August 2026 Updates

August is a good month for income. Dividends received amounted to $2,181.24 consisting of:

SingTel @ $824

DBS @ $615.60

OCBC @ $546.14

CDG @ $195.50

This is higher Y-o-Y and total year dividends look on track to beat last year's figure which was somewhat a mini breakthrough for me. 

No trade done for Singapore portfolio this month. Have been queuing for NLT between $0.97 - $0.975 for the past two weeks without getting filled.

Hence the funds for August have rolled over to add on to September funds.

Just took a quick look at the market and it seems a couple more counters are starting to look interesting in terms of share price.

Hope to be able to deploy the funds soon.

For the US market, one of the short Puts expired unassigned with premium in the pocket.

Wrote another short Put on the same counter and closed it three days later for a quick profit.

Last but not least, added more to my existing ABVX position. 

Wrapping Up for 2025

Quick wrap up for a year that flew past for me. 

 

Family

This year we went to Bali again for our year end holiday. We stayed 4 nights at the mountainous region of Ubud this time which we really love (last year we stayed entirely at Kuta). Our room opens up to this view:

On the last 2 days we stayed at Kuta to be nearer to the airport. We managed to visit Waterbom Bali this time. I suspect I might just make Bali a yearly visit from now on 🤭.

School work-wise, daughter got an award for Mathematics at the end of school year. Guess it's a good end for her Primary 1.

 

I've never been worried about her school work. It's her stubbornness and temper that I'm concerned with. I seriously think she inherited those from me.

Son's also getting better at being focus at his work. I would like to think his happy-go-lucky character is a blessing.

 

I will be very happy as long as they remain healthy and develop good character. The latter is always my focus when I'm teaching them.

Work

My company remains the main focus. It has been 8 years since I started the business bootstrapped. While it has its ups and downs through the years including surviving Covid, our mission in providing solutions in emission control and protecting our planet never change.

I would consider 2025 a so-so year for the company. While the numbers are not that great compared to past years, the highlights are constant repeat orders from a client - a testament to their trust in us, and a breakthrough into the public sector with a prominent government agency onboard.

I'm looking forward to 2026.

Side line 1:

My side gig as a personal trainer yields better than expected income for 2025. While I was aiming for $20k from this in the beginning of the year, the actual income achieved amounted to $23,640.

 

Not bad considering I only dedicate weekday mornings to this.

This is helped by the signing up of a private client who was introduced to me by her family member who in turn was already training with me.

I find this really fulfilling.

In fact another of his family member contacted me yesterday to enquire about my training schedule.

 

Side line 2:

 

I just embarked on this in October 2025, as an adjunct lecturer in a local IHL. I am only taking two classes per week for now. Income achieved amounted to $2,000.

I'm starting to get the hang of teaching and the administrative work but I must say this side gig is taking too much of my time. Way more than what I expected.

I will most likely continue for the next semester which should be less of a learning curve by then.

CPF

Throughout the year I have made voluntary cash top up to my CPF SA. Total top ups amounted to $5,590. These are taken from the side gig incomes.

In December I also made a transfer from OA to SA to achieve the FRS amount. This is done to take advantage of the higher interest in SA in order to further secure my retirement expenses.

Of course the downside is I have lesser amount to use should I decide to purchase another property in the near future. It is because of this consideration that I have taken so long to make this decision.

Personal Social Responsibility

 

For this year, my choice of causes remain the same: the young, the elderly and the environment.

 

This is just a small gesture to contribute back to the society on a regular basis.

 

Other than this yearly donation habit, part of the reason why I went into adjunct teaching is also to inspire the younger generation. I am teaching the subject of sustainability which is my area of expertise and which is closely related to my work and passion.

If I can motivate more young people to live sustainably and equip them with the knowledge to do so, there is a better chance our future generations can have a decent quality of life.

 

"Sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland Commission)

 

Last but not least, my wife and I also donated our household CDC vouchers to Tzu-Chi Foundation (Singapore).

 

Investment

2025 was a mini breakthrough year for me in terms of dividends.

For the first time since tracking, my annual dividends collected crossed the 5 figure mark.

My number of holdings increased to 12 counters. A number not seen since years back.

I invested about $29k in 2025 which is more than the estimated $20k figure foresaw in the beginning of the year. This amount is largely from my side gig incomes. I didn't really touch my savings or main income for investment this year.

Local portfolio value also hit a new high of $235k.

Cumulative dividends since tracking amounted to $62,714.56.

Total portfolio value (SG, HK, US) amounted to $257k.

In December the last batch of dividends came in from SingTel ($656), MIT ($286.20) and MLT ($295.86).

I also bought CapitaLand Invest (CLI) @ 2.61 in December. This feels like a renewed relationship as I have sold this counter few years back when it was still known as CapitaLand.

 

For non-REITS, other than CLI I also bought ComfortDelGro (CDG) and Venture this year. Lastly I also added more DBS and OCBC.

 

For CDG it's another reacquaintance.

 

Best performers in 2025:

 

1) DBS (+131.22%)

2) OCBC (+108.49%)

3) SingTel (+41.90%)

Worst performers in 2025:

1) CLCT (-41.39%)

2) MLT (-5.73%)

3) MIT (-4.89%)

 

CLCT continued to be the worst performer. Same position as last year although there is a slight improvement compared to 2024 (-46.24%).

For the last two years I have tried to divert my portfolio away from REITs by adding other equities. In 2026, I will adopt a more balanced view with a mixture of both asset classes as I feel the worse is over for REITs.

Having said that I will still be prudent with my cash by holding a certain percentage of it due to the present geopolitical risks and the whims of Trump. This will be achieved by only investing from my side incomes while leaving my main income and savings untouched. Same strategy as 2025.

I will probably only deploy the latter income sources if (a) a compelling buy case arises or (b) more clarity on the geopolitical situations arise e.g. concrete end of the wars, step down of office by Trump, etc. However the trick is to remain nimble as is always the case in investing especially so in this era where dynamics change ever so quickly.

For the US / HK portfolio, I will continue to concentrate force on the tech sector since my outlay is relatively small for too many counters. In the US market, I will continue to build a position in MSFT and NVDA. For HK market, I might add more 9988 if it hits $120.

Talking about MSFT, it is the second multi-bagger achieved in this portfolio with a P&L of +179.18%.

Worst performer: PYPL (-68.44%)

November 2025 Updates (Mini Milestone)

Investment

 

Received total dividends of $779.55 from Netlink NBN Trust and DBS in November.

 

NLT: $284.55

DBS: $495

With these, I have hit a mini milestone in my investment. Annual dividend received crossed the $10k mark.

This is not a surprise though as I have anticipated this at the beginning of the year based on the portfolio growth and the expected amount of capital injection I have planned to do for the year.

 

What's nice is there is one more month to go and I am expecting further dividends to come in from MLT, MIT and SingTel in December. This should bump up the total dividends received by another 10% or so.

For this month, I have also added DBS on a dip @ $53.80. This is a huge average up from my existing holding cost of $19.85. The confidence to do this stems from the business performance and management pedigree that I've seen in DBS.

 

With this addition, my average cost now stands at $24.39.

 

I still have about $3k of balanced cash from this month's warchest. Hope to deploy it soon.

Side Gig and Others

 

Started my second side gig as an adjunct lecturer in one of our local IHLs in October.

 

In this month I received my maiden salary from this gig.

 

Income distribution plan is roughly the same as my other gig. 25% of this income goes to my CPF SA. 25% goes to my discretionary spending. 50% goes to my investment pool.

 

For this month I also received the $390 cash from a credit card signup I did in July 2025. Nice bonus towards the end of the year.

 

Surprise Find

 

Was digging through my room to find my birth certificate as my mum wishes to transfer her shares in CDP to me for easier management.

 

However I can't find my birth cert anywhere.

 

Anyone knows what else I can furnish to CDP to prove my relationship to my mum?

 

On the other hand look I've found these surprises during my digging!

 

Posting here for nostalgia sake.

 

Are these worth any money these days?

 

 

 

 

August 2025 Updates

For the month of August, I bought MIT @ $1.99 and Comfortdelgro @ $1.47.

The former is a continuing accumulation to build up my existing position when price dips. With this addition, MIT now occupies 8.75% of the portfolio based on market value.

The latter is a reentry since I sold it 8 years ago. Bought it post XD as the price felt comfortable for a first tranche, dividend yield has become attractive and business fundamentals & outlook are improving.

This month also seen dividends received from

OCBC @ $476.42

DBS @ $495

SingTel @ $800

Total: $1,771.42

Looking forward to next month's dividends. 

Local portfolio value and P&L excluding dividends:

I also transferred $19,999 to DBS fixed deposit with 2.45% interest.

Had a rather unpleasant experience at Punggol Coast Mall Fairprice Finest with my family yesterday.

We were at the 2nd floor doing our shopping and an auntie promoter at the 'Europe' shelving offered my 5 year old a sample.

My son declined as he will always ask me or my wife for permission before accepting things from strangers. 

What irks me is that I heard the promoter told my son to stop looking if he does not want the sample.

After that my son came back to me and I squatted down to ask him what did the promoter said to him. From the corner of my eye I saw the promoter crept up and hid behind one of the shelves near us to eavesdrop on our conversation.

When my son told me the exact words that I heard earlier, I had wanted to go to confront the promoter but my two kids stopped me, saying they are afraid I would be taken away by the police. That gave me a chuckle.

Nevertheless I happened to see the Fairprice store manager and feedback to her about the incident.

Her empathy, professionalism and prompt action are exemplary and show why she deserves to be a manager.

Two ladies, two poles apart in behaviour. 

Anyway writing this to let off some steam.

Thanks for reading. 

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.

Aug 2022 Updates

August 2022

 

Local Portfolio Value after market close (excluding USD and HKD)

S$136,406.14

Purchase

 

None

Sold

None

Dividends

 

SingTel: $384

DBS: $216

OCBC: $297.36

 

Total: $897.36 

Short-Term Transactions

  

Sold 4 x SE 220826 Calls at $105 strike with $1.26 premium. Closed early at $0.04.  

 

Summary

SGD portfolio:

  

Nothing added or sold. Continue to wait for dividends to come in.

Syfe Core Growth portfolio:

 

Current TWR at -7.52%.

Not adding anymore funds to it.

USD / HKD portfolio: 

 

Made a net profit of US$477.58 (~S$668.26) from my call options in SE this month.

 

Have been writing calls since May till now. Will probably continue to do so.

 

Personal:

 

I have started the side gig which I mentioned last month. So far did 9 sessions which will yield me about $340. Not bad for a two weeks period.

 

I have also started my part time Masters programme at NUS. So far so good though assignments have been assigned which means less free time for me.

Jan 2022 Update

Jan 2022

 

Local Portfolio Value after market close (excluding USD and HKD)

S$139,687.14

Purchase

 

Ascendas Reit @ $2.87

AAPL @ $167

MSFT @ $318

PYPL @ $189

Sold

None

Dividends

 

SingTel @ $360

MLT @ $146.10

CICT @ $261.90

 

Total: $768

Short-Term Transactions

 

Sold 2 x DIDI Call 220520 at $10 strike with $0.17 premium.

  

Closed early at $0.35 for 3 x GREE Put 220121 at $15 strike with $0.60 premium.

 

Sold 1 x AMD Put 220128 at $125 strike with $2.21 premium. Closed early at $24.75.

 

Summary

SGD portfolio:

  

Added 1,100 units of Ascendas Reit. 

Syfe Core Growth portfolio:

 

Seeing negative returns for this month mainly due to the correction from the US market. 

 

Apparently this portfolio is not as resilient as I anticipated.

However this was the whole idea when I started it nearly a year ago - to see how it perform against the market. 

Will monitor further before deciding on next course of action. 

USD / HKD portfolio: 

 

Continue to add small positions in MSFT, AAPL and PYPL. 

 

The correction in the US market this month saw the tech stocks tanking heavily which presented nice opportunities to build up positions. 

However also because of the same correction I made a loss in my overall options positions in January. 

This is due to the AMD put which I sold last month. I decided to close it early without taking assignment. 

Options P/L for this month: -US$2,192.37

Review of My 2021

 

2021 basically flew past for me and 2022 appeared in the blink of an eye. With that it means it's time to pen down the customary yearly review for record which I have since done long ago in my head actually.

 

I'm always been somewhat of a contrarian since young.

 

People buy PlayStation I buy Sega Saturn.

 

People chase after the class beauty, I wrote a love letter to the bespectacled lanky girl with tiger tooth (only to be waylaid by the class fatty whom I suspected had a crush on me).

 

You got the gist.

 

So for 2021 portfolio performance portion where most investors reported stellar results, I will report my loss instead.

Family

Our kids are growing up well. The elder one is attending N2 this year while the younger one will be attending the playgroup at the same centre next month.

 

So far it seems like the younger one is taking after his sister's cheerful nature.

My wife and I noticed that from the time when she was still a baby, often times Jie Jie will start smiling the moment she opened her eyes after she woke up from her sleep. These scenes naturally melted our hearts whenever we see them.

Now Di Di is exhibiting the same thing also. 

 

These two cute little ones added so much more to our lives and we cherish every moment with them.

As long as our kids grow up healthily, happily and with the right values in life, I would be very happy.

Health

In early 2021 I attended a personal training course and got myself certified as a personal trainer as I have always been interested in keeping fit.

It was rewarding and I gained a lot of insights on not only the knowledge on personal training, but also in the human anatomy and food nutrition.

Before I attended the course, I have been doing my own workouts comprising of combination of cardio and weights trainings.

 

The workouts were good for weight loss but that was not what I wanted. My aim was to build strength and lean muscle but I actually lost weight instead of achieving the latter.

So after I got my certification as a personal trainer, I wrote two structured training programs for myself with specific load, no. of reps, sets and amount of rest time, etc for my workouts.

I must say this type of structured resistance training works well for my goal. I am seeing the transformation on my physique and body strength despite less than a year into the training.

If there's a chance I certainly don't mind working as a personal trainer as a side hustle. This is something I love and it would be great and satisfying to share my PT knowledge with people who wants a healthier lifestyle and sexier body.

My overall health in 2021 is generally good except for some episodes of recurring back spasms which could be due to an old injury sustained when I was younger. 

 

To counter this I am doing a series of lower back strengthening exercises daily to build up my lower back muscles.

 

Other than that I don't recall ever being ill in 2021.

Work

2021 is not a very good year for my business. Number of contracts secured and value of contracts all dropped.

Earlier in the year, I rejected a ~$150,000.00 project after receiving the PO from the client.

This is because despite having agreed on the scope of work and quotation, the client insisted on us to sign a separate agreement with heavily unfavourable terms to us.

An example of these unfavourable terms is that they have the right to add items to the project if they think necessary but all costs will be borne by us.

I have seen and signed many additional agreement to main contract for other projects. This is quite common. However in this case the terms are heavily skewed against us so in the name of risk management, I rejected the agreement and with that, the contract.

Apart from the above, we also lost a number of large projects where we had high hopes of securing. In a couple of them we were actually the lowest bidder so it was very disappointing to say the least.

We have one potential big project left for this FY. If this is not secured, this FY will likely to be a loss-making one for us.

Investments

I will start off with my regular monthly update first before moving on to the year end conclusion.

 

Dividends Received in December:

 

1) ESR REIT @ $74.76

2) MNACT @ $137.04

3) Netlink Trust @ $204.80

4) MLT @ $217.30

 

Total: $633.90

 

Counters Sold:

 

1) 4,000 units of Suntec Reit @ $1.50

2) 10,500 units of ESR Reit @ $0.485

 

Counters Purchased:

 

1) 1,600 units of Mapletree Logistics Trust @ $1.84 from preferential offering (allocation + excess)

 

Short-Term Transactions:

 

1) Sold 2 x $9.5 DIDI Call 211231 with $0.37 premium. Expired.

 

2) Closed early at $6.93 for 1 x $55 Apps Put 211203 with $0.71 premium.

 

3) Closed early at $1.74 for 2 x $55 Apps Put 211210 with $0.90 premium.

 

4) Sold 6 x $45 Apps Put 211231 with $0.73 premium. Expired.

 

5) Closed early at $0.75 for 1 x $17.5 GREE Put 211217 with $1 premium. 

 

6) Sold 3 x $15 GREE Put 220121 with $0.60 premium. 

 

Total P/L excluding item 6: -US$269.76 (~-S$365.66)

 

Moving on to the year end review.

 

Year End SGD Portfolio

 

Transactions Made

 

This SGD portfolio continues to stay as my main portfolio, providing me with a stable base and passive income to build on to greater heights.

Didn't manage to grow it as much as I wanted to in 2021. In fact the year end portfolio value actually dropped as compared to 2020 due to the divestments I made in December.

 

So in December I sold off my Suntec Reit and ESR Reit to generate more cash and as part of my rebalancing to buy into more quality income-generating counters.

 

I had shortlisted MNACT and CICT as well but eventually decided to sell the above-mentioned due to their relatively high gearing.

Suntec Reit is also facing pressure on their MICE and retail segments while ESR Reit is having declining dividends over the past few years.

Having said that, with the recent announced planned merger for MNACT, I might be selling that also to avoid odd lots in the future. Will be doing some calculations before deciding. Anyway market price will be a determining factor too.

 

In 2021, portfolio suffered an overall loss because I finally decided to cut ISOTeam and realise the loss which amounted to a not-so-cool 5 digits.

 

This is part of the plan that I have made in the beginning of the year: to clear out dead wood from my portfolio.

 

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

So with this divestment my portfolio ended up in the red for 2021, contrary to many of my fellow investors who had a stellar year.

 

On the flip side, my portfolio will likely perform much better in the years ahead now that it has been tidied up.

It feels refreshing to start on this note.

With these divestments and transactions, my portfolio currently holds 9 counters (compared to 14 in 2020 and 13 in 2019).

 

My investment style for the SGD portfolio remains the same: Income investing into quality companies.

 

Year End USD / HKD Portfolio

 

2021 also marked my first year entering the US and HK markets. Prior to that I have been monitoring the US market for a period of time and the volatility there compared to our local market is like comparing an ocean storm and placid lake.

If the local market is for building my income portfolio, the US and HK markets are for my growth elements.

 

I actually started off quite well. Had the first multi-bagger in my trading journey. Then I made a series of stupid mistakes which I have posted here and which caused my portfolio to turn from nice double digit profit margin to the red number seen above.

I have one lesson firmly etched into my mind from this episode. That is not to allow emotions to cloud my judgement ever again in stocks trading.

 

Moving ahead I will still continue to buy into the Tech and green energy sectors whenever opportunities arise such as last night where the Tech counters fell due to the rising Treasury yields.

 

In the options trading space which I also made my maiden entry in 2021, I made a total of 36 trades which comprise written puts and covered calls.

 

I generated a profit of US$1,970.81 (~S$2,671.14) from these trades. I feel this is not bad considering a base of S$20 K initially.

I will continue to use options to supplement my trading income and possibly buy the stocks at the price I want.

 

If you wish to try the US and HK markets as well you can sign up for a moomoo account here.

Year End Syfe Portfolio

 

In March 2021, I opened an account with Syfe after doing a comparison among the different robo advisors.

I started a small Core Growth portfolio with them focusing mainly on the US and Chinese stocks.

Time weighted return so far for the 9 months period is about 7.1%. I intend to continue DCA-ing monthly and let this portfolio run for a longer period of time before deciding on the next move.

Summary

 

So just to sum up my total portfolios value at the end of 2021: S$162,497.41.

 

Last but not least, here's wishing everyone a blessed and healthy 2022 ahead.