OCBC 360 updated (and downgraded) again.

Once upon a time, OCBC 360 together with the OCBC Frank credit card, was my favourite combination to get higher interest income on my savings.

I just had to spend $400 with my Frank card and pay 3 bills online and I would get a 2% interest rate on my savings. With no monthly salary to credit into the account, that was the best I could do.




Then, the benefits were revised and suddenly my interest income, everything else remaining the same, halved! 

So, I junked the combo and cancelled the Frank card.

Now, this doesn't mean that the OCBC 360 is not good for others, especially those who have a monthly salary to credit into the account.

However, with the latest revisions, it is probably not as good as before.

The impression I get is that OCBC wants us to save more but is paying us less to do so.

Forget about the "Wealth" and "Save" boxes. "Salary", "Payment" and "Spend" are what most people hit.

So, after the revision, we would receive 1.8% in bonus interest whereas we were receiving 2.2% before.

Of course, the original OCBC 360 would have paid 3.0% for the same 3 conditions!

3.0% to 2.2% to 1.8%.

Alamak and I thought interest rates are rising. I must be growing old and senile.




Of course, for people without a monthly salary to credit, it would have reduced from 2% to 1% to 0.6%. This is after meeting two conditions too. Duh!

Most of my savings is with CIMB Star Saver now because they pay 0.8% up to the first $750K. 

I don't have to use their cards or pay bills online to be paid 0.8%.




If OCBC wants me to save more with them, they should make it easier and more rewarding for me to do so.

Related posts:
1. UOB ONE or OCBC 360 (plus BOC)?
2. My savings accounts and money flow...

How much is QAF Limited worth using DCF?

Warren Buffett on Interest Rates & Valuations.

Many people ask me what is a fair price for QAF Limited. Obviously, all of us will have our own answer.

Of course, depending on Mr. Market's mood, share price could go higher or lower. There is no accounting for prices or so I have heard people say.

What we can try to find out is the intrinsic value to help us make sense of the price offered by Mr. Market. After all, price is what we pay and value is what we get.

I decided to play around with some numbers to see what QAF Limited's intrinsic value should be using Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), a process which is made much easier using an online calculator I found: 
http://www.moneychimp.com/articles/valuation/dcf.htm

I will try to be more conservative because I don't know all there is to know. Instead of entering earnings per share (EPS) as 10.9c, I will enter 10c.

In scenario 1, to be even more conservative, I assume zero growth in QAF Limited's earnings and a risk free rate of 3% which is a bit higher than what is offered by a 30 years bond issued by the Singapore Government now. The risk free rate is what I am going to use as the discount rate for DCF calculation.

Stock value per share: $3.33

In scenario 2, to be even more conservative, I assume a higher interest rate environment with a risk free rate of 5%. Again, I assume zero growth in QAF Limited's earnings.

Stock value per share: $2.00

In scenario 3, to be more realistic, I will assume some growth in earnings. After all, QAF Limited's EPS has grown over the last few years. I will use a risk free rate of 5% in this scenario for that conservative element.

Stock value per share: $2.50.

Now, is QAF Limited's fair value at least $2.00 a share? You blur? Don't look at me. I am only a blogger. What do I know?

Read more about DCF: HERE.

Related post:
What is QAF Limited really worth?

3 good reasons to buy a car. (Buy a car with 4D winnings or win again?)

Reader:
I want to thank you... A friend shared your 4d pick at a gathering... I am a gambler and I bought the most... I have never won so much money gambling before...  He told me to top up my CPF but I have been thinking of buying a car...








AK:
Welcome to my blog. I will not tell you not to buy a car if you are one of the following:

#1 If you NEED a car and if you have the money for the upkeep, buy it. Upkeep? Yes, road tax, insurance, maintenance. You know. Upkeep. Paying for fuel, parking and ERP are just the smaller expenses.





#2 If you are able to make more money from owning a car, why not? If you are an UBER driver renting a car now, for example, you could save (what an UBER driver told me) $70 a day in rental. That works out to be $2,100 in a 30 day month! That's a lot of money.






#3 If you have enough money today to last you till the day you die without having to work another day of your life, if you WANT a car, what's stopping you? Hey, Y.O.L.O. See? AK is not unreasonable nor extreme like what some people say.

Now, if you are none of the above, what do you do? 

Don't buy a car! 

Why not consider this instead?

The CPF Full Retirement Sum (FRS) is now $166,000. So, you are allowed to top up your CPF-SA to $166,000.





30 years from now even if there should be no more contribution to your CPF-SA from today (i.e. if you stop working today), compounding at 4% per annum, you would have $538,403.99 at age 55.

Then, after setting aside the prevailing FRS in your CPF-RA, you could withdraw the rest of the money if you like. 10 years from then, at age 65, you would also get a monthly income for life.






Oh, the calculation above did not take into consideration the additional 1% interest paid on the first $40K in your CPF-SA. Aiyoh, never mind lah. 1%? That is small money when you are rich, right? Kidding!

100% win rate. There is no easier way for a gambler to win money. Believe it!





Related posts:
1. Chinese New Year lucky 4D.
2. Don't have to be smart to be rich.
3. Showing off my CPF numbers!

My savings accounts, recent money flow and investments.

I have a few savings accounts but my most used accounts are the following three:

1. POSB
Despite the low interest rate for my savings, I am holding on to my POSB account mainly because I have had it since I was a boy and I feel comfortable with it. I have many arrangements tied to this account and it would be a bother to terminate it. The most important function of this account for some time now is to make and receive payments for my stock market transactions.





2. UOB
The UOB ONE account provides me with higher interest income. Since I am unemployed, I don't have any salary to credit. So, the higher interest rate offered by OCBC360 and BOC to do this doesn't apply to me. With UOB ONE account, the most important criterion is spending on the UOB ONE card. I just have to charge $500 a month to the UOB ONE Card. I do spend money despite what some might think. I keep slightly more than $50,000 in this account.





3. CIMB
I know many are worried about Malaysian banks. I was worried too but I did some research into CIMB and decided that it is well run enough although it still pales in comparison to Singaporean banks. I like how it offers a flat 0.8% interest on savings per annum (on the first $750,000) and I like the free cheque book. Yes, I am an IT dinosaur and still write cheques. I keep the bulk of my savings in this account.





I know some are worried about how having more money in the bank means money is rotting away to the extent that they do not keep an emergency fund but I think the majority of us would probably be quite happy to see more money in our savings accounts.

When I shared my investment results for FY 2016, I said I added to a few positions (See related post at the end of this blog.)







In recent weeks, I reduced my investments in SPH and Hock Lian Seng.

Although I did start a few new investments this year, namely,

1. Frasers Logistics & Ind. Trust
2. CapitaLand Retail China Trust
3. Kingsmen Creatives
4. Centurion Corporation Ltd.

And added to my investments in

5. APTT*
6. IREIT Global
7. Sabana REIT (Rights Issue)
8. Religare Health Trust






When I logged into my POSB account just now, I saw a balance which is a little bit more than what I would maintain usually. 

The total value of the stocks that I sold must be higher than the total value of the stocks I bought in recent times. 

Related to this, I decided to see exactly how much money came in and how much went out for the whole of 4Q 2016 and the current year to date:

Outflow:
$284,370

Inflow:
$320,090

Net inflow:
$35,714

Why am I sharing this? I just feel like it, I guess. Nothing profound.

If you manage to get something useful from this blog, I am glad.





However, we should not read too much into the musings of a mental investor who blogs as a past time.

Related post:
Full year passive income from non-REITs.

* With the rather substantial run up in APTT's unit price since December last year, I decided to reduce my investment in APTT today, retaining only the legacy position from its MIIF days. 

Some might remember that I added to my investment in APTT on the assumption that a DPU of 4c is more sustainable than 6.5c and at 37.5c a unit, I was looking at a 10.66% distribution yield from a heavily leveraged entity. Now, it has come down to 8%. 





As a more sustainable 8% distribution yield could be found in some less heavily leveraged entities, I am selling APTT at a price I would not buy at.

Hence, the net inflow of funds revealed earlier will see an increase in the next two days, everything else remaining equal.