Eyes On Retirement

We have a spare apartment in Punggol for my parents to stay when they visited, and it's empty about 90% of the time.  Decided to rent out the room that they aren't staying in for extra income. I entrusted an agent to handle the process for me, gave him a 2 key requirements, no pets, no smokers, and began my travels.  He found a tenant quickly at $1250/month, and I agreed for her to commence the contract in 2 days (while I was still away).  I only returned 2 weeks after she moved in. Lesson #1: Get involved in the tenant selection process. The agent's job is to find the tenant. As the owner, you have to meet the prospective tenant and judge suitability and rent payment reliability. When i returned and visited the apartment, I realize the tenant smokes, keeps 2 small dogs and she installed items in the living room which was outside of the contract's stipulated room rental.  The agent clearly didn't check for my 2 key requirements and was only keen on securing his...

I started building my child's college fund when she was 6 months old.  All her 红包's are channeled straight into this OCBC account, and I registered for their Blue Chip Investment Plan (BCIP).  It's a monthly investment scheme into a blue chip stock of choice.  Both Ms EOR and myself contribute monthly to this BCIP account, which is an excellent way to force us to invest. I invest in 2 stocks at any given month, with Singtel being the base investment and the other being a cyclical. Singtel Telco's are considered a defensive sector, with a relatively stable income stream.  What I like about Singtel is that they are the market leader in Singapore, and also derive 50% of their profits from investments in other country telcos, thereby reducing the country risk.  They are trading at around their 52 week lows in 1H 2018, hence the dividend rate is 5+%, but I see the sustainable rate to be about 4+%.  I'm doing dollar cost averaging, so it doesn't matter that...

Astrea IV is a wholly owned subsidiary of Azalea Asset Management Pte. Ltd, which is wholly owned by Temasek Holdings. They are issuing bonds for their private equity funds, so this is the first time the retail market has access to the private equity space.  BOND DETAILS Name: Class A-1 Bonds 10NC5 Interest: 4.35% pa, semi annual payment. If not redeemed after 5 yrs on Jun 2023, will step up to 5.35% pa Maturity: 10 yrs, on 14th Jun 2028 with scheduled call date on 14th Jun 2023. "Scheduled" is not "optional". If there is sufficient cash set aside for the class A bond to be redeemed, it must be redeemed. It's not an option. Application for IPO: Min $2k, with integral multiples of $1k thereafter Period of application for IPO: 6th Jun 2018 9am to 12 Jun 2018 12 pm Rating:  A by Fitch, and A by S&P Extra features: There is a bonus redemption premium of an amount not exceeding 0.5% of the principal amount. This means that if the par value if $1.000, the ...

Many bankers and insurance agents tried to sell me endowment policies.  I have never believed in this type of policy. It has got to be the worst payback vehicle ever, i think worse than Singapore savings bonds!  They sell it on the basis of fear, what if this you're dead, who will take care of your kids education, blablabla bullshit. Lets put the numbers to the test, i think it's pretty straightforward.  Assuming i'm still around to send my kids to college after 18 years.  I've done 2 scenarios based on $200/month and $800/month contributions. Endowment policy: Guaranteed payback at 2% p.a.  It's what they sell you. Investing it with OCBC BCIP (i'll do a separate post on this): Target interest 4% p.a with dividends, and i still own the shares. The difference between the 2 plans is astounding! With DIY investing (OCBC BCIP) I'm about $11k ahead based on the $200 scenario, $45k ahead based on the $800 scenario, and I still own the shares and will be...

I stayed in my parent's rental property for too long. It was near the office, hence everything was so convenient, walking distance in fact.  I stayed for 7 years, and I missed out on 7 years of extra dividend income. Lets take a very conservative rental of $3600.  Over that period, it was $4k+, subtracting expenses, yields $3600 a month.  Subtracting the amount I would have to pay to rent somewhere cheaper, say $1800/month.  I would pocket $1800/month, or $21.6k/year. Investing that spare cash into a safe dividend stock of 4%, would yield $176k over 7 years! I would still be getting around $6.4k of dividends every year.  It pays off to live frugally early on.  Singapore's MRT system has many apartments/condos integrated or nearby. I could've easily picked a place further out, close to a MRT station or with good bus connectivity to the office.   I was a spoiled kid.  I now live at the far end of Singapore, and it's definitely still ma...

I recently re-balanced the family's insurance schemes. I remember just when i was just starting out, my cousin once told me to buy only Term + Critical illness insurance. I didn't listen and bought an investment linked plan from one of my friends (he played the friend card, which is annoying). They guarantee you 3% returns or something similar, along with coverage. I bought the Manulink Flexi plan on Nov 1 2008, and had it for 89 months (7years, 5months). Monthly premium was $206.59. Total Premium paid was $18386.51. I remember getting back only around 11k when i surrendered this policy. Basically I paid $7386.51 in total for term + critical insurance coverage for the 7+ years, about 1k per year. Looking back, i did not require such coverage as i didn't have any dependents. Lets see the figures comparing what i would've otherwise gotten, had i invested in a stable dividend stock/reit, since the premise is that this policy is not necessary. I'm looking at a t...

Over the past few days, we've seen Creative shares (SGX: C76) rocket from $1 to $9+, and drop back down to $7+.  To those employees of Creative, better sell now while you can. To those who managed to catch this crazy 8x increase, congratulations! Being in my 30's, my investment strategy is to accumulate excellent companies and below average prices.  The reason why Creative's shares have appreciated so much is due to the introduction of their "Super X-Fi" technology, details can be found  at their website here.  In short, they claim users who attach their dongle to any pair of existing headphones can   experience a full surround sound. MSRP at USD150.  On their operating profit,  Creative in the 2Q ended December posted a net loss of US$4.2 million, narrowing from its US$6.5 million loss a year ago.  Seems to me they are betting the house on the success of this SXFi technology and the share punters seem to follow suit.  ...