What is financial freedom?

 I was reading the Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel and he talked about what freedom is.

The highest form of wealth is the ability to wake up every morning and say, " I can do whatever I want today." People want to become wealthier to make them happier. Happiness is a complicated subject because everyone's different. But if there's a common denominator in happiness - a universal fuel of joy - it's that people want to control their lives. The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want, is priceless. It is the highest dividend money pays.

Having a strong sense of controlling one's life is a more dependable predictor of positive feelings of wellbeing than any of the objective conditions of life we have considered. More than your salary. More than the size of your house. More than the prestige of your job. Control over doing what you want, when you want to, with the people you want to, is the broadest lifestyle variable that makes people happy.

Money's greatest intrinsic value is it's ability to give you control over your time. To obtain, bit by bit, a level of independence and autonomy that comes from unspent assets that give you greater control over what you can do and when you can do it. Controlling your time is the highest dividend money pays.

Indeed, having the choice to retire when you want to, instead of when you need to, is what I wanted to accomplish when I embarked on this journey. 

All the best to everyone embarking on this journey to financial freedom!

Endowus Performance June

I did not inject any funds this month as I wanted to allocate a small portion into Cryptocurrencies. There was certainly a huge dose of FOMO there and the prices of the coins dropped soon after I bought. Well, it is just a small allocation or experiment and we will see how it goes on that one. I will continue with my DCA into Endowus from next month. Despite the inflation fears plaguing the market, the S&P 500 is still close to its all time high as the economy and the jobs market are showing signs of recovery. Certainly, one should be grateful when the market is giving good returns and not be overly depressed when the market is throwing its periodic tantrums.  The trick is always to be broadly diversified in low cost funds and to stay the course. 

                                                         Endowus Overall Performance 

                                                           Returns (Net of all fees)

                    Below are the performances of the various portfolios:

 

Below is the breakdown of the funds in the various portfolios:

Portofolio	Asset Allocation	Funds
CPF	All 100% Equities	·      LionGlobal Infinity US 500 Stock Index Fund ·      LionGlobal Infinity Global Stock Index Fund ·      Schroder Global Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund ·      FSSA Dividend Advantage Fund
SRS		·      Dimensional Global Core Equity Fund ·      LionGlobal Infinity US 500 Stock Index Fund ·      Dimensional Emerging Markets Large Cap Core Equity Fund ·      Dimensional Emerging Markets Large Cap Core Equity Fund
Core (Cash)
Satelite (Cash)		·      Aberdeen Standard SICAV I – China A Share Equity Fund ·      Schroder ISF Greater China Fund ·      FSSA Regional China Fund

Please DYODD.

Stay safe and carry on investing!

Till the next time,

Jay

Why Endowus

In my earlier post, I mentioned that one should leverage on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. My main strength is spending below my means so that I will have some funds to invest every month. My weaknesses are seeking the thrill in stock-picking and trading frequently in the hope of generating quick gains. The adrenalin of some early wins will make one believe that he or she has the Midas touch and the skills to trade (where the success should have been attributed to luck), and sure enough eventually one would return the profits and more back to the market.

A huge amount of research has shown that almost none of us can time the market consistently and beat the market returns. Sure, in a bull market when the trend is rising, some of us may be able to compound our gains by leveraging and thus beat the market. I have done it before. But can one do so consistently? When the tide turns (and it can turn quickly), the traders can be quickly found out. 

After one such sobering experience last year, I decided to leave the investing to the experts. By transferring my available funds to the robo-advisor, Endowus and dca-ing whatever funds I have every month from my savings, I basically minimised the probability of me speculating in the stock market and inevitably getting burnt again. Sure, I could DIY but I reasoned that it would be better just leaving it to the experts for the time being and I would rather spend my time in other pursuits in life.

Why Endowus? I did consider other options but eventually pumped for Endowus for the following reasons, among others:

1) Easy to understand investing methodology and ability to create own satellite portfolios to supplement core portfolios

2) Access into Dimensional Funds in the Advised portfolios with decent track records 

3) Funds are SGD-denominated so no foreign exchange fees

4) Single platform for CPF, SRS and Cash investment for ease of tracking and convenience 

With the burden of investing out of my mind, I just need to worry about what I can control which is the amount I can invest every month. I would ensure that I keep to my side of the bargain. The rest I would just leave it to the markets to work its compounding magic over time and it should do the trick. 

Thanks for reading,

Jay

My investing journey

 I am a 41 year old normal Singaporean happily married with 3 lovely kids. My earlier investing journey was riddled with all the mistakes you could possibly think of - picking individual stocks that tanked (Noble, SPH, Starhub etc), contra-trading that went awry and margin trading of Reits which crashed when the pandemic struck in 2020. 

However, I am grateful and humbled for all the investing mistakes made in the past. Although these were substantial losses (some of them 6 digit losses!), they fortunately happened at an early stage of my investing journey. These cumulative losses helped shape my investing philosophy and greatly strengthened my resolve to succeed. I was determined to get back on track and do the 'right' things.

Indeed, the key aspect of successful investing is to know yourself - leverage on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. 

Here are my core investing principles (learnings) after years of 'pain' endured:

1) Invest in broadly diversified low cost funds, instead of picking individual stocks.

2) Do not time the market. No one can time the market consistently. Trading frequently will inevitably reduce the market returns.

3) The broad market (not individual stocks) always goes up in the long run. 

4) Do not sell your stocks during periodic market plunges. Be mentally tough and ride them out. 

5) I want my money working as hard as possible, as soon as possible.

We will face setbacks from time to time. The most important thing is to pick ourselves up, learn from our mistakes and double up our effort to get back on track.

In this blog, I wish to document my investing journey to financial freedom and hopefully inspire some of you along the way to do the same. 

All the best!

Jay