Letter to Batch 21 of the Early Retirement Masterclass

 

Dear Students of Batch 21,

It’s been a great honour and privilege to be able to conduct a 2-Day Early Retirement Workshop for you.

We had a class within a month of the last programme because we knew that demand for investment classes typically spike when a lockdown occurs. Having a lesson a month after the last one can be pretty instructive to the programme as we can see how dynamic ERM portfolios are even when conducted after a short period.

For one thing, I deliberately made Batch 21 is a lot more aggressive than Batch 20, and I very much prefer to add some growth stocks into the mix for your voting pleasure as vaccinations rates go up in Singapore. Unlinked cases have also stayed low at single-digit levels.

The class was a lot more freeform this time round as a fintech stock mentioned by a student was included last minute in the selection process and was even voted democratically into the portfolio. I would expect this counter to bring a certain level of excitement (or tragedy) into what Batch 21 has created.

Also, this is the first time we’ve deviated from our portfolio construction rules where we introduced a non-REIT into the REIT portfolio. So I’m glad the class accepted the controversial decision and justification as to why this developer might behave like a REIT for the next decade.

Students can examine the portfolio in its glory and note that increasing trend for the agglomerated stocks. If this were a technical analysis class, the chart itself should be screaming a solid buy as the regime chart is coloured green. Past five years, backtest of this portfolio generated 19% returns with a merely semi-deviation of 14%.

Lastly, I hope that Batch 21 would participate actively in the FB group. I should see all of you in the flesh in mid-July, and we will have another round of revisions then.

Christopher Ng Wai Chung