Monthly Expense: 2021 February

Another month, another tracking.. 1/6 there to annual budget report. Exciting to fill up my tracker up tbh.. hope I'm not the only weird one.  

Expense 2021 ~Feb

This month was marginally higher than Jan 2021 despite a shorter month.

While food/groceries fell lower; main contribution was due to Birthday month, so I am paying less for food this month and also shorter month. However, I can see my groceries fee coming up much higher compared to Jan.. mainly due to the fact that I've used up my groceries voucher (was diligently portioning them out). We can expect this category to rise sharply next month due to higher food and groceries costs.. reckon close to SGD1,000. 

The rest under Basic remains relatively stable for now, and I also don't foresee any bump coming up for the coming months. 

The excess also maintains relatively stable less the entertainment as I had some nights out drinking which explains the higher cost here. 

On another note, I've paid to get premium features on my tracking app using money I earned from Google Rewards. I just want to pay back to the service that I've used for more than 4 years. Support what you like before they go under. 

Cheers

Feb 2021 Dividend/Interest Update

As many know I've set a goal for interest/dividend gain for the year.. around SGD3.3k is my goal for 2021. My own accounting actually ends the financial year in April.. but this goal actually sits in my Milestone excel.. so a different system. I will use the blog as a tracker for myself. 

On another note, I only recognize the dividend once I'm paid so not following Ex Date. 

YTD Gain: SGD364.13

Month Gain: SGD359.3

Ascott Residence Trust (SGX:HMN) 

Ex Date: 3 Feb 2021

Record Date: 4 Feb 2021

Payment Date: 26 Feb 2021

Total Payout per Stock: SGD 0.01986 (1.891% yield, based on Ex Date closed SGD1.05) 

SPDR Straits Times Index ETF (SGX:SI)

Ex Date: 9 Feb 2021

Record Date: 10 Feb 2021

Payment Date: 24 Feb 2021

Total Payout per Stock: SGD 0.04 (1.36% yield, based on Ex Date closed SGD2.94)

Ascendas Real Estate Inv Trust (SGX:A17U)

Ex Date: 9 Feb 2021

Record Date: 10 Feb 2021

Payment Date 9 Mar 2021

Total Payout per Stock: SGD 0.01678 (1.891% yield, based on Ex Date closed SGD1.05)

Trading Book Performance - Feb 2021 - Chaotic Market

The market has been thrown into a big turbinal due to rates move (interest rate movement) on the back of reflation concern. In very layman's terms, the world's interest rate (America) is increasing on the back of the economy reopening and thus interest rate has been shooting up higher and higher every day over the past week. This raised concern that growth stocks or US equities might have overrun thus a bubble that caused the big retracement. 

Personally, I also got hit quite badly and if the equities market doesn't recover, it might just undo my Feb gains. You can look at the figures below where I am only sitting around 700USD gains. I've also taken a few fallen knives. 

However, I am still very bullish on the US equities market but I am not keen to add any more at discount due to my margin requirement. Honestly, I am very risk-averse as I've made quite a fair bit of money (more than what I expected).

I expect this hike in rates won't be sustainable and also money will flow back into equities eventually. The central banks across the globe are also putting in efforts to keep the rates low.. so this might help too. Generally, I feel that the economy is too bullish in its recovery. 

Let's see how next month will go. I'm currently heavy on options.. hopefully, the market will recover. 

How are all your portfolio doing?

Cheers to month-end. 

Birthday Perks

Thought of compiling some birthday perks for the month as it is mine this month.. and hopefully will help you uncover some gem that you might have missed. 

On second note.. it is quite sad for people to have birthday in February, the shortest month of the year.. meaning you get at least 1~3 days less to enjoy such perks. 

Anyway, jumping ahead.. I've split these to a few categories so feel free to jump if the category doesn't interest you. 

Personal/Finance

Tiger Broker (Gold Member) - 5 general commission-free trades within 30 days (birthday perks are the same across Silver/Gold/Ace, you just have to graduate from "Uncertified" trader)

Food

Paradise Group (Gourmet Rewards) - 2x rebate throughout the month, meaning a whooping 20% on the subtotal spent

Genki Sushi (Genki Club) - Birthday 20% off nett spend

Shopping

Shopee (Gold Member) - SGD5 voucher on min. SGD10 spending (I think Gold Tier is the only tier with this voucher)

Uniqlo (App Member) - in-store SGD5 off on a min. SGD60 purchase.

BHG (Member) - 20% Birthday Voucher (off regular price items) to redeem at the customer's service counter

Don Don Donki (Bronze Member) - SGD5 off on next purchase (no min. and only during birthday month)

Honestly there aren't much other noteworthy ones such as small promo from qoo10 etc.

Cheers

New Credit Card - Citi Cash Back+

Saw the following promotion and definitely not passing out on free cash; 

    "Apple AirPods Pro or $350 cash (Citibank credit cards)"

And of course the catch is that you have to be a new-to-bank customer. I had a student clear visa card with Citi ages ago where I canceled last December since student card has limited perks and I wanted a new-to-bank perk. Seeing that it hit SGD350 cash bonus, I jump on it immediately. 

Rationale

The Card that I picked is Citi Cash Back+ which is a no frill, no cap 1.6% cashback card. Initially, I wanted to go after the Citi Cash Back card which gives 8% cashback on groceries/petrol and 6% on dining. However, such good cards usually come with frills such as minimum monthly spend of SGD800 and also cap of cashback at SGD80. This is a little troublesome for me to keep track tbh, thus I went for the no frill. 

Current Cards

My main card is still UOB One card, but I've been spending >SGD1k - <SGD2k which makes me give up quite a bit of cashback since UOB One card is by tier. Now I am keeping track to make sure I spend only around SGD1k on my UOB One card and the rest to the no frills card. 

Consideration

Another factor I considered was my monthly expense.. I projected and plan to spend less this year, ideally charging only <SGD2k monthly is an easily achievable goal but stretching it to <SGD1.5k charges to card. I had a good start with my UOB One card at around < SGD1.2k for Jan.. so another SGD800 on top of my UOB One card of SGD1k easily sustainable at least for now. I can always come back and reapply the cash back card when I see increment of my expenses. 

Cashback Versus Miles

Seeing that I no longer talk about miles.. can see that I am currently in the cashback camp against the miles although I started out in the miles camp. I just see that accumulation of such miles a bit of tedious work.. but I still maintain my DBS Altitude card where I will probably charge large cost items to. Cashback tbh is a quicker relief especially on daily expense.. and also I do think that I am happy flying normal economy class so let's see how it goes eventually. 

Rewards

Of course I picked the cash, hard cold SGD350 by just charging SGD200 to the card (easy-peasy), will post an update once I get the card and get the bonus! I am happy with my cheap Xiaomi wireless earphones for SGD20.. and for expensive ones I still have my over-ear Sony noise-cancelling one. 

I plan to cancel my Standard Chartered card soon to return as a new-to-bank customer in the future as well. 

What's your take on rinsing the new-to-bank bonuses on your non-main cards? I feel that it is still free money, so why not leverage on it. On that note, HSBC has one of the worst service ever, they denied my application without proper reasoning despite my credit score being the highest. #highlynotrecommended. 

Singapore 2021 Budget & Equities Impact

While the pending 2021 Budget statement is upcoming at 3PM today. What's interesting about this is that I stumbled upon an article covered by Bloomberg titled; Banks, Property Stocks Could Be Losers in Singapore’s Budget

Summarizing the article in short will be - STI will unlikely benefit from the budget. 

While STI is heavily skewed in banks and real estate (REITs) names, these names are unlikely to benefit much from the 2021 Budget. One main reason will be how Singapore has already started to recover and function normally as an economy moving towards pre-Covid19. 

The focus for the budget will be likely revolving struggling sectors; aviation and tourism. On the other hand, sectors that might help Singapore grow in the future will also be in the focus; technologies and green companies. 

Some of such blue chips to focus on will be SATS, SIA, SIA Engineering, Genting Singapore, Jumbo Group, etc etc. 

I might be looking to divest my portfolio from Singapore market soon, and look into investing in HK market for long-term as how Singapore has been very lackluster in growth. While dividend gains might be great but flat growth is very turn-off especially that my trading portfolio is growing at a faster pace than my investment portfolio. Or another way might be just divesting from some of the weaker names I have in my portfolio to high and stable dividend generator such as AREIT. Personally I am also looking to invest in REIT with a main focus in foreign exposure.

What's your take on long-term investing? 

Disclosure; I am holding SATS and am looking to cut my position once it hits close to SGD5, bought it as a mid-term swing trade position knowing that airlines will eventually recover and SATS will be the first to benefit from it. 

Alibaba News + Outlook

Alibaba has been going through ups and lows recently.. thought I will write my own view along with some of the news that I've heard. 

Background

Their first trouble was due to Jack Ma's comment on the Chinese Government.. and many of us thought that was what made the IPO of Ant Financial fail. Their share price in US $BABA plunged to as low as ~USD220.. but eventually reach a high of USD270 when Jack Ma re-surfaced in a very short video. 

The uncertainty revolving around Alibaba is definitely taking a toll on its share price. After reporting stronger-than-expected 37% increment in quarterly sales and plans for its continuous investment in cloud & AI didn't really prop up its share price. 

Progress

What trigger a jump in the share price again was mainly due to the news of Ant Financial settling on a common ground with the Chinese regulators which should allow them to go-ahead with their IPO on certain terms (but these are not revealed yet). Market took it positively! 

During Thursday, Alibaba is also pricing its 4 tranche bond deal (was initially planned earlier until Ant Financials got scrapped) which came about strong in Friday. 

Alibaba priced USD5billion deal across 4 tranches (10/20/30/40 year) with the order book as high as USD38billion (almost 8x). It ultimately priced in 30~40bps tight of the initial price guidance (IPT), showing that there's robust demand and support for the company.

The secondary market also reacted positively as the spreads tightened on the back of the news (spread tightened = more demand in layman term). 

Price Target

Nomura shifted their price lower to USD329 from USD338 (Buy Rating)

Raymond James shifted their price higher to USD350 from USD330 (Strong Buy Rating)

Citigroup shifted their price higher to USD345 from USD316 

Truist Financial price target at USD326 (Buy Rating)

Summary

Generally Alibaba business is still solid with or without Ant Financials but if Ant Financials can get going, it will bolster the balance sheet further. 

As of now, I am not holding any Alibaba positions but I did pick up some at the lows of USD221+ and taken profit. 

My view is to look at it and maybe pick up some when I got extra cash on hand and if the price comes down. I view their business resilient with the e-commerce situation. 

What's your take on Alibaba? 

Cheers and have a good weekend!