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: