Stock crash

I just bought 5k of Singtel at $3 per share when the stock market experienced the largest drop in one day. A black monday precipitated by a 30% drop in oil future.

This drop had a tsunami effect, as investors are already jittery over the effect of covid 19 on the global economy. 

I planned to stock up more on singtel once it reaches 2.50.

Cancer insurance

Everytime I read a story about cancer, I would feel very paranoid. The costs of treatment could easily be 100k for each relapse.

Somemore cancer is a recurring issue. I recently read the story of a cancer survival from the woke salaryman blog, it mentioned that the person spent 200k in a span of 2 years.

Imagine a person having to cough up 200 grand. After reading this, I immediately went to look at my insurance policies.

I have 2 AIA policies for cancers, for total sum assured 230k for major cancer diagnosis. 57k in the event it is a early cancer.

I have 2 prudential term insurance for death, terminal illness of up to 700k. My integrated shield plan is also under prudential. Rest are accidental plan, a daily hospitalisation policy.

I realised my cancer cover (in the event it was detected early) would only pay me 57k. Far from the 200k.

Immediately i googled for the best cancer guard plan in sg and came upon FWD's. I got sold, I bought their cancer insurance for 100k coverage and paid one year premium. The plan cost half of my AIA, it was cheap. 

I did everything online and paid for it. The plan cover all cancer regardless the stages. This fit what I was looking for. Although i am not sure whether claiming this would be easy, but i believe all insurance companies claim process would not be so easy. 

Anywhere my concern is to pluck the hole. Indeed there are many other illnesses that could pose a threat, I still think cancer (especially since it can happen anywhere) is frightening and could potentially bankrupt the person and his family. With this purchase, i could at least breathe easier as I feel my policies are able to cover me adequately.

Wuhan outbreak

With Sg just averting a recession last quarter, I felt that the wuhan outbreak may like plunge sg into recession as tourism will be hard hit.

This meant that the stocks market will go down earlier than expected.

The wuhan outbreak is likely to last a few months, meaning the downturn will also likely last.

Last check on my existing counters, all are on the downward spiral. I am accumulating cash meanwhile to take advantage of this when the price of my counter is right.

Stocktake

At the end of each year, I would usually do a stocktake of my assets - cash, cpf, investment etc.

This year I decided to consider my liabilities - house and car loan.

My net worth is 141k.

This is quite dissappointing as I have worked 13 years and managed to accumated 10k+ a year.

Though dissappointed, I am grateful it was a positive figure. Imagine if it is a negative one.

This made me think real hard about not change my property, at least not to buy a higher price home and car.

If I had bought a condo, my net worth would be negative. Though negative net worth does not mean the end of the world, it does not gel with my determination to retire in 4 years time with passive income of 15k a year. I think by end of 2020, I should be halfway there with 8k passive income. 

If I could save and invest 200k over the next 4 years, I could reach my goal.

Less is more. I hope by end of 2020, I would have added 50k of stock investments. 

Simple ways to save money

Am writing this post to share some of the ways I have adopted to help me saving 45% of my salary

Every month

• Automatic transfer of fixed amount (45%) to my saving account

Every day

• Loose change - I will empty my purse of any loose change first thing in the morning when I reach office into a container which holds all my coins
• $5 dollar note - Whenever I get a $5 dollar note, I will try to not spend it and then when I reach home, I will place my $5 dollar note into a container that holds my $5 dollar notes (so far I have already saved 350++)

There are months where I can't hit my target because of the holiday expenses etc. I will not beat myself over this because it is expected.

Online shopping again

This week was a short week as my department had teambuilding on Friday. Friday was Black Friday and coming Monday, Cyber Monday.

I was able to hold off my online shopping for Fri, but i bought 7 tee-shirts on Sat, another damage of 71 bucks done.

Though at that time, I knew that I should stop but once again, the irrational side of me won. I excused myself saying that my tees were not appropriate for work, and previously I bought 4 pair of jeans. There was difficulty finding a tee that I can wear to work.

So once again, I gave in.

This morning, I did another online shopping, this round for dog food. So this is a necessity, my dog wet food supplies are low.

Christmas is an exact 25 days from today. For the past years, I have been giving xmas gifts to all my colleagues. But as I search around, I couldn't find an useful gift. So this year, I decided not to give anything.

Coming week is another short week as I will be on a 2-day course. for first 3 days, I will be going for my fightzone session with my colleague.


7 December 2019 (Saturday)
Another week has just passed. I have not bought any things online although there was a lot of promotions especially yesterday.

I have practised that if I bought something online, I will transfer the same amount that I have spent to my saving accounts (I have this account whereby I transferred a fixed amount to it on my payday every month). I put it into practice when I spent 71 bucks last week. Since then, I didn't make any online purchase.

The week had been an uphill one. Received news that the year end bonus was going to real bad and it was. Luckily for me, I did not spend alot because I always assumed I would get 0 year end bonus. And I also did not plan to buy any xmas gift this but as of now, I am thinking to buy a $10 dollar vouchers.

Throughout the week, what kept me going was my fight zone. It was the only thing to look forward to everyday. I have a colleague who is as crazy as me over it. We have been doing it 3x a week for the past 3 weeks.

In another 3 weeks, I will relook and review my finances. I would have accumulated around 24k savings. The year 2020 is going to be a recession year, the stock prices will be hit. I am monitoring the situation. If the price is right, I will jump in. So far, the stock prices have held on.

Youtube video on nice and grand houses

For the past few weeks, whenever I have free time whether in the mornings before I head off to work, or whenever I am on my commute to work, I would browse Youtube videos on condo, landed or hdb that showcase nice looking houses for sale.

Everyone has an ideal dream house, so do I. For me, my dream house is Interlace Condo (the 4,000 to 5,000 sqft ones). I like big spaces mainly because my grandfather's house (in Muar) was a huge bungalow. I still remembered the living room (it was easily 3000 sqft).

So whenever I got time, I would kapo abit and see what are the units for sale at Interlace condo. But recently I got a change of heart. As I look at the youtube videos showing the nice houses, I realised that given my lazy personality, my lifestyle (I am the kind that would just laze on the sofa after coming back from work), it wouldn't make any sense for me to get a nice big house and then spent tons of time in keeping it pristine.

My current HDB is 1356 sqft and I feel tired having to mop the floor 4 times a week. Sometimes I would wish all my furniture just vanish, so I wouldn't have to wipe the dust.

Imagine if I have a 5,000 sqft house, the cleaning and upkeeping is going to take up all my time. This is a nightmare! I wouldn't want to be a slave to my house (my house should be my slave).

I came to appreciate my house more. It is functional, and able to accommodate me. I have spaces to do my exercises.

Though my location is abit far from the central area, I feel consoled when I talked to colleagues who also took 45 mins to go to work (I am not alone :)).