Portfolio Update Dec 2020

What a finale to an epic 2020!

My portfolio value increases $20k to surpass $240k after capital injections of around $13k and buoyed by strong recovery of retail Reits in Dec 2020. I am glad and satisfied to be given the opportunities to continue building and strengthen my portfolio in 2020. Not only has the portfolio value grows, I managed to initiate new positions in quality Reits and bank such as Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Frasers Centrepoint Trust and UOB in 2020. This portfolio provides a strong foundation for me to continue building up my passive income in pursuit of financial freedom. 

Portfolio Actions

1. Gotten 2,000 shares of Ascendas Reit at preferential offering price of $2.96

2. Added 600 shares of Mapletree Logistics Trust at $1.92

3. Added 2,000 shares of Mapletree Industrial Trust at $2.83

Portfolio Dividends

1. Received $109.50 from a $10k Singapore Savings Bond on 1 Dec

2. Received $92.10 of dividends from Mapletree Industrial Trust on 1 Dec

3. Received $67.57 of dividends from Frasers Centrepoint Trust on 4 Dec

4. Received $53.56 of dividends from Mapletree Logistics Trust on 4 Dec

5. Received $126.50 of dividends from Netlink Trust on 4 Dec

6. Received $459.20 of dividends from Ascendas Reit on 11 Dec

7. Received $610.20 of dividends from Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust on 17 Dec

8. Received $640.00 of dividends from Aims Apac Reit on 18 Dec

9. Received $100.67 of dividends from Mapletree Nac Trust into SRS on 28 Dec

      Portfolio Value $243K

My ultra long-term SRS portfolio value increases $7k to $81k. Comfortdelgro and Keppel Reit are on their way to recovery while the rest are fairly stable and in consolidation phase. All counters in this portfolio are likely to do well in the long future but if the Covid situation triggers another round of lockdown and economic stagnancy, then things will get worse before the overall situation improves. 

    Portfolio Value $81K

My war chest stands at a meagre $1.8k which means that I will not have sufficient ammunition to invest more in the near future. First quarter results reporting are looming and I am expecting some dividends to boost my war chest in Feb 2021.

My investment strategy for 2021 will be to adopt a more passive and laid-back approach. Firstly, to conserve and pump monies into CPF Special Account and SRS in 1Q 2021, then build up war chest and capitalise on any retracement or correction opportunities from 2Q to 4Q 2021, while collecting dividends, adding slowly to investments instead of gobbling because the stock market is no longer as undervalued as in 2020.

At the same time personally, it is important to invest in my own skillsets by picking up technical skills such as cloud computing, programming and enriching my mind and soul with knowledge from books and Youtube videos.

On this last day of 2020, it is time to put the darkest days of 2020 behind us, focus on the present and embrace the future! 2021 will be a better year for investors and mankind!

Thanks for reading. Stay Strong and Happy New Year to all!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Passive Income in 4Q and entire 2020

Wrapping up this tumultuous year of 2020, it is time to review the passive income I received in the pursuit of financial freedom journey.

In 4Q of 2020, I have received the following streams of dividends and interests.

$98 SSB (1 Oct) 

$373.49 OCBC (7 Oct) SRS

$117.00 UOB (13 Oct)

$2590 CapCom (28 Oct)

$107 SSB (2 Nov)

$311.22 CapMall (19 Nov)

$256 CapCom (19 Nov)

$270 Guocoland (19 Nov)

$92.40 Suntec Reit (25 Nov)

$458.70 Mapletree Com (27 Nov)

$92.10 Mapletree Ind (1 Dec)

$109.50 SSB (1 Dec)

$67.57 Frasers Ctr Trust (4 Dec)

$53.56 Mapletree Log (4 Dec)

$126.50 NetLink Trust (4 Dec)

$459.20 Ascendas Reit (11 Dec)

$610.20 Frasers LC Trust (17 Dec)

$640.00 Aims Apac Reit (18 Dec)

$100.66 Mapletree Nac (28 Dec) SRS

All add up to $6,932.90 in 4Q 2020.

I earned $2,816.40 of passive income in 3Q 2020.

My passive income in the first half 2020 is $7,343.82

Altogether, my passive income for 2020 is  

$17,093.12

There are one-off capital returns such as $2,590 from Capitaland Commercial Trust after merger with Capitaland Mall Trust and interests from higher fixed deposit rates of above 1.5% that matured in early 2020 that contributed to the increase in passive income.

2020 was a crazy but rewarding year because despite the health pandemic, lockdowns and curbing measures that heavily impact lifestyle, I became a millionaire, portfolio hit the highest ever value of more than $240k and my passive income spirraled to achieve the highest ever amount in my life. A crisis creates opportunity indeed.

I hope and believe year 2021 will be a better and greater year. Let the economy recovery begins, low interest rate environment to sustain and Reits to collect increasing rentals and pay higher DPU. Let's also look forward to the interests from CPF in early Jan 2021. 

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Net Worth Update Dec 2020 - A Millionaire is born!

My net worth increases $21k to $1.013m, surpassing the milestone of SGD 1 million for the first time!

On 31 Dec 2019 when I kick-started this blog with a post on LIVE RICH LIFE FREE IN THE NEW DECADE, I shared about my target to achieve this milestone before age of 35. I did not expect to achieve this feat in 2020 as my net worth plummeted from $900k to a low of $850k at one point in Mar 2020.

I believe that this health pandemic is a blessing in disguise as it presented many opportunities in life during a crisis. 

The opportunity to work from home helps to save time commuting to office, transport costs, food costs and avoid physical contact with colleagues or bosses whom I do not enjoy meeting. This may be offset by increased expenses in electricity bills but overall, I managed to save money and time from working from home.

Lockdown of borders between countries lead to a total curb of travel and holiday-related expenditure. I have planned short trips to Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea or Taiwan in 2020 and at least a couple of thousands have been saved from not travelling at all in 2020.  

As I was fortunate to have a job supplying stable income, I injected capital consistently to buy shares from the stock market at depressed prices despite heightened fear caused by the health crisis. This helped to grow my net worth via capital gains when the share prices of many counters in my portfolio normalised to pre-Covid levels even before mankind has fully defeated the Covid virus and increased dividends from greater investment portfolio.

Early in 2020, more than $10k of interests were credited into my CPF accounts. More than $17k of passive income were collected from my bonds, dividends from stocks, Reits and interests from fixed deposits this year. All these passive income helped to boost my war chest and further fuel the growth of my net worth.

From 2021 onwards, I believe it will be the onset of a new economic cycle until another crisis kicks and history repeats itself a couple of years later. I plan to scale down the rate of growing my investments in 2021 as many company stocks and Reits are already overvalued or close to fair value. I intend to sit back, relax to enjoy the recovery ride while collecting dividends as passive income. I am sick and fed up of grinding in my current job and may look forward to finding a new gold mine to farm my bullets to build up my war chest. 

Momento Mori.- "Remember that you will die"

"Love the life you live

 Live the life you love."

-Bob Marley

Thanks for reading

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Added Mapletree Industrial Trust

I initiated a small position of 3,000 shares in Mapletree Industrial Trust after cutting losses on Starhub back in June 2020. See post: Portfolio Rebalancing: Cut Starhub Buy MIT

I have also explained why MIT is a Reit I do not dare to sell again.

As the share price of Mapletree Industrial Trust has weakened in recent weeks, it presented decent opportunity to add shares.

I decided to add a little more to make it 5,000. My strategy nowadays is to nibble bit by bit to steadily build up positions in good businesses or Reits, in a way using dollar-cost averaging. 

While I sometimes do look at technical charts to find good entry opportunities, as a long-term investor, I am not too concerned about short-term volatility unlike a full-time trader.

Although the share price of MIT has retraced more than 20% to $2.80s since its high of $3.37 in Sep 2020, to be honest, it is still not attractive enough to throw everything in including the kitchen sink. However, as MIT owns a resilient asset class offering 4% yield in today's low interest environment, it would be hard to be patient prudent and wise to add some shares first while waiting for it to drop.

I believe investing is a continual and gradual process. I will continue to invest in slowly and steadily instead of speculating and timing the market.

Thanks for reading.

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Nibbled a little more of Mapletree Logistics Trust

I added 600 shares of Mapletree Logistics Trust yesterday. 

After applying for the Mapletree Logistics Trust preference shares in Nov, I did not get all the 3,000 shares that I subscribed for. They refunded me the cash for 600 shares.

Hence, I am returning back the cash where it is meant to be. Since I am willing to pay $1.99 for the PO, when it is $1.92 and presents a savings of more than the $10 after incurring additional brokerage fee, I just decided to buy back what I was not given. 

While I would be happy if MLT can rebound from its recent correction to hit greater heights, I will also be happy if its share price plunged lower for me to add more shares since I only hold a small position of 5,000 shares. 

Always have a plan on investing. Follow your conviction and plan. Thanks for reading.

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Applied for Ascendas Reit Preferential Offering Shares

I initiated a position in Ascendas Reit in Nov 2019 after selling Singtel. Back then, there was equity fund raising by Ascendas Reit to purchase 30 business parks in US.  I also subscribed to the preferential offering shares and then added more shares to accumulate 8,000 shares. 

Fast forward one year, it is time for another Equity fund raising by Ascendas Reit. See related post:

Another Equity Fund Raising of an S Reit to milk my war chest

Although the share prices of industrial Reits seem weak recently, the share price of Ascendas Reit did not fall much below the Preferential Offer price of $2.96. Based on recent experiences of FCT and MLT's equity fund raising,  there is decent possibility of further share price weakness of Ascendas Reit as the next dividend is still months away and there is no catalyst in the short term. Nonetheless, Ascendas Reit is a must-have in any income investment portfolio and hence I decided to subscribe to 2,000 shares (including my entitled preferential offering shares with excess).

At $2.96, offering a close to 5% dividend yield, it is irresistible and considering that the share price can move either way, we can only plan to add more shares whenever its share price gets cheaper. I will continue to build up my position in Ascendas Reit in the future to strengthen my portfolio further and grow my passive income.

Thanks for reading. 

With love & peace,

Qiongster