Dividend Report: Dec 2017

Dividend per month for 2017:  S$4,459.21

An increase of 26.0% from 2016 ($3,538.06)


After converting foreign dividends to SGD at GBP 1.8 / USD 1.34 / A$1.06



Average dividends per month: Jan- Dec 2017

S$3,440.50   [2016: $3,185.86]

£227.04        [£143.06]   (=S$408.67)

US$414.43    [US$67.74] (=S$555.34)

A$51.50 = S$54.70

Average dividends per month: Jan- Nov 2017

S$3,543.94 [2016: $3,254.66]

£247.68     [2016:£156.06]

US$451.25   [2016: US$219.20]

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Dividend Report: Nov 2017

Average dividends per month: Jan- Nov 2017

S$3,543.94 [2016: $3,254.66]

£247.68     [2016:£156.06]

US$451.25   [2016: US$219.20]

Average dividends per month: Jan- October 2017

S$3,770.71  [2016: $3,334.63]

£268.14       [2016:£171.67]

US$465.53    [2016: US$221.28]

(also small amount of A$ from IOZ and TLS, will just report at end of the year)










Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Largest Holdings

I decided to start my year end portfolio review (my portfolio has too many counters I admit :D) and to see what action I need to take next year.

From what I see, given the nature of the market, I need to move more ETFs into the Medium size holdings category, such as my Europe ETF, and two move the 2 medium size ETFs into the 'big' category.  Big/medium/small  is all relative to the total portfolio size and not absolute amounts.

It shows that I am too dependent on the yield from REITs, really need to find alternatives but all my yieldstocks got delisted (Allgreen, Cerebos, F&N, Singapore Food,  etc etc)

Not saying that my portfolio is good or bad just sharing what I have and maybe my resolution in 2018 is to do some reorganisation.

Band 1: Big holdings
STI ETF
OCBC
CDL Hospitality Trust

Band 2: Medium size holdings
First State Regional China Fund
Comfort Delgro (dropped from band 1)
Frasers Centrepoint Trust
Ascott Residence Trust
UOB
Vanguard UK ETF
Vanguard Asia Pacific ETF

Band 3: Small size holdings
Too many

Dividend Report: Oct 2017

Another quiet month for dividends. Perennial Retail Bond coupon payment this month




Average dividends per month: Jan- October 2017

S$3,770.71  [2016: $3,334.63]

£268.14       [2016:£171.67]

US$465.53    [2016: US$221.28]

Average dividends per month: Jan- Sep 2017

S$4,102.56  [2016: $3655.43]

£229.44       [2016:£146.99]

US505.06    [2016: US$169.21]

(also small amount of A$ from IOZ and TLS, will just report at end of the year)










Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

October Strategy: GSK

GSK reported good Q3 results but priced dropped so I bought some more. At this price GSK, I am in regular accumulation mode for GSK.

Currently hold about S$20k+ worth, would like to at least double the holding.

GSK delivers Q3 sales of £7.8 billion, +4% AER, +2% CER Total EPS 24.8p, +49% AER, +46% CER; Adjusted EPS 32.5p, +3% AER, flat CER

http://www.gsk.com/media/4171/q3-2017-results-announcement.pdf

__________

In other portfolio news, topped up my Euro Stoxx 50 ETF, and WPP

Dividend Report: Sep 2017

Quiet month for dividends. Telstra (TLS) declared dividends this month. Maybe in time to come I will increase my holdings in TLS.




Average dividends per month: Jan- Sep 2017

S$4,102.56  [2016: $3655.43]

£229.44       [2016:£146.99]

US$465.53    [2016: US$169.21]

Average dividends per month: Jan- August2017

S$4,408.59  [2016: $3855.75]
£242.11          [2016:£148.14 ]
US$473.95    [2016: US$170.55]

(also small amount of A$ from IOZ and TLS, will just report at end of the year)











Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Dividend Report: August 2017

Lots of dividends this month, same as previous year, my major holdings STI ETF, CDG, CDL HT paying dividends this month.




Average dividends per month: Jan- August2017

S$4,408.59  [2016: $3855.75]
£242.11          [2016:£148.14 ]
US$473.95    [2016: US$170.55]

Average dividends per month: Jan- July 2017
S$3,012.62          [2016: $2736.93]
£276.70               [2016: £169.30]
US$466.91           [2016: $187.31]
A$10.23

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Dividend Report: July 2017

ZERO SGD Dividends this month, most counters paying next month.


Average dividends per month: Jan- July 2017

S$3,012.62          [2016: $2736.93]
£276.70               [2016: £169.30]
US$466.91           [2016: $187.31]
A$10.23

Average dividends per month: Jan- June 2017

S$3514.72           [2016: $3193.08]
£187.12              [2016: £110.74]
US$423.21           [2016: $129.10]












Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Norway and Australia as possible Commodity Proxies?

I actually attended a FSM dinner seminar (the dinner was good) where the speaker was asked how whether the fund he was managing invested in commodities like oil. His replied that if he wanted to be long oil, he would buy Krone and Rubles and if he was short oil, he would just sell Krone and Rubles.  In other words, there was no need to deal with contango and backwardation which come with dealing in oil contracts.  This made me wonder whether the equity market had a reasonable correlation with oil and I discovered that there was some correlation. Also, some reports indicated that the Norweigian stock market had reasonable valuations so I added NORW as (an imperfect) proxy to oil.


www.etfscreen.com

EWA - Australia
EWS - Singapore
SPY - USA
NORW - Norway

DBA - agriculture
DBB - base metals
DBC - commodities


Which of the 4 equity markets has the highest correlation to DBC - Norway

Which of the 4 equity markets has the highest correlation to DBB - Australia

Which of the 4 equity markets has the highest correlation to DBA - Norway (not a significant correlation).

Correlation is an additional tool that the asset allocating investor should use. By itself it doesn't tell you whether the market is undervalued or overvalued. It also doesn't tell you which one will go up more. However, I will pick the one that gives more dividends :D


Bonus round, correlation of NORW, XLE and USO. The correlation is also significant:

July 2017: Strategy Report

Strategy for July 2017. Generally stocks are overvalued so my warchest is growing every month. Nevertheless, it is risky to time the market so regular DCA should still be done. 

CDLHT rights issue. $10k worth of rights to be subscribed to.

Comfort Delgro: Accumulated downwards from $2.30 to $2.24

GlaxoSmithKline: Accumulated more on dip. Global stock, not concerned about Brexit.

VOD: Small amount added.

RoyalMail: I also find it tempting to buy stocks that have been hit hard. RMG does have a decent core business and I doubt the share price will go to zero. Still, the risk is there but the dividends look good even if cut.

WPP: Initiated position: International revenue/ large cap stock / price down by more than 20% due to negative forward outlook / good dividends and dividend coverage / good forward P/E.

Dividend Report: June 2017

Mid-year report shows a decent increase in dividends collect. I am on my way to increasing my dividend payout by 10% this year.



Average dividends per month: Jan- June 2017

S$3514.72           [2016: $3193.08]
£187.12              [2016: £110.74]
US$423.21           [2016: $129.10]





Average dividends per month: Jan- May 2017

S$3278.75     +   [2016: $3144.35]
£168.16        -    [2016: £102.95]
US$500.177   +   [2016: $140.82] 











Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Dividend Report: May 2017

Lots of dividend payouts this month. However, not much difference compared to last year for S$ payouts. The fruits of my IBKR investing are paying off as US$ dividends have increased significantly.



Average dividends per month: Jan- May 2017

S$3278.75     +   [2016: $3144.35]
£168.16        -    [2016: £102.95]
US$500.177   +   [2016: $140.82] 

Average dividends per month: Jan- Apr 2017

S$2,494.69      [2016: $2,449.32]
£210.20           [2016: £128.68]
US$382.56       [2016: $153.04]












Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Now is the time for Bonds

With the stock market at all-time highs, its time to be contrarian and not simply follow the crowd. While I still buy equities every month, I don't spend all my available cash. Instead the amount of my reserve cash continues to build up. I've already redeemed my car loan in full and fortunately the redemption amount was not as large as I thought it would be.

Rather than keeping large amounts of cash, it would be good to put some into bonds. 


Local Bonds
Despite the promising start, retail bond issues seem to have fizzled out. I already have quite large positions in FCL 3.65% and Perennial 4.65% so I am wary of adding more. I was hoping that there would be other new issues of FCL's quality but so far there hasn't been any. 

Bondexpress from Fundsupermart has a number of interesting bonds on sale for a minimum lot size of $5,000, but only 2 'quality' issuers:

• DBS 3.6% perp  (Ask yield 3.72%)
• Manulife 2026 3.85% (Ask yield 2.9%)

I avoid perps so the DBS is not for me. The yield on the Manulife is low but fair given the issuer's quality, so the only issue is that after FSM subtracts its various charges, there is not that much left for the buyer.

Foreign Bonds
I am vested in a number of bond ETFs listed on LSE (SLXX, IS15, LQDE, SDIG). There is virtually no withholding tax on Irish-domiciled ETFs holding US Corporate bonds so you should definitely go for LSE ETFs and not those listed in the US as those are subject to withholding tax of the full 30%.


Looking at bond ETFs again, I find that Vanguard UK launched a US Corporate Bond ETF (VDCP)with a very competitive 0.12% expense ratio compared to iShares 0.20%. For bonds, every % counts. The slightly odd thing about VDCP is that it distributes dividends every month which must incur more administrative costs but somehow it still has a lower expense ratio.

I will be adding VDCP to my portfolio.

Dividend Report: Jan-Apr 2017

Minimal S$ dividends in April. Only Perennial Bonds paid out its coupon.



Average dividends per month: Jan- Apr 2017

S$2,494.69      [2016: $2,449.32]
£210.20           [2016: £128.68]
US$382.56       [2016: $153.04]


Average dividends per month: Jan- Mar 2017

S$3218.05     -
£128.54        -
US$328.03    -









Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Strategy Report: Feb-March 2017

Interest Hike Fully Priced in?

The interest rate hike on 15 March did not do anything significant to the market suggesting that it had been fully priced in.

Adding to Existing Positions

With the uncertainty out of the way:

• I used my SRS funds to purchase CCT. 
• Added to my GSK holdings, this time, buying the LSE listed GBP shares instead of the ADRs.
• I also subscribed to the Ascott Residence Trust rights issue. I have a fair amount of ART so I have to come up with a fair amount of cash for the rights.

New positions

In late February, I initiated a position in S&P UK Dividend Aristocrats UKDV. While I like the WisdomTree offering more, the AUM for WUKD is a bit too small and the ETF is in danger of closing.

In March, I initiated a position in Telstra as it continued to drop and I felt that there was a sufficient margin of safety vis-a-viz its dividend yield. Previously I had a small position in Telstra which I bought using SCB at about $4.9x which I had to sell at about $5.05 because SCB was removing its minimum commission (at that time I did not have PB yet).

Of course, IB is a much better place to hold AU shares. Hopefully the withholding is at the treaty rate of 15% and not 30% (My Westpac ADR dividends were withheld at the treaty rate of 15%).

I also initiated a position in the iShares ASX200 ETF IOZ which also has a favourable dividend yield.

Dividend Report: Jan-Feb 2017

Average dividends per month: Jan- Feb 2017

S$4625.47  +
£176.10        -
US$432.80    -

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far.+ and - are used to indicate whether the average monthly dividend has gone up or gone down.Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Dividend Report: January 2017

Average dividends per month: Jan 2017

S$408
£352.21
US$627.24


Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Strategy Jan-Feb 2017

As I am receiving about $3,500 dividends per month, this means that even if I feel that the market is on the high side, I should still have the discipline to reinvest my dividends plus a little bit of my savings.

I save most of my income and the rest of my savings go to my investing "warchest." If there are no buying opportunities by March, I will probably use part of the warchest to pay back my car loan in full.

Jan-Feb were  top-ups to my portfolio

• CPXJ (iShares Asia Pacific ETF)
• NORW (GlobalX Norway ETF)
• CapitaCommercial Trust
• Comfort Delgro (the last time I added was 10 years ago) added at $2.39 / $2.43
• Frasers Hospitality Trust
• Vodafone
• British Telecom (yes got hit by Italian accounting scandal, that's why I diversify)

And also initiated 2 small positions

• Telefonica - to diversify my telecoms holdings.
• WisdomTree - because I like their Smart Beta ETFs and the price dropped after earnings miss which seemed like an ok entry point

STI 3,000: What's the plan?

I have always said in the forums that STI will eventually go back to 3,000. So if you buy STI ETF below $3.00, it is highly unlikely that you will lose money. You can also collect dividends while waiting for it to go back.

Now that STI has hit 3,000, we get the usual "will it go up or will it go down" debate with bulls and bears on either side. My strategy, as always, is just to hold on to my shares and collect dividends.

I have only bought STI ETF once when it was above $3.00. Most likely, I will adopt the same strategy this year. The fundamentals won't support STI going to 3,500. It could be a 'hot money' driven rally, but I want to see earnings growth as earnings pays for the dividends I collect.

At the same time, I am collecting monthly dividends of $3k+ and also need to park my income somewhere. If I don't reinvest, what am I going to do with the money?

Most likely, I will still do small regular purchases of regional (multi-country) ETFs to reduce risk instead of single country ETFs like STI ETF.  I can still get Singapore exposure by doing so as CPJ1 and VDPX both hold Singapore stocks and their expense ratio is lower than STI ETF.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I also have debt to pay off in the form of a car loan I took in 2015. The short story is that many car dealers offer packages where you have to take a car loan, so I took it. The silver lining is that because I had taken a loan, I had extra cash on hand when BREXIT arrived. This year, I will repay the car loan early instead of buying STI ETF. I did the same thing with my housing loan. Whenever STI was above 3,000, I did partial repayments of housing loan instead of buying STI ETF.

Finally, I have already said that I am not very good in investing in rising markets. I very much prefer buying after a crash. So I expect that this year will be a quieter investing year for me. In which case, I am not sure whether I can hit my target of increasing dividends from $3,500 to $4,200. Will have to see.

Portfolio Performance 2016

I am happy with the dividends collected and hope to continue to grow them by reinvesting dividends plus adding a large part of my monthly income. If I were to set a dividend target then maybe $5,000 in 2019 (3-year plan to grow dividends).

Foreign Stocks/ETFs

The return on my IBKR foreign stocks is easily calculated since there is a report function. I also have some foreign ETFs in SCB and if I have the time I will probably look at it. At least I am holding IWDA which benefited from the rise in US markets.




SGX-Listed Stocks/ETFs

As for SGX-listed stocks, I am holding quite a few counters and instead of calculating everything, I will look at my top holdings. I see that Comfort Delgro has been hit hard. My average entry price is around $1.60 (guesstimate) accumulated during the GFC and I have not added anything. Maybe next year I will do some DCA as I believe S$ will weaken meaning CDG will benefit as it receives income in other currencies as well.

Any loss in CDG should have been more than offset by gains in other shares as well as purchases through 2016 (GLP was my biggest local winner - all bought under $1.80, now $2.20). Therefore, I will take the STI ETF return as the return for my portfolio, i.e. about 3% due to dividends.

STI ETF ES3

30 Dec 16: $2.94

4 Jan 16: $2.90

30 Dec 15: $2.95

Dividend: $0.13

CDL HT    J85

30 Dec 16: $1.34  

4 Jan 16: $1.32

30 Dec 15: $1.32

Dividend: $0.1018

CDG C52

30 Dec 16: $2.47

4 Jan 16 : $3.00

30 Dec 15: $3.02

Dividend $0.0925

OCBC O39

30 Dec 16: 8.92

4 Jan 16: 8.64

30 Dec 15: 8.85

Dividend: $0.36

UOB U11

30 Dec 16: $20.40

4 Jan 16: $19.09

30 Dec 15: 19.55

Dividend $0.70

FCT J69U

30 Dec 16: $1.90

4 Jan 16: $1.85

30 Dec 15: $1.86

Dividend $0.118