Finance Investment Movement 38

Another month, another new record. Whoever bought that Bishan HDB maisonette at $1.45m just helped to raise the bar for many aspirant sellers and their hopes of a coming windfall. This unit might have been unusually bigger and while the psf achieved was not as formidable, a good number of units sold breached the $1m mark. Even if million dollar HDB flats are the minority of the overall transactions, the regularity of such big ticket sales is uncomfortable to me. This coincides with the current all time high for COE prices. Why would an ordinary person pay $150k when other necessities are getting more expensive? But if I'm a rental car business owner, then it makes sense as it's still a profitable venture. A simple calculation of renting out at $150 per day means a rough breakeven point of four years. My opinion is the government has gotten it wrong by mixing personal and commercial car usage under the same COE category. This has isolated different groups of people but I feel especially for families with young children and elderly parents. Even general businesses will be affected as the cost of logistics becomes a heavier burden. It will be a social policy disaster if the price trend continues. I will be watching keenly from the sidelines and conclude in 2025, when the next election is due. Meanwhile, just have to work on saving for a next car. In any case, this decision would only be due in 2026.

There weren’t much options to shift idle funds as I couldn’t meet the requirements for both Scb and Hsbc accounts. Although there are other bank accounts offering decent deals, I decided not to open any more new ones unless something irresistible pops up. So it became a case of investing into money market funds (moomoo and poems) and 2000 shares of CICT at $1.78, a price last seen a year ago and which I thought gave a decent yield. Given the expected longer period of high interest rates, I’m prepared to wait to pick up more Reits shares if the prices are attractive. One happy moment was when I invested OA into Tbills for the first time and received that unexpected 4.07% yield. This month's SSB should see increased demand and I'm definitely applying for it.

Tip: Chateau Prince Anjou Blanc 2019, stone fruit, medium palate, walnut in the background