Time flies and again, I am reporting on my Financial Goals Progress for July 2024. The total value of my financial assets increased from 77.68% in June to 79.02% in July. The increase was largely attributed to the increase in cash balances in my bank account. Two of my 9-month fixed deposits had matured in July. I renewed both of the fixed deposit placements (principal amount + interests collected) with CIMB Bank for another 9-months given the current attractive interest rate.
If this is your first time visiting my blog, you may not know about my financial goal. My financial goal is to stash sufficient money (target) which can help me to retire early in Singapore. When I started this blog (My Sweet Retirement) in my mid 30s, the objective is to share my journey towards achieving a comfortable retirement life. At that time, like most Singaporeans, I worked long office working hours, often trying very hard to find some work life balance.
I am currently in my mid 40s. Work life in Singapore doesn’t seem to change much as employers try to squeeze every drop of blood dry in you. I am still trying very hard to find some work life balance. Instead of retiring a comfortable life, I would actually like to retire early if I could.
According to Wikipedia,
Retirement is the withdrawal from one’s position or occupation or from one’s active working life.
What is different today is that I have built up a stream of passive income to supplement the daily increasing expenses. My passive income comes from dividends from REITs, bi yearly payout from Singapore Saving Bonds and interests from fixed deposits and Singapore Treasury Bills. These streams of income have helped me tide over rising costs of living.
Updates to My Stock Portfolio in July 2024
In July, I did not make any stock transactions. Instead, I bought SBAUG24 to lock in 3.22% p.a. over the next 10 years. My US stock portfolio also remained unchanged. Last week, the share prices of technology stocks crashed over fear that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not generating returns for technology companies that investors hoped for.
The share prices of TSMC (NASDAQ:TSM) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) has plunged. I thought that the plunge would impact my overall value of financial assets. However, it didn’t. At this point of writing, the prices of TSMC and NVIDIA has recovered by around 5%. Opportunity or fake rebound? I am actually not sure.
I am keeping a close watch on AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) which plunged badly and more than other chip related stocks. I will add some to my US stock portfolio when opportunity arises.
As inflation rate in US slowed down, we are more confident the Fed may cut interest rates in September 2024. When the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, it often leads to a reduction in fixed deposit interest rates as well. Interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve can also influence the interest rates of Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs).
As such, I shall be focusing on parking my extra cash with either Fixed Deposits or Singapore Savings Bonds whichever offer better returns in the longer term.