Monthly Net-Worth Update — Jan 2023

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

We are already half way through Jan 2023. It seemed like yesterday that we were still talking about ending 2022. 

How time flies!

Wish all my readers a Prosperous, Happy and Healthy 2023!

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Regarding the monthly update, you might have noticed that the timing of update has been pushed to more of the middle of the month, rather than the end of the month.

This is because towards the end of the month, depending on the exact date of update, our salary may or may not have come in, which creates the undesired inconsistency in our monthly numbers, i.e. some months might include no salary while other months might include two months of salary.

Therefore, going forward, I will try to publish the update before 22nd of each month, which means our Jan salary will be counted in Feb and Feb salary in March etc.

This is not ideal, but at least the consistency is kept.

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Here is the snapshot of our Total Net-Worth for Jan 2023.

Net-Worth increase from last month: 34K SGD, -0.38KG Gold

Typically, we will have a bigger increase in Jan, due to AWS, bonuses, CPF interests etc. 

But this year, we were hit by further losses from my wife’s portfolio. She found time to do a detailed portfolio check, only to find out that our losses were far more severe than our quick estimate. 

The losses were recorded in this update.

On top of this, we also suffered some loss due to exchange rate in this cycle.

Luckily, the market has been doing well after the new year and our portfolio recovered a bit, which, together with our work income and CPF interest, was able to make up for the losses.

In terms of Gold, our little TNW increase was easily erased and more by Gold price increase. We had negative growth this month.

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Investment: -8.27% annualized return, incl. dividend

This is a big improvement compared to last month. But this is not a true reflection of our portfolio performance as this is mainly because we placed quite some money in T-bills and SSB, increasing our investment base.

In plain and painful words, our losses did not reduce significantly. We are still in deep deep RED.

Till next time!

Monthly Net-Worth Update — Jan 2022

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Hope you all had a great New Year and break. 

Wish Chinese New Year just around the corner, Gong Xi Fa Cai!

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Here is another update on our Net-Worth.

Net-Worth increase from last month: 42K SGD, 0.45KG Gold

The increase was mainly from my freelancer pay from last year and CPF contribution and interests at the end of last year.

Even though much of the increase is attributed to last year, it is a good start for me to hit 40/40 goal. Hope this continues :)

Our portfolio continued to drop. Feeling completely powerless and clueless. Will just hold till it dies or rebounds.

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Investment: -9.84% annualized return, incl. dividend

My portfolio again hit a new low this month.

After a few years of investment, -10% return rate is nothing short of embarrassing and painful.

Maybe I should give it up all together.  

 

Till next time!

Half-Conscious Update

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

This is going to be a quick one. 

After 6-hour interviews, my head is half dead to say the least. 

I have done 6/7 hours of face-to-face interviews in a day before. Never thought online interviews would be more tiring on the mind.

So this will be a quick update.

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1.All the interviews

I have done 10 interviews in the past two days. This has become the full-time job.

Luckily, work is not so full now.

And I am only half way through.

This is so far the largest hiring efforts for me.

The experiences did bring some additional learnings about interviews for both sides.

I will summarize those in a post after I have gone through the whole process.

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2.All the games.

When Cyberpunk 2077 first came out in Dec, I was quite busy and did not play it. 

Afterwards, I was just scared off by all the ridiculous bugs, reported by players.

A friend tried Cyberpunk 2077 again recently and told me that the game was playable now after all the patches.

So I tried it also. 

And I am hooked.

I have always fancied a futuristic and chaotic world. I still remember the first movie of this kind where Humans can unlock the full potential of our brains and be God-like!

Even only a few hours in the game, I can see the complexity and connections of the storyline. If it is anywhere close to the Witcher 3, it is a more than great game. CDPR’s ability is not to be underestimated.

The gameplay is good too. The shooting is definitely not the best but it is good enough for a RPG. The progression and weapon systems are good too!

All in all, I think I am going to throw lots of hours into this game.

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3.All the cases

The recent outbreak of Covid cases is literally in my neighborhood. We have been keeping our kids at home for a while. 

Luckily, my wife and I are both working from home.

Sometimes, I cannot help feeling lucky not being able to onboard my China job. If I did, we would probably be in different places in times like this.

Money is important for sure. But life is more than that.

Stay safe!!

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4.All the losses

The stock market….arh…do not even get me started on this.

Till next time!

Bleeding out!

 

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Dear readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I am bleeding out both physically and mentally.

My son kept jumping on the bed before going to sleep last night for fun until his knee landed on my mouth.

I could still see the red mark inside my mouth in the morning…

So no more Hotpot, Chilli Crab, Black Pepper Chicken… … for a while.

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Compared to physical bleeding, mental bleeding is even harder to take.

And the bleeding has began since the mid of last week. I think I am close to the state of “Bled Out”.

As for the reason? 

My stock portfolio of course.

It dropped from one new low to another, all while the market is doing good.

Now it is so bloody red that I do not know what to think or do.

Staring at it does not do any good and just makes me feel like shit.

My courage to add positions after the drop is seriously affected now also.

Now I tend to trick my mind into forgetting about it.

I do not quite know what to do any way.

But I believe it will come back sooner or later.

So patience is a virtue.

Taken by author

Refer to the above two pictures.

The one on the left was taken this morning when I walked to my study room.

The one on the right was just a moment later. I just walked into the living room and had a cup of water and when I returned, I saw the full son, shining.

It has been “climbing” the whole night, just to “jump out” at that moment.

While the moment is glorious, the “hard work” and “tortuous wait” is necessary for it to eventually come and shine.

Happy investing!

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk22 2021

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

So we are entering June.

Summary is officially here. 

Hope stock market will warm up too.

Here are my transactions for the last week!

Capital injection: ~20KSGD

1.YALA

I was waiting for the entry point at 18.5 and I surely got it.

And it just kept dropping, even after the announcement of share buy-back.

So after the two transactions last week, I added another 1000 shares at 15.5. 

And it continued to drop afterwards. 

This stock is the number 1 holdings in my portfolio now.

Let’s see how it goes.

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Capital outflow: None

1.CSPC PHARMA

We cleared the position last week with ~40% gain.

I think we were just learning our lessons to pocket the gains gradually.

It is a small position anyway.

The whole portfolio is still in the deep red. 

Hope the market warms up with summer.

Happy investing!

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk11 2021

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Times flies. We are already in Mid March！Q2 is just around the corner.

Here is another update.

Capital injection: None

I tried a few times to add positions, but the price I set was too low. 

Honestly, after the water-fall type of drop, I was a bit scared. I do not know whether we are near the bottom already. 

And most importantly, my war chest is very small now. I am afraid that I will deploy them too early.

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Capital outflow: None

Again, this is not the time to sell.

No one can predict how the market will perform in the short term.

Anyway, Hang On!

Till next time!

Quick Update — Things are Picking Up

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

It feels that things are picking up.

Work is picking up. I literally just sent out the last email I needed to send out today (Yesterday). 

It feels good to accomplish something I have never done before and add value to the team and of course bag the rewards when the time comes. 

It also feels good to be “Busy”. I had to make use of every minute between meetings to get things done. 

It has been a long while since I last had this feeling. I guess I just do not enjoy doing nothing or being idle. Fate!

If there are parallel universes, maybe there are multiple versions of me who do.

Finally, stock market is picking up as well. I am back in the green today and the night is still young.

Things are picking up and that is a good thing.

Good night!

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Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk10 2021

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

My Gosh! The Market!

My profit has dropped from the peak of 60k SGD to the negative, since I adjusted my investment approach.

It feels like shit. But deep down, I know it is good. Otherwise, money would feel too easy and we know that is not the case.

It is good to be in reality with foot on the ground again.

I will hang on. 

Capital injection: None

The market has not shown signs of recovery. So I will hold my war chest for now.

I tried a few times to add positions. However, the price I set was not reached.

No hurry!

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Capital outflow: None

Again, this is not the time to sell.

But if you are feeling so bad that your daily life, like your appetite, sleep or work is affected, then sell some of your positions. 

Immediately after you sell some, you will be worried about the recovery of the market because it would make the selling decision a bad one.

This is nothing more than hedging your emotions. And it will make you feel better.

No matter whether it continues to drop or starts to recover, you can see the bright side for you.

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk9 2021

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

The market is bad and I was moving. So quite little update this week.

Man, never thought moving could be so exhausting!

Here is another update on my transactions in the past week.

Capital injection: ~14KSGD

1.RLX Tech:

The price has dropped to my threshold for adding positions. So I did. 

Clearly, my threshold was still too high.

Haha.

If you also get burned last week, believe that you are not alone! Also believe that the market will rebound even though it may take months.

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Capital outflow: None

This is not the time to sell.

Happy Investing!

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk7 2021

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Hope everyone had a great CNY break. Today is work day again.

Another update on my transactions in the past week.

Capital injection: ~15KSGD

1.Semiconductor Mfg Intl:

This stock has dropped below my average price and I still believe in its long-term prospects. Thus I have added about 8KSGD worth of shares. 

Luckily, the stock price is on the rise for the 2nd half of the week.

2.CSPC Pharma:

I did not have any medical stock in my portfolio. But the industry is good with people willing and able to spend more on health and beauty.

This particular stock looks well positioned and cheap enough.

The price has been flat since my purchase. Let see.

I have also tried to add positions to China Southern Airlines, but missed by a few cents. The stock did very well for the week with ~10% rise. So I guess that is another opportunity missed due to my indecisiveness.

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Capital outflow: ~7KSGD

I have sold all my positions of Singtel and Keppel Infrastructure Trust.

Keppel was the first stock I ever bought and that was like 7 or 8 year ago. I made a bit money from the dividend with capital appreciation at  -6%. 

I bought Singtel pretty much at its peak and I am still in the RED when I sold them.

The reason for the selling is that I do not see much potential in the next few years and it is a not big sum. And selling them would allow me to take care of one less investment account. 

Therefore, I just let them go at the market price before the CNY.

The fund will go into my war chest and be deployed later.

Happy Investing!

Till next time!

Tons of opportunities to get rich — Are you prepared?

 

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Dear readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I have never closely followed the stock market until recently after I changed my investment approach.

One thing I just could not ignore is the fact that there are so many opportunities to get rich quickly.

Almost everyday, we see some stocks take off like an rocket and spread incredible amount of wealth to their owners.

On one hand, I am jealous like hell because I could have been so much richer if I caught some of those opportunities.

On the other hand, I am not regretful because I know my understanding of the stock markets will not allow me to catch those opportunities.

Take Gamestop for example. Nothing within my capability and understanding will point me to that stock.

I keep wishing that I could turn back the time, even just a few hours.

---

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Another thing I observed is how volatile the market is.

I set alert levels on my broker platform, exceeding which an email alert will be sent to me.

Previously, over a month, maybe I see one alert or even less.

Now, I see it almost every day and sometimes more than 1 in the same day.

I yielded good returns initially and lost half of it in the past week.

So in a volatile market like this, are we calm enough to stick to the course? Are we sure that what we own is well supported? Do we “know” that they will come back eventually? Do we still have war chest to deploy to further reduce the average cost if they continue to drop?

These are just some of the easy questions that we need to be able to answer with confidence.

---

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Therefore, there are tons of opportunities out there. The only problem is whether we are prepared.

We do not see the opportunities, maybe because we really do not know about them. But most likely, it is because we are limiting ourselves or afraid of being proven wrong or simply being lazy.

So do not complain about the lack of opportunities. Just focus on getting prepared.

I do not know when we are ready. Maybe we can only be sure when we succeed.

But I know when we are not ready.

If we are wishing we could catch the opportunity or we could turn back the time, we are not ready yet!

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk5 2021

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Another update on my transactions in the past week.

Last week, the market was pretty much in the Red. And the GME episode and especially the reactions from Wall Street were just hilarious!

It is incredible to see so many opportunities floating around all the time. I can only blame my lack of capabilities to capture them.

Anyway, let’s get back to reality. Over the past week, I made the following transactions:

Capital injection: ~15KSGD

1.Nvidia

Nvidia technology is no doubt in the lead. I have purchased 4 Nvidia graphic cards directly and indirectly since I started to use computers.

I could still recall the time in 2017/18 when Nvidia mid-high end cards were selling at a premium due to the demand for mining. That price hike pushed my plan for building a new gaming PC by about a year.

With Bitcoin price in the cloud now, the demand will persist. It does seem the situation is repeating itself with the high-end 30 series.

Therefore, I think the stock could farewell in the mid term. 

Over last week, the stock dropped by 6%, which makes this purchase my most costly purchase from Nvidia so far. 

I hope I could make enough money later on from this purchase to buy a few new cards from them. Haha.

I also wanted to add some shares of China Southern Airline and also Semiconductor. However I missed the opportunity window again due to indecisiveness. 

Let see how the market moves this week.

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Capital outflow: None

Happy Investing!

Till next time!

Monthly Net-Worth Update —Jan 2021

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Time flies! 

The first month of 2021 is coming to an end. I hope things are well for all of us!

Here comes another monthly update of our Net-Worth.

It is a great month, partly because of my mistake last month.

Net-Worth increase from last month: 49.92K SGD, 0.72KG Gold

It is a pretty good increase in monetary value.

The increase was mainly from investment returns. I was really lucky since I decided to change my investment approach to move away from DCA into broad-index only.

The sum of money poured into the market did bring some benefits for now.

I will continue to report my transactions in this blog.

The rest of the increase came from salaries, CPF interest and also a mistake from last month.

I made a mistake in my tracking template last month and failed to capture some value in last month numbers. I did not realize that until today.

So the actual increase was less than the number above.

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Investment: 8.34% annualized return, incl. dividend

This is almost double the return of last month and it is the 2nd highest return rate we have achieved since the start of the investment journey.

Again, I have been lucky with the change of investment approach.

Happy investing and FIREing!

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk 4 2021

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here.

Another update on my transactions in the past week.

I might be getting a bit too trigger happy now and did my first ever speculation. 

Over the past week, I made the following transactions:

Capital injection: ~30KSGD

1.China Southern Airlines:

I have been thinking about adding more shares since last week, but was not able to the get the price we wanted. 

On Tuesday, with the huge inflow of funds into the HK stock market, the stock rose by more than 5% shortly after the market opened. 

I panicked and was afraid of missing the ride. So I added about 25K worth of shares at pretty much the highest point. 

And now it is the #1 stock in the loss.

So lesions learned for me:

1. Make up my mind. If the decision is to add more shares, then do not mind the few cents too much.
2. Do not panic. 
3. Do not be afraid of missing the ride. There is no way to catch all the rides. Not losing money is more important.

2.Marathon Patent Group Inc

My first ever speculation attempt with a small amount. 

I bought it on Thursday and sold it on Friday with about 8% profit.

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Capital outflow: ~7KSGD

1.Marathon Patent Group Inc

As mentioned above.

Happy Investing!

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk 3 2021

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here.

Another update on my transactions.

I might be enjoying the buying a bit too much. I think I need to slow down.

Over the past week, I made the following transactions:

Capital injection: ~16KSGD

1.Semiconductor Mfg Intl 

This is the leading enterprise for Chinese Chips. 

The share price kept shooting up. We have decided to buy more, at a much higher price than the first transaction of course.

We believe there is still potential and also this is the compare we are willing to bet on for the long-term.

The price did drop a bit after our second buy. Let's see how it performs going forward.

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Capital outflow

None.

But I am seriously thinking of clearing my ES3 positions. The index is just not moving. 

We are still making the decision,

Happy Investing!

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk 2

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here.

I am happy to be writing this post, because that means I have recovered somehow.

While the losses are lost, I have cowardly adjusted to the reality.

With the new year break over, I think it is time for me to resume my investment journey.

After reviewing my investment history, especially after comparing with my wife’s investment outcomes, I have decided to move away from only Broad Index ETFs.

I will keep a look out and invest in individual stocks from time to time.

As promised, I will report my transactions here for your reference.

Over the past week, I made the following transactions:

Capital injection: ~40KUSD

1.Semiconductor Mfg Intl: This is the leading enterprise for Chinese Chips. 

China will develop their own chips now for sure. The point of return is long passed.

With the US ban and conflict between the executives, the stock price halved. I think it is worth a shot in the long term.

2.Conch Cement: leading concrete producer in China.

Infrastructure building in China wont stop. So demand is there.

Moreover, it gives ~4% dividend.

Good for the long term.

3.China Southern Airlines: 

Airlines will recover after Covid. 

But why this airline? Not sure, my wife asked me to.

The stock prices last week show that we might be too optimistic about the Covid situation.

Capital outflow

None.

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You might have noticed. All my injection was into Chinese corporations.

It might be my bias, but I have more confidence on China than the US for now.

The stock market is going well in the new year. Hope this will last.

Till next time.