March 2025 Updates

First dividend season of the year. Received dividends from the following: 

1) Ascendas REIT

2) Mapletree Logistics Trust

3) Mapletree Industrial Trust

4) CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust

5) CapitaLand China Trust

 

Total dividends received for this 1st quarter amounted to S$2,258.04.

 

Pretty satisfied as this is slightly higher YoY. Figure for same quarter last year is S$2,003.27.

 

Per usual practice, all dividends + 50% of my side income are invested back to the portfolio for compounding: the 8th wonder of the world.

 

This month I've added OCBC @ $16.57 and Venture @ $12.45 to my existing positions.

 

The OCBC purchase comes with a 5.1% dividend yield excluding special dividend.  The group has released a pretty solid FY24 with a 8% increase in net profit and EPS. Final dividend was reduced by $0.01 YoY while CEO Helen's pay when up instead. Not much to complain anyway, just an observation on my part.

The Venture purchase comes with a 6% dividend yield. This was done partly to average down, partly to reduce my REITs concentration and partly as a recovery bet in the company. Their recent results haven't been very encouraging although they are maintaining their dividend amount and they are consistently generating positive free cash flow. Hence I am keeping this counter to a small portion of my portfolio. In fact this is the smallest position at 3.2%.

Interesting bit, after I made the Venture purchase, another counter which I have been eyeing actually fell to my TP. Alas I have already expended my bullets this month so guess this has to wait. If another opportunity arises in April this will probably take precedent. Let's see.

Another important news is regarding OCBC 360 Account. There will be a revision to the interest rates on 1st May 2025. Based on the revised terms, I can probably earn 2.65 - 3.85%. Not fantastic but not too shabby either. Moving forward this will probably be the trend across the banking sector so I won't be in a hurry to move funds around yet.

Revised terms from 1st May 2025 onwards:

 

Feb 2025 Updates

February flew by just like that. Did not make any trade this month as there is no incoming dividends and income from my side hustle only came in today.

Probably will add into Venture or another counter next week depending on the price movements. 

As usual, 25% of my side hustle income goes to my SA top up which I just did. 

Another 25% for discretionary spending and balanced 50% for investment.

Unless there is a compelling buy that requires bigger amount to execute (e.g. position sizing purpose, good DCA opportunity, etc), my monthly investment funds will only come from the side income and dividends reinvestment.

This strategy has been working for me so far and will continue to be employed moving forward. On this front, projected amount to be invested this year should be around S$22,000, not including any ad hoc investment amount from my main fund.

Recent financial results released by the companies in my local portfolio have been generally good. I like what I see from SingTel, DBS and OCBC. However I was perplexed and slightly disappointed by the latter's cut in ordinary dividend.

A drop in ordinary dividend is never a good thing and the negativity surrounding it can barely be masked by the declaration of the special dividend. At least this is the feeling that I have.

I rather they hand out the same ordinary dividend and proportionate the special dividend accordingly.

Anyway I look forward to March which should be a bumper month of dividends incoming.

Have a great weekend everyone. 

Jan 2025 Investment Update

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

3rd day of the new year and it seems like most are not back to work yet. Traffic is smooth throughout the day. For me, I have resumed my work, albeit in a slower manner.

Just to do a quick update for my recent investments which can basically be summed up in the following sentences:

Buy what, what drop. 

Sell what, what rise. 

1) BABA

I cut loss for this counter at 84.78 at the end of last year partly due to their drastic price cutting of Qwen. Have briefly talked about this here.

Then on the first day of CNY they released a new version of Qwen (Qwen 2.5-Max) which supposedly surpasses DeepSeek-V3, GPT-4o and Llama-3.1 in performance.

Share price immediately shot up. At this point of writing, BABA is trading at 101.92 pre-market.

What a difference a month makes. 

2) NVDA

Added this counter at 137.80 one week before CNY. Seeing some decent profits in the first two days.

On the third day, DeepSeek was released. NVDA share price went south. As of now it is still recovering from the twin pressures of Qwen and DeepSeek.

Talk about timing again. 

3) MIT

Added MIT at 2.19 on 24th Jan. Three days later unit price went south. Probably due to worries to their DC assets from DeepSeek release.

4) Venture

Around two weeks ago I identified five stocks as potential investment to reduce my REITs concentration. Subsequently after delving into the respective AR and latest business updates I whittled it down to 2 stocks of which Venture is one of them. 

The company has been doing share buyback recently at 12.98, 12.93, 12.95, 12.56, 12.66 and 12.81.

This caught my notice and I decided to pay closer attention to the price movement. At one point it went below 12.60 but I missed the opportunity. It shot up after that and I decided to add MIT instead (as above).

Subsequently the price dropped below 12.70 earlier this week and I added some  at 12.68 on 27th Jan. I feel this compares well and comfortably against the prices added upon by the company. If they feel those are fair values for them, this leaves me with sufficient margin of safety as well. 

5) In General

I have identified Venture and another counter to diversify away from REITs. However I ventured into Venture first partly because the share price of the other counter is stubbornly resolute and refused to drop to my TP.

Nevertheless I will continue to monitor both and prepare to add when opportunities arise.

Recently Powell has sung a different tune to Trump's order to reduce rates further. The latest signal from Fed was to hold the rates at status quo for now.

This prompted a big rise in the share price of local banks and drop in the price of local-listed REITs in general.

Overall effect on my portfolio is still a net positive. 

Local portfolio value stands at S$182,776.40

Some thoughts that came into mind with the present market situation. 

1. Should I take profit off my DBS and OCBC? The capital gains now are roughly equivalent to 16 to 20 years of dividends. This is an age old question that has come to haunt me again.

2. If the current unit prices of the local-listed REITs are the fair values assigned by the market in this climate of 4.25 to 4.50% interest rates, then these price points could form the basis of my TPs (+/-) moving forward.

Last but not least, Heng Ong Huat Ah! 

A Review of 2024

 

Happy New Year everyone.

 

Quick review of 2024 and looking forward to a better 2025.

 

Family

 

Overall not a bad year for us. Only thing is jie jie kept falling down and hurt herself. It got so frequent that we are thinking if there is something wrong with her legs or other parts of the body. This is worrying for my wife and I.

 

There was once I saw her fell down in front of me. She just fell to her knees and I thought that was it. But suddenly her body started to lean forward and her head fell to the ground as well. This process is like happening in slow motion right in front of me.

 

The superstitious side of me even started wondering if something unseen is disturbing her. Yes, my worry got to that extent.

Hopefully 2025 onwards will be a better year for both jie jie and didi.

Some personal reflection for me: I realised I have been getting short tempered nowadays and sometimes my reaction can be rather extreme. This is definitely not good and I really got to constantly remind myself to be more chill moving forward.

 

On a bright side, we just came back from a family trip to Bali. Last trip there was 10 years ago with wifey and we didn't have kids then.

 

Had a good time for this 5-days holiday over Christmas although we nearly missed our return flight.

Our hotel is 15 min from the airport. But the trip took nearly an hour because of traffic. Our flight is scheduled for 9.05 pm and we reached the airport around 8.50 pm and the boarding gate at 9.10 pm.

Luckily the flight itself is also delayed and we managed to join the queue.. in waiting. The flight eventually took off around 10.05 pm.

Lessons learnt:

1) I checked-in online the night before and it turned out to be the best decision because by the time we reached the airport, the check-in counter was already closed. Had we not checked-in beforehand, we would not be able to go through the customs, delayed flight or not.

2) Always cater for extra extra time for Bali especially during weekends.

 

Today is also the first day at their new school for both kids. I accompanied didi while wifey accompanied jie jie. New environment, new teachers. Both seem to be coping well.

I hope they enjoy the process of learning and not be fixated on the end results because if they achieve the former, the latter will take care of itself.

 

Investments

 

SGD

 

Have been adding on a monthly basis whenever possible over the past year.

 

Although the plan in the beginning of the year was to diversify and reduce the REITs concentration in my portfolio, only one of the purchases was for a non-REIT - Netlink NBN Trust, which I bought on two separate occasions. The rest of the purchases was for Ascendas REIT, MIT and MLT. I also subscribed and applied for excess for CICT PO.

 

If I have stuck to my plan in 2024, portfolio performance would perhaps, be even better. Really got to be more disciplined and execute my plan this year which is again, to reduce the REITs concentration.

 

I started tracking my portfolio performance in 2016 and hence cumulative dividends is recorded from that year onwards.

 

As of writing, Ascendas REIT is my biggest holding at around 20% by market value.

Best performer is DBS at +119.91% followed by OCBC at +88%.

Worst performer is CLCT at -46.24%.

 

Summary of my holdings and performance as follows.

 

USD / HKD

 

Did some cleaning up of this portfolio in the last two trading days of the year.

Took profit off AAPL (+54.93%)

Took partial profit off MSFT (+47.08%)

 

Got rid of GREE (-99.21%). The speculation of this counter is one of the biggest mistakes of my investing career so far.

 

Cut loss on BABA (-33.73%) because macro outlook remains murky and rounds of stimulus and pep talk by the central government failed to lift the share price. They have also recently did a drastic price reduction on Qwen, which is their AI tool for enterprises. This move is probably meant to gain market share domestically and I believe it will help to a certain extent. I am never a fan of price war and whether this will spark one with other players like Baidu remains to be seen. However one thing is certain, margin for this segment for Alibaba will be compressed by this move.

Portfolio Value (SGD equivalent): $16,626.37

Overall

Total Portfolio Value: S$188,452.35

Business

 

Business so far has been average after the record performance last FY. Still got two more months to go before closing. I am hopeful one of the government contracts we are negotiating will come through soon.

 

Collaboration for the new technology is moving forward albeit on a slower pace than I would like to. We are collaborating with one of the local institutes of higher learning. Maybe that's just how academics work but on and off I need to push them along to move things faster.

 

Nevertheless this is the engine for our next phase of growth and I am determined to make this work.

 

Side Line

Did a tabulation and realised I generated S$19,500 over the past year from my side line as a personal trainer. Not bad considering I dedicated only week day mornings to this hustle. No evenings, no weekends, no holidays. Those are strictly for my family and personal time.

This figure should be higher in 2025 as more private clients are starting to sign up with me. They are mainly referred through word of mouth as I do not actively advertise my service.

I would say most if not all the clients are either c-suite or rich tais tais who are generally not bothered by the price and would not haggle over it so that makes things easier. I just need to focus on helping them achieve their goals.

My current allocation for this side income is:

50% goes to investment

25% goes to SA top up

25% goes to discretionary spending

Moving forward this will remains.

Donation

 

Personal donation is a yearly ongoing affair for me. Other than the monthly GIRO contribution to certain charities, I will usually make ad hoc donations towards year end as well.

 

Same as previous years, this year I have chosen to donate to causes close to my heart - the young and the elderly.

Hopefully this post will inspire readers too.

 

Other than personal donation, I have also donated on a company-level with the latest one in July 2024. This will continue as long as the business continues to be profitable.

Summary of September 2024

Investment

 

$1,904.02 collected in dividends from Ascendas Reit, MIT, MLT, CLCT and CICT. Lol all the acronyms. 

Also collected 200 scrips from MLT and 1,800 rights + excess from the recent CICT PO.

For MLT, I elected to receive partial scrips with partial cash. The scrip price of $1.276 is attractive and more so given the expected rise in share prices as a result of Fed's rate cut. Partial cash is for avoidance of odd lots.

For CICT, it was an average up for me. I elected to subscribe for the rights and apply for excess for a total of 1,800 units. I received the full allocation today. While the rights price of $2.007 is quite high relative to my average price, it was attractive in comparison to the market price with a view of impending rise in share price.

With the averaging up from this addition, my average price for CICT now stands at $1.80 which is still yielding a good 5.8% in yearly income.

These are the only additions to my portfolio for this month. There are still some bullets left which are ready to be fired anytime when a target pop up.

Highlight of my portfolio for this month must be SingTel which is finally reaping the rewards after the strategic reset. Of course the banks and Reits are also outstanding. 

Meanwhile my investment in BABA is finally turning green. Glad I stayed with my conviction. 

Actually Alibaba reminded me of SingTel. They are not bad fundamentally speaking. Just some wrong moves over the years which were corrected or are in the process of correcting. Look at SingTel. After Mr Yuen rectified the issues brought about by his predecessor, the market rewarded SingTel accordingly. 

Overall September is good month for me and I believe, for most investors as well. 

However as we approach year end we should keep in mind the customary window dressing and look out for opportunities to add.

Also not to forget the tensions in Middle East. Iran just fired about 200 missiles at Israel this morning. This is a reminder of how dynamic the world is today. 

Business

 

Another good month for my side hustle as a freelance personal trainer. Apart from the clients allocated from my gym, I have started to train a client outside of the gym. This is a referral from word of mouth and since this is my own client, I am able to charge more per session.

My main business in the environmental management sector is also keeping me busy. Jobs are coming but the project value is low.

The new growth driver that I mentioned in previous posts is gearing up well. Just had a second meeting with a local university on the co-development of this technology. 

I am rather excited by this. 

 

Family

We have found a new school for our son for the next three months before he goes to Kindergarten next year.

We have pulled him out of his previous nursery as we suspected he has been traumatised by an assistant teacher there. We have decided to bring this up with ECDA. 

Summary of August 2024

Investment

 

$1,455.68 collected in dividends from DBS, OCBC and SingTel.

 

This, together with another good month in terms of my side hustle as a freelance personal trainer means I have a higher investable amount without touching my main income or savings.

Have not added anything in August since share price of the counters I had planned to add has ran up. Will monitor for dips and enter.

Will continue to add into my income portfolio using: 75% of my side income + 100% of dividends received.

Have been doing this on a monthly basis whenever possible and it has worked well so far.

 

On the one hand I get to grow my portfolio and increase my passive income through compounding, on the other I leave my savings which is my safety net, untouched.

Have also opted to take partial scrips for the upcoming Mapletree Logistics Trust distributions in September.

 

Family

Wifey and I have decided to withdraw our son from his nursery school as we have reasons to believe he has been verbally and physically abused at school.

 

Along with the abrupt change in our son's demeanour, we have also personally witnessed an incident which further substantiated our thoughts above.

Have spoken to the school principal about our son's safety and well-being but she claimed that nothing unusual have been caught on CCTV and that's about it.

Will probably bring this up with ECDA.

Business

 

Exciting times for me work-wise. I have signed an MoA with another company to co-develop an innovative solution to solve one of the biggest environmental issues in today's world.

While it is still an early stage, once the prototype is developed and buy-in is received from the authorities, the scale up will be fast. I'm very much looking forward to this.

Summary of July 2024

No dividends collected this month.

Added Mapletree Industrial Trust @ $2.10 and Mapletree Logistic Trust @ $1.26. Have blogged about this in an earlier post.

Looking to add some non-Reits for the next couple of months. Double "S" maybe?

Must say I have been pleased though not surprised with SingTel's recovery in share price recently. I have blogged several times in the past on my confidence in SingTel, their potential catalysts and the actions they are doing to turn things around.

Mr Yuen has done an excellent job so far in pulling the company out from the previous doldrums and pushing the company to greater heights by future-proofing the business. Of course the value realisation dividend which will be on a recurring nature, is a big welcome for the loyal shareholders (me included).

This month's income for my side hustle hits another record high which puts it close to 1/3 of my main income. This means more fund for my investment again.

Last but not least, I am happy to finally complete my Masters programme.

Did not attend the commencement ceremony earlier this month and instead opted to collect my scroll from the school after that. Reckoned it's the right choice. Attending the ceremony would means waiting for 2 - 3 hours to go up on stage for that 30 seconds.

When I dropped by to collect my scroll from the school last week, from the time I alighted from my car and back to my car, it took less than 5 min.

Summary of my performance

GPA: 4.47/5

Graded A+ for my thesis

Biggest takeaway is of course the knowledge and network gained.

It gives me some sense of accomplishment, knowing I have managed to juggle between my studies, full time job, my side hustle, my two kids and my investments for the past two years.

 

Mini achievement unlocked for someone in his early 40s I guess.