Which Dividend ETF? VHYD, WQDV, QDIV, UDVD?

 

Kyith in Investment Moats did a review of London listed Dividend ETF UDVD. As a Dividend lover, I am always on the lookout for good dividend ETFs. I had looked at UDVD but it honestly did not seem as good as the alternatives, including Vanguard's VHYD and iShares QDIV. The "requirement" that a company keeps on increasing its dividend seems to be a bit 'off' to me.

Google finance graphs, which don't do dividends reinvested, indicates that UDVD is the worst performing of the 3. In order to figure out what happens when dividends are reinvested, I turned to Claude Sonnet 4.6 set at High Effort. It confirmed that ranking in the basic Google finance chart that UDVD is the worst performing of the 3 dividend ETFs over 1, 3, 5, and 10 years. 

However, it is important to point out that the divergence in performance appears to have occurred mainly in the last 3 years 2023-205, which illustrates the point that a 'strategy' works... until it doesn't.

The main reason I buy VHYD is for diversification. The second reason is dividends 😀Claude appears to agree (even if I tell it not to be too agreeable) that adding VHYD to VWRD diversifies the portfolio in terms of sectors and geography. Whether diversification is a good thing, is of course another question.

I am also investing in another dividend ETF WQDV and according to Google finance simple charts it also outperforms UDVD by a large amount. In fact it outperforms VHYD but that could be partly due to it holding more Tech than VHYD.

However, I have not included it in the comparison because it changed the index it follows twice in the time I have held it so its performance would have been affected by that, so not a good comparison. It changed to an ESG dividend index sometime back, but after ESG fell out of favour it changed to the current MSCI World High Dividend Yield Advanced Select Index (what a mouthful...).

Last major illness was in July 2025

 

I had a little bit of a sore throat this week but fortunately did not turn into a full blown upper respiratory tract infection needing antibiotics which would mean I would have to stop exercise for a few days. 

This time, I just gargled with mouthwash and it sort of went away and didn't affect my workouts. But it made me wonder when my last illness was.

Thanks to Strava data, I am able to see when I so sick that I had to stop workouts. I just have to look at the low mileage weeks to see whether I was taking a break or if I was ill. Based on the data, the last time I fell ill enough to have to stop workouts for a few days was in July 2025 (the darker blue bar). As its mid-June 2026 now, it means I have been not had a serious illness for nearly a year and counting.

It could be luck, or it could be the benefit of exercise and a slightly more healthy diet that has boosted my immunity and helping me avoid serious illness. Health is wealth!

SpaceX and Meme stock territory?

 

SpaceX started trading 12 June 2026 and the stock market rose. Meanwhile, the market seems to be ignoring Iran or assuming that a deal will be done (nothing has been finalised). The good news is that my portfolio has moved faster than the S&P500 and hopefully will catch up with the S&P. I wonder if SpaceX will become the next Meme stock and whether stocks are going to move into Meme stock territory.

This could be an opportunity value investors who take a cold hard look at free cash flow and earnings and continue to seek out stocks that actually earn money. I have continued to add McDonalds MCD as a value stock.

In the meantime, I continue to buy the usual ETFs, always adding VHYD/WQDV to my VWRD/VUSD/LSPU purchases in order to reduce my tech concentration.

On holiday in search of great coffeeshops

 

I'm back from my 4th short holiday this year. I flew business class one way to Australia as I managed to clear the redemption waitlist and economy return. I took a red-eye flight so I informed the stewardess that no food or drink service was necessary, and went to bed. To me, the lie-flat seat is the main point of business class. If the flight is too short to sleep, then not sure what the point of a lie-flat seat is....

My holidays mainly involve reading in coffeeshops, finding a nice park for a shakeout run, reading in coffeeshops again, participating in some running event or other, and back to reading in coffeeshops again. Holidays are a great time to clear my reading backlog as well. Nowadays I read mainly non-fiction and I have notebooks in which I take notes. Basically, its a pleasure to write and the pleasure is increased if the writing is done using a nice notebook in a nice environment. This is what holidays are about.  

One of my holiday 'side quests' involves a  search for great Matcha Lattes. This time, I found a lovely coffeeshop with plenty of natural light (a sense of space in the environment also promotes creative thinking) and a lovely selection of pastries. I paired my matcha latte with a Basque Cheesecake and accompanying Greek Yogurt. 

For the rest of the year, I have tickets for 1 more holiday already bought, and planning 3 others.

By have multiple short holidays to nearby destinations, I maintain a regular cadence of holidays that I can look forward to as the next holiday is no more than 6-8 weeks away, and the time I am away is so short it doesn't cause any stress for me at work. In fact, I was able to buy the tickets in 2025 as I know the holidays I'm taking are so short that I'm sure I'll be able to work around any work commitments. 

Portfolio Update June 2026

 

This is my mid-year portfolio update. I have sold down my First State unit trusts. While they have served me well, the fund manager Martin Lau is no longer young and its time to move on to low cost unit trusts and ETF. Basically, I have transitioned my First State China into two dividend ETFs, 3070.HK and 3110.HK. The top 10 components of these ETFs are totally different so they are complementary (Claude  AI also thinks so). First State Bridge being a balanced fund gets transitioned into the Lion Global All Seasons Funds.

Due to capital gains, OCBC enters the XL category while A$ appreciation helped ASX 200 ETF IOZ enter the L category.

As I posted earlier, Astrea VI PE Bond was redeemed just before stock prices jumped so I managed to deploy most of the money into equities.

Dividends Collected: May 2026

 

$40k+ dividends this month, including contributions from the 3 local banks. On track for $20k/mth passive income this year.

Portfolio Performance May 2026

 

I am glad that my portfolio somewhat recovered and 5% is a decent return. But S&P500 seems unstoppable and its going to be hard to match it's return this year.