Update Feb 2016

In addition to recording my transactions, I also decided to track down on a monthly basis, how much passive income i receive from dividends

Total of $815 for the month of February. Given that i only hold 15,000 STI ETF shares, seems like February is a good income month for me.
The yield of the ETF is around 3.5% to 4% at this current price now.

Also elected to receive dividends in the form of scrips for Frasers Commercial Trust since i do not need cash at the moment, so might as well reinvest it back in.

Added 500 shares to my STI ETF for this month, at a price of $2.65. A lot of people are avoiding the markets given the volatility, but my thinking is that if i am comfortable buying in at $3.30, i should be even more comfortable buying in at a lower price.

Gonna be adding positions on a regular basis going forward!

Windfall

Well, sad to say, i did not turn into an instant millionaire following my previous post - 12-million Hong Bao draw.

I did have a consolation 'prize', as my company announced the year end incentive award (or bonus). So with the windfall (well, being able to keep my job is already good enough for me!), any bonus award can really be considered a bonus.

As with any windfall received, adequate planning is required, otherwise it will all be squandered away. Many stories on the net about people spending their inheritance within a month!

So i took the opportunity to plan out what to do with the excess amount that i will receive, and came to the conclusion - money will never be enough. No matter how much i have, i will be able to find ways to fill it up.

I will sock away 40% to my household account, and build up my emergency cash. 

The emergency cash is in line with my resolution for 2016. See Goals 2016. Given the current economic climate recently, i guess it is better to be conservative on my part to increase my buffer.

I will also take the opportunity to replace my fixed assets, namely my laptop, which has been with me for the past 6 years. 

Other non-savings expenses include allocating the bonus to my annual travel plans, as well as other expenses like giving a bonus to my family as well.

My regrets in coming up with this budget? I did not manage to allocate to 2 categories:

(1) Increasing my personal war-chest. I guess that would come with my monthly salary instead.

(2) Accruing for the tax on this bonus. Again, it would have to come from my regular budget.

What about you? I hope you have had a windfall recently as well. :) and please do share with me how you intend to allocate them.

12 million Hong bao draw

Would you be buying a dream by 'investing' in a lottery ticket for the $12 million Hong bao draw?

*correction - should be $13.9 million instead!

Some financially savvy folks are saying that they might as well save the money and invest it for the long term, since that is a more sure-win bet.

Me? I won't hesitate to admit that i would be one of those buying a hope and a dream. To me, that amount won't cost me my financial freedom, at the most, it's only the cost of a lunch.

And are the odds really stacked against me? 

We can say it is 50/50, since there is only 2 outcome - either we strike, or we don't. [Just kidding!]

Singapore pools kindly disclaimed that  the odds of winning the jackpot is 1 in 13,983,816.

Odds of winning Toto 

Given the winning prize is $13.9 million, what's the payoff? 

The payoff for a $1 dollar bet would be is [1/13986,816]*13,900,000, which is approximately close to 1!

Why wouldn't i buy a dream with $1?

Of course, assumption is that there is a sole winner (although in such cases, there are usually multiple winners, and the prize money are split a couple ways)

This is a post made in jest - no way am i encouraging people to gamble!

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a prosperous new year!

May the year of the Monkey bring great health and wealth to you.

What is the monkey's abilities?

Monkeys are agile, quick and very nimble. My wishes for us is to be as agile and nimble as the monkey. When the opportunity comes (or we are already in a time of opportunity), be agile and nimble to take advantage of it to have many prosperous years ahead.

And of course, stay healthy! For health is indeed wealth.

Consolidating bank accounts

One more step in organizing my personal finances. I closed my UOB savings account and consolidated it with my UOB One Account to earn higher interest rates.

Why did i open up the savings account in the first place?

(1) I have the concept of 'paying myself first'. Instead of the formula. 'Income - Expenses = Savings', i try to adhere to the formula of 'Income - Savings = Expenses'. Having that separate account allowed me to transfer money from 1 bank account to the savings, so that i wouldn't touch it.

(2) I'm also quite compartmentalized. So if i designate 1 account for savings/investments, it feels much more neater to me from an accounting perspective. Dividends from investments goes into that account, and EPS to the various brokerage accounts i have are also directed into it.

Why did i have it closed now?

(1) I don't really need it now. All i actually needed was a way to keep and budget the money away, even if it's in a single bank account. As you may know, i use YNAB, and YNAB allowed me to budget my savings/investment money (as well as other expenses categories) so i wouldn't accidentally used it.

(2) The savings account i have generates next to nothing in terms of interest. By consolidating the money into a higher yielding bank account, the money is 'working' harder in generating extra returns.

It really is quite troublesome, changing bank accounts. Sending hard copy forms for the closure and linkage forms for, and changing bank account for the CDP direct crediting services.

I went through the process once for changing GIRO for my recurring bills, and thankfully, this process is much easier and less troublesome.

Happy to take one more baby steps to organizing my finances. Organised my credit card to get more rebates, and now bank accounts for higher interest.

More steps to come!

If you have any ideas, please do share with me :)

Save more for a rainy day

Had a lot of uncertainty as my company was finalizing the corporate strategy over the last few months, and it was finalized a few days back.

The result? A retrenchment exercise a few days earlier. It's my first experience of seeing colleagues just disappearing from office. A call from a conference room, a chat with the line manager and HR, and off you go. Sounds cold and harsh but that's the way it is. Office appears colder and quieter in the aftermath.

Supposedly the package offered is reasonable. Not very sure, as the 'chopped' workers did not return to their desk to speak with us after the conversation with HR.

Had a couple of thoughts going through that day.

(1) Wonder how those foreigners on employment pass cope - without a job, they need to leave the country in a month's time.
(2) Grateful that I wasn't on the redundant list
(3) If i was made redundant, how long would i need to get another job in these economic climate?

Guess it was at thought (3) that it really strikes home that you really need to have a buffer of emergency cash in case an unfortunate incident happens (even though there's a redundancy package). Also, multiple source of income is crucial. We should not be overly reliant on 1 source of income, or an employer, and having adequate reserves is most important.

Ultimately, my wealth is my business. No one cares about my personal finances more than myself.

Who let the bears out?

With the market tumbling at the start of 2016, it is well within possibility that we are entering the bear phase of the market. While the bulls take a long time incoming, bears appearance tend to be swift and decisive. Within half a year, the market has dropped by around 800 points from 2015 to now.

Feelings:
This is my second bear, if i recall correctly. The first time was around 2008 (that was when i worked for just a couple of years maybe), and the STI dropped to 1800 levels. My portfolio went down quite a bit in terms of %, but then given that my base was probably low then, the quantum impact wasn't that much. I continued to DCA in then, and reaped the benefits a couple of years later.

Now my portfolio base is slightly higher, and the loss is definitely larger. While i believe that market goes in cycles, and what goes down must come up (and vice versa), I do have 2 defined set of feelings:
(1) I think one cannot help but feel a bit nervous looking at your networth disappearing day by day.
(2) A bit of regret that if i held on to my warchest a bit longer and went in at a later date, i would have been a much better investor.

However, that is speaking with the benefit of hindsight which is always 20/20. Even though i feel nervous looking at my portfolio, i am comforted with my portfolio mix, which is heavily weighted with the STI ETF. When the market recovers (which it definitely will eventually), the STI ETF will recover along with it. The rest of my portfolio of individual companies may or may not bear out, but so far, i am pretty comfortable with the fundamentals.

Game plan:
With prices at a low, the challenge for me is to obtain more funds to invest in the market. My mistake was being too greedy when the market dropped significantly the first time. I went in too much at the initial drop and didn't leave enough warchest at the subsequent drops. I did not anticipate that the market would drop like it did.

The next time it did, i would develop a better plan, and go in at a pre-determined  % tranche of my warchest. The only thing i can do is to DCA in with my monthly salary now.

Stay calm, invest on and reap the benefits eventually.