Monday 27 September 2021

More restrictions for Binance.com users | Users advised to cease all related trades, withdraw fiat assets and redeem tokens

Previously, Binance.com ceased the offerings of SGD trading pairs and SGD payment options. They also removed the Binance App from Singapore's iOs and Google Play store. P2P offerings was also ceased which was one of the functions I miss dearly.

Today, Binance.com announced more cessation of services as they following compliance to the
Regulated Payments Services. 

"With effect from 2021-10-26 04:00 AM UTC (12:00 PM UTC+8), users in Singapore will not be able to access certain functions on Binance.com including fiat deposit services, spot trading of cryptocurrencies, the purchase of cryptocurrencies through fiat channels and liquid swap - Taken from Binance.com"

This means that users in Singapore are advised to cease all related trades, withdraw fiat assets and redeem tokens by Wednesday, 2021-10-26 04:00 AM UTC (12:00 PM UTC+8) to avoid potential trading disputes. This is pretty huge as it means moving all your assets out of Binance.com

I currently do not have anything left in Binance.com but I know Gemini does have limited cryptocurrencies offerings and not being able to use Binance.com will really limit the offerings I am exposed to. Was actually planning to purchase stablecoins through Gemini then transferring it to Binance.com to buy the other cryptocurrencies not offered in Gemini. This is pretty huge news, in the mean time, do move your assets out of Binance.com if you do have any in there.

Read more: https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/34c6c158d03a4877a4e13cf0927468bc 

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Sunday 26 September 2021

Is it better to stay fully invested or have a war chest build up on the side? | Why I always have no cash to buy the dip

"Buy the dip!" is what everyone says but every time when a dip happens, I do find myself not having enough spare cash on the side to make a purchase. This is because I maximise my salary every month into investment and also because my salary is not that much (which is mainly the reason haha).

But I prefer to stay invested and hold on to just sufficient cash on the side eg. emergency fund plus some spending money and bill payment money so when the dips happen, I tend not to have available cash on hand to double down on investing.

I have been trying to stash aside some amount of money monthly to build up my war chest but I find myself still depleting it after a while of building up. I do see people with huge war chest on the side waiting for the right time and I do wonder if I am doing things right.

Why I prefer to just invest whatever side cash I have

My investments so far into US stocks and cryptocurrencies have been profitable considering the US stock market upward trend as well as the crypto market hence to me, I view it as pushing my cash into the market earlier will grow my money rather than leaving them outside first before timing and getting in. I haven't experienced any huge crash where the crash sustain for a period of time for example in 2008 where the stock market took some time to recover.

Not experiencing that partly explains why I prefer to just dump my money in and maximise the buying potential of my cash. I usually buy and hold for the long term, I have a problem with selling, I don't sell stocks even if they suck because I always feel that there is a chance for them to rebound. So my investing strategy is to buy and hold for as long. So far, it has proven right but it's obviously because the markets are on an uptrend.

Another point is that I currently do not have any debt in terms of mortgage or study loans also, I do not have dependents like children and my parents do have their own savings where i provide them a very small allowance per month. Being in this situation means I don't have to hold as much cash and there are minimal payments on my side making me able to put all my cash into the market.

Holding too much cash can be detrimental?

Cash is king! when there is a stock market crash but you don't want to be holding onto too much cash when the market is on an uptrend. You want it to be growing as a war chest that has swelled up too much can sometimes be viewed as an inefficient way of deploying capital. Companies can also be holding onto too much cash for example, Apple as they currently have a huge cash buffer on hand which is not being deployed and of course Berkshire Hathaway. The companies face different problems from us, retail investors as their cash is accountable and hence making it more complicated when investing.

It's definitely not like I have a huge cash flow like Apple or Berkshire Hathaway but investing any available cash is something I have been doing. But along the way I miss out on opportunities to buy the dip especially on companies that I have always wanted. I have a friend who does lump sum investing while I mainly do DCA-ing, if I were to compare his results with mine, I would say he is doing much better.

Moving onto accumulating a war chest

Moving forward, I do think building up a war chest to have some cash ready to be deployed is important as it can help when there is a dip and if for a long period, if there is no dip, I can deploy a portion of it slowly. The main thing is to control myself while I am building up this fund to not go on a shopping spree just because it has been accumulating. Of course, income matters on how much spare cash you can put aside, the building up is always the slow part. It is just sometimes, seeing so many actions in the markets, I tend to get rash and also FOMO which really isn't the right way as I am investing for the long term and not for the short term. I am still tweaking and adjusting my investment methods and plans so let's see how it goes. Excited for Q3 portfolio review soon.

References: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/warchest.asp

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Friday 24 September 2021

The rich sharing their wealth | Does that even work?

Read this article from Today online published on 12 Sep 2021 where it wrote about how because of income gap, Xi Jinping tells tycoons to share wealth.

Mr Xi says the Communist Party will pursue “common prosperity,” pressing businesses and entrepreneurs to help narrow the stubborn wealth gap that could hold back the country’s rise and erode public confidence in the leadership. Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/world/asia/china-xi-common-prosperity.html

We have also seen recently on Tencent and Pinduoduo donating tens of billion of dollars for social initiatives. Even CEOs themselves like Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang, smartphone maker Xiaomi’s cofounder Lei Jun and food-delivery giant Meituan’s founder Wang Xing have transferred blocks of their companies shares worth billions of dollars to philanthropic foundations to use the proceeds for education, poverty alleviation and scientific research.

This "common prosperity" campaign has started a crackdown on the tech giants to prevent monopoly and dominance. In response, China's billionaires have all pledged billion of dollars to charity. According to Credit Suisse Research Institute, the top 1% of the country owns 31% of the country's wealth which is up from the 21% recorded in 2000.

By "spreading" the wealth out, the Communist Party says, more Chinese would have the spending power to drive the economy and reduce China’s reliance on Western capital and know-how, creating the foundation for a new stage of growth.

Many of the best doctors are all concentrated in Shanghai and Beijing said Ms Yuan Jiameng, a Zhejiang native working in Beijing who said she recently searched for treatment for her father for a stomach ailment

Will Hong Kong Tycoons Escape China Crackdown?

Seems like Hong Kong will also not be spared as China get serious about the common prosperity. According to three major developers and a Hong Kong government adviser familiar with the talks, Chinese officials have informed them to pour resources and influence into backing Beijing's interests, and help solve a potentially destabilising housing shortage in Hong Kong.

Developers in Hong Kong have also shown that they are aware with New World and Henderson Land donating rural land as reserves for social housing and recently, Nan Fung Group, Sun Hung Kai, Henderson Land and Wheelock applied for a public-private partnership scheme.

Macau casino facing some huge changes ahead

Gambling licence renewals are not guaranteed, meaning that the casinos could lose their gambling licence. Also, all along, Macau has provided generous tax concessions to the casinos however the Chinese government is unhappy that US shareholders are making profits from the territory, and that the economic benefits should stay within the country.

With the Chinese Government wanting more control over the casinos and more insights, they have also proposed appointing government supervisors to enforce official policy from within. It is huge news as Bill Hornbuckle, chief executive of casino group MGM Resorts, was confident that China’s regulatory crackdown on tech, education and online gaming would not extend to Macau, the world’s biggest gambling centre however things are proving to be very different.

Conclusion

The "common prosperity" campaign looks to be implemented across by the Chinese government at quite a fast rate. Many companies especially those with huge wealth and monopoly over their industries will be on their toes. It's really a situation that is evolving and we don't know how long this will last. For me, I currently do not own any individual China stocks but I do have exposure to a Tracker Fund of Hong Kong (2800) and have a small exposure through Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) and Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Acc (VWRA). China has been a focal point recently with it's tightening grip on companies and it's citizens to Evergrande situation. Time will tell how it all pans out. Haven't been posting videos but coming one right out on Sunday, look out for it! 

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References:

https://ft.com/content/417f2513-37b2-4900-ac36-4729df36ae1b

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/macau-casino-junket-operators-seek-clarity-over-new-gambling-laws-2021-09-21/

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/with-tighter-grip-beijing-sends-message-hong-kong-tycoons-fall-line-2021-09-17/

Tuesday 21 September 2021

Time to buy more as prices drop? | Hodlnaut Interest (Earn up to 12.73% APY) & Upgraded Referral Program

*This post contains affiliate links which helps in the upkeep of the blog. I have been using Hodlnaut for some time and enjoy seeing the interest come in every Monday, 5pm. If you would like to also create a Hodlnaut account, do consider using my referral link and then use your referral link to invite your friends on to earn the upgraded referral rewards. Read on to learn more on it.

Besides the stock market being in the red, cryptocurrencies have also seen quite a substantial drop, with Etherum dropping to below $3000 at one point and Bitcoin dropping to about $42,000 from a high of $48,000. Pretty substantial drops we are seeing. I am holding a portion of my cryptocurrencies in Hodlnaut and have earned some interest over time whether or not the prices fall or go up.

 


 


Able to choose how you want your interest to be paid out

I discovered Hodlnaut now has a pretty interesting feature in that you can choose how you want to be receiving your interest in that the interest from your USDC can be paid out in ETH which I have done, meaning there is no need for you to manually do token swap every time your interest comes in.


New referral program

Hodlnaut has upgraded their referral program meaning the rewards are much more attractive. I am sure you have definitely came across it via their social media platforms. Starting 20 September 2021, 4.30pm till 22 October 2021, 23 59:

Tier 1: Earn a one-time bonus of 40 USDC for the first active* user you refer.

Tier 2: For every additional active* user that is referred after the first user, the referrer will get 20 USDC per new user.

*Active user means they need to use your referral link and to complete KYC as well to deposit a minimum of US$1000 worth of supported crypto assets in a single transaction as their first deposit or within 1 week of the first deposit (meaning you can split up the deposit amount, for safety reason but full deposit of US$1000 with in the 1st week of first deposit).

  • The old referral rewards still applies where you are eligible to earn a 10% perpetual commission on your referees’ interest on top of the above bonuses. The referees will also get a US$20 sign-up bonus when they deposit US$1000 in a single transaction as their first deposit or within 1 week from their first deposit.

So if you do not have a hodlnaut account yet, create one using my referral link to get US$20 sign-up bonus when they deposit US$1000 in a single transaction as their first deposit or within 1 week from their first deposit.


Conditions for the new referral program

  1. Once you qualify and complete Tier 1, you will automatically be eligible for Tier 2.
  2. The program is limited to the first 100 users that complete Tier 1.
  3. The maximum number of referrals for Tier 2 is capped at 50 referrals.
  4. Any referrals before 20 September 2021 Monday 4.30 pm (GMT+8) will be considered under the old user referral program.

Earning interest on your cryptocurrencies is feels great and if you hold a substantial amount, you can consider splitting them up to different areas like how I split my cryptocurrencies into cold storage and some in Hodlnaut as well as a small amount in exchanges.

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Friday 17 September 2021

Best Ireland ETFs to buy & hold for the long term for non-US citizens

*Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor and please do your own due diligence before enbarking on any investments. I am merely sharing on what I find online and know, also on my experiences. They are not a call to buy hence do exercise due dilligence and caution when investing.

Recently, with Interactive Brokers removing the monthly activity fee, it is a no-brainer to switch over to them to purchase Irish Domiciled ETFs listed on the LSE (London Stock Exchange). I have all along been buying US domiciled ETFs where I hold both VOO and VT. Switching over to IBKR, I am now buying into VWRA. When I first decided to move over to IBKR, I was researching on Ireland domiciled ETFs and saw that there were many variations, for example for index ETFs that track the world (similar to VT) you have VWRD or VWRA and for index ETFs that track S&P 500, there is CSPX. It was a little overwhelming I have to say but over time as you find out more, you will understand especially if you take a look on what it is tracking and the holdings.

Accumulating or distributing?

I think something special that I came across when deciding on which ETF I was going to buy was that some of the ETFs had Accumulating (ACC) or distributing (DIS) at the back of the name. After finding out on more it, I was particularly intrigued by it. So what it means is that DIS stands for distributing, meaning that the dividends of the ETFs are distributed out to the holders of the ETFs like you and me if you have the ETF while Accumulating (ACC) means they reinvest any dividends to the fund.

If you have a substantial amount to invest in and want to generate regular income from your portfolio, you should go for a distributing ETF where cash is paid straight to you where you can withdraw it to spend.

If you want to maximise your future investment returns, go for accumulating ETFs like me as they automatically reinvest your dividends back into the fund at no extra expense. This compounds your return, saves you time and spares you commission charges. It’s important to make the right decision as dividends can be a vital part of any investment strategy, whether you need it now or can save it for later.

Why avoid US-domiciled ETFs

  • Withholding Tax

So, I am sure many knows that one of the main reason is the withholding tax, US-domiciled ETFs like VOO and VT have withholding tax of 30% on dividends, where this means that your dividends are taxed or reduced by 30%. On the other hand, Irish Domiciled ETFs has only a withholding tax of 15% which is significantly lesser.

  • Estate Tax

For Singaporeans, we avoid US-domiciled ETFs besides the withholding tax, there maybe estate tax which is incurred after you pass on, it can go up to 40% on amounts above US$60,000 which most investors would be able to hit after investing for a number of years. For example, if you hold $100,000 worth of US Domiciled ETF, and unfortunately pass away, then $40,000 of your US Domiciled ETF ($100,000 - $60,000) will be taxed at 40%. So by buying Irish Domiciled ETFs, you do not directly hold any US assets and hence exempted from the estate tax.

Irish Domiciled ETFs to buy in place of US Domiciled ETF

  • CSPX (Ishares Core S&P 500 Ucits Etf Usd (Acc) ETF) or VUSD (Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD) in place of VOO (Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF)

CSPX provides exposure to large, established U.S. companies similarly to VOO and seeks to track the performance of an index composed of 500 large cap U.S. companies. It is an accumulating fund which means that it's dividends are reinvested back into the funds hence no dividends are paid out.

VUSD is another Irish Domiciled ETFs that tracks the S&P 500 but distributes out the dividends and so if you have a large capital and want to receive dividends in the form of cash payouts, you can invest in VUSD.

  • CNDX (iShares NASDAQ 100 UCITS ETF USD (Acc)) in place of QQQ

CNDX seeks to track the performance of an index composed of 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market where investment is made into companies across major industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology similar to QQQ.

CNDX is an accumulating fund meaning that dividends are reinvested back into the fund so no cash payout is being done.

  • VWRA/VWRD in place of VT

This is what I am personally invested in. I buy VWRA (Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Acc) on a monthly basis and similarly to VT, it seeks to track the performance of the performance of the FTSE All-World Index and comprises of large and mid-sized company stocks in developed and emerging markets.

Something different would be that VWRA has about 3,619 number of stocks while VT has about 9,054 holdings. For me, I just wanted to have a diversified ETF that not only tracks the 500 companies in Singapore. Having such a diversified ETF also means that the volatility is lower and also that prices will not go up as much as the S&P 500 if US companies perform well although the top 10 holdings are US companies. VWRA holds about 58% in US companies and then 6% in Japan and 4 % in China. Not as widely diversified but I like that it has exposure to other countries as well.

Long term horizon

Of course, some people would go for US Domiciled ETF due to the larger trade volume if it is for the short term trading or profits as there are more buy and sell action there. Irish Domiciled ETFs are popular among individuals who have a buy and hold strategy and hope to reap the long term gains coupled with the reinvestment of dividends for the accumulating ETF. I used to buy VT with FSMone as it was a regular savings plan in place with pretty competitive commissions. Another reason was that Interactive Brokers had an inactivity fee for accounts that had less than $100,000 in it. A few months back, they have removed this inactivity fee and so I went ahead to create an account and am now buying VWRA instead. It has to be manual purchase meaning that so far I have to go in to exchange the amount before setting my purchase amount and buying VWRA through Interactive Brokers.

FSMone provided more of a hands-off approach where I could just set a standing instructions with the set amount I wanted to buy and FSMone will help me to convert currency and buy the shares. FSMone also provided fractional shares purchase while Interactive Brokers does not support fractional shares purchase for Irish Domiciled ETFs. It's a long term buying strategy as we see the world evolve and hoping that in 10 years, all these capital put in would have good returns.

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References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-10iIBnwITg
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Non-US_investor's_guide_to_navigating_US_tax_traps#A4

https://en.swissquote.lu/international-investing/smart-investing/avoid-us-domiciled-etfs-unless-you-want-end-al-capone
https://suzmoneylife.com/which-sp-500-etf-to-buy/

https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/xlon/cspx/portfolio

Friday 10 September 2021

Summary of RAOUL PAL - How Bitcoin Is Eating The World & Why Ethereum Is The Biggest Gamechanger Of All

I have been listening to a lot of cryptocurrencies interview as I want to know more about it. Came across a couple of videos with Raoul Pal and he really advocates for people to put some money into cryptocurrencies as it is an asset that gives us equal footing or entry as the financial giants who have also dominated money making opportunities for example having certain assets only available for investing by accredited investors or only allowing retail investors access to certain assets only after a dump or they have profited from it.

He advocates that this is the chance for people to gain wealth and get in on something that is still in the early stages where the adoption is slowly gaining traction. These are the 2 videos I saw, including another on with Micheal Sayor.

  1. RAOUL PAL - How Bitcoin Is Eating The World & Why Ethereum Is The Biggest Gamechanger Of All 🔥 1/2 - Released on 15 August 2021
  2. Everything You Need to Know About CRYPTO, & How to Gain WEALTH In the BITCOIN REVOLUTION | Raoul Pal - Released on 2 Sep 2021
  3. Michael Saylor's MASTERCLASS in Cryptocurrency Investing and the Future of BITCOIN - Released on 10 Jun 2021

Today's article will be a summary on the first video, where I take some points and summarise it, it would be better for you to go ahead and watch the full video instead to gain more and fully understand what he is saying. So let's get right into it. -

Millennials face all time record high valuations of real estate, equity, fund market basically traditional assets/investments

He talks about how traditional assets/investments are very expensive for the typical millennials as they are at all time high valuations and if you look at the size of those markets eg global real estates is about $100 trillion while global bonds and equities are about $200 trillion market. Next we have cryptocurrencies which can tokenised all of the above (real estate, equities and bonds) which is about roughly $2 trillion (you can alway check it here), so for it to match the bonds and equity market size, thats about a 100X from current.

Whats also great about it is that cryptocurrencies can be bought in fraction, so whether you earn $20,000 or $200,000, every individual can buy it meaning this levels the playing field where everyone can be involved. Basically everyone can participate without the rich being richer as what we always experience in the traditional financial markets.

Exponential age & Increasing pace of adoption

He mentions that we are going through a fastest period of technological growth and adoption. From 1990 to 2000 was the growth and adoption of the internet where during that period, the internet grew at 63% a year, cryptocurrencies are growing at 113% a year. The adoption is a network of money and all of finance above the internet.

Raoul also mentions that regulation speeds up adoption where charting a log chart will show a linear trend log chart which Bitcoin also shows.

What should I be buying?

Raoul mentions about Etherum and why he believes so much in it. He thinks the opportunity in ETH is better than the opportunity in Bitcoin in March 2020. His portfolio at the time of recording of the video is structured as:

  • 55% ETH
  • 25% BTC
  • Basket of DeFi protocols & big protocols like Polkadot and others.

He also is honest in that he explains he doesn't know on what he really sees in the other so called "competitors of Etherum but to always keep an open mind and not limit yourself to one true asset as things are constantly being improved and changed.

This is a summary of the video and as previously mentioned, it will be great for you to go ahead and watch the full video. I do also find the other video he did informative and might come up with a summary of it soon. Hope you guys enjoy this summary and credits to London Real for the interview!

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Thursday 9 September 2021

Running out of money in your later years

Came across this article from The Straits Times recently where it wrote that from an AIA survey, it was gathered that more than half (54%) of Singaporeans will run out of money in the last 14 years of their lives. Sounds scary, to run out of money and what more for 14 years and at a time when you are old and not as healthy or able-bodied as before.

 An example given was this means that on average, if someone has the potential to live to 84, his savings for retirement will run out by age 70, leaving him with no money for the next 14 years. Children are some people's retirement plan although you should not think that way because your kids might not know that they are your retirement plan and nothing is guaranteed considering the increasing costs of living nowadays.

With many of the younger generations not having children or having just 1 or 2, retirement is a huge focus of the government as the load on the government will increase if everyone rely on payouts for their retirement. So definitely people have been interested and hoping to plan for their retirement way before they start it.

Sandwiched generation

As we start to grow up and form our own family, we will have children and then with the expenses of having to take care of our children, we also need to provide for our parents and thus the term sandwiched generation which is the situation faced once one chooses to have children and at the same time have to take care of their parents.

DINK

Of course, there are couples who choose not to have children hence the term DINK which stands for Dual Income, No Kids. This allows for the couple to have more disposable income as they have dual income and no kids which means not as much added expenses that come with children.

Having dual income means they are often the targets of marketing efforts for investment products and luxury items. However, if they are concious of their spending, they are able to save at a rapid rate as items are shared and having a dual income means availability of more disposable cash which creates the possibility for further exploration of investment opportunities. The money that might have been spent on children could be put into stocks, bonds, or other investment vehicles. Investing even a few thousand dollars per year can make a substantial difference in the long run.

Things to ponder on as advances are made in the medical field

Living to a ripe old age is a blessing but nowadays, I do come across people who tell me that they don't want to live too long, including my parents. Of course, living to an old age and being healthy is a different story, what you don't want is to be sick or being immobile which can lead to a lot of pressure for caregivers and family members.

As we have lesser children which means that the elderly in the future will not have offspring to care and take care of them, this might mean a higher burden on young population as the government might need funds to take care of the ageing population.

The future might be different from what we are experiencing now, thinking about retirement early can provide some form of plan or change in our behaviour. It is good to be aware of your own finances and to know where you are at currently.

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References:
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/plan-early-to-have-enough-money-for-life
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dinks.asp

Sunday 5 September 2021

Sharing my Portfolio Tracker | Total Stock and Crypto Value

I have actually been using InvestingNote to track my portfolio but decided to also create a google sheet for it since my portfolio size is not that huge yet which means it will be easier to port over the data and also to input the necessary formulas. It is a really simple tracker as I am no expert in excel and it really just contains the most basic details. I like to go through it and also the process of how I created it (also for memories sake as I might slowly update it as I go along). If you do have any suggestions for me to improve it, do let me know, so let's get down to it.

Categorisation

Currently, I hold Singapore, Hong Kong, US stocks and also cryptocurrencies for my investment portfolio and that will be how I categorise them. And I will also include the currency the investments are in before converting them to Singapore dollar using the exchange rate extracted from Google Finance.

Explanation of table

So you can see at the first top part are my Singapore holdings. I currently have 9 holdings and most are in small amounts, I am not adding more positions and just holding on for dividends. I used the headings of Stocks, Ticker, No. of Shares, Cost Price and Market Price. I have hidden my cost price as I am embarassed to show it haha, I am kidding, just want to keep some privacy on that. For SG stocks, google finance is unable to extract the real-time prices hence I need to manually put in the market prices in order to get the latest updated value.

Next would be my one and only HK holding which is the Tracker Fund of Hong Kong (2800), this ETF tracks the Hang Seng Index, I do not have a large amount of it. I am able to extract out the real-time prices of it by using the formula =GOOGLEFINANCE(Ticker/2800) to get the price of it. Hence this explains the ticker column as it helps extract the prices from Google. Similarly, with my US stock holdings, I use the same formula =GOOGLEFINANCE(Ticker) to get the prices.

Conversion of currencies and sum of value

For converting the value of my US holdings from US dollars to SG dollars, I use the formula =GOOGLEFINANCE("Currency:USDSGD") which gives me the value of USD1 in SGD which I then times the value of my portfolio with it. Similarly for my HK holdings except that I divide it with the value of SGD1 in HKD with =GOOGLEFINANCE("Currency:SGDHKD"). You can switch around the currency in the formula as you wish. For cryptocurrencies, I used these few formulas to extract out the prices.

So yup, that's it for my portfolio tracker that I created with google sheets. Do let me know if you think it can be improved. Hope you guys enjoy today's episode and don't forget to subscribe and like my videos.

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Friday 3 September 2021

Let’s talk about the hustle culture

A larger proportion of people are placing a lot of focus on hustling, earning side income or to work super hard to command a higher salary, hustling seems to be the way to success. Came across an article from The Woke Salaryman where it was about how the co-founder hustled in his 20s to slowly building up The Woke Salaryman and slowing down a little in his 30s.

Read more: Why I want to achieve financial independence | Short update on portfolio

The concept is pretty good in that you hustle and work hard in your 20s to build up capital and invest before taking it slower in your later years. For me, hustling hasn't been a thing for me as I tend to take things slow. I am usually average or even below average if we were to compare my 'achievements' with people in the same age category as me. So let's talk about the hustle culture.

"Hustle culture means overworking and pushing yourself past your limit to achieve a capitalist goal of wealth and success. In this day and age, hustle culture has become increasingly popular – where productivity, jobs and paychecks are prioritised over mental health, good relationships and happiness. With more people aspiring to become successful, workaholism has become heavily glorified, especially on social media." Taken from youthopia.sg

The Woke Salaryman also mentioned that everyone has their own pace, some take it slow while some wants to achieve their financial goals fast. I understand the concept of hustling when you are young because you are at the peak of your energy levels and you can also explore more areas of interest. Of course, building the different sources of income younger also allows compounding to happen earlier and experiment with different style of building wealth.

Why Hustle?

Hustle culture has become more prominent as the younger generation hopes to gain more wealth when they are young and be able to spend the remaining years to do what they want or to travel the world. At least that is in my opinion, I have seen the older generation work for 30 and even 40 years with some jobs being tough and demanding. As I see the older generation face work environments where they are not able to take control of their fate where the company can lay individuals off, not give a pay raise or even suppress their pay all just because they are loyal and need that pay check to survive.

Read more: Pursuing your passion and worrying about job prospects

Many of the older generation grit and work hard to provide for their family and as the younger generation like me see what they go through, we want to amass wealth while we are young so that we are not at mercy of corporations when we are older. Hustling seems to be a norm now as we realise how short span our careers might be with all the innovation and technological advances that take over physical and repetitive work.

Burnt out

In the midst of hustling, it is important not to burn out because you might push yourself too much and in turn hurt your body both mentally and physically. Working from home has in one way or another cause burnt out in many as work seems to eat in personal time but if you are able to properly segregate work and rest time, working from home is actually beneficial.

If having to work harder causes you to feel overwhelmed and emotionally drained, you should take a second look into your style of hustling. I have seen so many instagram posts advocating working in a 9-6 job and then working on a second or side project from 8pm onwards. Before doing so, I think it is important to know where you are heading and unless you 9-6 job is able to allow that, I would rather have a good sleep and sufficient rest.

What you do today determines your tomorrow

When I was working in the office previously, I had this colleague who would work pretty late and I always ask her why work till so late, she told me, "I am doing something today that the tomorrow me will be grateful or happy for" which is that she is clearing her work so that tomorrow will not be as hectic or she might have lesser things to deal with. I find that really meaningful after all, a dollar that we invest today might be worth more in 10 years. Same thing as the effort that we put into our career now might reward us 10 years down the road.

Working hard for a better future is what we are all achieving for, although I am someone who does not have huge aspirations for my career or rather no dreams but just wanting to cruise through life and enjoy myself, I understand the hustle culture. As long as you don't over exert yourself, I believe it is a good way to improve and challenge yourself. All right, back to hustling for me, bye! Just kidding, back to catching up on my K-dramas!

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Wednesday 1 September 2021

How to combat inflation as you see your chicken rice & nasi lemak race towards being $10

Inflation is something everyone is concern about because it affects all of us and our wallets. I am concern as well but not very educated on how inflation works in the long term especially when 'experts' say inflation is temporary/transitory but InvestmentMoat had a simple and nice article explaining it. When I hear news on that inflation is temporary, I am confused because I remember when we had $2 chicken rice (breast meat) once upon a time when I was in primary or secondary school but now, $2 chicken rice is few and rare. So then, it's not like the food owners will raise prices and then drop them down again but after reading the article from InvestmentMoat, I understand what transitory means. The prices might increase more in the short term but over the longer term or in the future, the increase will be less sharp or high.

He also mentioned that inflation in the United States is often measured by the Personal Consumption Expenditure or PCE for short, the PCE increases at a pretty high rate. So then what can we do about it? Besides increasing your salary, I like to also share on how you can beat inflation using other ways!

Invest!

  • In Stocks

Stocks have a good inflation hedge over the long term with a positive return of about 7% (buying the S&P 500 index), this is of course for the long term as the stock market is volatile over the short term and your investments will fluatuate. But over the long run, if your stock investments returns turn out good, it should beat inflation but this of course, requires a substantial amount of capital and time horizon.

  • In Cryptocurrencies

Many have mentioned that Bitcoin is the best hedge against consumer prices because it is limited in quantity and this means it is valuable based on it's limited supply but of course, it might be a little early to say so but I do definitely find it to be so as we do see companies choosing to have Bitcoin in their balance sheet for example, Square, Tesla, Micro Strategy, Voyager Digital and Marathon Digital Holdings just to name a few. It definitely carries more risks so it really depends on your risk appetite and allocation.

  • In Yourself

Improving yourself is definitely what you have been hearing a lot nowadays, from the government to your company, upskilling or upgrading is the way to go to stay relevant or even to switch to a new industry. I am guilty of not improving myself but I like to try out new things which explains this blog and also my Youtube channel. Although I wouldn't say it is doing a great job nor is it worth the effort based on the small revenue I get from it but it forms as a small project that I do on the side. And also because we are staying home so often at home, it helps keep my time occupied.

If you're older and instead want a safer approach to beating inflation, you can also combine a variety of products besides investing in stocks, an annuity is also a great way to preserve your capital. There are definitely different products that can cater to the different needs of an individual and you will need to know your own risk appetite but taking on some risks is necessary, just make sure you have sufficient emergency funds put aside. Hope you guys enjoy today's video. Do hit the like button and subscribe to my channel. Thank you.

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Affiliate links/Codes:

► How I Protect My Bitcoin using Ledger (20% discount code): Get your ledger from HERE and you can use this 20% discount code: FRIEND-J2KN82T (Using my affiliate link will help me where Ledger will pay a small incentive that's not from you but from them) - USD$25 discount coupon: THANKS-SHLRTVJ or THANKS-V35SSK5
► How I earn interest on my Crypto (Hodlnaut): https://app.hodlnaut.com/signup?r=_JF037Nb0 Get USD20 equivalent for your initial deposit of at least USD1000 on any of the supported asset by using my referral link
► Where I Buy my Cryptocurrencies (Binance.sg): Referral ID = 350349
► Where I Buy my Cryptocurrencies : Coinhako
► Where I buy my stocks
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers (Free stock and commission free trades, check out more here)
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► Google Pay: v89ph61

References: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/10/protect-yourself-from-inflation.asp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTxlBTIVQrw