Tag: profit

Endowus Performance Review – Dec 2022

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

The time has come for the December review. I have changed the way I present as a totality. For example, my cash solutions, ESG, Pimco Income Funds, Dimension funds, CPF Funds and S&P 500 funds. To date it is still down overall but again because I am with a robo-advisor, I don’t expect to take any action on this.

Thank you to those who have used my referral code. If you wish to venture out and build your financial goals, please visit my referral code page thank you in advance.

Portfolio Summary

Again, like many other months when I look at my portfolio, I look at it as long-term growth. I am quite positive about US equities. My Ultra cash portfolio isn’t doing too great. In hindsight, I repeat that I do regret my decision because I thought I can take my liquidity out within 3 months but no. Now, I have to do it at a loss. This really sucks because Endowus did a boo-boo by saying that it can be a short-term cash-fund holding. Now, I am becoming a long-term investor and had to find cash for my large purchases that were coming up. I am still miffed about it but I’m not taking it out at a loss. It doesn’t mean that Fixed Income will stay down all the time. In fact, I might add on more Fixed Income related funds or investments going forward.

Like any other period, I still trust Endowus and I would actually recommend them to anyone I know for the investment concept. (Maybe not the cash solutions and also review them on a more frequent basis – In case they lose their goals or focus for any reason) I know that my investments will be safe with them. I’m happy with them for the investment part of things. I also learned that different people/companies have different expertise.

Lower Investment amount (This is quite important for new investors)

Whatever it is, they have been quite reasonable about everything. Another plus point is that they have also given me a lot of comfort in the way they allow investors to reduce their initial investing sum. A minimum sum should not be the way to invest. Overall, I feel that I take more pride in knowing who is holding my money and how they do it.

Lowering the bar also allows people who are younger to start early in this long-term process. The other point is what many people are talking about which is the fees. They are probably the only ones in the market to rebate trailer fees. I like that bold big move as compared to the other advisors. I will slowly shift my funds over to them. Everyone is different so, you have to try them out first before you decide.

There’s something else which I like about them and that is how they use the power of retail investors to put money into institutional class funds. These funds are accessible only to people with the money and volume to purchase. Yet, they are now available to retail investors.

Total Portfolio

I decided to scrap away all those segmented accounts with different goals and look at the portfolio as a whole instead.

I don’t really have a strategy. But for now, I will move more into the Fixed Income space with my spare cash.

I’m do think that once we see some flattening of inflation, S&P 500 should start to see some bull legs.

As you can see, the all-time record is that I am now down -3.77%, which is rather disappointing considering that I have a relatively balanced portfolio. The bulk of the unrealised loss is actually from my cash funds. If you look at YTD performance, it is down -5.89%, which is rather in line with the current markets but I do expect better considering I had a good entry-level during the start of the covid investing when the markets were pushed down in a synthetic way in 2020.

The reason for Endowus

Like a broken recorder, why do I like using them for now:

  • 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 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.

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. My Cash Funds are bleeding. That was a super bad call by Endowus.

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 the Endowus website for reference.

Endowus Performance Review – Nov 2022

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

After a short break and some self-sustained recovery, I think it is time to get back to updating the portfolios. During this period when I was down, I was not really monitoring the markets. In fact, I set my RSP up over these 8 – 9  months that I was missing in action. Partly, it was due to work and also self-discovery wellness. In my last post, I discussed being away and not being able to do anything to your portfolio and again I was away. I find that robots suit my style of investing. In good times and in bad times because I am just not in the right frame of mind to manage my portfolio. Not anyone can just buy in when the market is down. You need to understand your own investment appetite.

Thank you to those who have used my referral code. If you wish to venture out and build your financial goals, please do visit my referral code page thank you in advance.

Portfolio Summary

The whole portfolio has taken a big hit this year in 2022 and there’s nothing much to shout about but I look at it as long-term growth. I am quite positive about US equities. My Ultra cash portfolio isn’t doing too great. In hindsight, I repeat that I do regret my decision because I thought I can take my liquidity out within 3 months but no. Now, I have to do it at a loss. This really sucks because Endowus did a boo-boo by saying that it can be a short-term cash-fund holding. Now, I am becoming a long-term investor and had to find cash for my large purchases that were coming up. I am still miffed about it but I’m not taking it out at a loss. It doesn’t mean that Fixed Income will stay down all the time.

Like any other period, I trust Endowus and I would actually recommend them to anyone I know for the investment concept. (Maybe not the cash solutions) I know that my investments will be safe with them. I’m happy with them for the investment part of things. I also learned that different people/companies have different expertise.

Lower Investment amount

Whatever it is, they have been quite reasonable about everything. Another plus point is that they have also given me a lot of comfort in the way they allow investors to reduce their initial investing sum. A minimum sum should not be the way to invest. Overall, I feel that I take more pride in knowing who is holding my money and how they do it.

Lowering the bar also allows people who are younger to start early in this long-term process. The other point is what many people are talking about which is the fees. They are probably the only ones in the market to rebate trailer fees. I like that bold big move as compared to the other advisors. I will slowly shift my funds over to them. Everyone is different so, you have to try them out first before you decide.

There’s something else which I like about them and that is how they use the power of retail investors to put money into institutional class funds. These funds are accessible only to people with the money and volume to purchase. Yet, they are now available to retail investors.

Total Portfolio

I decided to scrap away all those segmented accounts with different goals and look at the portfolio as a whole instead.

I hope can recover some of the losses but as a function of market-related money market funds, I think it will take longer than i expect.

I hope that I will be able to add more funds to the S&P 500 if it dips over the next few months.

As you can see, the all-time record is that I am now down -4%, which is rather disappointing considering that I have a relatively balanced portfolio. The bulk of the unrealised loss is actually from my cash funds. (Sad to say that FI instruments are still doing that badly) which is why it is true that no one has the crystal ball and we have to diversify. If you look at YTD performance, it is down -6%, which is rather in line with the current markets but I do expect better considering I had a good entry-level during the start of the covid investing when the markets were pushed down in a synthetic way in 2020.

I’m still looking forward to the day when S&P 500 goes up the roof and I see my portfolio doubling.

The reason for Endowus

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 who 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.

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. My Cash Funds are bleeding. That was a super bad call by Endowus.

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 the Endowus website for reference.

StashAway Performance – Mar 2022 Performance

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

Here goes for the March 2022 StashAway performance. Nothing much to shout about.

StashAway has been rather stagnant but considering the environment, I think it is holding out well. I continue to question of this robotic/AI system if it is more human driven. 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. Now, there are more steps taken to actively manage the volatility. I’m not sure if this is the right call.

If Mr Market drops, I’m not sure if I will do this more or do Endowus more. We shall see. I am also not sure of consolidating into one account.

Retirement Portfolio A (risk-14%)

2022 is indeed volatile.  I started out with $1500 and March 2022 ended with me losing -$12.59. Just to put things to perspective,  I made $10 in 2021. Haha….Oh my word. Very Very flat indeed.

Pretty standard outcome and the YTD is definitely down for sure.

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

I started out with a base of $3200 and ended Feb 2022 at $3205.30. Haha, no surprises. Every month, I RSP $100 into the portfolio for 6 months until June 2021 so my absolute gain will be $5.30. Okay, this is holding up okay.

YTD wise, small gain.

 

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

I started out with a base of $3200 and ended Feb 2022 at $3342.49. That’s a $142.49 gain! The portfolio strategy was to RSP for 6 months until June 2021 so my that makes a +9.48% gain.

Year to date wise, it is also flat. The Russia Ukraine war is not a good thing for the markets and that is ongoing

 

Conclusion

It is now almost 2 years 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 StashAway will play as a competition 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. No one knows so we have to try to know.

One thing for sure is that the cash funds is doing much better than Endowus and looking at SSB. I’m not sure if their cash funds makes any sense now.

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.

Endowus Performance Review – Mar 2022

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

I got a little lazy and probably a little distracted and depress early part of April 2021 – I did other things to distract myself. But overall, no worries. I just had a shorter break this time around but am feeling quite okay now. It is time for March 2022 review now. In my last post, I discussed about being away and not being able to do anything to your portfolio. I did nothing this month since there isn’t much of a dip. Not anyone can just buy in when the market is down. You need to understand your own investment appetite.

Thank you for those who have used my referral code. If you wish to venture out and build your financial goals, please do visit my referral code page and thank you in advance.

Portfolio Summary

The whole portfolio indeed is rocking in 2022 but I look at it as a long term growth. I am quite positive on US equities 1 year down from 2023-2024 for some reason despite the constant word around hyperinflation news. My cash portfolio isn’t doing too great. On hindsight, I repeat that I do regret my decision because I thought I can take my liquidity out within 3 months but no. Now, i have to do it at a loss. This really sucks because Endowus did a boo-boo by saying that it can be a short term cash fund holdings. Now, I am becoming a long-term investor and had to find cash for my large purchases that was coming up. I am pretty pissed with that but I had to move forward.

Like any other month, I trust Endowus and I would actually recommend them to anyone I know for the investment concept. I know that my investments will be safe with them.  I also read in their newsletter that traditional banks and investing firms are starting to put in monies in the company as part of the drive to stay relevant. The paradigm shift is happening faster than expected. Except the fact for cash funds, I’m happy with them for the investment part of things. I also learned that different people/companies have different expertise.

Lower Investment amount

Whatever it is, they have been quite reasonable about everything. Another plus point is that they have also given me a lot of comfort in the way they allow investors to reduce their initial investing sum. Minimum sum should not be the way to investing. Overall, I feel that I take more pride in knowing who is holding my money and how they do it.

Lowering the bar also allows people who are younger to start early in this long-term process. The other point is what many people are talking about which is the fees. They are probably the only one in the market to rebate trailer fees. I like that bold big move as compared to the other advisors. I will slowly shift my funds over to them. Everyone is different so, you have to try them out first before you decide.

There’s something else which I like about them and that is how they use the power of retail investors to put money into institutional class funds. These funds are accessible only to people with the money and volume to purchase. Yet, they are now available to retail investors.

Cash Fund Ultra Portfolio

I started the ultra portfolio since July 2021 which claims to be around 1.9-2.1% (this went downwards) because I can’t find anything that yields more than 1% interests and it is shitty because it is still down close to -3% all time. I really hate how this is going.

I hope can recover some of the losses but as a function of market related money market funds, I think it will take longer than what i expect.

Further, I added another 30k into the portfolio as cash injection to yield higher interests but it has been negative since day one and still in negative territory so let’s wait and see how things pan out. it is negative -$800. sucky at -2.66%. Well well well. It has been months so it better follows the uptrend when markets recover.

ESG Portfolio

I started this ESG Portfolio during March 2021 and I have some high hopes for this fund to do pretty well. This segment would serve me well for a long term portfolio because I do see the value in investing in sustainable companies an practices. After all, we are trying to make a difference for our little ones. Performance has been stellar. It has pulled back and up +2.26% all time. Finally added $2500 when there was a pullback. Nothing done this month and performance has turned positive. Good for the future and your children guys.

 

The allocation is a 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. Maybe it is time for more deployment of cash.

SRS Portfolio

Overall, portfolio is still up +19.51% 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 is the SRS/Cash portfolio which consists of my favourite Dimension Funds in a 40% bonds/60% equity.

Overall from May 2020 to 12 April 2022, it is a +19.51% 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.

CPF Portfolio

For the CPF portfolio, it is looking at +10.37% since 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.

On the YTD front, it has dropped for sure.

 

Fund Smart Portfolio

I started this semi medium term Fund Smart portfolio this month in May 2021. I tried to build a balance 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. All time absolute return is -7.77%. haha. This is done monthly on RSP until 2021. It still continues to be underwater so I will continue the DCA for this strategy.

 

Overall: 52% Equity and 48% Fixed Income

a. 15% in Multi Asset Fund (1 Fund)

b. 45% in Equity Funds (2 Funds)

i. Focus into 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%]

Retirement Portfolio 1

So last month, 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 start of the accumulation of the coupons from the funds. I am down -5.22% for the month of March.

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, expected and still strong convicted on this one.

 

The reason for Endowus

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 who makes sense when introducing their platform in my personal opinion.
  • I believe all retail investor 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.

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. My Cash Funds are bleeding. That was a super bad call by Endowus.

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.

StashAway Performance – Feb 2022 Performance

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

I am one month late for this but I have to post this so that i can compared the upcoming month in April for the performance review. Honestly speaking, my  Crypto portfolio is moving faster than these stonks haha.

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. Now, there are more steps taken to actively manage the volatility. I’m not sure if this is the right call.

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%)

2022 is indeed volatile.  I started out with $1500 and Feb 2022 ended with me losing -$11. Just to put things to perspective,  I made $10 in 2021. Haha….Oh my word. Talk about paltry. Talk about flat.

 

Pretty standard outcome and the YTD is definitely down for sure.

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

I started out with a base of $3200 and ended Feb 2022 at $3201.15. Haha, no surprises. Every month, I RSP $100 into the portfolio for 6 months until June 2021 so my absolute gain will be $1.15. damn it. Can’t beat inflation.

YTD wise, small gain.

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

I started out with a base of $3200 and ended Feb 2022 at $3300.95. That’s a $100.95 gain! The portfolio strategy was to RSP for 6 months until June 2021 so my that makes a +8.48% gain.

 

Year to date wise, it is also flat. Nothing exciting. On China’s end, it must have been exciting. In terms of risk, probably Stashaway is dropping much slower than other portfolios since they are designed as such.

Conclusion

It is now almost 2 years 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 as a competition 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. No one knows so we have to try to know. Now, they are taking China out of the equation all together. I don’t really like my returns. When do I exactly buy it at a crash level given all these active management.

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 – Year in review 2021

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

2022 has arrived! 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 for the better. Stay positive.

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.

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 expected a flat outlook in 2021 and it remains to be.  I started out on $1538 and ended the year at $1548, so I made $10 in 2021. Haha….Oh my word. That’s just a 0.65% gain. Talk about flat.

 

Pretty standard outcome.

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

I started out the year for $2705 and ended the year at $3352. Surprisingly, I’m seeing at 23.92% performance in 2021. Every month, I RSP $100 into the portfolio for 6 months until June 2021 so my absolute gain will be $3352-$2705-$600 = $47, that makes a +1.7% gain.

 

In Year 2021, it’s just a small incremental gain.

Education Portfolio C (risk-20%)

I started out the year for $2793 and ended the year at $3511. Surprisingly, I’m seeing at 23.92% performance in 2021. Every month, I RSP $100 into the portfolio for 6 months until June 2021 so my absolute gain will be $3511-$2793-$600 = $47, that makes a +4.2% gain.

 

Year to date wise, it is also flat. Nothing exciting. On China’s end, it must have been exciting. In terms of risk, probably SA is dropping much slower than other portfolios since they are designed as such.

Conclusion

It is now almost 2 years 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 as a competition 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. No one knows so we have to try to know.

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 – Oct 2021

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

The end of 2021 is coming but there is still time. It’s November! 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 for the better. Stay positive.

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.

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 expected a flat outlook in 2021 and it remains to be.  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 +4.35% as at 2 Nov 2021 (Time-weighted return). 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.

 

The YTD performance is just flat. Pretty standard outcome.

 

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This portfolio B is set out to be on a 15-18 year investment horizon. It is at +9.37% since day 1 as at 2 Nov 2021 and It’s steady. 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 -3%%. Nothing to shout about really other than a poor month.

 

In Year to Date context, it’s just a small incremental gain.

 

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 +16.82% YTD (Time-weighted return) since day one as at 2 Nov 2021. As compared to the last month, it is up 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 September, it has dropped more than 3%, October it is up by 3%.

 

Year to date wise, it is also flat. Nothing exciting. On China’s end, it must have been exciting. In terms of risk, probably SA is dropping much slower than other portfolios since they are designed as such.

 

Conclusion

It is now almost 2 years 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 as a competition 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. No one knows so we have to try to know.

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 – September 2021

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

October is here. Wake us all up when September ends. October is the month where everything happens. 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 but the portfolio seems to be more cushioned by these sharp drop in the market. We should see more volatility in the coming month.

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%)

I expected a flat outlook in 2021.  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 +2.37% as on 1 Oct 2021 (Time-weighted return). Oh and it drops -2% from Aug 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.

The YTD performance is just flat. Pretty standard outcome.

Education Portfolio B (risk-16%)

This portfolio B is set out to be on a 15-18 year investment horizon. It is at +6.87% YTD on 1 Oct 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 -3%%. Nothing to shout about really other than a poor month.

 

In Year to Date context, it’s just a small incremental gain. Month on Month, it is still a drop.

 

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 +13.51% YTD (Time-weighted return) since day one as at 1 Oct 2021. As compared to the last month, it is down my 3.2% 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 September, it has dropped more than 3%.

Year to date wise, it is also flat. Nothing exciting. On China’s end, it must have been exciting. In terms of risk, probably SA is dropping much slower than other portfolios since they are designed as such.

 

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.

Series 1: Starting your Cryptocurrency journey with Crypto.com

On By RistrettzIn Alternative Income, Cryptocurrency, Interest Rates, New Ideas, Performance, Personal Finance SeriesLeave a comment

Crypto.com (CRO mainnet & https://crypto.com) has been around for some time now. I have not seen any utility crypto company who has delivered what they want to deliver to consumers over the last few years. They are as similar if not the same as any other company with a physical product that works. While I have my concerns, I do feel that they offer a little bit of everything which new users can learn about and existing users can complement with their existing knowledge.

Cryptocurrency

To a certain extent, sometimes just jumping on the bandwagon allows one to commit and understand how the crypto world works. Once you have committed some money, one will take the effort to find out more and discover the traits of the crypto world and what it entails. Crypto is a highly aggressive alternative investment and everyone should be careful. This article just talks more about what I feel so do your own diligence before jumping onto something.

Meanwhile, given that Binance International is going through some regulatory and compliance issues in Singapore. Crypto.com is a good way to explore your options. To explain further about the perks on opening a crypto.com account:

Sign-up promo (SGD100 + NFT) & USD25 Referral promo

 
By signing up, you will get SGD 100 and an exclusive NFT. Of course, you would need to be the first 100,o00 users to do so. To find out more read here: Mid-Autumn Crypto.com Promotion
 
Plus, I’d get my very first NFT “Lion Mooncake”. Curious to know how it looks like!
 
To maximise your rewards, you can choose to stake SGD $500 CRO so that I can unlock the referral bonus of US$25 (Referral Bonus)
 
To redeem NFT, you will need to sign up the NFT account that Crypto.com has at Crypto.com NFT Account
How to connect your Crypto.com/NFT and Crypto.com App accounts (Taken from their website):
    1. Sign in or create an account on Crypto.com/NFT.
    2. Go to Account Activity and select Connect to App.
    3. Enter the email address that’s associated with your Crypto.com App account and send a connection request to your inbox.
    4. Open the authorisation email, click Connect, enter your Crypto.com App passcode, and click Authorise & launch NFT.
If you would like to give Crypto.com a try do remember to use my referral code: 1JIC-91CM

Crypto.com Eco-system

 

I understand that by now, most would be a little confused with so many accounts. What Crypto.com can do is a lot of stuff. Listing it down and in summary:
 
a. https://crypto.com – This is their main app which allows you to swap cryptocurrency and also to setup your Metal VISA card. The Visa Card gives you the perks of cashback and using CRO to pay for specific vouchers (Special cashback discounts as well) – [APP only]
 
b. https://crypto.com/exchange – This is the trading account which allow you to set limits and trade with other pairs that they allow on the exchange (You can treat this as a brokerage account. The perks of opening the exchange account can be found here: Exchange Perks [Website & APP]
 
c. https://crypto.com/NFT – This is the marketplace for NFTs and also known as non-fungible Token. This is also what many know as digital art. [Website & APP]
 
d. https://crypto.com/defi-wallet – With the Crypto.com DeFi Wallet (a non-custodial wallet), you can send crypto to anyone around the world at your preferred confirmation speed and the network fee. With this you can also store and earn interest Crypto.com DeFi Wallet is a decentralized wallet, which means you own your private keys. During wallet creation, you will have to write down your recovery phrase which when needed, you will be able to restore your funds. (This is very important)
 
From here you can have the option to choose among the whitelisted validators for staking and redelegation (change delegation from existing validator to another validator). This will give you additional interest. Read more about it here: Defi-Wallet Earn

Some simple benefits for sign up

1. Supercharger

Other than putting approved coins to earn interest on the APP. You can also join in the syndication on the Exchange or the Supercharger event on the Crypto.com APP itself. You can stake your CRO and treat it as a way to farm for other coins that crypto.com has a promotion or link with. More information can be found here: Supercharger Event.

2. Metal Card Cashback

 
The Metal Card Cashback works like a credit card cashback account. The only thing that functions differently is that it is a debit card. You will need to pre-load it with cash before transacting with spends. Like any other card, they have to abide by MAS PSA. The card also credits cashback based on the MCC spends. More details can be found here: Cashback eligibility under their CRO cashback rewards program
 
Not to mention that if you take on the higher tier cards, you can get rebates for Spotify, Netflix and ever prime plus other perks which can be found here at https://crypto.com/sg/cards

3. Additional Promotion and Discounts

More perks and discount will be added over time and the updated ones until 30 Sep 2021 can be found here at User Exclusives and Promotions. If you have any queries, drop me a note and I will try my best to answer your questions. It can be daunting at first but eventually, you will get a hang of it.

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 would like to give Crypto.com a try do remember to use my referral code: 1JIC-91CM

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 Crypto.com 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.