Blog
To Endowus, Or Not?
Endowus has been making waves in the robo-advisor market in Singapore, hitting $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) recently.
It offers tailored investment solutions, customized for your risk appetite. Its portfolios are constructed from institutional-level fund classes, so fees are lower. Endowus also rebates trailer fees they receive from funds, so you pay even less. Finally, you can even build your own portfolio, using funds from PIMCO to Dimensional.
With that in mind, should you switch from IBKR to Endowus?
My Endowus Portfolio
I recently started an Endowus portfolio (reasons). Here's the funds I chose and my allocation:
Cracking PDF Hashes with hashcat
Do you have a PDF document lying around somewhere, but it's encrypted and you've forgotten the password to it?
The useLayoutEffect hook
Suppose you have a parent component A and a child B, and you want to run a useEffect hook on mount in the parent first, followed by another useEffect hook in the child.
For example, you have a child component which overrides the default styles of the parent on mount.
A comparison of shield plan riders (NTUC, GE, Prudential)
This is a reply to an analysis by Yuan Jing.
I agree with your suggestion that one should choose maximum coverage1 while they're young and can afford the premiums. Later, when premiums get more expensive, switch to the lower tier riders2.
A comparison between Great Eastern's TotalCare Classic and Elite riders
On 2 Apr 2021, MOH announced that all new and existing Integrated Shield Plans (ISPs) would need to integrate a 5% co-payment feature. In other words, there will no longer be any riders covering 100% of your hospital bills. Part of the blame was laid upon increasing healthcare expenses and 'buffet syndrome', but that is also debatable.
The Best Index Fund (or ETF)
I've been advocating for broad based, index investing if you follow my blog.
But with so many options, which is the best?
Python Package Management
Update 2024-04-07
I've to using remote containers over SSH.
I use pdm as a Python package manager, which is something like npm.
I've found it much better in terms of updating dependencies (pdm update -u) and ensuring build reproducibility with the use of lockfiles.
Regarding automatic dependency updates and deployment:
- The main use of Github workflows is being able to automatically rebuild hosted web apps when dependencies are detected to have been changed.
- If the project is hosted locally, I can update dependencies myself with pdm update -u or ncu -u now and then.
- Dependabot doesn't support pdm lockfiles, and even if it did, when there is an update, I would have to access the terminal to rebuild the container, in which case I might have as well have did the update and tested it there and then myself.
Update 17/11/21
I now use WSL2 containers in VSCode. Additionally, I use requirements.txt files generated with:
pip list --format freeze --not-required
--not-required ensures only top-level packages are printed.
In addition, I use == X.Y.* (aka compatible version specifiers) to pin the major and minor version of packages, while allowing for patch versions to be updated automatically each time the container is rebuilt. This prevents surprises during deployment (e.g. missing functionality in minor versions) while allowing bugfix versions to automatically be upgraded without hassle.
Life Insurance
I am a strong proponent of term life insurance.
In this post, I go against the common wisdom of 'getting your money back'1 and refute common arguments for whole life insurance. I propose, and defend, my recommendation to buy term life + critical illness coverage.