Portfolio Update Q4 2024

-

This month marks the end of the 4th quarter of 2024.  Thus being the last post of 2024, it is 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.  The latest FED meeting in December has announced another 25 basis point rate cut, and has further signaled that there will be fewer rate cuts in 2025 (dot plot signaled two cuts, while the most pessimistic market expectation has signal no rate cuts in 2025).  This announcement, coupled with Jerome Powell's speech and the continuous uptick in inflation numbers, has fueled the 3% drop in the markets within a day.  However, this drop is within expectation because the US markets have risen a lot this year, and volatility is here to stay, probably until Trump takes office and announced his official policies, removing uncertainties from the market.  However, for the rest of 2024, the holiday optimism continues to push the markets back up towards the near term high, which was then brought back down on the last 2 trading days of the year.  Overall, I am still pleased that my US Growth Portfolio has hit a new all time high as well, which once again threw me into a dilemma of should I liquidate it to pay off my mortgage loan to make my cashflow healthier.

Closer to home, my SG Dividend Portfolio is recently experiencing some downward pressure as well, especially with the 10-year yield rising above 4.5%, despite the 100 basis point rate cuts that has happened in 2024.  This has undoubtedly caused severe stress in the share price of the REITs, and some REITs' prices are approaching new 52-week lows.  Thankfully, having a diversified portfolio also mean that the decline in value of the REITs are mitigated by the strength of the non-REITs such as the Singapore banks.  Basically, the market is helping me to reallocate my portfolio naturally, and moving forward, I would probably just hold on to all my shares, and any capital injection will go to non-REITs for now.  Overall, I am pleased that my SG Dividend Portfolio has remained stable or slightly positive for the year.

On a more cheerful note, in addition to the rise in total portfolio value, dividends collected in the fourth and last quarter has also been satisfactory, at SGD 5,740.45 from quarterly dividends from Mapletree Family REITs, Fraser Logistics and Commercial Trust (FLCT), Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) and Singapore Technologies Engineering (STE), which is a whopping 45.6% higher compared to the same period in 2023.  The huge increase is partly due to the advance distribution paid by CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) and ParkwayLife REIT (PWLR) due to their respective equity fund raising exercises earlier this year.  Nonetheless, this brings the total dividends collected for the year 2024 to SGD 28,359.63.  This is 9.1% above my annual target of SGD 26K, as recorded in my post at the start of the year, and gladly, a pleasant 21.8% increase from 2023's annual dividend.  Based on trailing twelve-month dividends collected per month, the average dividends collected monthly now is around SGD 2,350.00.  A pat on the back to myself, as I have reached my Barista FIRE number.  However, I have decided to delay the onset of Barista FIRE by a couple of years to build up a stronger buffer, and at the same time, shall progress towards FIRE number.

For this month, the total portfolio market value increased slightly to approximately SGD 626K in this quarter, including a capital injection of SGD 2.4K, which is a slight increase of about 1.2%, thanks to the strengthening USD as well.  Including the cash value of SGD 4.5K of retained dividends (in preparation for the execution of Barista FIRE) from Q3 and Q4 of 2024, the total value will be about SGD 630K, which is an all time high for my portfolio!  This also concludes my portfolio for the year of 2024, which pales in comparison to many financial bloggers and gurus out there, but hey, let this post be a constant reminder that I am competing against no one except myself.  Overall, I am pleased and contented with the performance of my portfolio and I believe it is still important to remain invested for me and look forward to higher total dividends next year!  Moving onwards to SGD 30K per year!  Barista FIRE, here I come...!

SG Dividends Portfolio

US Growth Portfolio

Total Portfolio Value: SGD 625,705.01 (USD 1 : SGD 1.3654)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My First Trip To Japan Together With My Mum!

-
Image
This is my first trip travelling out of ASEAN region, where I have to plan every bit of the itinerary myself.  For previous family trips to Sydney and Perth, I am generally tagging along, being a follower.  However this time, it is going to be a duo trip with just my mum and myself, which I am both looking forward to, while at the same time worried about how things will turn out there and then.  Nonetheless, the decision has been made by late last year, and I booked the flights for 2, flying with Scoot to Kansai Airport for our 9 days 8 nights trip.  Feels good that a goal set early this year is materialized! Without further ado, I will share the travel journey below: Day 1 Arrived at Kansai Airport in the afternoon, and we grabbed a quick snack at the famous 551 Horai outlet.  Then after much complications with the Haruka Limited Express, we are finally able to board the Hello Kitty's train direct to Kyoto!   Haruka Limited Express We reached Hearton Hot...
Read more

Incorporating The Idea of Safe Withdrawal Rate to Living Off Dividend Income

-
Image
Recently in a Telegram group, I come across a debate between Kyith from Investment Moats and a reader, where the reader claims that as long as his portfolio is made up dividend stocks with good dividend growth through the years, he can just live off the dividends with the total capital left intact, while Kyith on the other hand, supports the idea of Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR).  The reader claims that he would not want to sell any part of his portfolio, and just having to live off the dividends makes dividend investing superior to the withdrawal method, while Kyith explains that the reader's perspectives show a lack of understanding of how the SWR method actually works. After reading the long string of exchanges in the telegram group, I decided to pen this post.  Personally, I am definitely a supporter of the dividend investing group, and I also believe, and strives towards just living off dividend income upon FIRE.  From a dividend income investor perspective, the idealis...
Read more

Coping With The 32% Decline In Dividends

-
Image
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 earni...
Read more