Looking at HSI Tracker Fund 2800.HK

 

While 2024 was a positive year, when you look at the longer term charts, HK/China stocks have done terribly compared to other markets. In 2024, I used FSMOne RSP to buy 2800, 2801, 3010, and 3110 and will continue to do so in 2025. One reason I am continuing is that valuations look attractive. Detractors claim that the numbers might be fake and given the experience with some S-chips, they might well have reason to believe this. However, when we are talking about the broader market and ETFs, it is hard to believe that the entire market is a fraud.

That is also where dividends come in. As the books say, "Dividends Don't Lie" and "Dividends still don't lie". In order to pay dividends, the company needs to have actual cash. 

Looking at the dividend history of the HSI Tracker Fund 2800.HK, it is nice that the dividend payout has increased over the last 3 years. There is still a long way to go, but its good that dividends are heading in the right direction.

With a current TTM (Trailing 12 month yield) of 3.97%, the dividend is satisfactory, and I am happy to continue my RSP of 2800.HK.  If TTM hits 4%, I may consider increasing my RSP amounts.

Beginning the year by stock-picking

 In Jan 2022, my resolution was to stock-pick less and buy more World and S&P500 ETF. I managed to stick to this resolution (more or less) in 2023 and 2024 which lucky given the S&P's performance. An older version of me might have been tempted to buy REITs instead which looked 'cheap' while S&P500 looked expensive. But I have learnt never to underestimate the power of the S&P500.

Anyway, I've started the year stock-picking. On 31st Dec I initiated a position in NVO after it crashed and continued to accumulate today. Also bought more NKE and UA.

SGD has been weakening against the USD and I suspect that it will continue to do so. I changed more USD today and put some into IBTU. I will probably add more USD to the FSMOne Autosweep account as well.

Reflecting on $21k passive income

 

44.8% increase????

2024 has been an extraordinary year. Apart from the US markets hitting all time highs every week, there appear to have been record dividend payouts. I found 44%+ hard to believe so I have been rechecking my spreadsheets and the figures were correct. In quite a few months, I was receiving $30k+ dividends, with some months being quieter. So on average, $21k passive income sounds about right.

I seriously doubt 2025 will be as good and probably close to zero chance I will repeat a 44% increase in dividends.  I have also recently deployed my free cash into US stocks where dividend isn't much of a factor just to learn more about buying and selling US stocks.Knowing my luck, there is probably going to be a market correction. 😁

While the extra money is nice, I think I have reached steady state in my spending, having increased it a bit in 2023 and a bit more in 2024. So I don't forsee my spending increasing further for 2025 except to keep pace with inflation.

Finally, since health is wealth, I have done an infographic of my VO2Max Progress. Good to be in the top 10% of health and fitness and also top 10% of dividends collected. However, VO2Max is limited by genetics (and also by the fact that I have a full-time job and don't train that much), so I don't expect further progress in 2025. Maintaining my fitness and avoiding injury is my main 2025 target.

Happy New Year to all!

Dividends Collected: Dec 2024

 

I thought not many companies are paying out dividends in December but I overlooked that Vanguard ETF dividends are paid out in December and I got a lot of those. Shell also paid this month, so total about $20k this month. 

To calculate my total passive income, I will add my CPF interest, because I count CPF and because I have reached the "young senior category" so its a matter of time before I can access CPF.

2024 Approximate portfolio performance

 

While its easy to check my Interactive Brokers portfolio performance because of its built-in measurement tools, its not so easy to track the performance of my Singapore and HK/China stocks because Standard Chartered and FSMOne don't have YTD returns.

So as an approximate proxy, I calculated the YTD performance (29 Dec 23 closing price to 27 Dec 24 closing price with dividends included) of my 6 largest Singapore counters (STI ETF and OCBC added together are larger than the other 4 combined), and also my HK/China ETF position. For Singtel, the position size has been reduced as I managed to exit a portion at $3.33 (its currently $3.10), which means my "realised" return is slightly higher. 

This sort of acts as a proxy for my SG portfolio though of course I have smaller holdings in various other counters, including Fraser's Logistics Trust which I have been accumulating throughout 2024 and currently losing money on it.

As for my Interactive Brokers Portfolio, which is basically my LSE-listed stocks and ETFs and some US stuff, I have again underperformed the S&P500 massively. My "excuse" is that I have been buying mainly Vanguard World which has 'only' 50-60% USA and slowed down my buying of S&P500 ETF because I wanted more diversification. However, I realise it could have been worse if I didn't have any US exposure at all and simply bought SG-REITs.

Under Armour (Buy after Crash)

 

Staying true to the name of his blog, I bought Under Armour @ 7.72 after it crashed last week. Since I am holding NKE, I am of course tracking the competitors such as UA, ONON and LULU, but previously still found NKE the most compelling buy. My view can (and should) change if there are sharp price changes which is what happened with UA. 

While I am short-term trading this, I wish UA well and here are my suggestions:

• Their announcement that they want to become a more 'premium' brand will probably work, especially in their apparel lines. There is a demand for "pro" or "performance" apparel lines that are one level above the entry level athletic apparel. 
• UA is so far behind in shoes I'm not sure if it wants to throw money into R&D to challenge the big guns in road & track running shoes. However, trail running shoes are a possibility because trail is not only about absolute speed (which requires a lot of R&D), but about protection, stability, comfort, and weather resistance. Premium trail running apparel is also a possibility. Nike ACG as a sub-brand hasn't honestly made much inroads and they are not a big sponsor presence for Golden Trails / UTMB.

Returning to my other US holdings NKE, MCD, and LLY, they are all green but the stock market is flatlining. On a valuation basis, I will continue to hold them. I even got some dividends from NKE but because of the 30% withholding tax, one doesn't buy US stocks for the dividend.

Amundi Index MSCI World S$ fund on POEMS

 The hot topic in the forums is "MoneyOwl by Temasek Trust" offering Amundi Index MSCI World S$ (as well the Amundi Global Bond and Amundi Emerging markets) via the POEMs platform. While it looks like a mouthful of jargon, the announcement is significant as it amounts to an undercutting of Endowus, Syfe, FSMOne, etc etc.

The key features of the MSCI World fund are the S$ denomination, so you don't have to change between S$ and US$ at unfavourable rates (obviously the fund manager has to change your S$ to buy the shares but one assumes they have better rates) and the 0.10% expense ratio. For reference, iShares MSCI World ETF IWDA has a 0.20% expense ratio and is denominated in US$, so you have to pay forex charges to switch into US$.

I have advised some (less IT and financially savvy) relatives to use their Poems to buy Lion Global All Seasons fund (0.48% expense ratio) which is relatively low cost, S$ denominated balanced fund that fortunately holds S&P500 so it benefited from the never-ending US market rally.  But I will be asking them to switch to Amundi.

I have a POEMS account as well so I will dump some money into their cash management account and set up an RSP to deduct from the cash management account. This is ideal for me as I was getting worried my IBKR account size was getting too large and I was looking for a good low cost alternative (SCB is my no.2 account, but it is not low cost because of the high forex charges).

[9/12 update]  Do note that the prospectus lists two funds: Amundi index MSCI World (direct replication) and Amundi MSCI World (synthetic).  The fund sold by Poems is Amundi Index MSCI World which is direct replication, so I have amended the title since the word 'index' makes all the difference.

[11/12 update] The POEMS RSP bug is fixed and the sales charge for RSP is 0% as it should be. Also it should be noted that since the fund is domiciled in Luxembourg and is direct replication, it does not receive favourable US withholding tax treatment that Ireland domiciled UCITS funds receive. However, for many, the upsides of this fund will outweigh the downsides.