Strategy Report October 2018: Finally a correction?

There was a correction in the US market with the Dow dropping 800. This is hopefully an opportunity to deploy more cash. In particular, I would like to build up my holdings in Capitaland. Its fundamentals look good and its 4% dividend is well covered.

Also, like your typical longsuffering Sembcorp investor, I am adding a little Sembcorp every month as long is it is comfortably below $3.

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Bought Capitaland at $3.12 and $3.11

Bought Sembcorp at $2.88

I will get cash on 23 October as my Perennial 4.65% 3-year bonds are maturing. If STI ETF drops below $3, this will be a good place to park the cash. My rule is to only buy STI ETF when it is below $3.

Dividend Report: September 2018

Less than $1k in S$ dividends this month, but iShares ETF and UK shares and ADRs paid out their dividends.

Total dividend collected in S$ Terms (includes S$ + US$ + GBP + A$ + HKD$): S$59,993.19

Standard Chartered US$ Debit Mastercard for US$ High Account

I started off with an SCB online trading account for foreign shares. While I eventually opened an IBKR account, I still kept LSE-listed ETFs I had already bought in SCB. In order to not put all my holdings in one broker, I decided to buy S$1k of foreign ETFs every month using SCB.

Initially SCB had no minimum commission, then they implemented minimum commission (unless you had priority banking). Fortunately by then, I was close to $200k so I did a transfer of one counter from CDP to SCB to hit $200k so that I could get PB and no min comms again.

One of the benefits of SCB priority banking is the US$ High Account ( a US$ bank account with chequebook and Debit Mastercard). I purchase things online regularly and having a US$ Debit card appeared to be very helpful, especially if I am spending my US$ dividends.

To cut a long story short, the US$ Debit Mastercard will save you money compared to an S$ credit card that makes tries to make a profit by converting your US$ transactions to S$.  The features of this card are:

• SCB's S$-> US$ exchange rate is better than the rate used by S$ credit cards. 
• If you don't like their exchange rate and think you can do better, then go moneychanger and change and deposit the US$ at the bank (website says cash deposit fees currently waived)
• 2% cashback on all purchases
• 1% transaction fee for overseas purchases so about 1% nett cashback.
• 0% transaction fee for using US$ to fund your paypal.sg account (apparently doesn't count as an overseas transaction - though one wonders if they will close this loophole)

Strategy Report September 2018

Foreign shares
Small top-up of holdings in Vodafone, Bhp, ING, Santander and Prudential


Singapore shares
Continued to build up position in Capitaland. It briefly fell below $3.30 this month so I bought, but soon recovered. Decided to continue to buy a bit more even while it climbed past $3.30 in order to have a decent position. A well-covered Dividend of around 3.5%  is very decent. Frasers Property, my related holding (my preference is of to buy at least 2 shares in the same sector rather than all-in one one) which has a higher dividend yield, has lower dividend coverage.

Overall I am still building up my warchest as I am only investing part of the extra income. I might even consider some savings bonds.

Dividend Report: August 2018

A lot of Singapore counters paid their dividends this month.

Total dividend collected in S$ Terms (includes S$ + US$ + GBP +A$ + HKD$): S$54,876.90

Goal setting. Reached the first waypoint - August 2018.

My investment portfolio reached 100000+ thanks to the GFC and I reached the 200000+ "waypoint" as of August 2018 thanks to the longest bull market ever. It took about 9 years because after the GFC, I focused on paying back my housing loan rather than investing.

Investment portfolio: stocks, ETFs, bonds, and gold. (cash/CPFIS/SRS)
Excludes cash in bank account and uninvested cash in CPF.

My next waypoint will be 300000+. How fast to reach the next waypoint will depend on whether I am sidelined by the 'property bug'.

At the moment, I don't have any interest in buying property. 

• ABSD
• Rental income is subject to income tax (which means its better to be a landlord when you have low income, like a retiree) 
• Time cost and hassle in having another property, finding tenants (or finding a good agent who can find good tenants...)

Usual caveat: Can you actually believe anything you read on the internet? Figures are only indicative, could be rupees, cents or whatever. Purpose of the post is to record that I reached an important "waypoint" in my investment journey after 9 years, and I need to come up with a plan to help me reach the next waypoint. Actual value not important.

Strategy Report: August 2018 -Turkey Troubles

With US sanctions and shaky economic foundations, Turkey appears to be in trouble. I guess you know you are in trouble if Krugman trots out his "impose capital controls" line in the NYT.

The resulting price drop has made a lot of stocks quite attractive. I went in a bit early and used by my regular August investment amount to buy:

• ING at $13.77 (new position, 4-stars Morningstar, and 5% dividend)
• Santander (SAN)  added more at $5.06
• Lloyds (LYG) added more at $3.12
• Westpac (WBK) added more at $21.40

On hindsight a little bit early as prices are now off by another 2%. However, I only know how to average down so the price drop suits me. I will add more if the price drops 5% from my previous buying price.

I had already used some of my money set aside for regular monthly investment on some Capitaland (C31) under $3.30 (new position, 4-stars Morningstar, 3.6%+ yield, StockReports+ 8/10), and added a bit to Frasers Property (TQ5).

I suspect that there will be more buying opportunities this month.