Percentage of stock holdings

Below is the % of my stock holdings (SGX and HKEX stocks).

For my stock picks, I mainly follow a friend who is kind enough to share with me his buys. He subscribes to the notion of having around 10 stocks so he can follow them. He buy more of a stock when he is more convinced of his calculations and is even more concentrated than me. I simply follow. 

Those unwilling to put the work in (or don't have a friend to follow) should probably stick to index funds.

So far, this way have worked for me and my net worth have been growing nicely.

Do you guys think that I am too concentrated on certain stocks?

-H

Mini Goals

I am not passionate about investing/finance, they are just the means to the end (FIRE). As such, I find myself loosing motivation regularly. 

I think it is important to set mini goals in addition to one's final FIRE figure. Setting mini goals and building on them helps one to remain focused, and not how far away one still have to go. For example, my mini goals may be the next 50k or 100k.

Another important way to keep me focused is listening to FIRE/retirement/investing/finance/self-improvement audio books. I listen to such audio books when my hands are otherwise occupied, e.g. walking/driving or washing dishes. I typically borrow audio books from NLB using Overdrive or Libby. I am not too particular about the book title, or if I wasn't paying attention to some chapters. 

Giving to parents

To me, some expenses are fixed and giving to parents is considered one of them. Of course, if the parents doesn't want it (and one can confirm that they don't need it), one can skip it.

When J became a SAHM, I was adamant that contribution to her parents (aka my in-laws) should not stop or decrease. Our decision to let her leave her job should include her continuous contribution to her parents. It was only a few years later, upon repeated persuasion and confirmation by her parents that they don't need the money, that she stop.

Similarly, our FIRE target includes contribution to my parents. Me not earning a fixed income, doesn't mean my parents have to tighten their purse strings! By following the safe withdrawal rule (4%), I hope that I don't run out of money when I retire, so I can continue to contribute to them forever.

-H

Reducing Expenses

About 7 years ago, I was reading about taking mid career breaks (when one is still mobile and energetic) and remembered feeling that it makes sense. Apparently, I feel J needed a mid career break and convinced her to take a year off work (no pay leave) to explore her interests. She took up Amigurumi (knitting) and this was also the year that she became pregnant with our eldest. 

Both of us do not have expensive hobbies and thus I was roughly sure that my single income can 'carry' the family. I did not track expenses (too lazy, and we don't have expensive hobbies). But it was then that I started tracking our net worth regularly. I believed that when something is being tracked (i.e. net worth), it will grow as we will make decisions to influence it (whether subconsciously or not). 

I figured that at the end of 1 year (with me as sole breadwinner), if our net worth still increase, it means my single income can really 'carry' the family. After 1 year, our net worth did increase. 

Later on (5+ years ago), J left her job to stay home with our eldest kid. The previous experience demonstrated to me that we will be OK.

Nevertheless, I remembered cutting down on the below expenses. 

• She was paying around $8.5k annually for insurance. I was paying around $1.5k annually for mine. I cancelled all our life policies and converted us to term policies.
• I asked her to go lesser for her facials and massages.

5 years later, we are now a family of 5 (3 kids!) and inching closer to our FIRE (mine actually, since J is considered retired I guess) figure. Despite being a single income family, I am still tracking our net worth regularly and aiming to FIRE. With luck, I hope that I can reach FIRE by 2030.

-H

Portfolio Breakdown as of June 2021

This is our family portfolio breakdown inclusive of CPF.

This is the same breakdown without CPF. As our SRS are mainly in stocks (can have SSB + cash), you can see that we are deeply invested in stocks (80%).

-H

The Six Steps of the Wealth Ladder

https://www.my15hourworkweek.com/2021/04/13/the-six-steps-of-the-wealth-ladder/

I like this post, and can resonate with it as my own numbers are roughly the same.

-H

Education planning.

Most people will probably think I am KS, but I am already thinking about my kids' education in the distant future (> 5 yrs).

Will I encourage them to study poly, A levels, IP or IB?

I had a chat with a youngster today. She studied IB, and doesn't really know what she wants to study in. According to her, she thinks IB and poly > A Levels. She has the following thoughts:

• University entry scores are typically easier for IB compared to A levels
• Her poly friends seems to know what they want to study (in university). Poly seems to be more open to let students explore and find out their interests/passion.

This post is a reminder to me next time when I am thinking about my kids' future education. 

-H

Car

A few years ago, I was talking to an ex-colleague about cars. She had just changed car, and I think she bought a Mercedes. I think the price was in the region of 150k. She said that a Jap car is about 120k then, and for a bit more (which the family can well afford), she can get a Mercedes!

I did not say much more then, but I was thinking that with that mindset, she is probably prepared to work till retirement age.

A car to me is just a transport tool, from A to B. 

A difference of $30k, if invested over 20 yrs, is about $116k (assuming 7% growth)! 30k can also mean 201k if the growth is 10% annually for 20 years.

All these will add up to retirement!

Then again, if driving a Mercedes bring value to you (e.g. brings a smile to your face everyday) , go for it! It just doesn't bring value to me.

-H

Kids future education expenses

Although to DBS, in Singapore public universities, a four-year undergraduate program costs on average S$40,000 for Singapore Citizen students. This is approximately a third higher than what it was 10 years ago, and does not include other miscellaneous fees. 

My eldest kid is 6 yrs old. Assuming the cost is 20 yrs away, the cost is 40k x 1.33 (1st 10 yr) x 1.33 (2nd 10 yr) = ~71k. Since I have 3 kids, I estimate that their university fees will be $71k x 3 = $213k.

The DBS article further says "If you’re thinking of sending your child to an overseas university in Australia, the UK or America, the fees charged by universities are markedly higher, ranging from S$16,000 to an eye-watering $86,000 per year. Factor in student accommodation, living costs and flights, and the amount could reach $100,000 for a single academic year, which is just about enough to wonder if you will ever retire."

I had this conversation with J before, on whether we should sponsor the kids' university education. Her parents sponsored her education while my parents sponsored mine partially, maybe 10% and I took a education loan for the rest which I started to repay when I started working. I had assumed then that most people paid for their university this way, and did not see anything wrong. I still do not see anything wrong.

She told me that she felt we should sponsor the kids' university fees. I asked her whether we sponsor a engineering (cheap) degree or a medical (expensive!) degree. Her reply was "How do we tell the kid that we only sponsor engineering and not medical degree right?" At that time, I was wondering if I will ever retire.

Later on, I had other thoughts as well. Do I want my kids to study overseas, to experience overseas living, better job prospects etc? 

After some research, I decided that our universities (NUS, NTU) had very good ranking, and I should not spend much more in getting them to study overseas! Hopefully, what I can give them then, is their own financial independence then. The money saved by getting a local education can go towards that.

-H

Invisalign journey (part 2)

(Set 1) Days 4-5

The feeling in the mouth is pretty much the same, with tightness in the teeth and not much pain. Here is the nitty-gritty of wearing the Invisalign:

1. Part of the treatment plan is to do a teeth exercise at least three times a day. You will need to bite on a tiny pool noodle, affectionately known as a Chewie, for five seconds on each pair of top-bottom teeth. Since I have breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks/supper, I will do the exercise right after I put my aligners into my mouth. As with all types of exercises, over working the muscles will lead to aches. :p

2. I hear myself sounding different, like a bit deflated, but H thinks it is mostly ok. I do make conscious effort to pronounce my words more clearly.

3. If you have a teeth clenching habit like I do, you will have very sore teeth with and without aligners. In fact, the latter felt worse, especially since you still need to chew your food. Apparently, the two layers of aligners between the teeth will amplify the usual clenching force and exacerbate the problem, so it is a good time to correct this bad habit. Instead of closing the jaws with the hind teeth, shift the closing position forward by keeping the front teeth in contact.

4. I secretly like to escape to the toilet for my 5min routine after each meal to have a quick break before running into the next storm of three kids. @.@ Thank you, H! Love you lots for holding the fort!

(Set 1) Day 9

My hind teeth don't feel sore anymore. Yay!

By the way, Dr Jasmine (Day 6) said that if the hind teeth soreness is really bad without the aligners, I can leave the aligners in my mouth while eating. I just need to avoid the strong colours like laksa and curry to prevent staining the aligners. 

Since nothing feels different, I will update again when I change to Set 2 on Day 15.

J

Living the Cocomelon Life

I realised that the best way to diffuse any kid situation is to break out a song and dance. It makes me happy. It makes them happy. I recently go around the house singing modified Cocomelon and Word Party songs. I would also use their names when I sing theme songs from their current favourite shows like Robocar Poli and Super Wings and shout out things like "Paw Patrol, to the shoe bench!" to get them running to put on their shoes. Hopefully when I am upset about anything, I will sing a song rather than scream my lungs out at them. 

Cocomelon:

"Your da jie is the best, the best there ever was.
Your da jie is the best and we love her just because.
<Insert current good behaviour. For example:>
She shares her biscuits and helps didi/meimei wash their hands.
She's the best, she's number one."

"I'm so glad there's three of you,
K,D and G."

Word Party:

"Let's not fight, let's not fight.
It's not right. so let's not fight"

J

Invisalign journey (part 1)

At the age of 36 years old, I decided to fulfill a wish in my bucket list to have straight teeth. I have an overbite, aka buck teeth, with misalignment in the molars behind. The front view of my wide grin looks almost fine but my teeth stick out in my side profile. The last straw came when our youngest kid kept hitting into my jaw/teeth and I have bleeding lips from her headbutts. 

Hence, the search began...

I want to eat anything I can, so no metal braces for me (unless I am unsuitable for clear aligners). I did the free online assessment with Zenyum and was assessed to be unsuitable for its treatment. Zenyum focuses on front 6 (or 8?) teeth only, which explains why their treatment fees are generally much lower than Invisalign. After googling a bit more, I decided to save time by skipping the other brands and heading straight to Invisalign.

Invisalign also offers a free online assessment and the Invisalign Concierge called me several times to follow up. They sent me a $200 discount voucher and names of several dental clinics within my preferred area. I googled the clinics and their dentists and orthodontists and finally chose the clinic which luckily was in the list of my insurance company. Casa Dental (AMK), here I come!

But the journey detoured on my first appointment with the orthodontist Dr Jasmine Lee. I needed to get my lower wisdom tooth extracted by the dental surgeon Dr Chan and my teeth checked and cleaned by dentist Dr Yong. [Both Dr Chan and Dr Yong were gentle and comforting. Thumbs up for them!] Dr Jasmine recommended that I have the (most expensive) Comprehensive package which includes unlimited sets of aligners and one set of retainers. The $7500 package covers all consultations with her henceforth but I will need to pay separately for the rubber bands to correct my jaw position. Oh yes, and if I had chosen to do metal braces, I would need to extract two more upper teeth. So yay for aligners again!

My second appointment (6 weeks after the first one) was to approve the treatment plan from the ClinCheck. I have 38 sets of aligners with 10 to 14 days in between them, so the entire treatment will be about 1.5 years. By the way, the next lower tier of the Invisalign package gives up to 26 aligners only, so my package was assessed accurately prior the results of this ClinCheck.

My aligners arrived 4 weeks later (2 weeks more than expected) and I collected them from the receptionist. H thought I should start treatment immediately, so I can ask questions at my third appointment, which is one week later. My third appointment was initially made to collect the aligners. Or else, the SOP for the next appointment was one month after treatment started.

Day 1

When I inserted the top aligner for the first time, my front 2 teeth hurt like I fell flat on my lips. The pain on the rest of the top and bottom teeth was almost unnoticeable in comparison. I looked into the mirror and was horrified that it was only the first morning. Oh man....

Surprisingly though, the pain subsided faster than I imagined and was quite bearable. And I feel 100% healthier already. I couldn't have snacks and sneaky attacked the fridge for my cold sweet drinks anytime I wanted. H said I should take my weight to compare 1.5 years later. Well, it hovers between 48 to 50 kg.

Days 2-4

The aligners can be inserted and removed more easily with each day. The pain while wearing the aligners has transitioned to a feeling of tightness. In fact, my teeth feel painful when I removed the aligners to eat. They are trying to move back! Grr... I try to eat quickly, so I can put the aligners back in fast too. But my gastric doesn't seem to agree with this new routine :( . Hope I get used to it soon...

J

Seeing the spouse 24/7

One of my main aim of retirement is so that I can see my wife everyday 24/7 (I am glad for the current WFH which allows me to do that, though I may not be present mentally).  So I don't understand it when people say they rather go to office than to see their spouse all day long (not sian meh?). Why do you get married then? 

What is your love language?

-H

Kids expenses

A lot of people seem to assume that my expenses will be high because I have 3 kids. But I pointed out that my 3 kids go to SparkleTots and their total school fees are < $1k. Compared that to a parent with a single kid in atas childcare where the fee is > $1k.

I believe that to be good parents, there should be no financial stress on the parents as financial stress is what breaks up family, lead to arguments etc. Anyway, as the nearest childcare is SparkleTots, its a no brainer for me.

-H

Helping kids love reading.

This is a rather short first post. I decided to pen down my (H) thoughts here and got my wife (J) to pen down hers too! Maybe we (or the kids) will look back at this in 20 years fondly.

I wish to help my kids love reading. So I dug out my 30~ year comic book.

Looking at it for a while, I think its too cheem for a 6 yr old. I shall attempt to look for suitable comics for the kids next time we are at the library.

10 Great Kids Comics for Early Readers

-H