Finance Kaya Toast

All right, as we approach the end of 2025 with the year-end bonus in our pockets, we might be feeling rich AF. Hence, I thought its apt for me to revisit my value investing strategy, and take a look at which stocks are at "good value." (I'll cover more of what good value means in this post) Remember my previous post, which states that one of my goal for 2025 was to hit a $10,000 annual passive income and achieve a $1,000 monthly passive income? This jolted me to review my existing income portfolio and revisit which stock may be at "good value," that makes investing my year-end bonus worth the while. And yes, Mapletree Industrial Trust (ME8U.SI) caught my eye. Here's why this blue-chip REIT is "good value" to me. 1. The Price to Book ratio of Mapletree Industrial Trust at 1.2X is the same as it was back in 2017. Holy cow, it doesn't make sense. 2017 was before this stock acquired its data-center assets. Yes, I know that Mapletree Industrial Trus...

All right, let's get down and dirty. EVERYTHING has risen both in price and valuations in the past few months. By everything, I am referring mainly to the traditional investment asset classes of equities and bonds. What this simply means is that you'll stay a high chance to lose money if you blindly buy now. Smart money (this refers to institutional investors like your sovereign wealth fund managers and financial institutions like your banks and insurance firms) has entered the markets, although I personally believe that the stock/ bond market has some more room to go up, as the FOMO retail investors who have been waiting for the "right opportunity to enter," will eventually lose patience and enter blindly. But that's another story for another day, I digress. Well, nonetheless if you really have to buy something cause your money is mostly still in the bank doing shit. Here's what I would personally do and why. I'll either buy the local blue-chip Reits that...

Fear seems to be the main message one's getting everywhere. Like literally everywhere. From the casual conversations about the stock market in my staffroom pantry to the traditional print media to whatever content these 'finfluencers' are putting out across the various social media platforms. 'Just chill and have a game plan bro.' That's what I always share with my peers and colleagues. Here's my personal game plan amidst the sea of rising fear or FOMO towards the stock market. 1. Get paid while you await opportunities to accumulate. Yes, personally, since the start of 2025, I have added 30,000 shares of the Nikko AM Straits Trading Asia ex Japan Reit ETF (CFA.SI). Reason is plain and simple. At my average price of $0.762 per share, its a steal at about 20% discount from its fair book value, while giving me a dividend yield of slightly above 6%. Singapore's Consumer Price Index (CPI) is expected to average between 1.5% to 2.5% (Monetary Authority of Sing...

Happy 2025! All right good people, I'm gonna skip the generic suggestions, as one can probably chat GPT 'financial new year resolutions' and get pointers such as build an emergency fund, pay down one's debts, start investing etc. Rather given that this blog acts as sort of a personal financial diary for myself, I'm gonna spin some suggestions to myself on what I aim to achieve financially in 2025. Hence, the disclaimer that none of this should be taken as financial advise, as I'm literally 'writing to myself.' 1. Yes boring works. For 2025, I'll Aim to maintain an 80:20 equity-bond portfolio. Critics will either argue that I'm taking too much risk (As the more conservative proponents will argue that my age should be the proportion I hold in bonds. Hence, 33 years old = 33% in bonds) or that I'm taking too little risk, given the relatively long run-way of about 3 decades I have till retirement (assuming I choose the traditional retire age of 6...

Hi good people, yes I am back as teachers get some respite during this year end season. Hooray, we have made it to the end of another tedious and grindy year. A recent conversation with a friend went along the line of "Hey bro, DBS shares recently went up to above $40. I'm thinking of whether I should buy now?" Knowing that this friend of mine has all his investments in ultra safe assets like T-bills and Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB), I replied "Why do you want to buy DBS shares when it has rallied to an all time high since 2005?" He replied eagerly "DBS confirm won't die one. Besides, it has risen to above $40 and the momentum in its share rally seems strong. I think it will continue to go up. Its seems like a sure win, as the people around me seem to keep talking about DBS and everyone seem to be super excited over the juicy dividend and capital gain leh." Sighing, I replied "Bro, here's a few things to take note of before you FOMO. Pers...

A recent conversation with a fellow colleague in the staff pantry inspired this article. "Hey bro, I'm telling you bond index funds are the worst instrument to hold. I am down more than 10% even though I'm on a monthly regular savings plan (RSP) to purchase a local bond index fund with one of our local banks!" he lamented. Nodding on, I replied, "Hmmm, don't worry, when interest rates eventually start to come down, the price of your index fund will rise back up. But for now, you would do well sticking it out if the fundamentals of your bond index fund is doing all right." He look back at me blankly and asked "What do you mean? Bond index funds have fundamentals too?" Sighing, I gave him a pat on his back, "Yes bro, let me take you through this and also how one can achieve a reliable annualised returns from a seemingly low risk instrument like a bond index fund." So yes, the title of my latest article isn't clickbait. Neither is it...