Updates for Dec 2018

Finally it is time to hand in the result for 2018.  Total dividend for the year is 14,709.91. Still $300 short of the $15K target set. Let's try hard in 2019.

As for overall comparison with last year figures: 
- 54K increase in cash component (i.e. cash in balance and the value of stock held)
- 27K increase in non-cash component (i.e CPF OA, SA and MA balance plus SRS investment and balance)
- 9.5K increase in the joint investment account with hubby

Overall, 笨mummy is happy with the amount of money she has managed accumulated this year with her employment income. Of course, she hopes that she could have better control over her spending, especially the portion on foods and coffee. 

Dividend / interest for month of Dec 18:  
Ascendas H Trust - S$ 224.80
SPH - $ 140.00

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Dec 2018	S$ 364.80
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 14,709.91

High interest rates - a pro and a con

Interest rate is a double edged sword except when you have cash earning bank interest and outstanding mortgage with the bank.

笨mummy just received a letter from the bank that her interest rate is going to increase from 1.6% by another 0.6% to 2.2%. She was surprised to receive the letter from the bank announcing this considering that the rate was increased from 1.3% to 1.6% around Aug/Sep 2018 and in less than 6 months another increase announcement.

Although the terms and conditions allow her to re-price her mortgage, the current housing loan rate offered by the same bank is of a relatively higher rate. She is seriously considering whether to start to pay off the outstanding loan using cash Nov 2019 when her lock-in period end as it seems the trend of higher interest rate is here to stay. 

Negative and discouraging remarks

Dealing with negative and discouraging remarks are often what make the FIRE journey harder than what it may seem. The casual remark of “what is so great about getting that extra $100 or $200 from a high interest yield saving account. If you are so great, you should be earn few hundred thousand from trading in properties or stocks like those reported in the papers”, “that extra dividend or interest of that few hundreds cannot even pay for that xxx”, or “not buying that ‘good-to-have’ item does not make you rich”. It is especially hard when it comes from your significant others or your family members.

It is so hard to make someone see the “light” at the end of the tunnel. Maybe this article is in a way right. Sometimes a person may want something like financial freedom and able to have time to do his own stuff,  travel around, etc. But the question is how much pain / suffering you are willing to take to achieve that. 笨mummy is a person who can live without the latest gadgets, the fancy new clothes ranges from some fashion house, latest branded bags, etc. and if this is what it would take to reach Finance freedom, it does not bother her very much since she can live without them.

But looking at her hubby, she knows that he is not willing to “suffer” by depriving himself of these things. He always said that he spent some much time at work and being so stressful, he needs to buy stuffs to help reduce the stress otherwise he does not know why he is working so hard for. However, after getting these stuffs, it does not make the stress from work to go away and the worst is after he got these stuffs, most of the times he does not bear to use them. These stuffs would be kept in the drawers, cupboards or anywhere he can find space to store them. After a while, these stuffs would be spoilt due to long storage and cannot be used.

It is very tiring to deal with someone who keep complaining about having to suffer at work, yet unwilling to bear some pains to get yourself out of the suffering forever. The little bit of extra income counts toward the end, it is a journey and not a shortcut and you would not see the result immediately.

笨mummy has gave up on trying to convince her hubby to join her in her pursue of financial freedom and passive income as it is very tiring to deal with negative comments when your intention is to help and you ended up being attacked for what you are doing. 

Updates for Nov 2018

One more month to go before the end of 2018. Time really flies especially when 笨mummy is back at work compared to her SAHM time. It is a joy to see the bank account figures moving up due to input from monthly salary, dividends from shares and also interests from the high yield savning accounts. 

With the new year approaching, 笨mummy is picking up speed on projects that she has put on hold due to lack of time. She spent her weekend on tidying and cleaning the cupboards, wardrobes and also the windows. She also kicked start her mini re-model of the spare room to an official playroom for the two kids. Hopefully everything can be completed by the end of the year. 

She is looking forward to the Christmas holiday when she has more time to spend on these tasks. 

Dividend / interest for month of Nov 18:  
Ascendas India Trust - S$ 358.00  
Mapletress GCC - $ 192.60 
Ascendas REIT - $ 146.97 
Suntec REIT - $ 249.10 
DBS Pref Share - $ 473.86 
FCL Treasury Bond- $ 184 

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Nov 2018	S$ 1,604.53
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 14,345.11

Updates for Oct 2018

The accumulated dividend received to-date this year is just $200+ from  the net amount of dividend received for whole of 2018. It was much faster this year due to increased investment made over the course of this year - Mapletree GCC in May, Ascendas REIT in September as well as the rights issue last year which resulted in 笨mummy owning more shares of Ascott and CDL H Trust. 

There is a piece of good news from Hyflux in October - they managed to find an investor to pump money into their business and hopefully there is a chance for her to get back a portion of her capital from the Hyflux bonds. 

Actions for the month:
笨mummy earned some coffee money from the rollercoaster ride that happened in middle October. She added 4,000 units of Ascendas REIT at $2.50 on the 12th October and got rid of them on the 17th October for $2.55. 

She also got rid of one-third of her M1 shares at $2.10 while waiting for further news on the GO and also any potential counter-off. 

In addition, the Perennial bond held by 笨mummy has been redeemed and she received back the capital invested of 6,000 and the last coupon payout of $139.88.


Dividend / interest for month of Oct 18:  
Ascendas REIT - S$ 1,667.50
Perennial Bond - S$ 139.88

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Oct 2018	S$ 1,807.38
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 12,740.58

Updates for Sep 2018

Time flies... it is finally 3 quarters of a year gone and 笨mummy has been in her new workplace for 9 months. She also received news that her buddy at workplace just throw in the letter. It is sad to have someone that you look up to advices and assistance at work leaving. His resignation also indirectly benefit her as she has been assigned to take over most of his current portfolio. But it also indirectly highlighted some of the problems with the current management. 

Investment wise, it was an exciting month with news of a GO for M1 which 笨mummy is holding on to 20k units with an average cost of $2.1 after accounting for dividend. The offer of $2.06 is less than the average cost but the overall loss is not too huge to bear. Of course, she is still hoping for a higher counter offer. Meanwhile, she would just wait and see. 

Added 5,000 units of Ascendas REIT
笨mummy also did a bit of shopping this month and added 5,000 units of Ascendas REIT on 7 Sep 2018 when the private placement news was released.  Some may argue that the purchase price of $2.63 may be a premium compared to the private placement price of $2.54. But  笨mummy, being a long time vestor in this REIT has seem a number of early private placement where the share price would raise eventually again and much higher than the private placement price after a while. It is always good to go in during such opportunities to get the shares even at a slightly premium.

On hindsight, the purchase is not a bad decision since the price has recovered to 2.64 at the last day of the trading this month. 

Dividend / interest for month of Sep 18:  
Nera Tel - S$ 50
Kingsmen - S$ 50

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Sep 2018	S$ 100
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 10,933.20

Updates for Aug 2018

It is another great month for 笨mummy’s wallet due to the yummy dividends received for the month and also a slightly higher interest received from her saving deposit due to the changes to UOB one account (she has moved $25,000 from SCB e-saver that gives her 1.25%  to UOB one account which giving her an effective interest rate of 2.43%).  On the bad side, it appears that she is locking up a rather large amount of cash with the banks.

笨mummy had decided to rebalance her portfolio by reducing the retail bonds that she is currently holding. She had disposed the following bonds that are trading below $1:
- Aspial (BEYZ) disposed at $0.955
- Oxley MTN (BJFZ) disposed at $0.995

Reason for doing so is that given that the interest rate is on a upward trend, the coupon payout % for these retail bonds no longer justify for the amount of risk to be taken. Secondly, 笨mummy must also admitted that the decision was in a way partially influenced by the recent Hyflux incident. Although the amount affected was considered not a lot as her total cost was only $6,800, it still left a bad taste. 

The proceeds from the sales of the retail bonds would like to be put in another high yield saving account while waiting for a chance to deploy them to buy shares when opportunities arise.

The total dividend to-date after adding Aug dividend is $10,833.20. This amount is 17% or $1,594.92 more than Aug 17 total dividend.  


Dividend / interest for month of Aug 18:  
M1 - S$ 1,040
Keppel Corp - S$ 300
CDL H Trust - S$ 456.86
Suntec REIT - S$ 247.40
Ascott Trust - S$ 351.12
Aspial Bond - S$ 52.07
Mapletree GCC - S$ 111.70
Capital Mall Bond (3.08%) - S$ 76.37
ST Engineering - S$ 550

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Aug 2018	S$ 3,185.52
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 10,833.20

Updates for Jul 2018

This is the month that 笨mummy received $0 dividend from her investment. But on the bright side, she would be getting a bit of her pro-rated bonus which slightly less than half a month plus she also been told that she would be expecting an increment of 6%. Not so bad to get an increment after working for 6 months. 

Work-wise, she is also relatively busier than previous months due to more works slowly coming in. She is managed to bond better with the rest of the team and that entitled her to some updates on the latest happening. 

Investment wise, 笨mummy has not been taking actions for a while mainly due to the lack of fund as she is pouring money to her retirement portfolio, locking up some funds to maximize her & hubby DBS Multiplier Account to achieve 3.5% interest which is a relatively good return for a low risk “investment” and also to increase her saving with UOB one account by $25,000 to continue to enjoy the 2.44% interest.. With SIBOR going up, she is also looking at opening a CItibank MaxiGain Account to build up the bonus interest and moving some of her fund from SCB esaver at the later stage when the base plus bonus move above 1.5%. 

If you can get a low risk or even risk free return of 2% to 3.5%, there is really little motivation to pour the money in the market for a riskier 5% -6% return. 笨mummy is getting lazy these days...

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Jul 2018	S$ 0
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 7,647.68

Mini milestones review (Mid 2018)

Since it is now mid of the year, 笨mummy feels that it is a great time to review the four mini milestones she set for herself in her journey to FIRE and check whether she is on track to her FIRE. 

1. Clear mortgage of her 4-room HBD flat (this is her only debt) 

笨mummy is left with S$235K on her mortgage loan with OCBC at an interest of 1.30% p.a. which would be adjusted up to 1.60% p.a. in few months time. She and her hubby has managed to accumulate cash that is sufficient to pay off the mortgage which is keep in multiple high interest rate saving accounts like DBS Multiplier, UOB One account and OCBC 360 account. 

2. CPF Special account to reach minimum sum of S$161K to cater for retirement 

Her CPF special Account has increased by $10K from end of last year to reach $120K. This is due to 笨mummy rejoining the workforce and her employer started to make contribution to her SA account as well as the CPF interest from last year. 

3. Having enough passive income (from dividend, interest, etc) that is sufficient to cover HER recurring expenses
Based on the latest update, the dividend income received as at June 2018 from her  investment is $7.6K and 笨mummy believes that she is on track to achieve a passive income that would cover her recurring expenses of $784 per month.  

4. Having enough passive income (from dividend, interest, etc) to cover the household expenses
This is still a long WIP for 笨mummy as the current expenses are higher as both children are enrolled in childcare and with the diapers and formula milk that child 1 and child 2 need.The current dividend income only managed to cover her recurring expenses with very little surplus. 

Workplace politics suck

It has been 6 months since 笨mummy rejoined the workforce from being a SAHM for almost 8 months. 笨mummy really starting to hate workplace politics. It is something that seems almost unavoidable at workplace and almost everyone who work face it at a regular basis unless you are a self-employed like tuition teacher, insurance agent or a grab driver.

Being new to the company and joining at a level that one need to manage junior staffs who have been in the company longer than you may seem to be an issue. 笨mummy has experienced first hand as to how then junior staffs would find excuse to not to do the work assigned by her. And these junior staff are likely, in her opinion, the smarter one. They choose works based on the managers they want to work with and in most instances those that could help them progress or promote faster. By doing / picking works selectively, they also allow themselves to more time to focus on the works assigned by those managers. As the saying goes 多做多错少做少错不做不错。While those more honest staff, often the not so smart ones are unlikely to reject works assigned but their work quality are often not that good.

Being new, 笨mummy is also often very unsure about the procedures. Sometimes she find that her peers are not actually very helpful when she tried to approach them for help or advices especially when she is very unsure of what is the normal procedure that she needs to take. It also makes it very hard for her to give work instruction to the junior staff when she herself also do not know what are the correct procedures.

Enough of rant.. 加油💪笨mummy咬紧牙关硬撑下去吧！ 看在钱份上。 As her hubby always advise her to take a step at a time and bear with what is going on for the sake of monthly salary that goes into her bank account.

Updates for Jun 2018

Another month has passed. Overall a great month for 笨mummy, as she managed to accomplished a few things:

- Career
Her six months probation has passed and she got her confirmation. And, of course, this comes with perks - extra $$$ as her Company allows staff who are confirmed by June to be entitled to bonus which would be pay out in July. 

- Passive Income
笨mummy has found a way to achieve the highest interest rate tier of 3.50% for the DBS Multiplier for herself and her hubby accounts. This method only required minimal effortl by incurring a small fee of $8 to $12 a month and playing with a float of $25K earning no interest for 6-10 days. This allows a 1.30% or $54 extra interest for each multiplier account. 

She had started in May to build up the resources needed to generate the cashflow and the result would be out in early July when the June interest is credited. But based on the Bank and Earn Summary, 笨mummy is confident that the plan works as she saw the indicator pointing to 3.5%.   

Dividend / Interest for the month of Jun 2018
OCBC - $ 206.34
Ascendas H Trust - $ 250.40

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Jun 2018	S$ 456.74
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 7,647.68

5 days 4 night staycation at Thomson medical

笨mummy spent 5 days and 4 nights in a hospital with Child 2 due to bronchitis last week. The bill came to around $7.5K and with deduction from Mediasave of $1,800 and claim allowed by the insurance (a shield plan), she only needed to fork out $6 out of pocket for the total bill. She is thankful for the insurance that she took out in the first month when child 2 was born and it helps to pay the main bulk of the bill. She would definitely encourage parents with young kids to take out at least a basic shield plan. 

The reasons why the bill came back to such a huge amount is because 笨mummy has opted to switch from a two bedded to a single bedded room after first night and the hospital is a private one.

The switch from two bedded ward to a single bedded was 笨mummy's request. As the first night stay at two bedded ward was a terrible experience as the little one would be constantly disturbed by the nurses who dropped by to do their checks throughout the night for both children staying in the ward plus the constant coughing of the other child in the room. To make thing worse,  the parents sharing the ward left the light on their side on through the night and this affected child 2 as she was used to sleeping in completely dark room. On the first night, Child 2 had problem sleeping and only managed to doze off at 9.30 pm and woke up at 1 am before falling back to sleep at 3am and up again at 6 am the next day.

Hence, a switch to single ward was made the next day so that child 2 can has better sleep with less disturbance at night. And indeed child 2 did manage to sleep from 8.30 pm all the way to 6 am the next day from the second night.

As for why 笨mummy opt to stay at Thomson Medical (TMC), it was because 笨mummy brought child 2 to the 24 hours clinic at TMC and the doctor made the call to admit child 2 due to her condition. The 24 hours clinic is always the first choice when there is emergency at night or during weekend when the GP clinic is not open. 

笨mummy had rather bad experiences with KK Hospital A&E when child 1 was sick. Generally, the waiting time at KK hospital A&E was quite okay when child 1 was a newborn (i.e. below 3 months of age) but when child 1 passed the newborn age, the waiting time was terrible and one could wait for 2 hours and it is not even your turn to see the doctor. Other than the waiting time, the doctors that 笨mummy encountered at KK hospital A&E are generally young doctors that look rather fresh out of the medical school and they still need to consult the senior doctors after their examination. And it makes no difference between seeing them and a normal GP at the 24 hours clinic at TMC as their medical knowledge are on par. Plus if there is stool test of blood test that needs to be done, it can also be done in-house at TMC.

笨mummy hopes there would not be another staycation anymore.

Updates for May 2018

On a personal level, it is a hectic month of May with Child 2 starting childcare. A lot of crying during school as expected and a lot of “activities” waiting at home when the kids are back - feeding, bathing, coaxing to sleep, follow by laundry, household chores like sweeping and mopping. Work wise still in the “do nothing much” mode as workload is considerably low and time at office is not productivity used. 

Invest wise, it is a good month with a rather handsome amount of dividends (see below) coming in and there were some buyings activities in May as follows: 

- Subscribed to June 2018 SSB of $34,000 using two accounts and this coupled with the redemption of the Feb and April SSB as a mean to switch from low interest rate SSB to that of higher interest SSB
- Added 9,000 unit of Mapletree GCC at $1.21 before XD

Total dividend received for this month is sweet amount of $4,300+. .. How 笨mummy wishes that it is a monthly occurrence. ☺️
The only bad new in May is due to Hyflux. Having $8,000 vested in its preference shares and having a possibility of writing off if things never improve is a rather painful thought but this could happen. 

Dividend / Interest for the month of May 2018
Ascendas REIT - $1,418.40 
Ascendas India Trust - $85 
DBS Pref Share - $233.07 
FLC Bond - $181
Keppel Corp - $280 
Kingsmen Creative - $75 
Mapletree GCC - $453.1 
NERA - $75 
Oxley Bond - $123.97
SPH -$120 
ST Eng - S$1,100 
Suntec REIT - $243

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in May 2018	S$ 4,387.54
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 7,190.94

How much a typical family spend?

A year has passed since 笨mummy’s post that detailed down her household expenses. It maybe a good time to revisit the household expenses again since the profile of the household has changed. Now there are: 

• two full time employed parents (as now 笨mummy has rejoined the workforce)
• a 4.5 years old child 1 attending full time childcare
• a 18 months child 2 just started attending full time childcare

Groceries <$500>

This is the most difficult part to estimate or budget. A family can have many options - to cook or eat out as well as what to eat and where to eat. Based on past spendings, $500 a month is a manageable sum for a family of 2 adults and 2 children below 5 year olds.

Household expenses <$289>

• Internet and phone line - $29.00
• Utilities - $200 (based on past spending, the expenses are typically between $80 to $180, so $200 is a higher estimated. It is always good to over-budget than under-budget)
• Town council charges - $60

Children expenses <$1,214>

• Childcare expenses - $470.40 x 2 (exclude enrichment and other ad-hoc expenses)
• Milk for child 1 - $17.25 (child 1 is drinking normal UHT packet milk)
• Milk for child 2 - $95.60 (child 2 is on formula milk. On average a box of Gain Similac IQ Stage 3 consists of 2.4kg of the milk powder. It is a cheaper option compare to the normal tin can one)
• Diapers - $160 (Diaper expense mainly for Child 2. She is using Pampers Pull up pants size M. Average 5 pieces a day or 350 piece a month)

Individual expenses <$783>

This only consist of 笨mummy's own expense. Mainly on transport, phone bill and insurance. 

• Transport - $50.25 (笨mummy only top up her Ez-link card once a month due to the advantage of staying at Tiong Bahru which is 2 MRT station away from  her workplace and shopping places that her family frequent)
• Mobile phone - $32 (A simple 6GB data plan without any phone contract)
• Breakfast & Lunch - $0 (笨mummy has started bringing home cooked food to office. It helps to keep her lunch expenditure manageable and reduce the waste from unfinished vegetables bought)
• Insurance - $600 (average premiums for all her insurance consisting of term life, endowment plan, medical and critical illness)
• Miscellaneous purchases - $100 (笨mummy has limited her expenses as much as possible. Getting her coffee craving from pantry's coffee machine that is free, avoid snacks which is also good to keep her weight in check, limit the buying of new clothes.)

Total expenditure estimated to be $3,572 assuming hubby also has identical expense as 笨mummy. This figure is a lowest estimated on the expenditure on the basic that there is no additional ad-hoc expense like medical expenses if anyone in the family is sick or additional expenses from school like outgoing or birthday celebration or red packets to relatives’ children and parents and in-law for CNY or things that need repair or replacement, like broken pipes, spoilt air con or light. And also that the mortgage for the house is fully covered by the CPF contributions. 

Updates for Apr 2018

Another month has passed at work. Work is boring.. almost literally as 笨mummy has the least work much amongst her peers to do on hand. There is really not much work to be keep her occupied at work. She is bored to tears. 

She attended an internal manager meeting at work discussing on staff performance. She once again feel how cruel it is to be assessed, ranked and judged by people. Although she was not the one being assessed, she could feel the pain to be inflicted to a person that is the centre of other people’s judgement. In many instance she feels that managers fail to undertake the role to nurture like a mother to a child and rather adopted the role of judge to pass judgement on people based on their own set of invisible rules. 

Just because a person is working for an organsiation and need to report to someone else above him (like a manager), it does not give the manager a right to judge him. Both persons are employed by the same organisation and both contributing in his own to the organisation. Being of a higher rank or position does not make you any better than the other. 

Anyway 笨mummy's "judgement day" is also coming soon in May and the feeling of waiting to be judged suck. Maybe she may end up deciding to go or being ask to go. 

Enough of ranting, let provide the financial update for Apr 18. Actions in this month are: 

- managed to get $10,000 Apr 18 SSB but missed to apply for the May issue as she clearly forget about the deadline

- bought 5,000 units of Ascendas REIT on 3 Apr @$2.60 and sold it on 9 Apr @ $2.70 for a quick profit. 
- Dividend this month is good. But expecting a better in May as a few REITs she owns are giving out dividends. 

Dividend / Interest for the month of Apr 2018
Hyflux Pref Share - S$89.75
Perennial Note - S$139.12 
M1 - $930.00

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Apr 2018	S$ 1,158.87
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 2,803.40

Updates for Mar 2018

Mar is a depressing month for 笨mummy as the reality of going back to work trashing your self confidence was felt again by 笨mummy. Sometimes it is hard not to be affected by negative judgements on one work performance. The problem with back to the workforce is the constant judgements from peers and bosses on how one performed at work, it can range from the quality of work, the way one presents himself to the bosses and co-workers. It is unavoidable but still the feeling still suck. Being an introvert, 笨loves the research portion of her work but hate the clients facing part of her work and with a group of extrovert co-workers can be quite overwhelming for an introvert. 

She somehow missed the time when she was a SAHM where the only person that would judge her for the “work” is her own children and hubby. Maybe this is why there are so many get rich schemes and people queuing for 4D and TOTO so they could just be the lucky one who can get out of the rat race. Anyway 笨mummy is still under probation and if things do not work out, maybe she can go back to her SAHM life again end of June. And survive a bad record of not performing well for a probation. :(

After venting the frustration at work, it is time to share the cash inflow received. Overall a okay month with about $300 inflow. She also did a small trade in Mar to sell the 5,000 Ascendas REIT purchased in Feb at $2.67 and earning herself some pocket money. 

She also redeemed her 10,000 of Sept 2016 SSB and subscribed for the Apr 2018 issue, hopefully getting a better overall interest. In addition, she is keeping her fingers cross on the outcome of the Hyflux CPS and hope that the company would redeem these CPS in the coming April 18. 

Dividend / Interest for the month of Mar 2018

SSB Sep 17 - S$ 56.55
Ascendas India Trust - S$ 244.00

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Mar 2018	S$ 300.55
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 1,644.53

Updates for Feb 2018

February is busy month with the CNY preparation consisting of spring cleaning, getting ready red packets, buying of CNY goodies and also an "exciting" period for the stock markets where we are seeing big dip in the stock prices and indexes. It could be quite a emotional time for some people especially those who just enter the market and never experience such huge drop in stock prices and indexes before. But it is a good thing that this “correction” ended rather quickly. 笨mummy guess that with automation, actions are taken much quicker and time frame for the “correction” is much shorter compared to the previous huge corrections that she has had experienced in the past. 

Here are the actions taken by 笨mummy this month: 

• Subscribed and received 20,000 of SSB for the Feb 2018 issue. 笨mummy treated this as a short term saving account since the first year interest of 1.55% is better than most banks FD. 
• Opened a DBS Multiplier Account in view of the higher interest rate. 笨mummy loves how DBS revamped this account. She has also blogged about it earlier. 
• Picked up 5,000 units of Ascendas REIT at S$2.57 this month using up about a portion of the fund 笨mummy reserved for stock purchases. It is always more prudent to buy in slowly as we would never know when the stock market would bottom. But 笨mummy is a bit sad that she did not manage to get ST Eng at $3.21 even though she entered a buy order for it. All she can do now is to wait for the boat to come back again so she can board. 

Dividend / Interest for the month of Feb 2018

Capmall Bond - S$ 77.63
Suntec REIT - S$ 260.40
CDL H Trust - S$ 542.72
Ascott Trust - S$ 410.30
Aspial Treasury Bond - S$ 52.93

Dividend received in Year 2014	S$ 8,241.99
Dividend received in Year 2015	S$ 8,978.59
Dividend received in Year 2016	S$ 12,145.15
Dividend received in Year 2017	S$ 12,964.44
Dividend received in Feb 2018	S$ 1,343.98
Dividend received in Yr 2018 to date	S$ 1,343.98