Time Of The Year Again For Giving Back (Personal Donation)

This post is purely meant to serve as a gentle reminder and hopefully, inspiration for readers to do what you can to give back to the society in an amount that you can afford.

 

It is definitely not to show off or to achieve anything to that effect.

 

Apart from the recurring donations that I've been making through GIRO, I have a habit to make yearly donation to various causes at every year end.

 

So just did the latter for this year. Must admit I nearly forgot to do so as I went through the hustle of life. To think I even went on a cruise last week.

 

This year is largely the same as previous years. I made contribution to the causes close to my heart - the elderly and children.

 

In addition, I've made a maiden contribution to our animal friends due to an unfortunate incident that happened to me recently in relation to this subject.

 

 

In case you are wondering, I've made the donations through giving.sg. 

I think they charge 1.8% of the donated amount as administrative fees. To me that is acceptable and I prefer to use this platform as I personally find it has more credibility.

 

As a matter of fact, I hardly donate to fundraisers on the street as I can't be sure on the percentage of donated amount that actually goes to the people who need it most.

It is not to say these fundraisers are not genuine. Rather I just find it a hassle to verify their credibility.

 

As we busy ourselves going through the hustle and bustle of life, let's not forget those who might need a helping hand or two in theirs too.
 

While this post is about personal donation, I will usually donate in my company's capacity, a percentage of the operating net profit after the close of FY in February.

I was inspired by CapitaLand to do this and I hope I can continue to do so annually (Which means my business is profitable every year. Woohoo!).

 

 

Note: I am not affiliated with giving.sg or any of the charities shown in the post. I try to donate to different organisation every year anyway. As mentioned, I just hope to remind and inspire.

Generational Issue or Just Personal Character?

Typing this now while having my chendol at Bukit Timah hawker centre as I just came across an interesting situation.

So I am seated alone at a table with some seats beside me still available. A lady aged about 30s to early 40s came over and asked me if the seats are available before putting her bag down.

Shortly after another lady aged about 60s came and sat down beside me without asking.

These contrasting behaviour got me thinking.

Is the difference in exhibited behaviours simply due to personal character or is it something deeper like societal norms from different times?

Note that I'm not saying either behaviour is right or wrong. 

What do you think?

From your personal experience, do people in their 60s and above (are they called boomers?) usually ask before sharing your table in public? 

Every Little Saving Helps - Car Related Expenses

Cars are expensive in Singapore. Everyone here knows that. No thanks to the COE game implemented by our policymakers.

While we cannot control the car (and COE) prices, we can choose to do something to help ourselves on the operating cost.

Apart from pumping RON 92 (minimum as per my car manual) and planning routes to avoid ERP whenever possible, I make an effort to do some simple maintenance myself.

So recently I felt the cabin air was getting stale and the aircon was not as strong as before.

I proceeded to buy a replacement aircon filter online for my car model. This arrived couple of days ago.

It is no wonder why my cabin air was stale. Look at the difference. 

Top is the new filter. Below is the old filter (and the black colour is not activated carbon but dust accumulated)! 

New filter inserted in and ready for providing me and my family fresh air. 

True enough, the cabin air quality improved tremendously after that. I mean it is noticeable immediately after I started my drive.

And how much did it cost me? S$5.92 and 5 min of my time.

Most importantly, I have two young kids so I'm glad I did this small maintenance program.

All it takes is to locate the cabin air filter compartment and take some care when removing any parts. 

For my case the cabin air filter is located behind the glove box so a little care is needed to remove the hinges and slow-opening mechanism to lower down the glove box before accessing the aircon filter.

This is not rocket science and all car owners can do this and some other small maintenance themselves. 

Looking forward to the next self maintenance. 

Afterall a penny saved is a penny earned. 

Cheers! 

P.s. Drivers, do let me know what are the other self maintenance that you are doing for your ride too! 

Updates for Oct 2023

Have been adding Mapletree Industrial Trust @ 2.23 & 2.30, CapitaLand China Trust @ 0.90 and Mapletree Logistics Trust @ 1.47 in September and October.

 

These are incremental purchases added to existing positions. Nothing has changed among my top four positions.

 

Have been planning to add Ascendas Reit too but price has ran up abit today so will hold on first. However any price below 2.70 remains attractive for this counter. 

 

 

 

Reason for adding the above is simple. I have confidence in the business of MIT and MLT in a timeline that is aligned with my portfolio.

Obviously a major concern now is finance cost which if continue to rise, would have an impact on coming DPUs. Since my respective yield against cost should remain higher than the present risk-free rate with some buffer to go, it is something I am willing to bear for now.

For CLCT, it is mainly to lower my cost. For this counter, one parameter I will follow closely on would be its gearing which is getting uncomfortable for me. It is for this reason that I have reservation on bigger purchase.

Also, more than half of the business park assets lease would be due for renewal in the coming two years. It would be interesting to see how the management handle this and at the same time improve on the occupancy at the Singapore-Hangzhou Science Technology Park asset.

The macro environment including China's projected economy and weakening of Yuan against SGD is important monitoring factor for this counter as well.

 

At point of writing, my local SGD portfolio is down 6.16%.

 

Will continue to make use of the market volatility to add in batches. As usual, time in the market for me, not timing the market.

Updates for May 2023

Been couple of months since my last post. Was busy with work, side line, school and life in general though have to say it's pretty fulfilling.

Work:

Secured some projects which I am working on concurrently.

Also recently completed a mid sized project in a cyclical industry which is currently on the downtrend in terms of outlook.

Side line:

Have been spending some hours on weekday mornings doing this.

I just looked at my records. Apparently I netted an average of $750 per month from this side line which I started around August last year.

I'm still learning and trying to improve as I do it. Hopefully the earnings will increase along with the mastery.

School:

One of the main things that kept me busy. Readers might recall I am taking my Masters now on a part time basis at NUS. 

Just received the results for this semester. Got a B, B+ and A+ for the three modules taken.

Must admit I was a little disappointed but that's life. Good thing is that my CAP of 4.4 is still a safe distance away from the minimum CAP of 3.0.

Up until the last week before the exams, my classmates and I were still engaged in projects. Such rigor though that makes the course a fun challenge.

On top of that I am also busy with my dissertation which is due on January next year. The aim is to complete as much as I can during these two months before semester starts again.

So far I am enjoying the learning process. Maybe it's due to age (I'm in my 40s), maybe it's due to running my own business. But I am focused more on learning the new knowledge than on getting good results. So probably that's the reason.

I am looking forward to the rest of the course.

(I should be writing my dissertation now instead of this post.. Lol) 

Parenting:

This is another area where I am constantly learning too. 

Parenting is an anomaly. It is no easy task yet it is enjoyable at the same time.

I am learning everyday, just like my 2 yo and 4 yo.

Sometimes I flare up, especially when they do something that I have repeatedly said otherwise.

Back in my mind I knew they were just kids and we have to keep teaching like a broken record.

I also set in my handphone, reminders such as to be patient and no raising of voice. Yet from time to time I still find myself losing temper.

And I will always feel guilty thereafter.

There is much room for improvement in this area for me.

Most free time I have will be spent with these two cuties. I always look forward to these times and I try my best to keep other stuff such as work and school away during these times.

Investment:

Have been adding Mapletree Industrial Trust in the last couple of months as share price fell to appealing levels. 

Based on my purchased prices, dividend yield should sit nicely above 5.5% easily.

I will take a leaf from the recent PP price of $2.212 to determine my next level to add.

Despite their drop in latest dividend, I am of the opinion that the strength of their management team as well as geographical and asset class diversity amongst others, are good enough to avoid any drastic drop in financial performance in the long run.

One thing to note of course, is the impact of rate hikes on their borrowings and subsequent dividends.

If we are confident in the quality of the business, it is fine to add in tranches every month for long term investment which is what I'm doing now. Slowly and steadily building up the position. All the more better if it is in a short term down trend.

I have also increased my existing position in Ascendas Reit today.

Queued at last Friday but didn't get filled so tried again today.

Reasons for adding are largely the same as the above.

Others:

Finally bought a new phone recently after probably 6 years. Good bye Huawei Mate 10, hello Poco F5!

Have tried to postpone buying for as long as I can because it's such a hassle to transfer the stuff over. But alas my Mate 10's condition is getting from bad to worse. I have to take the plunge.

Just to complain abit here. The calender function in Poco F5 is really not to my liking. 

It can't display the full entry if the description is too long. It also doesn't display our local holidays.

Anyone knows any calendar that can fulfil the above, kindly recommend it to me please.

Last but not least, I have also recently renewed my electricity plan with Senoko Energy.

Have to get the best plan for ourselves within the environment of rising costs of living. 

I did a comparison and analysis earlier in this post. 

Feel free to make use of the analysis.

If you use my referral code to sign up, a word of thanks to you.

Till the next post, good bye. 

Time to Renew My Electricity Plan and I Did (with the Best Option I Have!)

So two years passed just like that and what a difference the two years have made!

 

The price of electricity jumped from my current plan of 17.63 cents per kWh to 30.66 cents per kWh in the new plans.

That's a huge jump to say the least.

Granted that we can't control the price of electricity, we can at least do some homework to find the best option for ourselves.

 

So as usual I did some comparison to gauge what are the best plans and promotions available that can give me the best savings.

 

The first thing I did is to check out the promotions from my current electrical provider - Senoko Energy. 

 

Next I went to this website to compare across the different providers. 

Eventually I decided to renew with Senoko Energy due to reasons as follows.

1) Senoko Energy's unit price for 24 month fixed rate contract is jointly the most competitive among all the providers.

 

2) There is a 3% certified solar source in the plan.

3) I can get a $90 rebate with my HSBC card.

 

(Those with Trust card can get an even higher rebate!)

4) I like the clean interface and user friendliness of the Senoko Energy App which I have used over the past two years.

 

Based on my current electrical usage, the $90 rebate is about 3 months worth of electrical bills for me. 

 

In other words, I'm paying for only 21 months of the 24 months contract.

 

I think it's a no brainer.

Furthermore the renewal process is pretty seamless and fast.

 

Do note that the above HSBC card promotion is limited to the first 900 customers according to the website although I suspect a call to the friendly customer service will solve the issue if the limit has been reached.

 

As a matter of fact I just renewed two days ago and I still qualified for the promotion.

 

If this post helps you in any way and you would like to get a $30 rebate as well, please feel free to use my referral code (SWYJJ734).

This way both of us will enjoy the $30 rebate to offset our electrical bill.

 

Alternatively you can drop an email to me and I will send you the sign up referral link for the $30 rebate.

Thanks in advance.

This post is purely for sharing sake and is not a sponsored post by any electrical providers.

Review of 2022

Family

Everyone is generally healthy though wifey lost a big part of her voice after her Covid-19 episode. Luckily she has regained much of her vocals after consulting a TCM.

 

The kids are now four and two in the blink of an eye. Super cute as ever.

Both are loving towards each other yet can be pinching, biting and hitting each other in the next second.

The elder one has inherited our stubbornness. Sometimes she just refused to apologise or look at us in the eye when we asked her to.

I have noticed the hard approach doesn't really work on her so we are going to try the soft approach from now on and see how.

Just like them, we as parents are also learning in this journey. 

Hopefully both kids will grow up to be a healthy, happy and kind person.

Work

Business has improved in 2022 compared to the prior year. Has about two months left before FYE.

Hoping for a promising project to get finalised soon. If that happens it would really be an icing on the cake.

 

On the long run, I am thinking of pivoting the business to a new sector that the government is pushing nowadays.

Sideline

Embarked on a sideline some time around August. It is something that I am doing day in day out and being able to earn side income from doing something I love is shiok. 

Sometimes, success is simply making a career out of your interest. 

So far monthly income from this is around $600 - $900 with potential of reaching higher in 2023.

 

Study

Started my Masters programme in NUS this year. Just completed the first semester with a CPA of 4.75/5.00.

Not too bad. Safe for the time being.

Entered into the course with the aim of gaining new knowledge. So far so good. Enjoying it, less the assignments.

Looking forward to complete it soon and use the knowledge gained to drive my career forward.

 

Investments

SGD 

Portfolio Value: $135,527.22
 

P/L (Realised + unrealised): $5,096.60

 

Dividends Collected: $7,198.42

 

Total Accumulated Dividends: $34,747.95

 

Added: Ascendas Reit and CLCT

 

Sold: MNACT

 

USD / HK

Portfolio Value (SGD equivalent): $16,479.76
 

P/L (Realised + Unrealised): -$23,520.24

 

Added: AAPL, DIDIY, GREE, MSFT, PYPL and 9988

 

The SGD portfolio remains my main portfolio, providing me with a stable base and passive income.

 

Big loss in USD / HK portfolio due to Support.com / GREE saga in which my speculation failed badly. Have blogged about this previously. 

 

However the positive thing from this episode is that I have learned to control my emotions much better in trading.

Sometimes it takes a heavy hit to learn a lesson. 

Nowadays this portfolio is mainly used for options trading where I must say I have learned a lot in the past year.

 

Especially in the area of price point determination and implementation of stop loss.

 

My options trading consist mostly of written calls and puts with short DTE, usually two weeks or so, to make full use of the theta decay to my advantage.

 

2023 Target

To hit $11,300 combined portfolio gain consisting of dividends and trading income.

Syfe Portfolio

 

Negative TWR of 11.7%. Disappointing performance from this robo-advisor.

Summary

 

Total portfolios value at end of 2022: S$152,006.98.

 

This is about $10k less than 2021's figure.

 

Will make 2023 a better year. A promise to myself.

 

Last but not least, here's wishing everyone a blessed and healthy 2023 ahead.