My Bornean Financial Journey

Overall Portfolio Allocation On November 4th, I bought a tiny sliver of Raffles Medical (BSL.SI) at $1.01 In hindsight, I could have gotten better prices. However, this will be my defensive and long term part of my portfolio. REITs keep dropping these days and I initiated a position in Keppel DC REIT. I first got in at $1.96 and few days after it dropped to $1.88 so I averaged down to $1.89 and $1.90 On my overseas holdings, S & P 500 is breaking new record high almost every day so it bides well with my portfolio as VOO currently forms the biggest part. It is currently at all time high of $286.43. I also signed up for a new roboadvisor service, Syfe. I didn’t invest much, I put in $250 and received a $10 deposit bonus. I’m yet to be convinced that roboadvisor services are reliable long-term and cheaper than me investing myself. My new strategy would be investing the bulk of my savings on ETFs and treating the roboadvisors as bonds in my portfolio. Since I’m investing...

I am 32 touching 33 right now. Ouch! Growing up I have always been frugal and saved as much as I can. However, what I lack was a nous in investing or rather any basic education in investing. That is because growing up in Indonesia, I was accustomed to high interest rates. Bank interest rates of up to 10 – 12% were the norm back then. Even when I started my first job in 2009, I managed to invest via my mom in a bancassurance that paid 7.5% in interest. I really feel like I missed out on a lot of growth opportunities. The first year I came to Singapore, I opened an OCBC 360 bank account which paid 1++% in interest. I put all my savings in the account. Fast forward 3 years to 2018 and due to personal reasons I had to dip into my life savings. I used up everything and had to start from zero again. I noticed there’s a lack of personal finance blog for foreigners in Singapore. Well, at least for those from developing countries like myself. While I have to admit that I a...

I am a late comer to the investing world at 32 but hey it's better late than never. I started investing on roboadvisors February 2019. I picked 3 platforms : Smartly.sg StashAway CIMB CGS eWealth A little while after that, I decided to start investing via DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging) on Singapore stocks as well. So I signed up for a brokerage account via Maybank Kim Eng for their RSP (Regular Savings Plan). This turned out to be the worst investment decision of my life. Why? Because they shut down the Monthly Investment Plan 3 months after I signed up. Hence, I was left with a few counters to liquidate before end of year. What most financial bloggers didn't tell you is that the selling price for odd shares are super low! The worst part of Maybank Kim Eng's termination of the plan is they only give you time until December 2019 to sell each of your counters at $10 each! After that you'd have to cough up $40 per counter! So, no. Please stay away as far as possible f...