Portfolio Update Mar 2020 - SRS Ultra LT Portfolio Revealed!

The portfolio value continue to plummet -16% from $186k in Feb 2020 to $155.5k on 31 Mar 2020 today. I collected 497 shares from the Dividend Reinvestment Scheme of Aims Apac Reit and also stuck to my plan to add some 2,800 CapMall Trust at 1.75 despite all the headwinds surrounding the Retail industry. I have explained my rationale to invest in Cap Mall here. I believe crisis presents opportunities and am rather optimistic that things will head for the better and that we have experienced the deepest fears in the stock markets and the recovery would be fast and furious in time to come once there are the slightest signs of this virus wavering out.

For the very first time, I am revealing my Ultra Long-Term Portfolio in the SRS account. These long positions are for at least 30 years and these 5 businesses, I believe will continue to grow and not go bust when I reach 62 yrs old. I have added 1,300 OCBC at 7.87 and 1,500 SATS at 3.69 in Mar 2020.

I have fired all my loose bullets at targets that I planned for and depleted my primary war chest. My next level of war chests will be unlocked by redeeming Savings Bonds and withdrawing from fixed deposits. I will do so if the effects of recession start to kick in and cause another round of tumbling in the markets and if my other targets such as Mapletree Industrial Trust hits < 1.70, Mapletree Logistics Trust hits < 1.20 or Parkway Life Reit hits < 2.30.

Meanwhile, I will do nothing and just live life normally, focus on work, relax, sleep, eat, exercise and hope that the virus situation improves and life resumes back to normal in the world soon.

Take care everyone and thanks for reading!

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

Passive Income in Q1 2020

I received the first passive income cashflow in 2020 from savings bonds interest, followed by some allowances from SAF for attending IPT sessions. Then comes the dividend payouts from the portfolio. Besides the dividends from Frasers Commercial Trust and Keppel Reit that go into SRS as money that appears locked up as numbers, I have opted for shares in the script dividend reinvestment scheme for Aims Apac Reit.

In total, my passive income in Q1 2020 is $3,192.33. Not a great feat but it certainly covers all my essential expenditures such as food, groceries, telco bills and transport.

$100.50 Saving Bonds (2 Jan)

$20.48 IPT Allowance (10 Jan)

$21.90 IPT Allowance (6 Feb)

$108.00 Ascendas HTrust (10 Feb)
$655.18 UOB FD Interest (17 Feb)

$203.50 Mapletree Com (26 Feb) 

$386.00 Cap Com (28 Feb)

$155.50 Cap Mall (28 Feb)

$117.35 Suntec Reit (28 Feb)

$168.26 Frasers Com (28 Feb) SRS

$144.91 Keppel Reit (28 Feb) SRS
$101.00 Saving Bonds (1 Mar)

$280.56 Ascendas Reit (4 Mar)
$21.62 IPT Allowance (20 Mar)

$707.57 Aims Apac Reit (26 Mar)

The stock markets has rebounded strongly due to the unlimited quantitative easing by the Fed and printing of $2T monies by the US government, after plummeting heavily due to the coronavirus. Locally, we have the Singapore government dipping into $17b of reserves to rescue businesses affected by this virus and sweeten the minds of people before the upcoming elections.

It is impossible to time the market to buy Reits and stocks at the bottom or sell at peak.
I have performed the following transactions to my SRS portfolio - sold off Frasers Commercial Trust, bought ComfortDelGro, SATS and OCBC. Next will be to add on to my existing income portfolio in CDP.

We need to stay calm, take care of our physical and financial health, live normally and grind out this tough situation. I will continue to live frugally, save up and invest in any bear or bull market conditions, slowly and steadily building up an income portfolio to work towards financial freedom and SGD 1m milestone. 

Thanks for reading.

With love and peace,

Qiongster

Added more OCBC to SRS portfolio

In my previous article comparing the 3 local banks' impressive Q4 2019 results and explaining why we should own the banks instead of letting banks own our money, I mentioned that 

"I am biased towards accumulating more OCBC shares for long term at around their Net Asset Value price of $10.50 as they offer scrip dividend reinvestment consistently every year. This allows us to leverage on the power of compounding effect to grow our money till we retire as we can reinvest the dividends collected from OCBC shares back into OCBC at no cost."

Today, I saw the share price of OCBC plummeted another 6.5%, at 25% off the book value and decided to add on 1,300 shares to my existing holdings in SRS portfolio. 

I could have waited for the bottoming of the markets which theoretically should take place at the climax of this whole Coronavirus crisis. The lowest prices of OCBC occurred before 2000, 2003 and 2009 at below $5. But I decided to not time the market and just catch the falling knife as this will be an ultra long term investment and I will continue to add on to OCBC shares using dollar cost averaging in 2021, 2022, every year and so on. If I get to see $5 again, I would definitely activate some of my war chest in Fixed Deposits and Savings bonds to add on more.

My next plan of action is to capture some more of the branded Reits that I currently own. Capitaland Mall Trust and Mapletree Commercial Trust will be my top choices. I am also comtemplating letting Mapletree logistics Trust or Industrial Trust join my family. This will be another lifetime opportunity to acquire Reits on the cheap. We should deploy our ammunition and unlock our war chests slowly to enjoy possibly further discounts and also in case there are rights offers by the Reits.

I will stay calm, stick to plan, slowly and steadily build the portfolio in the quest for financial freedom while eating, working and sleeping well during these tough times. In time to come, the crisis will be over and life will still go on.

Thanks for reading.

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

Net Worth Battered Heavily in Mar 2020

My net worth got battered and decreased 4.7% to $861.5k since Feb 2020 even after the latest injections from active income and CPF contributions.

With the recent turmoil in the stock market, my portfolio value was wiped out a whopping $50k. This is the main cause of my plummeting net worth.

Sad or not? I would be lying if I say no. I tried to be a stoic and I realise that there is no difference to my lifestyle even though I am technically much "poorer" compared to last month. Net worth and money are just numbers afterall. As long as we have sufficient cash and credit to pay for food, daily necessities, life goes on even with the coronavirus that caused so much panic and countries to lockdown.

I have contributed $4.3k to my SRS account and will top up the remaining $11k as soon as I receive my pending bonus. I have added SATS to my SRS portfolio too early this month and intend to capture some OCBC soon. The share prices of both these good companies have been battered recently so I am happy to enjoy discounts presented by the market. It is however possible that their share prices will still continue to slide down. My belief is to continue building a long term income portfolio in SRS by steadily adding on to shares of solid companies that I believe will still exist when I can cash out my SRS account in 30 years time.

To add insult to misery, I was looking forward to a nice retreat in Bangkok after grinding 3 months of work in 2020. I thought it is time to finally wind down, chillax, eat, and rest. However due to the enforcement of 14 days stay at home notice for returning from ASEAN countries by the Singapore government, I have no choice but to cancel this holiday trip.

Stay tuned for my Q1 2020 passive income report soon. Thanks for reading!

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

Get paid to Exercise? Is it passive income?

I attended the IPPT preparatory Training (IPT) today at Khatib Camp.

I will be paid more than $20 by SAF for 1 hour of exercise.

IPT and IPPT sessions are suspended in Feb in view of the worsening coronavirus situation. I am happy that I can get paid to exercise again.

As a Singaporean son, besides serving 2 years of National Service, one has still got to serve 7 rounds of high key In-Camp Training as an NSman before completion of all NS liabilities.

As many does not know, besides the IPPT monetary awards for passing or excelling in the fitness test. Nowadays all sessions of remedial trainings (RT), 3 sessions of IPPT and IPT sessions are paid with allowances based on the NSman's military rank. It is no longer a punishment or a waste of time to go RT if we reframe our mindsets.

The only downside is that National Service allowance is taxable. From IRAS perspective, it is earned income and not passive income.

I feel that this is one way to earn back the taxes we paid to the government, as well as to keep fit by exercising.

I hope to be able to continue enjoy getting paid to exercise for a couple more years before I complete my NSman liabilities.

Live Rich Life Free! Thanks for reading.

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

Added SATS to SRS portfolio

After the bloodshed edition Feb 2020 portfolio update, we continue to witness the financial markets in turmoil. Stocks and Reits experience series waves of sellsdowns and dead cat bounces. 

In Feb, I was hoping to be able to add SATS below $4.10. Amazingly the share price of SATS is able to pierce through the multiple layers of support at $4.00, $3.85 and $3.70 levels. And it will possibly plunge to even lower levels in weeks to come. 

SATS has announced pay cuts for their management and warned about the significant impact of the coronavirus on their bottom lines in Q4 2019.

Nevertheless, I stuck to my plan and added 1,500 shares at $3.69 to increase my holdings to 4,000 and lower the holding cost to $4.22. This is my little investment effort for the ultra long term using the 30 years locked up SRS funds. 

My long term plan is to add at least 1,000 shares of SATS and 1,000 shares of OCBC every year for the next 30 years using the $15.3k SRS top up amount.

I believe that a new economy cycle will begin after this virus situation followed by months of recession. Coronavirus and travel bans will not persist forever and will eventually end. In today's modern age, humans cannot do away with flying on planes for holidays and work, and may in fact travel even more to clear leaves once the situation improves. SATS will always be the leading ground handling, aviation food and gateway services provider in Changi Airport and across the region. I am confident it is a good business to invest for the ultra long term and Changi Airport T5 in 2030s will be a catalyst for SATS to grow.

Thanks for reading! Happy shopping in this lifetime opportunity!

With Love & Peace,
Qiongster

The unpredictability of the beautiful soccer, just like Life

In the English Premier League today, the high flyer and potential invincible Liverpool has lost, not just lost but being thrashed 3-0 by a struggling relegation threatened Watford, who was thrashed by Man Utd last week. This result leaves many talking points and ideas to ponder about. In the tightly contested English Premier League, the smaller football teams have been winning the so called traditional big boys in this season and the millionaire footballers from big boys have been under-performing match after match. Why is this so? What can we learn from the beautiful game?

In the competitive football industry, football clubs sack and change managers as fast as their players change their boots. Man Utd, a global football brand with long traditions and huge fan base in the world has sacked Mourinho, the Special One. Tottenham and Arsenal have also sacked their managers this season. Man Utd and Arsenal, have become mediocre clubs while Liverpool who has been mediocre for a long time, has finally built a team to challenge for trophies. We can learn that success and glory is not eternal. It is short lived. Success in the past, does not guarantee success in the present and the future. Your dad may be successful, but this doesn't mean that you will be successful too. If we apply the same idea to trading or investing, our past records does not warrant profits always. Every trade is a new game altogether. Every new investment is a new game. There is uncertainty, unpredictability or risk with every new game, be it soccer or investment. All are the same. We cannot avoid defeats, losses, failures. We can only limit, mitigate or reduce the possibility of losing. Fret not if you have not been winning in your past trades or investments. You can always restart the game and you may win this time.

Table topper, Liverpool who has won 26 games and drawn 1 game prior to today, has been putting in awesome team spirit and performances for the entire season, suddenly lost to Watford away. This is akin to a Forex trader who has won at least 10 pips for 10 trades successively, but in the 11th trade lost 100 pips. Overall there is still net gain, but the one losing trade is a hiccup and causes psychological impact after making that many trades. Losing is part and parcel of the game. We play to win always but losing once in a while can give us a reality check and let us realize that men are not informidable afterall. We are made of flesh and bones and can make mistakes or lose concentration in a while. Also, it tells us that past track record will not affect future performance.

In conclusion, the beautiful game of soccer demonstrates to us the unpredictabilities in life. The future is uncertain. What you have achieved in the past could be gone in the future. If you have made losses in the financial markets, fret not, don't give up. The losses do not mean anything. Every new trade is a new beginning to a new game where you can win or lose.

With Love and Peace,
Qiongster