FinanceOT

US ETF Portfolio Update - September 2020

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 08:44:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

Our apologies on the lack of updates but we both are currently pretty swamped with school assignments. Life has really been about chasing deadlines. That being said, the market is currently rather erratic, with Trump confirmed with COVID and the presidential elections on the way. I did made a few additions to my ETF portfolio during September, you may find the numbers in USD here:

I take reference to the market closing price on 8 October 2020. And I do not include any dividends received into my computation.

Stay safe,

US ETF Portfolio Update - August 2020

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 09:30:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

Here's a quick update on my US ETF portfolio. As the US market turn red in the last part of last week following news that vaccine will not be released early as planned, my portfolio took quite a hit on it. However, the gains in the early part of the month have mitigated this impact. I still managed to see green month-on-month.

Here are the numbers in USD:

ETF	Quantity	Total Cost	Market Value
VOO	2	562.00	629.64
VHT	1	195.00	201.81
XLP	4	239.16	262.28
XLK	2	196.00	236.24
ARKK	3	199.27	261.15
Total		1391.43	1591.12
		Gain	14.35%

I take reference to the market closing price on 4 September 2020. And I do not include any dividends received into my computation. If this pullback continues, I am definitely adding more of each ETFs.

Stay Safe,

Goal review - tough times call for tough measures

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 09:30:00 +0000

Hey everyone,

hope you guys have been doing well! I've been gradually easing my way into my University life, and getting used to the student life after a two-year break certainly haven't been easy. But now that I have settled down, I had the chance to take a breather, and sort out my finances, which had been a mess during this whole transition to university life....

During this review, I realised, disappointingly, that I was not going to hit my financial goal of $18,000 this year. Instead, I would have to adjust my annual goal to be at $12,000. There are several reasons for this, and I will explore some of them below:

1) Miscalculation

The biggest reason for me missing my annual goal would be my miscalculations previously. I did not take into account several of the big spending that I would have to make heading into my university life. For example, my laptop's wear-and-tear resulted in me needing to purchase another one, and I did not take into account some of the charges I would have to undertake, including my hall fees and miscellaneous purchases.

I was also unrealistic in my budget for my monthly spending initially, as I set an overly-ambitious goal in the beginning of the year, and did not give myself any leeway/room for failure. As I realised that it was impossible for me to adhere to the initial goal, I decided to give myself a looser, and much more manageable budget, which inevitably contributed to me missing the target.

Broadly speaking, I was overly optimistic and naive in making my first financial goal, and this experience is definitely something I will take into account when crafting my future goals.

2) Unexpected market

As most of my holdings were mainly in Straits Times Index, the index's under-performance this year contributed to my portfolio's lacklustre performance. The rest of my portfolio were not performing great as well, especially since some of them were purchased right before the COVID-19 pandemic crashed the local markets. While I have no worry holding my stocks for the long-term, some of them have not recovered to their pre-COVID highs, and have taken a hit at my overall net worth.

In conclusion, while it is indeed unfortunate that I had to adjust my annual goal downwards, I am glad that I managed to discover and review it early, as I could now work towards my new target realistically. This has also been a great lesson for me, to be more realistic and pragmatic in my future annual goals moving forward. I believe that goals might be there to stretch us to achieve something we deem impossible, but it definitely has to be realistic and achievable. I am relieved that I still have exactly 4 months to work towards my revised goal.

On that note, how have you guys been doing with your annual goals? Do share with us in the comments below!

Stay Safe,

Best Credit Cards Available for Students!

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 10:30:00 +0000

What's up guys, its been a while since I've updated on this platform, and I hope all of you have been doing well! I have been caught up with matriculation/academic matters, hence my inactivity on this platform for the past two weeks. I have been drowning in lectures and readings, and it's just the first week of uni...

But enough of the life updates from me. Since I've finally enrolled into University, I have been scouring around for credit cards available to students, and I have found two that I am planning to apply for.

I think credit cards are a good way for us to spend money, assuming the payment due are repaid on time such that there is no late interest payment. This allows us to gain an extra month of interest with the money in our account. This is especially advantageous if your cash are parked in a high-yield account. Allow me to introduce them to you and why I decided to get them.

Maybank eVibes Card

Eligibility:

Full-time National Servicemen (NSF) or Tertiary students from these institutions: LASALLE, NAFA, NIE, NP, NTU, NUS, NYP, RP, SIT, SMU, SP, SUSS, SUTD & TP

Age: 18 - 30

Annual Income: Must not exceed S$30, 000

Must not be an existing Maybank Principal Credit Cardmember or CreditAble customer

Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents

Benefits:

1% cash rebates on all spending

Up to 8% off accommodation bookings worldwide with AGODA(till 31 December 2020)

Review:

I decided to apply for this card as it had the highest cash rebate, at 1%, among all the other student credit cards out there, with seemingly the least restrictions on the type of spending. The 8% off accommodation with AGODA is a sweet bonus as well, but I personally don't see international travel making a comeback before the end of this year , so it may be less applicable. But the 1% cash rebate makes this one of the most attractive student credit card out there, and by itself is more than enough to convince me to get this card.

DBS Live Fresh Student Card

Eligibility:

An Undergraduate student from these institutions: NUS, NTU, SMU, SUTD, SUSS, SIT, Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic or Republic Polytechnic

Age: 18 - 27

Not have an existing DBS/POSB Credit Card and/or other unsecured facilities with DBS/POSB

Be a Singapore Citizen/Permanent Resident

Benefits:

5% cashback for spending at Golden Village, McDonald's, McDelivery, Netflix, Spotify and Starbucks (capped at $15)

0.3% cashback on 'All Spend' (capped at $20)

Review:

DBS's Live Fresh Student Card is also one of my two picks, due to it's attractive 5% cashback. Personally, I am subscribed to Netflix and Spotify monthly, and I frequent McDonalds as well, hence I was really attracted when I saw the rates offered by this card! I honestly think this card has been well-designed to target the youths in Singapore, with the shops well curated to target most spendngs by Singaporean youths. However, since the 0.3% cashback on other spending may seem measly, I believe this card is best used in tandem with other student credit cards!

Personally, I have not yet have the chance to use any of these cards, thus my review up till now is solely based on what I've read from their websites. I might do another review of these cards somewhere down the road, after perhaps a few months of usage. Till then, I encourage you to explore other cards and head down to their respective websites to get a clearer understanding of the benefits they present and their terms & conditions, before applying for any of these cards.

Stay Safe,

US ETF Portfolio Update - July 2020

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

Here's a quick update on my US ETF portfolio. As Nasdaq and S&P continue to see gains, my portfolio was also able to share some of it. I am happy with the overall performance of it. I am currently busy with internship while T is busy with his matriculation to University. I did however had some time to do a quick trade earlier this week which I will perhaps share over the upcoming long weekend.

Anyway, here are the numbers in USD:

ETF	Quantity	Total Cost	Market Value
VOO	2	562.00	610.3
VHT	1	195.00	205.68
XLP	4	239.16	252.72
XLK	2	196.00	227.72
ARKK	3	199.27	256.83
Total		1391.43	1553.25
		Gain	11.63%

I take reference to the market closing price on 5 August 2020. And I do not include any dividends received into my computation. I might increase my holdings in the portfolio during August to do some rebalancing (although I feel that the portfolio is relatively balanced already). But I am definitely looking to add more if the opportunity allows.

Happy National Day!

Stay Safe,

TSMC: 20% upside within a week

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Hello friends,

As we ease into the long weekend, I would like to do a review on TSMC. Previously, I did a short introduction of the company (here). Since then, there were some rather significant developments to the semiconductor scene – rather positive ones for me personally.

Firstly, TSMC’s earnings release were above expectations. And overall revenue increase by 28% yoy and net income by 81% yoy. I think this came in rather expectedly due to the production capacity of TSMC being fully booked. I believed the stock price then was already priced in for the earnings hence there wasn’t much movement in the price despite the better than expected results.

Second, the recent issue of Intel’s failure to meet its demand due to shortage of supplies gave TSMC an even further boost – in two ways. I briefly talked about this problem of Intel in the previous post. AMD (one of TSMC’s main client) is a direct rival of Intel. Both are neck at neck in terms of the development CPUs scene where Intel used to hold an almost monopoly position in the past. Naturally, given the current circumstances, AMD is gaining more market share due to orders flowing in from Intel to AMD, and hence increasing their orders to TSMC. (I do acknowledge that there might be a level of client stickiness to Intel, but given the current pandemic, Intel would need a long time to be able to get its supply back on tracks.) Evidently, client stickiness is not as significant given the recent AMD’s earnings call which expects revenue to grow by 32% in 2020. AMD rose 12% in one day.

The next point is what I believed caused TSMC’s share price to increase by more than 20% in less than a week. There were rumours that Intel was considering to revamp its whole IDM model and to stop manufacturing its own chips following its 7nm chip delay. Consequently, there were speculations that the manufacturing will be outsourced to TSMC.

Will TSMC actually help Intel manufacture their chips?

I believe the situation is still rather unclear. But it is important to note that TSMC have no more capacity to manufacture the chips even if Intel decides to outsource to them. Furthermore, I am not too sure whether there will be a conflict of interest between AMD and Intel.

Ultimately, the prospects of TSMC are very forward-looking and the upcoming gaming consoles launch will be another potential catalyst to note. I am continuing to be bullish on this stock after these series of events and will be looking for more opportunities to add more of it into my portfolio.

Stay safe and healthy,

*Disclaimer: I have positions in TSMC and AMD.

High-dividend stock on my watchlist!

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Hey everyone,

hope that y'all have been doing well recently! Haven't had the chance to post in the past two weeks, but I'm coming back today to discuss a stock that I have placed on my watchlist for the past few months!

The stock in question is Micro-Mechanics (SGX: 5DD). A brief introduction about what Micro-Mechanics does. It designs, manufactures and markets high-precision parts and tools for the semiconductor and other high technology industries. It has five factories across the world, located in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Philippines and the USA, with direct sales presence in Taiwan and Europe.

Micro-Mechanics first caught my eye as I saw that it's dividend payout has never decreased over the past 10 years, while holding a healthy balance sheet. If it manages to maintain a $0.1 dividend payout this year, it would be offering a 5.32% yield at its current price, which is surprisingly good considering the stock's recent performance has it returning to pre-March crash levels. It is currently trading at 1.88, with a 52-week range of 1.32 - 2.00.

Micro-Mechanics has a distinct advantage, that is being in the semi-conductor industry. While Micro-Mechanics' current P/E ratio of 19 might be unappealing to some, I believe there is still further room for growth, considering how strong the semi-conductor industry as a whole rebounded well during the COVID-19 situation. This industry seems to be only looking upwards for the next few years to come, with the world being forced to digitalize at a much faster pace due to COVID.

An area for concern for me would be its dividend payout ratio, as it exceeded 100% during its' last fiscal year. With it's strong balance sheet, it does not seem like much of a concern for now, especially since it's 5-yr average of dividend-payout ratio is at 64.74%, but it could be something I look out for going forward.

Micro-Mechanics have been on my watchlist for quite some time, and I would definitely be looking for an entry once I manage to gather some liquidity. Till my next post, take care!

Stay Safe,

Portfolio Review 1H 2020 - Accomplished my goal 6 months earlier!

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 09:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

I did a quick calculations of my overall net worth and see that I have achieved the first goal I set for the year - 30k by end 2020. In fact, I actually achieved it last month but due to uncertainties in the market, I felt that the market value could potentially dipped down any time. Nevertheless, as I cross a little more above the mark, I thought I pen it down here.

Cash	7,300	23%
Bonds	1,000	3%
Equities	23,000	73%
Total	$ 31,300.00	100%

I am glad I took the leap of faith to continue to trust on the fundamentals of companies and purchase the shares despite the bearish sentiments earlier in the year. I believe these sentiments might come back soon and I will seize the opportunity as well. Networth to reach 40k by end of year? I hope I can achieve that.... The second goal of $600 dividends for the year is also well on track and I will perhaps make a post about it when I hit it or end the of the year.

Side note: TSMC's earnings is released at the time of this post and I hope that the strong fundamentals of this company prevails. The semiconductor industry just barely took off.

Thanks for reading,

Budgeting 101 - Tips & Tricks to begin!

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 11:27:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

It's definitely been a while! I have been caught up with some school-related matters and hence it took me a while to write up this post. Anyways, polling day just passed and as a first-time voter there was a sense of nervousness and excitement as I placed my vote. Nevertheless, I hope all of you managed to use this long weekend to take a good break and recharge!

I want to share a little bit about budgeting in this post. I would say that budgeting is the single most important aspect of personal finance management. A simple example to elaborate the importance of budgeting: Person A earns a salary of $8000 a month, but spends $7000 monthly. Person B earns a monthly salary of $3000, and has a monthly spending of $1500. Even though B earns less than half of A's salary, he has more left in his bank account at the end of the month, to be either kept as savings or put into different investments. That is the power of budgeting.

The first step to budgeting is for one to understand where their money is going to. I strongly recommend that you take down every single single cent that you spend for at least one month, before budgeting, to get a clearer picture of your spending habits. Without this step, I find it hard to create a budgeting strategy as I would have no benchmark to gauge by, and no way to understand where I'm overspending in.

In order to track your spending, I would recommend either getting a money-tracking app on your phone, which would make it much tracking much more convenient, or setting up your own tracking list either on Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets (there are plenty of guides for this available on Youtube!). Personally, I use a Google Sheet as my main tracker as I found it difficult to keep up a habit tracking using mobile app, for one reason or another. Ideally though, both works fine, as long as you manage to achieve the objective of tracking your spending.

Once you've got that part down, you can then plan for your 'budget cuts' accordingly. I personally like to break down my budgets into several smaller parts, such as 'food', 'transport', 'essentials' etc. I will then find out if I am overspending in any of these categories, and try to cut down accordingly on unnecessary splurges. This includes taxi rides and food deliveries, which I often found to be the biggest budget killers for me (I really do need to be managing my time better....). One thing I would advise based on my past experiences though, is to be gradual and patient with your budget cuts. If done too abruptly and harshly, you could lose interest as you keep missing your own budget cuts. By cutting your spending gradually, you allow yourself to build confidence in your own finance management along the way, and cultivate healthy spending habits.

Another advise I have is to be frugal 'healthily', in the sense that one should not completely obliterate any form of enjoyment from your budget. It is important to understand that it is completely healthy for one to let loose every once in a while, and it is important for you to continue pursuing your hobby, but you just need to do so in a financially responsible manner. I never turn down a good night out with my friends if my budget allows for it!

Importantly, budgeting should not be seen as sacrificing your own happiness for financial gains, but seen as a process for you enjoy in a responsible and healthy manner. There are many models out there for budgeting (such as the 50/30/20 rule; look it up!), but ultimately you should tweak each model carefully to suit your own situation and needs. It is definitely not easy to start as I myself still find it an hassle to have to record every transaction that I make, but believe me, that little bit of sacrifice can go a long way and nowadays I am recording them subconsciously...

Stay safe and healthy,

US ETF Portfolio Update - June 2020

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:07:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

As the US market closes for the weekend one day earlier to commemorate Independence Day, I thought I will do an update on the US ETF Portfolio that I started last month. With a better than expected jobs report out on Thursday, the portfolio saw some nice gains overall. Also, I decided to increase the proportion of VOO in the portfolio and hence bought another share of it at the same price.

ETF	Quantity	Total Cost	Market Value
VOO	2	562.00	573.62
VHT	1	195.00	195.65
XLP	4	239.16	237.12
XLK	2	196.00	210.54
ARKK	3	199.27	224.82
Total		1391.43	1441.75
		Gain	3.62%

Only the consumer staples (XLP) is seeing a slight red. XLP, XLK and VOO also paid dividends in the month of June. I did not take into account the dividends into my calculation as my focus for this portfolio is not dividends. I am happy with the overall performance of this portfolio, with an unrealised 3.62% gain in just a month. I look to average my cost price down should the market see a slight pullback.

Till then,

3 Financial Tips in Preparation for University

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 04:25:00 +0000

Hey guys,

Hope everyone is still healthy and socialising with certain measures in place! Though the weather hasn't been the best recently, I was glad to be able to catch glimpses of the outdoor sun and breathe some fresh air! Anyways, as I begin my preparations for my University life, I thought I would share some tips that I received from my seniors as well as information obtained from hours of research on the net. These tips are rather related to a proper management of my finances.

The first tip I would like to share is to scout around for good textbook deals. Throughout your 4 years in University, there will inevitably be some modules that you would need textbooks for, either at your lecturer's request or for ease of studying. Instead of buying the textbooks directly from the bookstore (which often comes at a hefty price), you should consider either purchasing from your seniors, or from online platforms such as Carousell. Another tip would be to double check with your lecturers if you actually need the latest edition of the textbook, as older editions of the textbooks could be available at much lower prices. Furthermore, you can always sell them to your junior after you are done with them. You help to play a part in conserving the environment too! If you are planning to sell it, you should keep the books clean as much as possible.

Secondly, I was recommended that you should be willing to spend a little bit more, to get a good quality laptop that could last you throughout your university life. Your laptop will be the device that you spend the most hours working with as a student, be it to attend lectures, prepare for presentations or to write your research papers. The laptop will most likely be on for more than half the day. Having a good quality laptop thus saves you from the worry of it breaking down on you right before your submission deadlines, or the need for you to purchase and switch to another new laptop(in the case of a breakdown) in the midst of your academic semester. By being willing to spend a little more on your laptop, you could be giving yourself a peace of mind. Taking a $2000 laptop in consideration, it only costs $500 a year to use it. There are installment plans provided at some retailers at 0% interest. Personally, I would rather spend more on a good laptop than to spend TWICE to get 2 laptops in the event the first one breaks down.

The last tip is one with a rather longer horizon. I challenge all of you who are entering university or in university to set a financial goal that you would want to achieve at the end of your university life. Everyone's goal is relative to our lifestyles and habits, but I believe it is important that we give ourselves a comfortable sum of savings to kickstart our career with. The source of savings can come from many places, such as allowances, internship and part time jobs. In addition, you should then break it down into smaller, annual goals, that you can review at the end of each year. To take it one step further, this amount do not have to be cash sitting in the bank, it can already be put into investments, reaping the power of compounding. I will also be setting such goals for myself, and reviewing them periodically on this blog to keep myself on track on my progress.

Our time in university is often the last gate that we will step through before reaching the stage of adulthood, hence we should take this opportunity to develop healthy financial habits, especially since we will be managing our own salaries after we graduate. University may be the last chance for us to have fun as students, but it is important for us to also remember to set and achieve some personal goals!

Stay safe,

Is it a good time to buy? - Elevator Pitch on TSMC

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 09:34:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone spent some time catching up with friends and families in small groups with the phase 2 reopening. As the stock market is still relatively uncertain about the direction it wants to go, I rather adopt the mentality of looking at companies that I do not minding holding for a long term, probably 5-10 years. I have decided to look at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) (NYSE: TSM) (TWSE: 2330), and will share 3 main fundamental points that I think will propel this company forward.

Background: Established in 1987 and headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, TSMC pioneered the pure-play foundry business model by focusing solely on manufacturing customers' products. By choosing not to design, manufacture or market any semiconductor products under its own name, the Company ensures that it never competes directly with its customers.

Notable clients: Apple, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Sony, (Huawei)

Leading Edge Technology

TSMC has set plans for a very sound logic node progression. As of now, TSMC have started the production for 5nm chips and plans are in place to ramp up the production capacity. In terms of the chips advancements, TSMC has also started to assemble a R&D specially for the development of the 3nm chips. I like this move a lot as it shows that the management has lots of hindsight and do not forgo the future development just because the current clients do not demand it. In terms of its competitors wise, the main competitor would be Samsung who also has acquired the expertise for 5nm production. The rest of its competitors are rather back dated due to the fact that the capital expenditure for developing the chips are extremely high, going into billions of dollars. Another competitor, Global Foundries abandoned its 7nm efforts due to the sheer complexity and costs involved. I see a first mover advantage here for TSMC.

Dominant Market Position

TSMC runs on a pure-play foundry business model, which means that they do not have any semiconductor products under its name. Because of this, clients are more willing to engage TSMC. For instance, it is unlikely for Apple to approach Samsung to manufacture its chips as they are direct competitors in the smartphones industry. Hence, there is really no clear or direct competitors that TSMC needs to be wary of as of now. Barriers to entry is also high given the high CAPEX.

Seen below, TSMC has been in a dominant position in the industry, with more than half of the market share.

Market share in 2019 (%)

It might be worthy to note that one of TSMC's key clients was Huawei in 2019. However, with the ongoing trade war between China and USA, TSMC have since stopped taking orders from Huawei. Huawei made up about 10-15% of TSMC's revenue in FY2019.

Yet, I do not have much worries about this. Recent news have seen Apple's desire to cut orders from Intel for its Mac chips and to start designing its own chips. Reports have stated that the chips will be manufactured by TSMC, and are said to be more advanced than the current chips provided by Intel. You can refer to this link for more information.

https://fortune.com/2020/06/22/taiwan-semiconductors-apple-contract-huawei/

The only worry I then have is that TSMC might be overly reliant on Apple and its performance. But I do see a very high potential for it to tap on Apple's growth.

Speaking of Intel, the shortage of CPUs supplies by Intel have given AMD a chance to acquire market share in the industry. I see the partnership between AMD and TSMC to significantly benefit the latter as AMD continues to ramp up its production to meet the demand that Intel failed to meet.

Incoming Gaming Cycle

With the ongoing pandemic, stay home entertainment such as gaming has been on the rise. Nvidia, one of TSMC's clients will launch their 7nm GPUs this year. They have also locked down TSMC's capacity for 5nm production in 2021.

Furthermore, the highly raved and anticipated launch of PS5 has also been confirmed by Sony. PS5 will be utilising the 7nm chips from TSMC. It has been 7 years since the PS4 was launched and I believe that demand for PS5 will be extremely high at the launch.

Perhaps only drawback here is the rise of mobile phone gaming, which will result in lower than expected demand in this aspect.

On a final note, TSMC's production line has not been as badly affected by the pandemic as its closest competitor, Samsung. The former's manufacturing plants in Taiwan did not face any stringent regulations while Samsung's plants in South Korea met with lock down orders. There are also news of an incoming second wave of infection that might further hinder Samsung's plans to resume production. We might see some clients shift here should Samsung failed to meet the orders.

I might do a financial highlights review of TSMC, but for now, I continue to keep it in my watchlist. I have no holdings in TSMC as of now.

Stay safe and healthy,

A review of DBS's Invest-Saver!

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 10:30:00 +0000

Hey all readers out there,

hope you guys have been staying safe out there! As Singapore enters the much awaited Phase 2 of our post-circuit breaker life, it is important for us to remember that Covid-19 is still out there, and to take the necessary precautions when heading out! Anyways, in today's post, I will be talking more about DBS's Invest-Saver plan that I used to start investing when I first started to take proper care of my personal finances.

DBS's Invest-Saver plan is a Regular Savings Plan(RSP) that allows you to invest a fixed sum monthly, into your choice of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) or Unit Trusts (UTs) (The list of ETFs and UTs available for the RSP is on DBS's website). It allows you to start with as little as $100 per month (which was what I started with!) and only charges a mere 0.5% - 0.82% of sales charge. This makes the plan really suitable for those who are interested to start investing, but do not really have the know-how yet, as this plan allows you to start with a relatively small amount, and does not require a CDP account, thus making it less complicated. It is important to note that you do have to be at 18 years of age to start this plan though.

The Invest-Saver could also be interesting for those of you looking for a way to practice some discipline in your savings. When I first started managing my own finances, this plan really helped me in building my savings as the money was automatically deducted from my bank account on the 15th of every month, and I wasn't able to use it even if I start running low on cash towards the end of month, and hence I learnt to work my spending around this constraint every month.

Creating and using the Invest-Saver offered by DBS was a seamless experience for me. Starting the Invest-Saver was really easy, taking only a few clicks on DBS's website to set-up. Also, in case you're worried that you might lose track of your investments since you are investing on a monthly basis, DBS allows you to look up your investments on their website easily. Once you log-in, you are able to look up your average investment price, the last known indicative price of the fund and your unrealized profit/loss. This allows you to assess how your investments are doing anytime, anywhere conveniently, which I felt was a really neat feature from DBS.

To my knowledge, there are other RSPs offered by the other banks out there as well. However, the costs they charge may defer and there are already websites out there that have done the comparisons, and hence I encourage you to do your own due diligence.

In all, the combination of a low-starting cost and low fees makes DBS's RSP Invest-Saver an excellent savings plan suitable for most youths out there who are looking to start their investing journey somewhere. However, I think it is important for the youths who are looking to start this plan to have a healthy amount of savings set aside before starting on this RSP, since after all this is a form of investment which ultimately carries a certain amount of risk. Hence, it wouldn't be the financially sound decision to put all of your eggs in this basket (or in any basket, to be fair).

Stay safe and healthy,

Finally picked this stock up!

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 10:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

It is finally phase 2!! We are one step nearer to full recovery hopefully. But this week, due to uncertainties regarding a second wave of coronavirus hitting the world, the markets saw a slight pull back. I took the opportunity to purchase a stock that I have placed in my watchlist for quite some time: Chip Eng Seng (SGX:C29) at 55 cents per share.

Chip Eng Seng Corporation Ltd (CES) is a construction and property group. Notably, CES was the main contractor for HDB's Pinnacle @ Duxton, the only public housing in the CBD area. Another notable one is perhaps Bishan Loft. In March 2020, they secured a $98.7m contract with HDB for building works at Tampines, lasting around 30 months. As Singapore start to ease the restrictions again, the construction industry will also be allowed to resume operations. Following so, housing needs and property development will start to gain traction as well.

CES has been paying a solid 4 cents per share in dividends for the past 10 years. That translates to a dividend yield of 7.27% for me! From the annual report, CES takes pride in their ability to maintain the dividend payout. Financials wise, I do not foresee any significant cut in their dividends policy. The company's EPS is consistently more than 5 cents.

My main motive of purchasing this stock is to enjoy the dividends payout. I particularly like the fact that they are paying a fairly modest payout ratio. Maintaining at 4 cents per share every year allows them to draw on previous years' retained earnings should they not perform well in the year.

This stock has been on my watchlist for sometime and I am glad that I will be able to ride the recovery wave (hopefully) up with it. CES closed today at 56.5 cents.

Saving then Spending during National Service

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 11:11:00 +0000

Hey guys, T here.

I hope everyone have been staying safe out there recently. Since I have been stuck at home and had a little time on my hand, I decided to write a little continuation from my previous post, and elaborate on how I started building up my savings when I was serving my national service.

As a preface, I would like to add that I did not assume a leadership role as an NSF, and my vocation was non-combat as well, hence my pay was the lowest one would get as an NSF. I believe being discipline with my spending gave allowed me to emerge with a rather healthy amount of savings. I also did managed to travel twice (albeit in Southeast Asia) and ordered food into camp occasionally.

This is budget that I have been sticking with for quite a while:

Spendings (incl. Transport, Food etc.) : $260

Savings: $200

POSB InvestSaver: $100

*Stashaway: $100

*I only begin my contribution to Stashaway recently after the allowance of NSFs was recently increased.

Before I enlisted, there were many people, including friends and insurance agents, who told me it was really difficult to save up after BMT, with the temptations of ordering in and eating at canteens etc.

Hence, I realised that I had to make it work by making my savings ‘disappear’ at the start of every month. Whenever I receive my allowance, I would transfer my savings immediately into my savings account (CIMB Fastsaver), and I also made an arrangement for my bank to automatically transfer the $100 to Stashaway every month on my payday. Thus, leaving only my budget for spendings and the $100 I have allocated for my POSB InvestSaver(which will automatically be withdrawn on the 15th of every month) in my bank account. For my POSB InvestSaver, I put in $100 every month to buy the STI on a dollar cost-averaging basis.

Furthermore, I was able to save up more as I was a stay-in personnel, hence my spendings on food and transport were really low. Even so, I was not perfect with my savings and have needed to transfer money over from my savings account to my spending account a couple of times, but this method of allocating my money serves as a good visual reminder whenever I was running low on money towards the end of the month, that I was possibly overspending beyond my means.

Another tip I would offer those of you who are just starting out on your journey, would be to meticulously take down every one of your spendings for the first few months. While this was really tedious for me, it was important for me to find out exactly where my money was going to, so I could find out where I should cut down my spendings. Without this knowledge, I would be doing so blindly, cutting down on my expenses with no real plan.

While I was never perfect with my savings, these tips managed to allowed me to save up to a healthy amount during NS, even after going on 2 overseas trips in between.

O: As a side note on top of T's account of saving during NS. I also used the POSB SaveAsYouServe to enjoy a higher interest rate. They offer interest rate up till 2% on the account. However, one is not able to take the money saved inside for the period of 2 years. You can experiment the interest earned with the calculator that they provided: https://www.posb.com.sg/personal/deposits/savings-accounts/says

You can also change the amount of savings to be put in as your allowance increases through your NS.

Furthermore, the SAFRA DBS Debit Card also offer rebates of up to 2% (contactless spending), with no minimum spending (specially for NSFs). You can redeem the cashback by converting the SAFRA points to cash on the DBS ibanking website.

Why I started saving, then investing ($27 in my bank account at the age of 19 years old)

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Hey guys, hope that you have all been coping well as we are mid-way through Phase 1. To be honest, I am starting to get restless spending all of my free time stuck at home, and that is definitely surprising for me considering I am very much a homebody even before the whole Circuit Breaker started. At this point I honestly can't wait to meet my friends (in real life, zoom doesn't count!) soon.

Anyways, back to the main point of this post, I decided to write this today as I was recently reminiscing with O of how I started my journey towards being financially savvy, and thought that I could perhaps pen my thoughts down on the blog. You see, O started learning about personal finance/investing much earlier than me, and it was only after a particularly 'memorable' (lack of a better word) experience that I started to go to him for some advise on how to manage my finances better.

So this happened back in 2018, a few months after I completed my diploma in poly. I was supposed to join my friends for a round of drinks, but as I did not feel like drinking, I told my friends that I'll just sit in and join them for some chit-chat. However, I did not know that they going to a liquid buffet (note: for those that are not familiar with this term, essentially it is a place where you can get free flow alcohol after paying an entrance fee), and hence I would have to pay just to enter the bar.

I remember vividly that the entrance fee was $30, but when I checked my bank account, I was surprised to find that I only had $27 in there! *Cue the awkward situation of me standing by the entrance of the bar not knowing what to do next* Long story short, my friend saved me from my embarrassment by treating me to the round of drinks that day, and I began my part-time work the next week to begin salvaging my pathetic finances (I had already secured this job a while back, but I never knew that my financial situation was THAT bad).

I was pretty shocked to see my savings horrendously low as I have been working part-time during my holidays in poly, and have also saved up quite a bit of ang pao money prior. What made it worse was the fact that I did not have any significant purchases to show for all the money that I 'lost'. I did not get the PS4 that I have wanted for the longest time, nor the PC that I have wanted to build for quite some time. The situation that I was in made me mad and frustrated at myself for my lack of self-discipline and accountability, which eventually drove me to look up financial books and channels on youtube to learn more about budgeting.

Looking back, it was a rude awakening that was much needed for me to get my act together. That experience led to me eventually looking into my monthly finances, questioning why I'm paying my bank fall below fees(more on that in the future!!!), looking for options to invest with my mere hundreds of savings and other measures to 'save' my financial health. I still keep a constant record of my day to day spending up till this date.

On hindsight, this was an experience that I never want to go through again. But it indeed taught me to spend prudently and to save excessively. I might not be wealthy now, but my financial health have definitely improved by leaps and bounds. At least now I can purchase the PS4 if I want it, but I guess that is just a want not a need and I probably have no time to play with it once my university starts. It's been 2 years, but that scar of embarrassment continues to frighten me.

Do not follow in my footsteps.

T

Trading Journal #1 - 58% gain

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 09:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

Since circuit breaker, both of us have been trying to learn how to trade. We decided to trade on the US stock markets due to the higher volume, fluctuations and cheaper commission per trade. We intend to share some of our trades (profit or loss) and to also jot down the lessons learnt (good and bad) from the trades.

We do not encourage anyone to dive straight into trading. Both of us spent a lot of time reading and understanding basic concepts of trading before trying it. We are also trading with relatively small amount of money. With that, I traded the counter Nasdaq:AESE on 1 Jun 2020.

With this trade, I made a 58% gain. This counter saw massive volume near the end of the market the previous week and also in the after hours. I monitored the premarket on the day itself and continue to see massive buying volume. Once the market open, I really like of the MACD indicator was going and decide to enter at $3.48. Price continued to increase with volume coming in. It saw a little consolidation before moving up again. I took profit slightly under 15mins later at $5.50, which was my intended target price. I felt it was a little overbought and the MACD did not look very strong either.

Lessons:

Stuck to trade plan
I was ready to let it go if it was not within my buy range as I did not like the idea of chasing it since this stock already had such a sharp increase on the last trading day

Creating My Own US ETFs Portfolio

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 10:29:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone is adapting well to the post-circuit breaker life. Since circuit breaker, I have been looking at starting a portfolio that consist of a few US ETFs and to dollar-cost average into the portfolio either every month or every quarter (still thinking about it)...

I have finally selected the ETFs that I want included in my portfolio and have also invested in them. As much as possible, I try to allocate the amount equally. I will briefly share the 5 ETFs that I have selected.

1. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO)

This ETF attempts to replicate the S&P 500 index. Similar to Singapore's Straits Times Index, buying one of this is akin to buying the US stock market. Hence, I decided to include this into my portfolio as I attempt to ride the recovery wave up post-pandemic.

2. Vanguard Health Care Index Fund (NYSE:VHT)

I believe healthcare sector would be greatly review as the world recover from the pandemic. Furthermore, healthcare is also an indispensable sector, hence similar to the XLP.

3. Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLP)

Diversification using this ETF ensures that a certain portion of this portfolio can continue to perform in a recession as the make up of this ETF are mostly companies from the consumer defensive industries.

4. Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSE:XLK)

This ETF grants me a heavier exposure to the technology sector. I believe the technology industry will see a faster growth in the coming years as we are now 'forced' to get used to digitalisation.

5. ARK Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKK)

The last ETF is ARKK. As I am still young and with little to no debts or loans to pay, I am able to take on a little more risk and hence I wanted to put more focus on the growth stocks, especially in the technology innovation sector. ARKK consists of companies that deals with innovation across all sectors, from healthcare to consumer defence.

With that, I seek to achieve a more holistic diversification in this portfolio. I also did went through the ETFs carefully as well as looking at the annualised returns across various time periods (you can do this easily by just googling the ETF).

I will be tracking the performance of this portfolio as well as updates on any new additions on the blog, perhaps on a monthly basis. Details of my purchases (in USD):

ETF	Cost	Quantity	Commission	Total Cost
VOO	280.00	1	1	281.00
VHT	194.00	1	1	195.00
XLP	59.54	4	1	239.16
XLK	97.50	2	1	196.00
ARKK	66.09	3	1	199.27
Total	697.13			1110.4

Stay safe and healthy,

No-frills Saving Accounts for Youths

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 09:07:00 +0000

Update: Since we posted this review, Standard Chartered have updated their Jumpstart Account’s interest rates to be at 1.0% per annum for the first $20,000 from 1st July 2020, and 0.10% per annum for any incremental balance above that. With this new update in mind, CIMB’s Fastsaver and SC’s Jumpstart Account are actually comparable in terms of interest rates, and this may even give Fastsaver Account the edge especially for those with a larger of savings due to the step up nature.

Hello everyone,

Today is the last day of the circuit breaker, I hope everyone is doing fine. Lots of my friends have been asking me on how to start investing. But I believe that before that, we need to have a rather reasonable yielding savings account in order to put our warchest (liquid cash) in. The mere 0.05% on standard savings account is not able to beat the inflation rates...
When choosing which account to open, it is important to first know what we want out of the account. For instance, I have 3 accounts, 2 for savings and 1 for spending. Hence, I do not really look for any high interest rate on my spending account as the amount in the account is rather little, just enough to cover my monthly expenses.
As a student, I think the main feature to look out for when selecting a good savings account (besides the interest rate) is that there needs little to no conditions for me to meet to enjoy the interest rates (vs. DBS multiplier, OCBC 360)
With that, I like to share a little about the 2 accounts I use for savings:

Standard Chartered Jumpstart Account
Pros:
This account is a relatively new product in the market. Firstly, SCB promises 2% interest rate per annum, for your savings up to $20,000 (0.10% p.a. on any incremental balances). This interest rate is much better than the ones offered by other savings accounts, and could be a great place for youths to park our savings.

Besides that, SCB’s Jumpstart also comes with a debit card, that allows for 1% per annum cashback (capped at $60 per month per account) on eligible card spends, that can help you to further your savings!

Lastly, from personal experience, the process of opening an account was relatively smooth and fast. There are also no fees and minimum deposit required in starting an account.

Cons:
However, there are some restrictions to consider when opening this account as well. Right off the bat, this account is only eligible for youths aged between 18-26 years old, so you would have to look elsewhere if you don’t fall under this age range.

Next, the lucrative 2% per annum interest rate offered by the Jumpstart account only applies to the first $20,000 of your deposit, and only 0.10% p.a. on any incremental balances. If you are looking for a bank to park more than $20,000 worth of savings, you might have to either look elsewhere or look to use a combination of different savings account.

CIMB Fastsaver Account
Pros:
Prior to the Jumpstart Account, this was my main savings account as it gave one of the highest returns for youths then. It offers 1% p.a for the first $50,000, 1.5% p.a for the next $25,000, 1.8% p.a for your next $25,000, and finally 0.6% for anything above $100,000. While it may not come across as attractive as Jumpstart Account’s interest rates, it actually allows for a better interest rate for amounts over $20,000, so it may be a worthwhile look for some. Anybody over the age of 16 is eligible to open this account.

Cons:
However, there are also several limitations to opening a Fastsaver account that one needs to consider. Firstly, there is a minimum of $1000 of initial deposit one needs to make when opening the account, which may not be an amount that some of us have right now.

Also, another restriction some might consider would be that there is no ATM card given with this account, and one would need to pay $10 to get an ATM card. Personally, I feel that this is not much of an issue as CIMB does not have many ATMs around Singapore to begin with. Also, this was meant to be a savings account and hence there shouldn’t be much withdrawals being made anyways! Furthermore, if there is a need for you to withdraw this money, both SC’s Jumpstart and CIMB’s Fastsaver allows for FAST transfer, which enables you to transfer money away to your other bank accounts relatively quickly (usually this can work in less than 5 minutes for me).

Which is the best account?

The comparison between the two saving accounts should come across as a no-brainer at first sight - 2% for SC’s Jumpstart Account.

However, there are certain scenarios where CIMB’s Fastsaver account can be better as well. Firstly, if you are only 16 years old, you will be ineligible for SC’s Jumpstart Account. In this scenario, CIMB’s Fastsaver Account could be a good place for you to park your money before you turn 18, the minimum age required to open the Jumpstart account.

Secondly, if you are looking for a savings account to stash away a large sum of money, then SC’s Jumpstart Account may not be suitable for you as the lucrative 2% p.a. interest only applies to the first $20,000 you deposit into the account.

Both account openings can also be done quickly online without the need to go down physically to the branches. I have been using the Fastsaver account for a few years and have no complaints about it, perhaps other than the rather outdated mobile banking app it has...

We also recently created the Singlife account and is currently in the midst of exploring it, we will share a little more about it soon.

Stay safe and healthy,
T

Our first post!

noreply@blogger.com (FinanceOT) — Sun, 24 May 2020 08:03:00 +0000

Hello everyone! Welcome to our blog!

FinanceOT, we believe that everyone should put in a little extra effort in managing their own finances, hence the name FinanceOT to signify Finance Overtime. Other than that, it also represents two of our initials!

We started this blog in hopes of tracking our personal finances and investments as we inch towards our first big milestone of a 100k by the age of 30. Aside, this can also hopefully be a platform for us to share some tips about personal finance and investing, especially for the young. It is never too early to start saving and investing! Some youths may find it intimidating and confusing to start learning about these topics with the vast amount of information they see online. We hope that our blog will provide youths with a safe starting space, to launch their journey towards financial freedom.

In this blog, some of the things we will be sharing about are budgeting, choosing the right savings account to deposit your money, tips to reduce your money output and other personal finance related topics. We would also be writing on the topic of investing, such as platforms/brokers for youths to begin investing, where to start investing with a small starting amount, and give our reviews of some of the investing platforms we have tried!

During this circuit breaker, we have started looking into US equities and have also started investing in them. We also did some trading and made a little profits. Do stay tuned for more details regarding them in the future posts!

We welcome any comments and feedbacks via email or the comments section, thank you! :)

Meanwhile, stay safe and healthy!

- O and T