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).

1.325 time to long US$?

Bought USD at 1.3257 and parked the cash in short-term bond funds. I feel that at this level, one can long US$, collect some interest/dividend, and expect some forex appreciation as a bonus. At least, the risk of further downside is not that much, thanks to Singapore's 'managed float' of the S$.

While UK US Bonds ETFs have no withholding tax, the liquidity/trading volume/expense ratio/spread of the US-listed ETFs are a lot higher and might still be preferable if the intention is to park cash.

I parked the US$ in the US-listed VCSH and the equivalent UK listed VDUC. Both are Vanguard short term US$ Corporate bond ETFs. Maybe the best way to find out which is the better option is to just hold both.

June 2021 Strategy

 

Just when I thought I would start transferring 10k a month into Singlife until I hit $100k (due to the 1.0% interest for $100k), Singlife has changed the interest rate to 0.5%. I guess I should close the Singlife account soon. 

As I have finished refunding my CPF Housing, I am running out of good places to park my spare cash/warchest.  

I think May is the first time in recent history that I had not bought anything in an entire month from IBKR. Usually I generate the monthly IBKR activity report, but this is the first time I've seen an error message from IBKR because there was no activity the whole month (had to generate the MTM report instead to see my portfolio movements).

However, I added 2801.HK RSP to my existing 2800.HK RSP. I've also been doing my own regular DCA of world ETFs via SCB. My main world ETF is WQDV but I've also been buying VHYD and also recently added VWRD. 

I will be getting a fair bit of cash back from the delisting of Vanguard HK ETFs so I also need to figure out where to deploy the cash.

Dividends: May 2021

 

The good news for May 2021 is that Lloyds and Santander started paying dividends again, though obviously at a lower rate than before COVID19.

I'm on track to achieve or exceed slightly my target for 2021 dividends to recover to 2019 levels. 

After that, I hope for dividends to grow more in 2022 and reach the "Financial Independence" level which is passive income > current standard of living. 

April 2021 strategy

For April 2021, my only purchase was my monthly DCA of WQDV. I missed the funding for 2800.HK RSP (I funded it on the 8th, which is the RSP date itself but you need to fund the purchase on the 7th...)

May 2021 appears to be more promising as the sell in May effect is taking place with prices correcting.

I have too much warchest in my bank account earning minimal interest. That's when I remembered that I can fund my Singlife account up to $100k to get 1% p.a. So I've started to transfer some cash to Singlife.

Not many dividends paid out in April. Its tax filing month.