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

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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