These days, I feel more than ever that I'm facing a midlife crisis. Typically, people around middle aged (40-65 years of age) experience this phenomenon and psychological difficulty where they struggle with intense feelings about their accomplishments (or lack of) in life, with shifting experiences at work and at home.
As a Singaporean, we live very hectic lives dominated by our work/ careers. Most of us tag our identities to it. When asked about who we are, usually one might introduce with our job titles.
For me personally, I feel I've kind of hit a rut in terms of progressing my career, and that this may be "it" in terms of the career ceiling. When speaking to seniors in their 50s (in context, I'm now hitting 40), many reflect to me that the higher you climb, there is diminishing returns in terms of renumeration. The risk of being cut/ retrenched grows alot more though so it is better to perhaps stay put.
This stems a lot from fear perhaps. While I know I'm not after titles, I do want to maximise the income I can earn. And stagnating my career at this point does seem to feel "sucky". But, one of my seniors reminded me: Don't worry, that's why you build that secondary income.
.HEIC) |
| Back to a time when I was having more opportunities at work and perhaps happier. How times have changed. |
Primary Income vs. Secondary Income
The theory, as my senior continues, is that with age and a high(er) salary, our risk of being cut grows exponentially. That is the sole reason why we need to divert our primary income to our secondary income. And, also instead to opt for a stable and more sustainable career/ position to lower the risk of being cut. So, one day, that secondary income might just outgrow our primary income. However, we need the primary income at early stage for capital and to finance the ongoing sustained investments over time.
Property investing, to my senior is the method to do it, because of the large sum of money involved in doing so. Perhaps, I'm more conservative, but it's a very real proposition to consider before I hit 45.
As of now, REITs and dividend income investing it is for me.
April to May Performance
I discovered at least 2 of my other colleagues are into investing and this helps a lot in shaping decisions, general discussions of market trends and just to take that bit of stress out of work.
I've not been able to stomach the volatility for tech stocks, even for SGX, hence, you could say I could only watch the market go by as stocks like AEM, and UMS rocketed. (Even though Frencken, UMS, Valuetronics was always being discussed)
March and April additions:
- SGX:N2IU - Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (Avg price 1.323)
- As of 15 May closing: 1.25 (-4.09%)
- MPACT also missed their Q4 financial results leading to a 2.6% y-o-y drop in DPU
- SGX:C52 - ComfortDelGro Corp Ltd (Avg price 1.464)
- As of 15 May closing: 1.28 (-9.42%)
- CDG has a disappointing Q1 2026 business update where net profit fell 16%. Rising fuel prices have also not helped. Probably my worst pick of the lot.
- SGX:M44U - Mapletree Logistics Trust (Avg price 1.194)
- As of 15 May closing: 1.17 (-0.51%)
- MLT also likewise suffered a 7% y-o-y drop of its DPU due to its exposure to China market.
- SGX:J69U - Frasers Centrepoint Trust (Avg price 2.286)
- As of 15 May closing: 2.23 (+0.26%)
- Frasers Centrepoint Trust's H1 DPU rises 1.4% to S$0.06136, perhaps is the only reason why it wasn't punished as hard as rest of REITs
- SGX:D05 - DBS Group Holdings Ltd (Avg price 57.418)
- As of 15 May closing: 60.2 (+6.26%)
- I know I entered at a high price, but being REIT heavy I had no choice but to add a natural hedge on my portfolio to try to buffer the prolonged high rates. Who knows how long it will last?
In general, REITs had a 'mini rally' in late April on the back of optimism that Fed rates and interest rates would be cut. However, Fed rates were maintained at 3.50% to 3.75% during its 29 April 2026 meeting. This caused REITs to again face downward pressures as it means cost of borrowing continues to eat into REITs profitability in near term. With ongoing Iran war and high oil prices, cost of business could be also kept high as the rates continue to be high and inflation soar.
My best counter in YZJ Shipbldg suffered a pull back from a high of around 4.5 and has retraced back to around 4. As mentioned, I'm heavily concentrated on REITs and they make up almost half of my portfolio. Hence, going forward, my portfolio performance is likely to be limited with the prolonged Fed rate level.
I maintain a warchest of cash ready to deploy if the cliche of "Sell in May and go away" comes true, or if prolonged war does lead to a correction.
Portfolio Summary: As of 15 May 2026
So, until the next time.
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