TSLA spiked after US presidential elections

 Now Uncle's TSLA holdings are up by 50%. Maybe Uncle can finally buy a real Tesla car soon lol

is Uncle a millionaire?

First, what is definition of a millionaire? 

I think one of the more commonly accepted version is : Having nett USD1M of assets, excluding your primary residence. 

Uncle will not include CPF in measurement

Uncle has equity of about 1.6M in my primary residence, but cannot count that.

But there is also an outstanding mortgage of 1.6M. So do I deduct 1.6M from the value of my other assets?

My home is where me and my family live in, it's our shelter, it does not generate passive income, even if its market value continues to go up over time. In fact, it is an expense, due to mortgage interest, property tax, utilities and upkeeping costs.

But should I just deduct the outstanding mortgage from my net worth? That doesn't make sense, because at least 50% of the monthly repayment goes into the home equity. So maybe I'll take a haircut of 50% (i.e. 800k) as a cost.

So combined with my wife, we'll have a net of almost USD2M in assets, excluding the equity of our home. Yay! We are millionaires! But why still so stressed leh? lol

That's because of the high cost of living in SG. 

Yes, you may say, just move back to HDB and you'll be in better position! Well, that does come with a financial cost too...the value of the HDB will not go up as fast as value of private condo. It's a risk vs reward tension. We want to hang on to see it grow and grow, for future adjustments when value of current home is even higher. 

BUT TBH, a million dollars doesn't cut it anymore today. I would say, $5M at least is what we should go for. Inflation and cost of living / housing eats up a lot of money. 

SRS account usage

 

TBH I started late on SRS, was so ignorant back then. So far, I have contributed max $15.3k per year since 2019, so total 4 times. Will continue to do so for 2024. The tax savings are significant for my situation, and its a no brainer

I had tried to buy SSB with the SRS funds, but finally decided to consolidate by only using SRS to buy STI index fund ES3. No specific reason, but just for simple administration of my portfolio. As long as it is ES3, it is funded by SRS. This sort of allows me to continually pump into STI ETF over time. 

If I decide to stop work for entire 2025, then I may not add more to SRS since there are no income tax benefits. And that means my ES3 accumulation would pause or even stop. I'll just reinvest the ES3 dividends back to ES3 then

CPF balances 14 Oct 2024

 

The small bump up was from my final salary input as it included amounts from encashment of unused vacation days. 

So, my OA has $1400 deducted per month as part of mortgage, which means this can last 20 months before I need to pay that in cash. 

We'll see if I find a job or retired by then hahahaha. 

Getting comfortable without a salary from working

 Not sure if I am there yet. Basically I am effectively drawing down my cash each month, primarily due to 2 things : mortgage and income tax

mortgage (after CPF) is about $9k per month

income tax is about $5k per month

My investment cashflow covers all my other expenses, including utilities, groceries, handphone/internet bills, insurance, property taxes, condo maintenance fees, personal spending.

With some input from wife who is still working, I am still out of pocket by almost $11k per month. 

She will continue to be able to save a decent sum per month and I'll let her grow that and managed it for her via safe investments.

Am I comfortable? Not really. I will if I am not out of pocket per month.

If I really stop working for good, the income tax amount will go to $0 after 2025. So only mortgage left

We can pay off the mortgage but I think I said before, it doesn't make sense since it's our home and we will be locking the money up with little leeway to do other things.

So I think it all depends on how my stocks performs by end of 2025. 

But meanwhile, will continue to keep healthy, enjoy life, continue investing, continue keep mind sharp, eyes open for jobs, and get my coding training done. 

Will of course continue to worry, but it should be positive stress that pushes me in positive way, nothing negative. It may seem scary, but its not actually. I am getting the hang of enjoying life without needing to report to any boss, or manage any deadlines. Life is good!! Wish myself success!! lol

Portfolio for SG market still above the feel good SGD 1M threshold. 

CDG cash growth

These are my own research from reading news and financial reports of CDG. It is for my own reference only and I am not responsible for any investment gains/losses made if you decide to reference this information.

CDG recent acquisitions

CMAC S$136M https://www.theedgesingapore.com/news/ma/comfortdelgro-acquires-uks-cmac-group-gbp802-mil

A2B S$146M https://www.theedgesingapore.com/news/company-news/comfortdelgro-expands-footprint-australia-a1651-million-a2b-acquisition

 Net cash that CDG has

Jun 2024 = 201.5M (increased in borrowings to fund acquisitions CMAC and A2B)

Dec 2023 = 497.5M

Dec 2022 = 653.4M

Dec 2021 = 519.8M

Dec 2020 = 190.5M

Dec 2019 = (40M)

Dec 2018 = 16.2M

Dec 2017 = 273.9M

Dec 2016 = 434.2M

Dec 2015 = 229.2M

Dec 2014 = 88.7M

Dec 2013 = 22.7M

MRT service disruption in Sep 2024 for EW line

Ah green line, the OG MRT that I know as a kid, it's the first time in my life I rode a train. 

While it's unfortunate that the incident happened, I am glad no one was hurt. Well, maybe inconveniences and anxiousness for some kids taking PSLE, but I think they are taken care of. 

Kudos to the engineers and workers who toiled over last 6 days to get this fixed and retested, to allow safe restoration of services.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/east-west-line-mrt-jurong-east-buona-vista-train-resumes-service-4649591

Uncle Target Price for some counters

 Please do your own homework. Don't take these values and use them without using your own brain. I put them here for my own record purposes as uncle is very forgetful. But Uncle is definitely using these values as a gauge on whether I should continue to accumulate these counters 

Target prices at end of rate cut (maybe 2026?)

Ascendas REIT $2.90

Capitaland CICT $2.15

Capitaland India trust $1.35

Capitaland China $1.03

FCT $2.40

MapleTree Log Trust $1.80

Netlink Trust $1.06

China rally?

 Today chiong ah!!!

I have never seen CLCT go up 10% in a day. Wonder who the hell wants to buy at this price?

Covering shorts? LOL

Anyway, enjoy the ride. I am still underwater on this one, but always happen to see it approach the water surface, hopefully it can get some air soon...hahaha

UOB shares

Finally I decided to expand my SG bank holdings to include UOB, bought 100 shares at $32.65

I don't think I'l make much, but this will form the start of my accumulation journey for this bank, similar to what I did for OCBC. 

What about DBS? I think DBS is amazing, but it also has a big run up in share prices recently, so I'll wait. Moreover, I feel buying any of the 3 local banks are about the same, just that I feel better to diversify into at least 2 instead of just focusing on 1.

I also have all my SRS funds invested into STI ES3 index ETF, which is like 40-45% composed of the 3 banks, so in a way I am already invested in DBS lol

I think everyone will think rate cuts over this year and next will hit the banks hard, but I don't think so. The banks are not dumb, they also expected the rate cuts so they are prepared for it. When rates are cut, they will just reduce the rates paid out to depositors to maintain their interest margins. It's not that simple but the general idea is there.