I finally got my wife started on her investing journey

Finally, after 5 years of planting the "seeds" and sharing about investing, my wife took the first steps to investing. The conversation was centred around building dividend income as a potential source to fund our daughter's education for future. 

A small start for sure, but one that would build towards the future. I must say that it is incredibly easy these days to start a CDP account, and brokerage account online, with minimum fuss. AI also makes it very easy to do up some basic research.

MISSING IN ACTION
I've been MIA-ing for much of 2024 and 2025 due to transitioning to my new work. Alot has happened in this time frame:

• I took on a higher role at my new company - effectively doing about a 2-3 person job. This makes me have less time for anything else.
• I welcomed my firstborn and daughter and it has been hectic since trying to balance my hectic workload with family commitments.

CHANGING PRIORITIES; CHANGING TIMES

REITS have been beaten down since 2022 due to rising interest rates as well as volatility brought by Iran war. This served as a good point of discussion to chat with my wife over starting an investing account. Of course, there is a risk that interest rates continue to be high, as well as oil prices leading to REITs profitability becoming an issue. 

The flip side, however, is that many of the REITs have now re-traced to value levels that are seemingly great entry points to nibble.

My career has stabilised mostly after 2 years at my new company. Unfortunately, luck plays a huge role in careers. My hiring manager has since left and my work has stagnated. Given that there are now lesser things to look forward at work, it is also perhaps time I re-focus back to my portfolio.

I will still look to deliver quality work in the meantime while farming for my next career breakthrough, as employment market is now going through a flux especially with news of retrenchment every other day.

CURRENT PORTFOLIO

It is great to be able to have conversations with your spouse, talking about AGMs, definitions of investing and learning together the basic concepts once again. I've recently added Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MPACT) and my wife added both MPACT and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) - (please do your own due diligence).

REITs have been surprisingly holding well but of course if macroeconomics continue to deteriorate, depends on how we see it, it becomes opportunities to add some counters as well.

			Overall Cost	Current value
			46,423	56,130
Stock Name	Shares	Average price	Cost	Value
YZJ Shipbldg SGD	3,500	0.85	2,975	13,405
Mapletree Com	4,500	1.323	5,953.88	5,985
CapLand Integra	2,340	1.764	4,127.76	5,428.80
MIT	2,700	3.06	8,261.44	5,292
Singtel	1,000	3.318	3,318.16	4,990
AIMS APAC	3,054	1.384	4,227.48	4,367.22
CapitaLandInvest CD	1,500	2.95	4,425	4,110
VICOM Ltd CD	2,000	1.508	3,016.99	3,560
Frasers L&C Tr	3,733	1.065	3,977.46	3,341.03
SSB Jan 2019 CD	2,000	1.001	2,002	2,000
YZJ Maritime	3,500	0	0	1,820
Asian Pay Tv Tr	10,000	0.163	1,631.40	880
YZJ Fin Hldg	3,500	0.69	2,415	875
CapLand Ascott T	85	1.07	90.95	76.08

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K.C.

The information listed on this website are solely for information and discussion purposes only. They are not meant to constitute financial advice. You should not undertake any decisions without first consulting Professionals/Competent Financial Advisor or conducting Due Diligence. "30 Year Old Investor" shall not be held liable for any loss or damage of any kind, that arise as a result of your use or reliance on the information contained on this site.

Portfolio Review 2023: Outlook 2024

It is now 5 years, 10 months and 21 days ago since I started my investing journey at the age of 30 (February 19th 2018). I'm actually going to become 37 this year.

I recently did a re-look at my investing numbers:

• Cash injection dried up in 2021 - 2022: I was unable to inject any fresh funds/ make new purchases of stocks or REITs due to having to set aside cash for wedding and house commitments. (We should not invest the money we would need in the near term.) This set of commitments are now over and I can finally look to inject cash, and invest into my portfolio again. 

 

• New Year New Career direction: Thankful that I am able to start a new career and increase my income. While my income has increased, there may be further challenges down the road that can eat into my ability to invest. (e.g. Starting a family)

 

• Invested portfolio performance in 2023: My Stock and REITs portfolio suffered a lot due to the high weightage of REITs, which has been heavily beaten down by the FED rate increases. Hopefully, for 2024 the FED rates will stabilise and see some recovery. Despite the lack of funds, my portfolio value is holding well. Dividends collected have stagnated due to not purchasing more assets.

 

Actual breakdown of the estimates:

Road to Financial Independence
PROJECTION					ACTUAL FIGURES
Year	Age	Portfolio Projected 2%/yr	Current capital injection Rate/yr	Estimated Dividend 3%	Actual Portfolio at end of yr	Actual Capital Injection/yr	Actual Dividends
2018	31	$12,000.00	$12,000.00	$360.00	$15,941.59	$16,928.40	$513.25
2019	32	$24,600.00	$12,000.00	$738.00	$42,318.06	$23,670.94	$815.30
2020	33	$37,830.00	$12,000.00	$1,134.90	$73,116.93 (Set aside $29,600 for wedding by end 2020) Therefore actual = $43,516.93	$27,272.78	$916.05
2021	34	$51,721.50	$12,000.00	$1,551.65	79694.64 (Set aside $39,200 for wedding by end 2021)	$4,288.83	$1,481.79
2022	35	$66,307.58	$12,000.00	$1,989.23	$79,428.16	-$266.48	$2,028.56
2023	36	$81,622.95	$12,000.00	$2,448.69	$102,676.20	$5,226.38	$2,077.75
2024	37	$97,704.10	$12,000.00	$2,931.12
2025	38	$114,589.31	$12,000.00	$3,437.68
2026	39	$132,318.77	$12,000.00	$3,969.56
2027	40	$150,934.71	$12,000.00	$4,528.04

Plans for 2024:

• New assets purchase to bolster dividends: If I want to keep to my portfolio growth, I will need to quickly purchase some assets. At current point, I have been out of market for a while. I do hear of issues with Keppel DC reit and ESR reit. More research has to be done to purchase more units of stocks/ REITs. Perhaps it would also be an option to add to my current holdings instead of looking for new counters.

 

• Learn driving: I think many of my peers are quite shocked that at age 36 I still do not have my driving license. In the past, I see that my family is too poor so I will probably not ever have a car. Things however have changed, and it is possible that at some point I may consider getting a second hand car. Driving is also a good lifeskill to have, e.g. it might help me get around for work, if I'm on work trips.

 

• Do base job well in shortest time possible: It is quite a steep learning curve for me in my new role, and I need to pick things up fast so that I can start contributing to my new team that placed their faith in me, despite me not having very much knowledge of my work segment. I am mainly focusing on 2 aspects: people (networking), and doing the base job well.

Please feel free to share with me any stock information, or tips for driving school. Till the next time!

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Share with me and fellow readers!

K.C.

If you like this post, you might like our facebook page as well. I'm also on Investing Note. I am also partnering with Reit-tirement blog and other bloggers to share ideas at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1397925937071525/

Disclaimer: The views expressed, opinion and information in this article are strictly for informational purposes to encourage educational discussions only. No content on this site constitutes - or should be understood as constituting - a recommendation to enter any securities transactions or to engage in any of the investment strategies presented in our site content. We do not provide personalised recommendations or views as to whether a particular stock or investment approach is suitable to the financial needs of a specific individual. No representation or warranty expressed or implied is made as to, and no reliance shall be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of the information or opinions contained on this website. "30 Year Old Investor" shall not be liable whatsoever for loss or damages of any kind arising from the result of any use, reliance or distribution of the articles or its contents from information contained on this website.  

Every End is a New Beginning. Christmas reflections 2023

At the start of January 2024, I'll be officially starting a new position. 😄 I thank God for the many valuable life lessons learnt and people met as I went through this period of my life.

As with every new beginning, something good has to come to an end. As the Chinese saying goes: "天下无不散之筵席" (There's no banquet that does not end eventually.) I'm still in the process of grieving this bittersweet sense of loss as colleagues in my current organisation has been rather nice and helpful. No doubt, I'll be able to retain these friendships even after I leave but I do know that for the sake of my career it is a choice I have to make.

How did this materialise?

Back earlier in the year, I was actually trying to go for another internal role which eventually I was unable to attain. 

It was a rather difficult process through which I had to deal with alot of internal dialogue surrounding dealing with:

1. Sense of failure (but I know that all failures are mostly not fatal, and all successes not final) 

 

2. Self doubt (I thought I had it in me but maybe I was too full of myself) 

 

3. Negative outbursts (Dealing with my own personal emotions is a rather tricky thing, as employers may not like it when employees express unhappiness) 

 

 All in all, there was a time I probably wallowed for a while. And then, a headhunter came calling.

One door closes, another opens.

Still reeling from the pain and depths of defeat, my confidence was wrecked and at an all time low. I recall I was qualifying the recruiter multiple times: Are you sure you got the right person? Am I really the person you are looking for? 

It was funny but things went so smoothly through the rounds of interviews in double quick time that I really couldn't process it as quickly. When I broke the news with another colleague over lunch to ask for her advise, she mentioned: 是你的，就是你的，不是你的莫强求 "In life, something meant to be yours will be yours. Conversely, what is not yours can't be forced."

It was a funny rollercoaster of emotions:

1. Confidence: Confidence was wrecked totally and then built right back up. (Somehow internally, I'm not as valued as externally) 

 

2. Humility, and gratitude: If I had probably gotten the internal role, I might have been very proud of it. With this developments, it was almost as if it fell out of the sky (Not quite as I had really put in alot of effort) 

 

3. Mental Fuel: Turning emotions of anger, frustration, failure into fuel. I channeled whatever regrets and pain I had from the internal role to try my best for the external role.

Somehow, things went smoothly. Now, I'm quite sure that there will be new challenges facing me in the coming year. Come what may, life has to go on. 

Christmas is a season of Love and giving. I'm thankful for the people who rejected me and taught me life lessons, as well as for those who showed me care, concern and love. 

Merry Christmas 2023, 

Fellow friends and investors!~

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Share with me and fellow readers!

p.s. It's been really a long time since I have had the chance to sit down to blog and reflect. I will be looking at my portfolio which was started in 2018 to see what I can do to continue this journey! Thankfully, although I'm sitting on some paper loss, overall due to the dividend strategy I'm overall profitable. Hopefully, REITs will huat again this year with the FED cuts.

K.C.

If you like this post, you might like our facebook page as well. I'm also on Investing Note. I am also partnering with Reit-tirement blog and other bloggers to share ideas at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1397925937071525/

Disclaimer: The views expressed, opinion and information in this article are strictly for informational purposes to encourage educational discussions only. No content on this site constitutes - or should be understood as constituting - a recommendation to enter any securities transactions or to engage in any of the investment strategies presented in our site content. We do not provide personalised recommendations or views as to whether a particular stock or investment approach is suitable to the financial needs of a specific individual. No representation or warranty expressed or implied is made as to, and no reliance shall be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of the information or opinions contained on this website. "30 Year Old Investor" shall not be liable whatsoever for loss or damages of any kind arising from the result of any use, reliance or distribution of the articles or its contents from information contained on this website.