As cliche my topic is today. It is said as it is. When you struggle to find employment and when you think about what can work for you. It is difficult to get momentum and also motivation. There’s a struggle to think about fulfilling the basic needs versus documenting the journey. When that motivation drops, creativity drops and one gets rather spiraling into a dark hole. Honestly speaking, not that fun. It could be because of expectation or it could be due to something else. As mentioned in the National Day rally, there will be some cushioning of unemployment setbacks for certain groups of people.
Personally, I think that there will be plenty of amendments over the years as this is a new initiative that has been rolled out. The preliminary details have been released and the name of this grant is known as Jobseeker Support Scheme. The limitation of this unemployment scheme will apply to Citizens who earn $5000 or less. That sounds about right since statistics show that the median income is around that range for this group.
The payment scheme is on a staggered basis. The photo below is taken from Straits Times and source from MOM
Effective on April 2025, the conditions for these eligible employees must earn SGD 5k or less a month on an average 12-month basis and an annual property value of not more than SGD 25k.
Several main conditions include:
Claims can only be made once every 3 years. (No limit)
Must have worked 6 out of the 12 months
Capped support up to SGD 5k, paid out over 6 months.
My thoughts on this. It certainly is nice that some form of support is being laid out to the masses. The idea is to make sure this group of people stays actively employable. As for how to make sure they upskill and go for courses, I think the authorities will find that way. Technically, if you are making 1-2k a month and unemployed. The chances of retrenchment are low. Instead, it could be that a company closed down. Some support is better than no support.
Conclusion
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations
I’m going to clock out for now to think about my next steps in life.
So, the whole idea of updating on a per-month basis quickly fades away with changes in my life. It is also not feasible to update as regularly as I could have done so in 2020. Eventually, the updates plateaued for a shocking 2 years where many of my decisions were to take profit and reduce positions and were too difficult to document in detail.
Nonetheless, we can proceed for a fresh 2024 and hopefully be about to stay disciplined about everything else on investment, family, work, and health. We have to always keep our hopes and maintain the discipline for everything.
This is a YTD performance. This year it is up almost 6k which is decent in my opinion. In the last 3 years, the entire portfolio is up about 20%. That makes it annualised around 6.5% p.a. which is palatable. The main idea is to stay invested.
Portfolio Summary
Two years have gone by and interest rates have been the talk of town. Gone are cheap money but in Singapore Real Estate prices are still pretty crazy and will still continue to be. Meanwhile, surprises in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices in recent weeks have been rather interesting, breaking upwards followed by a couple of down days. No one has that crystal ball on hand. We just have to understand the concept of being brave and buying it low and riding the high waves when Mr Market picks up.
Performance of the different portfolios in different advisors
During the pandemic, there were a lot of people doing interesting business and many specific sectors boomed like a million times. When the world opened up, it was both amazing and scary that many of these businesses were no longer relevant. That included some of the robo-advisors. Of course, 90% were expected. Some of those unexpected ones probably came from MoneyOwl. My personal experience with Income and the way they work is rather unimpressed so it has to be a management decision that closed that down. Leaders have to take a stand and sometimes they can be wrong however, I only see leaders trying things out without a clear understanding of the final goal. This was probably one of those incidents in a big corporation.
Politics – They say. To me, I’ll say that it is more like a face-saving grace or a change of mind. Probably a top-down approach to ‘why or who did this?’ It can be pretty lame to hear that. I’m not a fan of finger-pointing but that’s the sad reality even as adults. We can’t even have a proper conversation about what went wrong.
Enough of the comments, these are the performances since inception. I prefer to talk about absolute returns in dollars and sense. Not in percentages or year-to-date or month-to-date comparison. Unless I’m comparing of some sort, I probably would like to talk about the true profits or losses.
Currently, What I have now is a few of these active platforms;
Moomoo Brokers
Tiger Brokers
Endowus
Asia Wealth
Crypto Portfolio
I can’t help but think that overall, Endowus really works well for me.
This was bad. No one took responsibility but I cut it and earned it all back with a money market fund coupled with promotional cash deposit fresh funds. Keeping it in the same cash fund did not do me any good. That’s a done deal so we move on.
Endowus – ESG Portfolio
I started this ESG Portfolio in March 2021 and I have some high hopes for this fund to do pretty well. They do well for the investment portfolios. Not too much for cash funds.
The allocation is an 80%/20% Equity/Bond portfolio allocation so there will be more movement on the equity side. This is long term so, just leave it in there. You do good and it brings you sustainable returns. It is for the future and the next generation. I can’t explain more.
This is good. Overall up 17.96%.
Endowus – SRS Portfolio
Overall, the portfolio is still up +34.56% since May 2020 in SGD. As usual, in USD terms, due to no FX impact as the portfolio is USD ETFs, the performance will definitely be better especially when USD becomes stronger. Of course, the reference will be SGD since I use SGD. This SRS/Cash portfolio consists of my favorite Dimension Funds in 40% bonds/60% equity.
Overall from May 2020 to Aug 2024, it is a +34.53% increase in absolute terms – quite okay. This is for the long run. I’m just going to keep it simple to report it overall as I have less time on my hand these days. But do try it out and put out your own performance and tell everyone about the experience. Unless you nitpick aggressively – I think you will be fine. YTD, it is definitely down.
Endowus – CPF Portfolio
The CPF portfolio is looking at +21.04% since its inception in May 2020. That’s a huge drop of almost 9% from its all-time high. This portfolio is being beaten down for now.
The portfolio is doing well.
Endowus – Fund Smart Portfolio
I started this semi-medium-term Fund Smart portfolio this month in May 2021. I tried to build a balanced portfolio. I’m not exactly sure but I will go in via RSP monthly as I wasn’t sure but I do want to deploy some of my cash. The all-time absolute return is +0.58%. haha. This is done monthly on RSP until 2021. I stopped that contribution a year ago since I had a small China play which did not pan out well but still. This is a 20 years portfolio.
Overall: 52% Equity and 48% Fixed Income
a. 15% in Multi-Asset Fund (1 Fund)
b. 45% in Equity Funds (2 Funds)
i. Focus on China Play [10%]
ii. Global equity with dividend accumulation (Re-invest) [20%]
iii. Small Cap equity play (For the Alpha) [15%]
c. 40% in Bond Funds (3 Funds)
i. Climate Bond Fund Play [20%]
ii. Core Fixed Income Play [20%]
Endowus – Retirement Portfolio 1
I got down into building a portfolio of unallocated funds to the institution Pimco GIS Income Fund. 0.55% will be the fees annually so that’s going to be the start of the accumulation of the coupons from the funds. I am down -5.22% for March 2024 and with the current news it is at +2.98% for Aug 2024
Endowus – Retirement Portfolio 2
Yet again, I put in 2 tranches of S$5k into the Lion Global Infinity 500. At one point it was close to 6-7% down and this month it is +3.47%. Real volatility, is expected and still strongly convicted on this one.
Overall, absolute returns are at +29.64%. Surprising because at one time it was down for a bit.
Endowus – Income Portfolio
I initiated this 6-8 months ago. Hopefully, over time the income portfolio can be passed on to my kids to continue as a form of RSP. Returns are pretty good now. Close to 20% returns on income given that the year has not ended.
Endowus – New China Portfolio
This is a new one that I put into. This is a long-time view given the current valuations. It looks good. I am willing to take some risks.
AutoWealth – Portfolio
Yet again, I put in 2 tranches of S$5k into the Lion Global Infinity 500. At one point it was close to 6-7% down and this month it is +3.47%. Real volatility, is expected and still strongly convicted on this one.
Tiger Brokers – Trading Platform
Yet again, I put in 2 tranches of S$5k into the Lion Global Infinity 500. At one point it was close to 6-7% down and this month it is +3.47%. Real volatility, is expected and still strongly convicted on this one.
Crypto – Portfolio
Crpyto finally went back to normal and my portfolio is back to the place it was 2 years ago. It has been rather hurtful for the past 2 years or so. All those additional profits are gone as no profit taking took place. Perhaps it is time to review about taking a portion out once more once the trend sets in and takes off again. The season is still higher but still currently plateaued.
The reason for Endowus (As sustainable as it is)
Like a broken recorder, the pros once more:
Endowus is the first and only robo-advisor to be approved by the CPF board.
100% trailer fees back to the consumer, not the fund management fee. This is really one of a kind I’ve seen so far.
They do have a decent team that makes sense when introducing their platform in my personal opinion.
I believe all retail investors should try them out because of how they are trying to disrupt investing and make investing work for everyone.
Thank you all in advance for using my referral code. They are not perfect but in my opinion good investment strategies.
The last point is to do your own diligence. What works for me may not work for you. Investing in traditional portfolios is about risk management.
As a global city with a robust economy, Singapore’s real estate market is driven by a confluence of factors. We have a well-regulated environment, a highly developed infrastructure, and a strategic location. The city-state’s status as a major international financial centre, and a reputation for safety.
We have a wide range of properties and by-products in real estate. From high-end residential properties in the heart of Orchard Road, trophy assets to hardcore township out of CCR. Especially in the OC Region which has seen significant rises in property prices over the last 3 years.
I’ve always been a fan of investing and also owning real assets. In Singapore, we are quite a different animal as compared to the rest of the world. Two main factors will be:
Our really long-term and sound housing board strategy
Our high occupancy rate
These did not just come by chance. There is a drive from the government which was successful. The plan for FDI and local brands going overseas made the difference. That was how we succeeded in making our name and reputation known to the rest of the world.
Owning real estate is more of an emotional decision sometimes and one has to be prudent. As we do not have a crystal ball, we always have to depend on experience and research to make decisions. Most recently, many people would have been priced out of certain types of real estate. There are still other ways of getting into real estate with a lower notional or quantum via investing.
One way is Reits Investing and again everyone should really do their own due diligence. I’m not a fan of chasing market upside. (All that said, it really also depends on the situation). I put in some monies into Reits and also into Syfe Reits portfolio when markets were lower 2 months ago. My expectations of a Federal interest rate reduction were taken into consideration.
I’m a little concerned about picking stocks usually. First of all it is because of my own experience, second because most of the time I was too busy while I was working. Many times, I am unable to adjust my portfolio due to market changes and sad to say, the losses then slowly became bigger. Either I cut loss or I continued to be a long-term holder. Heh.
During COVID, there were several businesses, robos, investing firms that came up. It was pretty interesting. That was also when I discovered Real Vantage. I have invested in that for almost 3 years now and they are sort of an overseas REITs player who makes deals available to the retail investor. The investing form is similar to REITs but in the form of debt or fixed income.
They are a local firm with founders formerly in REITs or real estate businesses. They source deals globally but over the last three years, I’ve seen deals from the United States, the United Kingdom, From HongKong, mostly Australia and once for Singapore (if I remember correctly it was to fund the development of a pair of bungalows or Semi-Detached). Technically, appreciation depends on the deal. Most of these investments is similar to a fixed income investment where you receive coupons on a monthly or quarterly basis.
One thing I’m certain is that they are pretty sustainable. It isn’t some fly-by-night firm and there’s some shared interest. It is a little bit like crowdfunding for the masses but it is licensed and done properly. I’m quite comfortable with how they do things and it does look like they are expanding slowly as business picks up.
Pros
Global investing
Investing amount is small. Easy to fund via SGD
Options to invest in local CCY or the investment CCY (Risk will be FX risks)
Quite an experienced team
They have been around for more than 3 years now
Every opportunity comes with a webinar to understand the investment better
Q&A to answer all the questions
Pretty good reviews on the internet.
Cons
Some mixture of foreign currency
Limited to mostly income sort of returns
For people who are not too open to non-financial and well-known financial institutions, it is probably a stumbling block.
What is HDB? Singapore’s Housing and Development Board (HDB) is a pivotal institution in the city-state’s journey towards modern urban living. Established more than 60 years ago, HDB has played a crucial role in transforming Singapore’s housing landscape. We have evolved from a nation grappling with inadequate living conditions into an efficient, high-quality public housing model. Other than affordable homes, it aims to foster vibrant communities and promote a high standard of living.
In the most recent announcement of cooling measures the LTV of resale HDB loans is reduced from 80% to 75%. What does this mean? In very layman’s terms, it just means for a 1 million dollar value of HDB property valuation; one can loan up to 750,000 SGD instead of 800,000 SGD. The recent news of a record price of 1.77 million on a single HDB home, means that the LTV will be reduced by 5% should resale buyers continue the same purchasing trend.
It is quite clear that the cooling measure is to ensure the resale HDB price is at sustainable rates. In my own opinion, the gov has all the statistics. The new prices of HDB to say, million-dollar HDB are rare. (i.e. location, HDB size, layouts, rarity, duplex) is still dependent on multiple factors. Not many can afford to pay top dollar for a resale leasehold property. I’m not an agent nor am I in public service. I strongly believe that there are rationable explanations behind every decision (Be it a good or bad one) and in this aspect, the focus of this issue is really about a few points.
Demand for HDB. Increasing supply so that demand will go back to normal.
It is highly likely given our gov focus on statistical approaches many times (Not saying all the time) This 5% is probably the way they manage the resale affordability (Based on the median House Pricing and resale pricing) If this cooling measure is insufficient, I don’t think they will stop at just 5% until it slows down. To put it simply, there’s no crisis and no bubble. Our home assets remain to be our assets.
Young homeowners assistance (i.e. first-time home-buyers). Standard, Plus, Prime new HDB changes. Providing the incentives to stay at CCR, RCR or OCR depending on one’s choice. The new incentives also help low to mid-income households to own homes with benefits, subsidies and incentives islandwide.
To be honest, this strategy seems to be a rejuvenation of places to own in small Singapore as well and every school is a good school strategy. All these policies in my view are linked to one another for a more inclusive society. Just to see the entire big picture – The execution needs some finesse. Singapore Government is the basis, once they have declared, they will do all to execute it. The issue is just a matter of when that will be done.
How is that going to affect private housing going forward? I’m not too sure but I’m kind of swayed to the fact that it will slow down that price hike in housing. Being land scarce, it is hard to believe that prices will drop in the near term. My definition of the near term is 10 years just because the properties, living spaces, and amenities take years to develop and create a natural habitat for the township.
For some sense within me, there will be more generation changes. More people will hold on to their HDB. Less property flipping will happen and like ever before, only the rich get richer assuming they get the right properties.
The Housing Board is a testament to addressing housing challenges with foresight and ingenuity. By constantly pushing the envelope in housing design and community development, HDB not only meets the needs of today’s residents but also paves the way for a better, more inclusive future.
Conclusion
If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at Referral and Recommendations
Lifejourney 