Don't Waste Our Life On The Pavement

"The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass." - Revelation 21:21 NKJV

"Don't waste our life on the pavement" was the powerful sermon message I came across this morning. It reminded me on what our true purpose in this world was What are we living for? Are we living just to eat our bread of toil? To pile up the gold and the treasures? One day, the gold we fight so hard for our whole life, will be worthless. Because we'll walk over the pavement made of pure gold, if our names are found in the book of life.

Or in the financial blog term, to build the war chest? What will happen if the Alpha and the Omega decided our time is up, before we can use our war chest? Or worst, before we get to enjoy the result of successful deployment of our war chest ...

Yes, as long as we live, we'll need the bread, the gold, and the treasures. They're the mean, but they're not the destination. So let's remind ourselves, not to get too fixated with them, or even worship them. There is a higher calling for each of us, like showing care to the people we love and people we don't.

By the way, I just got to know a new friend, Derek, from TheFinance.sg. I felt very honored to have my blog added in his web site. I have also added the link to TheFinance.sg in my blog roll.

Happy Sunday All.

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portolfio

I've been in shopping mood as there is a great sale going on.

For my low cost portfolio, I was buying:
1. iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF (IWDA LN) - 230 shares at USD 41.29 on 21 Aug
2. Capitaland Commercial Trust - 2400 shares at SGD 1.275 on 24 Aug.

My low cost portfolio allocation as of 24 Aug is 57% equity - 43% bond. My allocation target is 60% equity - 40% bond, which mean I have a little bit more room to add to my equity holdings.

July 2015 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

Market continued to sell off in July. Indeed as of 21 Aug 2015, it seemed clearer that the global stock market had started to peak in April (see table below). While some people might feel stress looking at the paper loss in their portfolio, I'm actually rather excited as I've been waiting for such time and opportunity to come. It's been a while since I last saw STI traded below 3000 points.



As of 31 July 2015, my low cost portfolio was down -6.48% in weighted annualized basis. Portfolio allocation was 40% stocks, 40% bonds, 20% cash. Portfolio performance was supported partly because of the strengthening of USD and HKD.

I made my regular contribution of $3,000,00 to the low cost portfolio. Total investment as of July $72,000.00. I received a distribution of $100.80 from United SGD Fund Cl A (Dis), which I reinvested back to the fund.



Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of July 2015

New Blog Links Added

It's about 8 months since I started blogging. During this time I have also learnt and received feed backs and suggestions from other financial bloggers. Amongst the blogs available, I like to read the following blogs:

• Singapore Man of Leisure - I like this blog for it's witty and at times "cryptic" write-up that raised critical questions which will stimulate the readers thought process. 

• Lady You Can Be Free - No nonsense blog of a lady, who showed that financial independence could be achieved, by taking responsibility on our own finances and investment decision. The lady's experience also showed that we needed patience before we could reap the fruit of success. 

• A Singaporean Stock Investor - Another no nonsense blog that taught us how to achieve financial success by making smart decision with our finance. A lot of in-depth analysis to ensure the money we spent for living or investment were based on sound decision making process.

I felt that there were valuable lessons we could pick from the above blogs, and I have added them into my blog roll with the permissions from respective blog owners.

Thank you Jared, Lady, and AK for allowing me to add your blog links. Keep up the good work.

Singapore Jubilee - Prayer for My Nation

God's blessing for Jubilee (Triple Harvest):  "Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest." - Leviticus 25:21-22 NJKV

I pray that God will bless Singapore and all my fellow Singaporean so:

1. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

2. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
3. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
4. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
5. The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
6. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
7. The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.
8. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
9. The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.  
10. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail.

May Singapore continue to achieve greater happiness, prosperity and progress. We love you Singapore, God bless Singapore !!

July 2015 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

The rout in equity market continued in July. Amongst the hardest hit were:

1. Commodities related sector especially oil and gold.
2. Countries that had heavy reliance on oil export such as Brazil, Russia, etc.
3. Gold and oil mining companies.

Taking advantage of the market weaknesses, I added equity allocation during the month of July.

Below were the summary of my transactions in July 2015:
1. Bought

First State Dividend Advantage $6,000.00
FTIF-Templeton Global Fd A(acc) SGD $6,000

2. Sold
United SGD Fund Cl A Acc (SGD) $20,004.61

Weighted annualized return as of July stood at 2.58%, a significant reduction compared to 6.36% return in June. An important factor that supported the portfolio resiliency in July was the bumper dividend received, which amounted to $760.63.

Despite the "so-so" return I should be grateful as I was able to sleep tight during the market rout, while some other investors/traders were having sleepless night, depression, or even committing suicide.

Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of July 2015

Goal Review in May and June 2015

1. Read 2 chapters of bible every day.
I was rather disorganized in these 2 months, but on average I read bibles 5-6 days a week in these 2 months. I gave myself 77% for these 2 months. There were many useful lessons one can learnt from God's word. I needed to ensure I had the discipline, so I didn't miss the valuable lesson.

2. Exercise 4 x 45 minutes every week.
It was school holiday, and I was spending time and enjoying life with the kids and my wife. I was relaxing too much and not pushing myself hard enough to keep with my exercise routine. On average I was only achieving 60% of my goal in this area in May and June.

3. Reduce my weight by 5 kg, from 78.5 kg to 73.5 kg.
My weight surged back up to above 78 kg with the holiday and eating out. Fortunately I was able to bring it back to 77.8 kg by end June. Score as of June remained at 14%.

4. Save $90K, and use the fund to grow my investment portfolio from $265K to $355K.
I continued my contribution regularly, $3,000 in May and another $3,000 in June. Total fresh fund invested ytd: $74,000. Score as of June was 82%.

5. Achieve 4% return on my investment on average weighted basis.
I had a mixed result in this area. My unit trust portfolio YTD return was 8.78% in May and 6.36% in June on annualized basis. While my low cost portfolio YTD return was 1.6% in May and -2.08% in June on annualized basis. I believed both portfolio need more time before I could gauge the long term return rate more accurately.

Due to increase commitment in other areas of my life, I may have lesser time to blog. Next goal review will be done on a quarterly basis.