October 2015: monthly update

Who would have guessed that October would turn out to be the best month for my small portfolio this year?

Portfolio performance

In my last monthly update I talked about the bad mood in the Asian markets and I was rather pessimistic about the end of the year. In October Mr. Market surprised me once again and the value of my portfolio increased by 7.4% or SGD 4,756 to SGD 68,852.

This gain consisted of SGD 2,095 in capital gains and SGD 2,661 of fresh investments.

Portfolio performance

Overall my investment plan is going nicely. I am very close to my investment target for the whole year already in October and there is a good chance that I will surpass it.

Investment plan

I was at home the whole month in October, except a one-week business trip to Germany. This helped keeping expenses low, even though I booked a nice trip for the Christmas holidays.

Portfolio allocation

Portfolio allocation October 2015

Nothing exciting to report, but I will probably need to buy a few saving bonds to beef up the bond component of the portfolio.

Dividends received

As always October was a great month with regards to dividends received and I received SGD 651 this month. This is a nice increase from the SGD 223 I received in October last year!

ETFExchangeTickerShares heldDividends received in October
    HKDSGD
Vanguard Developed Europe ETFHong Kong3101:HK1,1008815.8
Vanguard FTSE Asia Ex Japan Index ETFHong Kong2805:HK3,000690124.2
Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan High Dividend Yield Index ETFHong Kong3085:HK9,2002,856514.1
Total654.1

Dividends were all reinvested and as part of my SGD 2,661 investment in October.

Outlook:

Overall it seems as if my goals at the beginning of the year were not ambitious enough and I will meet them easily. This is quite encouraging to see, especially since I failed my 2014 goal.

How have you been doing? Were the markets kind to you in October?

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