Goodbye Xiao Lan, Hello Da Bai

 

 

After serving me and my loved ones faithfully for the past 7 years, I finally had to part with my workhorse Xiao Lan.

 

It was honestly not an easy decision. Even a pen if used for long, I will find it hard to throw it away.

However judging from the government's policy on cars, I think it's pretty clear EV is the future and if I don't cash in on the remaining value now, it would be pretty taxing for me in 3 years time when I have to change car. Who knows how much the COE will cost by then.

As a matter of fact, COE for my first car in 2009 was $4,000+.

 

COE for my second car which is Xiao Lan was $26,301.00.

COE for my new car which I got in February this year is $108,220.00.

I still remember I got Xiao Lan when my daughter was around 9 months old and since then she has ferried us around. She was also the one who fetched my son home after he was discharged from hospital after birth.

On a personal note, Xiao Lan has accompanied me through my many ups and downs and has never given me any major problem for the years I've been with her. She's robust.

 

She is such an easy drive. When I'm with her I understand the feeling of 车人合一.

I am still missing her after parting with her on 13/3/2026. So do our whole family. We took a family photo with her on the day of parting.

 

It is my good fortune to have you, Xiao Lan. Good bye and all the best. I hope to see you on the road one day.

 

Da Bai came into our family on the day Xiao Lan left. I have since driven her for slightly more than 2 weeks with slightly more than 1,000 km mileage.

 

It seems almost fated to have Da Bai. I visited the showroom because the agent for another brand was having his day off when I called. I then decided to visit Da Bai's showroom with the intention to just get a best deal for comparison.

However the agent who served me was so sincere and I managed to get almost whatever I asked for. In the end I put pen to paper and confirmed my relationship with Da Bai on the spot.

 

I am slowly getting used to Da Bai now. She has lot more functions than Xiao Lan, not least the voice command which the kids loved to play with.

 

"Hello Baby. Please open the sunshade."

 

"Hello Baby. Please turn on the aircon."

 

"Hello Baby. Please play some music."

 

I guess Da Bai is also a head turner. Recently a lady approached me to chat about the car. She said she has seen my car for 2 days already and was hoping to catch the owner.

 

Also unlike what others said, there is no range anxiety for me at all. I don't actually understand why would some people feel that.

 

EV chargers are everywhere now. Nowadays when I enter a carpark I just move into the EV charging lot, plug in and go run my errands. When I get back I just remove the plug and drive off. Just like juicing up your phone whenever you see a wall socket.

It doesn't matter how much it got juiced up. Just let the charging do the job in the time the car is idling in the parking lot while you do your stuff.

 

To me this is the premise of EV. To charge while you do your stuff. Not finding stuff to do while charging.

 

Couple of days ago I had this shiok experience. I was meeting a friend at Ang Mo Kio for lunch and the carpark was full with several cars waiting for parking lot.

 

I literally just drove into an EV charging lot, plug in and went off to meet my friend.

 

I will probably write a review on Da Bai, maybe with the running cost too, when I get to know her deeper.

 

For now I'll continue to tinkle and have fun with the different functions.

My Review of Yuen Kee Dumpling

TL:DR: I wouldn't queue more than 15 min for Yuen Kee. At least not for myself. 

Have walked past the Yuen Kee Dumpling outlet at Fortune Centre many times on weekends and there is always a long queue outside without fail.

Nevertheless I never had the urge to try it until recently when wifey told me of her favourable experience at another outlet.

So today I made a trip down to Fortune Centre and lucky me, there is a seat for me almost immediately. I guess being a weekday and being alone helps!

The outlet is pretty small with probably 20 seats or so. Didn't really count.

Ordering is pretty standard. Via the self ordering kiosk outside or by scanning the QR code on the table. 

So here's my take:

I ordered the corn and pork dumpling with scallion oil noodles along with a side of fried pork wanton. No drink was ordered. 

The dumplings are pretty interesting in flavour. The corns add a refreshing crunch and help to balance out the taste of the pork.

The noodles are a disappointment in both texture and flavour. The al dente element that I was looking out for is missing. The all-important scallion oil flavour is lacking.

The fried pork wanton comes with thin skin which is evidently different from other places. The wanton I had were fried to a crisp but I find them a tad too oily. After four pieces I had to stop eating the skin. The wanton flavour doesn't lingers in my mind too.

Service-wise can't be faulted. The staff is friendly and efficient. The chilli oil is empty though and I had to make do with whatever I can scoop out. Not really a big deal to me anyway. 

Verdict: I wouldn't queue more than 15 min for Yuen Kee. At least not for myself. 

Luckily I got a seat almost right away just now.

Overall food: 3/5

Service: 3.5/5

Ambience: 3/5

February 2026 Updates - Tale of 3 Purchases and 2 Sales

1st purchase

 

I've finally decided not to be held hostage by the oil companies anymore. These people hike up their pump price whenever there is justification but take ages to reduce when crude price comes down.

 

I took the plunge and bought an EV last Friday.

 

Have been thinking about this for some time because of the above but what firmed up my mind to make the move are three primary reasons:

 

Firstly, my current car is left with less than four years of COE. While there is still time to consider my choices, the trade-in value also correspondingly goes down with time.

 

Secondly, I saw a report recently which states that the number of COE to be released in the coming quarter will be reduced. This is in contrary to what I have thought.

Last but not least, the move by the government to reduce the PARF rebate recently shows that they are firm on their push towards EVs for the local roads.

 

I have actually narrowed my choice to two models recently - BYD Seal 6 and Aion V.

 

The plan is to compare both and take the one that offers the best deal.

 

So last Friday I have planned to go to the BYD showroom. However the sales contact that I had was on his off day. So I popped by the Aion showroom instead.

 

Long story short, what was supposed to be a chat to get the best package evolved into a purchase because the sales person managed to give me what I want.

 

I was impressed by the test drive too. So was wifey who sat as a rear passenger.

 

Honestly, it's hard to find another SUV in the market at this price point that comes close to the spaciousness, features and comfort that the Aion V offers.

 

2nd purchase

 

Second purchase also happened on the same day - Ascendas REIT.

 

This is an accumulation to existing holdings.

 

Have been queuing at $2.69 for couple of days and managed to get it on the last trading day on the month. Was pretty sure I would get it sooner or later since this price has been tested a few times over the week already.

 

As mentioned before for this counter, anything less than $2.70 is a buy.

 

3rd purchase and 1st sale

 

Tried the OCBC precious metals account. Bought my first tranche of paper silver and sold them slightly more than two weeks later for a profit of S$466.14.

 

2nd sale

 

This is for a put option that I wrote for a premium of US$2.80.

Big news

The strike by Israel and the US on Iran, and the subsequent retaliatory strikes by the latter on Israel and US bases around Middle East have a definite impact on various markets. However the magnitude and how long it stays on the temporal scale remains to be seen.

To me it all boils down to one person - Donald Trump, and how wide he wants this latest conflict to be.

Ultimately when this guy wage a war, it all boils down to one thing - oil. Same for Venezuela, same for Iran.

It's so delusionary that he feels he should be getting the Nobel Peace Prize.

So what's this means for me on the investment front?

On my main income portfolio, it probably means suddenly there would be more opportunities at least in the coming week to add new counters that I have been eyeing or accumulate to existing positions.

On the put option that I've just sold, I have to wait and see if the counter dives. Fundamentally the counter is pretty solid. However if I gets assigned I would take it up since the strike price is one which I am comfortable to pay for owning this counter.

On the precious metals side, it seems like they have already ran up and logically so since it's a flight to safety for investors. For me I would wait for the next opportunity to trade for this asset class.

On the more immediate front, I need to go top up petrol now before anything else.

Ciao!

January 2026 Updates

First purchase of the year: Comfort Delgro @ $1.45 to add on to existing holdings

Portfolio value continues to climb with the market though it did not close the month at ATH. 

Cut loss for PYPL and DIDIY to divert the funds elsewhere.

Silver is looking interesting after the sharp fall over the weekend. Might initiate a position in paper silver if it drops below $100.

Reviewing my portfolio cost yield

New year new beginning.

 

Decided to do a review on the cost yield of my individual holdings since it is one of the most important metrics to me. I'm an income investor afterall.

 

I also looked at the recent trend of the individual counters to see if they are paying more (or less) over the years.

 

Not looking at other fundamentals for this exercise. Any fundamental analysis can easily take up a blog post of its own.

My target yield is minimum 5%.

CapitaLand Investment (CLI) is an exception to the rule. It is a recent addition to the portfolio and the less than 5% yield was already known when I made the move.

I went ahead because at that time I have no other more attractive counters to put my funds in. Also CLI has given dividend in species previously so I felt the 4.58% yield is acceptable.

 

Question

Looking at the results, it is obvious CapitaLand China Trust (CLCT) is a laggard both in terms of yield against cost and dividend trend.

It is also the worst performer in my portfolio in terms of capital loss as mentioned here previously.

 

Now the question is what will I do for this counter?

 

Based on today's closing price of $0.805, I am staring at a capital loss of $8,015.42.

 

My cumulative dividends for CLCT over the years amounted to $4,868.91.

 

Hence net loss is $3,146.51.

 

Option 1: Continue to hold and collect dividends while waiting for price to recover.

 

Issue with this is I don't see any catalyst for recovery in the market that CLCT is operating in. Rental reversion for all three asset types is in negative territory. The downtrend of annual dividends is a double whammy. There is also the opportunity cost involved.

On the other hand, there might be some bright spark this year from the ROI of their 5% investment in CapitaLand Commercial C-REIT (CLCR) which is currently trading above IPO price.

Option 2: Sell now and reinvest in other counters or assets. This might be a quicker way to recover my loss.

Issue with this is there are no other dividend counters that are attractive enough to me at the moment. Nevertheless I can put the funds in my US / HK portfolio or gold / silver though that will mean my dividends receivable will take a hit this year.

Action

For now I'm inclined to wait for the next financial update from CLCT before making my move. I'm also interested to see what they will do with the ROI from CLCR investment. If it does not flow down to existing unitholders, I guess I would have more clarity in my decision by then.

Why and how I do multiple jobs concurrently

TL;DR: Short answer is of course for the money. But it is not as hectic as it seems. Everything happens within that 8 - 10 hours of a normal office work. 

Deeper answer is because Covid taught me a very good lesson six years ago.

I founded my current company in 2017. It was a bootstrapped effort since day one. Business was not bad in the first two years. I was beginning to plot my expansion plan including getting a commercial property of my own.

Then Covid struck in the third year of operation (2019) which threw a spanner in the works.

While my business survived the onslaught of the pandemic, it could very well join the statistics of companies that closed down had the pandemic continued for another year or two.

Back then businesses were divided into essential and non-essential services. My company which is in the environmental protection field fell under the latter category which meant we couldn't head outside for sales and projects.

For the 2 years of Covid, our total sales amounted to around $30k. I was basically surviving on the retained earnings from the previous two years before Covid!

Because of this episode, I started to contemplate on having diversified (more) income streams.

I modelled my plan on our national water strategy with the "Four National Taps". If one source goes down I have other sources to back up. 

To kick start my plan I thought about what am I good at and what am I interested in other than my main job. 

Side gig 1:

I have been active in fitness since young. In late 2020, I went to get myself certified as a personal trainer (PT) to better train myself and to earn some extra bucks. 

Despite my zero experience as a PT, a gym chain responded to my resume. Two rounds of interviews later, I got hired.

The boss and my senior trainer are nice guys. They trusted me even though I'm new and my senior made time to give me some practical lessons and tips in handling the clients.

I was initially sent to one of the expat clubs in Singapore to train the clients there. It was a steep learning curve but I learned alot in that one year. 

After that I was brought back to the original club where I've been working now for the past three years or so. 

For this arrangement, I received a cut for every session I coached. I usually do between 40 - 60 sessions every month. 

Moving forward to today, I am also training my own clients outside the gym now. 

These clients are usually recommended to me by their family member or friend who shared my service by word of mouth as I do not actively advertise myself. 

For this side gig, I only do for weekday mornings.

A side benefit of this gig is that I get to use a top notch gym for free for my own training. Shiok! 

Side gig 2:

Somewhere around 2022, I signed up for a Master's programme from NUS to deepen and to bridge the gaps in my knowledge related to my course of work. 

It was a part time course held in the evenings which means the time and commitment were pretty heavy.

It was assignments and projects almost every week for that 2 year course. 

Since completing the programme in 2024, I have been looking out for opportunities to monetise it. Last year one of my contacts recommended me to an adjunct teaching position in one of our local IHLs. 

I am open to adjunct teaching because I felt this aligns with my idea of contributing back to the society. The module is also related to my Master's and my field of work. Importantly, it also allows me to create another stream of income.

So I went for the interview which included a mock teaching session to the other lecturers.

I got accepted by the IHL soon after and upon getting the clearance from MOE, I was offered the contract as an adjunct lecturer. 

Salary-wise is quite comparable to what I am charging for my private PT sessions. 

I started on this side gig since October last year and I am only teaching two classes once a week on the same day which works out to be four hours of teaching per week. 

Other income stream:

To keep this short, the main contributor is from the dividends from my local portfolio.

Currently the annual dividend receivable is about $12k.

Final thoughts:

I'm not a superman unlike what some fellow forummers said. I'm just a normal Singaporean guy trying to future proof myself. 

While having three jobs concurrently seem like a busy schedule, the main bulk of all the works happens within 7 am to 6 pm on weekdays with breakfast, lunch and teabreak thrown in. Holidays and weekends are off limits.

This is quite similar to the average employees. 

Also what I'm doing are essentially my interests.

My main job and adjunct teaching are related to sustainability. My PT role is related to fitness.

I am doing what I love and I love what I do. 

I consider myself fortunate.

Last but not least, not withstanding the above I am constantly exploring other sources of regular income stream. Hopefully the next exciting one comes soon. 

Wrapping Up for 2025

Quick wrap up for a year that flew past for me. 

 

Family

This year we went to Bali again for our year end holiday. We stayed 4 nights at the mountainous region of Ubud this time which we really love (last year we stayed entirely at Kuta). Our room opens up to this view:

On the last 2 days we stayed at Kuta to be nearer to the airport. We managed to visit Waterbom Bali this time. I suspect I might just make Bali a yearly visit from now on 🤭.

School work-wise, daughter got an award for Mathematics at the end of school year. Guess it's a good end for her Primary 1.

 

I've never been worried about her school work. It's her stubbornness and temper that I'm concerned with. I seriously think she inherited those from me.

Son's also getting better at being focus at his work. I would like to think his happy-go-lucky character is a blessing.

 

I will be very happy as long as they remain healthy and develop good character. The latter is always my focus when I'm teaching them.

Work

My company remains the main focus. It has been 8 years since I started the business bootstrapped. While it has its ups and downs through the years including surviving Covid, our mission in providing solutions in emission control and protecting our planet never change.

I would consider 2025 a so-so year for the company. While the numbers are not that great compared to past years, the highlights are constant repeat orders from a client - a testament to their trust in us, and a breakthrough into the public sector with a prominent government agency onboard.

I'm looking forward to 2026.

Side line 1:

My side gig as a personal trainer yields better than expected income for 2025. While I was aiming for $20k from this in the beginning of the year, the actual income achieved amounted to $23,640.

 

Not bad considering I only dedicate weekday mornings to this.

This is helped by the signing up of a private client who was introduced to me by her family member who in turn was already training with me.

I find this really fulfilling.

In fact another of his family member contacted me yesterday to enquire about my training schedule.

 

Side line 2:

 

I just embarked on this in October 2025, as an adjunct lecturer in a local IHL. I am only taking two classes per week for now. Income achieved amounted to $2,000.

I'm starting to get the hang of teaching and the administrative work but I must say this side gig is taking too much of my time. Way more than what I expected.

I will most likely continue for the next semester which should be less of a learning curve by then.

CPF

Throughout the year I have made voluntary cash top up to my CPF SA. Total top ups amounted to $5,590. These are taken from the side gig incomes.

In December I also made a transfer from OA to SA to achieve the FRS amount. This is done to take advantage of the higher interest in SA in order to further secure my retirement expenses.

Of course the downside is I have lesser amount to use should I decide to purchase another property in the near future. It is because of this consideration that I have taken so long to make this decision.

Personal Social Responsibility

 

For this year, my choice of causes remain the same: the young, the elderly and the environment.

 

This is just a small gesture to contribute back to the society on a regular basis.

 

Other than this yearly donation habit, part of the reason why I went into adjunct teaching is also to inspire the younger generation. I am teaching the subject of sustainability which is my area of expertise and which is closely related to my work and passion.

If I can motivate more young people to live sustainably and equip them with the knowledge to do so, there is a better chance our future generations can have a decent quality of life.

 

"Sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland Commission)

 

Last but not least, my wife and I also donated our household CDC vouchers to Tzu-Chi Foundation (Singapore).

 

Investment

2025 was a mini breakthrough year for me in terms of dividends.

For the first time since tracking, my annual dividends collected crossed the 5 figure mark.

My number of holdings increased to 12 counters. A number not seen since years back.

I invested about $29k in 2025 which is more than the estimated $20k figure foresaw in the beginning of the year. This amount is largely from my side gig incomes. I didn't really touch my savings or main income for investment this year.

Local portfolio value also hit a new high of $235k.

Cumulative dividends since tracking amounted to $62,714.56.

Total portfolio value (SG, HK, US) amounted to $257k.

In December the last batch of dividends came in from SingTel ($656), MIT ($286.20) and MLT ($295.86).

I also bought CapitaLand Invest (CLI) @ 2.61 in December. This feels like a renewed relationship as I have sold this counter few years back when it was still known as CapitaLand.

 

For non-REITS, other than CLI I also bought ComfortDelGro (CDG) and Venture this year. Lastly I also added more DBS and OCBC.

 

For CDG it's another reacquaintance.

 

Best performers in 2025:

 

1) DBS (+131.22%)

2) OCBC (+108.49%)

3) SingTel (+41.90%)

Worst performers in 2025:

1) CLCT (-41.39%)

2) MLT (-5.73%)

3) MIT (-4.89%)

 

CLCT continued to be the worst performer. Same position as last year although there is a slight improvement compared to 2024 (-46.24%).

For the last two years I have tried to divert my portfolio away from REITs by adding other equities. In 2026, I will adopt a more balanced view with a mixture of both asset classes as I feel the worse is over for REITs.

Having said that I will still be prudent with my cash by holding a certain percentage of it due to the present geopolitical risks and the whims of Trump. This will be achieved by only investing from my side incomes while leaving my main income and savings untouched. Same strategy as 2025.

I will probably only deploy the latter income sources if (a) a compelling buy case arises or (b) more clarity on the geopolitical situations arise e.g. concrete end of the wars, step down of office by Trump, etc. However the trick is to remain nimble as is always the case in investing especially so in this era where dynamics change ever so quickly.

For the US / HK portfolio, I will continue to concentrate force on the tech sector since my outlay is relatively small for too many counters. In the US market, I will continue to build a position in MSFT and NVDA. For HK market, I might add more 9988 if it hits $120.

Talking about MSFT, it is the second multi-bagger achieved in this portfolio with a P&L of +179.18%.

Worst performer: PYPL (-68.44%)