My HDB Flat is Worth Half A Million?

In Singapore, the government provides affordable housing through the Housing Development Board (HDB) which provides flats for people at very cheap rates. I bought my flat from HDB brand new and it cost me slightly over $300,000 for a 90 square metre or 968 sq foot flat. That works out to be around $325 per square foot which is quite alright for Singapore flats.

Yes.. I know that I should never count my HDB flat as an asset since I am essentially living in it.

But just for interest sake, I checked out the HDB website and realised that flats around my area were selling for over half a million!

There were not a lot of transactions but I guess that it should provide a rough gauge of how much my flat is worth now. It's a pity that I am not able to refinance it to unlock some of the cash value in my HDB flat. Otherwise, I would be really rich in cash.

Oh well, guess I will just have to wait for another few more years before I can start hunting for a 2nd property to either live in or rent out..

Income for July 09

The breakdown of my income for July 09

1. Salary = $0
2. Capital gains from shares/rights = $93 + $2300
3. Dividends from PenWest Energy Trust = $11
4. Google Adsense 1st payment = $150.
5. Baby bonus = $750

Total income for the month of July 09 = $3354

Hope that my income for August 09 will be much better.

Financial Freedom Update

I love those Q&A articles that are always featured on the Straits Times. So...I have decided to do my very own Q&A down here:

Q: What are your money habits?

I try my best to save first before I spend. Once my monthly salary comes in, I will usually set aside 10 to 15% into another bank account as part of my savings. Other than that, I buy stocks every once in 2 to 3 months. I am much more a saver than a spender. I only spend on things that are necessary.

Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?

I have a long term view for my investments. My wife and I have set aside cash amounting to close to $100,000. The rest of my money is mainly invested into equities with a small portion in commodities unit trust. Equities are mainly into Singapore stocks while we have some exposure to Canadian Royalty Trusts and US stocks though that makes up only 10% of our equity portfolio.

My Singapore stock portfolio was structured firstly for capital gains and later on in the years, I have started to focus more on dividend yields. Around 40% of my portfolio is currently into REITs or dividend yielding stocks. Some of my stock holdings including Pac Andes, Kingboard, China Aviation Oil, First REIT, Ascott REIT and Suntec REIT.

Q: What about insurance planning?

I am covered for about $600,000 for death/disability and $400,000 in critical illness. My wife is covered for $300,000 in both life insurance and critical illness. We are both covered under hospitalisation plans. We are looking to increase the coverage for my wife to $500,000 and for myself to $1 million.

I use a mixture of term insurance, whole life, and ILPs for insurance coverage. The surrender value of my whole life plan is currently at $15,000 while my ILP's surrender value is around $34,000

Q: How did you get interested in investing?

My dad .

Q: Your best investment to date?

My flat. Bought it for $300,000. It should be valued at around $450,000 today.

Q: Your worst investment to date?

Bought into Unifood during its high of close to $0.50. Lost around $8,000

Q: Any other investments?

Education and reading of books. Investing time into my family too.

Q: Moneywise, what are your growing up years like?

I was taught to save money for a rainy day. Both parents were really frugal though they were quite willing to spend on things like holidays.

Q: Your home is ...?

A HDB flat

Q: Your car is ....?

A 1.6 litre car

Earning Passive Income Online

I have debunked the myth that it is not possible to earn money online!

For those of you who have been following my postings, you should know that I started experimenting with Google's Adsense program around last year. How Google's Adsense works is simple. Advertisements are placed on your website or blogs. You get paid when people click on the advertisements. Of course, you are not allowed to click on the advertisements or to ask readers to click on your advertisements.

So you can think of your website as your very own magazine or e-magazine and Google pays you to put these advertisements on your site. The only thing is that you get paid when someone clicks on the adverts which can take a really long time.

I started off really slow earning a mere few cents from Adsense during the first few months. However, as the weeks and months went by, I began to see a slow but steady increase in my Adsense earnings. Of course it is not alot and the money i earn is really just coffee money. But nevertheless, it gives me great satisfaction that I have been able to pull off something which I thought was impossible - Making Money Online!

I am beginning to brainstorm on new ideas to increase this area of my passive income. I have found that the content I put up might not always be particularly useful at times. This is due to the lack of time to edit my work and stuff.

Just wondering out aloud whether it is worthwhile to invest in a proper domain name and some server while creating some really good content that will be useful to people.

10 facts about Myself

It has been a long journey. 27 years of my life.

While this blog has given me a platform to chart my journey, it has also provided me with the opportunity to interact with others in the online community.

However, it seems that I am perhaps hiding behind the veil of the internet where people cannot really know who am I.

So perhaps today I should reveal a bit about myself so that people can have an idea of who I really am. These are 10 facts about myself which I hope you enjoy:

1. I was born in KK hospital, Singapore in 1981.
2. I was never good at art.
3. My ECA in primary school was Science Club. But I also joined table tennis and track and field
4. My K2 teacher gave me black coffee to drink.
5. I need coffee to survive nowadays.
6. I would like to think I am pretty smart. I scored straight 'A' s for my O levels =)
7. I actually got a place in Brown University but had no $$ to go there.
8. Financial Freedom is important to me not because of the $$ but because of the things that it will allow me to focus my attention on (e..g family, friends, etc)
9. I once had less than $10 in my bank account.
10. I now earn more than $10 a month online. One of my dreams is to be a full time blogger

There you have it. Ten "interesting" facts about me. Hopefully this will help readers to get a better feel of the person writing this blog.

Income for Jun 2009

My income for this month was particularly low as I wasn't working.

Here is a breakdown (comprising both passive and active income):

Salary = $260.96
KepLand Dividends = $80
PenWest Energy Trust Dividends = $11.02
Capital Gains from Trading = $128.92 + $62.27
GST Credits = $200

Hopefully the breakdown for July 2009 will be much better

Time to Reorganise this Blog?

It has been almost a year since I started blogging on my journey towards financial freedom.

One thing I realised from just navigating around my blog is that it is totally disorganised. My thoughts are not well collected and they seem to be scattered all over the place! Sometimes I post about a certain topic twice or even three times!

It must be tiring for people who follow this blog to follow my chain of thought and stuff.

So perhaps it is time I tidy up this whole blog and provide a sort of content page to allow easy navigation.