Cory Diary : Expenses 2019

This year is quite special .... I have a lot of one-off items ...for example baby expenses. However we know that to bring a baby to adult, there is probably a string of one-off expenses over many years. Maybe "amortization" probably is a fairer way to deal with it. We need to recognize it as regular cost of business ! 

There are many other one-off items such as Renovation, Alter, Cremation Niches, Medical Surgery, Hospitalization, Medical checks, Confinement  ... this are debatable. Nevertheless they can be big ticket items or summation in total. Ignore them at your perils.

And we have the regular ones like Taxes, Nanny, Parent Allowances, Installments, Holidays, Baby Misc ...

If one plans to retire, make sure we plan them into our annual expense plan with good buffers. Don't simply jump into FIRE through hard core saving. You will be surprise like I do this year on how bad it can goes on how expenses blow up. After totaling up major items that i could find, the expenses YTD is S$117 K... ( ouch ). 

The fortunate thing is that my Liquid asset and Net worth are still trending up. The first is due to Stock Market and Regular Job, and the later with added Property Valuation Growth (Cashless by the way).

Anyone like to retire now ?

Cheers

Cory
2019-1003

Cory Diary : Portfolio Sector Allocation Report

Has been away for a week long family holiday .... ( Fretting ). Expenses are like shooting star right now. Original plan today is to write something on expenses but 10/1 comes up and probably is more exciting to update how is Cory Portfolio so far first.

Cory Top 7 Equity Investments

1. STI ETF

2. Ascendas Reit

3. Frasers Bond

4. Frasers Com Trust

5. Ascendas-h Trust

6. VICOM

7. Mapletree Ind Trust

Cory Portfolio has Bond/Pref to calm his porcelain heart. He can't take much stress. The index do their numbers too which totaled with Fixed investment hits 33.7% allocation. To calm further, Cory has SSB outside Equity Portfolio which is use to support Housing Loan (Emergency). This damped investment returns but is done deliberately.

Telco allocation is actually Netlink BNB Trust. The position is relatively small after taking profits. Telco stocks are struggling a little so is better to avoid for now. Of similar size is the Banks which provide a little upside volatility.

Particularly excited about Ascendas Reit because as previously reported scope more on higher low.  Managed to buy some MINT back as well though is net negative. VICOM has been a cool winner considering Cory is late in the game on this one. Is better to be late than never. Key is to size our position appropriately so that we can average down nicely or enjoy the ride up.

Cheers

Cory

2019-1001

Cory Diary : Trades - 2019-0920

First time staying late like 30 mins (2.30 am) to watch FED Announcement this week and learned something called a dot plot. Find it interesting but don't call me a dinosaur as I learned that it is getting less relevant today.

The market is very big with different interest groups. Personally to me is the required right step to meet broader market expectation and do a cut though how market perceive them later is another matter. A hike would certainly put the market to a major downward spin. A neutral will be bad on trade front as everyone is cutting rates. This lead to a few trades thereafter.

One of them is Wells Fargo & Co (WFC). With the increasing Banks allocation in SGX market, I see not much value now to have WFC with much lower dividends. One counter reduced. Glad to receive in strong USD term. However, net-net is neutral so is a year plus of opportunity cost though I wouldn't say is wasted as is a hedge against my local dividend counters.

This week we have good news on DC acquisitions by Mapletree Industrial Trust (MINT). The terms look good and rewarded with almost 7% up. That's a far cry from Keppel DC Reit acquisition though but I am glad to get 2nd prize as MINT is one of my  key position. Did some trades to take some capital profit off the table while still 60% vested as I believe now there is possible room for growth vs Ascendas Reit. To-date MINT has floated about Ascendas Reit in my Bubble Chart though smaller in size. Here's the previously reported chart.

To boost my dividends, Ascendas Reit has been increased from recent lows. Pretty happy about it. This filled my dividend gaps nicely but just as I did, MINT opened another due above. With much investment cash still available, I will probably be prudent this time to prepare for year end and be more conservative. One action I did is to increase my bond holding a little bit more.

Lastly, thanks to recent upswing in Reits again and... the idea of ever lowering yield in the market seems to take a stronger root. Cory Portfolio hit a high in profit with Xirr reaching 18% of range last seen in 5th July. However, this time is different because we are leaving STI quite far behind due to Bank components. Almost want to do a further average down on Banks but froze.


Cheers

Cory

2019-0920