~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

Earlier this year, I made two new additions to my dividend portfolio, namely Riverstone and Kimly, as part of my ongoing effort to diversify my income stream with consistent dividend payers.  Recently, I am adding a new name to that list: HRNet Group (SGX: CHZ). This decision came after careful thought, and more importantly, as a tactical reallocation of funds.  I recently did a partial divestment of Singapore Technologies Engineering (STE), a strong blue-chip stock that I still like and hold.  However, with its share price shooting up significantly this year, the allocation based on market value to STE is growing too large for my comfort, and the dividend yield has already compressed to below 2.4% at one point, which no longer justifies a full position for someone like me who prioritizes dividend yield as part of my Barista FIRE journey. Why I Sold Part of STE I did not sell out of STE completely.  It remains a core holding in my portfolio, and still the largest ...

This is a relatively short post, and I just want to share my personal thoughts (to myself) and record it down as a constant reminder to myself in my dividend investing journey. This post is inspired by a conversation in the Dividend Investing Telegram Group.  How will one feel financially if one day, an investor is paid SGD 250 daily, rain or shine, not through active income, but through dividends?  Sounds too good to be true?  Maybe.  But let me churn the numbers to see if it is achievable. To Achieve SGD 250 Per Day: Annual Dividends required = SGD 250 * 365 days = SGD 91,250 Assuming 5% Dividend Yield, Portfolio Value Required = SGD 91,250 / 0.05 = SGD 1.825M As shown above, the capital required is quite massive (for me), and its not easy to achieve, especially when one is just earning a median income in Singapore.  However, dividend investing is never a one hit wonder nor a "get-rich-quick" scheme.  It is a journey, a lengthy, but in my personal opinion...

3rd July 2025 marks a historic moment for Singapore’s stock market.  The Straits Times Index (STI) has finally broken past its long-standing ceiling and closed at a new all-time high of 4019.57 points.  For years, the STI has lagged behind other global indices, frequently described as "boring", "defensive", or "undervalued", often trapped between 3000 and 3400.  Some others even nicknamed it the "Super Terrible Index".  However now, after what feels like a long, frustrating wait, I have finally witnessed a psychological and technical breakthrough and it feels both exciting and oddly sobering. As someone who has been building a dividend-oriented portfolio in Singapore for years, this moment is more than just a number.  It feels like validation, a recognition that Singapore-listed companies are not stagnant, and that patience can eventually be rewarded.  It is a reminder that value and yield still matter in the long run.  I have been collecting di...

This month marks the end of the 2nd quarter of 2025.  Thus it's definitely a good time for me to record the performance of my portfolio to track how it has been. To recap, I started my SG Dividends Portfolio in late 2017, and I began tracking the dividends and all reinvestment done starting 2018.  To date, my SG Dividends Portfolio consist of banks, REITs and defense technology.  On the other hand, I only started the US Growth Portfolio in late December 2021.  Currently, my US Growth Portfolio consist of mainly big tech names, bank and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Being a relatively conservative investor, I prefer to dollar cost average (DCA) into the market to slowly build up my portfolio.  The advantages of using Interactive Brokers to buy the US shares via DCA are undoubtedly the low fees and ability to buy fractional shares of mega-cap technology shares like Alphabet and Tesla.  This month is marked by many events which heightened the volatility of t...