Iggy’s Journal: A S$15,300 SRS Top-Up Saves S$456 at One Income and S$3,060 at Another. Which One Is Yours? Tue 13 Oct 2026 | Afternoon The Numbers The same S$15,300 SRS contribution saves S$456 in tax at S$40,000 of chargeable income and S$3,060 at S$320,000. The amount put in is identical. The saving is decided by the tax band the contribution comes out of. The exit matters as much as the entry. SRS cash earning 0.05% sits against a six-month T-bill that cleared at 1.9% on 8 October 2026. My Personal Take S$456 is 3.0% of S$15,300 and S$3,060 is 20.0%, so the same contribution returns about 6.7 times as much at the higher income. Idle cash is the second sum. S$15,300 at 0.05% earns S$7.65 a year, and at 1.9% it earns S$290.70, a gap of S$283.05 each year. Relief arrives once, and the yie

Iggy’s Journal: Sheng Siong Is Down About 10%. The Dividend Is 2.6% and the Warehouse Costs S$520M Mon 12 Oct 2026 | Afternoon The Numbers Sheng Siong’s profit rose 11.9%, but its operating cash flow fell to S$54.8 million. The company attributes the decline to bonuses and earlier vendor payments. The shares are about 10% below their S$3.20 price on 2 October. The trailing dividend yield is 2.62%, which is 58 basis points under my 3.2% Forensic Floor and 208 basis points under my 4.7% hurdle. The new warehouse costs S$520 million. My Personal Take A single cash flow figure cannot show whether earlier vendor payments are a one-off timing difference or a new payment schedule. Whether payables rebuild is the open question, and only later periods can answer it. Until then I read the 11.9% prof

Iggy’s Journal: Your Share Fell Ex-Dividend. Did You Actually Lose Money? Mon 12 Oct 2026 | Morning The Numbers An illustration from the episode: a S$4 share with an 8-cent dividend. The 8 cents is 2% of the S$4 price. On the ex-dividend date the share may adjust to about S$3.92, a fall of 8 cents. The share no longer carries the dividend entitlement from that date, but the 8 cents is not paid that day. It is due on a separate payment date. The adjustment may be close to the dividend, but it is rarely exact, because other price moves can happen on the same day. My Personal Take A price chart shows one number for the day. It cannot separate the dividend from everything else that moved the price. If the same S$4 share closed at S$3.95 on its ex-dividend date, the price would be 3 cents above

Iggy's Journal: STI Up 0.58% at 10:04am After Friday's Small Fall Mon 12 Oct 2026 | Morning The Numbers At 10:04am SGT (data delayed 10 minutes) the STI was 5,433.20, up 31.31 points or 0.58%. That puts Friday's close at 5,401.89, which matches the Beansprout weekly recap. So the STI fell a further 11.07 points (0.20%) on Friday, after Thursday's 195.48-point drop to 5,412.96. SGX closed on Friday before the US session opened, so this is the first SGX session after Wall Street's Friday rebound: Dow 51,654.95 (+0.83%), S&P 500 7,811.54 (+0.59%), Nasdaq 27,366.17 (+0.64%). OCBC was S$29.25, up S$0.25 (0.86%) from S$29.00. On the S$0.89 ordinary dividend in my 7 September tracking, that is a 3.04% yield, still under my 3.2% minimum. Sheng Siong was S$2.87, down S$0.05 (1.71%), from an imp

Iggy’s Journal: Temasek Fears an AI Unwind and Plans More AI Exposure. Three Questions Explain How Both Can Hold Sun 11 Oct 2026 | Afternoon The Numbers Temasek reportedly calls an AI unwind its biggest risk, and reportedly plans to raise AI from 6 percent of its portfolio to up to 15 percent by 2031, which is up to two and a half times the current share. I have not read Temasek’s own statement, so both points are as reported. A risk named and an allocation increased at the same time look like a contradiction. The new episode takes three questions to test whether they are one. A dividend that has already been declared does not change because someone names a market risk. My Personal Take My first reaction to the headline was that one of the two statements had to be wrong. The episode sets o

Iggy’s Journal: The Price of Retirement Income: What S$1,000, S$2,000 and S$3,000 a Month Actually Cost Today Sat 10 Oct 2026 | Midday The Numbers The same S$2,000 a month needs S$600,000 at CPF’s 4 percent floor rate, but S$1.25 million at the 1.92 percent six-month T-bill yield. The gap is S$650,000, and it comes from the yield assumed, not from any difference in lifestyle. My 4.7 percent hurdle asks for S$510,638. A dividend can be cut, while the T-bill yield resets at every auction. For someone still saving, the target moves whenever the yield moves. At 1.92 percent, S$200,000 pays S$320 a month. At 4 percent, the same S$200,000 pays S$667 a month. CPF’s 4 percent is a useful yardstick, but it is not money you can generally draw monthly in the way T-bill income can be drawn. My Persona

Iggy's Journal: DBS, OCBC and UOB Each Fell More Than 4% in One Day. Who Is Giving You the Reason? Fri 09 Oct 2026 | Midday The Numbers On 8 Oct, DBS closed down 4.7 percent, OCBC down 4.3 percent and UOB down 5.2 percent, per Singapore Business Review citing SGX. The reports I read give four different reasons, from profit-taking to Citi's cut of OCBC to Sell, and they show no announcement from any of the three banks in the two sessions. Most of what is quoted describes market mood or views about price, not facts about the companies. The new episode sorts the reasons by who is giving them. My Personal Take Two of the reasons are easy to place. Profit-taking describes what sellers did, not what a bank did. Citi's cut on OCBC is a forecast and a valuation from one broker, not a result from t

Iggy's Journal: Crystal Jade's Holding Companies Are in Receivership, but the Restaurants Are Open. What That Means Thu 08 Oct 2026 | Midday The Numbers On 30 Sep, receivers from Kroll were reported over two Crystal Jade holding companies, one in Singapore and one in Hong Kong. Little Big Red Dot reports that the restaurants remain open and that key members of management continue to oversee operations. Mothership counted 13 Singapore outlets remaining after five closures in 2026, with the company calling those closures part of an ongoing review of its outlet network. The reports I read do not state the debts, the lenders, or why receivership was the route chosen. Crystal Jade has no listed shares, so there is no share price to watch. The new episode is about reading any announcement like t

Iggy's Journal: Parkway Life REIT's Dividend Rose 14.6% on 1.6% Less Revenue. The Reason Is One Lease Clause. 🦖 Wed 07 Oct 2026 | Midday The Numbers Parkway Life REIT's revenue fell 1.6 percent in the first half of 2026, while its distribution per unit rose 14.6 percent, from 7.65 cents to 8.77 cents. Both figures come from the REIT's own results announcement. I found the reason for the gap, and it sits in one lease clause that does not show up on the first page of the results. At the 5 Oct close of S$3.95, the last 12 months of distributions give a trailing yield of 4.15 percent. That clears the 3.2 percent minimum I track, but sits 55 basis points below my 4.7 percent hurdle. In my tracking, Parkway Life REIT is flagged for caution, with the yield below the hurdle at that price. My Perso

Iggy's Journal: OCBC Split Decision, Why Citi and UOB Kay Hian Disagree Wed 07 Oct 2026 | Midday The Numbers OCBC shares fell as much as 5.2 percent today. The Edge Singapore reports that Citi analyst Tan Yong Hong cut OCBC to Sell on 6 Oct with a target price of S$27.50, and Citi expects third-quarter earnings to be flat year on year. UOB Kay Hian points the other way, citing first-half earnings growth of 22 percent and the bank's wealth management business. Two brokers, one bank, opposite conclusions. A negative rating does not mean the bank itself has changed, and the new episode shows how both views can stand at the same time. My Personal Take A heavy-volume day tells me investors reacted. It does not tell me which note is right. The question I am putting to each of the two calls is wh

OCBC Securities Removes Its Minimum Commission on Online SGX Trades From 5 October Tue 6 Oct 2026 | SGX Daily Pulse Podcast The Numbers OCBC Securities removed its minimum commission on online SGX trades from 5 October. Its managing director cited one transaction falling from S$25 to about S$2. The firm says roughly a quarter of its clients' Singapore holdings are odd lots, often built up through scrip dividend schemes. The change is aimed at investors adding S$500 to S$1,000 at a time, while trades of S$50,000 to S$100,000 will see little difference. Today's podcast explains why a fixed minimum falls hardest on small trades. SGX also cut board lots for 11 stocks, including DBS, OCBC and UOB, on the same day. $OCBC Bank(O39.SI)$ My Personal Take

UOB Holders Now Collect About 10% Less Than a Year Ago. A New Buyer Starts at 3.69%. Mon 5 Oct 2026 | Longform The Numbers UOB's trailing ordinary dividends are S$1.59, about 10% below S$1.77 a year earlier. The FY2025 final fell 23% to S$0.71, while the 1H26 interim rose 3.5% to S$0.88. Payout stayed near 50% on UOB's adjusted basis. CET1 rose to 15.4% from 15.1% at the end of FY2025, and NIM slipped to 1.74% from 1.89%. At the 2 October close of S$43.11 the yield is 3.69%, 101 basis points below my 4.7% Minimum Yield Hurdle, while a holder with a S$20 cost sees 7.95% on cost. Iggy's Forensic Zone for UOB is Zone 4, Caution -, at the 2 October close. Yield is the only gate failing. My Personal Take This morning I wrote that SGX's smaller board lot cuts the cash for one lot to a tenth and

A New York Class Action Alleges Ryde Shares Were Pumped by Online 'Advisers' Mon 5 Oct 2026 | Podcast The Numbers A class action in New York federal court alleges that people posing as financial advisers online inflated the share price of Singapore-based Ryde, and that the shares then fell about 75% in after-hours trading on 11 September 2024. No court has ruled, and Ryde says it intends to defend the case. The plaintiff allegedly bought about 19,000 shares at roughly US$21 each, close to a US$22 peak, before the fall. By 1 October 2026 the shares closed at US$0.68, about 97% below that high. Today's podcast turns the complaint's pattern into three checks for any sudden price jump. My Personal Take This week I have been taking numbers apart: OCBC's 3.3% into two payments, DBS's gap into a

DBS Is About 14% Away From My 4.7% Dividend Hurdle, UOB 27% and OCBC 67% ⭐ Members Edition, made free for everyone this weekend Sun 4 Oct 2026 | Longform The Numbers At the 2 October close, trailing dividends gave DBS a 4.12% yield, UOB 3.69% and OCBC 2.81%, all below my 4.7% Minimum Yield Hurdle. Measured as the rise in dividend per share each bank would need, DBS is about 14% away, UOB about 27% and OCBC about 67%. OCBC's S$0.16 special dividend is excluded. The ranking depends on one judgment. DBS pays a recurring S$0.15 capital return each quarter, and without it DBS moves from about 14% away to about 41%, past UOB's 27%. DBS's Ledger entry of 6 August 2026 is Zone 4+, built on a 4.23% yield at S$75.10. At Friday's close the shortfall to the hurdle is 58 basis points, past the 50 basis

OCBC's 3.3% Yield Becomes 2.82% Once the Special Dividend Is Removed Sat 3 Oct 2026 | Longform The Numbers At 2 October prices, OCBC's trailing yield is 3.3% including a S$0.16 special dividend and 2.82% without it, below the 3.2% Forensic Floor. CapitaLand Investment's 4.88% clears the 4.7% hurdle, but its S$0.12 dividend has stayed flat since 2023. Sheng Siong's yield is 2.36%, though its payments rose about 18% over the year. A S$10,000 illustration published by Smart Investor on 22 September shows about 3.4%, while ordinary dividends alone produce about S$330 a year at 2 October prices. Iggy's Forensic Zone for OCBC is Zone 5, Red Zone, per the Ledger entry dated 7 September 2026. Today's piece puts three questions to each yield, and the three stocks answer them differently. My Persona

A Fed Hike Moved Singapore Home Loan Quotes, but MAS Changed No Rule Sat 3 Oct 2026 | Podcast The Numbers Today's podcast starts from a Fed hike that pushed Singapore bank quotes higher without MAS changing any rule. The three-month swap rate is 1.59% while compounded SORA is 1.23%, a gap of 0.36 percentage points. HDB loans stay at 2.6% through end-December. Most bank floating packages were between 1.5% and 1.8% at end-September, and a 0.2 percentage point rise costs about S$83 a month in interest on a S$500,000 loan. The episode explains why a home loan has two parts, and why only one of them moved. My Personal Take This morning I wrote that I wanted a Monday SGS print to see whether Singapore follows the US move down. I had been treating one Singapore yield as a stand-in for everything

Gold Fell in September While Inflation Stayed a Worry, and China Kept Buying Fri 2 Oct 2026 | Podcast The Numbers Gold is usually described as an inflation hedge, yet it fell in September, a month in which inflation remained a concern. Gold pays no interest or dividend. A two-year US Treasury yield of about 4.8% is the income on offer elsewhere. China has now bought gold for 22 months in a row. Today's podcast looks at how those three facts fit together, and why a reserve-diversification motive and a personal income need are different questions. My Personal Take This morning I wrote that the 10-year SGS yield was 2.49%, and that I could not say how much of the S-REIT decline rates explain. I had been thinking of rates as a REIT and bond question. It took me a while to see that gold sits on