Most Controversial Topics in Personal Finance by Ben Felix

Ben Felix, CIO in PWL (Canadian financial firm) regularly posts Youtube videos on personal finance and investing stuff. 

Here is a video of his discussing about

- Renting vs Owning

- Income Investing

- FIRE

The video is quite enlightening for those not familar in the above topics. 

Mid January 2026 Update

Purchases

JD 9618.HK: Added a small position at $115 HKD. Also sold a few puts (strike price $115, expires at end Dec 2026).

I feels that JD is undervalued, if one values it via sum-of-parts. But for JD share price to recover, JD need to substantially reduce its losses in food delivery war. I do not know when it will happen. I sold a few puts to earn put income if JD share price recovers. If it remained below $115, I am happy to buy JD at lower prices (after netting off the income from the put).

Lion-OCBC HangSeng Tech ETF: Bought a small position at $0.928 SGD via SRS.

SRS monies are restricted to those listed in SGX or ETFs / funds offered by platforms in Singapore. I have some cash in SRS account, so I decide to deploy them into HangSeng Tech ETF. I feel that next few years will be positive for China tech, as President Xi Jinping had told tech bosses in Feb 2025: "Get rich and promote common prosperity." 

Sales

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding BS6.SI: Sold remaining at $3.51, with ~50% gain (incl dividends)

Decide to sell all. I bought it in 2025, when US was threatening fees on Chinese-built ships. Now the share price has more than recovered and I am not interested to hold shipbuilder stock for long-term. As such, there is not much reason for me to hold on to the stock. So I decided to sold all.

Others

TIGR: Sold some puts (strike price $9, expires at mid Apr 2026).

I bought TIGR shares earlier at $9.24 earlier. Now, I wanted to add more shares at 10% lower  than my initial buy price. I am not sure if prices will fall 10%. So I decided to sell some puts. If prices remain above $9, I get to earn the put income. If prices fall below $9, I get to buy more TIGR at ~10% lower (after netting off the put income) than my initial buy price. Well, if TIGR falls 10% or more from $9.24, I will buy some shares directly to add to my existing position. 

Alibaba 9988.HK: Sold some puts.(strike price $142.5, expires at end Dec 2026).

I am not keen to own Alibaba. (Don't ask why.) But I am ok to buy it at lower price. So I sold some puts. If its price drops below $142.5 by end Dec, I am ok to own it at lower price. If not, I just earn the put income. 

Current Thoughts

The recent SAMR probe into TCOM has some slight impact on my portfolio. I have a small % of my portfolio in TCOM. I intend to hold TCOM, as I think that the probe should not cause long-term damage to TCOM's moat. Let's see what happens.

Insofar, I had not really owned any AI-related software/hardware stocks. As such, I do not benefit from the trending higher prices for AI-related stock. This is fine, as I don't really understand how long the AI trend will last and the valuations of AI-related stocks are high. 

Looking at the Sky (看天）

The sky is always there, regardless rain or shine; good or bad.

Cloud comes in different sizes and shapes. Like randomness, impermanence in the world. Also reminds one of different people, characters of all kinds. 

People may think grey cloud is bad, because it implies incoming rain. But rain fills up reservoir and provides water to fishes in rivers. A person may look haggard and older than his/her age, perhaps because he/she worked hard to support family. 

Grey cloud implies incoming rain. Later it rain, even though the weather forecast says no rain. Don't trust forecast 100%. The forecast may be inaccurate or too general to be applicable to your situation.

Sky does not judge. It does not care whether there's cloud or blue sky, rain or shine. We may need to exercise judgement in our work, our life. Should we be like the sky when there's no need to judge?

Post-note: Sky reminds me of a Chinese saying: 天有不测风云，人有旦夕祸福 (source)