I have not made any buy or sell transactions this month except for my regular monthly purchase of the Singapore Savings Bonds. The effective interest rate for August 2019 Singapore Savings Bonds (GX19080E) is the lowest at 2.01% for the past 12 months if you held it for 10 years. Fixed deposits interest rates seem to have beat the Singapore Savings Bonds interest rate. (Read more: The Best Fixed Deposits of July 2019 )
As you can see above, Singapore Savings Bonds have taken up a major share of my stock portfolio. While some may argue that I should have invested those monies in Singapore Savings Bonds for REITs for higher returns, my decision is still to park those monies aside as an emergency fund when the need arises such as a job retrenchment etc.
While building up my stock portfolio for retirement, I have not forgotten to contribute back to the society. This month, I made a minor contribution to the Children’s Cancer Society using monies I earned from the advertisements that was served on this blog. The amount is small but I hope it makes a difference to those children.
At the point of writing, the following REITs have declared ex-dividend:
- SPH REIT (Ex date: 18 Jul 2019, Pay date: 22 Aug 2019)
- Frasers Commercial Trust (Ex date: 29 Jul 2019, Pay date: 29 Aug 2019)
- CapitaMall Trust: (Ex date: 30 Jul 2019, Pay date: 29 Aug 2019)
There has been a lot of uncertainty in my current job at my current company. This means I may hog on to more cash savings moving forward. In the event I lose my job, I will need at least 3 months of emergency fund (SSB + savings) while looking for a new job. I hope that doesn’t happen.