Portfolio Update Mar 2022

The first quarter of 2022 has come to an end. It is time for me to review my investment portfolios.

The stock markets have rebounded strongly after undergoing several weeks of turbulence with the ongoing war in addition to immense noises engulfing Fed tapering, interest rates hikes, inflation fears, Omicron variant fears, rise of US Treasury yields and so on.

Whether it is the resumption of a bull market or a fake breakout is uncertain. Nevertheless, time in the market always beats timing the market.

I remain invested and plan to slowly and steadily increase my investments in income-producing assets and growth businesses in the coming few weeks, for the long-term.

My SGX Income Portfolio value recovers to $282k from $268k last month mainly due to recovery of Reits.

My US Growth Portfolio value inches up to US$14.3k from US$13.8k last month.

My SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio value increases to $122.4k from $100.2k mainly due to contribution of $14.3k to SRS this month and rebound of Wilmar and OCBC.

Portfolio Actions

1. Added 1,000 shares of OCBC at $11.56.

Portfolio Dividends

1. Received $119.50 of dividends from Savings Bonds on 1 Mar.

2. Received $138.08 of dividends from Ascott Reit on 1 Mar.

3. Received $298.14 of dividends from Keppel Reit on 1 Mar in SRS account.

4. Received $92.77 of dividends from Capitaland China Trust on 7 Mar.

5. Received $280.48 of dividends from Keppel DC Reit on 10 Mar in SRS account.

6. Received $759.80 of dividends from Ascendas Reit on 11 Mar.

7. Received $66.60 of dividends from Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust on 15 Mar.

8. Received $279.20 of scrip dividend as 109 shares from Mapletree Industrial Trust on 15 Mar.

9. Received $72.40 of dividends from Mapletree Logistics Trust on 22 Mar.

10. Received $752 of dividends from Aims Apac Reit on 25 Mar.

SGX Income Portfolio

Portfolio Value = $282k

US/HK Growth Portfolio

Moomoo

Tiger Broker

Total Portfolio Value : US$14.3K

SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio

As always, stay safe and remain strong.

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Completed SRS Top-Up in 2022

This year, I decided to complete the maximum contribution of $15,300 to my Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account early before end of 1Q 2022 so that I can focus on building up war chest and long-term investment in the rest of the year.

The main benefit of SRS is to save taxes aka cash outlay to the taxman next year.

Another benefit is to build up a cannot-touch ultra-long term portfolio using SRS funds.

There are also other options of endowment or insurance plans, annuity plans, bonds, funds or robo-advisor investment portfolios that we could invest with SRS funds.

However, SRS savings may not be for everyone because of the long lock-down period. We can only withdraw up to $40k from SRS tax-free for 10 years from the first penalty-free withdrawal, upon reaching the statutory retirement age (63 w.e.f 1 Jul 2022). There is a penalty incurred for withdrawing funds from SRS prior to retirement age, on top of being slapped with tax on the withdrawn amount.

I believe SRS is only beneficial for people who are having income at least in the 7% tax bracket.

I have already contributed $1k to SRS early this year.

There it goes. $14.3k to complete the quota for this year!

Thank you for reading. Stay safe and be strong as always.

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

 

Passive Income in Q1 2022

In the first quarter of Year 2022, I received interests from Singapore Savings Bonds and dividends from Reits in my investment portfolio as passive income.

My passive income in Q1 2022 is $4,075.35 from the following streams of dividends and interests. Not a great feat but they certainly cover all my essential expenditures such as food, groceries, telco bills and transport. Even though I did not keep track of my expenses, I am certain that I spend less than $1000 every month, being quite financially secured and on the verge of attaining financial freedom.

This is a 71% Year-on-Year increase from my passive income in Q1 2021 of $2,372.66.

From 1 Jan to 31 Mar 2022, I have received the following dividends.

$112.50 Savings Bonds (3 Jan)

$116.88 Mapletree Log Trust (12 Jan)

$873 Capitaland Int Com Trust (28 Jan)

$114 Suntec Reit (28 Feb)

$119.50 Savings Bonds (1 Mar)

$138.08 Ascott Reit (1 Mar)

$298.14 Keppel Reit (1 Mar) SRS

$92.77 Capitaland China Trust (7 Mar)

$280.48 Keppel DC Reit (10 Mar) SRS

$759.80 Ascendas Reit (11 Mar)

$66.60 CICT (15 Mar)

$279.20 Mapletree Ind Trust (15 Mar)

$72.40 Mapletree Log Trust (22 Mar)

$752 Aims Apac Reit (25 Mar)

Cashflow is King!

I value passive income highly because they do not require much effort nor labour to earn. Furthermore, dividend income is not taxable in Singapore.

Even though my passive income is barely enough to cover my basic expenditure, I hope to continue living frugally, save up, invest in any bear or bull market conditions, slowly and steadily build up my investments.

My ultimate goal is to own an investment portfolio valued at one million dollars yielding at least $50k of passive income annually. 

I look forward to collecting more dividends as passive income in the next quarter of Year 2022.

Thanks for reading. Stay calm and remain strong as always! Huat ah!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Why I Like Interest Rate Hikes?

The Federal Reserve has increased interest rate by 0.25% on 17 Mar 2022.

There will be potentially 6 more interest rate hikes in this year.

Let me share on 5 reasons why I am happy about it.

1. No loans

I do not own any home nor car loan hence will not be affected by greater financing costs for home and car mortgage over the next few months due to rising interest rates. Even though I use credit cards frequently for payments of food and groceries, I always pay up the due amounts on time and will not incur any interest expenses.

2. Higher interest rates on savings

I look forward to enjoying higher interest rates on savings, emergency funds and cash in savings and fixed deposit accounts with the banks. As I am relatively conservative and stashed away a decent proportion of cash away in banks to be eroded by inflation first before investing spare cash in riskier equities and assets, it is time for my idling money to finally work harder to earn better yields.

3. Stocks' positive correlation with Interest Rates

Even though the stock markets may undergo short-term weakness before interest rate hikes, historically the stock markets do well when interest rates rise. Hence we should not be too bothered about rising costs of businesses or decreasing valuation of growth stocks in high interest rate environments. As long as we invest in great income-producing businesses and real estate assets, we will do well throughout the period of risking interest rates and in the long-term.

4. Higher bond yields

As bonds are instruments for investors to lend our money to companies or governments, we will be able to earn higher yields from investing in bonds be it treasury bills, Singapore savings bonds or corporate bonds issued by companies. This will be another great investment option for us to park our idle funds. Higher interest rates also make bond prices decline and become more attractive.

5. Interest rate controls Inflation

Theoretically, interest rates are tools used by central banks to manage inflation. With sky high inflation and recovering economies at present, the prices of commodities, food, properties, cars and luxury items are rocketing. Hopefully, rising interest rates will help to curb spending and cool down "interest" of consumers in splurging on goods and services. This may come at the expenses of economic growth though, but at least keep inflation under control to a limited extent. 

As always, stay safe and remain strong.

With love & peace, 

Qiongster

Net Worth Update Mar 2022

 

S$1.23m

This is another typical net worth update in middle of the month.

I have collected my Mar 2022 pay check, most of the dividends from SGX income portfolio for this quarter and paid off all my credit card liabilities and bills.

My net worth climaxes to another all-time high of $1.23m.

This is despite a downtrend in the stock markets caused by uncertainties of the war, commodities prices spike, inflation, pandemic and interest rate hikes and so on.

I plan to complete the maximum contribution of $15.3k to my SRS account by this month. Having already contributed $1k last month, this means another $14.3k to go.

I then intend to slowly add on to my investments in Alphabet Inc., Microsoft, Citigroup and perhaps even initiate a position in Amazon Inc., hoping to get on the boat before its looming stock split in Jun 2022. 

On the local SGX front, I am on the lookout for the likes of high quality Frasers and Mapletree Reits to hit my target shopping prices before I add.

As my priorities are on the US and SG stock markets, I do not have plan to catch the falling knives presented by the likes of Chinese ATM (Alibaba, Tencent and Meituan. However, if I do have spare cash, I would not mind nibbling them for accumulation.

The coming months in this year 2022 will be challenging and taxing financially, mentally and physically. Immense inflation has caused prices of food and necessities to surge. The stock markets are likely to test lower supports and enter the bear territories. WFH for prolonged periods of time has started to take a toil mentally. Colleagues and friends around me have started to dish out resignation letters to continue the Great Resignation spree. Lack of exercise and lower metabolic rate have made it easier to put on weight and physically taxing to regain back the lost stamina and fitness. The ever changing regulations, rules and schedule due to impact from the pandemic i.e people around us suddenly tested C+ have made planning of future events difficult and uncertain.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and remain strong always!

With love & peace,

Qiongster

Added more OCBC to SRS portfolio

 

The share price of OCBC (SGX: O39) has plummeted from the recent high of $13.54 to $11.56 today, due to a surprise 14% quarterly profit drop and perhaps affected by the restriction of trade financing for Russian raw materials.

This is a 14% correction which is enough to trigger my temptation to accumulate shares.

The book value of OCBC is around $11.45 and ideally I would prefer to pay lesser than the book value.

However, I added 1,000 shares to my ultra long-term SRS portfolio when my order got filled at $11.56 after the market closed.

As OCBC is currently on cum dividend of $0.28, net cost less dividend is $11.28 which is below book value, at a fairly attractive dividend yield of more than 4.5%, assuming OCBC maintains an annual dividend of at least $0.56 for the next few years.

I last added OCBC shares 2 years ago at $7.87 during the market shake-up from onset of the pandemic.

With this addition, I will own 3,429 shares of OCBC at an average net cost of $9.

My plan remains the same till now - to slowly and steadily accumulate OCBC shares via dollar cost averaging in my SRS account for the ultra long-term, because my SRS account is owned by OCBC and I intend to own the bank which owns my SRS account.

Thanks for reading.

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster