Portfolio/ Work Outlook 2020 & interesting reads (8th Jan)

Wishing fellow investors, friends and readers a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020!

A few readers have started to gently remind me that I'm late for my blog post update! 😅 Would firstly like to thank all of you for your continued support and concern since I started investing in February 2018. Time flies, 2 years have passed in a blink of an eye.

tl;dr (Too long, didn't read) Summary:
1. Busy Dec Period: Taking a toll but Fruitful - 
Work, studies and relationship commitments have taken up considerable time.

2. Portfolio update: Outlook for next 2-3 years -
Investment portfolio is likely to take a backseat. Currently, I am gearing up for wedding/HDB. If you have any pro-tips regarding couple finance/ saving for HDB/Wedding, please do leave a comment/drop me an email! 😊

3. Work update: Performance for the year/ Career building - 
Career is at a stage it can go either way. I need to secure a promotion before the current boss moves on to his next post (2 years target, 4 years max). Overall secured a good performance this year and will have chance for further exposure.

4. Interesting reads and thoughts of KC
- Sing vs. Singh
- LV's success and why we should aim to go over to business side on a company as an employee.
- Sugar baby: Would you be one?

1. Busy Dec Period: Taking a toll but Fruitful

Work:
Indeed, December has been a crazy month with my work as I saw a ramp up of work activities due to my department trying to spend the allocated funds for projects.

Gatherings/Paktor (dating):
Christmas and New Year was also a great time to get together with friends whom I have not seen for some time to catch up as well as to spend time with our loved ones. I would like to thank my loved ones for being my pillar of strength and support. You know who you are! ❤️ And so, one colleague and a long time University buddy both invited me to their HDB. Co-incidentally, both are in Sengkang. And so, it kickstarted a HDB conversation between my partner and I. One thing I learnt was that renovations could be cheap(er) and your house turns out more unique/ customised if you do not go to the interior designer.

Night Classes:
My night classes are starting to take its toll on my body with packed classes in the evenings on most Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I have to somehow last till end of March. Short term pain for Long term gain. Press on!!

2. Portfolio update: Outlook for next 2-3 years

My Priorities have changed: for the next 2-3 years, from being a single person to starting preparations for marriage. As a result, my portfolio savings goals is likely to take a hit. Something has got to give way so I will have to be more prudent in my daily spending to maximise my savings over this period.

This also means that I will have minimal capital to deploy and will have to be more prudent in screening my counters. First and foremost, the bottleneck would be savings and the main constraint is the limited amount of salary I have. It is either I spend less, save more or I increase my salary somehow.

I am also on the lookout for BTO but I am quite inexperienced in this aspect: if you have any opinion and good advice regarding HDB/BTO, feel free to drop a comment below or drop me an email. I would really appreciate it!

On my portfolio side, there is some speculation that AIMS Apac Reit would be in for a M&A: https://www.investingnote.com/posts/1778469. Meanwhile I would keep calm and collect my dividends.

Portfolio as of Jan 2020

	Stock name	Code	Entry price	Shares	Price	% Allocation	Type
1	FCOT	ND8U	1.4674	1000	1467.37	3.61	Base
2	FLT	BUOU	1.0712	2500	2677.88	6.60	Base
3	Singtel	Z74	3.3182	1000	3318.16	8.17	Base
4	APTT	S7OU	0.1631	10000	1631.4	4.02	Base
5	Vicom	V01	6.0340	500	3016.99	7.43	Base
6	SSB	Just for reference	1.0000	2000	2002	4.93	Base
7
8	Aims	O5RU	1.3800	3000	4152.48	10.23	Base
9	Cash				$22,333.06*	55.01	Cash
				Total Amount	$40,599.34	100.00

- Portfolio value is $42,318.06 at end of 2019.
- *$20,000 earmarked for wedding/housing fund. (expect my portfolio to take a hit)

Short Term Goal 2-3 years
Wedding/Housing Fund Target: (approx. $800 per month min.)

Year	Year Start Value	Target Value	Actual Value
2020	$20,000	$29,600
2021	$29,600	$39,200
2022	$39,200	$48,800

Projections (since inception):

Road to Financial Independence
PROJECTION					ACTUAL FIGURES
Year	Age	Portfolio Projected 2%/yr	Current capital injection Rate/yr	Estimated Dividend 3%	Actual Portfolio at end of yr	Actual Capital Injection/yr	Actual Dividends
2018	31	$12,000.00	$12,000.00	$360.00	$15,941.59	$16,928.40	513.25
2019	32	$24,600.00	$12,000.00	$738.00	$42,318.06	$23,670.94	$890.54
2020	33	$37,830.00	$12,000.00	$1,134.90	$22,318.06 (Till Date) (-$20,000 for Wedding/HDB fund)	- (Till Date)	-  (Till Date)

Long term portfolio goals would stay as per the table under the Portfolio Update page. It remains to be seen how much I would be affected with the goals shift. 

3. Work update: Performance for the year/ Career building

My job transition has stabilised and it is time to think about improving my current skillset so that I can hopefully move up to the next level in my career.

I have been incredibly lucky to secure a pay raise and severance (previously retrenched) as well as a chance to travel abroad for business for exposure in my new employment.

Added responsibilities beyond current job scope (can be a double-edged sword):
The positive here is that my current boss thinks that I am performing well and turning out good results as compared to a few colleagues who are in a similar level to my role despite only being in my role for half a year. Consequently, I will have a chance to prove myself as I take on added work (tasks for the next level job) outside of the core responsibilities of my current role as well as more opportunities to gain exposure and experience.

The drawback is that I will definitely have less time for monitoring that market (which is probably fine since I will have less capital to deploy). And also, past experience at my old company where I was retrenched has taught me that things can change very fast, especially if my boss were to be changed by the management or re-located to elsewhere in the company.

I might lose favour and get stuck so I am under some pressure to push and secure for the promotion fast within 2 years. If I do not manage to secure this by end of 4 years, it would mean that I have got stuck because by then my current boss is likely to move on to his next post.

--------------------------------------------------

4. Interesting reads and thoughts of KC (8/1/2020)

#1: Sing vs. Singh: Singaporeans vs. PRs?

Read More: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/chan-chun-sing-and-pritam-singh-spar-parliament-over-data-distribution-new-jobs-among

Read More: https://www.todayonline.com/commentary/singapores-economic-growth-and-job-creation-have-benefited-citizens-more-foreigners

*Disclaimer: This is just my opinion and based on anecdotal experiences. I am not siding any political party, but more concerned about Singaporean's future and my own future as a Singaporean.

One of the major talking points that have caught my attention was this Sing vs. Singh showdown in parliament where our opposition is questioning and pressing our ruling party to inform us of the exact breakdown of Singaporeans and PRs in what is defined as "local PMETs"

This is a tough and a cold hard truth Singaporeans may have to face: Are Singaporeans these days so strawberry that we have to rely on policies to guarantee we get ahead in this supposedly meritocratic system?

But, if we go down such a path, it is dangerous because in the private sector, work quality counts. And in some cases, the work quality I have seen from some of my Singaporean colleagues really make it hard to justify putting them ahead of FTs in my various stints at a few MNCs. Many of the FTs I have worked with in MNCs have good exposure, turn out better work quality, better work attitude and are far more humble and open to learn than Singaporean colleagues.

I really feel that the government should release the statistics and let us draw our own conclusions. If we are failing, we need to know and we need a knock on our heads, fast.

#2: The Story behind Louis Vuitton

  

In my previous blog post, I shared this video (a documentary on LV's success I watched on my flight back):

Firstly, I gained a good understanding of branding and business models of a successful business that I find is commonly found in other businesses as well. Successful businesses often are able to charge premium for their products, create a good and loyal customer experience and while earning a high margin. From an investing point of view, a 40% margin would mean a highly profitable business.

A breakdown of LV's cost in a bag is as the picture above.

The people who actually make the bag only earn the pie from 10% of the price of the bag. The sales person earns from the 50% pie, while the company takes in 40% profit. I find this a sobering thought now that I am in a business related function, having come from a technical background within my industry. Folks in the business side have far more chances for advancements while the manufacturing folks are often kept there (don't fix what isn't spoilt) as production managers in the manufacturing departments often try to keep things status quo.

I used to envision a career in Technical, but in most companies, Sales teams often have a louder voice and are the decision makers in the company. This is true for my current and previous company. Even if you make the world's best bag, it would be nothing if nobody knew about it and none of it gets sold.

Where would we want to be in a company? Think again.

I could be misguided by my own experiences but I would definitely want to leverage on my technical experience to try to gravitate towards sales/marketing functions and customer facing roles as I can already feel a considerable difference being employed on the business side.

#3: Sugar baby: Would you be one?

At this point... just want to put out the supposed "benefits" of sugar dating the lady got:

- HP laptop
- Pandora custom made necklace
- Hotel stays and private yacht trips
- Iphone
- ~ $3,000 SGD allowance
- Support daily expenses, pay for student loans

I'm rather speechless with this one. But I do think she is rather brave to be truthful about this. I think she has a day job that earns around $3,000 as well so I guess this gives her the ability to sustain the kind of lifestyle or dating she wants. I just can't help but wonder if this is an exploitation disguised as 'dating'.

Read More: https://www.businessinsider.sg/sugar-baby-relationship-sugar-daddy-what-its-like-2019-8/?r=US&IR=T

What do you think?

K.C.

If you like this post, you might like our facebook page as well. I'm also on Investing Note.

Related topics:
1. About K.C. What is my story?
2. My 3Cs to money/investing
3. Why you need to set aside money for savings first
4. Interview process cycle: How to increase your interview rates
5. My 2018 Year end review
6. I'm retrenched: 3 things to think about

7. Why I refuse to spend >15-30 minutes budgeting each month

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