I guessed lifestyle inflation happened to him. If you are wondering how can his/one's expenses be so high, the answer is the properties "investment".

Let's just make some simple assumptions and calculations. He invested in various properties at the age of 40. Given that we know a pilot earns $14k at 28 years old and $23k at 50 years old, the salary grew at a rate of 2.28% per annum.


Hence, his salary at age 40 will probably be around $18k. Next, we head to DBS Marketplace for property to see what's the maximum loan he can take based on his $18k salary.


My guess is he probably max out his home loan to invest in various properties and has to make a $9k mortgage payment monthly. Not to mention, there will be many other costs involved such as rental income tax (~19-20% tax at his income level) and property tax which all adds up to his expenses. 


We can assume the remaining $10k are used to service his car loan, daily expenses, groceries, and his children's overseas education. Anyway, he can probably offset some of his expenses with the rental income which was not mentioned in the article but the focus is more on his expenses. $9k out of $23k seems very manageable but when his salary got cut to $13k = GG.

That's the thing with property investment. It is a long and massive commitment with the assumption that everything goes according to plan - you keep your job and got to continue to work as long as your mortgage tenure. So when you see advertisements/property agents telling you/your family to sell your HDB and buy/invest in 2 private properties, my advice is to think twice. The stress/pressure is on you. We prefer to invest in REITs because there's no tax and no commitment. Take a look at this old article - Book Review - Building Wealth through REITS.

Regardless, I do not think he is poor at all as he still has multiple properties, shares, and bonds but he definitely has to deleverage by selling his properties/car even if he has to make a loss ASAP. Unless he is thinking of stopping his children overseas university. lol.


On the other hand, we have Terence who is not affected by the pay cut and no lifestyle inflation. There would be a day when things just don't go according to plan. Moral of the story - be like Terence, how many things could you possibly need? Multiple properties?

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.)

Saturday, November 7, 2020

StashAway - October 2020

StashAway did a withholding tax reimbursement for dividends withheld last year. Based on what I have compiled, StashAway's portfolio is pretty sustainable (dividends > fees). You can read more about it here - StashAway Withholding Tax Reimbursement FY 2019

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

KPO

CZM

Based on the statement (31 October 2020), our total investment is ‭$49,892.40! KPO gains/lost $74.18 and CZM gains/lost -$22.00 for the month.

As of 5 November 2020, these are our portfolio performance:


KPO and CZM Cash - StashAway Risk Index 22%: $‭34,946.19 (34.37% - Capital: $28,500)


KPO SRS - StashAway Risk Index 36%: $11,324.10 (34.68% - Capital: $9,670)


CZM SRS - StashAway Risk Index 14%: $5,587.33 (26.71% - Capital: $5,000)

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

KPO and CZM Cash - StashAway Risk Index 22%


KPO SRS - StashAway Risk Index 36%


CZM SRS - StashAway Risk Index 14%

3. FEE CALCULATIONS


The fee stated is based on the monthly-average assets SGD ($25,000.00 x 0.8% + $18,836.46 x 0.7%) / 366 days * 31 days = $28.11.


The fee stated is based on the monthly-average assets SGD $5,272.72 x 0.8% / 366 days * 31 days = $3.57. We exchanged 300 Shopee coins for $5 worth of StashAway credit and that's the remaining credit.

StocksCafe


Evan (founder of StocksCafe) made an improvement where one can now benchmark their portfolio against multiple indexes/ETFs. Looking at the time-weighted return (11.40%) for this year, we can see that StashAway Risk Index 22% is outperforming the STI ETF, SPY, and IWDA (including fees). 

If we compare across the years, StashAway's portfolio is winning by a huge margin (35.18%) except losing to SPY (44.38%). In addition, it has the lowest volatility and max drawdown. This is what StashAway meant by reducing risk and maximizing the return. 

The annualized return/XIRR of the portfolio is very impressive too at 12.69%. Using the Rule of 72, it means that the StashAway portfolio will double our money in 72 / 12.69 ~ 5.7 years. In comparison, the same money if left in the bank account at 2% interest rate will take 72 / 2 ~ 36 years to double.

Which is the best? Only time will tell :)

Anyway, if you are interested in signing up for StashAway, do use our referral link - KPO and CZM Referral Link. You will get $10,000 free management fees for 6 months and we will get $16!

If you want to extract those transactions information from StashAway, do take a look at this article - StashAway Transactions Parser.

If you are interested in the smart portfolio tracker (StocksCafe) which I am using as shown above, sign up using my link for a longer trial period :) Refer to our Referrals page for more information.

You might be interested in previous months update too:
StashAway - January 2020 - $31,742.42
StashAway - February 2020 - $31,499.69‬
StashAway - March 2020 - $30,934.95‬
StashAway - April 2020 - ‭$34,830.73‬
StashAway - May 2020 - $37,298.09‬
StashAway - June 2020 - $39,931.79
StashAway - July 2020 - $44,125.18
StashAway - August 2020 - $46,900.18
StashAway - September 2020 - $47,850.22
- StashAway - October 2020 - $49,892.40

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.)