Portfolio - October 2019

How was your 11.11? Did you manage to save money by not buying anything or save money by buying things cheaper? Anyway, we spent close $1k buying "essentials" and random stuff for our new house. According to Lazada, I am a "Savings Master" who had saved $902.78. lol.

Sharing the first (and most expensive) loot to be delivered - PRISM+ X300 Ultrawide Gaming Monitor. The irony is we are not even using it to game, CZM has been complaining that my laptop screen is too small for her to work. Happy wife, happy life.

The current price is $399 and we got it at $334 during flash sale + some voucher.

We also bought a fake Dyson - Dreame V9P Cordless Handheld Vacuum by Xiaomi because the real one is simply too expensive for us. This model is one of the more powerful fake Dyson with 20,000 Pa Suction and 60 minutes usage.

The current price is $219 and we got it at $176. Shall not bore you with our purchases. lol.

Our portfolio reached a new high as it increases by 4.30% to $438,957- $11,816.95 of capital injection and $6,285.25 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"Cash Flow" is the amount of money being injected/withdrawn from the portfolio (buying stocks = +ve cash flow while selling stocks and collecting dividends = -ve cash flow)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

We decided to let 2,000 Chip Eng Seng Rights expired.

BOUGHT
- Keppel DC REIT (1,900 units) @ $1.710
- Eagle Hospitality Trust USD (10,000 units) @ US$0.570

This was the first time I participated in a rights issue for a stock in my CDP (the majority of my stocks are with SCB in a custodian account). I had to head down to an ATM (troublesome) and there was an administrative fee of $2! Never had to pay a single cents for SCB. Another reason why I will recommend people new to investing to start an SCB online trading account. Anyway, we were allocated 315 rights which I exercised all of them and oversubscribed by another 3,685 units.

There are so many articles out there on Eagle Hospitality Trust so I think by now everyone knows what's going on. Having said that, do take a look at this interesting article by InvestmentMoat where he used Eagle Hospitality Trust as an example to showcase the psychological stress of being in the market - A Strategy to Avoid The Pain of Losses? Don’t Be Naive. We are pretty zen now and the volatility doesn't affect us :)

So why did I buy it? Ignoring the series of bad news and ASSUMING that they will still pay out the forecasted DPU of 6.54 cents in their prospectus, the dividend yield will be around 11.47% and I think it is worth the risk. That's it because we are not a trader and we will just ride the volatility.

Dividends
The total dividends collected this month is $1,349.85. The breakdown is as follows:

Company	Symbol	ExDate	Shares	Total
Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust - Units	T82U	31-Oct-19	5,000	$118.25
Guocoland Limited	F17	31-Oct-19	9,000	$630.00
Frasers Commercial Trust - Units	ND8U	30-Oct-19	7,500	$179.97
CapitaLand Mall Trust - Units	C38U	29-Oct-19	7,000	$214.20
Mapletree Commercial Trust	N2IU	23-Oct-19	500	$14.65
Soilbuild Business Space REIT - Units	SV3U	23-Oct-19	21,000	$192.78

Total dividends collected for 2019: $17,094.70
Average dividends per month for 2019: $‭1,709.47‬

StashAway

KPO

CZM

Capital: $24,500.00
Current: $‭‭27,195.94‬

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 - $400,263
- Portfolio - May 2019 - $392,934
- Portfolio - June 2019 - $415,611
- Portfolio - July 2019 - $420,798
- Portfolio - August 2019 - $421,644
- Portfolio - September 2019 - $420,854
- Portfolio - October 2019 - $438,957

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.)

Lazada x Anker Surprise Box

Lazada had its Mid-Year Festival/Sale recently and I decided to buy another surprise box again. I blogged about my purchase of a Lazada x Spigen Surprise Box (Lazada Surprise Box - Save or Waste Money?) a few months back and thought it was pretty decent.

Lazada x Anker Surprise Box costs $49 on that day and we can sort of expect a wireless earphone, portable powerbank + a disappointing surprise. It was delivered to my house the next day.

Lazada x Anker Surprise Box

The box itself was a disappointment compared to the Spigen one. #NoEffort

Upon opening the box...

To my horror, the 3rd item was a $30 micro USB cable?! Who will actually pay so much for a cable and it is not even USB-C cable -.-

These are the items in the surprise box. They even have a breakdown of the cost/value of each item and the total came up to $158.80 (~69% savings) but the feeling is different this time round.

Being a KPO, the next thing to do is to check how much it is really sold at the Anker Lazmall shop:
- Anker PowerCore Lite 10,000 mAh Portable Powerbank @ $49.90
- Anker Soundbuds Sport Bluetooth In-Ear Earbuds @ $79.00
- Anker 3ft Micro USB Cable @ $16.90

If I were to buy these items now, it will cost $145.80. Not even enough to meet the $150 worth of product. Had they packed a USB-C cable, it would have been $150.90 and I would be speechless. Oh well, it was a good deal even without the cable.

As usual, CZM was saying I am wasting money but she went on to take the wireless earbuds cause she liked it and always wanted one. #TrueLove

What else did I buy?

Kingdom Hearts III (PS4) @ $39.90 (applied $10 voucher)Current Price: $69.90

Roborock 2019 Latest Model S6 Xiaomi Cordless Robotic Vacuum Cleaner @ $522.50 (applied $40 voucher) for our new house!
Current Price: $599

Damn. Looks like I wasted spent a lot of money ~.~"

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.)

Lazada Surprise Box - Save or Waste Money?

Lazada had its 7th Birthday sale recently (27th March 2019) and I was shopping away. The surprise box concept is not new but this is the first time I actually purchase it. Essentially, you do not know what you are buying and pay $37-$47 to get a box of surprise/unknown items worth $120-$150. Some of them have sneak peek (like below) which allow one to guess what will be in the box. The box that got my attention was the Lazada x Spigen Surprise Box because I knew that the case + wireless charger is definitely worth more than $37.

Surprisingly, I was able to apply the $3 voucher and paid only $34 for the surprise box. lol.

It was delivered to my house 2 days later.

These are the items in the surprise box. They even have a breakdown of the cost/value of each item and the total came up to $126.60 (~73% savings).

Being a KPO, the next thing to do is to check how much it is really sold at the Spigen Lazmall shop:
- Spigen Galaxy S10+ Liquid Crystal Case @ $25.90

- Spigen Galaxy S10+ Neo Flex HD Screen Protector @ $29.99

- Spigen Essential F305W Fast Wireless Charger @ $49.90

- Spigen Velo A700 Sport Armband @ $32.90

Total: $138.69 (~75% savings)

I am pretty sure cheaper alternatives can be found in other shops/platform too but the savings still be quite significant >50%.

Sent the above photos to CZM and being the person that understands me the best, I find her response to be hilarious. On a side note, I also do not own a S10+ yet because my contract only ends in May. Hahahaha.

So did I save (~$100) or waste money ($34)? lol.

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.)

New Toy - Mi Smart Scale

KPO purchase a new toy from Lazada - Xiao Mi: Mi Smart Scale to keep track of his weight loss journey but CZM thinks it is a waste of money. Hahahaha. The "kiam" part of me is also telling me that I should not be wasting money but the devils (Lazada and Xiao Mi) won in the end. What can I say, guys love electronics and games while girls love clothes, bags, and shoes?

I first started my weight loss plan on 4th September 2017 - KPO Needs to Lose Weight and my weight was 83.5kg with a BMI of 27.9. I was tracking it manually using a spreadsheet but got slightly lazy. I knew all along that Lazada was selling it for $36 but I felt that it was too expensive. Do note that this is from the official Mi Store after my bad experience with fake stuff on Lazada - Bad Lazada - 128 GB SD Card for $12.27?!.

However, Lazada tempted me with some credit card promotion together with my LiveUp rebate, the price was reduced to $25.89 which was equivalent to a 28% discount and the rest is history.

The thing I like about the weighing scale is that it automatically synchronizes your weight with the Xiao Mi app on your phone. Multiple profiles/people can be added to the app and it is smart enough to update the weight to the correct profile. It will then calculate your BMI and the relevant category you would belong. CZM is normal while KPO is still overweight >.<

As of today (27th October 2017), my weight is 76.9kg with a BMI of 25.6! I have managed to shave off 6.6kg (around 8%) in around 2 months including the 2 weeks we went Hong Kong and Indonesia for vacation and we eat non-stop!

Speaking of which, I will be blogging about our vacation soon since CZM is too busy. I also like how Xiao Mi is so encouraging by informing me that I am lighter than 43% of the people around the area instead of heavier than 57% of the people. lol.

If you notice, I have dropped the weight update on the recent posts because my friends are saying that it is too random. Hahahaha.

PayNow and its Promotions

You are reading it right, I am referring to PayNow and not DBS PayLah.

Remember the days when you make a fund transfer to your friend and it takes a few days before it appears in your friend's bank account? Then came FAST which stands for Fast And Secure Transfers where the fund transfer/money magically appears immediately in your friend's bank account. PayNow uses the same magic except it allows you to make fund transfer simply by using the other person mobile number or NRIC on your ibanking site/application. This removes the hassle of going through the tedious process of adding "New Payee", double checking and triple checking to ensure that the account number you entered is correct before taking out your OTP device to verify and confirm the addition of 1 new payee (You have yet to make the fund transfer. lol). I guess this is definitely a small step towards Singapore becoming a Smart Nation and going cashless. I am still pretty amazed at how we survived in Iceland without cash, just credit cards.

Anyway, you can refer to these articles for more information:
- New service PayNow to allow interbank transfers using mobile phone numbers

- From PayNow to unified system that pays everything

- PayNow FAQ

To get started, you need to register your mobile number with anyone of the participating banks. Note that you can only register with ONE of them.

Since you can only register with one of them, the banks will be competing for customers by offering sign up promotion!

Citi - None?! (Update on 12th July 2017: $10 Grab Credit*)

DBS - Register for PayNow and win a red iPhone* 7 Plus!

HSBC - Lazada $10 promo code*

Maybank - At least $5 off Grab ride + Lucky Draw for $2,888*

OCBC - Luck Draw for $50,000*

SCB - $10 Cash Bonus*

UOB - $5/10 Cash Credit*

Note that all the promotions have * - terms and conditions apply. Do take some time and glance through them. Below are just some of my personal opinions and a summary of what the banks have to offer:

Citi

I am amazed at how I could not find a single landing page on PayNow for Citi. Definitely not holding up to their slogan "Citi Never Sleeps", I think the whole marketing department must be sleeping!

Update: First 5,000 eligible customers + make a minimum of $10 transfer. By now should be gone as one of the readers pointed out where a promotional email was sent to existing customers.

DBS

30 winners will be chosen from the eligible customers. KPO not very lucky so will probably give this a miss.

HSBC

First 3,000 eligible customers. Almost no chance but better than nothing.

Maybank

1st Prize: $2,888

2nd Prize: $1,888

3rd Prize: $888

Daily winners of $20 from now till 31st December 2017. KPO not a Maybank customer

OCBC

1st Prize: $50,000

2nd Prize: $30,000

3rd Prize: $10,000

20 winners weekly for 6 weeks: $500. I shall get CZM to register for this. KPO not very lucky so will probably give this a miss.

SCB

First 20,000 eligible customers. KPO registered for this :)

UOB

First 5,000 eligible customers for the 1st $5. Subsequent $5 requires you to spend at least $20 using UOB MyKey.

PayNow went live at 8 am 10th July 2017. So I think you should stand a pretty good chance with SCB if you are a customer. Otherwise, go for the OCBC lucky draw and win BIG!

Good Lazada Giving Away Free 16 GB SD Card + $5 Voucher [Part 2]

My previous post on "Bad Lazada [Part 1]" has exceed 1,000 views and became one of my top post! It is only fair that I follow up and blogged on my refund experience with them too.

After conducting my test, I initiated a full refund request where the goods purchased should be returned to Lazada. The instructions given was to print out the return form and a customer service associate will be contacting me to schedule a time to pick up the SD card.

However, one day later, one of their customer service associate sent an email to me. Instead of arranging a time to pick up the SD card, I was told to "keep the item". On top of that, Lazada provided a $5 voucher code (no minimum spending) which was valid till 31st August. Wow, I got more than what I asked for. A free 16 GB SD card and a $5 voucher!

KPO being a nice guy did not stop there as he was genuinely concerned that the majority of the public - not being tech savy might be scammed and lose their precious vacation photos, replied the email hoping that Lazada will take down those product listings/sellers.

The rest is history - I was slammed with a standard template response and the ticket was closed. In summary, the refund experience with Lazada was hassle free and they do honor their refund policy.

As of this moment (14th June 2017 12:38am), I still see lots of 128 GB SD cards listed at ridiculous cheap price in Lazada under the brand OEM. This is the link if you are interested in getting a free 8/16 GB SD card and a $5 Lazada voucher. Thank me in the comment if you actually tried and get them successfully but do not scold me if you do not (KPO and CZM are not liable for anything that is posted here). lol.

So KPO went back to Lazada and bought CZM an authentic Anello bag using the $5 voucher for $23.90! That ridiculously cheap too!

How do I know if it is real? It says authentic...

Bad Lazada - 128 GB SD Card for $12.27?!

KPO recently purchased a new phone and was looking for a SD card on Lazada. I was searching for the best value buy and finally found multiple 128 GB SD card selling for $12 - $20+. Can you believe it?? There is this sayings "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is", this is the same for everything including investment (20% guaranteed return? lol).

I did more research online and came across various sources stating that the firmware can be easily modified to show 128 GB when you insert the SD card onto your computer/phone but the actual capacity is would not be 128 GB. It will have a much smaller capacity (e.g. 8 GB) and once it reaches that capacity, whatever data you continue to write to the SD card will simply vanish! Imagine buying this SD card for your vacation, take lots of photos and return home to find only less than half of the photos are stored in the card. With this knowledge, I decided to buy it since Lazada has a full refund policy. No harm giving it a try (deep down KPO was still hoping he will get it cheap >.<)

After a few days, I finally received the SD card.

I opened it up and inserted it to my computer. It was showing 128 GB!

So I went on to download the program (h2testw) to test the SD card. It tests by writing fake data to the SD card first (I spent about 20 mins to write 20 GB as it was late at night) then it has the verify functionality to verify if the data that was written is there.

Unfortunately...

As you can see, the real capacity is only 16 GB and any data that was written after that were all gone. There are many ways to test your storage device. If you are interested, you can refer to this site - 8 Freeware To Detect Fake USB Flash Drives, SD Cards And SSD Disk.

I would have expected Lazada to have verify it before listing the product for sale but I guess not. KPO has requested for full refund and is back looking for other SD card. Moral of the story - "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is" and bad Lazada!