September 2020 Portfolio Updates and Job Updates

"Wake me up when September ends~~~" Green Day sang this song which is one of my favorite songs, though the meaning of the song is not literally about September, it was written by Billie Joe Armstrong about his father, who died from esophageal cancer in September 1982.

Another month has passed and I guess this month gave me a good news about my job. Since my contract will be ending soon, my boss told me that my contract will be extended, it will come with a pay increase though I am not sure of the amount yet considering this period.  

It comes as some sort of relief but also that being converted to a permanent staff is another long journey as I will have another year as a contract worker and conversion usually will not happen so soon. 

I went for about 2 interviews so far but I realized that I am not able to build on any defining traits/experience/projects and it kinda makes me lose out to others. I do understand that for the employers, they are definitely looking for someone who is able to handle the job and do well.

Otherwise, I am just glad to have some sort of update on my contract. Searching for jobs hasn't been smooth, not much interviews as I am rather fresh considering my work experience to be only a year plus. 

On the portfolio side, another 1.1146 units of Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) was added to my portfolio and 2.5526 units of Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) was added. Recent prices have dropped for both and definitely wish to scoop some up at a lower price however I will wait for the normal RSP buy date which is the 8th of every month.  

I am glad I started on this RSP and I am seeing some slight results from it. The amount that I am buying every month is not huge and so the snowballing effect is not seen as very obvious at the moment. 

RSP Portfolio since additions were done here:

Units of VOO: 2.2105 (Current RSP)
Units of VT: 22.7889 (Current RSP)
Units of Hang Seng Index: 138.6615 (Stopped)
Units of STI ETF: 352 (Stopped)

Dividends received: 

This month was a good month for dividends as $150 was received from Far East Orchard Ltd (O10), 21.14 from Capitaland Retail China Trust and $18.54 from Far East Hospitality Trust bringing the total for the month to $189.68

The year is going to be ending soon in 3 more months. Its been a tough year and recovery will take awhile. I am grateful for my current situation but I think I can still do much more to improve on it. Take care and stay safe.

August 2020 Portfolio, Dividends and also Life Updates (Data driven investing - Pyinvesting)

August is over and time for another portfolio review! This month is interesting as the 1 tesla stock that I bought will be splitting to 5 on 31 August 2020. Nothing much to be done as I will still hold on to that. 

My Singapore stocks are still in the red. Will be holding the stocks for the long term so not much worries on that. 

Besides Tesla surging up, both my VOO and VT are also in the green, glad that I started my ETF RSP buying. Though I wished I started earlier, at least I am in a better direction right now and will continue to do so.

Read more: July 2020 Portfolio Updates - Changes to RSP and sold First REIT

Portfolio:

Portfolio current value is at about $22,000 as of 29 August 2020. I really hope to increase the portfolio progressively but definitely a higher income is required. However, the job market doesn't look so good and jobs I have applied for, only 1 or 2 have gotten back to me. Went through some rounds of interview and got to see how it goes. 

Dividends: 

Received $27.25 from Singtel and $50.26 from STI ETF. Total: $77.51

Next month, September will be interesting and nice as dividends from Far East Organisation (O10.SGX) will be coming in with $150, my first 3 digit dividend payout. US elections are also drawing near and my brother and mum also watched the latest 2020 Democratic and Republican National Convention on 27 August 2020. I did watch a short highlight video on it.

I would love to watch with them but work wise has been overwhelming as weekends are also spent clearing work. The restructure in my office has combined multiple teams together and with some colleagues who left mostly due to their contract ending, I do not really have a positive outlook. I am on the lookout for jobs as well. Hope by year end, things can be clearer and I can be in a better position. Take care and stay safe everyone :)

Side mention for Pyinvesting: 

Many companies have algorithms or systems that guide their investments. This is all so that emotions are removed in the process and data is the way to go if you like to see numbers instead of just using your gut feeling, haha which really shouldn't be the case. 

Ivan recently reached out to me to take a look at his website which uses data and back-testing to form your investment strategy. 

He has video tutorials that teaches you how you can navigate and input your data. They are really bite-sized and he shows in the videos step-by-step processes on how to do it. Do go over and take a look!

May 2020 Portfolio and Dividend Updates

May 2020 is coming to an end and the circuit breaker is also ending too as we go towards a less strict opening on 2 June 2020.

We will still not be able to dine out :( but we can now visit grandparents or parents however only 2 people from the same household will be able to do so.

After staying at home for such a long time, I am pretty used to it and I will not be visiting my grandparents so soon as my mum would prefer for us not to have too much interactions to prevent the risk of spreading.

Read more: New work arrangement post circuit breaker

Porfolio and Dividends:

Received $15 from SGX as dividends and in June, will receive $28 from OCBC and $19 from First REIT. Expecting dividends to drop pretty a lot this month as I hold quite a few hospitality and retails REITs. Shall see how it goes. 

In May 2020, my ETF RSP with FSMone bought 47.6774 units of Tracker Fund of Hong Kong Index (2800) at a cost of HKD 24.95 each.

3.0021 units of Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) was bought at a cost of USD 69.595 each. Through this RSP, I can slowly see the effects of accumulation, though the portfolio is still having a loss of about 7% as I entered into it around December 2019 when prices were still pretty high and so the average price of my holdings are quite high.

I really like this idea of monthly payments as it really just takes off the thinking and frees up my mind though when I see times like 23 March 2020 when stock prices went way down, I wished my RSP was buying on that day HAHA.

For my RSP, I am making the switch from buying STI ETF (ES3) to Tracker Fund of Hong Kong because when I started in 2016 with my RSP with POSB invest saver, STI ETF was at a price of $2.80 and now it is about $2.538. Both the graph shows quite a similar pattern except that Tracker Fund of Hong Kong has a little more huge fluctuations and much more buying and selling volume.

The Tracker Fund of Hong Kong though at Oct 2016 was at a price of about HKD 24 and currently is at a price of HKD 23.10 due to recent news that Beijing will tighten their grip on HK by having a new security bill has seen better growth and higher highs of price over the period from 2016 to now.

Also because the HK market holds significantly larger companies as you can see from the image below though both HK and Singapore are heavy on Banks.

Although that being said, there will a lot of volatility in HK as protests are set to resume and with Beijing going on to tighten their grip on HK with the new bill and giving more power to the leaders, there will definitely be rebuttals from the people and we already saw how bad their protests can go from last year's demonstrations. 

Read more: My first investment - STI ETF


I am also having a change of strategy in my investments. Previously, I wanted to create a dividend portfolio and focused mainly in the Singapore markets, however recently I have been reading and watching the US markets and difference between the stock prices are huge in just one day.

With that, there can be huge profits and huge losses, with me still being young, I can take the risk as I do not have many dependents and I also want to enter the US market to try it out.

Will do some updates once I start, I will most likely use my FSMone account to purchase US stocks as well. 

Read more: Investing in Hard Times  


It will be June next week and the circuit breaker will be ending, with that, more people are expected to go back to work especially those that require machinery or systems in the office. Dining in will still not be allowed so eating more at home will still go on. Stay safe and take care! 

 Information published here are purely opinions or feedback and should in no way be taken as guaranteed. Readers are encouraged to do their due diligence by doing sufficient research before making any decisions based on materials on this blog. 

April 2020 Portfolio and Some Updates

April has been just staying at home and observing the number of cases everyday as we see record high being updated. Its been a crazy month as CB was announced and then the extension of it with stricter measures was also announced.

Read more: CB breaker Extended to 1 June 2020

On my portfolio side, not much buying was done unlike everyone else, I did find prices attractive and wanted to buy but with low cash on my side and my income being not that high, I just stuck to my RSP.


In April 2020, 3.117 units of Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) was bought at a price of USD 67.0299 each and 76 units of STI ETF (ES3) was bought at a price of $2.5971.

$0 dividends were received this month similar to last year in April, am expecting this year's dividends to take a hit as I am holding quite a number of REITs with most in hospitality and retail.

Current Portfolio:

Dividends:




I have been watching more webinars nowadays as compared to when working in office as I have more time on hand to listen and they are easily accessible since more webinars are also being done due to the situation.

With the different webinars, you can learn a bit from everything and it is really interesting to see what other think of this current situation and how they are handling it. 
 
I am making some changes to my RSP by switching from purchasing STI ETF (ES3) to Hang Seng Index (2800).

Below are some of my previous month's updates in 2020:

- March 2020 Portfolio Updates and Dividends
- Feb 2020 Portfolio Updates and Dividends
- Jan 2020 Portfolio Updates and Dividends