I was taking a 2 week break from work during the children school holiday. I was grateful that we're able to spend time with our extended families. I was enjoying the break that I even forgot to look at my portfolio and updated my blog ... :-). I learnt that the greatest blessings a man can have is not fame, fortune or long live, BUT a loving God and loving families. It was sad to read how successful men and women ended their own life, eventhough they seemed to have everything according to the worldly standard.
So here is the portfolio update for both May and June. Excluding the monthly fresh fund contributions, the portfolio performance remain flat for 2018. May was a bumper dividends month with $1,446.41 received. I received another $817.51 of dividends in June, which brought the total YTD dividends to $4,393.77, 9% lower compared to total dividends received as of June 2017. This was expected as I've been reducing my equity holdings as part of my allocation strategy.
| Date | Securities Name | FCY | SGD |
| 3-May-2018 | CSOP China Ultra Short Term Bond ETF (HKD) | 144.91 | 30.29 |
| 8-May-2018 | British Land Co PLC (GBP) | 18.66 | 33.69 |
| 10-May-2018 | Keppel Corp | 126.00 | 126.00 |
| 10-May-2018 | Starhub | 48.00 | 48.00 |
| 15-May-2018 | DBS | 356.40 | 356.40 |
| 15-May-2018 | Sembcorp Industries | 30.00 | 30.00 |
| 22-May-2018 | Greggs PLC (GBP) | 47.80 | 85.78 |
| 22-May-2018 | Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd (MYR) | 685.15 | 229.59 |
| 24-May-2018 | Prada Spa (HKD) | 505.64 | 86.11 |
| 25-May-2018 | First REIT | 53.75 | 53.75 |
| 25-May-2018 | Starhub | 48.00 | 48.00 |
| 28-May-2018 | Toyota Motor Corp (JPY) | 10,053.00 | 122.97 |
| 30-May-2018 | Capitaland Mall Trust | 116.76 | 116.76 |
| 30-May-2018 | Starhill Global REIT | 53.50 | 53.50 |
| 31-May-2018 | Perusahaan Gas Negara (IDR) | 267,021.72 | 25.57 |
| 4-June-2018 | Perusahaan Gas Negara (IDR) | 283,730.16 | 27.17 |
| 8-June-2018 | Heineken Malaysia Bhd (MYR) | 395.26 | 131.62 |
| 11-June-2018 | PCCW (HKD) | 1,031.91 | 174.70 |
| 13-June-2018 | UOB | 130.00 | 130.00 |
| 20-June-2018 | Royal Dutch Shell PLC-B (GBP) | 31.06 | 55.34 |
| 25-June-2018 | Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa (IDR) | 1,113,099.57 | 106.98 |
| 26-June-2018 | BP PLC (GBP) | 38.86 | 70.12 |
| 28-June-2018 | China Mobile (HKD) | 701.14 | 121.58 |
Portfolio return YTD was 0.31%, XIRR YTD 0.64%, and XIRR since inception was 5.74%. Though nothing to shout about, but it was performing fine compared to major world indexes such as STI (-3.94%), HSI (-3.22%), Nikkei 225 (-2.02%), DJI (-1.81%), S&P 500 (+1.67%), FTSE 100 (-0.66%). It's performance wasn't too bad either compared to other balanced funds managed by professional fund manager. On a YTD basis, only First State Global Balanced Fund (+1.30%) and Alliance Bernstein Dynamic Diversified Portfolio (+1.33%) were ahead.
I believe individual investors, like me, will be able to beat most of the similar funds managed by professionals by:
- Keeping the portfolio running cost low
- Investing in diversified, high quality companies
My last purchase of equities was back in Dec 2016 and since then I had been paring down my equity holdings while increasing my bonds/cash. By avoiding frequent transactions i.e. speculative trading in and out, I kept my portfolio cost low.
Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of
May 2018 and
June 2018
