2020 - the year I start investing proper. Sold SATS, Tesla going strong and earning $970 from stocks

Back in late Oct, I blogged about my reflections on building a 6 digits portfolio.

It took me 7 years to finally starting investing proper as I've always been trying to accumulate cash and park it in savings account giving me ~2-3% interest. It was with sheer diligence and discipline that I amassed $300k in Aug. My cash savings has since gone down as I started deploying cash into the market.

Covid as an impetus to invest

When Covid hit and the market started to turn south, I attempted to "invest". I bought SATS back in Mar when things were starting to get shaky. Not very smart since things went downhill after I bought it.

I bought SIA during then too, at a high of $7+ 😉interesting lessons

Long story short, I've since sold my SATS stocks after it hit a 6 mths high. Sold it at $4.35 earning around $230. Not a bad 5% dividend considering I held it for less than a year. I couldn't fathom why the stock went up when situation still seem bleak. Good that I sold it as it dropped to $4.20 now. 

Tiger Broker sparked my foreign stocks investing journey

Later on, with the entrance of Tiger Brokers, I started dabbling in foreign stocks in August. 

Foreign stocks include Alibaba, Ping An, Tesla and Apple. There are also other bank stocks I bought. Except for Apple, the rest of the stocks are doing well - especially with Tesla where I'm sitting on ~1k USD profit.

I've been buying and selling a few stocks these few months. The volatility of the market makes it rather easy to earn quick bucks. I'm not doing active trading and am only selling because I think some stocks are at a high and have potential to go low soon. Although I must say, I may have made a mistake selling Tesla earlier on for a USD110 profit, otherwise I would be holding more Tesla shares now. 

I sold Tesla because I wanted to experience how it works selling on Tiger Brokers. With that experience, I've since gone on to buy and sell a few times making myself $970 in the past 2 months. This is the first time I've bought and sold in a short period of time. It's about striking when the time is right - this is subjective and I definitely don't have a crystal ball to tell if I am selling at a high; but as long as I find the profit reasonable, I'll take it.

I don't have any tips to share because I am an investing novice, but I hope to detail random thoughts so that I can look back in the future.

Start investing now, but prepare your funds

I can only say, start investing now. Don't be like my husband or the old-me, waiting for the right time to buy. There's never a right time. My husband is kicking himself for missing out Tesla as it's at a high now. Do your own research and stock picks, prepare money that you can afford to not touch (and possibly lose), and strike when the stock reaches your targeted price.

I can't stress how important it is to have a pool of cash to deploy into the market. I am super glad that despite deploying >$50k into the market, I still have at least $100k buffer as emergency fund if I need. To many, $100k may be a rather high emergency fund that can be put to better investment use, but this threshold is my safety net. 

If you are keen to start investing, especially to diversify to foreign stocks, I'll recommend Tiger Brokers for its low commissions and fees. What's more, they provide stock vouchers for your first cash top-up of up to $100 if you deposit a first $30k in. I've also set up an account for my husband, netting myself and him $100 stock voucher each 😛Upon purchase of a stock, the $100 voucher gets returned to my Tiger account...usually within or after 1 day. Processing speed of Tiger is pretty fast.

Do use my referral link (click link) and/or enter code (SBSL8) or scan the QR code to sign up😊I will receive stock vouchers depending on how much you have topped up for your first deposit.

You may wish to read link on how to set up: 

• My beginner's guide to setting up Tiger Brokers