The year end resolution- A journey

Another year ending. And what a year indeed. One journey end while another begins.

My financial journey took a dramatic end as the last payout month of the year turns out to be more than I had projected. But it still fall a little short of my target. There has been some up and down on the market cycle, and I did inject some funds into it to boast my portfolio. However, I let go one under performed counter and took some losses. Not much I can do about it, just some of the silly mistakes I made in the early days when I begun my financial journey and so now I paid a price for it. Cough Cough. So how far I come close to my targets? Very close, it is just a short of $500. Ah................well, a small tree grow at a slow pace. 

Other than adjusting the portfolio, I ventured into another platform. A unit-trust dividend scheme that also pay out some dividend on an interval period. It was small, and just something else to diversify my options. So, the next following months and perhaps year we could see some additional passive pay out from these investment funds. Unlike a fixed deposit fund, these unit-trust are not protected under the Singapore investment scheme and subjected to value loss or gains. Not suitable for the those who wanted to protect the capital at all cost. LOL. 

The world affairs has not been well and it certainly had much impact on our lives. Both the war in Ukraine and the pandemic has been the main drive of many events. Inflation has been rising like crazy and things that we see at this price today becomes another on the next day. Household has been trying to adjust their life accordingly to control expenses. Friends and neighbors has been complaining the rising costs and slow income raise. When I look to myself, I wondered if I would have been in much dire situation had I not built up my financial knowledge and ventured beyond my salaried job to built a passive income. In fact, when I started my financial journey I had only thought of earning some extra pocket money to spend from my portfolio. As the years passed, I begun to realise how much advantages a well-built portfolio could offered. Now in face of rising inflation and lack of career advancement, my portfolio served as a cushion against all the uncertain storms. A small financial journey begun 17 years ago now turns out to be a blessing as I am now more resilient against financial crisis and could hope to rely upon my portfolio to sustain my household should things turns worse.

One of my longtime classmates has recently begun to embark on his own financial journey to build a portfolio. Although he is already in late forties, it is better than not even doing anything to improve his financial knowledge. Singapore has a several advantages when comes to making a choice in building a financial portfolio, we got access to numerous investment information and platforms to find ones that suit us. We are also well connected to world platforms should we want to expand our knowledge to our world beyond.

As I mentioned last year, I took a small step exploring the cryptocurrency. I invested a very small amount to try out and I find it unsuitable to my criteria. I still much prefer the traditional bricks and mortar like stocks and property. LOL. So, I guess I will ignore it for now.

Some of my friends lamented about the world affairs and its impact on Singapore. A few others got a hit and retrenched from their job. From what I see, it is going to be a long term affair and the world will need a very long time to recover. I predicted likely to be 5 years, maybe even more. Not very promising years ahead. 

Despite so much uncertain events, I am still making a long term plans to move from my current corporate careers into a role that offered me more time for myself. Yes, I am not even 55 years old to get my first CPF payout, but I am looking further ahead of my life. If I am to see it, I see myself still has around 15 functional years ahead, maybe less. I hope to do the things I wanted to do. Naturally, for that to happen, my portfolio would need to grow to a certain strength to finance myself when I lose my salaried job. I can already feel the weight of the time getting over me and so I hope to fulfill whatever things I had yet explore to finish it while I am still functioning. 

So what I intent to do when that day comes? 

Secret. Mu hahahahah....!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Christmas Orchard 2022

Wow, the crowds is back. But.... the covid-19 still spreading.... ah when will things ever return to normal. Hmmm not very likely soon.

The lights still on, some shopping malls it appeared are having lesser decoration than previously. 

 

The CentrePoint, used to be one of the winners when comes to Christmas decoration lighting. Times has passed, it appeared they have resolved to just some simple decorations along the main walkway.

 

 

Some of the people are still wearing mask. Haha, actually I'm of them as well.

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

A rather long month, almost not a day was without some matters requiring my attention. Somehow I managed crawl over into the month of December....intact. So, the year is almost ending and it appeared my overall investments has not been doing well. Seem like I would need to do another review eventually.

Dividends income amounted to $768.75 for the month of November. Not too good, a lot lower than I had expected. Rental income still stable and so is the rest, but in view of the rising costs it is certainly still not enough to meet my safety margin. 

The market started to recover after a purge early on. Not much is happening in the market, so I would expect my cash holdings continue to grow until an opportunity comes.

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

A cold dividend month, only one counter paid out some dividend amounted to $451.82. Some additional pay out from the investment funds. Other than that, rental income remains stable. Expenses however shoot up as I suddenly fell sick and incurred over $300 medical expenses. Ouch......

 

Nothing much happening in the market, the market did weaken a bit but still not down to my target prices yet. So.....we watch on......z.z.z.z..z.z

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

A fat month. Dividend income amounted to $6448.22, probably one of the highest in my dividend history for a single month. Guess these companies managed to settle their finance in Sept. 

A fixed deposit matured in Sept and gives a nice $1553 returns. Rental income remains stable. This month of September passive income total amounted to $10118.48. Very good month. :)

The third quarter total amount = $20178.80. Average monthly passive income is about $6726 for third quarter. Not bad. :). Hope this continue to keep up.

This month market suddenly tumble down due to the uncertain events happening around the world. Some of the counters I has been watching went down as much as 15%, 52 weeks low. So, I decided to enter the market and catch some fishes. 

 

 

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

Well, after a cold month with no dividend income. The war machine dumped a rather big amount for the month of August. Dividend income amounted to $5908.96. 

A new war machine entered my portfolio however. As I begun exploring other investment platform, I decided to invest in a management fund which paid out monthly at an estimated 5% annually. This is a medium risk investment fund with a mixture of equities and bonds. Although there are other funds with better returns, but those are the high risk investments which I would preferred not to invest. I am getting too old to take higher risks.....lol. Generally, I identified 3 different funds, each with certain exposure to some sectors and industries. All 3 offered consistency in paying out quarterly or monthly. Well, lets see how these guys can perform.

Portfolio remains unchanged with my cash holdings increasing steadily. Waiting for the next opportunity........z..z.z.

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

Its a cold month for dividend income. Zero. 

Ops. Sound scary. 

Rental income amount to $2000. Stable. 

The DBS multiplier is obviously not performing as good as before. I am thinking of closing it and divest to something better. So, the search is on.......................

Portfolio relatively remained unchanged. War chest however increased with the delisting of a counter from the market. The market remain weak but not weak enough for me to enter yet, still waiting......

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

Inflation getting crazy here in Singapore, and it led me to rethink my existing financial position. In the past, a half a million portfolio might have been sufficient but now...it appear..... I would need to review it further to match the rising expenses.

Dividend income amounted to $4,267.99. The market slowly recovering but still no where near the pre-pandemic period when I was getting much higher %. Well...life goes on. Rental income remain stable. The DBS multiplier has been performing poorly since the outbreak of covid-19, and it is unlikely it will ever regain its prime. So, I'm thinking now of diverting the funds in this platform to somewhere else. 

Total passive income for the 2nd quarter amounted to $16,050.78. That's amounted to an average of $5,350 per month. Hmm, not bad. :)

 

Ops, something finally changed. Aye.............the war chests becomes smaller in %. I bought something during a brief weakness of the market. And the results is.....my portfolio gets bigger. So...what did I buy?  Secret,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,..:)

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

Many things come to my mind in May, I re-arranged my house for a new refreshing look. Getting bored with its old layout. LOL. Life is too short to stay unchanged for long, sometime a little of adjustment is good for refreshing our life just a little bit. 

A fat month. Dividend income amounted to $4342.81. Some of the counters especially the tourism sector still not recovering, I might consider diverting the funds somewhere else. Hmm....

Rental income remain steady, one of our fixed deposits matured and gives $1050 which a lot lower than last year. Another impact from the effects of pandemic. 

This brings the total passive income of May to $7,401.92. Well, still going well and steady. The passive income remains sustainable despite getting hit by 2 years of pandemic.

 Portfolio remains unchanged. War chest increasing well. Waiting for an open of opportunity from Mr Market :).

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

WO HOR. Singapore opened borders, relaxing pandemic rules. People are everywhere now. After 2 years of war against the pandemic, it seem we are finally having some breath of air. I even saw people having BBQ in the park. Well, let's us hope the war is really ending. Somehow....

A fat month. While I'm getting only $360 dividend from a counter in the month of April. A merger of two REITS dumped a load of cash into my pocket fattening my cash holdings further. Well, as this is a one off event, it will not be counted toward the monthly passive income.   

Apart from it, the revised rental income is now increased to $2000 due to an additional tenant. Well, some increase in the monthly passive income to cover the crazy inflation. 

Expenses has somewhat reduced, mainly because we didn't get to seek much medical attention. The supplements products appeared to be finally working to help reduce the need to rely on medication to control our existing medical conditions. Hopefully it doesn't get any worse. 

Portfolio changed a little bit with the merger of two REITS in April, this further increase my cash holdings and increase my exposure to industrial REIT.

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

The inflation is gaining strength as the world continued to be impacted by pandemic and Ukraine wars, rising oil prices.

A month of several changes. Firstly we managed to renew the tenancy for another 18 months, and rental was further revised to $2000 to cope with the rising inflation. Dividend for the month of March amounted to $4959.58, much higher than I expected. Total passive income collected for the 1st quarter of the year amounted to $12,524.97, that is an average of around $4100 per month. Not bad. 

Portfolio remains unchanged, not much things happening in the stock market. So, the cash holding continued to grow. 

 

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

A short month, and a bit healthier month with less expense on medical costs. Singapore medical costs is a serious drain on resources!!! That is why we got an old saying here, you best die rather than get sick. LOL. Ahem,,,, excuse me.

Passive income somewhat lesser for the month of February, dividend income amounted to $604.32. Rental income remain stable, no hassle no delay in payment. Good tenants. :)

Portfolio adjusted for the month of February as I diverted some resources and purchased a newly listed company. So which stock I purchased? Secret............................heehee.

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

Chinese New Year just ended today. Theoretically, it is supposed to last another 2 weeks but that doesn't happen here in Singapore. LOL. And with the effects of the pandemic still going on, it is even more quiet than usual. I didn't step a foot outside during the holidays. Ouch, boring isn't it. Cough cough....

January suppose to be a cold month for dividend income, but rather surprisingly a few companies paid out on January, total amount to $2434.89. This is also added with other streams of passive income, rental income $1800 and fixed deposit $905.  Total amount to $5149. Not bad for a new start in the new year.

 

 

Portfolio as usual remains unchanged with the gradual increase in war chest.  A sleeping giant building up its strength. LOL. Just kidding. Nothing really happening. Happy New Year!!

 

Monthly Financial Updates

This monthly sustainability report does not include any of the salaried income. The basis for this monthly financial review is to gauge the sustainability status of my financial independence based on the total amount of passive income received.

Holidays over!!! 

Well, back to work. LOL.

Closing for Year 2021 December passive income and expenses. Expenses went down a bit as nothing went wrong in the household. Hmm, thinking of changing a new laptop..........ah.....maybe next month. LOL.

Dividend income amounted to $3,872.64, added with the rental income of $1,800 brings the total amount for 4th quarter to $11,902.28. This average to an amount of $3,967 per month. Not too bad, still more than the average monthly expenses. Hopefully, dividend income can recovered as the pandemic situation becomes better. I hope..........:).

Portfolio as usual change little apart from increasing cash holdings. Nothing much happening in the stock markets. In fact, it is too quiet. LOL. I am guessing most of the players had gone over to play cryptocurrency.