January 2022 Strategy

 

My New Year's resolution for 2022 was to buy more World and USA ETFs as I am underweight US. However, at high valuations, it would take me a lot of willpower to press BUY.  

Fortunately, there was a downturn this past week and this allowed me to make a few purchases of LSPU and VWRD.

There is significant volatility with the US markets reversing direction intra-day with huge swings. Reminds me of the GFC.

Inflation is real and not transient. People can see it in the prices of everyday goods such as the meals they eat. 

I expect further buying opportunities in February and will continue to accumulate LSPU and VWRD.

Another ETF I bought this month was 3010.HK via FSMOne RSP. I am temporarily pausing my HK and China ETF RSP (2800.HK and 2801.HK) as I consider whether 3010.HK is better from a diversification perspective (it holds 36% China, 7% HK, but adds South Korea, India, ASEAN).

As I am buying LSPU and VWRD through Interactive Brokers, I also added small amounts of VDPX and IWDA to my Standard Chartered Account. I am investing mainly through interactive brokers but also want some of my holdings with a different custodian.

Dividend Change in 2021 and Financial Independence

 

I managed to tally the dividends collected this year and there was a pretty large 37.8% jump. I recovered my "losses" in 2020 and even exceeded the dividends I collected in 2019. Together with my CPF interest, I have collected enough passive income to reach my Financial Independence target.

While there are differing definitions of FI, I use the definition in investmentmoats.com, which is Income > Expenses used to sustain current standard of living.

Looking at the returns of my top holdings in 2021 (31 Dec 2020-31 Dec 2021) reveals a mixed bag. While I was hoping that there would be a sector rotation into "value", it was not to be, which is why I also started accumulating VWRD and LSPU from July onwards and this probably helped my Interactive Brokers return shown in the screenshot below.

I thought my IBKR return would cross 20% this year. In fact, on 30 Dec it was above 20%, but there was a drop on 31 Dec which meant that I ended up with 19.79%, so I marginally beat Vanguard World's 18.5%

2021 Performance of my top holdings

STI ETF gained 12.1%

FTSE 100 ETF gained 17.4%

First State China gained 5.41% (there is a price lag for unit trust, will update once 31 Dec prices are known). It was much higher than crashed.

VDPX gained 0.6%  (much higher than crashed - the HK/China effect)

OCBC gained 19.6%

Euro Stoxx 50 gained 15.5% (Stoxx 600 gained 20%.. sigh)

VHYD gained 17.4%

WQDV gained 14.5%

Comfort Delgro fell 12.2% 

CDL Hospitality Trust fell 0.2% (CDL woes and Covid-19 still hitting hospitality)