Financial tasks to do before year end

In less than 2 months, we will come to a closure for 2013. There are couple of financial tasks I thought one should try and do before the year ends.

Investment checkup. Review your stock investment and understand on those investment decisions that have not performed well or in a loss, what were the reasons. Was it due to insufficient understanding of the FA, was it due to timing, etc. Only when you understand your weakness and learn from others their strength continuously, then you can keep future losses to the minimal.

Portfolio realignment. For those who has embarked on the permanent portfolio(PP), it is probably time to rebalance your portfolio. There have been many surprises in the last 2 years where market such as Europe has gone up at least 30% despite the fact that they were having so much issues. Dow Jones have also keep hitting new highs. This also reminds us not to invest based on news but to adhere to the strict mechanics of the PP.

SRS. Isn't it cool to be a Singaporean. Apart from the America 401(k) tax saving scheme, in this region, we are probably the only country that have the similar scheme. Since the government has provided that channel, we should make full use of it. On surfing the web, I found these links which may be useful to you if you are interested.

1.  ecitizen.gov.sg - this portal has got all the information that you need for SRS, from who is eligible, what is the max amount, which are the banks, what can you do with SRS, etc.
2. ocbc.com - Just to highlight here, I am not OCBC employee, neither am I promoting anything here. I just like the SRS page which is very graphical and easy for laymen to understand. And besides, you get $30 Robinson vouchers, as part of their promotion now. I mean why not, free things is always nice :).

Charities. The fact that we are talking about the above means that we have done well in life, then shouldn't we give something back to the society especially to the less fortunate ones. With online portal, it is much easier to donate now, one can even charge to credit card.

Thoughts on Permanent Portfolio ...

Met up with couple of my friends to have beer in a Kopi shop, and I was thinking to myself how we have evolved over time. We used to drink at pubs when we were younger and now guess beer is much cheaper in Kopi shop and nicer place to have a decent conversation too. As usual, part of our conversation was about investing. My friend, whom has just finished reading a book 'Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School', by Andrew Hallam, was wondering how best the portfolio can be created.

I shan't be talking about how one can create the composition of the portfolio as that is already mentioned in the book and serveral blogs as well. Instead, I will share how one can buy/sell mechanically for your STI ETF portfolio.

Looking at the chart above, it does show that STI is now on the high side, at most maybe another 300 to 500 points more. So is this the right time to start or even addon to your portfolio? By using mechanical method, you rule out your emotion in your investment. Here is how:


 Below 1350 BUY
1350 to 1700 Buy 3 lots
1700 to 2000 Buy 2 lots
2000 to 2350 Buy 1 lot
2350 to 2700 Sell 1 lot
2700 to 3000 Sell 3 lots
Above 3000 SELL

So now is it the time to buy? Patience is the key