Tag: invest

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.

StashAway Performance – May 2021

On By RistrettzIn Performance, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

The first five months of 2021 has gone by and with the pandemic, time seems to pass slowly. At the same time, it does seems like it has also passed rather quickly. It is the time of the month again to look at the monthly performance of StashAway.

Now that everything has been setup, it doesn’t matter if the market decides to go up or plunge. 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%)

I still quite sad about my timing on this as this was invested before the pandemic outbreak came out. 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 +3.13% as on 3 June 2021 (Time-weighted return). Paltry. 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 to monitor on the progress.

In USD performance, that’s about +7.91% YTD (Time-weighted return). That’s quite a bit of FX i am losing out here. 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 +8.87% YTD on 5 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.

In USD, I’m looking at double digits +14.22% (Time-weighted returns). Again on the Forex rate as reference

 

 

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 +15.87% 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 +21.57% (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.

 

 

Conclusion

So far StashAway 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.

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.

SHIB or Shit Coins (Cryptocurrency)

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Income, Alternative Investments, CryptocurrencyLeave a comment

There has been a number of crazy movements in the crypto world. No one can really explain the reason fundamentally but it created a bunch of young millionaires especially from Elon Musk little tweet about Dogecoin.

With only 11 days in the market, Shiba coins seems to be the next trend of meme coins. Woof Paper perhaps of white paper: https://www.shibatoken.com/

Pretty funny comments I would say reading the whitepaper. I hope VB burns or keep SHIB.

Buy or Risk? It really depends on your risk taking level. No pain no gain, no risk no returns.

Currently, it seems like you can use 2 ways to purchase SHIB:

a. Buy via Crypto.com App

b. Buy via metamask [Through the Ethereum (ETH) network]

c. You can buy it through Binance now. That’s pretty huge.

Crypto trading and currency is not for everyone so do your own diligence. Don’t FOMO, invest wisely. Good luck! Now, to the moon.

Disclaimer

If you decide to sign up with Crypto.com to trade any other coins, Use this Crypto.com App to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD. Referral Code: im3py887ty

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 SHIB website for reference.

When exactly is the best time to invest?

On By RistrettzIn Personal Finance Series, Wealth & HealthLeave a comment

At last, the million dollar question – When is the best time to really invest. I really doubt anyone can really answer that question. To take on a serious note, the below points in my own opinion matters to when exactly is the best time to invest.

There is no best time

a. It depends on which part of your life you are at.

b. It depends a lot on how ready you are to commit. It takes a tad effort to do so when you want to invest.

c. Mental plays a big part. I don’t know or I’m not sure doesn’t cut it in my opinion. Everyone need to start somewhere. Today’s world is extremely informative so there isn’t really an excuse other than being lazy. (To a certain extent, it means that you have to take that effort to understand and learn)

d. It is never too early or too late. (Investing $10 you have today let you kick start your journey. If you don’t start, you probably won’t as well)

e. Everyone’s horizon and comfort is different. You have to stay disciplined and well-informed at the same time.

f. Never say never. Things changes and things happen – your chance will come but waiting is sometimes your worst enemy so comfort might be the best choice of word here.

Now, this isn’t a clickbait topic but recently I heard about being people rushing in to get their monies to invest in certain asset classes. While I am a big fan of new ventures and new exploration in investments, you kind of need to be in the know in order to assess the risk if a certain investment is worth it.  A recent trend about FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is getting a little out of hand. I think in investing you need a clear mind. If you know what you are getting into, heaving FOMO is actually okay. At least it calls you to action. Most people just wait for things to happen which is rather meh.

There are many alternative asset classes available today. This is quite amazing as the banks used to hold the “Traditional” Asset classes such as Bonds, Forex, Equities, Structures, Options, hedge funds and private equity. Some of these access are only available to the rich.

Today, there are a huge variety of investing asset classes such as fine whiskey, fine wine, NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens), cryptocurrency, trading cards, Pokémon cards and many more. Money (Also known as Fiat Currency) are going through a digitisation process. No one ones what the future holds but for now, the adoption is still relatively low so my take is that there are still legs for growth.

The point of this article is to really remind ourselves what is a comfortable price valuation for anything that we do or purchase. Once that is being decided, then we have to move on and not harp over the fact that there is a price drop or if you should have bought it a few months ago.

Every step of the investment process is always a dilemma. The choices we make in life is very different and it varies the sec, min, hour or days. Even having a bad day at work also affects our decision.

Factors

The following is what I personally feel affects our investment decision emotionally:

a. FOMO

b. Stock tips or special investments (never succumb to rumours)

c. New investment asset classes (It excites me because I would think it is the new BTC – 1000x)

d. Alternatives to traditional investments (Regular investments are boring seriously)

e. A bad day/heated discussions or arguments

f. People showing their wealth from certain investments

g. Unique and exclusive (Limited) investments (Pre-IPO related)

Investment knowledge comes a long way and is always revolving. I personally believe banks are growing to be passé over the longer term. Wealth Management is only required for the selected few or many. There are so many options available to invest your money into that there isn’t any need to seek any alternative opinion. If you don’t care about your own money, then no one else will. Then again, others will have no time to manage that part of their finance and will require some managers to do so for them. That said, I always like to repeat my stance about investing and it is never one size fits all.

The sole duty of investments lies on yourself. Eventually, with or without a manager/expert analyst, the investment decisions and risk is one that you take on your own. So, we can’t really blame anyone for this. Some choose to pay a premium for the service rendered to save time while others choose to DIY and explore cheaper alternatives. There is no right or wrong in doing so – However there is a difference between penny wise pound foolish.

Disclaimer

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/

These pictures were taken off certain website for reference.

Autoweath – Performance Nov 2020

On By RistrettzIn Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

Investing especially in spot market is a tough business. Most people cannot accept fluctuations in their portfolio. Autowealth is yet another solution for me. Just that this time around, this is for my kid to start out her investment journey when she can. Teaching financial literacy is something I would recommend to anyone.

Summary on my review on Autowealth:

(a) try out different more robo advisors to understand more about them and how they invest and

(b) segregate this fund for any other purpose other than the kid’s investment journey.

My take about the investing journey has been the same since day one. Don’t sweat the small things, the costs of robo are so low. We are talking about a 15-20 year horizon here so heck those low costs. You need to pay them to keep their lights running. For companies like Endowus and StashAway, these guys have the experience and passion and these translate into actions. I am satisfied on how they are prudent and still maintain the low fees.

In my previous performance to compare the performance, I discussed about the historical S&P 500 chart for the last 50 and 100 years. Markets will go up and each time it drops, just pick some up and let the robots do the work on balancing and re-balancing. As long as fees remains low, the portfolio will grow over time and over a longer period. It should remain in the black based on some backtesting.

Performance

Looking at the portfolio again in November, it still looks pretty nice ahead of the 15-20 years horizon. This is a portfolio which is set at roughly 40% equities and 60% bonds. The investment vehicles will be through ETFs. It does look like it can withstand long term peaks and troughs. What i really like is that i can switch between the SGD and USD currency performance portfolio as well as the impact on USD SGD forex on performance. I wouldn’t say this does as well as the portfolios but to be fair, markets were already slightly upwards and I would like to deploy funds out into the market in tranches over time.

As compared to October 2020, +5.66% absolute is decent in my view (that is +2.66% comparing to October) and this is as at 11 Dec 2020. If markets drop, the rule is to fund the account more. Do note that all of these will have USD exposure. Time versus DIY – it is really about what is important. I usually will want to see the ultimate end goal whenever I start anything.

 

For this month, I also tried to look at the impact of FX and without the weakening USD, performance in USD is actually 8.56% year to date. That is on course to double digits returns once more.

The impact of the USD FX exchange is actually affecting the performance by -3.1%. These FX risks are part and parcel of investing unless I just intend to invest into the Singapore Markets. However, it is just too boring to do so.

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.

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

The pictures were taken from Auto Wealth website for this article. If you need a referral code, drop me a message and you can indicate my full name during registration. From there, both of us will  get $20 each to supplement the fees.

StashAway – Performance Nov 2020

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

Here comes another Robo-advisor experience from my end. To re-iterate the risk level, I am still at the risk index to below 20% as I felt that there isn’t a need to go all out Risk On going into November. I still think that having calculated risk per $ makes more sense in my opinion as news and information goes on a random rampage.

As I have always preached, the important thing is that I am not left on the sidelines. If Mr Market decides to go either way, it would matter that much to me in my opinion.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

The SRS account since deposit is currently at +2.07% as on 11 Dec 2020. Pretty stagnant I would say but I’m not too worried about this long term portfolio. Performance wise, I went into this knowing it was pretty high end of Jan 2020.

 

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This is something I set on a 15-18 year horizon. It is at 5.78% on 11 Dec 2020 and I think that is okay going at around 6-7%p.a. that I assume going into the end of 2020. I have been averaging in whenever there are market dips. The risk index is at 16% and I will adjust from time to time but try not to touch any of those if you don’t quite understand how that works.

 

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

This portfolio has a 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 10.14% at inception which I find it fantastic to reach double digits. More funds will be added over time to achieve my targeted invested goals.

 

Conclusion

So far StashAway has not failed me in a sense that it fits in to my investing style and logic. I wish to put more into the accounts but I can’t bring myself to invest when prices are going higher. However, this is a pretty good supplement in my opinion.

I shall re-look into how I present the performance. Perhaps a more systematic approach so that it is more of a reference instead of just a monthly update.

a. Month on Month

b. Quarter on Quarter

c. Year on Year

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 https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/

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