The Weekly Roundup – Academy’s Finest is a collection of my favorite blog posts, podcasts and other useful contents that I have enjoyed over the past week.
I will be releasing this series of posts with a short summary of the content for easy summary.
My goals is to share quality content (or what i think are amazing stuff) in an easy to digest format for my readers.
In the meantime, I will also like to pay tribute to these wonderful content creators all around the world, not just here in Singapore.
Please share any great blog posts or podcast episodes with me through the comments section. I value your input and feedback which will in turn allow me to share the most beneficial content.
Without much ado, let’s get started into the Weekly Roundup – Academy’s Finest Vol 2
My Blog Posts this week
- 10 “Must Have” stocks favored by Motley Fools US: We shared a list of the 10 Starter Stocks which Motley Fools currently endorsed. These stocks are well-suited for the beginner investor, based on 8 traits that they possess. From household names such as Amazon and Facebook to more niche counters such as Idexx Laboratories and Shopify, one can choose a counter or two to get started in the US equity market.
- Buffett series: Idexx Laboratories: We did a more in-depth analysis on Idexx laboratories using Buffett’s investing methodology. Idexx is one of the largest veterinary diagnostic vendor in the world, whose aim is to provide better healthcare-related services to pets and livestock. With more than 75% of its revenue being recurring in nature, this is one recession-proof stock that you can count on for many years to come. Their financials are rock-solid, with more than 15 years of consecutive EPS growth. However, good stocks are often not cheap and this counter trades at a hefty 60X PER. Should we buy now? Read on to find out.
- Singapore Health Insurance cost 200-300% lower than US. For real? In this post, we shared with our readers on what a typical health insurance premium will cost in Singapore as well as in the US. While Singapore has the “notorious” fame of being the most expensive country to live in for the fifth year running in 2019, our health insurance cost is surprisingly an area that isn’t as costly as that in the US. Find out how much you should be paying for your health insurance in Singapore based on your age profile.
Blog Posts
- CPF Interest Rate: Is It Really Guaranteed from Ivan Guan.
Ivan Guan, which runs the blog SGMoneyMatters talks about some of the “controversies” surrounding Singaporean pension fund system. Given that this is a topic that is close to the heart of Singaporeans, I believe there will be a fair bit of interest. Most of us would have taken for granted that our CPF interest rate is guaranteed. For CPF Ordinary Account, that will be 2.5% and for Special Account that will be 4.0%. However, Ivan pointed out that these rates are not fixed and there is a possibility that it could be lowered, albeit an extremely low one, in my view. Read on to find out what he has to say.
- Investing in the stock market for broke AF 20-year-olds from The Woke Salaryman
The team from Woke Salaryman provides a very unique way of telling their story. Through comics representation, their articles are visually appealing as they try to bring across their point by means of comical graphics. In this article, they talk about the perils of investing in the stock market for someone that is just entering the work force and does not have enough savings or capital. How should one then be investing?
- Core Inflation Vs Lifestyle inflation: What’s the difference and how do they affect your retirement plans? from Team DNS
This article from DNS is written in collaboration with CPF. They talk about why inflation is a real issue that everyone needs to be aware of and deal with. In order to protect our purchasing power due to the negative impact of inflation, we need to find various means to grow our savings. Find out what we can do with our CPF savings to support our retirement.
- How to Save Money on Medical Costs from ESI Money
While ESI Money is predominantly a US personal finance website, this article is very relevant to how everyone can actually save some money on medical costs. As I was doing some research on both the US and SG health insurance environment, this was something that caught my attention. ESI Money invited a doctor, Dr Jeff Anzalone, who runs the site: Debt Free Doctor to dish out some useful advice from the perspective of a doctor, how one can actually look to reduce his/her medical costs.
- 7 Ways to Screw up Your kid’s Financial Future from The BiggerPockets Blog
What are some ways parents do that is a disservice to their children when it comes to personal finance education? This article examines a few ways parents can hurt (or help) their children live their best lives. Some of the points such as 1) Not letting your kids work part-time, 2) Ignoring market talk etc are all very relevant money topics relating to your kids. Unfortunately, it is also a topic that is not very often discussed within the Asian context.
Podcasts Episodes
- Financial Mistakes and How to Avoid Them from BiggerPockets Money Podcast
In this episode of the podcast, Scott and Mindy discuss some of the biggest mistakes you can make financially and ways to avoid them so you can give yourself the highest potential for financial independence. Discussing mistakes such as housing and transportation as well as relationship money mistakes, Scott and Mindy shed light on some of the “low-hanging fruit” money missteps and how you can go about avoiding them.
Wrapping it up
That’s all for this edition of Academy’s Finest. Have a great weekend everyone!
