Singaporean Talks Money: July 2021

Thursday 29 July 2021

Has the plunge of China stocks have affected my portfolio?

The China government's clamp down on Alibaba, DiDi and most recently China Education stocks have been sending sell signals to many as it shows the government's actions to be involved in the regulation of the industries to prevent monopolisation and data security issues for DiDi.

So some people have let go of their China Tech Stocks while some have went on a buying spree with a discount on the big names. My portfolio has not been affected as I do not hold any indivdual China stocks at the moment but I also find it a good buying opportunity for those who believe in China's growth and it's market. My exposure is mainly throught the World Index ETFs.

I have been buying VT via FSMone through the regular savings plan and I currently have 54 shares of it. Of course, I also shared in my earlier post that I have now made the switch from FSMone to Interactive Brokers as they removed the monthly inactivity fee which means that I am switching and buying VWRA. A few weeks back, I saw a dip in VWRA and decided to intiate a position, though not huge but I am consistently planning to buy in after a few months of building up of cash.

VT exposure to China and VWRA exposure to China

VT is Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF and assest class includes international stocks with Tencent and Alibaba making up one of the top 20 counters and from the image from etf.com you can see that Hong Kong is at third place with an aloocation of about 4.53%.

Taken from Vanguard

China Tech companies like Tencent Holdings Ltd.(700), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.(9988) and Meituan Dianping Class B(3690) are companies listed on the HK exchange and also in the Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF so the price of VT and VWRA has been fluctuating. VWRA also has exposure to China Tech stocks as seen below

Taken from etf.com

Of course this is a really small portion of my portfolio as it is within the ETF. And the price decline is also not as huge as the individual stocks. I believe that those who have a huge exposure to China stocks in their portfolio are experiencing a huge drop. I would say I am not as exposed or affected by it and China has seen exponential growth in their tech companies who really are not just tech companies but kinda like all-rounders like Alibaba and Tencent where they have ventured into communications, e-commerce, financials and music just to name some. Their reach has been huge in China and there are many more companies that are also growing.

How it will pan out

China is a huge market with endless possibilities. And companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan and DiDi have huge number of users already or practically a monopoly as almost everyone has to use their applications for certain functions. This means that they will continue to have their existing businesses or even expand but now what people are looking out for depends a huge part on the government. How much more clamping or measures will be introduced. To be honest, China has a huge talent pool and their technology and companies have grown a lot over the past few years. I believe that the stocks prices will recover or even hit new height but of course, no one knows.

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Sunday 25 July 2021

Living paycheck to paycheck | How to break free from that

Living pay-check to pay-check is the life of many especially so for lower and middle income families where bill payments, food and necessities can empty the pay check the moment it comes. Living pay-check to pay-check is a problem if you are spending unnecessarily or just have the urge to empty your account the moment money comes in, for those who are living pay check to pay-check but know that you can afford to save from it, here are some tips that I have been using.

Of course, every individual has different situation but like to share on some tips on how I save almost 50% of my take home pay every month with some conditions that not everyone might have started out with example I did not have any education debt and I am currently staying with my family at the ripe old age of 26 years old so my monthly expenses are usually kept to a minimal. All right so let's get to it.

Automate your money and to an account that is not easily seen or accessible + Build an emergency fund

Automating my funds really helped me a lot to segregate what I want to save and what I spend. In the beginning few months of receiving my salary, I wasn't aware that you were able to set up standing instructions on the account that receives your salary and I was manually transferring it monthly. It was really tedious having to keep track and log in to do the transfer. Automating it has helped a lot and the money just disappears at a certain time that you set Poof!

Beside automating the funds, I also saw a difference in how the accessibility of the account affects if you will spend the funds that you are trying to save. In Singapore, a DBS/POSB account is what everyone has and it is really accessible with ATMs and even ibanking login + paynow connected to it. When I first started receiving my salary, I saved my money in a DBS account and I was able to easily see the amount as it was together with my paynow account and made me spend easily. I decided to then automate the money to a Standard Chartered account where I would put the app all the way at the last page of my apps and also since Standard Chartered was not connected to my paynow account and has few ATMs in Singapore, I was able to build up my emergency funds at a faster rate as the money was out of sight practically.

Living to pay-check to pay-check can be frightening when you realise you have sudden expenses where you will need a sum of money but you do not have it, for example if you got into an accident and have to pay the medical bills first or if your phone gets damaged and you need a new one for communication, this can be scary hence to prevent that, you should build up an emergency fund. This allows you to have a buffer in case of any unexpected expenses like if you feel unwell and need to visit the doctor urgently.

Ask yourself before spending each time, try to make your own if possible + make a budget

For the above habit, I think it takes awhile to cultivate it because even at times I am not able to control my impulses or urge. For example, we tend to get attracted to time limited offers or promotions but if we actually sit down and think about if we really need that item, I wouldn't think we would go ahead and buy it. There will be times when you need them then that's great! But most of the time, I ask myself if it is a want or a need before purchasing it.

Having a budget helps for some whereas it doesn't help like for me. If I do set a budget, I find myself trying to hit that budget and it's crazy because I might spend lesser but due to having that budget in mind, I will spend to hit it. Sounds crazy but if you need a guide or a budget to work with your spending habits, go ahead and set a budget.

Rewards and treats are all right especially if it's the weekend, just don't make these spending become too frequent. A cup of bubble tea per week, I guess it's fine.

Look through your monthly expenses and look for areas to cut

This is a really important point, if you have your credit card bills, look through them and see where your largest spending is at? Food or entertainment? For me, it is food because I do not spend much during weekdays and so the weekends, if I do go out, food is usually what I spend on. There could be some recurring purchases you have that you do not need for example, I previously had an free one year Apple TV subscription as I bought a Apple product. In the end, I didn't find the subscription to be worth it if I were to continue as I was not watching any of the shows in it. It is important to check your bills as most subscription requires you to manually cancel it before the trial period is up otherwise they will auto charge you the subscription fees. Some people might tend to forget to cancel such subscription after the trial period and in the long run it can build up to be a substantial amount if you do not look through your bills.

If you tend to spend a lot on Grab for both their ride-hailing and food delivery services, you can adopt methods to reduce spending on them. Grab fees adds up because of the various charges involved. I do not use Grab often but I do know that they have a small order charge, delivery fees and platform fee which will build up after some time. It is going to be difficult to cut it off suddenly so maybe you can limit yourself to ordering it Monday, Wednesday and Fridays (eg 3X a week) and slowly cut down from there.

Stay with your parents or rent a place with your friends to incur lower costs

This is a huge factor on why I can save so much, being able to live with your parents can really reduce your expenses by a whole lot. I give allowances to my mother but I am sure it is not enough right now to cover the expenses completely but I give what I can. Staying with your parents has a lot of benefits and so does not staying with them. It really depends on your family's circumstances and interaction. My family tends to cook at home rather than buy food outside so in a way that really saves a huge part because groceries shopping is usually done weekly and doesn't really add up to much.

If you do prefer having your own space, consider renting with your friend or try splitting the cost rather than covering it all by yourself. In this way, you will be able to cook and save as cooking one portion can be rather difficult at times.

Conclusion

Of course, having said so much, there are many ways you can cut down on your expenses but ultimately, you want to find sustainable ways that does not trade your health just to save a small sum eg eating processed cheap food for the long term which will incur health issues and break the bank in the long run. Everyone definitely has different methods and hope you guys enjoyed my sharing of the ways I save more. Do you guys have any other tips as well? You can share them with me in the comments section below.

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Wednesday 21 July 2021

Buy the dip! | What if the dip keeps dipping?

Seeing a sea of red after quite awhile, though I don't think this dip has been very crazy yet but I have put some funds into the stock market. Buying the dips is what you frequently hear in both the stock market and also for cryptocurrencies as both of them are dipping. Buying the dip is when investors view this as an advantageous time to buy or add to an existing position which helps lower their average cost hence profiting when the market goes back up. However, with limited funds, what happens if you bought the dip and then it dips even further?

No one can truly time the bottom

You might be able to buy at the bottom for some but it is definitely not possible to buy every single time right at the bottom because no one can predict if the price is really the current bottom. I put some funds in as part of my DCA monthly as I shift from FSMone to interactive brokers. This means I have some flexibility in entering. I didn't enter during the bottom but at a price was relatively lower than the ATH. It is no use thinking when you can enter, best way is to enter a price and limit it accordingly, I like to use GTC (good till cancelled). So if it hits the desired price then it will buy in.

Don't chase the bottom if you have no more funds

I have had a previous experience of chasing after the bottom and even use a portion of my emergency funds which was not a good experience as I needed to build it up again and it does make me feel a little anxious on why I wanted to dip into my emergency funds. I promised myself that I shouldn't be doing that as it can affect my routine as I do set aside some funds monthly although not much considering I have a monthly DCA plan which I like as it has brought me gains from when I started as compared to my individual stock purchases.

So from there, I was able to structure a plan for myself making sure I am not going overboard with chasing the lows even if it really looks attractive. Of course, if you do have a sum of funds set aside, you can slowly enter in tranches accordingly. Everyone has their own plans for example I do have a friend who prefers lump sum investing hence he would save for a few months before getting into the market which saves him commission costs. For me, I prefer DCA monthly to ensure I am invested as soon as possible rather than leaving the cash around, this in turns incurs more comission fees but I like it as buying the index earlier has so far been beneficial for me.

Stay calm and do nothing

Some times, doing nothing is the most difficult part of investing. If you do not have any funds, doing nothing to your portfolio is also beneficial (meaning no selling) as we know that in the long term, the market goes up. Of course, past results does not mean future performance but we know that in the long term, markets generally go up especially so if you bought S&P 500 so doing nothing means that your portfolio will recover eventually. A lot of people panic and sell or get out of a falling market as they are afraid of seeing the value of their portfolio drop. Some feel it is better to get out first then when prices drop, they will get in again. However, if you have consistently been buying from the past, are you sure that the prices will drop to when you had purchased them?

Having to sell or liquidate your positions at a lower price also means that you might be losing out and you will also have the dilemma of when to enter the market again including the commission charges involved. In other news, dining out is suspended till 18 August 2021 as the number of cases in Singapore is increasing and many more clusters are discovered. It is a tough time for the F&B and service/tourism industry. Hoping that the situation can improve. Wishing everyone good health and stay safe.

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Wednesday 14 July 2021

Bitcoin helps you save? El Salvador citizens saves because of bitcoin

Came across this video on El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender which everyone is aware but what I like about the video is that it goes to the ground and ask the citizens of El Salvador on whether they prefer Bitcoin or cash and what has changed since Bitcoin became legal tender.

For construction worker, Milton Cabrera, he is now paid his salary in Bitcoin and it has changed his life. When asked why, he explains that if he receives his salary in cash, he tends to spend it and at a rapid pace. Whereas if he is paid in Bitcoin, he can just use what he needs and save the rest.

We might not be able to relate to that as the majority of the population in Singapore receives our salary digitally through the GIRO banking system but for people who receive their salary in cold hard cash, receiving it digitally in the form of Bitcoin helps them to stash the amount and save.

When asked if he was afraid of losing all his money due to Bitcoin's volatility, he replied that, "Maybe but the way we know Bitcoin, if you study it, sooner or later it will go down, sooner or later it will go up but if you have patience and keep waiting, it could go back up and make a profit." He goes on to say that he has made about $600 or $700 based on Bitcoin.

Next a street vendor also said that she accepts both Bitcoin and cash as payment where Bitcoin is used for saving and at times she prefers cash as payment. On the other hand for her, she has lost a bit on the Bitcoin that she has been saving, about $30.

El Salvador

El Salvador is a country in Central America. As of 2021, the country had a population of approximately 6,825,935. The country however struggle with high rates of poverty, inequality, and gang-related violent crime. El Salvador's economy has been affected by natural disasters and government policies that direct large economic subsidies including official corruption. Its own currency, Salvadoran colón which was used between 1892 to 2001 was replaced by US dollar in 2001. With this, the government formally limited the implementing of open market monetary policies to influence short-term variables in the economy as their currency is now the US dollar and with the adoption of the U.S. dollar, El Salvador lost control over monetary policy. And now, Bitcoin is accepted as a parallel legal tender alongside the US dollar. El Salvador relies heavily on remittence where it makes up 20% of it's country's gross domestic product and accepting Bitcoin would make it easier for Salvadoreans living abroad to send money home. This also puts El Salvador on the front page as it is major news and when travelling resumes, I am sure people will be looking to explore the area with their Bitcoins, haha.

Bitcoin Beach (Wallet used)

The payment system or wallet being used in El Salvador is called Bitcoin Beach which works together with Strike, a payment app as well. Michael Peterson, a 47-year-old California native created Bitcoin Beach. Below is how he did it.

In early 2019, Peterson was introduced to an unidentified donor through a connection he made at the church. The proposition he heard seemed more like a scam: An anonymous donor in California had purchased a cache of Bitcoin that was presumably now worth a fortune. Through an adviser, the donor told Peterson he wanted to create a local economy that ran on Bitcoin, the only condition being that it wouldn’t be cashed out into a fiat currency. Peterson thought about it, grew intrigued, and decided to go for it. “It allows everybody from the poorest to the richest to participate on the same playing field,” he says. “I really felt like, ‘Man, this is something that can change El Zonte.” He says he still doesn’t know the donor’s identity and it was the pandemic that ultimately jump-started the project - Taken from Bloomberg

I would say that it is kinda crazy using Bitcoin as payments for our necessities and as a currency like El Salvador because the price fluctuations are still volatile. It is a huge step and the accepting of Bitcoin also seems to be going in a right direction for it's citizens as Bitcoin is seen as a store of value and they save in the form of Bitcoin. Accepting Bitcoin as payment also allows investments into the country for and using the cryptocurrencies. We have seen a huge amount of relief/donations being made in the form of cryptocurrencies and for the the countries who have received it, they do require infrastructures and procedure to liquidate out if they require the fiat for relief as of now. It's interesting and time will tell how this will all pan out in the future.

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Sunday 11 July 2021

It takes time to build your portfolio | Journey to $100,000

After doing a mid year portfolio review where the numbers were looking pretty good, the market somehow changed in the second week of July and my portfolio is seeing quite a bit of drop in gains. Of course, I check my portfolio value but in the short term, I know fluctuations is common and my main priority now is to build it up. Considering that it is still a relatively small portfolio due to the small amount of capital injection each month.

But if I were to compare my portfolio to a year ago, in August 2020 (since I didn't reveal my portfolio value in July 2020) where I did update my portfolio value, it was at approximately $22,000. This means my portfolio value doubled in a year. Now looking back, that's quite amazing. $22,000 to current about $45,000 (not inclusive of crypto portfolio,just stocks), might seem small to some but I am happy about it. This also reinforces to me that building up my portfolio takes time.

I watch YouTube videos on Meet Kelvin and Andrei Jikh and Meet Kelvin buys stocks each time with 6 digits like $100,000 or more. He has a huge capital in which he reveals his portfolio recently and Andrei Jikh dollar cost average $1000 into cryptocurrencies everyday which he mentioned in a Millienial Money Video recently. Watching all of these do make me feel that the investments I am making are so tiny. As they always say, comparison kills the joy of achievement.

Capital amount injection matters in the early stage of building your portfolio

I understand that everyone has their own pace and as long as I am doing what I can and happy, why compare myself to others constantly. Going a little out of topic, earlier in the week, I came across this article by Investment Moat aka Kyith where it was, "Focusing on Saving More Versus Focusing on Investing: Are you Being Smart about It", it was a really insight article as always.

He talked about 2 individuals who each earned $45,000 a year, the 1st individual sets aside 10% of his salary or $4,500 to wealth building and the other, sets aside 20% of his salary or $9,000. The 1st individual, A, works hard in his investments and averages a return of 15% per year while B averages only 2% per year. After 10 years, they are roughly similar in the total amount.

After their portfolio reaches $300,000 their investing returns will matter more as a negative return will cut their portfolio value and it will be difficult to make it back and that's why working on your investing returns matter more than capital injection. And addition of $4500 by A and $9000 by B will provide a 1.5% and 3% increase in net worth. So in the later part after building a substantial amount of wealth, investing skills matters more rather than the contributions. You can go read more on his blog which is super loaded with amazing information.

One of the main points he highlighted was, "When the net worth or portfolio is small, funding more to wealth building makes a bigger impact than chasing great returns." and this really relates to my case right now where my portfolio is still not that substantial. So currently, I am focusing on building up by contributing monthly to it and putting whatever cash I have left into it (exclude emergency funds).

Plans for investing of ETF

As many of you might know, I have a FSMone ETF regular savings plan set up and I contribute about $700 to $800 per month to it. The biggest news now is that interactive brokers have removed their monthly maintenance fees.

Moving forward, I will be setting up an account with interactive brokers and build up my $800 for a few months before buying it into VWRA (Accumulating) because currently VT dividends are taxed at 30% and the estate tax. There are just more advantages to switching to VWRA or VWRL especially when I am investing for the long term. Also came across an article by Frugal Youth Invest which explains more on why Ireland Domiciled ETFs as your accumulated capital increases. Hope you guys enjoy this small update, wishing all of the best in your investing journey as we venture around and learn more in our life. Stay safe and well.

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References: https://investmentmoats.com/wealth-building-2/the-impact-of-rate-of-return-and-saving-more-when-do-they-matter-more/
https://frugalyouthinvests.com/2021/07/09/are-we-incurring-more-commission-in-hopes-of-saving-dividend-withholding-tax-with-ireland-domiciled-etfs/

Wednesday 7 July 2021

Pursuing your passion and worrying about job prospects

Fresh Graduates

2020 and 2021 graduates have been hit hard and particularly for those who are pursuing a career which involves large numbers of physical presence eg Theatres, events management, tourism and hospitality. I believe even the existing workforce in these sectors have been badly hit as traineeships and short term job opportunities are created. There are definitely surge in other industries like technology and wealth planning but the other sectors have definitely been hit hard. Even the veterans in the Arts industry asked for people to explore other choices before settling or joining theatres and Adrian Pang said,"Choose to do this only if it's the one and only thing in your life that you see yourself doing because if there's any other thing in your life that you are good at, enjoy doing or can earn a decent living, do that instead."

I guess after this whole pandemic, the conviction to really join an industry that is struggling to recover has to be strong because the recovery period might be long before things will really get back to normal. Seeing this article, it really is painful because beside fresh graduates who have a hard time finding jobs, the existing workforce is also suffering as retrenchments and closure of companies affect them.

One example in the article was Ms Lili Muslihah who graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama at the University of London with a degree in theatre practice in December 2019 and was ready to venture but COVID struck and her plans had to be put on hold.

A lot of new skillsets are now needed in various industries, one particular one is content creation. I think being able to present your skills or anything basically, even your daily life has been a huge thing in almost every industry. I think one huge jump we can see are YouTubers where content creators can garner quite a following and also promote courses or share about their life to not just people in their region but around the world.

I have also seen many of insurance agents as they might be from the airline industry or service and they have also harness the use of content creation to provide bite-sized information to their clients which really brings about a new branding to themselves. More importantly than content creating, I think constantly learning is the way to go.

Selling out

Many individuals who are in the creative industry often use the term selling out. Watched a video recently on Is It Wrong To Pursue Money Over Passion?

In terms of music or art, selling out is associated with attempts to tailor material to a mainstream or commercial audience. For example, a musician who alters their material to encompass a wider audience, and in turn generates greater revenue, may be labeled by fans who pre-date the change as a "sellout"

I don't think there is anything wrong with it and I think using selling out is too extreme of a term. Whether it is for the money or just for a better life, getting another job that pays better and not chasing your passion is no sin but of course, you have to maybe not do what you are passionate about, leading to a short career (depends) and having to maybe adjust to a more structured work.

Current Workforce

The current workforce is also feeling some heat from the pandemic as roles that might have been secure before seem to be able to be outsource remotely. I deeply relate to this as I feel job stability and prospects have greatly reduced but asset prices have been going up and up. From an article released by Straits Time, it was found via a study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) think-tank that more than half of Singapore's residents are concerned about their job security, employment prospects and children's future, it also found that more than seven in 10 here identify as belonging to the working and lower-middle classes.

I am sure many Singaporeans rely on their income to pay the bills, pay the mortgages or debts and also for the everyday necessities, multiply that with children or aging parents and I can understand the large proportion who identifies as working and lower-middle class. To further enforce that the fresh graduates are really graduating into a wave of uncertainty, the article provides more data.

The unemployed and those who were studying were unsurprisingly the most concerned by far - nearly seven in 10, compared with approximately half of all other groups. The study said this indicated some level of concern about the employment market. Younger respondents also generally expressed more fears. The study said this was to be expected of the most economically active age group. For those aged 21 to 35, 33.2 per cent were very much worried; this figure was slightly higher (34.9 per cent) for the 36- to 50-year-olds.

Of course, for those in the current workforce aged older at 36 to 50 years old, their worries are more of being replaced by the younger generations and being a sandwiched generation mainly due to their children still schooling. This means there are big expenses along the road and they are worried if they can hold on to their job to pay the bills.

In the report, it was observed that respondents who were less affluent were also most likely to report being "very happy" compared with others. Uncertainty has really intensify during this period and I am affected by it as we see rising cost and assets but read articles on how many people became millionaires today or how the rich are moving to SG and at the same time snagging up the properties.

Anxiety arises because we compare and it's never enough. When the job environment is not good, it can really affect your morale especially so if the interviews you have been going for have no replies and every job you apply for seems to not be your ideal job. In times like these, a lot of self-discovery and motivation is needed to tell yourself that you have to get over this time period and it will get better. As I do have a long future ahead of me, I do get demoralised when work doesn't go well or things don't seem good but being positive and having companionship matters. Wishing all the best to everyone!

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https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/half-of-spore-worry-over-job-prospects-7-in-10-identify-as-working-or-lower-middle-class?utm_campaign=stfb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2iM56ZrbIEAAM8EKSPluw7cT-4RTJ4nTAs6yHY2ACmqp11wh2mMD23X54

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210629-the-great-resignation-how-employers-drove-workers-to-quit?at_custom1=[post+type]&at_campaign=64&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_custom3=BBC+News&at_custom4=237A834A-DB2B-11EB-85B2-D21216F31EAE&at_medium=custom7

Sunday 4 July 2021

Mid Year Review of Portfolio | Hitting $50,000

Time flies and we are halfway through 2021, nothing much have changed in my portfolio, Tesla has been experiencing a bit of a price rut at $500 - $600 hence not much changes/fluctuations in the stock portfolio. Time to review my portfolio and also some plans up ahead. June has been an interesting month, with stocks like AMC, CLOV, Corsair soaring to all time highs, I wonder how many people have profited from their investments.

Cryptocurrencies have also made a slight recovery, mostly Bitcoin as Elon mentioned that Tesla will take Bitcoin as payment once miners of the cryptocurrency can show they are using roughly 50% clean energy. This prompt quite a recovery for Bitcoin and then China came out strong in crypto mining crackdown hitting cryptocurrencies with a drastic drop and my largest holding Ether dropped below USD2000. This has shaved off quite a lot of my gains as it test new levels of low. Huge rollercoaster ride, whew! But of course, recovery is quick as people bought the dips.

Meanwhile, in SG, dining out can resume although only for 2 pax. It's already a pretty good concession considering the rise of new cases. Good that vaccination is also now available to all age group where the 39 years old and below can apply. It is nice dining out, sitting outside and just having a fresh and hot meal followed by coffee.

Portfolio Updates - Stocks

Stocks have been performing relatively well so far, not huge growth but definitely not dipping much like cryptocurrencies. My portfolio has grown to about $46,100 and although small, I am happy that there is still growth. Most of the green is from Tesla as it moved from the low $600 to high $600. I am only holding 19 shares and the fluctuations are already quite huge, imagine those with a larger positions.

I also sold Amara which was a small small portion of my portfolio as I used to do small purchases when I bought SG stock. Sold that at a loss as it was a hospitality stock and was not performing well currently, also wanted to clean up my portfolio.

I have now also started to record my net worth in terms of investment either on the last day of the month or first day (not very accurate, just as a gauge). Of course in the short term I am not expecting huge changes but over 10 or 20 years hoping to see the fluctuations and also hopefully growth. So far, I have started for 3 months so nothing too fancy yet in terms of changes.

Further breakdown of stocks in video

Portfolio Updates - Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are currently in the green for me though a lot of my profits have been shaved off as Bitcoin and Ether have dropped significantly in value especially Ether, which is hovering around USD2000. Not much updates for crypto, as I allocate a really small portion monthly and it really is a future development kinda thing where the infrastructure and systems are still being improved and build upon so time will tell if this investment pays off but I have high hopes for it.

Comparing to Q1

Q1 ended in March 2021 where my stock portfolio was at $40,129 and currently it is at $46,100. Increase in value of course due to capital injection where I bought 3 shares of Tesla and also my regular saving plan with FSMone. Looking the performance currently, really liking the growth and although most of it is due to my capital injection, I think doing quarterly updates are better in my case as monthly, the growth is slow but looking from quarter to quarter, the numbers look pretty impressive.

At the end of Q1, my cryptocurrency portfolio was at $4642.40 (SGD) and at the end of Q2, value is now at about $6636.00 (SGD), not very accurate to be using fiat to compare cryptocurrencies as the value just fluctuates but we can just use it as a gauge.

Plans ahead for the year

I don't really have a certain dollar amount goal for my investment portfolio (stocks and cryptocurrencies) in the short term and with 6 months left for 2021, I will just see how it goes. For cryptocurrencies, I don't think there is a certain fiat value that I am looking at instead just hoping to increase my holdings over time. Currently, I am holding Bitcoin, Ether and Cardano. I believe there are numerous other coins that have more potential in transactions as seen in Chicken Genius video where he talked about NANO and I have also heard about SOL (Solana) but with such a low capital being DCA every month, I will just be sticking to the 3.

I am actually having itchy fingers to stop my regular savings plan and use the funds to buy individual stocks. AMD, Twitter and NVIDA, stocks in my watchlist have been going up and up. This makes me rather upset as the gains do looks rather attractive if I had build up the RSP amount and invested in either of them. On hindsight, of course everyone would say that they regret not investing in it earlier. Well, I guess this means that my income is really not a level where I have leftover amount of money to invest and I should build up my main income to have more extra cash to invest.

I have about 3/4 of $100,000 reached (cash, investment + saving plan - surrender value as of this year) but greatest hurdle would be that I am in a contract role currently hence my income is not "guaranteed" in a sense as there is an expiry date to it. So if I were to not be renewed or converted to a permanent role, then it will affect the building up of funds and even worse, if I cannot find a job after, I might have to eat into my savings. Anyway, happy that my investment portfolio has broke $50,000 as they always say, it's the small achievements that build up over time.

Besides financially, I think having work from home majority of the time from last year till now, I really want to start connecting with my friends, we have had some video calls but it really is different from meeting up physically. We haven't really been able to meet as we are a rather big group and meeting up is difficult due to the restrictions. Hoping to connect with my friends soon. All in all, great Q2 and looking forward to an even greater Q3, most importantly, stay safe and well!

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► Where I Buy my Cryptocurrencies : Coinhako
► Where I buy my stocks

FSMone: P0364886 (Referral Code)
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Pages

Thursday 29 July 2021

Has the plunge of China stocks have affected my portfolio?

VT exposure to China and VWRA exposure to China

How it will pan out

Sunday 25 July 2021

Living paycheck to paycheck | How to break free from that

Automate your money and to an account that is not easily seen or accessible + Build an emergency fund

Ask yourself before spending each time, try to make your own if possible + make a budget

Look through your monthly expenses and look for areas to cut

Stay with your parents or rent a place with your friends to incur lower costs

Conclusion

Wednesday 21 July 2021

Buy the dip! | What if the dip keeps dipping?

No one can truly time the bottom

Don't chase the bottom if you have no more funds

Stay calm and do nothing

Wednesday 14 July 2021

Bitcoin helps you save? El Salvador citizens saves because of bitcoin

El Salvador

Bitcoin Beach (Wallet used)

Sunday 11 July 2021

It takes time to build your portfolio | Journey to $100,000

Capital amount injection matters in the early stage of building your portfolio

Plans for investing of ETF

Wednesday 7 July 2021

Pursuing your passion and worrying about job prospects

Fresh Graduates

Selling out

Current Workforce

Sunday 4 July 2021

Mid Year Review of Portfolio | Hitting $50,000

Portfolio Updates - Stocks

Portfolio Updates - Cryptocurrencies

Comparing to Q1

Plans ahead for the year