Game Changer: Trust Card Overseas Usage

 So recently Trust card introduced 0 foreign transaction fees when the card is used overseas:

https://trustbank.sg/great-exchange-rates/

This is great! But if you are using a cashback credit card like me, then you may be wondering if the Trust card still wins out after considering the cashback that you get on other cards.

So I went to Legoland during the June holidays, and I did a comparison.

I bought Legoland annual passes for my entire family and charged the total amount 1715 MYR to my Standard Chartered Simply Cash credit card. Looking at the transaction history, I was charged 523.66 SGD which converts to 1 SGD = 3.275 MYR. After deducting the 1.5% cashback, my actual cost is  515.81 SGD.

If I had used the Trust card, I will enjoy the Google exchange rate which at that point in time is 1 SGD = 3.39 MYR. This means I would have paid 1715 / 3.39 = 505.90 SGD instead. This represents a cost savings of around 10 SGD!!

Trust card definitely wins out in this case, even after accounting for the cashback I would have received on my SC credit card. 

 It has also been brought to my attention that YouTrip also offers Google rates:

https://support.you.co/hc/en-us/articles/360000597553-What-are-the-exchange-rates-and-fees-offered-by-YouTrip-

The problem with YouTrip is that first, you have to load the YouTrip wallet, then use it via the YouTrip debit card. This is all fine during the trip, but once the trip is over you realize you will have some loose change still in the YouTrip wallet, which means now you have to withdraw it from YouTrip. This is all a hassle, and the Trust card does not have such problems since it deducts from your Trust bank account. 

Portfolio Allocation - Jun 2023

The time has come for my once-a-year portfolio allocation breakdown.

This will be presented in a doughnut chart.

This year I have maintained equal weightage on both my Local and US stocks. 

I also have a larger position in cash, to take advantage of the current high interest rates offered by banks. 

My 2023 Portfolio

Here's the portfolio for the previous year (2022) for comparison:

My 2022 Portfolio

The segments that are too small and missing labels are P2P lending (dark blue) and cryptocurrency (pink).

Finally here's a comparison of 2022 and 2023 in the same chart:

Compare to previous years

It is quite clear I brought the allocation of my US stocks down (which is intended to reduce volatility), and the Cash components up.

No. 1 Career Move That Will Make You Happier

Oftentimes I hear people complaining about their jobs. There is always something to gripe about, be it colleagues, bosses, a toxic environment, an overwhelming workload, etc., etc.

I came across this article the other day, which I agree with and I believe it will help some of these people:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/26/this-author-interviewed-100-workers-the-no-1-career-move-that-made-them-happier.html

The people who were happiest in their careers, he discovered, shared the same approach to work: They all had a strong sense of who they were when they were off the clock.

In other words, you need to have multiple identities and you cannot lose your entire sense of self to your job. 

Some may associate this with work-life balance, but I feel it is deeper than that. Who is to say being a parent is not work? It is in fact very tiring work with heavy responsibilities. You are responsible for somebody's life!

Coincidentally, the Straits Times published this article within the next few days:

https://www.straitstimes.com/life/entertainment/actress-janice-koh-s-tongue-cancer-battle-led-to-the-surgical-removal-of-more-than-half-her-tongue

“My husband had said something to me very early on in this journey, when I was wondering if I could ever act again,” she said. “He said: ‘We have so many other mountains to climb. Why do we feel the need to keep going back to this one mountain?’”

This reiterates the same point as the first article, does it not? There are always mountains to climb, your (day) job is not the only mountain. Even if you failed this mountain, you can always try for another. 

Later on in the same article, there was a paragraph that shares a common point that I saw in many other articles about a person encountering near-death experiences:

Koh, who has been performing for over 30 years, feels like she is making up for lost time as she has always felt like she did not have enough time with her sons, missing birthday dinners and important family occasions.

Speaking of her present lifestyle, she said: “I’m home when the kids come back from school. I have time to drive them to places they need to go. We sit down for dinner together and talk about how their days went. This time to be present with my family is a real luxury. Even if it is under these circumstances, it is a gift.”

It is sad that a person has to encounter a near-death experience before he/she realizes what is truly important in his/her life, no?

Dividends for May 2023 [Financial Independence]

 Here are my dividends for May 2023:

So I collected $1471.65 in dividends for May 2023. 

In case you are wondering, some stocks are repeated because I have 2 brokerage accounts. 

Here are my monthly dividends over the last 5 years:

Here are the dividends I collected every year until the current day:

Also, I calculated I received $504.99 in deposit interest this month (SC Bonussaver Salary interest 2.5% + Card Spend interest 1.3% + Trust Bank interest 2% + CIMB Fastsaver interest 1.5%).

Onwards!

Maximizing your Retirement Pot: How to purchase T-bills using CPF

OCBC recently allows the user to apply for T-bills using CPF on the OCBC website. 

In this article, I will show a step-by-step guide on how to do just that. 

Log in to your OCBC account, and select "Singapore Government Securities":

Click the 'Buy' button under TBills:

Enter the details below, agree to the T&Cs, and click the 'Preview' button at the bottom right:

Once you submit the application, you will get a confirmation such as the one below:

Finally, on the issue date, you will get an email from OCBC that specifies the allotment amount, and deduction amount from your CPF.

Happy investing!

Dividends for Apr 2023 [Financial Independence]

Here are my dividends for Apr 2023:

So I collected $784.79 in dividends for Apr 2023. 

In case you are wondering, some stocks are repeated because I have 2 brokerage accounts. 

Here are my monthly dividends over the last 5 years:

Here are the dividends I collected every year until the current day:

Onwards!

My Pitiful Returns from my Investment Linked Policy after 17 Years

So I recently terminated my Investment Linked Policy (ILP), in order to provide $$$ during my upcoming sabbatical. 

This ILP was started 17 years ago when I was still a young man.

From time to time I recorded the surrender value and how much I paid thus far, in order to figure out the returns. The returns here are calculated using the fv() function in Google Sheet and is equivalent to CAGR or time-weighted rate of return. 

The maximum return was only 4% in 2018!!

What is more, during the Covid-19 recession of 2020 the returns were 0%.

The returns were disappointing, to say the least. Hence I decided to terminate the policy while the returns were still positive at 1.9%.

This is also taking into account that there is more and more talk of an upcoming recession in 2023, such as those below:

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/04/14/singapore-cant-avoid-a-recession-economist-says-.html

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/ceos-delay-and-halt-investments-expect-upcoming-recession-survey

I will also share something which I believe is a totally inadequate effort on Income's part. In the portal, they only shared the simple returns but not the time-weighted returns. This is totally inadequate. Folks not versed in finance will believe their returns are great from the below, which shows 20.98%. They will think: Oh! Better than bank returns! That is wonderful!

In actual fact, after taking into account compounding effects, the returns are merely 1.9%...

Also, I looked at the performance of the fund versus its benchmark:

It says 10-year returns are 7.21% since inception returns are 5.96%. Incredulous! No idea where these numbers come from. Likely it is before fees are deducted. I certainly didn't get these returns with my hard-earned money, I only got 1.9% after 17 years.