SRS Portfolio 3 March 2024 + USD portfolio + How do I max out the idle cash?

SRS Portfolio 3 March 2024

The SRS portfolio received a distribution from Suntec of $933 for the quarter, resulting in the cash balance to increase to $151,474. 

As for the portfolio, most of the share prices fell post CNY holidays. As of 1 March 2024, the portfolio value stands at $395,874, down from the value shared during the CNY post of $401,793.  

USD Portfolio (Target US$1m eventually)

I have started to build up my USD portfolio by nibbling at some stocks. My intent is to build up a portfolio of global stocks comprising primarily USD stocks that I like and S&P 500 ETFs. I am taking a longer term view here and hopefully I can resist "selling" the portfolio when market crashes but instead add companies that are fundamentally sound. I don't intend to report the profit or loss on this portfolio. 

The first 3 companies in this portfolio is valued at USD8,564 comprising:

• 30 shares of Alibaba
• 20 shares of Alphabet (Google)
• 20 shares of Apple

The companies I add will likely be fundamentally sound, with services and products that I use or with a longer term outlook that I am bullish on. 

How do I max out my idle SGD cash?

I saw some financial bloggers advocating putting spare cash into fixed deposits or SSB or T bills. The question I always ask myself is what is the interest rate on my cash balance that is comparable with (or better than) fixed deposits but doesn't require the cash to be locked up? 

According to this article, the SGD fixed deposit rate ranges from 2.7% to 3.4%, depending on the bank and tenure. So how do Mr. IPO maximise his SGD Cash Balance?

Assuming I have S$300,000 set aside in the warchest, waiting to be deployed but I do not want the cash to be "locked up", how should I deploy it? Some of you may advocate putting the cash into money market funds, but this is how I will deploy it.

First $100,000 set aside in UOB One Account to earn 5% effective interest rate per annum

I will put the first $100,000 in the UOB One Account. Please see the bank promo page here. 

You just have to settle two criteria:

1. Spend $500 per month on eligible UOB credit cards. There are many cards to pick from but if you are a serious mile chaser, then the Lady's Solitaire card might make sense. You should easily spend $500 of eligible transactions on the cards and earn 6 miles (4 miles from 1 April 2024) per dollar in the selected categories.
2. Credit at least $1,600 of "salary payment" into your UOB One Account. A lot of us will hesitate to tell our HR to change the salary crediting account (again). What if I tell you that you don't have to do that. Just use another bank account to wire in $1,600 every month but remember to select "Salary Payment" and ensure the code used is "SALA"

Viola, as simple as that. Your first $100,000 earns 5% interest per year.

Now, what will be the second SGD account which I will use?

I will put the next $200,000 into Trust Bank Account to earn 3% per annum (for up to $500,000 cash balance)

First of all you need to have the Trust Credit Card, then you open the Trust Bank Account digitally.

The Trust bank account was initially not as friendly as they started with a $75,000 cap on the interest, then they raised it to $125,000 cap and finally at one go, they raised it to $500,000. Now this makes it very interesting as my cash is no longer "locked up" in fixed deposits which I cannot use freely

Two comments on the Trust Credit Card (no point applying the debit card):

1. It is the best card to use when travelling if you don't want to pay the 3.5% forex conversion fee. I swear by it that it has one of the best rates. To me, this is the card that destroyed YouTrip.
2. If you shop at NTUC Fairprice, then this is the credit card to use and you will easily earn quite a lot of LinkPoints which you can use to offset your groceries purchases but the only catch is you need to spend $350 on the credit card outside the Fair Price Group. Now if you drive, you can easily reach that by pumping your petrol at Esso and you get up to 19% off (discount plus linkpoints) 

The base interest rate is 1.5% for the deposits. What are the conditions to earn 3% in the Trust Bank account?

• Make 5 card transactions every month (including buying orange juice from the iJooz vending machines) +0.5%
• Become NTUC Union Member (anyone can become one) +0.5%
• Maintain $100,000 average daily balance +0.5%

So even for readers who have less than $100,000, you can earn 2.5% in the deposits. You can find out more about the Trust Savings Account here.

If you are going to rush to sign up for a Trust Card, you can use this referral code Y9ENVPNE to get a $10 FairPrice E-Voucher. It will also benefit the charities as the amounts earned from referrals will be donated to them.

Happy cash idling.