My team at work will be transferred to a new division and I see it as an overall positive development. Conversations have also started with my team head about returning to the office to work from next month onwards. It seems like my bank is taking a more cautious approach this time round as I may only go back to the office to work for 1 day each week as a start. This would probably go up to 2 or 3 days every week eventually as a permanent flexible work arrangement for me. I’m looking forward to meeting up with the rest of my team and ex-colleagues for lunches, drinks and dinners again.

As for my investment portfolio actions taken in the past week, I have continued to average down on my Chinese tech stock holdings (Alibaba and PinDuoDuo) and Lion-OSPL Hang Seng Tech ETF. I also initiated a new position in the Lion-OSPL China Leaders ETF as the Chinese stock market dropped. I only stopped investing when these markets rebounded in the last 2 days. This used up quite a bit of my cash balance that was meant for my private property purchase remaining downpayment at completion date.

I had to top up my cash position from somewhere. Given the recent run-up in crypto prices, I decided to realise the gains on some of my cryptos (Binance, Chainlink, Cardano, Matic and Zilliqa) on Coinhako. I transferred a portion of the cash proceeds out to my bank account as a buffer for the downpayment and investment. And I used the remaining cash proceeds to buy a new crypto (DAI). This DAI position was then transferred from Coinhako to Hodlnaut to start earning crypto interest. Which means that all of my crypto positions (Ethereum, Bitcoin and DAI) are now on Hodlnaut earning crypto interest and they add up to about S$50,000.

I have also completed the transfer of most of my overseas cash holdings into my bank account here for the downpayment and for investments. I have kept the remaining amount of my overseas cash holdings for emergency purpose. You never know when it can come into use in short notice like my urgent need for cash in the past 2 months. I don’t take this into account when calculating my liquid assets simply because they are meant to be a hidden reserve that I tap into under extraordinary circumstances. This is my first time doing so in the last 7.5 years since moving back to Singapore.

I’m comfortable with my asset allocation now. There was some overallocation to cryptos for a while due to the rally in prices and I have locked in my gains to bring it down. The Chinese tech stocks position has grown as I kept buying in during the market fall. It may have rebounded but I won’t be surprised if they resumed their fall as the regulatory headwinds are still around. Cash buffer is now in place for such further falls to continue averaging down if necessary. My US tech stocks position has also grown without any buy-ins due to the market rise so no further action necessary.

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The Singapore stocks position has remained rather flat despite a rebound in the market. Mostly because of the fall in my Dairy Farm International stock that I have been buying into. I’m ok to wait this out for the eventual recovery to kick in. Which should technically apply to the rest of my Singapore stocks due to the nature of the market. My overseas ETFs position is the biggest in my investment portfolio and it has dipped due to the falls in the global stock markets. I bought in a little on the dip but didn’t do much beyond that.

The monthly automated funds transfers into the StashAway robo-advisor accounts (reoptimised), POSB Invest-Saver and OCBC Blue Chip Investment Plans (new ETFs added) have also been increased along with my bigger cash buffer. This is to ensure a continuous dollar cost averaging base strategy so I keep investing every month regardless of the market performance. It’s a good hedge against the rest of my investment portfolio that is based on stocks evaluation, market timing and averaging down. My entire investing strategy is built on a consistent inflow of monthly salary income. Any potential change in this condition needs to be assessed seriously with counter-measures put in place quickly to address the risks.

On a personal front, my wife is preparing for her new job that starts next week by taking days off to clear leave and rest. She internally transferred into this new role after realising she doesn’t quite like the work scope of her current job. I’m hoping it’s a better fit for her and she will be going back into the office more to work each week. Just to start developing the relationships with her manager, team and stakeholders. Difficult to do this when working from home because it’s tough to virtually engage and interact with new people.

My son has fallen sick with cold and cough again after only just recovering earlier in the month. He was back in preschool for just 2 weeks but it looks like he won’t be going to preschool at all this week. While I understand it’s part of him building up his immune system when attending preschool, it’s still an exhausting and frustrating experience. He doesn’t sleep well during his naps and at night, hence getting crankier in the day. The rainy weather also made it difficult for my helper to bring him out to run around and play so he gets restless at home and distracts us at work. I had to bring him to my parents-in-law’s place for them to help take care of him.

I sustained a back and wrist injury during a recent gym session and the pain had been getting worse. Since it’s not recovering, I have been getting traditional chinese medicine treatment (tui na and acupuncture) and it’s slowly getting better. I have been experiencing some mental and physical fatigue lately due to all the stuff that has been happening. It’s tiring and stressful juggling everything so I took some time off along with my wife to get some rest. We had the chance to dine out by ourselves for lunch and dinner on those days. It was good and we should make it a point to do this more. Just to reconnect and rebalance.