Rainbow on FI

A sequel to my previous post . Can I make use of XIRR's value to help in my investment portfolio goal setting? Think come, think go... cannot leh. :( WHY? Because XIRR % is like a report card grade which shows how my portfolio has performed over a fixed period of time, say last year. However, it is not practical to set a goal based on the % or confer a meaning to it as the current market value of my portfolio is controlled by Mr Market (although you may argue investment timing matters *cough cough*). So on sunny days, XIRR is good and on rainy days, XIRR is bad. Notwithstanding the fact that data punching is going to be tedious for the value to be accurate. Diligence... hmm... Before I put XIRR completely out of picture... XIRR calculation might be meaningful IF you want to compare some 'investment products' like structured deposit, RSP, Investment-linked insurance or unit trust to see how well their returns fair against stock, ETF or simply inflation within ...

Inspired by SMOL's post , I decided to do some reading and a short post on these "cheem cheem" terms that previously I do not use. CAGR stands for Compound Annual Growth Rate. It is useful in measuring (in %) how much an investment has increased in value over a fixed period of time. Watch the illustration in this video here - http://www.investopedia.com/calculator/cagr.aspx  So if your investment grew from $1000 to $1500 over a period of 3 years, the CAGR is 14.5%. Which means the amount increased by 14.5% on its compounded value each year, as follow Year 1: $1000 +14.5% Year 2: Year 1 compounded $$ + 14.5% Year 3: Year 2 compounded $$ + 14.5% = $1500 This is provided no fresh fund is injected into the investment (the investment compounds itself) over the three years. So if investment A returns 14.5% and investment B returns 10%, obviously investment A is doing better and probably worth investing more money in going forward. The problem is... we do not compo...

It's the time of the year again - time to contribute money to your CPF or your parents' CPF accounts if you are looking for some income tax rebate. Better do it soon too, because there are less than 5 working days to new year (and to qualify)! Another way of getting the tax rebate is to do some good by donating back to society. :) Here is the IRAS link to check out the top-up relief limits:  CPF-Cash-Top-up-Relief (For self is $7000 and for family members is $7000 too. So the maximum rebate amount is $14000.) And not forgetting, there is also the elusive Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) which you could contribute to... What is SRS? More on SRS contributions If you are lazy to analyse for yourself on whether you should put your money into the SA or SRS, here is a good article that can help to shed some light. It might be a good alternative to annuity or perhaps even life insurance (if you are already quite aged and need to pay very high premiums). Note tha...

Past tense = dividends, P/E Present tense = current share price , NAV,  news Future tense = prospect / business analysis, projected earning, speculation Some people like to make decision looking at the rearview mirror, some people like to make decision based on trend and gut feel, some people like to analyse and try to foresee things. Which describes you? ------------------------- My stocks portfolio adventure in 2016: - Earned an ok dividend of 4.3% by year end - My worst paper loss this year was -29% in January - Rode through the boring market period and terrible paper loss by not capitulating and just taking dividends as panadol - Did some diversification of portfolio as it was over-concentrated in certain equities - Paper loss (current) is about double the amount of absolute $ of my dividends gained Looking to do some rebalancing of my portfolio to welcome 2017.

Who says 宅女 don't go shopping? From the rise of ebay, blog shops to Alibaba, we could practically find anything we want online and have it delivered to our house - at times at a better price. Qoo10 is having some cool deals of cart coupon offer here . $3 off $20 min purchase, $10 off $50 and $30 off $200. I usually shop for clothings, PC and handphone accessories. Because of these great deals, I decided to get something more adventurous - a robot vacuum cleaner. For only $82 after the coupon discount ! :) My mom doesn't like to clean the floor, neither do I. So we can't wait to try out this cute machine. I shall write a review when I get hold of it next week. Review 9/10/16: Just slightly bigger than the size of my dinner plate, this little gadget is relatively quiet and simple to use. So far it has functioned quite well as a robot dust sucker, average 3 sessions before 1 charge. Good for people who are lazy to use the broom or lug a bulky vacuum cleaner around ...

I can't believe I am now back to my old-school-days-craze of Pokemon catching. Those were the times when I was glued to the TV catching every weekly episode and watching my cousins playing Pokemon on their Nintendo Game Boy pixelated screen. Almost 20 years later, people on the street of Singapore, from kids to uncles aunties, are glued to their handphone playing Pokemon Go - the evolved and more powerful version. What I have learnt for everyday life by being part of this craze (besides not to dash around dangerously): 1) Do your research There are certain tricks and background information to everything. Why I ended up with Squirtle instead of Pikachu? Because I didn't do my research la! Same for investing - if you didn't do your research properly and just go with the norm, chances are you would not be getting the good 'hidden' stuff. 2) Increasing your chance of luck also need technique You don't expect sitting around your house to catch some rare ...

POSB is currently running a 'Get 1.55% p.a. interest for 6 months!' promotion. Check it out here . How to get the deal? Deposit fresh funds* into your POSB Fresh Funds Account by 4 August 2016 . Fresh funds deposit via cheque(s), cashier's order(s) and demand draft(s) must be done by 4 August 2016, 3.30pm. During the POSB Fresh Funds Account opening process, you will be prompted to select an existing POSB/DBS Current or Savings Account to be used for signature reference. This same account will be used for the crediting of the Cash Gift Interest. This account has no applicable fees or charges. Capped at S$50,000, with no minimum amount required. Maintain the fresh funds deposited in the account for 6 months until 4 February 2017. What happens at the end of 6 months? The Cash Gift Interest will be credited into your reference account by 15 March 2017. Your POSB Fresh Funds Account will thereafter be auto-closed and the funds will be credited into your referen...