Cory Diary : Ones Passive Income

So why another article on this ? Just watched a Ted by a young chap on Passive Income and it hits many notes that I have been trying to formulate in my mind. There are many out there by bloggers. Last I can remember I do not have one. At least I couldn't remember. So I should. :)

I REALLY should because I feel is very important and it can help lifes. So if I can help one, just one to think about their future, is enough for my time.

What is Passive Income ?

Income that requires only some work upfront to setup, and spend little of your time in exchange for it thereafter.

What is Financial Freedom ?

When my Passive Income surpass my living expenses.

Why Passive Income ?

There are many reasons

- Out of regular income

- Better lifestyle

- Do not exchange significant time for it

- Alternative streams of income

- Do other things that I like

- Build up your confidence by being financially sound

- Peace of mind

Passive Income is Not

- Instant Returns. It takes time to learn and build it up.

- I view Stock investment returns as passive but not trading.

- Exchange time for money

- Certainly not walk in the park. You need to be smart about doing it.

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. But I am also realist that I could be out of job that is beyond my control. Over this past week I met up with four friends on different occasions. They have one thing in common. They are unemployed. For commoners, once they are out of job, there aren't much alternative to go back to market. One has a studio but do not have enough rental to cover his loan, One downgraded to HDB, One starts doing Index trading and the last One stays at home. There are two more unemployed friends that I did not get to meet. One just got a contract job for a year while the other still looking for something to do.

So the earlier we can start the better. What will be your Passive Income ?

Merry Christmas

Cory

20171223

Cory Diary : Portfolio Updates 20171214

I was wondering should i do any portfolio post this month considering we are about 2 weeks away from year end evaluation post. I guess no harm to do a quick update for people who has been tracking.

CMT - I did some re-balance today as my exposure is a little high after recent run-up. Is still one of my key large position. XIRR just on CMT hits 20% this year.

AGT - I am no longer vested in AGT as I find this counter harder to understand than expected.

ST Engg - Initiate a small position.

HRnetGroup - initiate a small position.


Cory
20171214

Cory Diary : Portfolio Updates 20171121

With all of my counters result out, is time to do a quick peek of my Portfolio.

For the start, STI index went up crazy today and for the matter this year. If we include dividends, that 20% up at least ytd whereas Singtel lingers on despite higher dividend due to 3 cents special. A reason of my widening gap with STI Index. Having say that I still feel this Telco is undervalued. Hopefully the market will price it right soon.

Another disappointment I have is AGT. I always been wondering why there was a large unknown figure flickering in the quarterly report. Is probably the deposits redemption at play now. This is the unpredictable nature of equity investment even when we have confidence, to maintain diversification strategy. Prior to the result, I reduced my holding by 60% just to mitigate my risk or you can say "Take Profit" as it was additional purchase due to Jul/Aug lower level. Nevertheless 40% leftover do cause a drag in my portfolio.

Finally, my last pain is QAF. I did not reduce my exposure when it rebounded before the IPO cancellation. Need to remind myself again that Market do not care about what price I buy. It fluctuates to market sentiment and fundamental. Just not me.

Despite all this negativity, XIRR = 13.5% ytd ( excl. fixed investment ). (updated for privacy)

I have initiated small positions in SPH Reit and Singapore O&G.


Cory
20171121

Cory Diary : Is my Portfolio ready for the next leap ?

Read today headline ...

"Ex-HDB chief: Singapore must still aim for population of 10 million"

"He said planning without calculating the land resources available to support population growth could put us at risk of running out of land.

Dr Liu, who is also founding chairman of the Centre for Liveable Cities, added: "Before Singaporeans complain, they have to ask themselves: How long do you want Singapore to stay as a sovereign country?"

He is talking at Year 2100 but this bring back our whitepaper on the next leap in population. Yes, many people in different camps when we talk about population growth. We think of Singapore MRT .... haiz. I know Taipei for a long time and never once i encounter MRT breakdown. To be fair their line is younger by a decade and they did got hit by a major flood. Typhoon Nari flooded all underground tracks as well as 16 stations.

To me investing in Singapore equity means I see future in Singapore growth else I should go somewhere else. And planning must come in to support it. Is my Portfolio ready to ride with the population increase ? Don't miss the boat again ?



Cory
20171108

Cory Diary : Dividend Investing 2017 interim returns

REITs/TRUSTs

During this period CMT price has reduced after dividends as i blogged before result announced. Aims Reit as expected on DPU reduction but lesser which is good. Ascendas Reit i did a flip again. Netlink has been stable and I am rather happy with my exposure to it. Accordia has returned some and I am a little positive of the coming result. First Reit has good run as usual. There are others but this is what i can remember.

No doubt we all know Reits/Trusts generally have a good year so far. We still have 2 months to go before 2017 is done. How exactly is dividend investing doing so far for me ?

I have all my Reits/Trusts counters transactions computed in XIRR to know. Currently they constituted 34% of my portfolio ( minus cash ) since I am constantly doing re-balance. So how did I do ?

The answer is 20% returns for this 10 months. And therefore in this aspect is above STI returns ytd.

So far is an Awesome year for dividend investors.

Cory

20171028

.

Cory Diary : Life Insurance - Part One

This article is to share my experience on an insurance policy i have for 20 years which I plan to surrender at appropriate time. Do note this maybe specific with my insurance company and time frame which may vary widely in expectation with others.

Insurance : Whole Life Plan wTPD and have reach 20 years where I am entitled Bonus (Guaranteed and Non-Guaranteed). I heard about cases where the non-guaranteed portion did not happen to expectation. So wonder do the unfortunate happen to me too. :P


Insured amount : $70K (~)
Cash back received : $25K (~)
Monthly Payment: $200 (~ )
Last check with support call : Net Surrendered Value about $50K (~)

When I check for surrender procedures here's what I got.


"We are sorry to hear of your intention to surrender your policy.

May we say that it is not to your advantage to surrender a policy because:
(1) Your insurance protection comes to an immediate end.
(2) Your surrender value could be less than the basic premiums paid, especially in the early years of the policy.
(3) You pay a higher premium for a new policy in the future.
(4) The premium for a new policy may not be as attractive as before. Or, you may not even be offered a policy at all.

You may wish to consider other alternatives. You could:
(1) Convert the policy to a Paid-Up Assurance or Extended Term Assurance without having to pay further premiums.
(2) Reduce the Sum Assured and pay a smaller premium.
(3) Continue the policy under Automatic Premium Loan (APL)* provision, until it is convenient for you to repay the loan.
(4) Take a Policy Loan * if you need cash quickly.

* (Interest on APL and Policy Loan is currently at 6.0% per annum on the daily balance.)

Should you still decide to surrender your policy, please complete and submit the attached forms to us for processing. Please note that faxed or scanned copies of the forms are not acceptable."

If I compute all my returns and premium paid to date for every transactions, and if my surrendered value indeed realized per their confirmation, XIRR roughly 4%. If so is like a form of saving with Insurance element in it. 

Currently the surrender process is a hassle as I am based oversea. So it may take a while before I initiate my request formally.

thanks

Cory

20171022

Cory Diary : Portfolio Talks

I have been in the market like 20 years. Is mostly about speculations in the early years of investment with some help using NTA, or dabble in Warrant plays. (updated for privacy) . Active portfolio is much more significant now.

Stock market do not works by "Annual Way" like I do in my annual bookkeeping. So I have annualized return figure of my investment life. However this is still important because performance needs to be closely monitored just like companies reporting their quarterly and annual results to keep management on their toes. If you take care of your quarterly, your annual result will be ok.

Assuming 2017 stays good, out of recent 11 years, I have three losses in 2008 (50% loss) , 2011(13% loss)  and 2015 (5% loss). As you can see, Year 2008 is mind changing for those who are heavily invested. Is like from Ah Boys to Men lifetime event.

( Ignore this statement if you are not familiar with XIRR : The year 2008 is particular interesting because when I use XIRR to compute for my case, it can show 0% loss instead of 50% loss. This got to do with multiple solutions to the equation. This is easily caught since I have large absolute loss that year which therefore I easily tweaked the XIRR formula on the 3rd "guess" field with "-0.1" which point towards negative direction or I believe the proportion losses to my portfolio size. Usually this is not a problem)

This event teaches me about cut loss, war chest and what is fear about. Some people bounce back, some do nothing and some never return. For those who long, quite a few make huge profits after that miserable year.

There are many teachers in my investment journeys of which I keenly remembered three namely Warren Buffett, Dennis Ng and AK. And I do a Rojak from their advice. Surely there are other sifus and bloggers who influence my styles some. Last but not least, always remember many people are interested in your money. Learn to protect and do grow old with them.


Cory
20171021

Cory Diary : Review of my investment in CAPITALAND MALL TRUST ( CMT )

One of my Core Investment. Do a fast routine review of it today. If remember correctly, last year end dec price is $1.885. My XIRR based on it is 18% YTD including dividends and gains from some trading in between.  If you are vested since then, congratulation. Reits have a good run this year (touch wood). Will the game last longer ?

Since 2008, CMT fluctuates between $1.7 to $2.3 with some "random" quick spikes. At current Price $2.06, i feel it still doesn't look over-priced for 5.4% yield for such a large Reits that hold Singapore key locations. Their Malls are still as busy as ever.

From the Chart there seems to be a higher low. I noted my increasing cash level. With profit buffer created, and coming result which i expect to be around flat at min., I decided there are more pro than con to build my up my invest amount. I could be wrong with my assumption and likely be fine with it from the dividends harvests later.

A quick exposure check on CMT is less than 7% of my SG equity. The yield is still better than many other investment instruments. More importantly is something I feel safer for my age.


Cory
20171017

Cory Diary: Good Bye - Global Logistic Properties

Quite late in the game on this. Only enter the game in Feb'17 but never late than never. One of my deliberation is due to the influence of Reit yield on my estimation of GLP value. Well, I am not exactly right considering GLP potential and Strategic assets especially so when they have international importance.

In the end, revised my estimation and arrive a fairer value of $3 at minimum which I then entered my positions. Nevertheless not much. Hindsight is so great ....

Here's my XIRR roughly 36 % inclusive of dividends. Absolute 22 % return.

(updated for privacy)

I could have hold till the end for few more percent gains and save the trading cost but that means half year of opportunity cost and go risk be it minimal or not. Decided not as I can re-invest easily with such gains.

thank you GLC.

Cory

20171013

Cory Diary: Rude Awakening - Sarine Tech

Sarine Tech has been slumping since end 2014. If a stock is to fit into low can get lower, this maybe the one. This stock has been on my radar for few years.

What so interesting about it is that it has unique technology and kind of "monopoly" on the diamond cutting segment. A world leader in diamond cutting technology. This seems to have a strong moat so how wrong can it goes on fundamental. It is also on one of Edge selected stock before. There are so many pluses to invest in.

Temptation was pretty high to have a stake in it but I did not and missed all the opportunities at 1.8, 1.6, 1.5 etc.... as i feel something is not right. I could not connect the centuries old manual cutting, india, isreal, london market and diamond trades.

This morning i saw it slumped more than 10% erasing all the gains since 2013. That's the danger of stock investing and why one must do diversification. Even with that, ones have to be careful with ones own money even if is just 1% of your net-worth.

 It will be nice to hear views from those who are still vested. Fundamental, Market and current situation. What's the hell is going on as the story of the business sounds good. Trade with care my friend. Invest with care double !


Cory
20171011

Cory Diary : XIRR Performance - Interim Q4 2017 Oct Update

Is  way past Oct'17.  STI rides backup again. Below table is my Interim result.  Interim Q3 on link here. My investment life returns moved 0.1% lower down to 7.1% with passing time since I need increasing profits to maintain the score till year end.

STI YTD beats me today with 14.3% score.... . However my bottom base XIRR End of Year still moves up. It will be 12.6% year end if profit same at year end for annual comparison purposes.

There is some buying/selling but they are little changes . I did some shift to stronger fundamental companies allocation and on way to create a wider robust base for next year profit probability.

Current Investment sector as follow. Reits/Trusts only about 1/3 however they make up 2/3 of this year total return.

Cory
20171009

Cory Diary : Portfolio Updates 20170916, STI Comparison

When 5.05 pm hits yesterday, STI ended lower at 3209.56 which is sweet and bitter. What this mean is STI has performed 11.4% increase ytd excluding dividend. Is a little bitter because if you look at the chart below STI Index is one of my larger position. Interestingly my XIRR excluding "Fixed Income" hits 12% finally beating STI if we exclude dividends. No prize for my next milestone.

There is no fresh fund injection since last withdrawal in April. I do not foresee fund injection till end of year. Trading has been curbed some. However as I may have stated previously, a goal for my dividends to cover all of my monthly loans will be a nice target to hit. Is already Sept and it will be nice if I have a concrete plan into next year strategy. Things in my minds.

• What stocks may run up ?
• What Stocks to keep for dividends ?
• What counters to minimize volatility ? 
• What fund size to target ?
• How will Local market perform ?
• What sector i should focus in ?
• What currency to be heavier in ?
• What to cut loss ?
• What to take profit ?
• What to diversified

Cory
20170916

Cory Diary : Recent Trade Actions 20170903

The market has been a little boring. I try to fill my time and not subject myself to unnecessary trades which has been creeping into my profits which currently cost about 0.6% of my portfolio.

So what I did ? Has been active recently on my "Retirement Hobbies". Realized that I have been circling around them after grown tired after a period of frantic activities. :-) One of my hobbies that I have been in it hits more than 20 years i think. Sorry I don't keep track of them like what I do on my trading.

C. sodalis

Did a major clean up using Soda flour and Lime powder to massage the glass. The Aquarium tank looks as good as new.

There are two new species I bought recently. C. sodalis. A very shy fish species. The other C. duplicareus. Apologies for any mis-spelling. One of my favorite.

C. duplicareus

As for my recent trades,


LMIR

Cleared my holding in LMIR. Reason being i have less time to monitor the coming volatility of it. Another being I have 13% returns from it this year which is a good time to lock it.


DBS

Start vesting in small amount. Still wary on the strong STI. However this help to track a little closer to Index which is still far from it.


CAPITAMALL TRUST

Has moved up to my expected level. Excellent run since I last blogged a few times on this Reit. The return and future expectation are intact. To manage my exposure, I reduced some but is still my core holding.


Lastly, Singtel entered some correction phase. I did nothing. I also notice NetLink NBN Tr has held up well after stabilization period. I did some other counters trade as well but will blog when i think of it. To end it all, my Xirr non-fixed is around 11.6% this year return alone. STI 13.8% excluding dividends. So I am just a little shy but am still happy it stays this way till year end.



Cheers

Cory
20170903

Cory Diary : North Korea Crisis on Stock Market Volatility 2017

During April this year I wrote about non-financial crisis events have minor or short term impact to stock market. To refresh memory here's the ( link.)  Chances are this North Korea War on Words will come to past. While there maybe a small chance on Nuclear Black Swan Event, this is rather hard to predict as we are dealing with two egoistic adult humans.

What I did ? I have to stay invested as dividend investor but did some re-balance on my portfolio. Raised some more cash for opportunity. YTD my dividends have hit $30K. So getting the last $10K may not be impossible task with reduced exposure.

Another reason is after hitting 10% gains this year, I like to gain some buffer to reduce the trough in my cyclic returns across the years even though they are trending up. Hopefully this will give me better results. Here's the link on my annualized returns wrote in Jun'17 ( Link ).Time will tell.


Cory
20170812

Cory Diary : XIRR Performance - Interim Q3 2017 July Update

July month just pasted. We have 5 more months to go. As everyone know, STI has been on winning streak this year. People who are wholly invested in banks expected to record significant gains. How I do so far without investing in them this year ?

Below table is the Interim Q3'17 July result. A further improvement from Final Q2 on link here.
My investment life returns moved up to 7.2%. I thought this is nice despite laden with PS and Bonds.

STI YTD further it' gain to 15.5% so despite Cory returns of 12% YTD, I am still in catch-up mode ..... but the picture is a lot better than start of year with an expanded portfolio from past years. This is also mitigated by Core holding STI ETF which I would not sell easily.

Results were mixed across the portfolio else I would have leveled against STI. Fortunately a number of speculative contra trading helps to improve. Dividends wise, moved up to about 30K for this 7 months. So you can do a rough estimate on my portfolio and gains . :)


Reits
Generally they did well. I have not much complains. Allocations still need some fine-tuning probably. Yield range between 5%-8%.

Neratel
Neratel is a new position. However the result down due to tax. This is a little unfortunate else I would maintain my recent found gains. I still has some confidence in them but we need to watch closely.

Design Studio
The quarter result doesn't look good. Fortunately I locked in some gains (link) which kind of act as a good buffer for the down side. The half year looks so so, again stay nimble.

Singtel
Manage to hold off ok after Ex-dividends. I look forward to reduce debts or better revenue improvement instead of special dividends. So the withholding of the cash from netlink trust ipo for business needs I think is a good move. 


Cory
20170806

Cory Diary : Sheng Siong 2Q'2017

Is another profitable period for Sheng Siong. Last time when I blogged about this Supermarket ( link ) on 23rd Feb'17, price was $ 0.955. It moved up to $1.005 before recent Amazon news pull down the stock before recovering at $0.96. There was a div in May'17 of $0.0185. So theoretically speaking, without this news it would have hit more that $1.005 after report.

If Amazon market segment target is Sheng Siong ones, I think it will be a mistake. So I am not so worried about it.  The impact will probably be more on the branding against existing online retailers and certain extend on Super Market like Cold Storage. So i dip for a little more on low.

Dividends

"Declared interim dividend of 1.55 cent per share". Last August it was 1.9 cent. Therefore a reduction. I did note this statement. "After paying the final dividend for FY 2016 in 2Q2017, cash and cash equivalents increased by $6.2m to $69.6m as at 30 June 2017."


Growth

My take is the next few quarters will be more retail space for growth so we will see stronger rev. There maybe a dip due to woodland after closure but if there is, will likely be temporary. From Sheng Siong results presentation, Woodlands closure is now by Oct which means next report 3Q'17 may not have large impact from it.


Risk 
The next level of risk is the China investment. US$6 Million investment. 


DYODD.
Cory
20170729

Cory Diary : Recent Trade Actions 20170726

STI has been almighty this year. And i start reviewing my portfolio for more stringent safety.
The changes are on my personal trades and those that I can remember offhand. Please DYODD.



HYFLUX 6% PCS

With the run-up this year on this Pref shares and the profit guidance just announced, I decided to clear my little holding I have for 10% returns this year. Net for this counter is slightly negative. The catalyst possibly the sale of Singapore Plant but I decided not to wait.


NetLink NBN Tr

I have expanded my holding in this counter. My take is that annualized yield is reasonable and good cash flow (FCF) should be good for coming quarters. The ducts have long service life and cables probably good for long term. Therefore the depreciation of asset is more for accounting and no impact to FCF. The risk of technology is there but I think is low. Monopoly in retail market is a good plus and the recurring income is nice. Returns of more than 5.x% is good enough.

Cory
20170726

Cory Diary : CAPITALAND MALL TRUST 2Q17 ( CMT )

Here's the headline today

"CMT 2Q 2017 net property income up 1.2% year-on-year Achieves higher distribution per unit despite closure of Funan for redevelopment"

DPU within expectation. The threat of online shopping on CMT has been mute which has many strategic asset locations to benefit from. Before the result announced, share price has climbed up to $2.00. And Investor will have another quarterly distribution. At current price, is about 5.5% stable yield which is way better than fixed deposits and ofcourse with different risk level. But frankly, if we cannot accept (except) CMT risk, there is not many stocks we can invest in.

The MOS and Catalyst will be Funan. And again management statement on continuing to focus on sustaining DPU is the right one that I agree with because there is good chance it can go lower in 2018/2019 considering the macro environment on malls and the larger leases renewal before Funan is ready. The question is if it does, how much ? Do we buy more in stages (cheaper ?), do we take profit/cut loss or do nothing ? To me ability to sustain is already a good achievement. I also note that shopper traffics are still there and this is good for CMT malls.

Ex-Div in 27th July'17. Collect Dividend first lah. Think later.


Cheers

Cory
2017-0721

Cory Diary : Recent Trade Actions 20170719

Here's another post on my recent trades but not all I can remember. The last time i post is here link. I try to stay as accurate as i can remember.


ASCENDAS REIT

I have managed to build back and more such that it has become one of my reit core holding. Using my basic TA skill, i thought 2.57 is a nice entry point but I start to dip for it at 2.62 and 2.58. I did sell some to resize my investment amount at 2.63. It now occupies 4%+ of my non-fixed equity. I am so glad to be back and with good 4 digits trading profit buffers. This investment is to plan for my next year returns and support of 6% dividends from it.


OKP

Did a punting on OKP when it dropped but miss the bottom in seconds. ( angry )...  so sold off my holding with some kopi money. I am not familiar with the future impact and feel MOS may not be good enough. This trade is basically for trying.


GLP

If you may know, I profited from recent takeover of GLP. This one is s bit of nerve. I have 12 lots originally. When it dropped to 2.76 prior to the announcement i sold 4 lots to re-size my exposure. Fortunately or so otherwise, the Offer is good. I benefited from the 8 lots remaining. And some from profits from the 4 lots sold. Not too bad for some one who is late into the GLP game just this year. 20% returns for a red dot speculation trade.


Design Studio

My exposure in this counter is quite large. I took some profit when it run up so that I can sleep better. This counter is still quite good considering the 10% dividend level and the company expected to run ok. Don't ask me can the performance be sustained. I don't know, and I am still vested. Just stay nimble I guess.


Cory
20170719

Cory Diary : Singtel 2017-0714

Let's start with some data background of Singtel. I do this fast. Apologize for any error and DYODD.

Since 2013, Singtel has been fluctuating within a big band of $3.3 to $4.5 range. During this time, annual distribution is about 17 cents ( not exact but growing ) which easily totaled roughly 90 cents. Right now the stock price is 60 cent below the top range. And current yield is about 4.4%. Revenue kind of flat.

About S$3B FCF annually. Last year we see a little dip to about dividend support level despite no noticeable increase in capex. As for Netlink Trust, never mind about the regulatory requirement. Netlink Trust IPO comes as a right time for Singtel. At 81 cents, they raised more than $2B which not only cover years of dividend support but also the increase of spectrum cost. On top of this,  $50 M recurring income from it.

I thought this is master stroke on realizing the value of Singtel asset. Considering Singtel retained 24.99%, Netlink still rest securely under Temasek hands. How long can the music last, let's evaluate again later with more quarterly reports.


Cory
20170714