Refinancing

One of my biggest debt is my hdb flat, for which I took up a bank loan. Not because of the low bank interest rates but more because we are not eligible for a hdb loan.

Personally I would prefer to have a fixed interest rate loan for 25 years so I can have peace of mind, not having to worry about fluctuating interest rates. Along which comes fluctuating monthly instalment.

We took a 2 year fixed interest loan from UOB. Recently the 2 year is up, so I went hunting for refinancing packages.

I asked UOB for refinancing package but because there are upfront fees, I decided to refinance with other bank. That is where i chanced upon posb loan. They offer fixed interest rates for 4 years. So far this is the longest fixed rate tenure. I need not have to fret over the loan every 2 years. In the end, I refinanced my loan with POSB.

Another question that were burning in my mind were whether i should make partial repayment using my cpf OA monies. I pondered over this for quite some time.

Eventually I decided not, so that if i were to become jobless, my hdb loan could still be sustained using my cpf OA monies for a while (1-2 years).

You don't have to be right all the times

Recently I had been listening to some of warren buffett speeches on youtube to see if I could gain some wisdom from his wise words.

There was one speech where he mentioned that investors do not need to be right about all the companies. He just need to be right about SOME.

And he asked the audience to imagine that they could only invest 20 companies in their whole life, what would it be.

I pondered over this and reflected on my strategies.

I only invest 10k a year. Assuming I do this for the next 30 years, i would have invested in 30 companies or less in my entire life. This synch with Warren Buffett.

There is no need to know everything about all the listed companies. One should just focus on a industry and learn as much as possible about the business.