My current watchlist - but warchest is not robust enough yet

As the stock market drops due to various events happening, certain stocks have become more attractive. For my current watch list, some stocks have reached a particularly attractive price.


I will be putting down some of the stocks that I am watching currently and hope to buy soon. Of course, do note that it is not an advice to buy and I am not yet invested in any of the below mentioned stocks. Do your own assessment / research before embarking on any .

1. OCBC

DBS, OCBC and UOB is everyone's favourite with DBS being discussed the most. For me, OCBC is a much better choice as it recently fell below $11.

This means that it provides a dividend yield of 4.52% based on the current price of $10.63.

TheFifthPerson: 11 things to know about OCBC Bank before you invest (updated 2019)

2. STI ETF

STI ETF has been in my radar as it is now at a price of $3.15, this gives a dividend yield of about 3.81% which is rather attractive.


My first stock was Nikko AM STI ETF which I purchased through POSB invest saver.

However, if I had the choice with POSB invest saver, I would want to buy into SPDR STI ETF. however there was no such option. But I did buy some in Aug 2018 at a price of $3.28 so with the current price, it looks good for me to average down. 

3. Hong Kong Land

You can read more on a post I wrote previously: Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (H78.SI) - To buy or not to buy


For me, I am not looking for the lowest point to buy in but because my cash (war chest) on hand is not much and I would require some time to accumulate. We would see how things progress.

Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (H78.SI) - To buy or not to buy

I have actually been having Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (H78.SI) on my watch list for awhile now however the price has always been above USD6.00

Recently, CompoundingDividendxDividend and Writing of Investing Noob both wrote about Hongkong Land and that they would be initiating or have initiated a position.


For Hongkong Land, towards the end of July, the price for H78.SI slowly dropped. This could be due to it having reported a 63% fall in 1H19 earnings ended June to US$411 million ($568 million) from US$1.1 billion in 1H18. 

Also, due to the current situation in Hong Kong, the protest might bring about worsening demand for office spaces. 

I first added Hongkong Land to my watch list as it has a huge portfolio of properties in which they are the major landlord. The properties are all reputable buildings with good occupancy rates. Singapore properties include MBFC, Citylink and One Raffles Quay.

The parent company for Hongkong Land is Jardine Strategic Holdings (Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited) and it has a subsidary in Singapore, MCL land. 

They have properties in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Jakarta, Hanoi, Bangkok and China all of which are in Asia. And their properties are all good solid properties.

With the current rice of USD5.45 (8 August 2019), it is looking rather attractive with a dividend yield of 4.04%. 


With the price of USD 5.45, I actually am really considering to buy in however, if u have read my recent post, I am trying to have at least $9000 per buy action and definitely I do not have that amount right now. I might wait till the end of the year to see before I initiate any buy action. 

I would also like to observe the protest in Hong Kong for awhile more. It doesn't seem to be stopping unless the government comes out to address the many issues that Hong Kong are facing. And whether China would be taking any action.

To slowly build up my funds, I would wait till 2020 before I really action on any buying.

This article is not in anyway encouraging you to buy and I myself am not yet invested in H78.SI. 
Dyodd before proceeding.

References: 

https://www.theedgesingapore.com/capital/investing-idea/will-hongkong-land-be-able-withstand-weakening-office-space-demand 

Increase your income, not cut your expenses is the way to become rich

I do agree to this statement, 'Increase your income, not cut your expenses is the way to become rich. This is especially so when I started work and am able to earn my own money to invest.

The accumulation of money from my income monthly is really slow. I have to wait for pretty much at least half to a year before I can really go on a buy action.

Read more: I thought I will get rich once I start work + Updates on my life 


This means that on multiple occasions, I was not able to execute my buy orders even though the price might be right as I need to build up my my emergency fund first.


Also recently I want to make sure my commission charges are fully justified.

For DBS Vickers, the cash upfront account has a commission rate of 0.12%, min 10 SGD. This means that to maximise the commission, I would need to make at around $9000 to $10 000 on each buy action.

This is because

(0.12/100) X 9000 (Lets just put it as 9000) = $10.80 in commission charges for $9000

(0.12/100) X 10 000 =  $12 in commission charges for $10 000

So this means that for each buy action I should use at least $9000 as either 0.12%, min $10 will be charged and for it to be worth, about $9000 will be minimally the best.

However, to invest $9000 each time is really not easy as building up to that can take me a very long time although one good thing is that it can give me more time to think before rushing in on a purchase.

With a higher income, I believe that I would be able to build up my portfolio much faster than having to cut my expenses.

Definitely, the best combination would be to have a a high income and low expenses.


I have actually taken several steps to increase my income / cut my expenses slightly:

Teach tuition every Sunday (additional ~$150 per month):

I currently teach every Sunday morning for 1 hr 30 mins. I am teaching lower primary and so I earn about $150 each month and this can help cover some of my expenses.

Pack lunch to work every Mon till Thurs:

I pack lunch to work every Monday to Thursdays, it usually is pasta but sometimes I will prepare salad (use iceberg lettuce as the base, it is really affordable at just $1.45 per head and can be used over a few days) or fried rice as well.

It all depends on what ingredients I have in my fridge. This really help save a substantial amount of my pay and some of my colleagues have also joined me as they want to save money too.


I like packing my lunch as I do not waste much time queuing for food or to waste time waiting. This means I can eat and even have a power nap if possible.

But this also means I do not walk as much because I can just eat in the pantry area and I don't get to go out for fresh air. Fridays we usually go out to eat so I don't pack lunch on Fridays.

Tapping my card before 7.45am from Mon till Fri:

By tapping in to the MRT stations before 7.45 am daily, I save $0.50. And sure, $0.50 doesn't sound much but if u were to multiply it by 261 days (no. of weekdays in 2019) = $130.50.

Of course, I tap in before 7.45am also because my working hours starts early at 8.30am, if not I don't think I would tap in before that. haha

Things I could work more on:

Increasing my salary:

I have been working in my current job for about 9 months now. My boss has discussed with me that there wouldn't be an increment after my first contract ends this month as I haven't worked one full year yet.

I am not too sure how much the increment would be and whether it will really happen, but I hope to stay till the end of the year and see what they can offer me.

If by then, what they offer me doesn't look attractive then I would start looking for a new job.


I believe that by the end of the year, even if I were to get an increment, I would still remain as a contract worker so maybe finding a new job would be a better alternative.


Increasing my tuition rate:

I have actually always wanted to increase my rate but to be honest, I didn't graduate from a local university and my degree is a really general degree (not STEM subject).

So I always offer a lower rate. I have been giving tuition for about 3 years now since my university days so maybe if I can increase my rateslightly would also bring about a little more income.

All in all, I hope to increase my main source of income which is my day job currently. With the market looking not so optimistic, job opportunities are also not easy to come by. Hoping that the rest of the year will be good:)

To get a iPhone XR ($850) or to change battery for my existing phone ($69)?

August will be when I complete my original 9 months contract for my job. I receive my contract completion bonus and I am thinking of getting a new phone.

Read more: Gotten a new job but it's a contract job - Are contract jobs inferior to full-time jobs?

Of course, when I first knew that I would get a completion bonus, I was thinking of saving it to my war chest and to deploy when time is right but because I recently lost my iPhone 8 and I am using a iPhone 6 Plus from my uncle.


Read more: Losing my iphone 8 - what a bad experience

It is all good except that the battery life is really bad and it can drain within half a day and it is quite slow when opening apps. But I am also considering to just change the battery at the Apple store for $69 dollars as I feel that I can still survive with this phone as long the battery life can be better.

I am still thinking and figuring it until on Thursday night, on the way back home my phone blacked out on me. That was when I thought that I really need to change my phone.

So I am also leaning towards getting the iPhone XR at $850 which will be not from the apple store but a pretty reliable mobile shop that my mum got her google pixel from.


I am leaning towards the iPhone XR as it is cheaper than XS and X. My aunt has the iPhone XR and I used her phone before and it was pretty good.

I like to get a new phone as well as I will be traveling and I wanna have some nice photos. Currently, the quality of iPhone 6 Plus is not very clear. So I don't take photos as often as I did previously.

So I think I will be getting the iPhone XR 😉

The Great Hack - Your data is also your human rights

Over the weekend, I watched a documentary on Netflix called The Great Hack was about how our personal data on the internet can be so easily accessible by companies who make a profit out of those data.

The documentary follows a professor, a few other key characters and depicts mostly on Cambridge Analytica, a company that made use of data from the internet of individuals to influence key events like the US elections 2016 and Leave.Eu Campaign.


For the US elections 2016, they showed how tech giants like Facebook was employed by Trump to planned ads that was very much directed to the individuals especially those in swing states.

So what Cambridge Analytica did as a political consulting firm was that they used surveys like personality test several facebook users, what these user were not aware was that besides getting information of them, it also got access to information of all of their friends.

Throughout the show, you can see that there were 2 whistle blowers from Cambridge Analytica with Brittany Kaiser being more in the spotlight as she was one of the key person linked to Alexander Nix, the then CEO of Cambridge Analytica who helped influence more than 200 elections globally.


In the show, it explained how in many countries, right wings authoritarian are being elected for example Nigeria, Myanmar's Rohingya where racial discrimination was amplified through social media could all be linked to how data on the internet was used.

It is scary because, at first maybe you might think oh it's nothing, I dont put much of my life on social media but there are many people out there who do.

This means that in a way, companies can make use of that to influence their decisions and the decisions can in turn affect me as it could affect the country or the surroundings. 

At the end of the documentary, it showed how no one needed to pay for the breach of data of millions of people and what they did was to just access hundred thousands of people's profile before getting to their friend's data. 


The show ended with some key highlights and I think this statement really highlighted how Trump used digital ads to his advantage:

"Donald Trump's 2016 digital campaign director claimed to have run 5.9 million visual ads on Facebook in contrast to Hillary Clinton's 66,000"

My View on the The Great Hack:

This documentary really just opened my view on how technology can significantly change our perspective in things through personalized messages. 

It was also mentioned that people always had this idea of geeks being behind technology and working hard for the goodness of it but through this, Cambridge Analytica showed that the people behind could also be misusing it.

I think its really a good watch and makes you think twice about what you are putting out there in the internet.