Letter to Batch 23 of the Early Retirement Masterclass

 Dear Students of Batch 23,

It’s been a great honour and privilege to be able to conduct a 5-Day Early Retirement Workshop for you.

With 2021 coming to an end, we have concluded our final class of 2021. We’re ending the year on an aggressive note as the STI reaches 3,200. At the end of the tunnel, there is light as humanity begins to deploy a COVID-19 pill that can be a game-changer for office, aviation, and hospitality stocks.

Value investing may even become more profitable locally throughout 2022 for local stocks. One of the possible futures is that with the winding down of the Fed’s bond-buying, we may be seeing interest rates rise in 2022. Ending an era of low-interest rates may result in a sea-change of factors models that lead to outperformance. We have just witnessed the success of value investing factors in the local stock markets for the first time.

This class is also unusually savage with discarding stock suggestions. We’ve got an elegant 14 stock portfolio that is more concentrated than previous batches confirming that this class is quite discerning about what stocks they want in their portfolios. I have also decided to allow two banking stock picks the first time as we expect higher interest rates in the future.

Finally, I must say that while the class is quiet compared to previous batches, the quality of the questions asked in class was relatively high. One question that stumped me concerned whether having a margin account would affect the TDSR for getting home loans. Look to the Facebook group as I draft my opinions on what I think the answer is.

Lastly, I hope that Batch 23 will participate actively in the FB group.  In December 2021, we should be meeting up for an online webinar on integrating Early Retirement principles into Cryptocurrency investing.  

Hope to see you then!

Christopher Ng Wai Chung