Get Consistent Cash and Dairy Farm Vouchers - Rakuten Insight and Milieu

Earn free money in your free time to combat inflation.

 

All you need to do is to do surveys as and when you want.

 

How does that sounds?

 

It's perfectly legit. I have personally verified it and received the payments several times already. 

Rakuten Insight

 

I first heard of Rakuten Insight from my brother last year when he invited me to join which I did some time around last July.

Rakuten Insight is an online survey platform which provides surveys for registered users to do and earn points in exchange for cash or Dairy Farm vouchers.

Registration is free. You can use my referral link here.

So from July 2021 to now, I have earned a total of $55 so far ($35 cash + $20 Dairy Farm voucher).

I wasn't so diligent in the early days after joining so the output is not that impressive.

However if you are diligent like my wife (and me now) who do the surveys everyday, you can probably earn a $5 or more every week.

 

Every 75 points gets you a $5 cash or voucher and each survey range from 1 point to 45 or more points so based on personal experience, I would say it's a rather easy way to earn money.

 

Rakuten has recently came out with an App for the surveys. I have tried it once but found it not that user-friendly. So I still prefer to do the surveys on my laptop.

Milieu Survey

 

The next one I want to introduce to you is Milieu.

 

I have joined this one even longer. Way before Rakuten. It was first introduced to me by a business associate.

 

Milieu is also a survey platform which let registered users do surveys and earn points in exchange for cash, vouchers or donation to charities (Nice!).

 

Another good thing about Milieu is that it has an App which is pretty easy and friendly to use.

 

Registration is free too and you can use my referral code: XJ08L0

 

I can't remember how much I have earned from Milieu so far. Likely more than $100 already. 

 

The point-to-redemption ratio is higher for Milieu as compared to Rakuten. So it takes longer to accumulate your points for redemption.

 

However since it's free money after all, there is no reason to complain.

So here you go, the two lobangs to earn some side income to help combat the effects of rising inflation.

 

Hope the above is useful to you and thank you in advance if you use my referral link / referral code.

Huat Ah!

This post is written by me, a satisfied user, for the sake of sharing and in the spirit of 'sharing is caring'. This is not a sponsored post and I am not affiliated to Rakuten and Milieu.

Quick Glance of Ascendas & Mapletree Family Reits Charts

Was monitoring my watch list just now and spotted quite a few opportunities so decided to take a glance at the respective charts.

 

Just sharing in case this is helpful to others too.

Ascendas Reit

At present price, yield is about 5.2% which makes it tempting. However a quick look at the chart reveals that the price has broken through all the moving averages. Furthermore the short term MAs have crossed under the longer term MAs with big fat red candles. Probably has more room to fall.

 

Will be keeping a close look at this counter and interesting to see how it closes today.

 

Mapletree Commercial Trust

 

Another counter which has fallen through all the MAs. However price seems to be consolidating near the $1.82 region which yields about 5.2%.

 

If the consolidation continues, an uptrend might be possible.

 

Was initially considering adding this or Ascendas Reit (when it was at 5.1% yield). At present moment the latter seems more tempting especially if it falls further and I've always preferred Ascendas Reit's assets over MCT's.

 

Mapletree Industrial Trust

 

Nice looking ladder formation. Almost looking like a double top or is it? Looking forward to $2.51.

 

Mapletree Logistics Trust

 

One of my favourite if not favourite, Mapletree counters. Solid assets with historical trend of rising dividends.

Aligned with my view that future world will be driven by tech, logistics and clean energy.

 

Ugly chart. Seems like collateral damage from the MCT & MNACT merger fallout. Share price has fallen below the recent preferential offering price.

 

Looking forward to further drop so I can scoop more.

 

Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust

 

MNACT is the only one that seems to buck the bearish trend. It hit a high of $1.15 earlier this month before consolidating back at the $1.09 - $1.10 levels.

 

Uptrend still intact based on MAs though 5 MA has crossed under 10 MA today. Would be interesting to see the closing today for the possibility of a short term dip.

Proposed Merger of MCT & MNACT - Most Beneficial Option

On 31st December 2021, Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) and Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust (MNACT) jointly announced for a proposed merger between the two trusts.

The new combined entity named Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MPACT), will become the 7th largest Reit in Asia by market capitalisation.

 

 

More details can be found here.

Now there will surely be supporters and detractors from both camps - MCT and MNACT, for the merger and rightly so.

In every merger there will be pros and cons. In this case I've been seeing a lot of negative feedback from MCT unitholders and some from MNACT unitholders as well.

The main grouse for the former is that the merger will increase MCT's gearing and 'lower' down the quality of their assets.

For MNACT unitholders, the most common feedback I've seen is that their DPU will be lowered upon merger.

For myself I have a small holding of MNACT and none of MCT. My current stand is neutral on the proposed merger.

However to help myself make the best decision regarding the merger, I did some quick calculations and arrived at some conclusions as follows.

Calculations

MCT share price at point of writing: $1.85

 

MNACT share price at point of writing: $1.09

 

My current MNACT holdings: 4,000 units

 

If I go for Option 1, I will receive: 2,003.6 MCT units + $764.80

If I go for Option 2, I will receive: 2,385.2 MCT unit

If I go for Option 3, I will receive: 100% cash per market price

 

So to see how the various options work out for me, I did the calculations based on several MCT and MNACT share price scenarios.

 

Conclusions

 

Based on the current MCT and MNACT share price of $1.85 and $1.09 respectively, the best option for me would be Option 1 in which I will have an equivalent amount of $4,471.45.

 

Pros: Highest value received

        No transaction fees

        Still eligible for MNACT's coming distribution and any clean up distribution

Con: Will have odd lots of MPACT in future

If MNACT share price moved up to $1.14 like it did earlier this week, Option 3 appears to be the best option for me as that would give me the highest immediate value.

 

However by selling my holdings I will miss out on the coming distributions. So need to factor this in when details are available and see how it measures against Option 1.

Pros: Highest value received if MCT stays below $1.89

        No odd lots if I reinvest into MPACT

Cons: Transaction fees

         Not eligible for MNACT's coming distribution and any clean up distribution

 

If MCT share price moved above $1.89 and MNACT share price moved back to $1.14 or above, similar calculations can be done to see which option makes more sense.

For now we have at least until May 2022 to decide.

Review of My 2021

 

2021 basically flew past for me and 2022 appeared in the blink of an eye. With that it means it's time to pen down the customary yearly review for record which I have since done long ago in my head actually.

 

I'm always been somewhat of a contrarian since young.

 

People buy PlayStation I buy Sega Saturn.

 

People chase after the class beauty, I wrote a love letter to the bespectacled lanky girl with tiger tooth (only to be waylaid by the class fatty whom I suspected had a crush on me).

 

You got the gist.

 

So for 2021 portfolio performance portion where most investors reported stellar results, I will report my loss instead.

Family

Our kids are growing up well. The elder one is attending N2 this year while the younger one will be attending the playgroup at the same centre next month.

 

So far it seems like the younger one is taking after his sister's cheerful nature.

My wife and I noticed that from the time when she was still a baby, often times Jie Jie will start smiling the moment she opened her eyes after she woke up from her sleep. These scenes naturally melted our hearts whenever we see them.

Now Di Di is exhibiting the same thing also. 

 

These two cute little ones added so much more to our lives and we cherish every moment with them.

As long as our kids grow up healthily, happily and with the right values in life, I would be very happy.

Health

In early 2021 I attended a personal training course and got myself certified as a personal trainer as I have always been interested in keeping fit.

It was rewarding and I gained a lot of insights on not only the knowledge on personal training, but also in the human anatomy and food nutrition.

Before I attended the course, I have been doing my own workouts comprising of combination of cardio and weights trainings.

 

The workouts were good for weight loss but that was not what I wanted. My aim was to build strength and lean muscle but I actually lost weight instead of achieving the latter.

So after I got my certification as a personal trainer, I wrote two structured training programs for myself with specific load, no. of reps, sets and amount of rest time, etc for my workouts.

I must say this type of structured resistance training works well for my goal. I am seeing the transformation on my physique and body strength despite less than a year into the training.

If there's a chance I certainly don't mind working as a personal trainer as a side hustle. This is something I love and it would be great and satisfying to share my PT knowledge with people who wants a healthier lifestyle and sexier body.

My overall health in 2021 is generally good except for some episodes of recurring back spasms which could be due to an old injury sustained when I was younger. 

 

To counter this I am doing a series of lower back strengthening exercises daily to build up my lower back muscles.

 

Other than that I don't recall ever being ill in 2021.

Work

2021 is not a very good year for my business. Number of contracts secured and value of contracts all dropped.

Earlier in the year, I rejected a ~$150,000.00 project after receiving the PO from the client.

This is because despite having agreed on the scope of work and quotation, the client insisted on us to sign a separate agreement with heavily unfavourable terms to us.

An example of these unfavourable terms is that they have the right to add items to the project if they think necessary but all costs will be borne by us.

I have seen and signed many additional agreement to main contract for other projects. This is quite common. However in this case the terms are heavily skewed against us so in the name of risk management, I rejected the agreement and with that, the contract.

Apart from the above, we also lost a number of large projects where we had high hopes of securing. In a couple of them we were actually the lowest bidder so it was very disappointing to say the least.

We have one potential big project left for this FY. If this is not secured, this FY will likely to be a loss-making one for us.

Investments

I will start off with my regular monthly update first before moving on to the year end conclusion.

 

Dividends Received in December:

 

1) ESR REIT @ $74.76

2) MNACT @ $137.04

3) Netlink Trust @ $204.80

4) MLT @ $217.30

 

Total: $633.90

 

Counters Sold:

 

1) 4,000 units of Suntec Reit @ $1.50

2) 10,500 units of ESR Reit @ $0.485

 

Counters Purchased:

 

1) 1,600 units of Mapletree Logistics Trust @ $1.84 from preferential offering (allocation + excess)

 

Short-Term Transactions:

 

1) Sold 2 x $9.5 DIDI Call 211231 with $0.37 premium. Expired.

 

2) Closed early at $6.93 for 1 x $55 Apps Put 211203 with $0.71 premium.

 

3) Closed early at $1.74 for 2 x $55 Apps Put 211210 with $0.90 premium.

 

4) Sold 6 x $45 Apps Put 211231 with $0.73 premium. Expired.

 

5) Closed early at $0.75 for 1 x $17.5 GREE Put 211217 with $1 premium. 

 

6) Sold 3 x $15 GREE Put 220121 with $0.60 premium. 

 

Total P/L excluding item 6: -US$269.76 (~-S$365.66)

 

Moving on to the year end review.

 

Year End SGD Portfolio

 

Transactions Made

 

This SGD portfolio continues to stay as my main portfolio, providing me with a stable base and passive income to build on to greater heights.

Didn't manage to grow it as much as I wanted to in 2021. In fact the year end portfolio value actually dropped as compared to 2020 due to the divestments I made in December.

 

So in December I sold off my Suntec Reit and ESR Reit to generate more cash and as part of my rebalancing to buy into more quality income-generating counters.

 

I had shortlisted MNACT and CICT as well but eventually decided to sell the above-mentioned due to their relatively high gearing.

Suntec Reit is also facing pressure on their MICE and retail segments while ESR Reit is having declining dividends over the past few years.

Having said that, with the recent announced planned merger for MNACT, I might be selling that also to avoid odd lots in the future. Will be doing some calculations before deciding. Anyway market price will be a determining factor too.

 

In 2021, portfolio suffered an overall loss because I finally decided to cut ISOTeam and realise the loss which amounted to a not-so-cool 5 digits.

 

This is part of the plan that I have made in the beginning of the year: to clear out dead wood from my portfolio.

 

1. Get rid of the dead wood in my portfolio (was planning to do it last month but the price had a drastic fall on the day I wanted to sell)

 

2. Allocate a portion of my investments into crypto currencies (probably 1% of my portfolio for a start)

3. Invest into the US market

So with this divestment my portfolio ended up in the red for 2021, contrary to many of my fellow investors who had a stellar year.

 

On the flip side, my portfolio will likely perform much better in the years ahead now that it has been tidied up.

It feels refreshing to start on this note.

With these divestments and transactions, my portfolio currently holds 9 counters (compared to 14 in 2020 and 13 in 2019).

 

My investment style for the SGD portfolio remains the same: Income investing into quality companies.

 

Year End USD / HKD Portfolio

 

2021 also marked my first year entering the US and HK markets. Prior to that I have been monitoring the US market for a period of time and the volatility there compared to our local market is like comparing an ocean storm and placid lake.

If the local market is for building my income portfolio, the US and HK markets are for my growth elements.

 

I actually started off quite well. Had the first multi-bagger in my trading journey. Then I made a series of stupid mistakes which I have posted here and which caused my portfolio to turn from nice double digit profit margin to the red number seen above.

I have one lesson firmly etched into my mind from this episode. That is not to allow emotions to cloud my judgement ever again in stocks trading.

 

Moving ahead I will still continue to buy into the Tech and green energy sectors whenever opportunities arise such as last night where the Tech counters fell due to the rising Treasury yields.

 

In the options trading space which I also made my maiden entry in 2021, I made a total of 36 trades which comprise written puts and covered calls.

 

I generated a profit of US$1,970.81 (~S$2,671.14) from these trades. I feel this is not bad considering a base of S$20 K initially.

I will continue to use options to supplement my trading income and possibly buy the stocks at the price I want.

 

If you wish to try the US and HK markets as well you can sign up for a moomoo account here.

Year End Syfe Portfolio

 

In March 2021, I opened an account with Syfe after doing a comparison among the different robo advisors.

I started a small Core Growth portfolio with them focusing mainly on the US and Chinese stocks.

Time weighted return so far for the 9 months period is about 7.1%. I intend to continue DCA-ing monthly and let this portfolio run for a longer period of time before deciding on the next move.

Summary

 

So just to sum up my total portfolios value at the end of 2021: S$162,497.41.

 

Last but not least, here's wishing everyone a blessed and healthy 2022 ahead.