2020: A Year in Review

Time really flew past in 2020 and it's time for a review of the year again.

 

Here is goes. 

Family

We have a new addition to our family in 2020. Our son arrived safe and sound in August to meet his parents and sister.

This means less personal time for myself but more bonding time with kids on the other hand.

It's a hard juggle some times though.

Our hope is for our kids to grow up healthy, happily and with the right values in life.

Healthy Lifestyle

My health in the past year is generally good except for the last week of the year where I came down with a sore throat. 

 

I think that was the first time I visited a doctor in 2 ~ 3 years.

 

Other than that I am pleased and thankful for the healthy body in an otherwise unhealthy year for the world.

 

Earlier this year I came up with an exercise regime that can be done at home. It trains most of the major muscle groups of the body and combine resistance training with cardio respiratory training.

I've blogged about it here previously.

 

I did the training almost daily till July / August where I stopped and the effect on the body is pretty visible. Both internally and externally.

 

I have restarted the training this week and hope to do it as often as my time allows.

 

Guess this, together with the cold showers that I've taken since years ago, really helps to keep one healthy. 

Oh the cold weather these few days makes the showers even shioker!

 

Recently I have also attended a certified personal trainer course to learn how to train more effectively. Hopefully I can pass with flying colours.

Work

With my financial year ending in February 2021, I still have two months to charge ahead.

 

Results so far for this FY are terrible. Business secured and project value both dropped tremendously.

This FY is expected to be a loss-making year.

 

The circuit breaker earlier this year means no new business coming in for most part of the year. Projects that were in discussion were put on hold. And I couldn't go out for sales talk due to the travel and social distancing restrictions.

 

But no excuses here. I should have work harder.

 

On the bright side, I made use of the time to get some certifications for the company which will come in useful especially when bidding for public projects.

 

Good thing is that the company is still surviving due to the good performance of the past two years.

Hopefully this year onwards we can more than cover the shortfall of the precedent year.

Moving forward, my focus is to grow the business and start hiring if company performance improves.

Financials and Other Incomes

Previously I have set these targets for 2020.

Targeted Passive Income	Actual Passive Income Achieved
$7,200.00	$6,687.14	vs $4,471.25 in 20199
Targeted Side Income	Actual Side Income Achieved
$6,000.00	$2,563.49	vs $5,314.78 in 20199

Results: Both targets not achieved.

For 2021,

Targeted passive income: S$8,900
Targeted side income: S$11,500

Investments

Received my last round of dividends for the year in December consisting of:

 

1) ESR REIT @ $79.80

2) MNACT @ $115.04

3) Netlink Trust @ $202.40

4) DBS @ $108

5) MLT @ $201.30

6) CRCT @ $220

7) Ascendas REIT @ $287

 

Total: $1,213.54

 

Moving forward investment-wise, my plan for this year is to:

 

1. Get rid of the dead wood in my portfolio (was planning to do it last month but the price had a drastic fall on the day I wanted to sell)

 

2. Allocate a portion of my investments into crypto currencies (probably 1% of my portfolio for a start)

3. Invest into the US market

My investment style remains the same: Income investing.

 

Hence main focus will still be concentrated in the local companies where the yield is still attractive.

 

My holdings as of 31/12/2020:

S/N	Counter	No. of Shares	Cost incl. Fees	Price at 31/12/2020	Value at 31/12/2020
1	OCBC	1,055	$9,310.49	$10.060	$10,613.30
2	SingTel	8,000	$25,820.21	$2.310	$18,480.00
3	CICT	5,400	$9,307.87	$2.160	$11,664.00
4	Suntec REIT	4,000	$6,629.59	$1.490	$5,960.00
5	CapitaLand	4,000	$11,969.70	$3.280	$13,120.00
6	ISOTeam	50,000	$21,070.79	$0.130	$6,500.00
7	Netlink Trust	8,000	$6,337.19	$0.965	$7,720.00
8	Mapletree Logistic Trust	10,000	$13,820.80	$2.010	$20,100.00
9	RHT Health Trust	10,000	$1,460.58	$0.019	$190.00
10	ESR REIT	10,000	$5,334.46	$0.395	$3,950.00
11	Mapletree NAC Trust	4,000	$4,455.20	$0.970	$3,880.00
12	Ascendas REIT	7,000	$20,419.89	$2.980	$20,860.00
13	CRCT	9,100	$12,973.67	$1.390	$12,649.00
14	DBS	600	$13,148.49	$25.040	$15,024.00
				Total Value:	$150,710.30

 

Took part in several preferential offers in 2020 including Mapletree Logistic Trust, Ascendas REIT and CapitaLand Retail China Trust with the latter two happening in the last month of the year.

 

Also applied for excess for all three POs and received it for both MLT and Ascendas.

For CRCT, I had applied for a total of 13,000 units (allocation + excess) but ended up only getting 4,000 units.

 

All the above are quality businesses which I have no qualms in taking the opportunities presented to add to my investments.

Back in March 2020, I have identified CRCT, DBS and OCBC among the counters in my watch list to focus my funds on.

So far I have added 3 batches of CRCT and 2 batches of DBS and OCBC each.

 

As of year end 2020, number of holdings in my portfolio increased to 14 counters compared to 13 in 2019.

 

Portfolio value at end of the year increased to S$150,710 (vs S$122,453 in 2019).

 

Tabulated summary:

Year end portfolio cost incl. fees		$162,059
Year end portfolio value		$150,710
2020 dividend collected		$6,094
2020 net realised P/L		$3,516
Total accumulative dividend collected		$22,029
Total invested to long term portfolio in 2020		$59,269

 

Again, the overall portfolio was dragged down by ISOTeam which I have the intention to realise the loss and place the remaining fund elsewhere.

Other than that, the realised P&L is a positive.

My transactions for 2020:

S/N	Counter	No. of Shares	Cost incl. Fees	Type
1	OCBC	500	$4,615.63	Bought
2	OCBC	500	$4,257.27	Bought
3	OCBC	31	$241.49	Bought
4	SingTel	3,000	$7,452.73	Bought
5	CCT	3,500	$5,716.86	Bought
6	Mapletree Logistic Trust	2,483	$4,942.17	Bought
7	Japfa	10,000	$5,002.00	Bought
8	Japfa	40,000	$24,716.05	Sold
9	Ascendas REIT	2,000	$5,921.00	Bought
10	Ascendas REIT	5,000	$13,596.40	Bought
11	Ascendas REIT	5,000	$13,902.24	Sold
12	CRCT	5,000	$7,680.40	Bought
13	CRCT	3,000	$4,005.27	Bought
14	CRCT	1,100	$1,288.00	Bought
15	DBS	300	$7,194.36	Bought
16	DBS	300	$5,954.13	Bought
17	DLC SG5xShort DBS	5,000	$6,275.00	Bought
18	DLC SG5xShort DBS	5,000	$5,075.00	Sold
19	DLC SG5xShort DBS	10,000	$17,800.00	Bought
20	DLC SG5xShort DBS	10,000	$15,300.00	Sold
21	DLC SG5xShort SIA	10,000	$8,027.55	Bought
22	DLC SG5xShort SIA	10,000	$7,794.96	Sold
23	Keppel DC REIT	5,000	$11,519.69	Bought
24	Keppel DC REIT	5,000	$11,709.77	Sold
		Total Bought:	$121,489.95
		Total Sold:	$78,498.02

 

Quite a number of transactions done for my standard. Unfortunately not all turned out to be good trades.

 

Highlights include averaged down on Japfa in batches which turned in a profit and some bad trades on DLCs.

 

Hopefully I will improve on my trading skills in the year ahead.

 

Lastly, here's wishing everyone a blessed and healthy 2021.

Addition to My Safe Stream of Passive Income

All along, my POSB savings account has been a low interest bearing account. Just maintaining it for the sake of nostalgia and some Giro arrangements like monthly insurance and charity contributions.

 

However recently I discovered the POSB Cashback Bonus which turned out to be a great addition to my passive income from interest / cash back from my bank accounts.

 

I know I have been slow to this but it's better late than never.

 

And I don't even need to sign up for a separate account for this. All I need to do is to log in to my iBanking and enroll my existing POSB account into this Cashback Bonus scheme.

 

Less than 5 min job.

 

Why do I say this is a great addition to my passive income from bank accounts?

 

That's because:

 

Yes, a whooping 3% cashback on my monthly home loan instalment with the bank.

 

This rate by itself already beats most, if not all the other cashback / high interest savings accounts out there.

 

Do note that you have to meet at least 3 of the criteria in order to qualify for the cashback.

 

Obviously the caveat here is that this scheme will benefit more for those who has home loan, insurance and / or investments with the bank.

 

Also, if you are maintaining a high average balance in your POSB or DBS account, the DBS Multiplier might be a better choice for you.

 

The difference between the POSB Cashback and DBS Multiplier account is that the former doesn't care how much is in your savings account as the cashback depends solely on you meeting the minimum 3 criteria while the latter gives interest based on the amount in your account balance.

 

I've done a quick calculation. With this addition of cashback, I am looking at a monthly inflow of $70+ conservatively speaking, just by doing what I have been doing all this while without the need to change my lifestyle.

 

$70+ per month or $800+ yearly. While this might not be a lot of money to some, it's good enough for a short trip to Bangkok (almost a yearly trip for us previously) or cover some milk powder expense. Haha..

 

In short,

 

The POSB Cashback Bonus scheme will benefit those who has a home loan, insurance and / or investments with the bank yet at the same time does not maintain a high account balance. 

 

So this is the latest tweak to my safe stream of monthly passive income, at least until the banks change their interest / cashback criteria again.

 

By the way this is not a sponsored post. Just a sharing of another great way to earn more passive income for people who can benefit from it.

Taking Stock of 2019

Is it me or time really seems to fly when you are getting old. We have reached the end of 2019 in the blink of an eye. Time to take stock for the year again!

Family

Wifey and I are spending most if not all of our free time we have with Baby M who arrived on Father's day 2018.

Having turned 1.5 years young recently, she has been getting more active by the day. Grabbing our hands to walk around, dictating where should we sit, dancing when there's music and basically exploring all stuffs around her.

Her vocabulary is also expanding everyday. Sometimes she surprises me by saying a word or pointing out the correct thing when I ask her where is it. 

I have noticed this little cutie likes three things in particular - music, dancing and reading. If she wants to pursue interest or enrichment in these areas I will support her.

On the other hand I do not want to be like some parents who send their kids to tons of classes and tuition, thus depriving their kids of the happy childhood that all children should have.

Sometimes we should draw a line against kiasuism.

Our biggest wish for her remains the same. That is for her to grow up happily and healthily.

Healthy Lifestyle

I feel I have done quite well in this area. As far as I can remember I have not fall sick for the past year or two. Touch wood!

I attribute this to my healthy lifestyle which I try to adhere to as far as possible. Aspects of this lifestyle includes:

1) Cold shower

I have not been using the water heater since at least two years back. Whether it's the morning shower before I go out or the night shower when I get back, it is always a cold shower for me and I firmly believe it helps in building up my immune system.

A cold shower helps in muscle recovery too especially after an intense workout.

2) Exercise

I always try to start my day with a workout after I get off bed. This helps to jump start my day and secondly, builds up my fitness and muscle mass obviously.

Most importantly, it acts as a counterweight against my diet which I do not restrict because I can't! There's just too much good food in Singapore which pushes my will power to the abyss.

I do not have a fix routine for my workout. The type of exercise and repetition varies but generally it is something like this.

50 ~ 100 x Pushups
50 x Toe Touch Crunches
2 min x Plank
50 ~ 100 x Bicep Curls
25 x Squats

I try to do the above during the evenings too but that doesn't always happens especially when baby M is around..

I run for cardio exercise. I enjoy running for the longest time. It's good for de-stressing and helps to clear my mind. Mileage-wise of course the more the merrier. But for 2019 I only done about 216 km.

Last run did for 2019: A morning run near my neighbourhood. 

Healthy lifestyle, healthy body. Totally worth it!

Work

With my financial year ending in February 2020, I still have two months to charge ahead. 

Results so far are not bad. I can't say I'm totally pleased as the targeted turnover has not been hit yet. However bottom line is encouraging due to the high margin in several projects.

Year-to-date top line is already higher than whole of last year while bottom line is close compared to whole of last year.

I expect the latter to exceed last year's when we close the book by year end.

Moving forward, my focus continues to be growing the business and buy an office space as part of my recurring income plan.

Financials and Other Incomes

Bought a new car this year due to the expiring COE of my previous car. Luckily did not have to touch my investments but it did affected my cash flow.

Previously I have set these targets for 2019.

Targeted passive income: S$7,200
Targeted side income: S$3,000

Actual passive income achieved: S$4,471.25* (vs S$6,069.08 in 2018)

Actual side income achieved: S$5,314.78 (vs S$3,042.86 in 2018)

Results: One target achieved.

For 2020,

Targeted 2020 passive income: S$7,200
Targeted 2020 side income: S$6,000

Investments

My holdings as of 31/12/2019:

Relatively quiet year for me. Opted for scrips for MLT and ESR REIT.

Total number of holdings increased to 13 compared to 12 last year. 

However portfolio value at end of the year decreased slightly to S$122,453 (vs S$123,356 in 2018). This is due to several reasons:

1) Cash received from my sold transactions have not been fully redeployed to the portfolio.

2) Share price of Japfa has not recover fully to the pre-swine flu level.

Tabulated summary*:

As shown in the above summary, I am actually at a slight paper loss excluding dividends. However the power of dividends is evident here.

The overall portfolio is mainly bogged down by ISOTeam of which I am having a S$9K paper loss currently.

Although the dividends help to cushion the lousy feeling abit, the opportunity cost is mounting. I will make a decision on this counter within this year or two depending on the share price.

This year ISOTeam should be presenting a nice set of results due to the following:

1) The numerous contract wins which add to the already high order book.

2) SG Bikes which should turn profitable this year.

3) Integration of Pure group into ISOTeam which will further contribute directly to ISOTeam's expected good results.

4) The election year which should means more public projects out for tender in ISOTeam's area of expertise.

Of course whether these will serve as catalysts for the share price to move up is anybody's guess.

My transactions for 2019:

Not much transactions done for 2019. Accumulated Japfa in batches. Yeah it's not really a dividend stock which goes against my style. But I can't resist my itchy fingers. Bad habits die hard.

On the other hand, wifey's portfolio performed much better.

 

Did some re-balancing for her. Number of stocks remained the same as compared to 2018.

However year end portfolio value increased to S$63,158 (vs S$52,371 in 2018).

Tabulated summary:

Her paper gain + realised dividends hit S$11,981. Looks good I must say.

You can see the risk attitude I adopted while managing her portfolio as compared to managing my own.

If I had been as prudent in managing my portfolio it would have performed much more beautifully.

So this is it. A long post of 2019.

Last but not least, I wish everyone a happy new year ahead. Good health and good wealth!

* Reclassification of RHT special dividends