Simple Budget, Simple Life

One month ago, I blogged about my SRS Game plan via Endowus here. Just an update (for my records) on the transactions I made on 24 Feb: SRS I talked about making my first 2022 transaction of $3,060 in Jan. Just yesterday, I did my 2nd $3,060 transaction in view of the dip in market. The amount is split between Dimensional Global Core and Emerging Markets Large Cap. 3 more $3,060 to deploy. I wonder how many more dips can I buy since it is just the start of the year and I've already deployed the second lol CPF OA investment I also made another $2k transaction from my CPF OA via Endowus to buy into Lion Global Infinity US 500 Stock Index Fund. I will continue to make small entry investments along the way. Endowus Referral If you are keen to embark on Endowus using your  SRS, CPF OA or even cash , you may wish to use my link to  enjoy $20 in Access Fee credit  (equivalent to $10,000 advised free, assuming Access Fee of 0.40%). https://endowus.com/invite?code=FUKYD

Alas, after 2 years plus of avoiding Covid, my family has gotten it. I guess it's inevitable given that these few days, the stats has been 10k+. It could be even more since there are people who do self-testing and isolate at home without informing MOH. How it went 7 Feb, Monday - Close contact gotten ART positive. We tested ART negative.  8 Feb, Tuesday - We tested ART negative.  9 Feb, Wednesday - Mum tested ART positive. We tested ART negative. Husband started having sore throat. At night, he had fever. I feel ok. Husband and I started to isolate. 10 Feb, Thursday - Husband had high fever, 38deg+ on and off despite getting panadol. ART still negative. Then came itchy throat that developed into cough. No flu symptoms for me, except shoulder and neck aches. 11 Feb, Friday - Husband has been coughing all night. Decided to see doc under PHPC  where he only need to pay $10 for consultation and medicines (though meds have no use). A lot of patients and hence had to call in. Be prepared

PSA - I've just received my $100 cash reward from DBS today. Earlier, in Oct, I blogged about setting up my SRS account with DBS and topped up $10,001 to enjoy their cash rewards  and used the SRS amount to invest via Endowus. The cash reward is only applicable to the first 4,000 customers. Glad that I am eligible! If you've done the same when I blogged about it, do check if your cash rewards are in! Till then 🥳

I had insomnia on and off since forever. Yesterday's sleepless night sparked me to write my thoughts down - yeah, my brain was drafting out what I should write today. I dislike how my overactive brain works. While this is not a financial post, it is my personal reflection post and outlet. These have been recurrent issues I face. I hope by writing all these down, I can get rid of my negative and worrisome thoughts. After all, the new year is coming, and I want a good start to it. Work I attribute yesterday's insomnia to insecurity at my workplace. Although I am rather senior in the team, I feel like an imposter. And I feel that staff are judging me.  I feel extremely inferior when I compare myself with my team. My team is made up of elites - academic elites from overseas top universities and top JCs and a handful are social elites with rich family background - whereas I come from local university and mid-tier schools. Despite having stronger  experiences, I feel that my staff do

Back in 2021, I opened my SRS account to lock-in my withdrawal age at 62 and as another avenue to reduce my income tax. Blogged about it below: I finally set-up my SRS account and then DBS screws up Maximising my $10,001 SRS top-up with Endowus Best time to lock in your 62 yo withdrawal age is now - Endowus $40 referral bonus (usual - $20) till 31 Dec 2021With the  2022 SRS Game Plan via Endowus Now that it's 2022, I needed to start my SRS purchase again. This time, I will be pumping in the max of $15,300 cash to squeeze the max income tax relief. I had initially thought to delay this pump till later this year, as I wanted my cash to generate higher returns first, and then channel it to SRS. However, I decided to be more robotic about my SRS investment and DCA in. This means that I will Buy SRS at 5 different tranches, at $3060 each For the past weeks, the stock and crypto market has been dipping while awaiting the actual plan from the US Fed. Just last night, US Fed has released t

I never thought I would face this issue. After accumulating $300k cash, and feeling that I've kept too much dirty fiat with me, I've been investing aggressively. Aggressive may not mean smart. In fact, I am feeling stupid because my investments have been doing badly 🙃 As a quick summary, this is what I've been doing over the past year: Buying more REITS, just to name a few - Keppel dc, Ascendas, Capland China Buying more US stocks, just to name a few - Tesla, Roblox, Sea Converting SGD to USD for crypto Just on crypto alone, in midst of the recent drop, I've pumped in $15k SGD to buy BTC and ETH 🙃embodying BTFD in my blood very literally, within a week.  Am I worried? Of course! Each time I open my Tiger Broker + crypto apps, I see a blood of red. My limit orders on Gemini just keep setting off hahah. I've been doing what people call DCA, but man, the amount of transactions I made is quite crazy. I've also just started Anchor Protocol for it's lucrative

Back in 2020, I blogged about my 8 sources of passive income generating $600-$1,500 per month . It's not a consistent amount since a few of the sources were on-off like selling on Carousell. So, here's a refreshed version of my 2021 sources of passive income, the $ that comes with it and.... crypto joining the ranks. Here goes: 1. Stock Dividends - $4,962.3 Same as 2020, this remain one of the key sources of passive income given my REITS portfolio. I was heavy on REITS a year ago. But boy, how much things changed in a year. Currently, I am still very heavy on dividend generating stocks ~70%. CDP SG stocks: $2,510 for 2021 (portfolio value: ~$78k. Sitting on 12% paper loss) Tiger SG stocks: $995.10 for 2021 (portfolio value: ~$63k. Sitting on 2% paper gain) HK stocks: $1,445.2 for 2021 (portfolio value: ~$70k. Sitting on 8% paper loss) US stocks: $12 for 2021 (portfolio value: ~$34k. Sitting on 31% paper gains) Total Dividend: $4,962.30 on $245k portfolio. That's rather path

Detailing my yearly CPF top-up here.  This is my 7th year of top-up. However, there will be changes to my CPF top-up strategy d ue to the changes in CPF tax relief . 1. Top-up $3k to Medisave via Paynow As I have hit MA ceiling of $63k in 2021, I will be topping up $3k cash to my MA today to reach the MA ceiling of $66k in 2022. I am doing this today before my Jan 2022 salary comes in, as it will reduce the amount of MA cash-top up and therefore, reduce my tax relief. I've completed my Paynow transaction, which is instantaneous. Look at my CPF MA changes within seconds: Done the same for my husband as well. 2. Top up $5k to SA For the past 6 years, I've been topping up $7k to my and my mum's SA to max the tax relief. That's $84k cash lock-up in my and her CPF. This time round, due to the tax relief capped at $8k for both MA and SA top-up, I will only be topping up $5k to my SA.  However, contrary to the past where I top-up at the start of the year, I have decided to hol

Standard start of year post. My best way of welcoming the new year is to count the new inflow of $ and here's my CPF interest for 2021: Unfortunately, the extra $8,728.48 interest still hasn't allowed me to cross the $700k net worth mark. Will work towards $850k net worth by end of the year :) Have you check your CPF interest yet?

I started prepping this post at the start of Dec. My initial draft indicated that I reached $700k net worth. As the clock strikes 31 Dec 2021, despite my pay coming in, I've not reached this figure.  I probably jinx myself by drafting too early. Back in early Nov, my net-worth was at $690k. I thought I would make it to $700k soon! Alas, my net-worth fell due to lacklustre performance of my stocks and crypto. The only avenue that is growing is my CPF (thanks govt). If I had held cash massively like what I did in the past, maybe I'd have hit $700k net worth soon 😅 Here's a recap over the years: 2016 -  Unexpected review of 2016: hitting $200k in net worth 2017 -  End 2017 review - net worth at $287k 2018 -  End 2018 review - net worth at $372k  2019 -  End 2019 Review - inching close to $500k net worth  (~$440k) 2020 - End 2020 Review - net worth at $550k Targets review: These were what I set out for 2021:  Aim to achieve $650k net worth in 2021✅ Grow my stock portfolio to $

I've earlier shared that I finally set up my SRS with DBS bank and l ater registered for an account with Endowus. These were the rewards I'm expected to receive: 1. DBS Bank - $100 - $50 cash to open SRS with DBS and contribute $10,000 - another $50 cash by investing $10,001 I've not gotten the cash rewards as T&Cs indicated "The Cash Gift will be credited by 28 February 2022" 2. Endowus - $20 - $20 referral credit You can refer to my registration guide here . Earlier, I signed up using someone's link for only $20 referral credit.  Today, Endowus released a limited-time referral bonus of $40 up till 31 Dec 2021 . You can refer to the T&Cs here.   If you wish to withdraw your money from your SRS account at 62 years old, the best time is to sign up for your SRS and make your first contribution by 31 Dec 2021. 22 days left to 2022! Referral If you are keen to embark on Endowus using your  SRS, CPF OA or even cash , you may wish to use my link to  enjoy $

Back in late Aug 2021, I shared about my SGD$100 experiment into CakeDefi . I was lured by the attractive % and also wanted to venture further beyond the usual BTC, ETH buys. 3 weeks later, I provided an update here. Now that it's been 3 months+, here's how my gamble went: Here are my thoughts: The Yay 👍 My entry price was at SGD$3.90. With the price at SGD$6.35 now, coupled with the interest generated + US$30 referral reward earlier, I'm sitting on SGD$470.41 gain The Boos 👎 I don't wish to paint the pic that I'm always sitting on paper gains. DFI coins is VOLATILE - I have not been monitoring this SGD$100 gamble much, but the few times I glanced at the DFI coin, it was a laggard compared to other coins. However, it is interesting that despite the BTC drop of 20% yesterday, DFI coin has held itself well. APY% has been dropping. It started with 88.9% in Aug, to 73.6% in Sep, to 41.9% today. I haven't been monitoring the rate daily but it's great that I s

As someone who held massive cash (in proportion to my networth) previously, it feels scary to see that I'm running out of cash. For context, just 1 year ago back in Aug 2020, I talked about having $300k CASH before reaching 30 and the breakdown is here. Few days after I posted, I came upon Tiger Brokers (see my guide and referral here)  and have invested heavily since. I grew my Tiger Brokers portfolio from $0 to $28k (one month later)  to $70k (five months later)  to $95k (eight months later)  to $136k (eleven months later)  to $170k now (1 year 3 mths later). And unfortunately, I am sitting on paper losses amounting to close to $9,000 now 🙃as a bulk of my portfolio is in HK/China stocks 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃I'm the donkey. I've depleted more than half of my CASH warchest just on stocks alone. I also started my crypto journey in Feb this year.  From $0 to close to $30k capital pumped. Though the good news is I'm seeing gains of around 20-30%. Not an amazing feat compared to pe