Dividend Report: December 2018

2018 Total (including CPF interest): S$90,506.08

(graph above does not include CPF interest)

From this year onwards, will include CPF interest as CPF is being treated as a bond. Will update in Jan 2019 once CPF interest is released.

Dividend Report: November 2018

Small amount this month, including dividend from 2800.HK

Total in S$ terms: S$69,195

November 2018: SingLife Insurance 3%, and SSB 2.5%+

As STI ETF is holding steady above $3, there was basically nothing to buy.

I continued to accumulate Ascendas Hospitality Trust in small amounts.

This months' SSB had a 10 yr interest rate of >2.5% and is liquid enough to put some of my warchest/emergency fund into it. This will be the first time I'm buying SSB. 

Singapore Life Insurance had a promotional 3% 3 year endowment plan (essentially a fixed deposit) but the maximum amount you could place was $6,000. Given that this is way more attractive than the 2.7% Temasek Bond which sold like hotcakes (this policy is SDIC insured), I am surprised that there is no notification that the tranche was 'sold out' and the website still seems to be accepting new applications. Perhaps SingLife is just trying to expand its customer base/mailing list.

Strategy Report: November 2018

SG Shares

Tiny bit of Ascendas Hospitality Trust at 0.775 after it went ex-div at $0.19. (Accumulate when under $0.80. 


Foreign Shares

Brexit Panic as 2 Ministers resign from UK Cabinet.

Accumulated the following:
LYG 2.79
ING 12.35
PUK 40.28 & 40.10

Dividend Report: October 2018

Not much S$ dividends this month but more than last month thanks to OCBC's dividend which I take in scrip (S$ value of the dividend is still counted below). Also received final interest payment for the Perennial Bond together with the principal. 

Vanguard ETFs pay out dividends this month (both LSE listed and HKSE listed)

Running total:  $65,532.41

End of October 2018 Report: STI ETF didn't go below $3

STI ETF didn't go below $3 in October, therefore, my CPF-OA reserves were untouched. 

Reviewing my October 2018 purchases, I found that I had spent S$27,000 buying a number of different counters. 

Some of the cash came from the refund of my Perennial 4.65% bond. I had applied for the Temasek 2.7% bond but was only allocated 6,000, so I still had spare cash left to reinvest.

Shares purchased in October
VUKE    Vanguard FTSE100 ETF
3085.HK Vanguard Asia High Yield ETF

VDPX     Vanguard Pacific ETF

Aviva
ING
Westpac
Lloyds
OUECT
Capitaland
Sembcorp
Frasers Property

I bought VDPX using SCB in order to increase the amount of US$ dividends collected by my SCB account as I will use those US$ for online purchases.

October 2018: Getting ready for STI ETF under $3.

My rule when it comes to buying STI ETF is to buy only when its under $3. STI ETF is my largest holding and I've only broken the rule once. The last time I bought STI ETF is 2016 (can go back to 2016 in this blog to have a look).

It looks like STI ETF may go under $3 next week. I'll start my buying at $2.99 and hopefully there will be a chance to average down further.

My CPF-OA has been accumulating for some time and I look forward to finally being able to use it.

LionGlobal All Seasons Fund

LionGlobal All Seasons Fund was discussed in the forums. There is a 0.25% management fee and expense ratio is capped at 0.50%. It invests in various funds and the management fee of the LionGlobal funds it buys will be rebated.

It comes in two flavours, Growth with 70%/30% equities/fixed income split, and Standard with a 30%/70% split.

Effectively, this means that this fund has a TER of a little bit more than 0.50% but less than 1.0%.  For example, it buys LionGlobal Asia Pacific Fund. That fund has various expenses like brokerage and trustee fees which add up to about 0.3%. Those fees are obviously not rebated, only the management fee is. Then there are also the Vanguard and DBXtrackers ETFs and their TER which thankfully should be under 0.1%.

You can buy it only via Cash and SRS. According to the factsheet that I have, it still isn't CPF approved. Nowadays to be CPF approved you need to have a 'track record' and this fund just launched.

I still have some more 'balance' in my SRS allowance for this year to be invested. I will add this fund to my SRS holdings. Another advantage is the minimum investment of $100. This means that when I collect dividends from my other SRS stocks, I can immediately reinvest into this fund.

October 2018 Strategy Report part II

Bought VUKE 30.98, AV. 4.23, LLOY 0.5745  on 22-23 Oct. Dividend yield of VUKE has crossed 4% once again.

Received my cash as the Perennial 4.65% 3 year bond matured.

Allocated 6,000 units of Temasek's 5 year 2.7% retail bond. 

Plan to apply for next months' SSB as the estimated interest rate >2.5%

Wondering if STI is in danger of going below $3. I plenty of CPF-OA waiting to invest in STI ETF.

Asia ex-Jpn ETF instead of STI ETF? (3085.HK)

I bought more 3085.HK on Thursday via FSMOne. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, this is a dividend ETF that focuses on 'value' China stocks (i.e. China Banks, Telcos) instead of the 'growth' tech stocks. 

As it is a regional ETF, it also counts DBS (no.6), OCBC (no.11), UOB (no.13), and Singtel (no.24) as part of its top holdings, so you also get 'home country' exposure, but with a focus on the 'big cap' stocks.

Then finally, you get exposure to the big cap ASEAN stocks in Thailand (4.9%), Malaysia (4.2%), Indonesia (1.4%). 

Its expense ratio of 0.35% is identical to the STI ETF. 

I like the composition of this ETF more than Vanguard's LSE listed Asia-Pacific ETF (VDPX, which contains almost 50% Australia) and iShares similar ETF (CPXJ) which I am also vested in. 

The fact that I can buy this with FSMOne (and thus diversify my holdings and not hold all my foreign stocks in Interactive Brokers) is also a bonus.

Downside?
The main downside is that the ETF size is relatively small, only HKD315.5m AUM since its 2014 inception. However the upside is there are always daily trades in this ETF and its not not of those ETFs with zero volume.

Alternatives?
Coincidentally, FSMOne has come up with an article about HKSE listed China banks and highlighted 3143.HK, BMO Hong Kong Banks ETF which holds banks listed on HKSE (HSBC and Stanchart included). The expense ratio is a reasonable 0.45% but the fund was established in 2014 and its AUM is only HKD$131m which is rather low. At least Vanguard's 3085 had grown to  HKD$315m within the same time period.

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.

________________

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.

Strategy Report: August 2018 - Property Counters instead of REITS?

In July, I dipped my toes and initiated a small position in Frasers Property Ltd (TQ5) when it dropped below $1.70. It briefly recovered but is now back under $1.70.

My portfolio is heavy on REITS and I don't own a single dedicated property counter. But it seems that property counters are currently worth a look compared to REITs, especially with the small correction due to the SG-property cooling measures.

As a dividend investor, I will look at the usual valuation metrics, the quality of the landbank etc, but in the end, I'm most interested in the dividend yield, payout ratio/dividend cover. And as is my habit, when I'm interested in a sector, I prefer not to go "all-in" on a single share but will try to build a position in a few counters. So far, the other counter that looks good is the venerable Capitaland (C31) with a dividend yield >3% and comes with the Morningstar "4-star rating". Morningstar prefers Capitaland to CityDev which suits me, because CityDev's dividend yield is too low for me.

Strategy Report: July 2018

Initiated position in HSI Tracker Funder ETF  (2800.HK). Yes, I get to hold even more HSBC (well represented in my FTSE 100 ETF as well), but this goes to show that there is a good variety of shares, from International Companies like HSBC and AIA, to HK conglomerates (CK Holdings), and various China H-shares. Holding Tencent is inevitable, but fortunately not too many tech stocks (eg: Baidu/Alibaba not included). Expense ratio at 0.15% is also lower than STI ETF's expense ratio. Dividend yield is consistently in excess of 3%, similar to STI ETF's yield.

Continuing to accumulate Aviva while it remains under £5, and topped up a few other LSE-listed shares.

Dividend Report: July 2018

Trying something new. Graph shows the 3 main currencies I collect dividends in. I also collect some A$ and now HK$ dividends, but the amount is really tiny.

Experimenting with 2 graphs. The second graph has a "total dividends in S$ line where I add everything up including A$ and HK$ converted to S$ terms"


S$26,443.31
US$4593.05
GBP2,863.61
A$611.34
HKD1,178
Approximate total in S$: $38,586.47 or $5,512.35 a month.

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far. Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Which ETF?

Asia
My current focus is on accumulating Vanguard's FTSE Asia ex Japan High Dividend Yield ETF (3085.HK). It holds dividend stocks from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and other Asian countries and has an expense ratio of 0.35%, about the same as STI ETF. The index is characterised by a low P/E of 10.5x. Unlike a regular index that has Chinese tech stocks in their top holdings, this index has the low P/E Chinese banks as their top holdings, which is something I like. DBS, UOB, and OCBC, are also part of their top holdings. I am using FSMOne to buy 3085.HK as the commission is reason, in order to spread my portfolio amongst different custodians (i.e. not all foreign shares into IBKR).

UK
I will also continue to DCA Vanguard's FTSE 100 UK ETF  (VUKE)at a slower pace as it is already one of my top holdings.

Asia-Pac
I am also holding Vanguards FTSE Developed Asia Pacific ex Japan ETF (VDPX) and iShares Core MSCI Pacific ex-Japan ETF (CPJ1/CPXJ) as my top holdings. I group them together though there are differences. Vanguard includes Korea and iShares doesn't, and Vanguard declares dividends, iShares doesn't. I am currently doing DCA of CPXJ via Standard Chartered online trading, again, to spread out of foreign share custodians.

Europe
For Europe exposure, I unfortunately do not have much choices and I have settled for iShares Core Euro Stoxx 50 ETF (CS51) as it reinvests the dividends. European ETFs that declare dividends will do so in Euros, even if the ETF is listed in GBP (i.e. CS51).  I am holding the virtually identical DB X-trackers Euro Stoxx 50 (Acc) (XESC) ETF in SCB as I started off with XESC but later decided to go with CS51. I will continue to DCA Europe ETFs, maybe quarterly. I'm also considering the HK-listed Vanguard European ETF (3101.HK) as it pays dividends but in HKD. 

Emerging Markets
While I am vested in both iShares EM (EIMI) and Vanguards EM (VDEM) ETFs, I am not doing DCA. I think regional ETFs may be the way to go as countries may move from EM status to developed status and leave the index. For regional ETFs, countries usually don't move in and out of the index.

Commodities
As I have explained in another blogpost, I used Global X's Norway ETF as an oil proxy. Australia is also sort of an iron/industrial metals proxy.

Dividend Report: June 2018

More Dividends collected in June

Total dividends Jan-June

S$: $25,751.50
US$: $3,769.43
GBP: £1,474.34
A$: 526.83



Average dividends per month: Jan-June 2018
S$4291.92  [2017: $3514.72]
£256.72      [2017:  £187.12]

US$628.24  [2017:  US$423.21]

exchange rates used
2017 30 Jun
USD  1.3765  = S$582.55
GBP 1.7887  =  S$334.70
1.79
2018 30 Jun
USD 1.3626  =  S$856.04
GBP 1.7981  = S$461.61


2017 Monthly average = $4,431.97
2018 Monthy average =  $5,609.57

Percentage increase = 26.6%

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far. Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Astrea IV 4.35% 10 year structured finance bonds

The retail tranche was very small compared to previous retail bonds I applied for (Frasers 3.65%, Perennial 4.65%). 

There was a lot of negativity in HWZ about this bond, but unfortunately, this did not prevent the bond from being oversubscribed by 7.4x. 

• Astrea class A-1 4.35% : 7.4x oversubscribed.
• Perennial 4.65% 3 yr: 9.8x oversubscribed.
• Frasers 3.65%: 3.9x oversubscribed

An "A rated" (i.e. Asf) security with 4.35% coupon is a higher yield than SGD Corporates with comparable 8-9 year maturities. In other words, if we are able to rely on the rating agencies that this is "investment grade", it is better value than existing bonds.

• Commerzbank SGD 2027 - Bid / Ask YTM - 4.529%/ 4.61% Fitch: BBB
• NAB SGD 2028 - Bid/ Ask YTM - 3.881% / 4.086% Not rated
• Lendlease SGD 2027 - Bid/Ask YTM - 3.844%/ 3.919% Fitch: BBB-
• Landesbank SGD 2027 - Bid/Ask YTM - 3.757%/ 3.85% Fitch: BBB

It is true that this is a complex instrument, but some of the complexity is due to the "safeguards" like the reserve account. But at the end of the day, that is what we rely on rating agencies who can run stress tests on fund flows (S&P's stress test was a 45% haircut to future distributions from the funds and 100% haircut to the private debt fund) to assess risk of default. 

https://www.spratings.com/documents/20184/769219/AstreaIVPteLtd/3e6b8f12-0a65-4246-97d4-57ef83752949

There are bloggers who think they can read the prospectus and decide for themselves whether a security is investment grade or not. I do not pretend to have such powers. 

I was only allocated 8,000. The allocation appears to favour the smaller investors which I suppose was the intent behind this issuing the bond.

My Perennial 4.65% is going to mature this year, I wonder what sort of mad rush there will be when they issue their replacement tranche....

Dividend Report: May 2018

More Dividends collected in May.

Total dividends Jan-May

S$: $19,431.29
US$: $3,132.42
GBP: £1,081.48
A$: 526.83


Average dividends per month: Jan-May 2018
S$3,886.26    [2017: $3,144.35]
£216.30        [2017:  £102.95]
US$626.48    [2017:  US$140.82]

Average dividends per month: Jan-Apr 2018
S$3,130.68    [2017: $2,494.69 ]
£270.37         [2017:  £210.20]
US$615.92     [2017:  US$382.56]

(total A$ collected - 72.21 too infrequent to bother about average)

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far. Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

UK Shares DCA - Vodafone, BT, Aviva

UK Shares - Vodafone, BT, Aviva

Due to recent price weaknesses, I am accumulating more Vodafone under £2.00 and more BT just above £2.00. In addition, I have been topping up Aviva.

I have also been adding US Corporate Bonds via LQDE. I am using SCB for LQDE in order to diversify my foreign holdings (i.e. not everything into IBKR). This will provide me with quarterly dividend income that I can use for Amazon.com purchases using my SCB US$ Debit Card. My other US$ holding does not declare dividends (IWDA).

While rates are rising and bond prices falling, there have nett fund inflows into LQDE's US counterpart LQD:  https://www.nasdaq.com/article/noteworthy-etf-inflows-lqd-cm965036

Frasers Logistics Trust

The preferential offering is 10 for every 100 shares held. Relatively small amount compared to some other REITs.

I managed to build up my FLT holdings to 20,000 at $1.03-1.05, which means I will be eligible for 2,000 more shares. Seems like a decent counter to hold for both Australian and European exposure.

Dividend Report: April 2018

April is a slow month for SG because its the close of the financial year. Vanguard Dividends are in this month though. 2018 v 2017 can see a significant increase in US$ dividend collected.

Total dividends Jan-April

S$: $12,522.70
US$: $2,463.65
GBP: £1,081.48
A$: 526.83


Average dividends per month: Jan-Apr 2018
S$3,130.68    [2017: $2,494.69 ]
£270.37         [2017:  £210.20]
US$615.92     [2017:  US$382.56]

Average dividends per month: Jan-Mar 2018
S$4,066.03    [2017: $3,218.05]
£127.10         [2017:  £128.54]
US$601.18     [2017:  US$328.03]





(total A$ collected - 72.21 too infrequent to bother about average)

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far. Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Strategy Report: April-May 2018

FSMOne 
FSMOne removed the platform fee for HKSE ETFs. I funded my old FSM account and purchased an ETF. It was quite an easy exercise. I did not need to fill up any fresh forms for approval to trade HKSE shares.

• 0.08%  Commission (note: Interactive Brokers - 0.08% for LSE)
• HKD50 Minimum (about S$8.50 which makes it cheaper than those brokerages charging S$10 min comms)
• No platform fee, no handling fees
• HK does not charge dividend witholding. (The ETFs holding foreign shares will deduct withholding applicable to the foreign shares, and generally position seems similar to LSE ETFs except for US shares - continue to buy US ETFs on LSE)

I initiated a position with Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan High Dividend Yield ETF (3085). It contains 8.2% Singapore shares so I continue to get STI exposure even though I have stopped buying STI ETF for now. Furthermore, it has an expense ratio of only 0.35%. 




AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR 
The exchange rate hit 1:1 and so I funded my IBKR account at 0.9998. I had bought Telstra on the way down and it's share price continued to fall further, so its about time I bought some more to average down. 


SG SHARES

Apart from the usual topping up of some of my SG portfolio with 100+ shares each trade (thanks to no minimum commission), I made a few larger purchases.

Looking at Sembcorp prices, I decided to buy more between 3.00-3.06 instead of waiting to see if it dropped below 3.00. 

Frasers Logistics Trust is acquiring a European property portfolio and announcing a non-renounceable rights issue soon. I had a small position and decided to build it up as I am happy to get exposure to the Australian and European markets.  Buying between 1.05 and 1.04, my holdings stand at 17,000. 

After the EGM and the details of the fundraising are announced, the price might have some downside if the private placement price is lower than expected. So depending on price movements and the announcement, I will build it up to about 20,000-25,000.

Dividend Report: March 2018

March is a slow month because its the close of the financial year. Only FEHT paid dividends.


Average dividends per month: Jan-Mar 2018
S$4,066.03    [2017: $3,218.05]
£127.10         [2017:  £128.54]
US$601.18     [2017:  US$328.03]




Average dividends per month: Jan-Feb 2018
S$5,924.45    [2017: $4,625.47]
£322.75         [2017:  £176.10]
US$688.39     [2017:  US$432.80]


(total A$ collected - 72.21 too infrequent to bother about average)

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far. Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Regular Share buying plan

Given that my IBKR portfolio has grown rapidly and is becoming a sizeable part of my entire investment portfolio, I felt that it would be good to diversify by using another broker for some of my foreign shareholdings.

Since Standard Chartered's US$:S$ exchange rate is now very good, I have started to use SCB to purchase CPXJ (iShares Developed Asia ex-Jpn ETF) and LQDE (US$ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF). To build up my SCB holding, I will buy them once every month.


Monthly Plan
SCB Foreign ETFs
S$1,000   CPXJ
S$1,000   LQDE


Interactive Brokers Foreign Stocks
S$800       ADR-1  (Telecoms  BT, VOD, or TEF)
S$800       ADR-2  (Commodities /Utilities/ Pharma  BLT, NGG, or GSK)


SCB Local Stocks
S$800         REIT-1 
S$800         REIT-2 or STI Component Stock
S$800         STI Component Stock   (Singtel or Sembcorp)

Total: S$6,000 a month regular share buying plan + continue to top-up warchest + discretionary buying of selected shares on dips. 


Quarterly Regular Purchases
If I did not do any discretionary buying on dips over the last 3 months, I will use the accumulated cash to purchase an ETF
S$2000          UK ETF: VUKE (buy using IBKR) or Emerging Markets: VDEM/EIMI (buy using SCB)


Annual Target for regular share buying is therefore
6,000 x 12 (monthly purhcase) + 2,000 x 4 (quarterly purchase)  = $80,000 a year. Dividend income covers basic expenses and a little more, allowing most of earned income to be deployed towards investment with remainder added to warchest for future crash.

Dividend Report: Feb 2018

CPF & SCB were 1 day late and paid in March (CCT, SBReit, ART, FCT, CDLHT etc). For 2018, I've moved all the late payments to Feb.



Average dividends per month: Jan-Feb 2018
S$5,924.45    [2017: $4,625.47]
£322.75         [2017:  £176.10]
US$688.39     [2017:  US$432.80]


(total A$ collected - 72.21 too infrequent to bother about average)

Notes:

Average dividend per month = total dividend collected / number of months in the year so far. Vanguard quarterly dividends reported on Jan/April/Jul/Oct

Strategy Report Feb 2018: Initiating Position in SSE

I have already taken a position in National Grid (NGG) and will also take a position in SSE  (previously known as Scottish and Southern Energy) . When I find a sector attractive due to its dividend yields, I prefer to diversify by buying more than 1 stock from that sector. 

To help me with my decision-making, I decided to subscribe to the purely quantitative Robo-Analyst Report Stockreports+ by ThomsonReuters. IBKR gave me a free trial and I liked the way it summarised useful quantitative information and also gave a peer comparison.  Also, Morningstar did not have a recent report of National Grid. As for Motley Fool, they love this share, just like they love almost any share with a high dividend yield. 

In the fundamentals section of the report, the Robo-Analyst Looks at:

• Profitability:  Revenue Growth, Gross Margin, RoE, Net Margin
• Debt: Current Ratio, Debt-to-Capital, Interest Funding, Interest Coverage
• Earnings Quality: Operating Cash Yield, Accruals, Days Sales to Inv, Days Sales in Rec.
• Dividend: Dividend Growth, Dividend Payout, Dividend Coverage, Current Div. Yield

Obviously, the importance (or relevance) of factors like Days Sales to Inv may vary across sectors, so you have to take that into account. 

Strategy Report Jan 2018: Small dip

A small market correction in a overheated market occurred shortly after I received my $20k+ for the GLP privatisation. Bought US$11k and GBP4,060 and used it to purchase shares during the small blip. 

I haven't had much practice buying shares in a downturn since Brexit, so this was an opportunity to get back into practice by starting off with purchases of small amounts. This way, when the prices get really good, I'm ready to press the order button on bigger amounts. 

Each time I buy, the price goes down further, which is something I am familiar with. I guess I am more comfortable with averaging down as opposed to averaging up. 

I also bought some Singapore spares, namely Singtel, Frasers HT and Fraser LITR.

Dividend Report: Jan 2018

Average dividends per month: Jan 2018

S$1,253.1   [2017: $408]  SCB FHT dividends were late.

£645.51        [2017: £352.21]

US$951.10    [2017: US$627.24]

A$72.21        [2017: none]

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

2017 Performance of largest holdings

2017 Portfolio performance of the largest holdings including dividends. Measured between 3 Jan to 31 Dec. (If I used 3 Jan 2018 I could add 1% more because the stock market continued to go up on 3 Jan).

My largest holding is STI ETF. My 2nd and 3rd largest holdings, OCBC and CDL HT outperformed the STI ETF. Unfortunately, one of my previously Band 1 holdings dropped to Band 2 - CDG. 


Band 1: Big holdings
STI ETF       3 Jan $2.96  29 Dec $3.45.  +20%
OCBC          3 Jan 8.98   29 Dec  12.39.  Dividends 0.18+0.18. +42%

CDL Hospitality Trust   3 Jan 2017 - $1.30 29 Dec 2017 - $1.69 Dividends $0.056 + $0.041 +37.5% 


Band 2: Medium size holdings
First State Regional China Fund  2.9078 / 3.9863  +37.1% gain.

Comfort Delgro (dropped from band 1)  -16.7% loss

Frasers Centrepoint Trust  2.24 / 1.91  - 0.33 + 0.03+0.03+0.03+0.29  +23.5%
Ascott Residence Trust (due to rights issue and excess rights, a bit hard to calculate) 
UOB  26.45 / 20.41   - 6.04 + 0.35+0.35 = 6.74  +33%
Vanguard UK ETF  - 34.1 / 32.02  - 2.08+.2214+.36046+.44255+.3352=3.43961   +10.7% (GBP terms)
Vanguard Asia Pacific ETF 27.62/ 21.81 = 5.81+ 0.19876+0.21307+.16434+.25156=6.63773  +30.4% (US$ terms)

Band 3: Small size holdings
Too many