Krisflyer Redemption Sale - worse than last year.

 

If there's one certainty in life, its that your Krisflyer Miles will continue to be devalued, whether directly (increase award cost) or indirectly (reduce the sale prices). Which is why I never understood why those influencers want to flex that they have a million miles in their account. The value will erode over time. I emptied out all my miles last year at the SQ redemption sale which was a 20% discount on redemption tickets, which was worse than the previous years' 25% discount.

This year its even worse with only a 15% discount AND fewer flights are eligible. Previously, all flights to Kansai had promos. This year, only the less desirable 2.10pm flight (arriving 9.35pm which means you will reach your hotel near midnight depending on your destination) is available for redemption.

I am still thinking about this ticket to Osaka. As you can see from the date, this is within the cherry blossom season so at least that's a plus that the cherry blossom season is not a blackout date.

On the other hand, with the reduced redemption discount, I think that my miles might be put to better use waitlisting business class saver awards to Australia. I managed to clear the waitlist last year, so I am trying my luck again. 

2027 Travel Planning

SQ is having a 'sale' at the moment, which is unusual since their Annual Time to Fly Sale is scheduled for October. But I was pleasantly surprised that the sale prices of business class to Australia are really good (I bought tix at the 2025 Time to Fly Sale) so I bought some now. It makes me suspect that Time to Fly Sale is a little bit of a sales gimmick. 

Also a quick note. I entered a SIN-SYD itinerary a few days ago when the sale started. For some reason today the price dropped by $200 and was therefore lower than the 2025 prices so I grabbed it. SIN-SYD is their A380 route with plenty of biz class capacity

Experimental Unit Trust: Update 2

In April 2026 I decided to start an experimental unit trust portfolio on POEMS focused exclusively on Amundi Unit Trusts with the following target allocation:

• 40% MSCI World
• 20% Prime USA
• 20% Emerging Market

This is the 4 month update. The market has gone up and down but on average the portfolio profit has increase in absolute $ value. However, the average buying price continues to go up and the percentage return continues to go down.

Today's S&P500 futures are red as the Iran war continues to drag on and probability of a Fed rate hike increases. Hopefully, the monthly DCA strategy will still be profitable at the end of the year. 

Dividends Collected: August 2026

 

With STI ETF, banks, Comfort Delgro, Capitaland Ascott, paying dividends in August, August is traditionally a peak month for dividends. At about $35k, it was only $2k higher than 2025, so this year is more about slow and steady growth.

UOB Credit Card Waiver Criteria

 

Thanks to milelion for alerting the internet to the UOB Credit card fee waiver criteria. 

If you hold multiple credit cards with UOB, to qualify, you must spend:

S$5,500 on credit card charged w/ Annual Fee, or

S$22,000 across all UOB credit cards, or

S$3,000 in overseas spend across all UOB credit cards

UOB publishes criteria for credit card annual fee waivers - The MileLion

Its good to know that your spending on one UOB card can help you get waiver for other UOB cards. My hotel bookings (either paying on the hotel website or making a reservation where payment is only made at check in) easily hit S$3k a year so that explains why my waiver for my Krisflyer card was successful.

This means that I can apply for another UOB card to use in the occasional months that I hit my $1.2k spending cap on my UOB Visa Signature. I'm currently looking at UOB Preferred Visa. If I read the milelion review correctly, it seems that NTUC Fairprice online or via app payment qualifies for 4mpd, which the UOB VS doesn't have. That's pretty useful as I don't have a 4mpd card for online groceries yet.  

Topped up some SG stocks this week

 Apart from adding to my experimental unit trust portfolio (Amundi MSCI World, Prime USA, and Emerging Markets), I bought Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Frasers Logistics Trust, and Comfort Delgro this week. I have sizeable positions in these 3 counters and plan to hold them for a long time. Once in a while when prices look decent, I buy a little bit more.

Anytime Comfort Delgro goes under $1.30, its worth buying. EV Robo-taxis and buses are inevitable and CDG will be in a strong position to take advantage of this.

DragonPass - Can redeem decent restaurant meal at Changi

 

OCBC Premier customers get 2 lounge visits per year but Dragonpass lounges are very basic and crowded. So for the whole of 2026, I still haven't used up any of my lounge entitlements.

Thanks to Milelion, I learnt that instead of a lounge visit and eating very basic food, I can redeem one of my visit entitlements for a pretty decent meal in Changi Airport. I'm sure most people know this already but I don't frequent travel forums so whatever I learn depends on what Milelion publishes 😅

Full list of Priority Pass & DragonPass restaurants at Changi Airport - The MileLion

I have 2-3 more trips on economy this year so I will definitely give the restaurant redemptions a go.

Even Ben Felix is talking about Health & Fitness

 

Investing in Your Health

Ben Felix, a pretty decent Canadian finfluencer, just released a video on health and fitness. The instant noodle thumbnail brings to mind the FIRE chap featured in the CNA video who had a shelf full of instant noodles. Basically, bad life choices in relation to health and fitness will come back to haunt you later. This is a big risk with the FIRE lifestyle - some may choose to sacrifice health and fitness in their prime years in the hope of retiring a few years earlier. 

Anyway, as you can see from the screenshot, Chronic Stress is the biggest $$$$ factor. There are of course many reasons why this is the case, including the fact that elevated stress= elevated cortisol = elevated visceral fat deposits. See: Chronic stress and impulsive risk-taking predict increases in visceral fat over 18 months - PMC

At 6:30 in the video, he even mentions VO2Max.

Checking my 1-year average Stress level on Garmin, I'm glad that I managed to remain in the low stress range, otherwise I might become stressed about it (haha). Life is variable and as the peaks in the chart shows, sometimes there are period of more stress. Fortunately, the standard deviation is not large (I don't have months where it spiked to 50+ for example). 

Caveat: Your smartwatch can't distinguish between Excitement and Stress. So watching the World Cup could lead to elevated stress readings. But on a 1-year average, these special events would be 'smoothed out'.

Bought back quarter of my sold UA

 

I reported selling some of my UA and taking profit at $7++ last month making a few thousand dollars capital gain.

https://buyaftercrash.blogspot.com/2026/07/took-profit-on-some-under-armour.html

UA price has crashed again and I rebought a quarter of my sold UA at a discount price of $5.53. If it goes lower I don't mind averaging down. I still feel its fundamentally a good stock in a beaten-down sector. Morningstar still gave it a 4-star rating in their latest 8 Aug report, for what its worth...

Is S&P 500 becoming a crowded trade? Buy SREIT instead?

 

I have been rewarded for continuing to buy World and S&P500 ETFs every month as part of my DCA strategy even though valuations are stretched. At the same time, I have contrarian streak and have kept my eye of the beaten down SREITs, occasionally buying a bit here and there this year. 

Long-suffering SREIT investors will know that SREIT prices haven't moved much this year (compared to the S&P). At least that is my experience with my 3 largest REIT holdings, Capland Ascott, FrasersCT and FLCT. While these 3 counters have more or less hit my portfolio concentration limits, I think there is an opportunity to upsize some of my other REIT holdings. I am looking at Capland Int Comm Trust which should be a relatively safe bet, and also Far East Hospitality Trust after some decent results.

Dividends Collected: July 2026

 

Similar pattern to last year, basically no SGD dividends but Vanguard and iShares ETFs pay dividends this month. Also got some NKE dividend but the withholding tax is painful.

Why is OCBC my 2nd biggest individual stock counter

 

I found it interesting that blogger Baristafire mentioned that OCBC is his largest holding:

https://baristafire1984.blogspot.com/2026/08/why-ocbc-became-largest-holding-in-my.html

Coincidentally, OCBC is my largest SGX-listed individual stock holding and 2nd largest individual stock (behind Lloyds Bank). The rest are ETFs. I started buying OCBC long ago even before OCBC did a 1:1 stock split, and I elected for their DRIP programme to receive shares in lieu of dividend during the time that was operational.

However, after understanding the DBS' commitment to digitalisation and becoming a digital bank, I explained in July 2020 that the only local bank I was buying was DBS. The influence and leadership of Piyush in this regard cannot be overstated.

Managed to overtake S&P500 in July

 

It really isn't easy to beat the S&P500 which is why a fair amount of my funds go into VWRD and VUSD. Nevertheless, since I have some spare funds and ind investing 'interesting' and mentally stimulating, I persist in doing a little bit of stock-picking.

I started off 2026 ahead of the S&P but started losing ground when the S&P500 rallied hard in May (the opposite of "sell in May and go away" happened this year), but I just managed to squeak past in July.

On an absolute return basis, I would be totally thrilled if I somehow manage 10% in 2026 as that would be a huge gain (though less than the $1m+ I made last year).

______________________________________________________

Postscript: portfolio climbed another 0.5% overnight. Hope it remains up till end of the year!

Singapore households underinvest in equities

 

By UBS’ calculation, financial assets make up 63.8 per cent of Singapore’s gross household wealth – one of the highest shares in the region. SingStat’s own 2025 fourth-quarter household balance sheet puts the figure at a broadly similar 57.2 per cent. On the surface, this looks like a financially sophisticated population, heavily exposed to markets. Dig one layer deeper, and the picture flips. Equities and securities – the assets actually capable of compounding growth – make up just 11.2 per cent of total household assets, or just over one-fifth of that 57 to 64 per cent financial-assets bucket. The rest is overwhelmingly cash, mandatory CPF savings, and insurance: safe, low-yield instruments, not growth engines. 

Cutting and pasting here for my reference. Based on my conversations with my friends and acquaintances about investing, I am not surprised. Many people seem to think that stocks are risky and property investing is safe. 

On the other hand, holding 20% equities and 80% CPF/cash/insurance policies is not so terrible that it will make you poor.  For reference, the performance of the LionGlobal All Seasons Standard fund, which is a 30% equities/ 70% bond (SGD overweight) fund has a 5.0% CAGR since inception in 2018 while the All Seasons Growth fund (70%/30%) has a 8.1% CAGR.

Bear in mind this is an "average." Some will have more than 20% allocation which is good, some will have less than 20% allocation which is not so good.

My personal target allocation is 90% equities / 10% cash & near-cash.

Springleaf SG61 61 cent prata

I went to Springleaf Prata on a weekday morning to enjoy their SG61 $0.61 plain prata and $0.91 egg prata. It was interesting to people watch and see who else isn't at work and can eat Prata on a weekday. Not surprisingly, it was a mainly female crowd. Not surprising because that is similar to my experience in gyms in weekday mornings - mainly women. I guess it is ironic that most FIRE bloggers seem to be male, but those that are enjoying the FIRE lifestyle are female and don't think it is so unusual that they need to blog about it.

 

Took profit on some Under Armour

 

Sold some Under Armour and a small amount of VOD since there was a recent rally and redeployed some of the cash into McDonalds and VUSD.  

Will continue to sell more if the prices continues to go up. 

Barramundi

 

Barramundi with broccolini, potatoes, and saffron aioli. Lovely meal and fish is relatively healthy (compared to beefsteak 😀). Will be back to regular investing posts soon. If market continues to correct, hope there are bargains to be had...

Eating Healthy vs 'Longevity powder?"

 

After reaching FIRE, many investors are understandably concerned about health and willing to spend on it. I just read that this blogger spent $200 to buy the special longevity powder marketed by the billionaire that wants to live forever.

https://treeofprosperity.blogspot.com/2026/07/personal-update-cheating-death-and.html

Maybe one day there will be such a elixir, but based on the current science, we are not there yet.

I just eat health(ier) and enjoy my food. In order to compensate for my next Wagyu steak meal, I ate a vegetarian Kitsune udon meal with tofu (in the salad and as aburaage) and some mushroom today as the protein source, very tasty. And as always, Matcha Latte.

For information on longevity, its a crowded field with many people pushing their own theories (and maybe marketing products). I strongly recommend the following books as being science-based:

• Out Live by Peter Attia
• Food for Life by Tim Spector

TL:DR?

1. VO2 Max is the no.1 physical metric for longevity
2. Protect your gut health and this will strengthen your immune system
3. There's no magic pill to cheat your way to high VO2Max. You have to put in the work.
4. For gut health you might think you can cheat your way to good gut health by eating probiotic pills but eating health(ier) is the best way to good gut health.

Going on holiday soon

 

I am missing Japanese cuisine so I went to Mashi no Mashi in the CBD area for some A5 Wagyu Tsukumen. It was really good and there was 15% off with Grab Pay. One of Singapore's strengths is that the Ramen brands that they 'import' from Japan tastes 'just as good' as the Japan version, perhaps a little more expensive.  I say that having eaten at two different Afuri Ramens in Tokyo and Yokohama respectively, and fondly remembering Afuri Ramen in Funan before it closed. When I'm next in Tokyo, I will try the Mashi no Mashi there and compare. I suspect SG shops use "Australian Wagyu" rather than Japanese A5.

Its obviously way too hot to go to Japan in July, so I'm off to Australia to enjoy the cool weather. I shall report back on any good food I find, and of course, good coffeeshops for Matcha Lattes.

Unless something exciting happens like a major crash, my blogposts will be on food instead of investing for a week or so.

Managed to catch up with S&P500

 

Finally caught up with the S&P500.

Hopefully can keep up till the end of the year 

Experimental Unit Trust Portfolio: Update 1

 

In May 2026 I decided to start an experimental unit trust portfolio on POEMS focused exclusively on Amundi Unit Trusts with the following target allocation:

• 40% MSCI World
• 20% Prime USA
• 20% Emerging Markets

This is a 2 month update. I have been steadily adding to it. As the market has been going up, the means that the average buying price of these funds has gone up and the percentage return has gone down.

On the bright side, the absolute $ profit has doubled from $1.6k to $3.6k.

This shows that while a high % return looks good, the actual $ profit is also important. Previously, I like to buy after a crash, but when the market started improving, I was reluctant to buy because this meant that I am buying for higher and higher prices. That was the wrong way to think about investing. As long as you are confident that the market is going up, continuing to buy is always good as that maximises your $ return even though your % return looks lower. 

This is subject to the usual portfolio construction rules like asset allocation percentages and concentration limits.

May 2026 post: https://buyaftercrash.blogspot.com/2026/05/experimental-unit-trust-portfolio.html

Dividends Collected: June 2026

 

About $10k+ dividends this month. YoY 10% higher than 2025 so still on track for $20k/mth.