SRS Portfolio and CPF Update - Feb 2018

The last 2 weeks turned out to be very "exciting" where the US markets crashed and in turn, causing the Asian markets to follow suit. It was ironic that the markets crashed on a set of good news but this has always been the case - "sell on news".

For my SRS portfolio, I added another 15,000 shares of Frasers Commercial Trust at $1.40 this week  . . . you can see that the portfolio i have constructed below is pretty "boring". It won't move up dramatically (other than UMS) and hopefully, it doesn't "move down" dramatically as well and it has proven to be so over the last one week. 💤

and with this addition, my projected passive income for 2018 (including the bonds and stocks in non SRS account) increased to around $50,708. This works out to be an average monthly income of around $4,225.

Trading

For the non SRS portfolio, I also bought some trading positions in AAPL and Singtel this week, but this are purely for short term trading where i am expecting a rebound once this mayhem is over. 

CPF

I have previously blogged about using CPF as a retirement tool back in April 2017 and that i repaid the CPF balances drawn for my property as i rather the government pay me interest than i pay myself interest. I also topped up my 2 kids CPF Special Account using their own Ang Pow money in April 2017.

My elder son received his first CPF statement ever in January and was pretty excited to see $333.28 interest credited into his account. He told me this year he is going to do the same for CNY this year and i told him i will "match" dollar-for-dollar for his Ang Pow money if he does that. 

So how much interest did i get for 2017 after repaying the CPF balances drawn for property (light shaded green pie)? I got about $20,225.02 in interest. 

Hope this can provide some inspiration for your own retirement (or plan for your family). 

Two comments on how i see the CPF for those in the 25-39 age bracket (the "young"): 

1. I am at a different stage of my life, so if you are young and need to use the CPF to help finance the property, just do it. It helps in alleviating the cash flow needs for a young couple starting up a family. Of course if you can use cash instead of CPF, that would be better  
2.  I am pretty disturbed that the government intends to a lower the Eldershield age to 30 years old. The article is here. This is making the young fund the old. I think it is not quite ethical to do this at their age. They would need to change the scheme to "Youngershield" ?? 🙄 Even though the young can "opt out", i am not sure if that is still the right thing to do.  

That is all for now, wifey is complaining why i am on the computer all afternoon and not helping out with the chores. 😀

Happy SRSing. Did you buy any "stocks" during the pre-CNY sale?