STE's Stocks Investing Journey

Was having a casual conversation over the dinner with friends last week and some knew that I am not working since 2015, asking if my investment income will be able to cover my expenses. I told them that I am still able to save $60-80 K a year after deducting all my yearly expenses including holidays and staycations. “Then you are saving too much for your retirement !”, one of them said that .. I was stunned like: huh ?? saving too much ?? …Uhhh!

image credit to todayonline.com Right after 31 st Dec 2018, I guess everyone was busy logging in to their CPF account to check what is the latest balance they have in their CPF account. Yes, CPF interest will be credited on that day and one will be able to see how much he/she got on interest income for the year of 2018. STE doesn’t have the opportunity to feel the joy of getting year- end bonus since 2014 but instead, receiving the interest income from CPF on the first week of each year make me happy same as getting the bonus. ( Not from the employer but from “Ah Gong” ). We normally work hard to get a bonus but in this case, we let our money work hard to generate the interest income. :D Total $29,348.70 been credited to our CPF accounts ( for both STE and Mrs. ).

image credit to asiaone.com Ding…Ding…Ding, CPF Board has  just credited the interest into our CPF account, you may log in and check your latest balance and amount of interest you got from “ Ah Gong “... 😊

For a company or organization , “ Human Capital” is a measure of the skills, education, capacity and attributes of labour which influence their productive capacity and earning potential. According to the OECD , human capital is defined as: “The knowledge, skills, competencies and other attributes embodied in individuals or groups of individuals acquired during their life and used to produce goods, services or ideas in the market circumstances”. The human capital of the economy – The aggregate human capital of an economy, which will be determined by national educational standards

<Image credit to expatfinancialplanning.com> Personal finance is an interesting subject which is really “ Personal “ as there are many factors affecting a person or family’s finances – how much to keep as saving vs investing, to buy term or life insurance, to take up HDB loan or from private banks, to buy HBD or Condominium and of course the hottest topic of CPF ( to transfer our OA to SA or do a voluntary cash top-up into SA account)? Recently, my friends & famous financial bloggers ( Chris from Growing your tree of prosperity, Uncle CW8888 , SGBudgetBabe ) gathered together to give a talk about “ CPF Optimization for Retirement ( here )” You may find some of their thoughts and ideas ( here ): as you may see, there were different opinions and views about the issue even from the speakers and of course the attendants.

Image Credit to: Sgfinance.sg Many articles have been written on SRS Account and it’s pro and con. You may find a few good blogs and summary as below : SUPPLEMENTARY RETIREMENT SCHEME (‘SRS’) ACCOUNT from HeartlandbOY  ( here ) Is the Supplementary Retirement Scheme a Waste of Your Time and Money? From Money$mart.sg ( here ) Why it makes sense to contribute to the SRS account (to a certain extent) from money digest.sg ( here ) While some may not agree on useful or merit of contributing money into SRS account on reason for “long lock-in “ period and others. Why I Am Not Too Keen On The Supplementary Retirement Scheme from My 15 Hour Work Week ( here) And of course the famous AK on his blog on “ How AK uses his SRS money and why? “ ( here )

MAS Urges Households To Stay Financially Prudent Much been written about “Housing choice vs Retirement comfort “, another types of Cs in our financial planning. Life is full of “choices “, one may choose to “stay single or marry “, to “have kids or be DINKs “, to “climb the corporate ladder or be a freelancer”, to “save more or spend more “, to “save or invest “, to “buy health insurance or take the risk ( bo chap)”……and the list goes on. “In particular, households should consider their housing choices carefully, as retirement adequacy could be compromised should households overstretch their finances to purchase more expensive housing.” Source: “Stay prudent, be cautious with property purchases, MAS tells Singaporeans”  

image credit to asiaone.com You may have came across this article in today’s The Business Times,,, an interesting article in searching of “ The Freedom formula “ for early retirement. The big word “ R ”  or retirement is very subjective and one may not want to retire if he/she really enjoying the works and some may want to retire earlier to pursue their dreams and passion. Here is another article on “ 10 good reasons to retire early “ ( here ), some may choose to retire early because of “health issues, work stress, spending more times with kids etc … “ once they achieved a level of enough “passive income “.

Risks of Living on Dividend Income “ Dividend income ” investing has been deep-seated in most of investor’s mind, as ways to achieve Financial Independence and living off dividends in retirement is a dream shared by many.  In today’s environment marked by rising life expectancies, extremely low bond yields, and a 7-year bull market, retirees face challenges on all fronts to build a consistent income stream that will last a lifetime . But the questions is “ Can we really depend on just dividend income for our retirement or is it sustainable ?”.

image credit to CPFBoard.gov.sg It has been continuously being a hot topic about whether one should transfer their CPF money from OA ( Ordinary Account ) to SA ( Special Account ) to earn a higher return of interest rate. Different people ( bloggers ) are having a different view about this issue and each might have their own valid reasons or argument to put forward.