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.
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.
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
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!
| ETF | Exchange | Ticker | Shares held | Dividends received in October | |
| HKD | SGD | ||||
| Vanguard Developed Europe ETF | Hong Kong | 3101:HK | 1,100 | 88 | 15.8 |
| Vanguard FTSE Asia Ex Japan Index ETF | Hong Kong | 2805:HK | 3,000 | 690 | 124.2 |
| Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan High Dividend Yield Index ETF | Hong Kong | 3085:HK | 9,200 | 2,856 | 514.1 |
| Total | 654.1 | ||||
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?