Fresh Graduates - Come and share your financial plans

[akwl88]

375 per month??

are you having sufficient coverage?

 

[duckyboi]

I am 28 yo, Masters Grad. been working for one year. Before that, I was a part time employee at the University ( which enabled me to do master's degree for free) and draw a decent salary at the same time ( $3K gross just before I left.)

Now I am drawing $3.9k gross a month (About $3120 take home) . My expenses are as follows:
20% parents and church (about $600 a month)
20% food ($600)
2.5% travel expenses ($80)
1.6% handphone bill ($50)
2% insurance (About $60 a month- might actually be less because I can claim from company)
3% miscellaneous expenses ( $100 a month- for shopping, etc)
52% savings ( about $1600 a month- sometimes more, sometimes abit less but thereabouts)

The exact % might vary slightly from month to month but it is generally about there.

CPF:
$35k in OA
$10K SA
$12k Medisave

I am lucky to be debt free. Am attached, intend to get married in abt 2 years time.
I have Cash savings of about $42k. Of this 42k,
- 6k rainy day fund
- 2k is my spare expenses account
- 10k is my warchest for investment oppotunities in stocks which is deployed from time to time. With 2017 looking to be a volatile year I anticipate I will deploy it soon.
- 14k is set aside for my house upfront cash payment and any renovations I may need to do
- 10k is for my wedding expenses

Most of the above cash (90% is in OCBC 360 account to maximise the interest. I make sure to hit at least the 2.7% interest every month by charging everything possible to my OCBC card.

For my monthly savings, I allocate a portion of the $1600 to my rainy day fund, wedding expenses, house expenses, spare expenses, and warchest in the following ratio:
$300 house expenses
$300 wedding expenses
$100 spare expenses
$200 rainy day fund
$700 warchest

I have small side business- I do freelance writing and 3D printing/CAD which is unstable income but nets me on average $50-100 a month. some extra kopi money. Hope to grow this in future.

In addition to cash, I have a stock portfolio worth approx $25k in SGX and Hang Seng. The distributions are:
15% in Gold or Precious metal related stocks (indexes and mining)
12% in Telcos
10% in STI ETF
10% in Hang Seng (chinese banks)
Remainder in REITS and local banks

My investment strategy is a mixture of income and value investing. My returns so far have been decent, my XIRR is about 10% so I am happy with that. overall my annualized returns has been about 40% over 4 years of investing ( although this is skewed by heavy investment in 2016). I will reallocate my portfolio over time.

As for insurance, I am heavily against ILPs because the returns are not attractive to me, and the lock-in period for the money is too long. I have myself covered under:

Health insurance:
Prushield premium and extra
SAF group term insurance for Accident and CI
Currently I am slightly under-covered, but no dependents and My parents really dont need my money, so I feel it's OK. will re-evalaute once married.

I am lucky also to have a GF who saves quite abit. She earns slightly more than me but also does'nt spend much. She will msot liekly end up out-earning me in future. Our combined assets to date will be about $120k (not counting CPF), so I think we are quite lucky.

I feel for financial planning, it's good to have a general plan and stick to it, but dont need to sweat every small dollar. some months I maybe spend abit more, say $100 on a nice meal, or go holiday, but other months I might spend abit less so it will even out overall. If you stick to the plan the result will be about there. If sweat every single small dollar can't bring your loved ones go out eat nice meal or enjoy life, also no fun one.

ANyone with jin satki advice to improve my financial plan, please do feel free to chime in

 

[bjornng]

Bjornng you poor thing... 4.5k a year really damn exp. Parent's "good intentions" become a liability...

i know right. it's super ridiculous imo. its even more than 10% of my gross salary.. argh.

 

[bjornng]

375 per month??

are you having sufficient coverage?

i need to look at my policies again, but both my life is 100k each, together with death and TPD. i think the limited protection premium one dont have late CI, the normal life one have. life - 1.4k, lpp - 2.1k

the other 2 is some 10k endowment that cost about 500+ yearly, and another ntuc income anticipation (also endowment), about 300+ yearly. i just paid it, all in all close to 4.5k.

i also have saf term life of 100k too. only thing lacking now is ECI (still considering on this properly), improved hospitalization plan and up my term.

what do you think bro? would appreciate your advice.

 

[Sinkie]

i know right. it's super ridiculous imo. its even more than 10% of my gross salary.. argh.

If you Redemn it and still green, why not?

 

[Sinkie]

i need to look at my policies again, but both my life is 100k each, together with death and TPD. i think the limited protection premium one dont have late CI, the normal life one have. life - 1.4k, lpp - 2.1k

the other 2 is some 10k endowment that cost about 500+ yearly, and another ntuc income anticipation (also endowment), about 300+ yearly. i just paid it, all in all close to 4.5k.

i also have saf term life of 100k too. only thing lacking now is ECI (still considering on this properly), improved hospitalization plan and up my term.

what do you think bro? would appreciate your advice.

I think death coverage must at least a million

 

[shared]

Wow that's a detailed breakdown

Good info for people like me who's about to grad. Roughly earning the same as your gross too.

Your personal net worth at 28 is about 150k now, that's pretty commendable!

 

[Sinkie]

Wow that's a detailed breakdown

Good info for people like me who's about to grad. Roughly earning the same as your gross too.

Your personal net worth at 28 is about 150k now, that's pretty commendable!

150k is include cpf?

 

[w1rbelw1nd]

i know right. it's super ridiculous imo. its even more than 10% of my gross salary.. argh.

You may have to find a way to get rid of them, IMO. or get your dad to carry on paying for it and let him get the returns?

10% of your gross is a huge sum of money, seriously getting your money locked in to non-liquid investments at this age (I hate endowments and ILPs primarily for their non-liquidity) is a big no-no.

Hope you can work something out, because this is very critical.

 

[shared]

Ya his CPF got 50+k

My cpf only have 10k+ and that's even after doing some cash top up

 

[akwl88]

i need to look at my policies again, but both my life is 100k each, together with death and TPD. i think the limited protection premium one dont have late CI, the normal life one have. life - 1.4k, lpp - 2.1k

the other 2 is some 10k endowment that cost about 500+ yearly, and another ntuc income anticipation (also endowment), about 300+ yearly. i just paid it, all in all close to 4.5k.

i also have saf term life of 100k too. only thing lacking now is ECI (still considering on this properly), improved hospitalization plan and up my term.

what do you think bro? would appreciate your advice.

1) 200k WL plans covering death and tpd

2) saf term 100k covering what?

3) now got eci, ci and late ci???

4) what is lpp? i only know lppl

5) eci is very ex and seems to be unnecessary from the blogs and articles i read so far. but if u can afford it, by all means

6) ur endowments making money?

 

[duckyboi]

i need to look at my policies again, but both my life is 100k each, together with death and TPD. i think the limited protection premium one dont have late CI, the normal life one have. life - 1.4k, lpp - 2.1k

the other 2 is some 10k endowment that cost about 500+ yearly, and another ntuc income anticipation (also endowment), about 300+ yearly. i just paid it, all in all close to 4.5k.

i also have saf term life of 100k too. only thing lacking now is ECI (still considering on this properly), improved hospitalization plan and up my term.

what do you think bro? would appreciate your advice.

your endowments very expensive wor. How come u so young need so many Life plans? Are your parents dependent on your income?

 

[duckyboi]

Ya his CPF got 50+k

My cpf only have 10k+ and that's even after doing some cash top up

I was very lucky to get the part-time university staff deal. Got free masters degree (worth $20k ) and also draw a decent salary with CPF for 2 years while studying masters (started off $2900 salary, over 2 years salary increase about 15%). Not everyone lucky to get this deal la. By right can count I been working for 3 years alr

your CPF will grow one dont worry

 

[SpeedingBullet]

Well done! Keep it up!!!

 

[Pandule]

CPF continue to grow so I can reach min sum in 25 years time!!!

 

[Darkzi0n]

@duckyboi

How much r u setting aside for wedding?
I'm planning to get married within 2 years time, but so far I have not made any conscious effort to set aside any sum... tho I have a sizeable amount in cash, but I have been actively trying to deploy them into the stock market... jus that I dun really see such opportunity yet.

 

[akwl88]

@duckyboi

How much r u setting aside for wedding?
I'm planning to get married within 2 years time, but so far I have not made any conscious effort to set aside any sum... tho I have a sizeable amount in cash, but I have been actively trying to deploy them into the stock market... jus that I dun really see such opportunity yet.

bro, whats your budget for wedding per pax? all-in including honeymoon

 

[Darkzi0n]

bro, whats your budget for wedding per pax? all-in including honeymoon

last time started a thread asking ppl how much they paid for wedding.. based on their responses, i did some rough budgeting... and it come up to about 38k... no idea if it is realistic, too much or too less tbh...

i probably wont spend a bomb on wedding ring (probably not diamond) or banquet (probably not in a hotel) as i think they are the biggest ripoff preying on couples' inelastic demand.

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

last time started a thread asking ppl how much they paid for wedding.. based on their responses, i did some rough budgeting... and it come up to about 38k... no idea if it is realistic, too much or too less tbh...

i probably wont spend a bomb on wedding ring (probably not diamond) or banquet (probably not in a hotel) as i think they are the biggest ripoff preying on couples' inelastic demand.

The amount is primarily dependent on the following factors:

1. What you future wife wants.
2. What you parents want.
3. What your in-laws want.

What you think is usually irrelevant.

 

[doody_]

last time started a thread asking ppl how much they paid for wedding.. based on their responses, i did some rough budgeting... and it come up to about 38k... no idea if it is realistic, too much or too less tbh...

i probably wont spend a bomb on wedding ring (probably not diamond) or banquet (probably not in a hotel) as i think they are the biggest ripoff preying on couples' inelastic demand.

Wedding banquet prices can easily find online. Minimum you also need at least 20 tables. Bridal package range from 3-5k, photography 1-2k, videographer 1-2k. Rings from 1k up.

Roughly that's all the big costs involved. 38k is enough for a 20 table wedding banquet at a cheaper hotel plus everything in.