Cory Diary: Year 2021 Portfolio Strategy

Building Up of CPF and The End of Bonds Age

With the portfolio growing, emergency funds filled and cash increased, and finally the focus of CPF returns supporting retirements, is time to slowly phase out Bonds managed in the portfolio. As CPF is not tracked in active portfolio, we will be expecting higher yield moving forward with higher volatility.

So why the focus on CPF.  Stability of the returns, and roughly 4% XIRR. This beats many bonds.

Furthermore, with locked mechanism or restrictions in CPF, I view it as positive. In-addition to that, it can also be a good holding place for extra cash in OA to be withdrawn as needed after 55. Yes, rule will change but usually is for the better or rational reason. Nevertheless, is prudent not to solely depend everything on it.

This will formed a solid base and a release of 1/4 M to more active investing. The plan is to do more cash top-up via VC3AC for the next few years as I hit FRS.

Investment Accounts

Fixed Deposit is so yesterday especially in foreign currency as there aren't much good ones after AUD/NZ dramatic reductions over the years. For local currency, the only place will be temporary holding. So basically cash is best placed in investment holding accounts subject to safety of assets consideration. I hold the view that we should not be fully invested unless we are really good in stock picking. I am not there yet.

Most of equities invested are cash flow generating for dividend.

US Investment

Have some shares in US which has seen almost doubled in returns over the years. I think is time to slowly sell them off with the rising market. However I need to get my W8BEN renewed. They aren't tracked in investment portfolio. Compared to more famous stocks like Nvidia or Tesla, this returns frankly is mediocre LOL. What a time !

If there is a large correction in the US market, I may consider some investments over there.

Chicken Genius

I watched the Video from this local man in utube who make millions from Tesla. Strike the cord that we have to invest into Needs of the World. I think this makes perfect sense. The result could be long term. Of-course is in context.

For example I would think Nvidia provide high end solution to Bitcoin farming machines, high end graphics and Gaming. Covid helps to push it up another few  levels. There's a need for it. There  aren't strong competitor. 

Growth Allocation will be opportunity based.

Cory

2020-0116

Articles in this Blog is personal take and educational purposes only. Reader should seek their own professional help when making financial decision and be responsible for their decision.

Cory Diary : Late Night Chat - CPF

Last night I have a chat with wife like 2.30 am as she was tied up with work while I was trying to manage my CPF accounts in preparation for retirement plans. This aren't a systematic work discussion but kind of jumping in and out from one topic to another and then jump back to previous again. 

We talked about the worst case scenario like both of us decided to call it quit. How financially we able to continue to manage our expenses and taking care of our babies. And what outstanding to get our financials in order. 

Progress on CPF nominations which I have been procrastinating for a while, and how we can use CPF to supplement our expenses. I still have few years before hitting 55 so if we have to do something on topping up CPF using cash, is time.

I could release my fixed deposits that has been tied down. Singapore Saving Bond will be the core backup for emergency loan installments.

One of the possibility open up is for her to take 6 months leave-in-absence to take care of our household while continues to have nanny to care for the toddlers during our day time. She still want to keep her job.

She also propose to make active her saving available for future investment with my guidance. This will give our family a boost on dividend income. So I thought this is great. We have been reserving this option as additional emergency fund. However, this will take a while as we need to map this out more carefully.

Nominations

Long time since I last did my nomination so is time to update them. The Online nomination is cool. Hopefully it get processed. Few minutes job in the actual submission but need to get two witnesses with SingPass access for the declarations. I also found from 1M65 Telegram that if we nominated minors, they will have to wait till 18 before they get distributed. Here's the link if you like to find out more. (PTO)

Discounted Singtel Shares

Found some Singtel shares in my CPF which I just requested to be sold. Ouch ! for not managing them actively. Last traded my Singtel Shares in Year 2019 on some leftover shares as I do not see strong future of the business. This will simplify administration.

Singtel is one of best performing counter based on investment life of the stock. Today with the banking license, I have yet to see fundamental change that will improve the business significantly though it can still be profitable. 

CPF Interests

Have my SA Account Max to FRS mainly through OA to SA Transfers. And now exploring VC3AC(Top-up to all 3 CPF Accounts). This is interesting because is not via Retirement Sum Topping-Up Scheme ( RSTU) so we can do SA shielding later as I understand if we still can later. The main idea is that this option allows me to continue piling up my SA other than regular work contribution (MC). The downside is that some allocations depending on age group will  go to OA and MA. There is annual limits that we can contribute so every year before 55 counts.1M65 is great source of info in Telegram. 

My hope is that we could live off with some interests off CPF after 55 without touching the principals in OA and SA. What this mean is as someone feedback in my blog and from the Telegram Chat is that we should withdraw interests earned from OA and SA in the 2nd half of the year, preferably later months to allow interests YTD to accumulate before they get credited as principal in Jan next year. This will ensure the OA and SA Principals remain untouched. This is after 55 where the SA is FRS into RA and we have left over monies in CPF OS and SA.

Children CPF

Just requested for my children CPF details to be make available to me for verification. I have done some samples top-up into their accounts recently and would like to understand this further. Currently just nominal sum into RSTU. Some people prefer VC3AC as this will make the funds available to their children in their OA for housing and MA for their Medical. I thought this is neat idea.

Please DYODD as I am new to this journey. With that of my sharing, hope you have some ideas too.

Cory

2021-0113

Articles in this Blog is personal take and educational purposes only. Reader should seek their own professional help when making financial decision and be responsible for their decision.

Cory Diary : Net Worth Reporting

Year 2020 is one of my most expensive year to date. There's quite an amount of expenses. On top of this is the housing loan. in-additional the stock market has been challenging. After understanding Baby Bonus better, did Max Top-Up for both my girls and more.

Year 2020 is also one of more trying period I have encountered to manage family, taking care of newborn, working from home and sharing the house cores. There is so many things happening that I lose count of time and likely neglected some duties or expectation.

Year 2020 is where I am asked to take on additional new challenges in work to manage more international team members in different functional area on top of regular job tasks I have been doing. The experience is a lot of learning from it as different countries have different way and culture that they perform to.

As if above is not enough for Year 2020, on CPF side, completed Voluntary Housing Refund (VHF), did some Medisave Top-Up, shift loads from OA to SA.

On the positive financial side, I still have regular job, dividend income and housing funding to support. To top this off, a good bonus plus shares. Past years shares allocated record strong gains. I do not include allocated shares in my tracking.

Therefore, with above in context, here's the Net Worth Chart.

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Net worth hits a new level and hopefully by end 2021 will hit my new goal of next bold white horizontal line in the chart. Cross my fingers because the market in US side is really lofty.

Liquid asset,  thanks to some support from Home CEO, stock market and bonus, managed to register a cash flow increase. However the overall pace is noticeably slower due to completing full VHR and some Medisave Top-up.

Equity Investment, not much has changed in invested amount as I have prepared some warchest for investment opportunities similar to Year 2019. This is despite registering a higher record sustainable dividend portion. This is interesting phenomenon. Maybe If I have placed more I would have catch a better recovery gains. The fear of Covid must have gotten me so I focus more on rebalancing and churning stocks for capital gains that probably instead result in net dividend gains as well.

Subconsciously I maybe more careful with capitals as Year 2021 would expects higher dividend if bank cap and Mall rental rebates are reduced with same amount of invested. The Market has hit euphoria stage judging from Bitcoins 41k and Tech Stocks PE as high as 1700. This hit my fear of Tulip Mania. Hopefully it is not the case and will not pull down the broad market as well if it bursts. Should we position ourselves to kio Durian ? 

To end this, I could feel that if one do not have saving, regular income or income supports, the stress will be high and demoralizing. It will be real struggle trying to keep up with needs.

Cory

2021-0110

Articles in this Blog is personal take and educational purposes only. Reader should seek their own professional help when making financial decision and be responsible for their decision.