Ledger Nano S Review, Set-up and Price | Why I got a cold wallet for my crypto

In my previous video talking about cryptocurrency, I mentioned about hot and cold wallets, the differences between them. As I am planning to do some form of DCA into crypto though not monthly, where I will put in a small small proportion of my monthly salary into this fund. This will be definitely after accumulations throughout a few months. With that in mind, I have gotten a hardware wallet to store my crypto in. So I decided to get the Ledger Nano S and in today's article, I will be going through the process and review of using it.

So for hardware wallets, it is very very important to be buy it from the official store and not from any third party seller as your 24 word seed and pin-code will be keyed into the wallet for transfers of your crypto and buying from a third party could mean that the wallet could be compromised and not safe.

For me, I have seen ledger before and I actually checked the different kind of hardware wallet available and found TREZOR as well. But I chose to get a Ledger Nano S in the end. Delivery took about 2 weeks and I managed to get a 20% discount code on it. After getting the Nano S, it looks pretty slick and comes with a few accessories.

 

Image taken from https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/wallets/ledger-nano-s/

Setting up the hardware wallet

Pass code

After getting the Nano S, you will need to plug it into your computer as it does not have an external battery like the Nano X. After plugging it in, you can start setting up the device with first, a pass code.

This pass code serves as a first barrier of safety if you lose your physical hardware wallet, the pass code if input wrongly for 3 times will wipe of the details in the wallet. This then moves us onto the next important step.

24 word seed phrase (Major importance)

Before buying the hardware wallet, I was reading up on the safety and how exactly the device is able to be secure in storing the cryptos you have. One very very important thing highlighted in every thread is to not let anyone know of your 24 word seed phrase, this is so crucial that methods of storing it goes back to pen and paper. Because if you snap a photo of it in your phone, it is very much dangerous as people can hacked and access it.

For me, I know we are not talking about millions here but money is still money and losing even a dollar hurts haha so do remember to keep your 24 word seed phrase securely somewhere. So after keying in the pass code, the 24 word phrase will appear for you to write it somewhere. If your computer breaks down or hard drive becomes corrupted, you can still get another wallet, download the same wallet software and use the paper backup to get your cryptos back.

 

Image taken from https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/wallets/ledger-nano-s/

Getting/Transferring your cryptos from hot to cold wallet

So you have set up your devices and can now get ready to download ledger live to your computer and ledger apps into your Nano S. The set up is pretty simple and ledger does provide video tutorials that you can refer to. You will need to download individual apps for each crypto into the Nano S before you can transfer. For me, I only need to download the Bitcoin and Etherum app.

Do note that the Nano S has smaller storage hence if you do hold other altcoins, getting the Nano X could be a better idea as you will be able to download more apps. Hope this review has been interesting! And you can reach out to me for a 20% discount code if you need.

Elon Musk pushing Bitcoin

Bitcoin jumped as much as 14% on Friday to a two-week high after Elon Musk tagged the cryptocurrency in his Twitter biography, every word he says now makes a huge impact. Even on GameStop which surged 50% after Musk tweeted “Gamestonk!!”, along with a link to the Reddit Wallstreetbets stock trading discussion group. WSB supporters affectionately refer to him as “Papa Musk.” It crazy how the stock market reacts nowadays, it could be irrational or just something that we have never seen before. It is so exciting yet scary at the same time as you really don't know whether the stock you are holding would surge or drop based on anything that is said. Hope you guys enjoyed today's video, do share it if you have enjoyed, give a thumbs up for support and do hit the subscribe button for more content from me!

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Is the GameStopping?

I am sure you guys know what this article will be about, over the past month, GameStop stock prices have surge like a rocket on full speed up. How it all started, I am sure everyone would have watched numerous videos and read many articles on it but I will give a short summary. Hopefully what I have interpreted is accurate.

Summary

Basically, it starts from this reddit page 'WallStreetBets' where they target short sellers. Redditors found out that GameStop was heavily shorted as the company sales have been slow and was expected to lose money as physical retail stores have suffered due to the pandemic although GameStop sells video games which have good sales due to more ppl staying at home. On 11 Jan 2021, 3 new directors were added and one of them being Ryan Cohen (from Chewy, an American online retailer of pet food and other pet-related products) who could bring a digital experience to GameStop and turn the business around. Ryan himself reportedly owns 9 million shares bought in 2020 at an average price of $8.43 for a total cost of $76 million at the time. Considering the current price, he has become a billionaire.

This is something that will go down in history

Taking financial classes or reading future financial books will have this event in it as redditors goes against hedge funds who have for the longest time always have the upper hand due to their sheer size and power. It is amazing how this collaborated push to buy the shares and hold it can make multiple hedge funds lose billions. Hedge funds like Melvin Capital suffered heavy losses over the GameStop saga, causing Citadel and Point72 (both hedge funds) to provide almost $3 billion to Melvin Capital. Melvin attracted the ire of Reddit users on Wall Street Bets. The financial systems have always been supporting the large financial systems, bailing them out when trouble hits and in this whole system why is it only financial institutions that can profit, redditors proved otherwise.

Robinhood halts trading

Robinhood announced it had restricted trading on certain stocks, including GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE: AMC) and others, sparking an outcry on social media. This is crazy because the platform just halts trading when so many wants to get in. I have heard many saying that class action suit would be filed to Robinhood.

"A class action lawsuit is a lawsuit in which a group of people with the same or similar injuries caused by the same product or action file suit against the defendant as a group."

Am I invested?

I am currently not invested in GameStop and don't think I will. It is exciting to be following up on the news and seeing how ppl's gains have skyrocketed. I do get a little shocked at how the price have jumped, it is by far the craziest profits I have seen over a short period of time. As more ppl get into, it will be more dangerous and risky. If you really want to jump on the bandwagon, allocated a small amount to it maybe at most 5% of your portfolio, to ensure if anything happens, the most you would lose is that 5%.

I have been in the WSB reddit every night seeing them work hard to tell everyone to buy and hold for GMC to hit $1000. It is amazing how one group of ppl globally can bring about such a huge impact all through this platform. Investing has really changed over the years as more people start to use investing as a way to increase their wealth exponentially through a short period of time. It is interesting and definitely something that will go down in history. How about you guys? Are you invested?

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References:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/robinhood-ceo-trading-halts-made-001505664.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/28/investing/lawsuit-robinhood-gamestop-wallstreetbets/index.html
https://millerlawpc.com/class-action-lawsuit/

How would I start investing with $1000?

Hi Guys, welcome back to another episode of SingaporeanTalksMoney! There are many YouTube videos that talk about how you should start investing $1000. Why $1000? I would think that it is a nice amount to start with because it is not a small amount neither is it too big an amount.

How I am going to invest this $1000 is considering that you have put an emergency fund aside and this $1000 is really just for you to start investing and any fluctuations will be all right for you as investing can mean that your $1000 can easily go to $100 although I do doubt that.

How I will start investing with $1000

Please note that the following are my own opinions and in no way am I encouraging you to follow as I am not a financial advisor and neither am I able to guaranteed that my actions are correct and will generate returns. So first, with $1000, I will split it up and start a regular savings plan (RSP) buying into an Index ETF. With $200 monthly into any Index ETF of your choice (Hang Seng, STI ETF or S&P 500). With this RSP set up, $1000 would last you for 5 months and during this span of 5 months, I am sure you will be able to save another $1000 or even more. If you are able to save another $1000, you can continue on the RSP and with any extra saved up, you can invest it into other stocks that you like to have in your portfolio otherwise, you can adjust you RSP to include other counters or just increase the monthly amount accordingly.

How you will fare in the long run

Assuming an annual growth rate of 5% and a monthly deposit of $200, you will end up with about $30,900 in 10 years time. It might not sound a lot but by then, you would have already developed a habit of saving and putting money aside, if you are able to put more into the RSP monthly and also into individual stock purchases, you might end up with an amount much more than this.

From the table, you can see that year after year, the interest earned is also added back to the principal and earns you back interest and this is the power of compounding. This allows your money to grow over time as the interest is added back and grows as well.

 Why you should just get started now

Just like how we would easily sign up for a savings plan, if we are young and have the base built up eg insurance bought, emergency fund set aside and not much debt. We should put the remainder of our money to work by investing them.

I am glad I started on my investing early on as the mistakes that I have made and learned along the way has slowly shaped my investment style. Although I would have benefited without those mistake at the beginning, I started early and have time on my hand to change. Creating a RSP has made me more disciplined and also to DCA.

Read more: Why you should start investing NOW!

The first few years of investing will not show immediate results and I think the beginning is when you really look forward to having returns, I used to look at my portfolio quite often and every movement excites me. Slowly, you will start to realised that having a long term horizon is the best as the returns will show particularly after you go through a down time and recovery is strong. I wouldn't call myself an expert as I am still learning lots along the way. I have seen many whose portfolios are amazing and they can practically retire based on the value of it. Wishing all of you all the best in your investing journey and don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to my channel.

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Portfolio Dissection EP.1 | Nikko AM STI ETF & SPDR STI ETF

I am coming up with a new series called Portfolio Dissections where I talk more about the individual stocks I hold, why I bought them and also whether will I be holding them in the long term or will sell them. Information are accurate as of released time and I hope you enjoy this new series. Please do give a thumbs up or subscribe to my channel if you like my content.

Nikko AM STI ETF & SPDR STI ETF

Let's have some introduction first, both Nikko AM STI ETF and SPDR STI ETF both target to replicate as closely as possible, before expenses, the performance of the Straits Times Index. The different names like Nikko AM and SPDR is because they are managed by different asset managers. Some differences between them would be that firstly, the fund size, secondly, the expense ratio, tracking error and dividends. There are many articles out there listing the differences so I wouldn't go too much into it.

So US has the S&P 500 similarly, SG has our very own STI ETF.

The top 10 holdings of STI ETF are as below with the top 3 being the Banks (DBS, UOB and OCBC) which already accounts for more than 30%.

So first, let's talk about Nikko AM STI ETF, it is actually the first thing that I started buying in 2017 through the POSB Invest Saver. So currently, it is not held in my CDP account but under DBS/POSB and I can access the holdings through my ibanking. At that time, I wanted to start investing but did not want to go through the whole process of creating a brokerage account and a CDP account, after researching, I found out about this term called dollar cost averaging.

Then coming across POSB invest saver really showed that DCA can be easily implemented. At that time in 2017, I was still a university student but I earned some pocket money through tutoring and decided to start a RSP. So at that time, I was consistently buying around just $100 monthly and slowly increased it to $300 monthly. I started it and did have some breaks in between the years hence the varying prices where I bought some units at $2.95 all the way to $3.43. Currently, in terms of P&L, about -$295 but dividends wise, I have received about $295 as well over the years.

After that, I googled and realized that there is also a SPDR STI ETF which has been around a longer than Nikko AM with a larger fund size. I decided to then but SPDR STI ETF in a lump sum and also a few months in the RSP with FSMone in 2020. I would think that both track the STI ETF and there are many comparison articles out there. For me, I would be holding them for the long term as dividends wise, they are paying pretty good depending on the prices you bought it. On average, it has generated about 3-4% for me which is a lot better than bank interest rates.

Should I still invest in SG particularly the STI ETF?

There have been many articles recently talking about the poor performance of STI ETF and that many have shifted over to the US or HK markets. For me, I like having a Singapore portfolio as a base first and also for dividends. If you do not like the STI ETF, you can look for REITs or Banks that can pay really good dividends and the dividends are not taxable. By also having a SG portfolio, you can slowly build on it and move towards the overseas markets as you have more capital. I moved towards buying US ETFs as I find the price volatility is higher meaning that the increase and drop daily is by the dollars whereas in the SG market, it is usually by cents, in terms of that and with me being 25 years old, I find myself wanting to take on more risks as the rewards could also be more.

Avoid Home Country Bias

Another point on why I moved towards the US market is because of this thing called the home country bias. You might feel that investing in SG market is a good idea because you are much more familiar with the companies or maybe have seen it before but thinking that and favoring companies from our own country over those from other countries or regions could be a mistake. Considering our smaller population and investing COMPLETELY in SG could result in a unbalanced portfolio although there are tax benefits to investing in SG. So after building a SG base, I wanted to venture out.

With that being said, I know that having too much risk can be detrimental to my portfolio as the value could be fluctuating in large amounts hence I will still be putting my money into the SG market particularly in REITs. For STI ETF, I will not be putting in anymore money in but will continue to hold on to my existing units. Hope you guys enjoy today's episode and do stay tuned for other episodes on this series! Appreciate a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel.

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The more you earn, the happier you are? | Does your salary determine your happiness level?

Today’s topic is gonna be about “The more you earn, the happier you are?" and whether is that true. In my blog I have written an article about how much you need to be earning to be happy.

 

Read more: How much money do you need to be earning to be happy?

This topic is very much relevant today to me because after the pandemic and after working full-time, most of my friends talk about their salary quite openly and how much they are earning each month.

Some complain that it is not enough while I do have a small handful of friends who say that they are not sure what to do with the surplus of money in their bank account. Singapore is an expensive country even though we recently lost our spot at the top. Our property and cars cost are high but on the other hand, our food and public transport can be considered as relatively affordable. So does it mean that the more I earn, the happier I will be? Because then I will be able to buy more things which = happier.

More money can buy you more happiness but only a certain amount

Psychologists from Purdue University and the University of Virginia analyzed World Gallup Poll data from 1.7 million people in 164 countries, and cross-referenced their earnings and life satisfaction. The study found that once that threshold was reached where the ideal income for individuals is $95,000 a year for life satisfaction and $60,000 to $70,000 per year for emotional well-being, further increases in income were actually associated with reduced happiness. The researchers defined life satisfaction as an overall assessment of how one is doing, while emotional well-being refers to a person’s day-to-day feelings such as happiness, sadness, excitement or anger.

Bill Gates also mentioned that money can buy you happiness except there is definitely a threshold and not like you need 1 billion dollars to be happy. Not having to worry about your daily essentials and healthcare or education can significantly make you happier as you are not constantly having to think about whether you can afford if anything were to happen.

Being free from worry about financial things is a real blessing - Bill Gates

Money can buy you happiness especially if you spend it on others.

Giving others things and spending money on them can give you happiness as you feel that you can use the money that you have earned to bring happiness to the people around you. For example, when you got your first pay cheque, the meal you bought for your parents, the gifts you got for them and also the travels that you brought them along. With more money, you not only feel happier but more so because you can spend it on the people around you making them happier as there are new experiences for them.

Learning to scrimp and save

For me, my starting pay is definitely lower than the the median salary of $3600 per month for fresh graduates and I think knowing that you are earning much lower than your peers gives you an indication that you will have lesser amount that you can save from your pay. With that in mind, starting with a lower pay has made me learn to scrimp and save more on areas that I am able to do so.

If I were to be earning more, I might not earn to save as I am right now but definitely, I believe that if I am earning more, I will be happier, this is because there are some material items/experiences that need money to be fulfilled referencing back to money can buy you happiness especially if you spend it on others.

The more money = the happier you are

There are also others who dispute the theory that there are limits on how much happiness money can buy. According to a research published in 2013 in the American Economic Review by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, "There is no tipping point, the relationship between well-being and income is roughly a linear-log and does not diminish as incomes rise, if there is a satiation point, we are yet to reach it.” Every individual is different in terms of how we view money to some, money helps to open more 'doors', opportunities for them whereas some feel that money is the root of all evil and having too much can breed distrust and greediness among their companions.

For me, money is important especially in today's world because it is a way of expanding your horizons and being able to do the things you want. We work hard to earn enough for a roof over our head and to put food on the table, with our future being quite in the unknown, I definitely feel that more money would make me happier but to be honest, I would think that having to manage a huge sum of money can be stressful. There is a tipping point between the amount of money earned and your happiness. A 2010 study out of Princeton University found that there’s a correlation between happiness and wealth, to a point of about $75,000 per year. When people make more than $75,000 a year, their happiness doesn’t increase, but the lower their income is the worse they feel, the study found. I haven't reached this tipping point yet and am striving towards it! Hope you have enjoyed today's video, do hit the like and subscribe button for more content from me.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/26/how-your-salary-and-the-way-you-spend-money-affect-your-happiness.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/05/can-money-buy-happiness-debate-study-on-success.html
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-is-exactly-how-much-money-you-need-to-be-truly-happy-earning-more-wont-help-2018-02-14
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/bill-gates-says-wealth-made-him-happier-but-you-dont-need-a-billion.html

Is $1000 to $2000 a month sufficient for retirement in Singapore?

So I came across a video by CNA insider "What Retirement on $1000 - $2000 a month in Singapore looks like. It follows mainly three man on their retirement journey and how they fund their retirement. It's quite a nice, short and informative video on how the retirees are funding and coping with retirement life.

How they will be funding their retirement

Phua Foo Guan

For the first individual, Phua Foo Guan (former iT professional), a very active individual who has events planned out for his week with jogs, table tennis and even steps climbing till the 40th floor. Seeing his lifestyle really makes me kinda ashamed at my exercise routine haha. His main funding for his retirement will be from his CPF LIFE payout, cash savings,investments and his home as an asset.

Patrick Lee

The second individual, Patrick Lee (Salesman), who looks really fun,artistic and sociable, relies on rental income, dividends from unit trust as well as CPF life. He is single but has many friends who he hangs out with having great meals together. He mainly retired to spend and take care of his mother.

Mohd Amin

The third individual is Mohd Amin (Firefighter), who is able to spend more time with his wife, children and grand-children after retirement. He downgraded from a 5-room to 2-room flat and the sales proceeds help fund his retirement together with his pension and also his part time job. I would say he is in a great position and downgrading when required as they do not required such a large place as their kids move out.

All 3 of them looks to be in a pretty good position and are enjoying their retirement with activities filled.

Retirement for my Mum

My mum also started her retirement around 2019 and so far have been keeping well within her budget except in terms of her insurance, she recently did a downgrade on her rider as the previous rider for her was really too expensive as it was covering private hospitals and also 100% of costs? Haha, I am not so well-versed in insurance but downgrading will allow her to pay half as much though she would have a specific panel of doctors to visit otherwise, she will have a co-payment to pay. Overall, after downgrading, I would say that she is in a better position as the annual premiums would be more manageable.

On her side, she has definitely been cooking a lot more as it really saves us money in the longer term. She can whip up a few dishes with ingredients that she bought and tbh when she was working, I didn't have a chance to taste her cooking. Nowadays, once in awhile, she will have some experimental dishes and some turns out good while others.......but it's nice overall her cooking. We also opt for hawker food and try to reduce our visits to restaurants. I do supplement her with a small allowance monthly and pay for expenses incurred during weekends but grocery shopping and all do still require quite a sum monthly.

But I would say that I am glad she retired as she has become happier and have more control over her time to do the things she want. I don't really track her expenses but I would say $2000 would be a good estimate for how much she spends on a monthly basis though traveling would mean more is needed.

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Will you want to be the richest person in the world?

How does it feel to be the "official" richest man in the world? Elon Musk was recently announced to have become the richest man overtaking Jeff Bezos who has been the richest man since 2017. Elon's net worth crossed $185 billion as Tesla stock price skyrocketed.

As always, Elon used his twitter to express his feelings about it with him tweeting, "How strange" and "Well, it's back to work..." He also mentioned that he intends to use half of his fortune to “help problems on Earth” and “half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves” To him, he does not know where to spend the money at as he has not much recreation time.

Let's talk about Elon's life from when he was a child. He was born and raised in South Africa. When he was 12 years old, he sold a simple game called Blastar for $500, it was a game that he created. He was an awkward and introverted child and was severely bullied throughout his childhood and was once hospitalized after a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs.

He went on to study at University of Pennsylvania where he received dual bachelor's degrees in economics and physics. He was going to study for a Ph.D. in applied physics and material sciences at Stanford University but dropped out after 2 days to launch his internet startup. Elon is really a very interesting guys as he continued to start companies and they did pretty well although he did face some issues with cash flows for SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity in 2008. Elon has a vision in which he is putting it to action, some times when I see people being able to turn their dreams into reality, it is so amazing. In Singapore, we are always chasing after some kind of stability and often miss out on chasing our dreams. With the world changing and needing more innovations, the future generations will need to adapt and really change the way we work and live.

Elon's life was definitely not smooth sailing, same with his marriage where he has been through some separation. But the way he innovates and think is definitely not as simple as it is. Studying psychology always touched on the topic of nature or nurture and which has the largest effect on a person. I would find myself as someone who has kinda low motivation to get things done and being able to persist in times of crisis where Elon has been through needs a lot of grit. Can all these qualities be taught to someone as they are growing up?

To become the richest person in the world is not easy, to have to handle the attention you get and scrutiny on how you are spending your money. Would you want to be the richest person in the world? For me, in my dreams maybe hahahaha

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/07/elon-musk-overtakes-amazon-bezos-world-richest-person-tesla-bloomberg-billionare-index-blue-senate

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55578403

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-of-elon-musk-2016-7#but-he-finished-his-studies-at-the-university-of-pennsylvania-earning-degrees-in-physics-and-economics-7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

Will the stock market crash in 2021?

I am back with another video (very click-bait kinda title haha), do hit the like button and subscribe to my channel fro more content. As 2020 ends and 2021 comes along, many people are thinking if the stock market growth will continue on into the new year? Will there be a crash? Otherwise will there be any changes to where investors will be putting their money in?

There are many things that cannot be predicted in the stock market, things can go either way and you might get surprises along the way but what we can do is to analyze based on data and the whole environment around us to make some deductions about how the stock market will be like.

Definitely, on everyone's mind:

Will the stock market crash in 2021?

What do you think? Many have said that the current stock market has had a huge bull run and for it to continue going up like it did after the pandemic strike in 2020 is a little impossible. For me, I would think that in 2021 the stock market would depend on whether the world (mostly US and UK) if they would have brought the pandemic under control and also if the overall economic situation improves. For example, travel and also service industries, of course in 2020 we fully experience that the economy is not the stock market and that the stock market does not reflect what is happening in the economy.

It is impossible for someone to predict how the market would pan out in 2021 and I wouldn't want to be saying something that I am not even sure of. What I can say is to continue to stay invested, have a sum build up for when the prices drop and you will be able to buy in. Also, to create some form of DCA to ensure that even if the market goes up, you are still putting money in monthly. I haven't really experienced a market crash since I only started investing in 2017, the craziest drop was in Mar 2020 and other times were slight drops that wouldn't qualify as a market crash. I have seen many documentaries on the 2007-2008 financial crisis which wiped out many people's life savings as well as making many jobs redundant. Let's hope I will not experience that because I feel that I am in a position where my job can easily be made redundant as it is a rather entry-level position. Getting a little out of point now.

If there isn't a crash, will tech stocks continue to rise? Or will there be a shift?

The Stock Market Is About To Flip

Tech stocks have dominated 2020 from Apple to Microsoft, Netflix and Zoom just to name a few, 2020 has been the year of digitalization and when technology rise up and dominated not just our personal but work life.

On my side, I could see my company automating more of it's processes and going digital as more IPA (intelligent process automation) is being put in place and even RPA (robotic process automation) is coming up. With all these advances at work, technology is really so essential and makes me doubt if I will be even needed in my work place in the near future. Will this trend continue on in 2021? Or will a shift happen. The video by Graham Stephan talks about how money is slowly shifting out of tech stocks (growth stocks) and into value stocks that are recovering from the effects of the pandemic. This is because tech stocks might be over-valued and people will be looking for stocks in recovery that are under-valued. For example, there was a huge boost in transport, financials and energy stocks after a vaccine was found.

From that, I would believe that there is a certain amount of truth in that, in my opinion, people are finding technology stocks to be over-valued and if they can still perform in 2021, I believe stock holders would be pleased but ultimately, everyone is looking for something under-valued that could be the next Tesla or Amazon and giving you a 100X multi bagger.

Because of the pandemic, many industries that was hit hard are set for recovery especially so when a vaccine has been announced but it is definitely not in the safe zone yet as US and UK are still struggling with their cases and many parts of Asia as well. With a new strain of the virus being discovered, 2021 will really test how the government react to the situation. If they are able to control and implement some kind of effective system, that will be great. Otherwise a repeat of 2020 might just happen. Definitely, I still see tech stocks as being crucial as we will still rely high on technology but with it's current pricing, I might stand on the sidelines first and observe. Another interesting area to look at is genomics, Cathie Wood of Ark Invest mentioned that genomics will be the next FAANG and Chicken Genius has also second this noting that he has been talking about ARKG (ARK Genomic Revolution ETF) a while back although it will not be a next Tesla. Of course,there are also other areas with growth opportunity like cryptocurrencies eg how Bitcoin which is now already $29,000. No one can predict the future. Excited to see how the stock market turns out in 2021.

Judging by the recent few days rally, we can see that the stock market is irrational, I have not seen such a crazy rally especially with the Tesla and LMND stocks that I am holding. But I will try hard and still hold on and stay invested. Hope you guys enjoy my videos so far, do give a like and subscribe to my channel, it will really help me out! Stay tuned for my videos as I talk more about my investments and personal finance.

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Largest Profit Ever in My Portfolio | Time to cash out or to HOLD?

So as of today, 9 Jan 2021, my portfolio is currently having a total unrealised profits of $8000. You can also see my FSMone portfolio in the video that I will be releasing soon. This portfolio gain is the largest I have ever experienced, from when I started investing in 2017, my portfolio has always been in the red because I bought the STI ETF at about $3 plus and added with my Design Studio loss, my portfolio was always red with -$2000 to -$3000.

Read more: Design Studio (D11:SI) - Investment that made me lose almost all my capital

2020 - The year of change and moving into 2021

2020 proved to be the year when my portfolio turned from red to green as I enter the US stock market, with a regular saving plan buying VT and then VOO during the early part of 2020, they both have helped my portfolio performance.

But the heavy lifters are definitely TESLA and LMND where both have already generated 100% profit back meaning that I can get back my capital if I were to sell half of my holdings now. I have only once taken profits for SGX and the price actually went even higher, though I managed to buy it back at a good price I think I would have profited more by holding on as there are dividends given out on it. As we move into 2021, the upwards run for cryptocurrencies and stocks are really out of my expectations. Even my SG holdings have also turned to green like OCBC Bank, Capitaland Retail China Trust and SGX. The daily increase in prices for US stocks are both are astonishing, no one knows how long more the upwards run will go but 2021 is starting with a BANG that's for sure!

Read more: Let’s talk about Cryptocurrency | Revealing my Crypto holdings

Holding on and staying invested will be tough

As I mentioned previously, if I had held onto my SGX stocks which I sold off in 2018 at $7.82 for a profit of $30, I would have benefited more. For me, I got into investing knowing that I will be holding my stocks for the long term. Having right now, a profit of $8000 is not a small sum to me and I treasure this a lot. Been seeing red in my portfolio for so long and amazing how a year or a certain stock I bought can change the whole P&L of the portfolio. Currently, no plans to add on any except for my RSP in plan. As per what Chicken Genius said, staying invested and holding on sounds easy but it is the toughest thing to do. Anyhow, will hold on to my stocks and I know that volatility is high for the stocks I hold in the US market, excited to see how my portfolio will end in 2021!

Read more: Review of FSMone app | Reveal of my Entire ETFs and Stocks Portfolio in FSMone App

• I just bought a Ledger Nano S, if you would like a 20% discount code, do let me know and I will email you it. Will be coming up with a review on how to set it up as well soon and why I got it.

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Let’s talk about Cryptocurrency | Revealing my Crypto holdings

Hi Guys, welcome back to another episode of SingaporeTalksMoney! Do give an early thumbsssss up and subscribe to my channel for more content from me. Hope you guys have been enjoying my videos.

Cryptocurrency has been rising in prices like nobody's business. Even over the Christmas holiday, the price of Bitcoin has been hitting new-highs. On 27 Dec 2020, it has hit $27,500 with it being at $23,000 a week ago. The price has been increasing at a rapid pace and to be honest, I do feel that the pandemic and YouTube has played a huge part in it's rapid rise.

I am not very knowledgeable on all the different types of cryptocurrencies but I do know about Bitcoin and Etherum as I hold them in my portfolio and also because they are the 2 most popular ones. Today, I will be revealing my portfolio for my cryptocurrencies and also to talk a bit more about it.

So I previously released a video detailing a little on cryptocurrencies, how they work and also am I too late in getting into it. I have since invested a little more into as I understand it's mechanism and how it is being regulated not by a central government. I will link the video in the description box below.

Youtube Videos on Cryptocurrencies

After watching one video on YouTube about cryptocurrencies, many of my recommended videos are now about it. I came across a few interesting videos and will talk a little about it.

Will Bitcoin Hit $400,000? | THE TRUTH

damn it, I'm buying | Stocks VS Gold VS Bitcoin

Definitely, I came across the different videos from Andrei Jikeh and Chicken Genius about Crypto but I also came across this video from Sheldon Evans and his video titled: You Can Still Get Rich With Cryptocurrency Without Investing A Lot! Here's why...

You Can Still Get Rich With Cryptocurrency Without Investing A Lot! Here's why...

In the video, he talks about why you do not need a large sum invested in cryptocurrencies to get rich because judging by the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is about $560 billion. He compares the market capitalization of it with the financial markets and says that it definitely is a lot lesser than what it is worth. In it, he also talks about how as long as you bought it anytime before today, you will be in some sort of profit.

For me, when I watch all these videos, most them really emphasize on something and that is that cryptocurrencies solve a problem which is removing all the middleman and fees for transfer of money across the way and for payments. It also provide a true value not based on any government and yet is limited in value making it valuable in a sense. This really changes how we see cash and money as payment has gone almost digital in so many countries and cryptocurrencies really eliminate all the unnecessary fees and commissions.

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed against XRP’s original creator, Ripple

Ripple created and sold XRP which is the third-biggest cryptocurrency by market value. Ripple, a blockchain firm conducted a US$1.3 billion unregistered securities offering and has charged two Ripple executives for personal gains they received from the offering. Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange who is also preparing for a stock market listing has suspended the trading of XRP over a lawsuit, other smaller exchanges like Bitstamp and OK coin have also followed and suspended trades of XRP.

It is some what worrying as Ripple did also mentioned that XRP is a currency, and so it doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC. Users who trade on Coinbase will have to accept the fact that they cannot trade XRP and with Coinbase going into a stock market listing it could then be controlled by the central government even though it is the largest exchange for cryptocurrencies which are known for not being controlled by the government.

My Cryptocurrency portfolio (As of 30 Dec 2020)

I currently hold about 0.031187 Bitcoin and 0.99159 Ethereum. I bought Bitcoin at about USD 18,500 and Ethereum at about USD 575. I do see cryptocurrency as a future currency and even so now as more institutions are accepting payments through bitcoin like Visa and PayPal. I know that many people has got in earlier and at much more attractive prices. I am currently comfortable with the amount of exposure I have but will definitely slowly increase it in time to come.

There are many different types of cryptocurrencies/Altcoins and have seen many videos on them being the next big thing, as they might a chance of a 100X growth and so on. For me, I will be just sticking to Bitcoin and Ethereum which are the top 2 largest cryptocurrency. So in the long run, will add more but it wouldn't be more than my stock portfolio, that is the plan for now.

I hope you enjoy today's video and my other videos as well. Do like and subscribe to my channel. See u guys next week with a new video.

*I have purchase a cold/hardware wallet, the Ledger Nano S as my crypto assets increase in value. If you would like to purchase one as well, here is my referral link and discount code which gives you a 20% off!

*Information published here are purely opinions or feedback and should in no way be taken as guaranteed. Viewers are encouraged to do their due diligence by doing sufficient research before making any decisions based on materials on this platform.

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3115622/coinbase-suspend-trading-cryptocurrency-xrp-after-u

Review of FSMone app | Reveal of my Entire ETFs and Stocks Portfolio in FSMone App

As most of my viewers are aware, I started with DBS Vickers as my brokerage account for my Singapore stock holdings. As I slowly wanted to buy stocks from other countries, FSMone was one of the brokerages I considered and I like it because of it's simple interface which I am able to access through my mobile easily. So I eventually decided to use it to purchase my US stocks.

With a regular savings plan set up as well, I would think that FSMone app is really one of the easier applications that I have used. They have been updating their mobile app and recently also has a new look. I have a previous video on the old version but today will be with the new look. Today's video will be a review of the app and also a reveal of the stocks and ETF holdings that are in my FSMone account. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Reveal of Stock and ETF holdings (As of 31 Dec 2020)

So as of 31 Dec 2020, the current holdings in my FSMone account amounts to $19,410 with $13,065.22 invested. So it means a total unrealized profit of about $6344.85 which is about 48.56%. I am not showing to show off but I would like to keep a record of my portfolio and also show how the holdings in FSMone account are being presented. My Singapore portfolio in my CDP account is in the red with - $2000 plus so with the profits here. My total portfolio actually only has a unrealized gain of $3000 plus.

Most of my profit as you can see is from Tesla and with it being so volatile like when it dropped to USD 620 a few days ago, my portfolio value actually fluctuates. You can see that most of my US stocks are in the green as I entered during the pandemic period when prices was somewhat low. On the other hand, my HK and SG holdings are in the red still.

Review of FSMone app

In the main page of the FSMone app, there is actually a lot of articles and also information for your reading, I don't really read here but I do find certain information quite useful some times. I have been using the FSMone app for about 1 year now since end 2019. What caught my eye for FSMone was actually the regular savings plan which in 2019 was still gaining traction. Though there were other platforms providing this service, I liked that they had a focus list of ETFs and most of them being the major index ETFs like Vanguard S&P (VOO), the tracker Fund of Hong Kong (2800) and of course, the STI ETF. This review is based on my usage of the app and not against any other apps as I am currently only using FSMone.

Good Points

Previously when I used DBS Vickers to buy SG stocks, I was not able to use an app to track my holdings as SG stocks are held in the CDP account. With FSMone, I like how the holdings can be viewed on one page although I would guess that other brokerages would also have this feature. I also like how they show the profit and loss at a glance with the option of viewing it based on it's current value or the investment amount.

Another thing I like about the FSMone mobile app is that you can put in your buy or sell orders easily and being able to do that through the mobile app is great. It is convenient and fuss-free.

Some improvements

In terms of showing the portfolio value, I noticed that the app only shows the amount of P&L for the day and if there is a feature to show a graph of a time period of the portfolio value, that will be great so that the performance of the portfolio can be tracked and seen clearly through the graph.

Other than that, I find the app as a whole a good app to use for investing. Hope that you guys have found this informative. I hope that you guys have found this video informative and also useful as I explore the features of the mobile application. I do not really utilise the features of the app much except to place orders and to view my holdings. Overall, I would say that it is rather simple for a beginner and the FAQs on the website is quite good. If you do experience any difficulties or have queries, their email for customer service will reply you within 1-3 working days and you can also call them which I feel is really important that they respond to you.

*Please note that the above are my opinions and in no way am I encouraging you to get an account with FSMone. I am not sponsored in anyway and just sharing my thoughts on the application.