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A Privilege To Sponsor A Trip To Bangkok For My Mum and Aunt

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Early this year, I had the privilege to sponsor my mum, aunt and myself to a short trip to Bangkok.  This is possible because of the 25% growth in dividends collected in 2023 compared to 2022 from my SG Dividend Portfolio, and due to the slight increase in tutoring income in 2023 after pushing myself to work 7 days a week for the second half of the year.  As such, I think it is time to take a break and pamper myself a little, and also take this opportunity to bring my mum and aunt together to my favourite future retirement destination.  This is their first trip to Bangkok (they had been to Chiang Mai, Phuket and Hat Yai), so I have to do the planning upfront to bring them to do some sight-seeing and enjoy some great food not to be missed, while keeping in mind to minimize walking during the trip. It was a 4 day 3 night trip, and we arrived at Don Mueang International Airport in the early afternoon.  We took a grab ride to our hotel, Trinity Silom Hotel, close to Chong Nonsi BTS and Lal

Coping With The 32% Decline In Dividends

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As a dividend investor, I have been slowly accumulating shares in REITs and dividend shares to grow the annual dividend income since late 2017.  I am blessed and contented with the performance thus far, as the total dividends received annually continues to grow, despite hiccups along the way.  First major hiccup along the way is in 2020, where the strike of the pandemic and the circuit breaker hit businesses and some REITs in a huge way, resulting in cuts in dividends.  The second major hiccup recently will be in 2022 where the FED suddenly hike interest rates at rocket speed, and that created financial stress on REITs, which inevitably resulted in the drop in distributions by most REITs to varying degree.  Thankfully, with the slight diversification into other dividend-paying shares, they helped to mitigate the decline, and allowed my portfolio to experience dividend growth year-on-year. This year, on 23rd February 2024, Hong Leong Finance (HLF) reported their earnings for 2H2023 and

Portfolio Update for February 2024

This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month. For the month of February, it is a rather stagnant month.  The first half of the month is relatively positive, but after the release of the January CPI numbers, which came in slightly below expectations with CPI still hovering at 3.1% instead of the expected 2.9% (which is a major milestone being below 3%), the market experienced a significant pullback.  This was exacerbated later in that week by the hotter than expected PPI numbers as well.  This may be both a correction and profit taking, as the Magnificent Seven (with the exception of Tesla) or the AI Fives have had a long bull run.  So it may be time for them to take a breather.  Overall, I view CPI numbers with slight positivity, because although it remains above 3%, it has been in the downtrend and that is good news.  The worrying sign probably comes from core CPI, where it remains flat month on month.  Nonetheless, this news dampened the mar

Is It The End To REIT-Investing?

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On 15th February 2024, Keppel Pacific Oak REIT (KORE) spooked the market by announcing that they will suspend dividend payments for 2 years till 2026, due to the tough operating environment in US Commercial Real Estate currently and hence a possible further decline in valuation in the upcoming quarters.  For readers who are interested to know the details of this event, you can watch this video by Dr Wealth.  Nonetheless, this caused the share price of KORE to plunge by 40% in a single day, and the undesirable effects rippled through all US Commercial REITs, bringing Prime US REIT down by 32% and Manulife US REIT (MUST) down by almost 7% (previously Manulife REIT's troubles had caused it to plunge by 67% from July 2023 to 15th February 2024).  Even United Hampshire US REIT, whose properties deal with groceries, necessities and self-storage were impacted, falling by 4%. Prior to this issue by KORE and MUST in July 2023, another most impactful event was the suspension of Eagle Hospit

A Review Of The REITs' Quarterly Performances

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Back in January 2023, the interest rates reached 4.25-4.50%.  Since then, interest rates continue to gradually climb till 5.25-5.50% in July 2023, where it held constant till today.  As such, it is a good time to review how the crazy climb in interest rates in 2022 impact the performances of REITs, which are highly leveraged and more sensitive to interest rates compared to other listed companies.  In the comparison below, I only focused on the REITs and Trust I hold in my portfolio. 1)     CapitaLand Ascott Trust (CLAST)   " CLAST's properties saw strong demand as international travel continued to recover.  CLAST’s revenue per available unit (REVPAU) in 2H 2023 reached 103% of pre-pandemic levels in 2H 2019 on a pro forma basis, increasing by 10% y-o-y to S$157.  REVPAU also rose 23% y-o-y to S$148 for FY 2023.  In 4Q 2023, majority of CLAST’s key markets such as China, Japan, United States of America (USA) and Vietnam also registered y-o-y REVPAU growth.  CLAST’s gross profit