Tag: funds

Series 2: Starting your journey on Crypto with the Revolut Card

On By RistrettzIn Cryptocurrency, Deals, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment
There is a little frenzy about crypto credit/debit cards these days. They have these multi-currency features, money transfer options and split billing which kind of attracts me to these functions. Revolut is one of those cards other than crypto.com which give a cashback but it set themselves apart by being a money manager as well. It is less of crypto trading but a simple was to get into the things of crypto. Again, this is just getting to start on the crypto journey. They are proving time and again that this is going be a force to be reckon with as compared to fiat (Normal cash and currency)

The Revolut Credit Card

Revolut is a digital banking app and card that focuses on technology, low fees and premium features. It’s designed for those who travel frequently and offers ways to spend abroad, including international money transfers with no hidden fees. There is only one physical card and limited services if you take on the free service. However, if you wish to upgrade to a more premium tier. You can always do so later on so no worries about those first until you try them out Some of the more interesting local context is that Revolut tries hard to bring in new partnerships such as 20% cashback on public transport by using the card and so on. Brands such as Nike.sg, Lazada, Decathlon and iHerb is already on their cashback programme. I find that these cashback returns are pretty decent and you can redirect your funds to purchasing cryptocurrency if you wish to. Otherwise, you can just leave that as cash.  

Some features

With Revolut, you can do the following:
  • Use it as a debiting account. You can set up recurring payments, transfer or request for funds and withdraw cash at international ATMs. You’ll be able to view your balance on an analytics screen.
  • Make international payments. The app lets you transfer money to 150 countries, fee-free, at the interbank exchange rate.
  • Spend globally fee-free. All spending abroad is also charged at the interbank rate.
  • Hold different currencies in your account. You can hold a balance or make an exchange in the app in 28 currencies.
  • Pay friends or request payments. You’re able to pay other people, request for payments, or use the split-bill feature to divide a group spend with ease.
  • View spending habits. Using analytics, your can view your spending and track them like a money manager
  • Control your card and account. You can lock and unlock your card in the Revolut app as well as set monthly spending limits.
  • Save money. They have a vault feature let you build up funds for a specific funding goal. This is not a bank account so you do not earn any interest. This kinds of reminds me of what Hugo Wealth Card can do.
  • Rewards. Benefit from personalised cashback and discounts when you spend at Revolut’s partner merchants, including Amazon, Lazada, Nike and Zalora.
  • Instant balance top-up. Reload funds from your bank account to your Revolut account fast and conveniently.
  • Customer service available 24/7. Get in touch with customer service directly through Revolut’s app. Paid accounts are also entitled to concierge service and priority customer support.
  • No credit check. You do not need to show a salary or paycheck to get a limit as this is as good as a debit card.

Promotion and perks for signing up:

Sign up with my link and get 25 SGD after you order a card and complete 3 purchases all before the 5th October 2021. While you await the physical card you can use a virtual card as all actions must be completed before the deadline. https://revolut.com/referral/paulbo2uw!SEP1AGG Read more about the Terms and Conditions here at Terms & Conditions

Revolut Junior

On top of what is offered, you can still create and order a Junior card if your kid is above 15 years old and it is a good time to teach about personal finance and budgeting. I think this is pretty cool for an added value option.

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post. This is purely my own opinion after using their service and/or products. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check they out and do your diligence. There is no one size fits all investment strategy. Please use my referral code if you would like to try this card out. (This is a limited offer only until 5 Oct 2021) Referral Code

Now, if what I am sharing does resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/

The pictures were taken from Revolut website for this article.

StashAway Performance – August 2021

On By RistrettzIn Performance, Personal Finance Series, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

September is here. Summer is over and fall is coming once more. The festive season is coming but for some it might be a stressful period. The pandemic situation has not taken a turn or twist. It’s not going to be any better going forward. Things will change too.

StashAway has been rather stagnant but considering the environment, I think it is holding out well. SA seems to try to take a bet around China and their recovery by doing a rebalancing. Now, is that system or human driven I question. Shouldn’t it be systematic driven for a robo advisor instead of attempting to drive better returns. With an ERAA approach, these actions seems rather active. Only time will tell.

Repeating to myself that if Mr Market decides to go either way, it would matter that much to me. Why is that so? If Mr Market drops, then I will add on more to the portfolios. If you have not taken the first step, action early so that you can start doing this early and learn from any mistakes along the way. By now, I would have decide on the main Robo to stake my money with. SA is not quite the one but let’s see how it goes. The competition remains strong.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

To be a little honest, I am quite bored of the returns for StashAway.  This portfolio is my longest term portfolio for retirement. I felt that it could have done a lot better but I shall not look back and will pop in a little more when i contribute to my SRS account. The SRS account since first day deposit is currently at +4.33% as on 2 Sep 2021 (Time-weighted return). Oh well just +0.3% from July 2021. Performance wise, I think i is okay and also this is a super long term portfolio – I would say close to 25 years horizon so I’ll just leave it there.

 

In USD performance, that’s about +7.80% YTD (Time-weighted return). That’s quite a bit of FX i am losing out here. It increased by 0.9% from July last month and -0.8% from June. Then again, I wouldn’t sweat on the exchange rates since I am going to stay invested and into these portfolios. They are just a mean of reference as I look back at the performance. So, still high risk high returns? I think it’s more like, higher risk commensurate the higher returns but there is no guarantee.

 

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This portfolio B is set out to be on a 15-18 year investment horizon. It is at +9.34% YTD on 2 Sep 2021 and It’s steady. It’s the same as the last time i measured during Dec 2020. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust those risk levels as and when I feel that there is a risk on or off. For just a 2% risk increase, I see a better performance already. This month versus the last was +0.6%. Nothing to shout about really.

 

In USD, I’m looking at double digits +13.27% (Time-weighted returns). Again on the Forex rate as reference. This has increase by 1.2% month as compared to July.

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

For this portfolio, I look at this at shorter horizon of 12-15 years so I feel that I need to take on some risk to achieve my goals. This SA risk index is currently at 20% and will take on to be one of my riskiest portfolio. Return is at +16.78% YTD (Time-weighted return) since day one as at 2 Sep 2021. As compared to the last month, it is up by 1.2% but this is just a note to self and measure the monthly performance. Over time, more funds will be added to achieve the targeted invested goals. Two consecutive drop in performance for this portfolio In June and July while it is up for August.

 

In USD terms, we are looking at +20.98% (Time-weighted return). Looking great as usual. Although I feel that this isn’t exactly the year to take on higher risk for better returns. This has increased by 1.2% as compared to the previous month.

 

Conclusion

It is now more than one year since I started using StashAway. I still think that it has been a great supplement as a robo advisor. After using a few robo-advisors, I find that SA will play second fiddle to my Endowus Portfolio and true enough that fits exactly into how I plan it to be. Recent months, i’ve been thinking and I did not add on any regular monthly investing amount as I’m beginning to think twice about their strategy and if they have grown to a level where institutional belief is starting to take over instead of that pure robo fintech as compared to what they were in 2020.

StashAway does have their own advantages. They do hedge their portfolios against huge crashes and take a stand on some positions which I do like because a lot asset managers don’t and even though they talk big about macro. The gold move was bold but it protects the portfolio. Again, Rome wasn’t built in a day so I guess you need to safeguard some of your monies to future proof it.

To find out more about the pros and cons of using StashAway, do refer to my previous posts.

To sign up or try out Stash Away, visit the website and use my referral code at Stash Away Referral

We’ll both get up to $10,000 SGD managed for free for 6 months which is a good deal.

Disclaimer

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

The pictures were taken from the Stash Away website for this article.

StashAway Performance – July 2021

On By RistrettzIn Performance, Personal Finance Series, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

Here we go, the second half of 2021 has arrived and it wasn’t too long before we had resolutions and new ideals. There’s only 5 months left for us to actually do anything to plug the gap. For those who actively review their goals and are on par or exceeding it. Keep on pushing, make it count. At the same time, it does seems like it has also passed rather quickly.

StashAway has been rather stagnant but considering the environment, I think it is holding out well. Then again, it is about comparison. If I compare it with my core Robo then it seem to be a tad shy from the performance. Then, they decided with an ERAA approach that has been rather active. Only time will tell if their algorithm makes the right choice and if there is some human involved, I hope it is only minimal.

Repeating to myself that if Mr Market decides to go either way, it would matter that much to me. Why is that so? If Mr Market drops, then I will add on more to the portfolios. If you have not taken the first step, action early so that you can start doing this early and learn from any mistakes along the way. By now, I would have decide on the main Robo to stake my money with. SA is not quite the one but let’s see how it goes. The competition remains strong.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

My longest term portfolio for retirement. A little off on the performance level. I could have done a lot better but I shall not look back and will pop in a little more when i contribute to my SRS account. The SRS account since first day deposit is currently at +3.95% as on 4 Aug 2021 (Time-weighted return). Oh well. Performance wise, I think i is okay and also this is a super long term portfolio – I would say close to 25 years horizon so I’ll just leave it there.

 

In USD performance, that’s about +6.90% YTD (Time-weighted return). That’s quite a bit of FX i am losing out here. It dropped a further 0.8% from last month and 0.6% from the previous month. Then again, I wouldn’t sweat on the exchange rates since I am going to stay invested and into these portfolios. They are just a mean of reference as I look back at the performance. So, still high risk high returns? I think it’s more like, higher risk commensurate the higher returns but there is no guarantee.

 

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This portfolio B is set out to be on a 15-18 year investment horizon. It is at +8.72% YTD on 4 Aug 2021 and It’s steady. It’s the same as the last time i measured during Dec 2020. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust those risk levels as and when I feel that there is a risk on or off. For just a 2% risk increase, I see a better performance already. This month versus the last was a -0.6% drop.

 

In USD, I’m looking at double digits +12.09% (Time-weighted returns). Again on the Forex rate as reference. This has dropped almost 1% month on month for 2 consecutive months.

 

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

For this portfolio, I look at this at shorter horizon of 12-15 years so I feel that I need to take on some risk to achieve my goals. This SA risk index is currently at 20% and will take on to be one of my riskiest portfolio. Return is at +15.59% YTD (Time-weighted return) since day one as at 4 Aug 2021 Not much of it has changed or rather it has dropped slightly but this is just a note to self and measure the monthly performance. Over time, more funds will be added to achieve the targeted invested goals. Two consecutive drop in performance for this portfolio.

 

In USD terms, we are looking at +19.90% (Time-weighted return). Looking great as usual. Although I feel that this isn’t exactly the year to take on higher risk for better returns. This has dropped 1.2% month on month for two consecutive months.

 

Conclusion

It is now more than one year since I started using StashAway. I still think that it has been a great supplement as a robo advisor. After using a few robo-advisors, I find that SA will play second fiddle to my Endowus Portfolio and true enough that fits exactly into how I plan it to be.

StashAway does have their own advantages. They do hedge their portfolios against huge crashes and take a stand on some positions which I do like because a lot asset managers don’t and even though they talk big about macro. The gold move was bold but it protects the portfolio. Again, Rome wasn’t built in a day so I guess you need to safeguard some of your monies to future proof it.

Recently, there were even more adjustments to reduce USD equities allocation all together. I’m not sure if this is an ingenious move that will  reap returns in the future but it is take a small hit at the moment. I do hope there isn’t too much of a human factor in these decision.

To find out more about the pros and cons of using StashAway, do refer to my previous posts.

To sign up or try out Stash Away, visit the website and use my referral code at Stash Away Referral

We’ll both get up to $10,000 SGD managed for free for 6 months which is a good deal.

Disclaimer

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

The pictures were taken from the Stash Away website for this article.

StashAway Performance – June 2021

On By RistrettzIn Performance, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

The first half of 2021 has passed by and it wasn’t too long before we had resolutions and new ideals. There’s only 6 months left for us to actually do anything to plug the gap. For those who actively review their goals and are on par or exceeding it. Keep on pushing, make it count. At the same time, it does seems like it has also passed rather quickly. StashAway has been rather stagnant but considering the environment, I think it is holding out well. Then again, it is about comparison. If I compare it with my core Robo then it seem to be a tad shy from the performance.

Repeating to myself that if Mr Market decides to go either way, it would matter that much to me. Why is that so? If Mr Market drops, then I will add on more to the portfolios. If you have not taken the first step, action early so that you can start doing this early and learn from any mistakes along the way.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

My longest term portfolio for retirement. A little off on the performance level. I could have done a lot better but I shall not look back and will pop in a little more when i contribute to my SRS account. The SRS account since first day deposit is currently at +3.87% as on 30 June 2021 (Time-weighted return). Oh well. Performance wise, I think i is okay and also this is a super long term portfolio – I would say close to 25 years horizon so I’ll just leave it there.

 

In USD performance, that’s about +7.26% YTD (Time-weighted return). That’s quite a bit of FX i am losing out here. It dropped about 0.6% from last month. Then again, I wouldn’t sweat on the exchange rates since I am going to stay invested and into these portfolios. They are just a mean of reference as I look back at the performance.

 

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This portfolio B is set out to be on a 15-18 year investment horizon. It is at +9.42% YTD on 30 June 2021 and It’s steady. It’s the same as the last time i measured during Dec 2020. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust those risk levels as and when I feel that there is a risk on or off. For just a 2% risk increase, I see a better performance already.

 

In USD, I’m looking at double digits +13.28% (Time-weighted returns). Again on the Forex rate as reference. This has dropped almost 1% month on month.

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

For this portfolio, I look at this at shorter horizon of 12-15 years so I feel that I need to take on some risk to achieve my goals. This SA risk index is currently at 20% and will take on to be one of my riskiest portfolio. Return is at +16.74% YTD (Time-weighted return) since day one as at 5 June 2021 Not much of it has changed or rather it has dropped slightly but this is just a note to self and measure the monthly performance. Over time, more funds will be added to achieve the targeted invested goals.

 

In USD terms, we are looking at +20.87% (Time-weighted return). Looking great as usual. Although I feel that this isn’t exactly the year to take on higher risk for better returns. This has dropped 1.2% month on month.

Conclusion

It is now more than one year since I started using StashAway. I still think that it has been a great supplement as a robo advisor. After using a few robo-advisors, I find that SA will play second fiddle to my Endowus Portfolio and true enough that fits exactly into how I plan it to be.

StashAway does have their own advantages. They do hedge their portfolios against huge crashes and take a stand on some positions which I do like because a lot asset managers don’t and even though they talk big about macro. The gold move was bold but it protects the portfolio. Again, Rome wasn’t built in a day so I guess you need to safeguard some of your monies to future proof it.

To find out more about the pros and cons of using StashAway, do refer to my previous posts.

To sign up or try out Stash Away, visit the website and use my referral code at Stash Away Referral

We’ll both get up to $10,000 SGD managed for free for 6 months which is a good deal.

Disclaimer

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

The pictures were taken from the Stash Away website for this article.

S$280 from SCB Bonus$aver Account

On By RistrettzIn Deals, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

For cash solutions, there are plenty of those around on robo-advisors. Cash solutions actually mean as good as cash. They can also be termed as money market solutions. In terms of allocation, they can be considered riskier than holding cash and less risky compared to bonds. Generally, the risk is lower as compared to any investments.

Cash Solutions/Management

Most of the solutions are termed as cash management. It may sound complicated, it is just another term or a financial description.

i. It can be a series of money market funds combined to get a yield.

ii. Some of these cash solutions also be cash backed by loans/mortgage/cheap loans.

iii. When there are deals or directive from a company, there can be a combination of marketing dollars and promotions. These benefits the consumers usually.

There are multiple creative fiduciary ways to get a better yield however not all are covered under SDIC. This means that if there is a bank run – Your first S$75k in the bank covered by SDIC is secure.

The SCB Bonus Saver account

Standard Chartered Bank is running an interesting promotion for customers who currently do not have a Bonus Saver Account. The clause is that you need to transfer fresh funds (Not from Standard Chartered Bank) to the newly opened Bonus Saver account.

As a result from using SingPass to apply online, you will get an additional S$30. (Total: $208 via Bonus Saver + S$30 via SingPass) Hang on there. If you sign up via SingSaver, you get a little more!

a. The first condition is to fund SGD 50,000 into the Bonus$aver account until the end of the next month. This means that if you opened the account in May, you have to keep the cash in there until end of June)

b. The second condition is to take note of the promotion end date. That will be 31 May 2021. There is still 10 days to go from today 21 May 2021. The account opening is almost instantaneous.

If you apply the Bonus Saver account via SingSaver here at SingSaver Bonus Saver Promotion

Option wise, you can choose to get a set of Apple AirPods Pro (worth S$379) or S$250 cash when you make a min. fresh funds deposit of S$50,000 + S$30 cash upon account opening. Validity will be till 2 Jun 2021.

(Total: $250 via Bonus Saver + S$30 via SingPass) Sweet.

Take note of the charges

  • After you receive your payout take note of the – Fall below fee (fee incurred if you fail to meet the minimum average daily balance of S$3,000): S$5 per month [This is the item you need to take note of]
  • Early account closure fee: S$30 (within 6 months of opening) [Close it after 6 months if you do not require this account]
  • Cheque book fee (optional): S$10 [Not required in my opinion]
  • Debit card annual fee: S$20 [I don’t think we will get there]
  • Credit card annual fee: S$214 [I don’t think we will get there]

How to apply?

If you are looking to apply for the Bonus$aver account and Bonus$aver credit card, you will have to be between 21 to 65 years old.

Click on this link: SingSaver Bonus$aver to apply.

Terms & Conditions

Check out the T&Cs here before you apply: SCB Terms and Conditions

Just a disclaimer, I don’t get anything from this. It’s just a good deal how I see it.

Disclaimer

This is not a sponsored post. This is purely my own opinion. If you like what you are seeing, do remember to check they out and do your diligence. There is no one size fits all investment strategy.

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes here at Referral and Recommendations

In this article, the pictures were taken from websites for illustration only. Stay Safe!

Endowus – Performance Update & YTD (February 2021)

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Investments, Performance, Personal Finance Series, Robo AdvisorsLeave a comment

So I have been busy recently so I missed January 2021 performance update. There are just so many things to keep up with and with the pandemic still ongoing. There are just simply too many changes. At the same time working from home seems rather mundane these days. Humans as social creatures and so eventually, we cannot stay and work individually over a prolonged period of time. Plus, there are just that many telecommunications that you can make.

December through January 2021 has been interesting filled with US elections and more printing of money. In the market news, no matter the situation, a systematic approach about investing is quite important. Month on month, diversification has been really important. Slowly but surely, I’m actually feeling that Endowus and my investment goals do align pretty nicely on the investment portion.

The newly launched Cash Smart looks pretty decent. I might take a crack at that to put in some money consistently. Plus wow, if you use my referral code, you will get an addition $100 that will be added to your portion when you invest S$10k worth. So, it means referral bonus $20 for you and me (Check out my referral link at Endowus Referral Link + additional $100 for you. Only applicable for new customers of Endowus. The $100 is also available for you in the promotional LionGlobal All Seasons Fund (Growth) units after a 90 days holding period. Great news though for new investors.

SRS Portfolio

Overall, portfolio is up 15.25% 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 is already up 3-4% versus the SGD since start of the year in 2021. Of course, the reference will be SGD since I use SGD. This is the SRS/Cash portfolio which consists of my favourite Dimension Funds in a 40% bonds/60% equity. Overall from May 2020 to 9 Mar 2021, it is a 15% increase in absolute terms – Fantastic. From Jan 2021 to 9 Mar 2021, the fund was stable with just roughly 2%+ increase in portfolio. Not too bad, knowing markets were rather choppy and moving more negative on most days so far.

In Terms of YTD returns in 2021, I’m looking at 2.34%. I’m really like what I am seeing here. Definitely topping up if there are any corrections (By definition a correction is more than 10% drop in a single day)

CPF Portfolio

For the CPF portfolio, it is also doing pretty well though not as well as my Dimension Fund portfolio. I’m still looking at 10.59% returns from May 2020 through to 9 Mar 2021.

In Terms of YTD returns in 2021, I’m looking at 0.29%. This is quite expected so not much of a surprise. I have no requirement to login daily to view my portfolio performance. Just a monthly review will be sufficient.

On a side note, the cash management accounts have started to report a decline. This is also expected since interest rate environment is here to stay for the long term.

Also, I would be looking at the new Smart Fund DIY portfolio which looks really interesting. I would definitely be looking this up as interest rates are still pretty low and I got some cash lying around.

Like every month, 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 who makes sense when introducing their platform.
  • I believe all retail investor should try them out because of how they are trying to disrupt investing and make investing work for everyone.

Again, I will shamelessly thank all of you in advance for using my referral code.

Disclaimer

If you decide to sign up with Endowus, do remember to use my referral code: https://endowus.com/invite?code=EDZ8M

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

These pictures were taken off Endowus website for reference.