My Monthly Fixed Expenses

Yesterday while driving, mum struck up a conversation with me about my monthly expenses. I know she has been concerned about this especially after baby M was born and she has repeatedly told me to give her less monthly.

In fact recently she told me not to give her the monthly 'jiak kueh lui' anymore.

So yesterday she asked me how much are my monthly expenses and I told her $3K plus. I know as I have a fixed expenses list and an overall tracking list for my income and spending.

I found these lists helpful in my budgeting and tracking ever since I created them some years back. I would encourage everyone to do up their own lists as well.

Attached below is my monthly fixed expenses list for sharing purpose.

Sometimes certain items such as credit card and food / entertainment will exceed the budgeted amount. Sometimes these will be much less than the budgeted.

Budgeted amount for almost all the items are over-catered as a prudent measure.

Some items have their annual cost broken down into monthly cost such as road tax and insurances.

Overall my monthly fixed expenses totaled to $3,920 thereabout, plus minus abit.

And this is fairly accurate on an annual basis.

Taking Stock of 2019

Is it me or time really seems to fly when you are getting old. We have reached the end of 2019 in the blink of an eye. Time to take stock for the year again!

Family

Wifey and I are spending most if not all of our free time we have with Baby M who arrived on Father's day 2018.

Having turned 1.5 years young recently, she has been getting more active by the day. Grabbing our hands to walk around, dictating where should we sit, dancing when there's music and basically exploring all stuffs around her.

Her vocabulary is also expanding everyday. Sometimes she surprises me by saying a word or pointing out the correct thing when I ask her where is it. 

I have noticed this little cutie likes three things in particular - music, dancing and reading. If she wants to pursue interest or enrichment in these areas I will support her.

On the other hand I do not want to be like some parents who send their kids to tons of classes and tuition, thus depriving their kids of the happy childhood that all children should have.

Sometimes we should draw a line against kiasuism.

Our biggest wish for her remains the same. That is for her to grow up happily and healthily.

Healthy Lifestyle

I feel I have done quite well in this area. As far as I can remember I have not fall sick for the past year or two. Touch wood!

I attribute this to my healthy lifestyle which I try to adhere to as far as possible. Aspects of this lifestyle includes:

1) Cold shower

I have not been using the water heater since at least two years back. Whether it's the morning shower before I go out or the night shower when I get back, it is always a cold shower for me and I firmly believe it helps in building up my immune system.

A cold shower helps in muscle recovery too especially after an intense workout.

2) Exercise

I always try to start my day with a workout after I get off bed. This helps to jump start my day and secondly, builds up my fitness and muscle mass obviously.

Most importantly, it acts as a counterweight against my diet which I do not restrict because I can't! There's just too much good food in Singapore which pushes my will power to the abyss.

I do not have a fix routine for my workout. The type of exercise and repetition varies but generally it is something like this.

50 ~ 100 x Pushups
50 x Toe Touch Crunches
2 min x Plank
50 ~ 100 x Bicep Curls
25 x Squats

I try to do the above during the evenings too but that doesn't always happens especially when baby M is around..

I run for cardio exercise. I enjoy running for the longest time. It's good for de-stressing and helps to clear my mind. Mileage-wise of course the more the merrier. But for 2019 I only done about 216 km.

Last run did for 2019: A morning run near my neighbourhood. 

Healthy lifestyle, healthy body. Totally worth it!

Work

With my financial year ending in February 2020, I still have two months to charge ahead. 

Results so far are not bad. I can't say I'm totally pleased as the targeted turnover has not been hit yet. However bottom line is encouraging due to the high margin in several projects.

Year-to-date top line is already higher than whole of last year while bottom line is close compared to whole of last year.

I expect the latter to exceed last year's when we close the book by year end.

Moving forward, my focus continues to be growing the business and buy an office space as part of my recurring income plan.

Financials and Other Incomes

Bought a new car this year due to the expiring COE of my previous car. Luckily did not have to touch my investments but it did affected my cash flow.

Previously I have set these targets for 2019.

Targeted passive income: S$7,200
Targeted side income: S$3,000

Actual passive income achieved: S$4,471.25* (vs S$6,069.08 in 2018)

Actual side income achieved: S$5,314.78 (vs S$3,042.86 in 2018)

Results: One target achieved.

For 2020,

Targeted 2020 passive income: S$7,200
Targeted 2020 side income: S$6,000

Investments

My holdings as of 31/12/2019:

Relatively quiet year for me. Opted for scrips for MLT and ESR REIT.

Total number of holdings increased to 13 compared to 12 last year. 

However portfolio value at end of the year decreased slightly to S$122,453 (vs S$123,356 in 2018). This is due to several reasons:

1) Cash received from my sold transactions have not been fully redeployed to the portfolio.

2) Share price of Japfa has not recover fully to the pre-swine flu level.

Tabulated summary*:

As shown in the above summary, I am actually at a slight paper loss excluding dividends. However the power of dividends is evident here.

The overall portfolio is mainly bogged down by ISOTeam of which I am having a S$9K paper loss currently.

Although the dividends help to cushion the lousy feeling abit, the opportunity cost is mounting. I will make a decision on this counter within this year or two depending on the share price.

This year ISOTeam should be presenting a nice set of results due to the following:

1) The numerous contract wins which add to the already high order book.

2) SG Bikes which should turn profitable this year.

3) Integration of Pure group into ISOTeam which will further contribute directly to ISOTeam's expected good results.

4) The election year which should means more public projects out for tender in ISOTeam's area of expertise.

Of course whether these will serve as catalysts for the share price to move up is anybody's guess.

My transactions for 2019:

Not much transactions done for 2019. Accumulated Japfa in batches. Yeah it's not really a dividend stock which goes against my style. But I can't resist my itchy fingers. Bad habits die hard.

On the other hand, wifey's portfolio performed much better.

 

Did some re-balancing for her. Number of stocks remained the same as compared to 2018.

However year end portfolio value increased to S$63,158 (vs S$52,371 in 2018).

Tabulated summary:

Her paper gain + realised dividends hit S$11,981. Looks good I must say.

You can see the risk attitude I adopted while managing her portfolio as compared to managing my own.

If I had been as prudent in managing my portfolio it would have performed much more beautifully.

So this is it. A long post of 2019.

Last but not least, I wish everyone a happy new year ahead. Good health and good wealth!

* Reclassification of RHT special dividends

July 2019 Update

July 2019

Portfolio Value after market close: S$98,360.94

Wifey's Portfolio Value after market close: S$47,399.02

Purchases: None

Sold: None

Dividends:

ESR Reit: $77.09

Portfolio value dropped this month compared to last month.

REITs continue to be overpriced at this moment. Might add abit more of Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) based on today's closing price.

Looking at a couple of non-reit counters but price is still north of TP.

Meanwhile continue to place my cash in bank to earn the 2% interest. Better than nothing.

Baby M is getting cuter and cuter by the day. Just last week, she actually carried up the walker that she was seated in to cross over the kerb to the kitchen.

At only 13 months young, that showed she has analytical skills at this age already.

On the work front, things are getting busier but not necessarily in a good way. Customer is placing new requirements every other day so much so that I have to put a stop to it.

I look forward to the day that this project is completed. 

Taking Stock of 2018

Leaving 2018 and entering 2019, time for a quick roundup of my 2018 and my little wishes for the new year ahead.

Work

This year is my company's 2nd year of operation. 

Results so far are a tremendous improvement over last year in terms of revenue, profits and scale of projects secured.

Although revenue is still about $75,000 shy of the target I set for myself, I have two more months to 'chiong' before end of my financial year. Hopefully I can close the FY even more beautifully.

In terms of business offerings, I have added the Design, Installation and Maintenance of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system to my products and services recently.

This is actually synergistic to the other portion of my business which is environmental engineering, particularly in pollution control systems.

As I mentioned before, one of my investment guidelines is to ride along with the macro trend.

I believe Solar PV system is the way to move forward especially in a country like Singapore. Hence I made a deliberate effort to take up a course in this field and graduated from it recently.

This also means I have achieved my aim of adding a new capability to the company by this year.

Moving forward, my focus continues to be growing the business and if possible purchase an office space as part of my recurring income plan.

Other Incomes

Previously I have set a target of achieving S$7,832.88 for my side and passive incomes in 2018.

Actual passive income achieved for 2018: S$6,069.08

Actual side income achieved for 2018: S$3,042.86

Result achieved for 2018: S$9,111.94 (Target met)

For 2019 I am going to target another 20% growth in my dividend income as I will probably be drawing down a portion of my portfolio for some expenses.

For the side income in 2019, there is actually a much higher room for growth. I am in the midst of discussing a venture which if materialised, will contribute a significant amount to this category.

However I do not want to count my chickens before they hatch. Hence targets for 2019...

Targeted passive income for 2019: S$7,200

Targeted side income for 2019: S$3,000

Equities and REITs

My holdings as of 31/12/2018:

With the exception of M1, all the counters in my portfolio closed at a lower price this year end compared to last's.

In 2018, I've added another 5,000 shares of CapitaLand, added another 4,000 shares of Netlink Trust and bought 4,000 shares of Mapletree NAC Trust. Total capital injection is $25,820.

Excluding the capital injection, my portfolio value returned -13.7% compared to last year. A loss of more than $15k.

I really ought to read more, learn more and relook into my investment style especially in the technical analysis to time my entries better.

What a humbling experience. It shows how much of a fool I am in the stock market.

In summary,

1) Yield of Portfolio 2018: 4.30%

2) Cumulative Yield of Portfolio: 8.10%

Similarly, wifey's portfolio also dropped in value ($41,431.98) compared to last year ($41,919.78) if capital injection is excluded.

 

Personal

Baby M who arrived on Father's day 2018, never fails to bring a smile to our face. She is making lots of funny sounds and lots of movement nowadays.

Really a different kind of joy.

Our biggest wish is for her to grow up happily and healthily.

I always believe we should not forget to help others if we can.

Though my investment portfolio performed less than admirably, I donated $550 to a selection of charities in 2018. This is on top of my monthly Giro donations to Community Chest and NKF.

Thanks to giving.sg, it is so convenient nowadays to make donations and volunteering.

Last but not least, I wish everyone a happy new year ahead. Good health and good wealth!

How to Save 50% On Your Meal and Get a $5 Voucher at the Same Time

So yesterday wifey and I went to Suntec City with baby M to attend an event. And on the way there we were thinking what to have for our late lunch.

Suddenly I had an epiphany. I have downloaded an app called eatigo for more than a year but have not used it so far.

So I decided to give it a try and search for some ideas for our lunch place.

eatigo is basically an app to make reservation for dining. The app itself is pretty intuitive and there are various criterias for you to base your search on.

Our search for Suntec City turned up a number of choices. Since we do not have any particular craving, we made a reservation with the eatery that provides the most discount. In this case, a whooping 50% discount excluding drinks.

The whole process of reservation took less than a minute.

Now the amount of discount depends on the timing. In our case since it was already 2.30 pm I guess it's the off peak hour hence the 50% off.

Here's the dessert picture of our lunch. The main course is already in my tummy before I realised at least a photo should be taken.

Ok long story short. This is how you get the $5 voucher.

You got to be a first time user of eatigo.

Download the app and register using my referral code: eatiewft

Alternatively, you can register via my link at http://refer.eatigo.com/eatiewft-1v9

After that you can proceed to make your first reservation with an eatery of your choice.

Once you have fulfilled your reservation, 100 points will be credited to your eatigo account.

This 100 points is equivalent to a $10 eatigo voucher, a $5 NTUC voucher or a $5 Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf card.

There are other stuffs that can be exchanged with higher no. of points too. You can check it out in the app.

In all honesty, using the above referral code or link will enable me to earn 100 points too.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and I am not related to eatigo. This is purely a post to share some good stuff. 

My Solo Attempt at Baby Sitting

Since wifey and I are both working, usually we will bring our baby (baby M) to my MIL's place on Sunday night and bring her back on Friday night.

However as the Tuesday that just went by was a public holiday, I decided to leave the baby at home on Sunday which means I will be taking care of her alone on Monday as wifey will be working.

Now this is not a post to brag but I felt compelled to pen this experience down as I really enjoyed it.

I woke up baby M around 8.30 am to bathe her, change her diapers and feed her.

Surprisingly the feeding went well and she finished her milk in one go.

Did the customary burping and off to sleep again for baby M.

After washing the bottle I took the opportunity to work on my laptop and do some studying for an upcoming assessment.

In between also sneaked in to check on her and see her cute and beautiful face at times.

Usually baby M drinks her milk every 3 hours or so. However this time she took a longer than usual nap before waking up for her next feed.

This time it went smoothly too. Did a change of diapers for her too and off to nap again.

Washed the bottle and continued with my studying. Thanks to baby M's cooperation, I had more time than expected to study. Perhaps she knows her daddy has an upcoming assessment?

Seeing her cute face gives me motivation to continue. Haha.

Around 5 pm she woke up again for her third feed. But this time the pushing of bottle and her body contouring started. This is her usual way of telling me 'anything but the milk!'. It wasn't easy feeding her whenever she starts behaving this way. Only managed to feed her half bottle.

By then she has grown increasingly cranky and no amount of cajoling seems to help in calming her down.

So there I was, running between the bed room and living room while pacifying her and preparing the 'necessities' bag as the plan is to bring her to the mrt station to welcome mummy back.

Eventually at 6.20 pm we went out to meet mummy for dinner.

All in all I must say it's not too hard a day for me but it wasn't plain sailing all the way. Baby M was very cooperative and I had more than expected time to do some reading. If she had been in her cranky mood since morning I doubt I would be able to do my work as well as finish my revision for the day.

Baby M, papa loves you.