Cory Diary : Net Worth - Just looking at the Chart

This update shows the impact of Covid-19 to Net Worth. The top green and white lines include property net value but won't be reflective in current scenario due to much reduced transaction for reference. If the crisis deepened, we should see the Property net value to reduce and therefore lower level lines.

The Cyan line is the liquid line and current YTD is roughly the same as start of year. Basically recovery of the stock market and some saving from the first half year. At personal level there is V-shaped recovery in asset.

The Yellow line is the investment in Stock market and Gov securities which in total maintained. Showing some similar story of nearly a V-shaped recovery. However, equity dividend expectation has increased to $62k at current invested amount.

With major items like Tax, Parental allowances, Confinement costs and most of normal cost for 2nd daughter delivery already paid, 2nd half should see higher net worth unless the stock market has 2nd dip. This is mitigated with sizable FD, SSB and cash. Investment wise,  retaining dividends, saving and 75% of warchest amount remaining for it.


Cory
2020-0628

Cory Diary : Investment Income

Start with saying the obvious. Main source of living expenses for most people comes from salary income . Even for those who are so called FIRE or Financially Independence, the seeds has to large enough, comes from salary income. Even then they may not completely retire. This statements are generally acceptable with the exceptions few.

As one grow older, various income source comes into play. What best to represent it is to show the Net Worth chart and the allocation within. Financially few things Cory did or don't.

1. Move most OA funds to CPF SA
2. Continue to leave some amount of CPF in Property Loan for another year
3. Continue to have SSB Max Out
4. Have at least 3 years buffers to support housing loan in FD
5. Transferred Allowances to parents. Happy New Year !
6. Annual Bonus to Nanny. Very Professional Nanny.

Cory long term goal is to have salaried income replaced by equity income that is more passive. This seems quite illusive with annual adjustment !  LOL ! Like many people who come from humble background, and has no business acumen, we just have to learn to save or we have to learn through business failures of which most of us could not afford without safety net. How long it takes to save and build up do depends on how much delay gratification we want. This amount becomes very handy once a door open. 

One main door open is Stocks Market. While Cory cannot run business, he can find good managers who can do this for him. So this is rather passive income. The trick is how to stay profitable in this business. This is especially make possible when the information gap is narrowed between institutions and retailers. And technology allows cheaper trading and more sophisticated products. Of-course experience in the market matters a lot. And then the saving slowly move in.

The next door opened when he starts to invest in property. This hurdle is harder to cross due to property curbs and needs for cash-flow to sustain. This is different from buying a property for one stay. The mindset is for investment gains and rental components. So why explore this ?
Like to mentioned Cory is not an expert and needs more buffers but the logic seems clear as below.

Cory is no longer young. Getting a loan will be harder. And it will be tough when one is without work one day. So if one want to invest in property, time is an essence too.

20% down for single property is like 5x leverage of a big sum of money. The mindset is quite different from stock investment where Cory do not leverage at all. 

Loan is relatively cheap with low rates. Even after all the misc costs, and even so rental unable to cover all the loans, as long the interests part (not the principal) of the loan is well covered into good portion of the principal payment, theoretically one is making good money.

The rates may go up but by then the loan would have been serviced for some period of time and there will be more options. Ideally we like it to be in as long as possible, and as much as possible with comfortable buffer as property loan is one of cheapest to tap on.

Capital appreciation factor for those with good location. Is more pricey logically. With land limited Singapore, unless we are seeing something like no future for Singapore, with inflation the price general trend is upwards with fluctuation in-between that can be quite volatile.

As long one is able to service, after rental, is quite hard to lose money after all the costs. The main risk is cash-flow which is why Cory put this as top priority to mitigate and not to assume Rental Income is sufficient. 


What will be the next door ?


Cory
2020-0113

Cory Diary : Income and Expense 2019

Year 2019 is special because Cory becomes a father to a baby girl. Unlike most parents, financially Cory is much more ready. The thing lacking is experience which Wife will always take care or be ready to remind Uncle Cory ..... . Nevertheless, raising baby is really not easy. The good thing is we have Baby Bonus supports and this do help some. Fortunately, company is also supportive and provide as much work from home time and leaves as needed.

Expenses wise, as previously blogged ( link ), kind of exploded and will not come down significantly for years. Good problem to have. How to fix it is to ensure that we have higher saving prior, predictable income, investments or saving to mitigate which the last option is not a viable plan for wife 😂.

For 2019 Income, Cory has a good bonus. This helps to pay for Income Tax and Parents Allowances. A nice surprise is that some of the Company Stock has also come into vesting period and this help to add into the year end 2nd Bonus. Hmm, why has this becomes a so look forward thing ...

For 2019 Expenses, the value expects to cross $140, 000. This is inclusive of home loan which is a major ticket item. However, Net worth and Income Returns looks able to match the increase in spending ( above chart ).

As Cory has stake in lower levels investment returns such as SSB and FDs, all additional savings could go into higher equity returns in Year 2020 to build higher dividend income plan. Investment returns wise, returns has been quite significant which will be blogged later once year ended. Touch-wood it will not change negatively by then.

Before signing off. Two wishes from Birthday Boy.

1. To do : Things that we could change. ie. Continue working. 
2.  Not to do : Focus on things that we could not change. Negative thoughts.


Cory

2019-1220

Cory Diary : Leapfrog your wealth

There are ways to leapfrog our wealth. Coming from below middle income family, and choosing a down-to-earth wife ( hee hee ), marriage do helps but inheritance from our families are out. Neither do our families have business acumen. So I would say today my siblings and we are above middle income. Hey, that's what makes Singapore incredible isn't it ? As long we work hard and smart, with a little luck and opportunity, we are contented.

As previously blogged, I am a "Value Saver" but I aren't frugal. I can spurt a dinner that cost few hundreds, and renovation in good 5 digits. As a value/dividend stock investor, this bring me quite a good sum to my net-worth. Of-course this won't happen fast enough if I do not have monthly salary and saving, and then equity investment.

Now, I can add that Property Investment as another option to propel. See chart below. With the mark-to-market valuation based on recent residential transactions of surrounding properties on the same development. Of-course some friends would say as long I don't sell, is only paper gain. This actually applies to my dividend stocks too. Nevertheless, Net-worth is the market value you have. 

My thinking is whether we sell it or not is subjective. Holding cash in an inflationary environment is losing money too so I rather put my money to work continuously. Unless we are doing short term speculative trade, taking profit to realize the gain is cutting our game short as a good hedge against inflation.

Property provides a strong underlying asset base so I am in the mentality of "Never Sell". It can be also be an insurance that if needed, I could use it for downgrade therefore the more I would like to hold it for long term appreciation to be meaningful.

What I find amazing from this experience is how fast the pace of  property appreciation and loan leverage can do to one's net-worth. No wonder our government needs to introduce curbs to rein them in to ensure more stable market.  As for another sharing based on my limited experience, I realised the surrounding properties about few hundred meters away do not appreciate much at all for the same period. A real example of location of property matters in value appreciation.


In summary, the list of Wealth Accumulation. 

1. Monthly Salary - Yes
2. Property Investment - Yes
3. Stock Investment - Yes
4. Marriage
5. Saving - Yes
6. Inheritance
7. Business


Cory
2019-0602

Cory Diary : Net Worth updates 2019 Apr

The year 2019 is special because is the first time investment equity crosses $1M threshold. And this excludes SSB and Treasuries. This is primarily due to paper capital gains pushing it over. To be frank, this is not as cherish-able than my birthday. Is just a number. Nothing much has change in the way I will invest. And anyone with a decent job and saving can achieve too.

To a dividend me, there is narrow limits where I could realised the gains. I did all for Parkway Life Reit, Frasers L&R Tr, and some re-balancing for Ascendas Tr and CMT Reit. I feel the need to stagger them in a balanced portfolio. However on net basis, even with purchase of other stocks, I still end up more cash.

And as I am still in productive workforce, saving continues to accumulate. Technically, I do not have the mindset of investment account or saving account. I don't have the discipline to track every items I spent either. I always look for ways to achieve them in a less tedious way. And from the chart, you can see the relentless climb that it is still working so far.

I only have an active credit card and a debit card. That's all I need. Always pay on time. My biggest spending probably is Income Tax which I pay diligently.  What could derail this trend ? I think if I got retrenched lol. (touchwood). Joke aside, a few friends have asked me to do side businesses with them. I have said no so far because I don't believe being a sleep partner. This could put a dent in my asset. Don't be a guarantor either. What's left ? Managing risk in stock.

Cory

2019-0420

Cory Diary : Asset Tracker 2019-0108

Net Worth

With the beginning of the new year is time to assess my net worth trending. In this update, I have added "Non-Retirement line'. There is a good spike ending 2018 due to YEB and VB.  The losses in 2018 is mitigated by monthly income. This will expects to reduce in coming months due to local taxes and parent allowances.

 I should have done better in 2018 but I didn't. Nevertheless, my Assets continue to move up but at a slower pace with increasing expenses and poor market. Based on past trend, 2019 (touch wood) will be a good year for local investor. Why ?

I mentioned on the support lines that is strong. ( link ). Looks like so far they are held up pretty good. So my recent increase in STI Index and Reits help for now. I also did a quick swap on some of my SSB for Jan'19 allotment which is successful. Quite happy as is 0.5% rate up on top of starting 2.01% for year 1 which is almost doubled I had previously. Finally, in my many years of investment, after a year of negative returns, the year after is good positive. This happens 3 times for negative years ( Year 2008, 2011 and 2015) and 2018 will be the 4th !

Cory

20190108

Cory Diary : Asset Tracker 2018-1201

One more month to year end. I am glad this is going to be over soon. It has not been a profitable market considering the rich valuation we seen with the yield. So the good news could be there is no significant impact to my portfolio.

I am 49. I wish I could say at 55 I would really shout that is it ! I am on full retirement. That will be a goal to achieve but not something I would really do.

Anyway, cut it short. Here's my chart.

Cheers

Cory
2018-1201

Cory Diary : Net Worth 20180526

Been some time since last blogged about Net Worth. This has not been my priority for some time. Out of curiosity I do a quick calculation on the percentage change. Up 2.3% for the first 5 months. That doesn't seem a lot in percentage term but for a salary man, that is something.





Breakdown of my Net Worth is as above. If we are to count Gov Sec, Bond/Pref and Equity, total percentage is 51%. That's a good improvement since I last tracked them at 44% (link). Deposits/Saving reduced to 20% accordingly.

Equity and  Bond/Pref

Half the segment is in Trust/Reit. So I am a believer of dividend play. Started increasing my US stocks tracked for growth. Feels pretty good so far on the move and has been slowly increasing my allocation to it. This make sense considering globalization of the world we are in and optimising potential of larger growth. The hassle is currency rate and exchanges for tracker.

A bit tricky in my excel computation to make it more automated. However, I like the fun throughout. One good thing about US trade is the diversification to the Singapore currency. A stronger Singapore dollar has a negative implication to my USD investment. The trading cost is higher through local broker.


Net Property

Value after loan deduction. Owning a property is a good hedge against inflation and a good diversification from equity. Furthermore there is place you can reside and call home. Tracking the value means the re-sale value done in the market to give a rough estimation of my property.

Property asset is highly leveraged so this sector health is dependent on employment to keep up with payment. One of the key aspect of owning property is the monthly installment and interest rates. This needs to be monitored and re-financing timely.

With current ongoing en-block fever, there will be market for new and resale private properties. So I do see some good support as long the rate is kept low enough to support borrowing. In my view TDSR is just a delay fuse. Once the initial shock is overcome, it will be a proportionate control valve to income.

Current Singapore yield has decreased from few years back, however if we think is norm that yield has to come back up for property to flourish like before then my only concern is norm could change in one form or another. Assumption may not be valid in the future.


Gov Securities, Saving and  Fixed Deposits

Gov Securities is where I park my housing emergency funds. This will help minimize the risk that I have to sell my dividend generation equities to cover my future payment plan in the event I do not have a regular job.

Technically, Saving/Fixed Deposits portion of asset is not put to active use. In absolute value this is large sum of money. In tiering investment structure for efficiency, this should be the least combined. Will need to find opportune to tap on them further. Time wait for no man. Every month here, I lose some to inflation and opportunity cost. For a salary man this cost is large.


Insurance

Changed my mind to sell off my policy considering the surrender value is returning 4% therefore it makes no sense to increase idle saving pool. Yes, life is about change. Admission is free.


Cory
20180527

Cory Diary : Net Worth Insights

Tracking Net Worth with Excel has been a favorite hobby of mine. There are many ways to play with excel and generating charts.  This time i show it with different format for the fun of it. A more futuristic style I feel. The first chart below is time tracker of my net worth which i have collected since Year 2007. Considering I have been in the workforce almost 20 years, is more like a mid-life crisis initiated tracker.

As a reminder, this chart is from a salaried man, not a spender, as in lifestyle has not change much for past 15 years. Neither is there inheritance nor toto money in it as I would wish to have. The vertical axis is the dollar value. It tracks my net worth ( top line ), liquid asset (mid) and Sg Equity ( bottom ) over the years. The Sg Equity will need more time to develop and comprehend.

There are exceptions in the chart. My Insurance value did not truly reflect the surrender value but estimated conservative valuation. Excluded is foreign equity which are tied to cash values, share options and corporate shares which can be material. Value will also change with currency rate and mix.

Net worth line has been growing nicely. On liquidity line, takes me less than 2 years to recover to my pre-investment level in a private apartment. Half due to equity investment returns and the other from salary and bonuses.

Next, the details of the Net Worth is make up as below. Almost 1/3 equity, 1/3 long term and 1/3 short term. This has not change for some time.

The main issue I see now is that the saving segment is too large and my 2018 goal is to allocate them into more productive use. Whatever I do, the allocated amount has to be safe and available to support my investment property payment needs. Some portion to return all of my CPF loans. I probably need to compute it correctly to ensure I have ample cash level as it will be a hassle to withdraw CPF and impossible after 55.


Cory
20180122

Cory Diary : Financial Well-being Ending 2017

Year 2017 has been awesome for many investors. Based on many financial bloggers so far, double digits gain are a norm. And this keeps me thinking about how unfair to saver is where some will die for $1000 while those who are more adventurous makes $100K extra just sitting in his living room tweeting with his spare time.

Even when one step out of his comfort domain, a double digits gain of 10K in absolute returns are no where near to one with 100K portfolio for example. And here come the chicken and egg things. We need to achieve a good size portfolio to benefit from scale and returns but we can't jump the gun as we need to fall and learn when small, and grow them. This takes time for most people probably.


Saving and Net Worth

In 2017, I have achieved 45% in saving from salary and bonus. This is a nice surprise since I do not track them deliberately to save. It just occurs naturally to me what is worth to buy and value to enjoy however I knew spending were up given that I have been giving regular treats to friends and colleagues. Total Net worth is probably up 10%, and that's quite significant for me on the last decade of my working lifespan.


Anxiety Freak

One of the blessings I had is not having dividend target in my early years. I only have few K dividend then and they just happens to receive it. They just grew slowly over the years with portfolio size. I did a re-balance in 2013 and never look back. However if I am to start with a dividend target on current size that time it can be a bit demoralising. There won't be target for 2018 on Net worth as usual as there aren't a robust plan and specific needs to start. I will leave this for the future. Liquid net worth portion increased by almost 12% and this do allows me to project a higher SG equity dividend target of 45k-50k. A situation where money grow money.

One step at a time

One last thing for today into my diary. The road to prosperity for people without inheritance or financially strong family are not that straight forward. We need to find our way to get the best education within financial limit. And then get a good job and save to grow our Net Worth. To learn financial literacy from scratch is something oneself has to fix. One is handicapped if we are not optimally invested. Is even harder when we do not have a regular job to save the required to build. Even when we overcome all this problems, able to invest and win enough is another challenge investors have to beat.  But this is not impossible to start doing something today in baby step that I have went through. And the bottom lies with Passion I feel. Once we open our minds to it and have a plan that can overcome the risk adversity.

Happy 2018

Cory
20180103

Cory Diary : Asset Allocation 20170604

My heart screaming to write something today and decided to do a clean up / review my asset allocation.

Here's the pic.

From the chart, if we are to total up MMF and Deposits, that 26%. MMF is Money Market Fund ready for investment. If I am to surrender my Insurance, that will boost to 31% which matches my Equity allocation. However I am unlikely to do that. Nevertheless, this is the War Chest. At 26%, is still a little high. I need to lower Deposits allocation to 20% but may need to reserve this bullet.

Bonds and Preference 13% provides a low yield on the whole. I maybe able to squeeze something for better later but for now it stays and provide the stability to the assets.

Overall Investment allocation I would consider Equity, Property and Bonds/Pref which totaled 53%.
If some may remembered ( Link ), my Cash/FD was at 34% and Equity 22% about 4 months ago. Current allocation is way better and met way above my target and allow me to capture this year upside nicely.

The first 5 months have been great for equity holders mostly. Will Portfolio continues to grow till 2017 ends ? I believe there is still a little leg to go. Will have to stay nimble and watch for major market turning if any. Touch wood.


Cory
20170406

Cory Diary : Net Worth 20170514

As I expand my Sg Equity size, feel is time to track the amount in my Net Worth chart. However data is not much but have to start somewhere. ( Yellow ). The effort is zero other than initial setup one time. This will give me guidance on my equity size relative to other lines.

Also did a one time adjustment starting on Jan'16 by removing my Property Net Asset out from the Blue line. Reason being they are not liquid for cash flow supports which is short term in nature. The other reason is the valuation is not easy to come by.

Net Worth 20170514

The Red Line is Net worth  which I manage to backdated till 2011. Would love to have more data before 2008 for my liquid portion in Blue but unfortunately it won't be possible with time passage. The Blue line is also my financial freedom line because is what I can tap on to generate returns that I can use quickly for property loan, Insurance, bills and daily needs. They are primarily supported by Salary Income and Equities.

What really unplug my growth gear ( beside 2008 GFC )  is PRC Market shake up in 2015 mid that set me back by at least 6 months. That's how integrate Singapore economy is with China now. It also takes me some period to put back my equity after. This line is make possible for meaningful change data as I move to dividend style of investing.

There is another line I like to add is the Expense line. If I have to do this directly, the task will be huge. Maybe I should look from the angle of amount of saving to deduce. I am probably too late in the game to track this as I have moved to higher spending gear ....



Cory
20170514

Cory Diary : Cory Worth and Markets

Overview

Net Worth slips back to mean growth after last year Chinese Market onslaught. China market went feverish which I anticipated it will fall as it does not match with Xi anti-corruption drive. When the brick hits my chart, it still went for a dive and ended up with a lower gear of the continuum norm.We are now a quarter and half period before 2016 year finish and I hope we did not hit a brake like in 2015.  Roughly a year to come back up to the Pre-Crash level.

Top left of the chart is the "Is" and "Is Not". I have them structured that way previously and for comparison to continue as such.


Bre-Exit Period 2016

Strictly speaking the Bre-Exit did not boost my net worth. The portfolio recovered within span of a week. Did some mitigation moves unnecessarily which reduced my potential gains. Nevertheless, the market broad strength continues to accelerate up. Swiber could have caused a dent but mitigated due to other sectors progress and my avoidance in Oil/Gas counters, the impact has been mute. Took the opportunity to adjust my banking sector investments. I also took profit in a US Stock with 30% gains so that I can focus more on SG Markets in the coming months.

Crisis

Over the years, after each crisis, my asset continues to move up.This is also reflected in my investment returns. Governments tendency to moderate currency strength has shown to be the safer bet to support the new economy, and I feel is rightly so. No serious regulatory economist will do otherwise as the fear impact can be disastrous. However yield get lower over time and debts relatively cheap that we could finance huge supply in sector in Oil Infrastructure, Commodity and Shipping. Broadly speaking this are good for lowering the cost of living except for those who lost their jobs. Yet much cash is still in abundance, and property could be the next frontier again to absorb the excesses for those untapped.


Cory
20160815

Cory Diary: Net Worth, Equity and Market Outlook

Net Worth

Rather conservative in my money so far in 2016 mainly due to the poorer economic expectation. However I am not entirely convince there will be a major crisis in the scale of 2008 Financial Crisis that requires me to pull the plug in my investments.
















.





Trending up much YTD (Year to date) with the increase due to higher cash position not allocated to investment. Chart is rather flat for past one and half year due to larger increase in property expenses,  spending to support a better Lifestyle ( yeah ! ), China Market Crash ( Shock ! ) and Taxes Paid  ( sad ... ).


Interim SGX Equity Investment

XIRR: +3.84% YTD (Today compared to 31 Dec'15)
STI Index: -3.36% YTD (Today compared to 31 Dec'15)

Quite please with the current returns compared to Index. I still makes a number of conservative "mistakes".

1. Being slow in reducing unprofitable positions
2. Not in larger amount movement in my portfolio
3. Holding too much cash. Cash/FD hits 40% of my total worth (excluding property).
    Opportunity cost is a little draining on me.

Continues .... to avoid sector in

1. Commodity
2. S-Chip
3. Shipping
4. Oil Support and Service

and please with,

1. Financial sector allocation
2. Cutting losses on some Industrial sector counters
3. Dividends Strategy


Outlook to watch

1. Oil Price
2. SG Property Measures
3. China Debts
4. SG Telco Markets


Cory
20160601

Cory Diary : NetWorth Logic

One of the most contentious argument in deriving Net Worth and skew most of our calculation is the Property and Loan, simply is the biggest ticket item for most people.

Let's use a scenario to prick the logic. If a multi-millionaire has a 5 Million apartment and has a monthly balance of zero after loan and spending whereas a 5K salary man owning a HDB with also outstanding loan has a saving of 100K. Does it make sense to say the HDB man has higher networth than a man who has a 5 Million apartment who has zero saving ?

The best way to know is not whether we need to service the loan or not. Or who has higher saving. To know net positive or negative, I would get the market value of the property and minus all the outstanding loans. Property Market value may change, so does your Net Worth. We are just reflecting Reality of it. That's the whole idea.

An asset is an asset. Net Worth is not about creating buffer, safety zone, principle, financial planning, living standard or whatsoever. It is what it is.

Cory

20160413

Cor Diary : Gold Metal

Recently i have been trying to simplify my investment yet achieve the stability and diversification needed.

Everything is up for review. Few things I did so far.

- Increased holding in STI ETF and Bond.

- Sold DBS Preference Shares.

- Sold significant portion of my USD and NTD

- Build up some cash by taking profit on a number of run up stocks

I could not find a suitable equity to re-balance into currently. Probably need to find an entry point some time later this year.

Another area i am looking at is metal. Gold has been in my portfolio for a couple of years already and since i last sold around 1700 ( half of them i guess ), it has only been routine value update on my overall net worth which constitutes roughly 1%+. Is there more for hedging when the World or Singapore go seriously wrong.

Inflation wise, i think property is already good at mitigation. I can't imagine myself taking sampan with gold to escape either. As my Gold is virtual, the transaction cost impact is low. Decided to sell all my Virtual Golds. They were held in USD and NTD. And i expect to have some forex gains too. Great ! Achieve another level of simplification.

What else ? hmmm

Cory

20th April 2015

Cory Diary : Dividend Returns

When i started investing many years ago it was for the gamble and quick money. Dabbled in Warrants in the days when they are extremely popular. Made some good money ~ (updated for privacy)  in/out trading them despite my business work schedule. It was days where the market only knows how to climb.

Danger of Warrants

I did fell once where my "Tang" expired and went with my $1500 in smoke. I remembered my broker screams at me pondering whether i know what the hell it is but i kind of laughed it off in my head. I learned later that 6 months before expiry, i need to be careful. She is still my broker today.

As i got bolder over the years, i plough into larger part of my little saving. Those days I had colleagues who lamented to me how desperate they are to get into the market but they just do not have enough saving. I learned from it.


Soon after, i got burned in an S-Chip counter.16K lost LOL. Why i laugh ? Well, by then i learn to read announcements and annual reports. Despite all the indications that is a "FRAUD" even from public announcements, i continued to hold. I was hoping that the CEO can't be that stupid to give silly excuses. I learned it does.

As my salary goes up, so are my knowledge in the market. My investment grows till 2008 GFC Epic. Even then i was numbed to the daily horror news. I learned about market timing.

S-Chip Scandals

2008 GFC

When the market recovered, my 2009 profits doubled my 2008 losses. Then i entered 2011 and see the how rocky the market can be and chance encounter with Value Investing. I learned to rebalance my portfolio. By then my portfolio has already skyrocketed with my saving and profits.

Value Investing

Is only in 2012 that i really think about stability and more predictable growing returns to support my retirement. This is tougher to grasp for me but i learn more about Reit and the power of strong business model that can protect my investments.

Dividend Play

Learning never stop as i continue to seek new ideas and knowledge. I have become less risk averse actually. And Fd, Index, Wider Portfolio, Bonds and fixed instruments, Large Blue Cap, Currency Balance and Reits have a good present today in my investment. I am still working and mind you ! Is great to see bonus. :)

Last but not least, my Dividends. Manage to swing it back to a little new high.
Looking forward to 2015.

(updated for privacy)

Cory
27 Dec 2014

Cory Diary: 2014 Interim Review

Interim Financial Report

My Investment Portfolio is made up of Equities, Fixed Deposit, Preference Shares, Bonds and Gold. Spread across various currencies according to their risks/returns which helps me ride over market turbulence with peace of mind.

Equity ~ over 20 counters of Blue, Reits, SME and PS of various weightage. Currently this year returns are to better Equity Dividends. FDs help some.

Cash level is relatively high for opportunities and because as i am still working which afford me to have lower investment returns. Pension, Property, Insurance and CPF are Bonus.


AUD and GOLD
AUD$ weakened 2-3% roughly. After higher interests, return is flat. Lower GOLD price on the back of stronger US$ that my GOLD denominated. Acquire more RMB$ few months ago to put into higher FD as i do not like to hold too much NT$. If i have them it will be converted to other currencies or lock away in FD which are about 1.4% now. Yes is still miserable.

DIVIDENDS
Glad to break last year record before Dec ~(updated for privacy)

EQUITY
Positive but slightly below STI index return due to more low caps. Took a few risky positions which are not delivering as hoped. Net net including dividends, annualized returns around 10% for the past 10 years

CURRENCIES
This are exposure not just cash. Example Gold invested in US$ Denomination, i will have it paper translated to S$ in percentage term for exposure in US$.

Net Worth
Back on track to new highs after recent months turbulence. I expect this to continue to go on till i retire.


thanks
Cory
22 Nov '14

Cory Diary: How much is considered too much cash for rotting?

A friend pose this interesting question to me over my concern with inflation eating into our hard earn money. To point out how serious the problem is, i have it structured below.

Let's think of a scenario. I have idle cash of $1M. Considering inflation of 3%, that's 30K loss annually. We know how rich we are is how much we save. Using this basis, if I save 30K annually from my monthly earning, i am just working my arse off just to level up my networth. The curse of being a millionaire ?

Let's go further. For those who are more financially awakened, potential returns may average 5% annually. $1M sitting idle is 50K loss. Has risk adversity reached a new height in stupidity ?

Not surprising for those Savvy Investor who hits 10% return. That's 100K average. If you have this money and they are not working because you are so busy with work, do yourself a favor, sit down and do some Maths. What the hell am I talking ? A Savvy Investor will not have this problem.

Now where am I ...

Cory

9th Sept 2015

Cory Diary : CPF Minimum Sum 155K

The minimum sum has been increasing for years. Based on my earlier rough estimation is certainly moving faster than the inflation. My logic is that there is an initial growth phase to close the gap as the current minimum sum lags significantly behind the minimum needs for basic retirement. Once this is met or politically so, i would expects the the growth to follow inflation trend.

Singapore is one of the lowest tax countries in the world. This do not happen by chance but by the expectation that retirement is mainly self-funded, and CPF is a commitment to the society that we meet our minimum obligation.

Considering the retirement needs in future dollars, releasing CPF money will not going to help much to our financial wealth being. This is not hard to deduce considering a million dollar without investment will easily be expended in 15 years in earlier article. Even with 2.5%-4% returns, the minimum sum will not be enough to meet my personal retirement needs. If we understand the concept, will people still care about not meeting the minimum sum less the purpose is to withdraw them asap, and this can be worrying.

The logic is simple after i did my own lifestyle count. By the time I retire, my  investable should be at least 10x of the minimum sum of today money. If i am not achieving that yet, is time i find a way to earn more and be Accountable for my own financial well being before is too late.

I start to draw out all my investments. And soon realised that CPF money sits very well as the guaranteed portion of my portfolio that provides stable and min. baseline returns. Withdrawing CPF is certainly not an answer to it. Is our money safe ? Last i check our government prints their own money so this should not be an issue. Is better to be locked away till 65 from anyone or even myself. The monthly withdrawal feature provides an additional layer of protection for my golden years. Once we put further thoughts into it, CPF is actually a safety net insurance scheme at national level.


Cory
13th July'14