Careyourpresent

Living a regret-free fulfilling life daily regardless of circumstances

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Category: Investment and Finance

Update on my recent Trade under rising interest rate conditions!

Posted on March 3, 2023September 27, 2023 by careyourpresent

Market Update

As I have shared in my previous articles, with the most recent on market being on SAVERs – How to maximize your interest and my Market Transaction/Updates and SBAPR23 GX23040S – Singapore Saving Bonds (SSB) above 3% again. Buy or Bye?, the market is very volatile now, my action now is trading but will keep those shares that I have accumulate cheap for longer terms.

Trade or Wait?

I would generally preferred at least a 6% yield before I will buy anything. If not, it would be better for me to keep money in high saving account at 4%. Why take the risk? The latest treasury yield is 3.98% now but I didn’t applied for it because Standard Chartered has given me 4% from March to Aug 🙂

My Trade

Recently I have bought CapitaLand India Trust at $1.09 in the early part of the week and sold at $1.12 yesterday. The purpose is for quick trade and to ease itchy fingers. Next month should be getting more interesting!

For those who are unaware what this share is about, you can read more about it here. I have extracted from the company’s website itself below.

Current yield is 7% with 0.96 book value. On the longer term basis, I am positive about this counter. Hence it’s worth a trade, even if stuck it’s still ok. If it come down again in March, I will buy again. Depend on how low the price get, I may keep for longer term 🙂

CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT), formerly known as Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust), was listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST) in August 2007 as the first Indian property trust in Asia. Its principal objective is to own income-producing real estate used primarily as business space in India. CLINT may also develop and acquire land or uncompleted developments primarily to be used as business space, with the objective of holding the properties upon completion. As at 31 December 2022, CLINT’s assets under management stand at S$2.5 billion.

CLINT’s portfolio includes eight world-class IT business parks, one logistics park, one industrial facility and three data centre developments in India, with total completed floor area of 15.5 million square feet spread across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai. CLINT is focused on capitalising on the fast-growing IT industry and logistics/industrial asset classes in India, as well as proactively diversifying into other new economy asset class such as data centres. CLINT is structured as a business trust, offering stable income distributions similar to a real estate investment trust. CLINT focuses on enhancing shareholder value by actively managing existing properties, developing vacant land in its portfolio, and acquiring new properties.

Live a Life

Lastly, let me end of with this.

Everyday passes by so quickly.

Before you knew it Baby becomes child.

Parent died I become old.

Seize your time.

Do what you love.

Buy assets GENERATE CASHFLOW.

And a poem from CHATGPT!

A good life is not one of riches and fame, Nor is it found in fleeting pleasures and vain games. It’s the simple things that bring us joy and ease, Like a peaceful mind and a heart at ease.

A good life is one of love and compassion, Of meaningful connections and heartfelt satisfaction. It’s the giving of oneself to others in need, And finding beauty in every simple deed.

It’s waking up each day with a grateful heart, And finding ways to make a positive start. It’s the laughter and the tears we share, And the moments that we hold so dear.

A good life is one of purpose and of grace, Of finding meaning in each challenge we face. It’s the journey we take, not just the destination, And the lessons we learn, with each revelation.

So let us live each day with love and light, And cherish each moment, with all our might. For a good life is one of joy and peace, And it’s found within, when our hearts are at ease.

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

  • Simplified Guide to the Key Gist of Grant of Probate and Estate Planning
  • Cheapest and best way to trade Singapore Stocks with CDP
  • Mastering Dividend Investing: 5 Evergreen Investment Principles
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with IAPD: A High-Yield ETF Providing 7% Annual Yield and Quarterly Payouts
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with SDIV: A High-Yield ETF Providing 11% Annual Yield and Monthly Payouts
  • If I am a dividend investor, this is what I would do….
  • 7 Things to consider before buy a dividend stock
  • 4 Dividend ETFs that can let you sleep well even in the scary bear market
  • 5 Best Counters for Passive Dividend Investing
  • The Three MOST Important Traits of an Investor
  • What is the best investment strategy in the world?
  • Ultimate Strategy of buying REITS: XXX instead of X000?
  • Ultimate Free 2 Days Reit MasterClass: Exclusive at Careyourpresent.com only!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

  • The Best Advice to Parents and Child
  • What if Later never come?
  • What will you bring with you on your last day on Earth?
  • Time is the ultimate currency, not money
  • Our Life only have 5 short Days – we should live the best for every day
  • Truly understand Living in the Moment now
  • 11 Important Unexpected Life and Money lessons to learn from Your Children
  • The days are long but the years are short
  • Ditch your mobile phone to build real life
  • Careyourpresent: Time is the most important
  • Careyourpresent: What is your purpose of life?
  • Careyourpresent : Greatest Regrets in life
  • Careyourpresent : You might not believe it. It’s little unexpected things that make up a real life
  • Careyourpresent: Something only happen once in life, if you missed it, it’s gone forever…
  • Careyourpresent : Why is Gold useful?
  • Careyourpresent: Frozen. Let it go!

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

  • Telegram Group (Chat with me and other like minded people!)
  • Telegram Channel (Get the latest updates on the markets/life!)
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feed

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

SBAPR23 GX23040S – Singapore Saving Bonds (SSB) above 3% again. Buy or Bye?

Posted on March 2, 2023September 27, 2023 by careyourpresent

SBAPR23 GX23040S – Singapore Saving Bond (SSB)

Today is the 1st day of March and the new SSB rates are out again!

We are back to above 3% again to 3.15%.

As mentioned in my post on 24 Feb 2023 (SAVERs – How to maximize your interest and my Market Transaction/Updates), the worldwide interest rates are going up and likely we get chance to buy higher SSB again as well as chance to take advantage of market weakness.

https://www.mas.gov.sg/bonds-and-bills/singapore-savings-bonds

Let’s see the breakdown of the 10 years rate. 1st year is 3.01% whereas the last year is 3.53% with average at 3.15%. Great rates! S$700.0 million are offered with last day of application on 28 Mar 2023, 9pm. Upcoming payment is on 01 Oct 2023 with subsequent payments (until maturity): Every 6 months on 01 Apr and 01 Oct.

US Interest Rates

If we look at the US Treasury Rates, US6M reached 5.16% with US10Y at 4%! Yield curve is highly inverted again.

Inflation is not going away soon. FED not going to pivot so easily. For those FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and enter the market in the recent rally, do consider keeping some cash in just case to either take advantage of higher fixed income like SSBs or simply wait for further weakness in market which is coming soon.

CNBC

Past issue of SSBs

Let’s look at the rates of recent issues below and you will be able to see which I say the current month rate is decent.

SBAUG22 GX22080V
SBSEP22 GX22090Z 
SBOCT22 GX22100X
SBNOV22 GX22110A
SBDEC22 GX22120S
SBJAN23 GX23010Z
SBFEB23 GX23020X

The above are all the Singapore Saving Bonds (SSB) that I have bought previously (I only didn’t buy the March Issue because it is was lesser than 3% and I knew SSB rates are going up).

Buy or Bye?

Hence, should we buy or bye?

Let’s us recap the advantages of SSB first:

  • Very safe – backed by Singapore Government
  • Locked down decent rates of around 3% for 10 years.
  • Easy to redeem and can redeem partial
  • Liquidity needs maximum of 1 month where you can get your money back. Hence suitable as emergency fund.
  • Limit of 200k should be good enough for most people.
  • Can build Bond Ladder to get monthly income (which I already did)

Let’s us recap the disadvantages of SSB:

  • Short term rates are lower than banks’ fixed deposits, money market funds such as MoneyOwl,etc of around 3.5% and above.
  • Low returns
  • 1 month liquidity to redeem your funds may be too long for people who need the funds immediately.

Hence the question is should we buy or bye?

For me I would do a wait and see method.

I have already kept decent amount of Funds in Singapore Saving Bonds and some funds in the higher 6 months Fixed Deposits and MoneyOwl WiseSaver etc. No point to keep putting funds into Singapore Saving Bonds that limit the growth of my funds. I would prefer to buy equities (also Crypto/Options) etc for higher yields as well as capital gain.

Since the last day of application is 28 Mar 2023, 9pm which is still far away. With the current market conditions, Mr Market would likely give chance for me to accumulate cheap assets soon 🙂

If he didn’t, then perhaps I would consider buying this month SSB (and/or redeem lower rate old SSBs).

What’s your plan?

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

  • Simplified Guide to the Key Gist of Grant of Probate and Estate Planning
  • Cheapest and best way to trade Singapore Stocks with CDP
  • Mastering Dividend Investing: 5 Evergreen Investment Principles
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with IAPD: A High-Yield ETF Providing 7% Annual Yield and Quarterly Payouts
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with SDIV: A High-Yield ETF Providing 11% Annual Yield and Monthly Payouts
  • If I am a dividend investor, this is what I would do….
  • 7 Things to consider before buy a dividend stock
  • 4 Dividend ETFs that can let you sleep well even in the scary bear market
  • 5 Best Counters for Passive Dividend Investing
  • The Three MOST Important Traits of an Investor
  • What is the best investment strategy in the world?
  • Ultimate Strategy of buying REITS: XXX instead of X000?
  • Ultimate Free 2 Days Reit MasterClass: Exclusive at Careyourpresent.com only!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

  • The Best Advice to Parents and Child
  • What if Later never come?
  • What will you bring with you on your last day on Earth?
  • Time is the ultimate currency, not money
  • Our Life only have 5 short Days – we should live the best for every day
  • Truly understand Living in the Moment now
  • 11 Important Unexpected Life and Money lessons to learn from Your Children
  • The days are long but the years are short
  • Ditch your mobile phone to build real life
  • Careyourpresent: Time is the most important
  • Careyourpresent: What is your purpose of life?
  • Careyourpresent : Greatest Regrets in life
  • Careyourpresent : You might not believe it. It’s little unexpected things that make up a real life
  • Careyourpresent: Something only happen once in life, if you missed it, it’s gone forever…
  • Careyourpresent : Why is Gold useful?
  • Careyourpresent: Frozen. Let it go!

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

  • Telegram Group (Chat with me and other like minded people!)
  • Telegram Channel (Get the latest updates on the markets/life!)
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feed

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

My Special Account Money (SA) in Central Provident Fund (CPF) – Cornerstone or Last Resort for Retirement?

Posted on February 28, 2023September 27, 2023 by careyourpresent

Central Provident Fund (CPF)

I believe CPF formed a large net worth of most working adults in Singapore, including me. I have talked about my current stage of in my reflection article (Portfolio Update: Feb 2023 and Reflection at half-life (hopefully) mark – 40 Years old). In that article, I have mentioned that “Reach CPF Full Retirement Sum (FRS) in Special Account in Jan 2020 (Current: way exceeded 200k such that will still reach FRS even if not working).” Action and evidence speak louder than word. I shall show screenshot of my CPF in this post at the end of this post.

What is Central Provident Fund (CPF)?

In case for those not aware (especially foreigner) who are reading this post. Let me share some details.

CPF is short for Central Provident Fund in Singapore, which is a savings scheme designed to help Singaporeans save up for their future. It’s a mandatory savings plan that both employers and employees contribute to, and it offers a range of benefits such as retirement savings, medical savings, and insurance coverage.

Contributions to CPF are made on a monthly basis, and the amount you contribute depends on your age and income. The funds in your CPF account are managed by the government, and you’ll earn interest of 2.5% to 4% (with special extra interest, it can go up to 6% for the first 60k) on your savings too.

Overall, CPF is an important safety net for Singaporeans, and it’s designed to make sure that you have enough financial resources to support yourself throughout your life. Whether you’re saving up for retirement, a home, or your education, CPF is there to help you achieve your goals (hopefully).

One key term in CPF that one should know is Full Retirement Sum.

What is Full Retirement Sum?

The Full Retirement Sum (FRS) of CPF is the amount of money you need to save up in your CPF account to receive a basic monthly payout for life after you retire. This is really important because it helps to ensure that you have enough money to cover your living expenses and healthcare needs during your retirement years.

When you turn 55, you can choose to set aside your FRS in a special account called the Retirement Account (RA). The RA is designed to provide you with a monthly payout starting from the age of 65 years old, so you can enjoy your retirement without worrying too much about finances.

As of 2023, the FRS is $198,800, but don’t worry if you don’t have that much saved up yet. You can still receive a lower monthly payout under the CPF Life Scheme if you don’t have enough savings in your CPF account to meet the FRS.

Of course, if you want to receive a higher monthly payout in retirement, you can choose to set aside more than the FRS in your RA. This will help you enjoy a more comfortable retirement and give you greater financial security.

FRS has been increasing steadily over years (see screenshot below) and many people are worried that they can’t achieve it. This is fact and a real worry.

CPF website

How much monthly payout will I get?

The next question is how much I will get monthly at age 65. From the CPF website,

To receive a monthly payout of $1,470 – $1,570, you will need $288,900 in your
Retirement Account (RA) at 65. A much lesser sum of $192,000 is required if you set aside
the amount in your RA at 55.

For example, if I want 2k per month at 65, I need to have around 280k at age 55! Wow that’s a big amount. It’s difficult to achieve it – That’s why most people think.

CPF website

My CPF Special Account (SA) as of Today

Picture speaks a thousand words.

Why do I show SA only? Because I am making use of the compounding effect of CPF SA to achieve Full Retirement. The rest of money in Ordinary Account and Medisave Account to me are just bonus to me.

Assuming, I quit my job immediately, thus no further CPF contribution to work.

This is what I will get at age 65.

Ignoring the extra interest for first 60k and further work contribution, I would have 612k at age 65. Based on the payout table from CPF website earlier, $428,300 will give $2140 to $2300 monthly payout from age 65. I have 612K, thus it means I should have at least 3k per month. Together with my spouse, we would have 6k per month monthly at least. Decent lifestyle for old couple? (Don’t forget that this excludes my investment portfolio)

Power of compounding

Of course, this is a backup plan. My main plan is still my equity, bond, option, & crypto portfolio, which is way larger.

Plan early and build success.

My idea is just to get CPF FRS out of mind, hence I deliberately try to maximize it when I was younger. Hence, today, at 40, I totally don’t bother with how much I have in my CPF – just let it auto-compound.

It’s not difficult to achieve Full Retirement Sum – FRS

Contrary to most beliefs, it is not difficult to achieve Full Retirement Sum. There are few simple methods to achieve based on what I did.

  • Transfer OA to SA as early as possible. I did this after learning from A Singaporean Stocks Investor (ASSI) decades ago. This is my main method to achieve Full Retirement Sum. This is achievable as I didn’t buy expensive HDB and thus minimal amount is taken from OA to pay for my house.
  • Top up with CASH to get tax relief. I did some top-ups over the past decades (but in total less than 5k). Why? Because of the idea of shifting goalpost. It worries many people and of course me. Furthermore, I could get more than 4% outside from stocks etc, why lock my money for 30 years?

However, for the transfer of OA to SA, it is different, since money already trapped in system, why not make full use of it? Let the government interest play the magic of compounding for you.

What about you? Have you achieved your Full Retirement Sum? Do you plan to achieve it? It’s not difficult and I am the living proof of it.

Care Your Present

Lastly, I want to repeat one last thing. please learn to live in the moment, enjoy every single moment of your life.

“Time has no reset button” is what I used to be saying.

But this is not powerful accurate enough.

It SHOULD BE Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and most important yourself.

Read: Truly understand Living in the Moment now

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

  • Simplified Guide to the Key Gist of Grant of Probate and Estate Planning
  • Cheapest and best way to trade Singapore Stocks with CDP
  • Mastering Dividend Investing: 5 Evergreen Investment Principles
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with IAPD: A High-Yield ETF Providing 7% Annual Yield and Quarterly Payouts
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with SDIV: A High-Yield ETF Providing 11% Annual Yield and Monthly Payouts
  • If I am a dividend investor, this is what I would do….
  • 7 Things to consider before buy a dividend stock
  • 4 Dividend ETFs that can let you sleep well even in the scary bear market
  • 5 Best Counters for Passive Dividend Investing
  • The Three MOST Important Traits of an Investor
  • What is the best investment strategy in the world?
  • Ultimate Strategy of buying REITS: XXX instead of X000?
  • Ultimate Free 2 Days Reit MasterClass: Exclusive at Careyourpresent.com only!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

  • The Best Advice to Parents and Child
  • What if Later never come?
  • What will you bring with you on your last day on Earth?
  • Time is the ultimate currency, not money
  • Our Life only have 5 short Days – we should live the best for every day
  • Truly understand Living in the Moment now
  • 11 Important Unexpected Life and Money lessons to learn from Your Children
  • The days are long but the years are short
  • Ditch your mobile phone to build real life
  • Careyourpresent: Time is the most important
  • Careyourpresent: What is your purpose of life?
  • Careyourpresent : Greatest Regrets in life
  • Careyourpresent : You might not believe it. It’s little unexpected things that make up a real life
  • Careyourpresent: Something only happen once in life, if you missed it, it’s gone forever…
  • Careyourpresent : Why is Gold useful?
  • Careyourpresent: Frozen. Let it go!

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

  • Telegram Group (Chat with me and other like minded people!)
  • Telegram Channel (Get the latest updates on the markets/life!)
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feed

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

SAVERs – How to maximize your interest and my Market Transaction/Updates

Posted on February 24, 2023September 27, 2023 by careyourpresent

Market Update – recession

Recession risks are getting higher each day.

For those who are into the market news would have realized that the conditions of the market are getting more and more volatile each day. It can up a lot one day and then down a lot for the another day (I mean for US market).

For Singapore Market, it is generally quite stable since most investors are just holding for dividends. However, do not forget that when the big brother sneeze (US), the rest of the world might get a cold too. If big brother sneeze consistency (perhaps coming soon), let’s better be careful. No matter how stable, it will still be affected somehow.

Interest rate

For those who remembered, the market started off quite well this year but starts to get a little volatile in mid-February. The interest rate also drop as people expects and think Fed “will pivot” early Feb.

We can see from the Singapore Saving Bonds for those who are more into Singapore. This month bond rate (SBMAR23 GX23030A) is 2.9% for 10 years are much lower than previous month rate of 2.97%.

Disclaimer: I have not applied for this month bond as I have already built my SSB bond ladder. I want to keep my cash more liquid to take advantage of the possible upcoming market weaknesses.

SBMAR23 GX23030A

Besides Singapore Saving Bonds, we can also see from the Fixed Deposit Rate. They have dropped a lot since February. You can refer to my previous post SAVERs – Best Options to maximize your interests (2) to see how much it has dropped. Just look around the local banks or even foreign bank like CIMB, you would have realized it in early Feb.

Things start to change

However, after a while, things start to change in mid-February (see below: Screenshot 23 Feb 2023 from CNBC). You can see that the US treasury rates start to go up after more news from US Fed. Seems like people thinking pivoting not happening?

Screenshot 23 Feb 2023 from CNBC

Let’s Compare

If you refer to my earlier article dated 13 Feb 2023, about 10 days ago (Portfolio Update: Feb 2023 and Reflection at half-life (hopefully) mark – 40 Years old), both the 6 months and 10 years rate have gone up with US6M even exceeding 5% from then.

https://careyourpresent.com/portfolio-update-feb-2023-and-reflection-at-half-life-hopefully-mark-40-years-old/

If we look at the history for FED, interest rate tightening doesn’t end well. Some investors may believe that this time is different, but I don’t think so. Hence, I will only fast trade now for good counters while holding 50-60% cash as per my update on 13 Feb 2023.

Transaction

To be most transparent, I only aim to trade as of now. Unless the price is super attractive, I won’t buy and keep. For example, today, I bought Wilmar at $3.96 for trade (if I get stuck, it’s fine too. Long term Wilmar will be good especially with potential food shortages). The price is not super excellent but is decent enough especially it still drops after good results. DBS and UOB also dropped despite giving special dividend and increased dividends. All these shares long term will be good, but meanwhile, I am taking the risk off mode. I will only trade for now unless super good price come which my guess should be in the next couple of months. Disclaimer: Please do your own due diligence.

Savers

Ok, enough of ratting about market and my personal opinion. Let’s go back to saving.

Saving is important especially in such high interest rate environment. With such high interest rate environment let’s not waste it and put our money to good use 🙂 However, as mentioned earlier, Fixed deposits rate have gone down for this month but quite likely it will go up again next month due to rising rate)

For me, I want to keep my cash liquid. I have already locked few hundred Ks in Singapore Saving Bonds (SSB) for the past few months as liquid emergency funds. Unless SSB for next month reaches above 3% again, then I may consider putting in more. Meanwhile I preferred to put into more liquid options.

What options are available for savers?

Recently I have put some money into Fixed Deposit with the most attractive being the 4.88% P.A. SR1B for 3 months with DBS. I posted this in private group but not the public telegram group. Next time, maybe if got good lobang, I should post in the public group too.

For now, I think there are only few attractive options which are still available (excluding the UOB One and OCBC 360 which require salary and some spending).

Personally, my eSaver exclusive bonus will end by 28 Feb 2023, I need to find a place to put these money. Quite likely I will put the money into one the options below. Most likely will be option 2 or 3 which are much more liquid as I want to take advantage of the market in case of market weaknesses.

Option 1: OCBC 4.08% Fixed Deposit Promotion

8 Month Fixed Deposit at 4.08% for OCBC 360 Customers. Don’t miss it! The caveat is you will need to have OCBC 360 accounts in the first place.

https://www.ocbc.com/personal-banking/deposits/fixed-deposit-account

Option 2: MoneyOwl WiseSaver

MoneyOwl Wisesaver is investing in Fullerton SGD Cash Fund – Class A (SGD) which invested mainly in SGD Fixed Deposit and backed by Temasek. MoneyOwl itself is under NTUC income. It is as safe as you can get!

The latest rate is around 3.99%. This is liquid and you can take out anytime.

https://www.moneyowl.com.sg/wisesaver/

Insure, invest, or do a financial planning with MoneyOwl and get welcome Grab credits when you join using my referral link/code. You can use my referral link (or key in 6SHU-93MC) to get free $20-$60 Grab Vouchers when you invest with them.

To earn the first free $20, simply sign up for WiseSaver which the underlying fund is Fullerton Cash Fund – invested in rolling SGD Fixed Deposit and backed by Temasek. Then put in minimum $10 via FAST transfer to fund this account to earn full liquid ~4% yield. Since free money and risk free, why not?

For those who have sign up using my referral, thank you in and hope that you have enjoyed the Grab Vouchers.

Option 3: Fundsupermart Autosweep

The latest yield is 2.751% which is very decent. But the most attractive part of this option is that I am able to use the fund to trade directly and immediately. Option 2 may take a few days to transfer the money out.

Personally, I am using FSMOne.com to invest in funds & ETFs (including money market funds).

FSM is good due to the low comms and the free transfer from FSM to CDP (last year I did a few transfers and took less than a week to transfer. However, my most recent transfer was initiated on 4 Feb 2023 but the transfer to CDP was only done on 23 Feb 2023 around 2pm). Hence, user might want to take note.

If you do not have an account, you can sign up here. Please use my FSMOne referral code: P0413007.

https://secure.fundsupermart.com/fsmone/cash/autosweep-account

Option 4: MAS Treasury Bills

This is one of the safest options as these bills are backed by Singapore Government. However, the money will be locked up for 6 months. If you confirm don’t need the funds for 6 months, it will be a good option. Moreover, the rates are going up. Quite likely you should be able to get more than 4%.

For those who are unsure what are Treasury Bills; what are the difference between competitive/non-competitive, do read this article (Treasury Bill: Competitive or Non-Competitive?). Personally, I would do competitive auction for at least 4% in case there is some weird freak result.

https://www.mas.gov.sg/bonds-and-bills/singapore-government-t-bills-information-for-individuals

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

  • Simplified Guide to the Key Gist of Grant of Probate and Estate Planning
  • Cheapest and best way to trade Singapore Stocks with CDP
  • Mastering Dividend Investing: 5 Evergreen Investment Principles
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with IAPD: A High-Yield ETF Providing 7% Annual Yield and Quarterly Payouts
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with SDIV: A High-Yield ETF Providing 11% Annual Yield and Monthly Payouts
  • If I am a dividend investor, this is what I would do….
  • 7 Things to consider before buy a dividend stock
  • 4 Dividend ETFs that can let you sleep well even in the scary bear market
  • 5 Best Counters for Passive Dividend Investing
  • The Three MOST Important Traits of an Investor
  • What is the best investment strategy in the world?
  • Ultimate Strategy of buying REITS: XXX instead of X000?
  • Ultimate Free 2 Days Reit MasterClass: Exclusive at Careyourpresent.com only!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

  • The Best Advice to Parents and Child
  • What if Later never come?
  • What will you bring with you on your last day on Earth?
  • Time is the ultimate currency, not money
  • Our Life only have 5 short Days – we should live the best for every day
  • Truly understand Living in the Moment now
  • 11 Important Unexpected Life and Money lessons to learn from Your Children
  • The days are long but the years are short
  • Ditch your mobile phone to build real life
  • Careyourpresent: Time is the most important
  • Careyourpresent: What is your purpose of life?
  • Careyourpresent : Greatest Regrets in life
  • Careyourpresent : You might not believe it. It’s little unexpected things that make up a real life
  • Careyourpresent: Something only happen once in life, if you missed it, it’s gone forever…
  • Careyourpresent : Why is Gold useful?
  • Careyourpresent: Frozen. Let it go!

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

  • Telegram Group (Chat with me and other like minded people!)
  • Telegram Channel (Get the latest updates on the markets/life!)
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feed

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

WOW amazing! QYLD with 13% p.a. yield and monthly distribution!

Posted on February 17, 2023September 27, 2023 by careyourpresent

Passive Income

This term is one of the key terms that many people like and hoped to achieve. It simply means having income generated from non-active methods such as your 9 to 5 job. In my last article (How to earn passive income using options), I have covered the basic of using cash secured puts or covered calls as option strategies to generate “passive income”. Do take note of the inverted commas, I would like to reiterate that this is not as passive as one think and the risk level is slightly higher.

For those who still can’t understand options, one of the popular is to buy this counter QYLD.

What is QYLD?

QYLD is Global X NASDAQ 100 Covered Call ETF.

The Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD) follows a “covered call” or “buy-write” strategy, in which the Fund buys the stocks in the Nasdaq 100 Index and “writes” or “sells” corresponding call options on the same index (see QYLD).

In short, this counter will do the job for you by using covered calls to get “passive option” income for you. One just need to buy this counter and collect “monthly passive option income”.

What is Covered Call?

Covered calls are an option strategy that can be used to create a stream of income from the stock you already own, as well as potentially increase your overall profit.

The idea behind this strategy is simple: find stocks that are overvalued and sell call options against them. This allows us to earn premiums from selling call contracts while still retaining full ownership of the shares we hold.

Income from Covered Call

The covered call is based on buying an underlying stock and selling a call option against it at the same time. In other words, if you own 100 shares of Company X and sell one call contract at $10 (at-the-money), then if Company X’s share price rises above $10 per share before expiration date, then whoever owns this particular call option will exercise their right to purchase your 100 shares from you for $10 each–plus any dividends paid out by Company X between now and when their options expire (if any).

Why Covered Call?

Covered calls are an effective way to generate income and potentially increase your overall profit. They can be used as a strategy to:

  • Earn a premium on the stock you already own.
  • Take advantage of the market’s volatility to increase your profits at the same time that it may depress other investments in your portfolio.
  • Protect against losses if the market declines, while still generating income from covered call trades.

While selling covered calls isn’t something I recommend for novice investors or those with limited risk appetite, it can be an effective strategy for seasoned traders looking for a steady stream of income without having to deal with any sort of margin requirements (which most brokers require).

For most other people, QYLD might seems to be a good solution since this is a way to let the professional fund manager to do this strategy for them.

Why QYLD?

There are 3 main reasons stated in the Global X website itself.

  • High income from the covered call option
  • Monthly Distributions as option income
  • Save time and effort

Let’s look at some of the key characteristics of this fund

  • Inception Date: 12/11/13
  • Total Expense Ratio: 0.60%
  • Net Asset: 6.81 Billions
  • Number of Holdings: 102
  • Distribution Yield: 13.03%
  • Distribution Frequency: Monthly
  • Top holdings: Look at the screenshot below, they are all great companies that many love to owned!

Wow, one look at the above, 13% yield with monthly distribution! This is the dream of many “passive income” investor! Where else can you get such good returns from one single counter alone? It’s a must buy without regrets!

Hold on a second… let’s dug further.

Performance

If we look further into the overall returns over the years (see photo below), the annualized return since inception is 5.64% p.a. Not too shabby! But how come it is lesser than the 13% yield mentioned above?

Let’s look at the share price. The share price is actually declining since inception. What does this mean?

CAPITAL LOSS!

Hence it simply means that after discounting the capital loss + dividend return, the actual return is only 5.64% p.a since inception. Hence you don’t really get 13% “passive monthly” income after all but still not that bad after all since there is a 5.64%?

Yahoo Finance

Let’s dig further

I shared some key passive great dividend counters via my past article 4 Dividend ETFs that can let you sleep well even in the scary bear market. Do read again this article if you missed this post earlier. These counters are great for investors (especially for Singapore Investors that worry about withholding tax. London LSE ETF is only 15% tax).

Let’s go back to QYLD and compare the return of this counter with the famous world index fund – Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT). This is one of the famous US ETF by vanguard that track the performance of the FTSE Global All Cap Index, which covers both well-established and still-developing markets. This is equivalent to the VWRD ETF that I have shared in the article 4 Dividend ETFs that can let you sleep well even in the scary bear market.

Vanguard

If we look at the return of Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT), it gives 6.63% p.a. return since inception date of 6 Jun 2008 but give 8.52% p.a. 10 years return from today which mean (Feb 2012). 5 years return is 5.72% p.a.

If we compared to QYLD above, you get 5.62% p.a. since inception date of Nov 2013 and 3% p.a. return for 5 years return.

Given the figures above, judge for yourself if it is worth it to get QYLD for “monthly passive income from covered calls” or simply just buy world index fund like VT?

Alternatively, you can also compare QYLD with these 5 other shares that I have shared before to draw your own conclusion (5 Best Counters for Passive Dividend Investing).

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

  • Simplified Guide to the Key Gist of Grant of Probate and Estate Planning
  • Cheapest and best way to trade Singapore Stocks with CDP
  • Mastering Dividend Investing: 5 Evergreen Investment Principles
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with IAPD: A High-Yield ETF Providing 7% Annual Yield and Quarterly Payouts
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with SDIV: A High-Yield ETF Providing 11% Annual Yield and Monthly Payouts
  • If I am a dividend investor, this is what I would do….
  • 7 Things to consider before buy a dividend stock
  • 4 Dividend ETFs that can let you sleep well even in the scary bear market
  • 5 Best Counters for Passive Dividend Investing
  • The Three MOST Important Traits of an Investor
  • What is the best investment strategy in the world?
  • Ultimate Strategy of buying REITS: XXX instead of X000?
  • Ultimate Free 2 Days Reit MasterClass: Exclusive at Careyourpresent.com only!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

  • The Best Advice to Parents and Child
  • What if Later never come?
  • What will you bring with you on your last day on Earth?
  • Time is the ultimate currency, not money
  • Our Life only have 5 short Days – we should live the best for every day
  • Truly understand Living in the Moment now
  • 11 Important Unexpected Life and Money lessons to learn from Your Children
  • The days are long but the years are short
  • Ditch your mobile phone to build real life
  • Careyourpresent: Time is the most important
  • Careyourpresent: What is your purpose of life?
  • Careyourpresent : Greatest Regrets in life
  • Careyourpresent : You might not believe it. It’s little unexpected things that make up a real life
  • Careyourpresent: Something only happen once in life, if you missed it, it’s gone forever…
  • Careyourpresent : Why is Gold useful?
  • Careyourpresent: Frozen. Let it go!

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

  • Telegram Group (Chat with me and other like minded people!)
  • Telegram Channel (Get the latest updates on the markets/life!)
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feed

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

Portfolio Update: Feb 2023 and Reflection at half-life (hopefully) mark – 40 Years old

Posted on February 13, 2023September 27, 2023 by careyourpresent

Reflection

Most people (consciously/subconsciously) always think that they are immortal (including the past me), thinking that the last day of their life on Earth will never come, especially while they are in their 10s, 20, 30s or even 40s. However, if you really stop and think, this is not the truth of life.

I have just passed my birthday few days ago – officially at the 40 years old mark. If I am lucky, this is my half-life age (assuming 80 years old life span). If I am not lucky, I am already way passed my half-life mark. Many people think that they can live forever, but the sad truth that it is not.

My mum just passed away three weeks ago (Farewell Mum. You are always in my mind). Suddenly I realized that death is so near. When I visited her ashes at Choa Chu Kang Columbarium, you will really realize that life is short. If you look at the crafting of the words at the Columbarium, you can see that actually there are people who died in their 20s, 30, 40s, or even much younger. Life is short and unpredictable.

We should always stop a while, reflect and be grateful with what life have given us. Treasure what we have now, living in the moment (which I didn’t in the past). I didn’t know how to Let It Go and focus on more important things in life – example, I was always bothered by what other people said (like Friends, Colleagues etc) and reacted negatively sometimes, especially when there are the typical Office Politics involved. Looking back now, does it really matter what they said? Lifespan of human is so short and limited, we should live a fulfilling life full of experiences that we love to have instead.

Anyway, time flies, I am now 40 years old. Half-way mark of life (hopefully) and my mum just passed away. Let me stop to take stock of what I have in life and from now on aim to live to the best of my life EVERY SINGLE DAY, not wasting any time. For the reader of my blogs, I am sharing this personal reflection is because I hoped that you can stop and reflect too, live the best of your life so that you will not regret on your death bed (which might come sooner than you think).

These are the areas that I will cover in this article:

  • 1. Career
  • 2. Money – Portfolio update
  • 3. Family
  • 4. Own Life

1. Career

Times really files, from my graduation from the University in 2008 until today 2023, it has been 15 years with a blink of an eyes. Have I grown in my career?

Career is something very important to most important, especially it make up of almost 8-10 hours of your awake time, given that one is only awake for typically 16 hours out of 24 hours. That mean 1/3 of your time, your time is spent on career. That’s why it is good to be in a career/job that one love. But sadly, most people cannot get a job/career you love right? In the end, it is just a tool to make end meets. If one doesn’t need to drag their feets to work, it is already a big blessing in disguise.

Similar to most other people, I am stuck with the typical 9 to 5 schedule currently. It is not a glamourous job, nor it is high paying, but it is enough to let me have a decent lifestyle with some spare money every month for investment and growing my wealth. 9 to 5 job is still the main income followed by my investment in this wealth generation process. My 15 years of jobs/careers helped me to reach CPF Full Retirement Sum, with decent amount of savings/investment/emergency funds etc while providing a relatively decent lifestyle for my loved one. I am not the lucky one to find a job that I love. But at least I don’t really drag my feets to work. For me, the most negative part of my job is giving up the opportunity time to be with my kids while they need me and is still growing up. Well, that’s life, isn’t it? Life isn’t perfect!

2. Money – Portfolio update

When I first graduated from the University, I knew nothing about personal finance. Like many other people, I went to buy investment-linked policies from friends that are also recent graduates like me (now I know that quite likely they also don’t know anything about personal finances) that promises you great investment returns + protection. What happened few years later? I am so glad that I cut loss and incurred at 4 digits losses early instead of only cut loss today. If you also experienced this before, do feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

Slowly as years goes by in my 1st job, I realized that I should take care of my own finances. I decided that I should start my own learning about personal finance. Time flies and I am here today (You can read about me to find out my investment journey). Do also read Financial Literacy 101 – Art of Managing your Wealth if you are new to Financial Literacy.

As of today, these are my achievements in term of wealth. Not filthy rich but good enough survive in this ever-increasing inflation world.

  • Me: Reach CPF Full Retirement Sum (FRS) in Special Account in Jan 2020 (Current: way exceeded 200k such that will still reach FRS even if not working).
  • Me: Reach CPF Basic Health Sum (BHS) in Medisave Account in Jan 2020 (Current: at BHS).
  • Spouse: Reach CPF Full Retirement Sum (FRS) in Special Account in Jan 2021 (Current: way exceeded 200k such that will still reach FRS even if not working).
  • Spouse: Reach CPF Basic Health Sum (BHS) in Medisave Account in Jan 2021 (Current: at full BHS).
  • House: Still have outstanding HDB debt of below 80k (But OA from me and my spouse account can cover this easily). 2nd Bto coming soon, both our OAs and the return from selling current flat should be able to cover all loans. I am not rich enough to buy condo but I am debt free forever. Rising interest rate will benefit my idling cash via FSM, FD, Moneyowl etc.
  • Insurance: Purchased all kind all insurances (except ILP) including whole life for child and have paid off everything (except 1 whole life plan for spouse + our individual term plans + hospital plan)
  • Emergency Funds: 40 months of emergency funds that cover household expenses for 40 months all locked up in SSB. This gives me at least $500 per month via SSB Bond Ladders.
  • Daily Funds: 2 months of liquid cash that can cover our monthly expenses for 2 months. This is constantly replenished from monthly cashflow from various income sources.

Fast forward to today, I am more of a dividend/index investor with some dabbling into Crypto/US/Options. Why? I can’t afford the time to do very in-depth research for more active investing/trading. I love crypto but the crypto space is developing too much while I dont have so much time to research. My 24 hours are divided into sleep, kids, spouse, parents, work etc with very little time left for myself (you can refer to the screenshot below that I have taken from my post written early on 25 July 2022).

https://careyourpresent.com/careyourpresent-frozen-let-it-go/

2.1 Portfolio Allocation

A picture speaks a thousand words. The amount stated in this section exclude Emergency funds and Daily funds as of 13 February 2023.

Cash/Cash Equivalents59.75%
Investment40.25%

2.2 Transaction for the month

Bought Keppel Reit and then sold for a quick trade with trading profit of $XXX.
Sold half of CLCT that I have owned at $1.27 before xD (Look at the price now =p)
Pending Dividend collection $3999.89 for Mit Mlog Keppel Reit MPac KDC Areit CLCT (already xD so money will be coming in Feb/March).
Traded ETH in Arbitrium and Matic for some kopi money.

2.3 Fixed Income

SSB Bond Ladder as Emergency Funds completed. Currently about S$1600 per month from my idling funds (Investment idling funds + Emergency Funds in Singapore Saving Bonds).

https://www.mas.gov.sg/bonds-and-bills/singapore-savings-bonds

This month Singapore Saving Bonds’ yield is only 2.9% (SBMAR23 GX23030A). I am not going to buy SSB anymore. Instead, I have bought some DBS Fixed Deposit at 3.9% for my idling cash the promotion that I have mentioned earlier (SAVERs – Best Options to maximise your interests). However, this promotion has ended, the lastest by DBS is “5FRS” at 3.58% p.a. for 5 months with minimum placement of 20k.

For those who don’t like your idling funds to be locked up. I would recommend the following:

  1. FSM Autosweep. Current rate is 2.71%. I am using this to buy/sell my stocks. Hence it is very convenient to just park my funds here for 2.71%. I have multiple accounts with FSM with my kids/wife as beneficiary members and put in at least 6 digits in these accounts (must have estate planning think out fully). If you do not have an account, you can sign up here. Do consider using my FSMOne referral code: P0413007.
  2. MoneyOwl WiseIncome. Latest rate is 4.01%. This is liquid and you can take out anytime. MoneyOwl Wisesaver is investing in Fullerton SGD Cash Fund – Class A (SGD) which invested mainly in SGD Fixed Deposit and backed by Temasek. MoneyOwl itself is under NTUC income. It is as safe as you can get! Do consider to use my referral link (or key in 6SHU-93MC) to get free $20-$60 Grab Vouchers when you invest with them.
https://www.moneyowl.com.sg/wisesaver/

2.4 Investment Plans

Recession risk is getting higher. Fed is not pivoting. If you look at the recent treasury yield, it is going up. I am still holding to close to 60% cash. I will wait for the best time to strike and will not be stuck into the FOMO mode now. Meanwhile, I will do fast trade to earn some kopi money.

from CNBC

3. Family

This is the most precious things that I have.

Although I have a recent loss, but I would still like to treasure what I have remaining now, especially for my young kids while they still need me. Once you missed this golden period where the kids need you, you can never have it back. There will always be a last time where they hold your hands and walk to school together. There will always be a last time they bug you to play with them. Treasure them because once it is gone it is gone.

Your old parents. I have already lost one parent. The other one I will also lose one day. Hence treasure time to be with them. You will never know when it is the last day.

Your spouse. Many do not treasure their spouse but I am grateful and have it. Spouse walked with you for most part of your life. If you don’t treasure your spouse, one day you will regret. To be very blunt, spouse will leave you one day, hopefully it will be during the period where he or she is very old, but like is unpredictable. Who know?

4. Own Life

Times really flies. I always thought I am very far from death. Yet I just experienced my mum death recently (Farewell Mum. You are always in my mind). But life still has to goes on (Do you know what will happen few hours after you die?). Through this experience, I realized my mistake now and Truly understand Living in the Moment now – my objective in life now is to lead a fulfilling life that is true to myself and generate the best experiences that I will have for the remaining of my life.

Coincidentally, I am at the half point mark life – 40 years old (hopefully this is at least halfway). Time really flies and there is no reset button.

Days seems long but years are really short. With a blind of an eye, I am already 40 years old. Do you really need to care what other people or other society say about you? I used to be like that but now I don’t. I like to listen to advice, good one I will listen, bad one we should learn to let go and don’t keep to your heart. Don’t waste your precious time/life on unimportant thing.

Final Thoughts

I am grateful and happy to what I have in life now and I hope that you are too. I will strive to make every day meaningful and living in the moment. I hope my readers will do so that we won’t regret in future.

Life and time have no reset button and is the most important commodity in life. Care Your Present, Live in the Moment, don’t regret past or worry too much about the future, be happy and build a meaning life. Love money, but it is a tool to the end not the end itself.

You don’t need a lot of money to be happy but you need the mindset and time to be happy.

Hope that you will truly understand the above.

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

  • Simplified Guide to the Key Gist of Grant of Probate and Estate Planning
  • Cheapest and best way to trade Singapore Stocks with CDP
  • Mastering Dividend Investing: 5 Evergreen Investment Principles
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with IAPD: A High-Yield ETF Providing 7% Annual Yield and Quarterly Payouts
  • Unlock Lucrative Returns with SDIV: A High-Yield ETF Providing 11% Annual Yield and Monthly Payouts
  • If I am a dividend investor, this is what I would do….
  • 7 Things to consider before buy a dividend stock
  • 4 Dividend ETFs that can let you sleep well even in the scary bear market
  • 5 Best Counters for Passive Dividend Investing
  • The Three MOST Important Traits of an Investor
  • What is the best investment strategy in the world?
  • Ultimate Strategy of buying REITS: XXX instead of X000?
  • Ultimate Free 2 Days Reit MasterClass: Exclusive at Careyourpresent.com only!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

  • The Best Advice to Parents and Child
  • What if Later never come?
  • What will you bring with you on your last day on Earth?
  • Time is the ultimate currency, not money
  • Our Life only have 5 short Days – we should live the best for every day
  • Truly understand Living in the Moment now
  • 11 Important Unexpected Life and Money lessons to learn from Your Children
  • The days are long but the years are short
  • Ditch your mobile phone to build real life
  • Careyourpresent: Time is the most important
  • Careyourpresent: What is your purpose of life?
  • Careyourpresent : Greatest Regrets in life
  • Careyourpresent : You might not believe it. It’s little unexpected things that make up a real life
  • Careyourpresent: Something only happen once in life, if you missed it, it’s gone forever…
  • Careyourpresent : Why is Gold useful?
  • Careyourpresent: Frozen. Let it go!

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

  • Telegram Group (Chat with me and other like minded people!)
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You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂
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