May2023 Finance update - Monthly Dividend/Interest received $6.9K

May2023 Dividend/Interest received from my investment account is about SGD $6.9k. This is slightly lower compare to May2022 due to a dividend stock that has its dividend slashed to almost zero.  Portfolio YTD gain including dividend has collapsed to 0.7% and this is much worst than April as all my three main portfolio in HKSE, S-Reit and LSE are crashing due to many dividend stocks going ex-date , US debt ceiling uncertainty and dismal China PMI report on the last day of  May.  

Trade in May.
I sold off First Pacific 142.hk at a good gain but cut loss on DigitalCore DC reit. I have increased my LSE portfolio by adding idap.l etf  ,BATS and IMB. I have bought a new small stake in Swire Pacific B 87.hk. I have also subscribed 9.5k of KIT due to a right issue. 

Previously, I have been sitting a huge amount of cash in a retirement account from my previous job in the US. I have invested about 68 % in investment grade and US treasury bonds to lock up the higher interest rate and another 10% into various dividend ETF. The rest is put into short term money market fund which currently yield 4-5% . I am assuming that the FED interest rate hike will end soon and locking into higher long term yield will provide more secure passive income. With this new investment,  my cash holding will be dropping below 18% of my liquid net worth but it will provide an additional USD10K passive income in the next 12 months. In May2023, I have started receiving dividend income of USD $986 from my newly revamped retirement account.If this monthly dividend/interest from retirement account is added, my monthly passive income will be around 8.2K.  I am looking forward to the second half of 2023 as the new dividend/interest start rolling in.

2017 to 2023 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

Dividends received in May2023 from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $2125

Interest received in May2023 from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $425

Interest received in May2023 from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $43

(Newly added) Dividend/Interest received in May2023 from retirement account: USD $986

Realized gain/loss in USD: $3309

Dividends received in May2023 from SGX: SGD $3323

Interest received in May2023 from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $205

SGX Realized gain/loss SGD: -2700

Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in May2023 : SGD$9783

May2023 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $6639

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest in May2023 :

May2023 Liquid Net worth distribution:

May2023 Investment/Retirement Portfolio including SSB:

Apr2023 Finance update - Monthly Dividend/Interest received $7.5K

Apr2023 Dividend/Interest received is about SGD $7.5k. This is about 25% increase compare to Apr2022.  Portfolio YTD gain including dividend is about 8.6% and this is much better than March as stock market recovered this month.  Liquid networth also hit another record high. However, with FED hike in May, the stock market will remain volatile.

One of my largest bond holding ENBA was called and free up USD25k. I have used the available cash to increase my idap.l etf by another USD10k. I have also increased my stake in BABA and GD 270.hk. The remaining was spent on SGX counters Capitaland India, Daiwa and paid for ESR right issue. I have also subscribed another 20k of fresh fund into SSB. This bring my SSB total to $81k. With the new SSB rate coming down to below 3%, this will probably be the last purchase of SSB.

Previously, I have been sitting a huge amount of cash in a retirement account from my previous job in the US. I decided to switch majority of the cash to investment grade and treasury bonds to lock up the higher interest rate. I am assuming that the FED interest rate hike will end soon and locking into higher long term yield will provide more secure passive income. With this new investment , my cash holding will be dropping below 18% of my liquid networth but the it will boost my annual income to over 100k in the next 12 months

2017 to 2023 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

Dividends received in Apr2023 from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $4128
Interest received in Apr2023 from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $831
Realized gain/loss in USD: $520
Dividends received in Apr2023 from SGX: SGD $613
Interest received in Apr2023 from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $211
SGX Realized gain/loss SGD: Nil
Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in Apr2023 : SGD$9298
Apr2023 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $7331

Interest received in Apr2023 from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $1038

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest in Apr2023 :

Apr2023 Liquid Net worth distribution:

Apr2023 Investment Portfolio including SSB:

Mar2023 Finance update - Monthly Dividend/Interest received $8.2K and Total Q1 $19.2k

Mar Dividend/Interest received is about SGD $8.2k. Total Q1 Dividend/Interest received is $19.2k which is short of the 20K projected due to 2 counters with dividend cut to 0%. However, this is still a 14% increase compare to Q12022. Portfolio YTD gain drop to 4.7% as US bank crisis in March has adversely impacted all my portfolio except HKSE counters.  

I have increased small stakes in international stocks like BTI and BABA but sold off AVVIY and MO. I have also bought quite a bit of international dividend ETF IDAP (LSE listed) . As disclosed in Feb, I am focusing in increasing dividend ETF in 2023 as opposed to picking individual stocks to reduce dividend cut risk. 

On the SGX front, I bought back digital core reit at 51 cents after selling it for 64.5cents in Feb because I still have the USD sitting in my FSMOne account. It turned out to be a bad decision as digital core reit continue to fall to 41 cents low after another bad news that its second largest tenant which contribute 22.6% of its rental revenue is heading toward a financial issue.  It was a mistake again that I thought I got a good bargain which turned out to be a dud as there were many telling signs why its stock price has been crashing down. I probably have to hold this for a few month to assess the reit manager next move.

2017 to 2023 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

Dividends received in Mar2023 from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $679

Interest received in Mar2023 from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $675

Interest received in Mar2023 from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $809

Realized gain/loss in USD: $938

Dividends received in Mar2023 from SGX: SGD $6128

Interest received in Mar2023 from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $219

SGX Realized gain/loss SGD: Nil

Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in Mar2023 : SGD$10379

Mar2023 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $7888

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest in Mar2023 :

Mar2023 Liquid Net worth distribution:

FEB2023 Finance update - Monthly Dividend/Interest received $5.2K

Feb Dividend/Interest received is about SGD $5.2k. YTD gain drop to 6.19% as interest jittery continued in Feb after FED chairman comment on inflation.  

I have increased small stakes in HKSE stocks like Link and BABA . I bought small stakes on 1 new counters Everbright 257.hk and a new dividend ETF IDAP.L . I will focus in increasing dividend ETF in 2023 as opposed to picking individual stocks to reduce dividend cut risk. This year I already have 4 counters projected to incur dividend cut. I have sold partial HK land stake and Digital Core.Reit . 

2017 to 2023 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

My Feb 2023 dividend suffered a slight drop compared to 2022 was due to a dividend cut of 95% from a MLP holding KNOP. 

Dividends received in Feb2023 from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $1395.78

Interest received in Feb2023 from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $815.885

Interest received in Feb2023 from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $749

Realized gain/loss in USD: $1880

Dividends received in Feb2023 from SGX: SGD $2069

Interest received in Feb2023 from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $213

SGX Realized gain/loss SGD: -$4732

Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in Jan2023 : SGD$3794

Feb2023 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $4944

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest in Feb2023 :

Feb2023 Liquid Net worth distribution:

Jan2023 Finance update - Monthly Dividend/Interest received $5.7k

Jan Dividend/Interest received is about SGD $5.7k. It was a great start for 2023 as my portfolio gain hit 7% YTD.  My portfolio recovered almost all the paper loss in 2022. This is probably the best January performance of my portfolio since I started investing seriously in 2016.  As a dividend investor that hold long term, I am usually not too concerned with capital gain/loss. Even without capital gain, as long as my portfolio maintain a 6%+ yield on cost dividend/interest, I know that will be my annual realized gain. My main worry only started when suddenly the portfolio unrealized loss come close to 3 years of dividend income at one point in around Oct.  I am glad that my portfolio has proven to be resilient and the recovery has been in line with the broader markets. My liquid net worth also climbed to an all time high.

Since the market has been hitting 6 months high for most stocks by end of the January, I only increased stakes in some of my laggard HKSE stocks like HKBN and AEON credit which yield slightly >8%, and LKSE stocks BATS. I bought small stakes on 2 new counters HK _Electric 2638.hk and Spore Hotel Grand . I think both are undervalued at the moment. Total amount spent is around 28k purchasing equities in January. This brings my projected 2023 investment income to above 91K SGD or 70K USD.

2017 to 2023 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

Dividends received in Jan2023 from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $2923

Interest received in Jan2023 from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $1018

Interest received in Jan2023 from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $389

Realized gain/loss in USD: $0

Dividends received in Jan2023 from SGX: SGD $299.31

Interest received in Jan2023 from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $215

SGX Realized gain/loss SGD: $48.23

Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in Jan2023 : SGD$6195

Jan2023 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $5424

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest in Jan2023:

Jan2023 Liquid Net worth distribution:

2022 - My Year of Revenge Travel

Received an email from Google Maps Timeline and quite surprised by the amount of travelling I have 

done in 2022. 😃😃

Most memorable place I visited in 2022 unexpectedly because the original destination was having weather issue. 

2022 FY Finance update -

December Dividend/interest received is about SGD $5.2k and this brings my 2022 annual dividend/interest income to $91K. 2022 investment income received increased by 23% compared to 2021. From my annual Dividend/Interest Income chart in the last 10 years,  it can be seen that my return has been languishing at low 10-15k annually prior to 2016 but I have increased my investment income by almost  6 times in the last 7 years since I took up dividend investment around mid 2016.  My cumulative dividend/interest since 2016 has hit around 406k. However, it was not plain sailing with dividend investment in the last 7 years. When a crisis hit the financial market, the quality of your stock matter the most. I was hit badly with realized loss on some lousy reits and MLP in 2020 and that really eat into the dividend I have earned throughout the years. 

2022 was a brutal year for investors as almost all major markets suffered the worst downturn since 2008.  However, I have suffered less realized loss compared to 2020. This is due to more diversified portfolio where most counters weighting is between 0.5-5%. After cleaning up my portfolio in 2020 by getting rid of low quality reits and MLP, my 2022 portfolio has been more resilient and only suffered ytd -6% despite investing in some of the worst markets like HKSE and LSE. If I include my annual dividend and realized gain of $8.7k, my ytd portfolio performance is only a small -0.1 % in 2022. The dividend collected really help along the way in a bear market. In 2022, my dividend/interest earned has hit record every month from Apr to Oct.

In 2022, I continue to inject a record $181k into equities. I also added $61k SSB and USD100k into US T-bills and short term Investment grade Corporate bonds. Cost of portfolio has increased to 1.67 millions. The SSB and IG bonds shall sort of cushion my new equities investments if the bear market continue into 2023. Those bond investments will also help to optimize the yield of existing cash holding which has been sitting at low yield bank and money market accounts.

In 2022, we see sharp decline in both equities and bonds markets. However, the sharp increase phase in rate hike is almost done which will bring rate to around 4+ to 5%. I believe government and IG bonds price will stabilize but stocks will remain under pressure as long as rate stay high.  My view is that bond rate will probably peak in 2023 and I am hoping to lock in to the higher interest rate bonds with 3-7 years maturity.

With the new investment, I am projecting dividend/interest income to increase to 98k in 2023. However, I am also expecting dividend cut on some of my counters in 2023 as well. Overall strategy in 2023 is to stay offensive by expanding dividend-bearing equities holdings while staying defensive with government and short term IG Corporate bonds investment which will reduce overall volatility in my portfolio.

2017 to 2022 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

Dividends received in Dec2022 from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $1632

Interest received in Dec2022 from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $1106

Interest received in Dec2022 from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $899

Realized gain/loss in USD: $0

Dividends received in Dec2022 from SGX: SGD $1249

Interest received in Dec2022 from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $209

SGX Realized gain/loss SGD: $0

Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in Dec2022 : SGD$6369

Dec2022 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $4946

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest in Dec2022:

Dec2022 Liquid Net worth distribution:

Nov2022 Finance update - Monthly Dividend/Interest received $5.6k

Nov 2022 Dividend/Interest come in at around $5.6k. The stock market recovered strongly in the month of November and YTD loss cut by half and with dividend accounted for, it was almost positive. When the market is doing badly, dividend payment definitely help to absorb the temporary paper loss. Liquid Net worth YTD gain also revert to positive territory.

With the depress S-REITs stock price, I have increased my stakes in FCT, ESR, AIM and FLCT.However, I sold all my CLCT and recycle the capital into HKSE stocks like CITIC, NWS and CKH. The reason is that with China pending covid pivot, I find that the HKSE counters have more room for rebound while providing superior yield. As these are blue chip companies, I feel that they are also more financially sound to withstand any change in China policy.

On my interactive broker account, I added LGGNY and 2 bonds WFC and ENB. One of my bond Baidu has also matured this month freeing up some capital for the new bond purchase. As the short term (5 years) investment grade bond start to hit above 5% to 6%, I find quite attractive as a conservative income investor.  Overall, I have put in around 170k new capital into my portfolio and 43k into my SSB. I am projecting that my portfolio will generate more than 92K in 2023 barring any dividend cut.

2017 to 2022 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest in Nov2022:

Dividends received in Nov2022 from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $2072

Interest received in Nov2022 from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $328

Interest received in Nov2022 from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $494

Realized gain/loss in USD: $740

Dividends received in Nov2022 from SGX: SGD $2048

Interest received in Nov2022 from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $238

SGX Realized gain/loss SGD: -$2600

Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in Nov2022: SGD$4594

Nov2022 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $5288 

Nov2022 Liquid Net worth distribution:

Oct2022 Finance update - Monthly Dividend/Interest received $9k

Oct2022 Dividend/Interest received is about $9.1k. YTD Dividend/Interest has reached about 80k. The stock market continued its brutal sell down throughout Oct. My portfolio from HKSE, and SREITs have fallen significantly in valuation. However , portfolio from US and LSE markets have recovered enough to avoid significant overall loss. 

YTD paper loss is almost -12% with 152K loss compare to -137K last month. With realized gain of 10k and total dividend received this year, the YTD portfolio performance is about -6.65%. Significant loss come from HKSE portfolio which is now down about -25% and pulled down the overall portfolio performance.

I used my HKD dividend to buy a new HKSE counters 142.hk (First Pacific) in my portfolio. First Pacific is listed in HKSE but its primary business is in SEA and has no business in HK or China  With the new leadership in China CCP, I am increasingly worry about my exposure in China/HK market. My HKSE portfolio has ballooned to almost USD 250k in the last 2 years after my diversification into that region. In hindsight, I should have learnt how bad politics can severely affect the financial market. On the SGX portfolio, I have cut my stake in CLCT to reduce my China exposure and swap it with SPH Reit. Moving forward, I will reinvest all my HKSE dividend into other market until there is pivot away from zero-covid policy in China.  Similarly, I will actively be reallocating some of portfolio to reduce exposure to US office S-Reits as WFH arrangement has become mainstream in the USA, By swapping out to other beaten down reits like logistics and DC sectors, I believe my portfolio will benefit from faster recovery of those sectors when interest rate pivot happen compare to sticking with current investment which is going nowhere when long term structural change has occurred.  

2017 to 2022 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest in Oct2022:

Dividends received in Oct2022 from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $5133

Interest received in Oct2022 from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $991

Interest received in Oct2022 from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $505

Realized gain/loss : USD 4349

Dividends received in Oct2022 from SGX: SGD $490

Interest received in Oct2022 from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $242

SGX Realized gain/loss: -SGD1680

Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in Oct2022: SGD$13873

Oct2022 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $8758

Oct2022 Liquid Net worth distribution:

Sep2022 Finance update - Monthly Dividend/Interest received hit a record $13.3k but ...

Sep 2022 Dividend/Interest received hit a record amount of $13.3k. Total Q3 and YTD Dividend/Interest received are $31.7k  and $69.3k respectively. The dividend received is the only good news I have for my portfolio as my investment suffered the worst collapse since Mar2020. The stock market continued its brutal sell down throughout Sep and accelerated in the last 2 weeks. My portfolio has been hit hard and my entire gain from 2021 has been eliminated. All my portfolio across US, LSE, HKSE, SGX and bond markets have fallen simultaneously.. The worst hit was from my counters in LSE and HKSE as the collapse of British pound and China economy add to the interest hike woes.   
 

YTD loss is almost -12% with 137K paper loss compare to no loss last month. With total dividend received this year, the loss is about -7%. While the portfolio number looks horrendous, I am still sticking with my dividend strategy. As a dividend investor, I will only be very concerned if my dividend is going to be cut or eliminated but not stock price fluctuation. Most of the counters I have picked have been maintaining or growing dividend in the past 5-10 years, I believe they will continue to pay their dividend while investors like us just need to use the dividend money received to tide through any financial crisis. My only main concern is how much my reit portfolio can maintain its DPU next year when interest hike hit its bottom line. I am expecting some decrease in my dividend next year. With diversification across 80 counters covering stocks and bonds, I believe my portfolio should weather the storm to contribute enough passive income to cover my expense.  Throughout 2022, I have been maintaining a cash position of about 30% of my entire liquid net worth. I shall be utilizing my war crest if the market continue to fall another 10%. 


2017 to 2022 Monthly Dividend/Interest earned from Investment Portfolio :

 

Counters from my investment portfolio contributing to monthly Dividend/Interest  in Sep2022 :

Dividends received in Sep2022from Foreign Investment (Stocks): USD $4520

Interest received in Sep2022from Foreign Investment (bonds): USD $689

Interest received in Sep2022from banks interest/FD/others in US: USD $467

Realized gain/loss : USD -2288

Dividends received in Sep2022from SGX: SGD $5971

Interest received in Sep2022from banks interest/FD/others in Spore: SGD $251

SGX Realized gain/loss: Nil

Total dividend and interest from my investment portfolio + bank/money market/retirement account + trading gain/loss generated in Sep2022: SGD$10797

Sep2022 Dividend earned from investment account only: SGD $13004

Sep2022 Liquid Net worth distribution: