Added In 8k More To Portfolio

Election fever is upon us! It’s exciting times for many of us, it’s the first time we have got to vote. Even for me, a true blue Singaporean that is past 35 years old, I think I have ever only voted once in my entire life previously only, and it was so long ago I hardly remember it. However, exciting as the upcoming elections are, markets still march on!

I just added a further $8,000 into my portfolio. A large proportion will go into a short duration bond fund since my plans to move at the end of the year remains unchanged. It looks like my new home will be finished sometime in July or August, and so, renovations (which is what I am saving up for) can start after.

This time round though, I am adding a new short duration bond fund, which is the new Aberdeen Asian Local Currency Short Duration Bond Fund. (It’s quite a mouthful to say!). It is being sold at 0% sales charge right now on Fundsupermart, and on top of that, Aberdeen is throwing in an additional 10 basis points wroth of units. This means that on my initial investment, I am already up 0.1% (and incidentally, 0.1% is what a savings account would give me after putting my money there for an entire year!).

Also, the Singapore dollar has been one of the strongest currencies in Asia so far this year, and that has probably not helped returns in bonds outside of Singapore, but this will not always be true. It’s simply not possible for the Sing dollar to year in, year out be the best performing currency here (won’t it easy to be a currency trader if that was so!). So, I believe the currency disadvantage which bond funds investing outside of Singapore bonds experienced would eventually even out. In fact, given that the Sing dollar is so strong now, it’s a good time to pick up investments which are non-Sing denominated.

I am adding my money into Europe this time round though, to even things out. I have too much in Asia already, and the last few additions into the portfolio has mostly been all within Asia equities (besides adding to DBS EIF). Europe is interesting because despite all the ongoing problems associated with its debt crisis (Portugal was the latest country to have to approach the EU and IMF for a bailout), the Euro has been strengthening this year so far. And despite all the negative news and hand wringing you see regarding Europe, Europe equity funds have actually been on the rise (Europe including UK equity funds on average are up 8.37% year to date, and the FSMI Europe index is up 4% over the last 3 months).

Let’s not forget again that despite the many troubles in Europe, some of the major powerhouse Europe countries like Germany are in a similar situation to Asia countries in the sense that they are actually growing so fast that they are starting to worry about inflation.

So, I will be adding my $8,000 as follows:

Aberdeen Asian Local Currency Short Duration Bond Fund - $6,000
Parvest Equity Europe Alpha EUR - $2,000