July Strategy 2: Continued buying more ETFs

Nearing the end of July, China's crackdown on various tech firms and the education centre was an opportunity to continue to accumulate more 2800.HK and 2801.HK.  Also added more VWRD and VUKE.

I do not think that prices are 'cheap' at the moment, but I felt that the small dip was as good a time as any to put some spare cash to work. If market keeps on going up, I won't be buying as much in August.

I am avoiding Singapore stocks for the moment because I feel that there are financial risks in Malaysia that could well have a spillover effect in the region. Nobody wants another currency crisis but one should be aware of the risks.

Mid-year Dividend Review

 Now that the first half of 2021 has passed, I did a review of my passive income and discovered that my 1H2021 dividend income is +18.5% vs 1H2020. 

I have mentioned previously that my aim is for my dividend income to recover to pre-Covid levels by end 2021. Next year, I hope for further dividend growth and to achieve Financial Independence by end 2022. 

Financial Independence occurs when passive income is sufficient to meet your current standard of living.

However, that doesn't mean early retirement for me. Unlikely many who seem to hate their jobs (or those who hate their jobs probably surf internet forums during office hours to complain about their job), I'm happy with my job. Getting a salary and being able to work from home a few days a week (all that savings in transport time), I count myself fortunate. 

I guess it also helps that I live in a spacious enough condo that I have my own 'home office.' Those who are cooped up in a shoebox condo might well prefer to be in the office. 

July Strategy: Buy more ETFs

 I don't think current prices are a bargain, however, I have built up a sufficient warchest so I am ok to slow down the rate of my warchest increase by doing regular purchases of ETFs. About 30% of my free cash flow is still going to warchest but the remainder of my monthly free cash flow (nett expenses) is a pretty healthy amount.

I am unable to stock pick in a rising or buoyant market so I will stick to ETFs for now.

I had a fairly large sum of HK$ from my Vanguard delisting so I have been converting that to HKSE tracker fund 2800.HK and iShares MSCI China 2801.HK.  I also bought other ETFs such as VWRD, WQDV, VPDX.

Dividends Collected: June 2021

 

Vanguard ETFs paid out at the end of the month (counted as June dividends even though SCB pays late in July). DBS, OCBC and UOB also paid dividends this month. I count the dividend value even though I took scrip for OCBC/UOB. DBS I didn't take scrip because I'm holding in SCB, don't want odd lot.

Dividends just touching $50k after 6 months. Hopefully this will double after 12 months. After adding CPF interest to this, my passive income for 2021 should be track to recover.

Aug Edit: Missed out US$725.30 Telefonica dividend as paid in Scrip (30/6).