Thanks for sharing. Been reading about the All-Weather Fund asset allocation by Ray Dalio recently and currently to try that as am now almost 100% in equity index funds. Yours is almost like that.
Looking to do much rebalancing this year and perhaps withdrawing all my USD investments via etrade (mainly in SPY) and buying local instead due to 30% tax withholding making US market rather unattractive.
Hi Cal! I would second the idea of buying local as the tax withholding is quite the performance killer. The fund allocation in Ray Dalio’s portfolio is quite light on stocks, heavy on bonds, but also contains gold and commodities.
Sorry for using a comment but I couldn’t find a way to contact you.
Just letting you know that you’ve been added to the FI blog aggregator, FIassembly.com. It was top rated on reddit.com/r/financialindependence and gets regular traffic. You’ll be getting free traffic from now on when you make a new post. I would greatly appreciate it if you linked to or featured FIassembly.com in a post. Thanks! Alex
Sure! Last year I collected SGD 1,571 in dividends from my portfolio of SGD 74,950 as of December 2015. For the current portfolio of SGD 130,000 I am projecting SGD 4,500 in yearly dividends (current yield: 3.4%). Why do you ask?
Hi, i’ve recently started to pick up on investing and i have a few questions that i can’t seem to find answers for. Would you mind helping me by answering some of the questions?
1) I realised that there’s a difference in the 50/150 SMA graph for both Yahoo and Google Finance respectively. Both are showing me different SMA, so which one is reliable?
2) If i would like to invest in short term investments (meaning i don’t keep them for dividends but rather i buy and sell both on the same day by looking at the chart itself), would it be advisable?(NASDAQ and NYSE market) Because i’m kind of looking for quick bucks, at least for now. As i wanna save the quick bucks to save up and invest in singapore’s stocks (which requires a min. of 1k shares as compared to the US’ market where i can buy 1 share)
I would not recommend you to go into day trading as you almost certainly will lose all your money. As a small private investor the only more or less reliable way to earn money in the stock market is buying diversified, low cost funds and holding them for a long time (at least 8 years).
Even if you got extremely lucky and would be able to successfully gamble the stock market your plan would not work, as any profits would be eaten up by commissions as you can only afford to buy a small amount of stocks.
Hi, may i ask for vanguard ETFs/mutual funds, do you buy it through your dbs vickers/stan chart trading acc or through Vanguard’s site directly? Bcos I only got a poems trading acc atm. Thanks!
Thank you very much for your inputs and suggestion, it is very helpful for a new investor like me. I have never invested in stocks/ETF before and just getting fixed deposits so far. Overtime I have changed my perception and now opened a account for stock trading. I will appreciate if you can advise me on my biggest dilemma. I have around S$200K cash now and wants to have a diversified portfolio like you. How should i start investing in ETF??? Investing all money together suddenly will not be good idea?? Can you please advise if i start with 20K,30K everymonth till I invest it all or what would you have done in my situation?? Your blog is great inspiration to people like me. Thank you very much
It really depends on your risk appetite. Can you stand big swings in your portfolio value? If you are worried about market fluctuations you can invest a bit each month for a certain time. If you prefer extremely low risk investments then Singapore Saving Bonds are a great choice.
Hi, great blog you have going on here – very helpful to have insights from fellow investors. I’m curious though, about your thoughts of going heavy on 3085HK (almost half of your portfolio!). I myself have holdings in the lower dividend yielding 2805HK and have always thought of going for the higher yielding brother.
Also, it seems that you do not hold ETFs that track US stock indices, e.g. Vanguard S&P 500 (3140HK)? Is it because of the withholding tax issue or you do not see value in tracking the US market?
Very good point, I admit that my portfolio allocation is not ideal and probably too heavy on Asian indexes. It is quite a gamble. I believe Asia Pacific will grow at a faster rate than the US and Europe and more new value will be created there in the next 30 years than elsewhere. Asia growing faster than Europe and the US will mean that their share of world GDP is being reduced.
How is your portfolio allocation like? Which markets do you focus on? How about bonds?
I must admit that I am quite pessimistic about the US. The US is challenged on so many fronts that I would not count on it to stay the “Leader of the Free worldTM” for the rest of my life.
Having said all that, I think it would have been better if I just had stuck everything in the MSCI World Index. My gamble has not worked out too well, given all those gains on US stock that I missed over the last few years 🙂 In the end I fear home country bias got the better of me!
With regards to 3085 vs 2805, I chose the former because of my love (irrational) of dividends and the hope that the higher yielding index would be less volatile. Somehow it is quite motivating to see the tax free dividends coming in. Makes me see the light at the end of the tunnel that is full time work 🙂
Just like you, I’m building an allocation of 70% stocks / 30% bonds – but I’ve just recently started and the portfolio size a lot smaller than yours.
The markets I’m focused on are Asia ex Japan, the US and Singapore (home country). Portfolio currently comprised of: 1. Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan Index ETF (2805:HK) – 24% 2. Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF (3140:HK) – 15% 3. iShares China A50 Index ETF (2823:HK) – 9% 4. SPDR STI ETF (ES3) – 22% 5. iShares JP Morgan Asia Credit Bond Index SGD (QL2) – 30%
I too am of the view that we could see the decline of ‘pax Americana’ within our lifetimes. But with US companies (the big MNCs at least, hence the S&P500) being so diversified beyond US shores in terms of their assets and markets, I still see them participating in the growth story of Asia and the rest of the world in general. TBH, I have not spent time looking into developed Europe – probably something I would need to do.
Hi, I have a question regarding 3173 HK which I am seriously considering adding to my portfolio. I read that the distributions are made in RMB, so if the investor doesn’t have a RMB account, s/he runs the risk of it being converted to HKD. In your experience, are you receiving your distributions in RMB or in HKD? I am using a Singapore stock broker that does not offer RMB account/trading so am figuring out how to solve the issue. Can I ask which stock broker you use in HK? Thanks!
This is a very good question. I am with a Singaporean broker too and I was hoping that the distributions are automatically converted to HKD. So far no distributions were made. I will see what happens and update you once I have news.
Hi! Thank you for making this website, I would like to say that I truly enjoy reading your articles!
On a serious note, could I ask for your thought processes in making your choices involving your ETFs? I understand that the withholding taxes are important to you but are there other factors that might pique your interest to make a certain choice? I am planning to make my portfolio more ETF-based to mitigate the risks of a potential market decline.
Also, how did you manage to create a self-updating google sheet for stocks?
Hi Jun, I am no expert but picked low cost funds with broad coverage. I like to hold at least 39% in bonds, but this is a personal preference. Google sheets can be easily integrated into WordPress, you can google for the details as I forgot the exact process 🙂
Thanks for this blog and for sharing your portfolio – and by extension your learnings along the way. Really wonderful to be able to learn from your experiences. I have some questions if you please, as I further on in my journey: 1. What does the ‘Position’ column denote in your portfolio? 2. How do you manage forex conversion fee – especially considering you buy from at least 4 different exchanges? I’ve been using my online trading account on SC.com in Singapore so far to convert from SGD to USD and buy on NYSE. Would it make more sense to buy all from the same exchange? 3. What was your primary motivation to buy the Vanguard ETFs from HK instead of LSE or any other? Is the conversion fee lower? What about the withholding tax, or any other tax implications?
I will try to answer them all 🙂 1) Position means number of shares in the sheet 2) Conversion fee is certainly an issue. A blind spot in my calculations! Buying on NYSE is not a good idea for all funds/stocks that distribute dividends, as you will have to pay withholding tax on them. You should buy on an exchange that does not charge withholding taxes. 3) I like the Vanguard funds in Hong Kong, because I do not have to pay withholding taxes and the HKD is closely linked to the USD.
While in Europe I buy a lot accumulating funds, since this is tax efficient here.
I am not a professional by any means, so better research a bit 🙂
Thanks for your reply. I’m also glad to see your end of year report. It’s encouraging to see your journey which in turn helps others – myself included. All the best for 2019.
Thank you for being so transparent in your sharing. I’m totally green when it comes to investing. I wanted to request for the excel sheet with formula to see how the figures are derived.
Hi Josh, I have a bit invested in MSCI World and FTSE all world which have a lot of US exposure, but overall I think the US market is overvalued… Regarding ETFs, they have often been shown to outperform picked stocks and other bets. Even the best managers cannot beat the market in the long run, so getting the market return at low cost is what makes ETFs so attractive. I recommend the book “Random Walk Down Wallstreet” – it explains this in detail. Good luck on your investment journey!
Thanks for sharing. Been reading about the All-Weather Fund asset allocation by Ray Dalio recently and currently to try that as am now almost 100% in equity index funds. Yours is almost like that.
Looking to do much rebalancing this year and perhaps withdrawing all my USD investments via etrade (mainly in SPY) and buying local instead due to 30% tax withholding making US market rather unattractive.
What about CPF investments? Have you done any?
Hi Cal! I would second the idea of buying local as the tax withholding is quite the performance killer. The fund allocation in Ray Dalio’s portfolio is quite light on stocks, heavy on bonds, but also contains gold and commodities.
If you are investing for the long term (15+ years) then it makes sense to go heavy on the equities and stay out of gold and commodities. Vanguard has a great page on this: http://www.vanguard.com/us/insights/saving-investing/model-portfolio-allocations
I am in Singapore on employment pass, so I have no idea about CPF investments unfortunately… My retirement account is in Europe.
Sorry for using a comment but I couldn’t find a way to contact you.
Just letting you know that you’ve been added to the FI blog aggregator, FIassembly.com. It was top rated on reddit.com/r/financialindependence and gets regular traffic. You’ll be getting free traffic from now on when you make a new post.
I would greatly appreciate it if you linked to or featured FIassembly.com in a post.
Thanks!
Alex
Hey,
May I know the amount of dividend you collect annually?
Cheers,
Clive
Sure! Last year I collected SGD 1,571 in dividends from my portfolio of SGD 74,950 as of December 2015. For the current portfolio of SGD 130,000 I am projecting SGD 4,500 in yearly dividends (current yield: 3.4%). Why do you ask?
Hey,
Really appreciate the prompt reply! I’m learning to look at different angle of realism towards the annual growth of different portfolios.
Cheers!
Hi,
i’ve recently started to pick up on investing and i have a few questions that i can’t seem to find answers for. Would you mind helping me by answering some of the questions?
1) I realised that there’s a difference in the 50/150 SMA graph for both Yahoo and Google Finance respectively. Both are showing me different SMA, so which one is reliable?
2) If i would like to invest in short term investments (meaning i don’t keep them for dividends but rather i buy and sell both on the same day by looking at the chart itself), would it be advisable?(NASDAQ and NYSE market) Because i’m kind of looking for quick bucks, at least for now. As i wanna save the quick bucks to save up and invest in singapore’s stocks (which requires a min. of 1k shares as compared to the US’ market where i can buy 1 share)
Thanks,
Hs
Hi HS,
I am not a financial advisor, just a private person.
I would not recommend you to go into day trading as you almost certainly will lose all your money. As a small private investor the only more or less reliable way to earn money in the stock market is buying diversified, low cost funds and holding them for a long time (at least 8 years).
Even if you got extremely lucky and would be able to successfully gamble the stock market your plan would not work, as any profits would be eaten up by commissions as you can only afford to buy a small amount of stocks.
I would recommend you to save up some money first and then read the starter guide. Best of luck!
Hi, may i ask for vanguard ETFs/mutual funds, do you buy it through your dbs vickers/stan chart trading acc or through Vanguard’s site directly? Bcos I only got a poems trading acc atm. Thanks!
Hi, I buy them through my trading account directly. You should be able to buy them through poems without problems.
Thank you very much for your inputs and suggestion, it is very helpful for a new investor like me. I have never invested in stocks/ETF before and just getting fixed deposits so far.
Overtime I have changed my perception and now opened a account for stock trading.
I will appreciate if you can advise me on my biggest dilemma. I have around S$200K cash now and wants to have a diversified portfolio like you. How should i start investing in ETF??? Investing all money together suddenly will not be good idea?? Can you please advise if i start with 20K,30K everymonth till I invest it all or what would you have done in my situation??
Your blog is great inspiration to people like me. Thank you very much
It really depends on your risk appetite. Can you stand big swings in your portfolio value? If you are worried about market fluctuations you can invest a bit each month for a certain time. If you prefer extremely low risk investments then Singapore Saving Bonds are a great choice.
Hi, great blog you have going on here – very helpful to have insights from fellow investors. I’m curious though, about your thoughts of going heavy on 3085HK (almost half of your portfolio!). I myself have holdings in the lower dividend yielding 2805HK and have always thought of going for the higher yielding brother.
Also, it seems that you do not hold ETFs that track US stock indices, e.g. Vanguard S&P 500 (3140HK)? Is it because of the withholding tax issue or you do not see value in tracking the US market?
Cheers!
Very good point, I admit that my portfolio allocation is not ideal and probably too heavy on Asian indexes. It is quite a gamble. I believe Asia Pacific will grow at a faster rate than the US and Europe and more new value will be created there in the next 30 years than elsewhere. Asia growing faster than Europe and the US will mean that their share of world GDP is being reduced.
How is your portfolio allocation like? Which markets do you focus on? How about bonds?
I must admit that I am quite pessimistic about the US. The US is challenged on so many fronts that I would not count on it to stay the “Leader of the Free worldTM” for the rest of my life.
Having said all that, I think it would have been better if I just had stuck everything in the MSCI World Index. My gamble has not worked out too well, given all those gains on US stock that I missed over the last few years 🙂 In the end I fear home country bias got the better of me!
With regards to 3085 vs 2805, I chose the former because of my love (irrational) of dividends and the hope that the higher yielding index would be less volatile. Somehow it is quite motivating to see the tax free dividends coming in. Makes me see the light at the end of the tunnel that is full time work 🙂
Just like you, I’m building an allocation of 70% stocks / 30% bonds – but I’ve just recently started and the portfolio size a lot smaller than yours.
The markets I’m focused on are Asia ex Japan, the US and Singapore (home country). Portfolio currently comprised of:
1. Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan Index ETF (2805:HK) – 24%
2. Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF (3140:HK) – 15%
3. iShares China A50 Index ETF (2823:HK) – 9%
4. SPDR STI ETF (ES3) – 22%
5. iShares JP Morgan Asia Credit Bond Index SGD (QL2) – 30%
I too am of the view that we could see the decline of ‘pax Americana’ within our lifetimes. But with US companies (the big MNCs at least, hence the S&P500) being so diversified beyond US shores in terms of their assets and markets, I still see them participating in the growth story of Asia and the rest of the world in general. TBH, I have not spent time looking into developed Europe – probably something I would need to do.
Hi, I have a question regarding 3173 HK which I am seriously considering adding to my portfolio. I read that the distributions are made in RMB, so if the investor doesn’t have a RMB account, s/he runs the risk of it being converted to HKD. In your experience, are you receiving your distributions in RMB or in HKD? I am using a Singapore stock broker that does not offer RMB account/trading so am figuring out how to solve the issue. Can I ask which stock broker you use in HK? Thanks!
This is a very good question. I am with a Singaporean broker too and I was hoping that the distributions are automatically converted to HKD. So far no distributions were made. I will see what happens and update you once I have news.
Hi! Thank you for making this website, I would like to say that I truly enjoy reading your articles!
On a serious note, could I ask for your thought processes in making your choices involving your ETFs? I understand that the withholding taxes are important to you but are there other factors that might pique your interest to make a certain choice? I am planning to make my portfolio more ETF-based to mitigate the risks of a potential market decline.
Also, how did you manage to create a self-updating google sheet for stocks?
Hi Jun, I am no expert but picked low cost funds with broad coverage. I like to hold at least 39% in bonds, but this is a personal preference. Google sheets can be easily integrated into WordPress, you can google for the details as I forgot the exact process 🙂
Thanks for this blog and for sharing your portfolio – and by extension your learnings along the way. Really wonderful to be able to learn from your experiences. I have some questions if you please, as I further on in my journey:
1. What does the ‘Position’ column denote in your portfolio?
2. How do you manage forex conversion fee – especially considering you buy from at least 4 different exchanges? I’ve been using my online trading account on SC.com in Singapore so far to convert from SGD to USD and buy on NYSE. Would it make more sense to buy all from the same exchange?
3. What was your primary motivation to buy the Vanguard ETFs from HK instead of LSE or any other? Is the conversion fee lower? What about the withholding tax, or any other tax implications?
Hi Robert, thanks for the questions!
I will try to answer them all 🙂
1) Position means number of shares in the sheet
2) Conversion fee is certainly an issue. A blind spot in my calculations! Buying on NYSE is not a good idea for all funds/stocks that distribute dividends, as you will have to pay withholding tax on them. You should buy on an exchange that does not charge withholding taxes.
3) I like the Vanguard funds in Hong Kong, because I do not have to pay withholding taxes and the HKD is closely linked to the USD.
While in Europe I buy a lot accumulating funds, since this is tax efficient here.
I am not a professional by any means, so better research a bit 🙂
Thanks for your reply. I’m also glad to see your end of year report. It’s encouraging to see your journey which in turn helps others – myself included. All the best for 2019.
Hi singvestor,
Thank you for being so transparent in your sharing. I’m totally green when it comes to investing. I wanted to request for the excel sheet with formula to see how
the figures are derived.
hi singinvestor, happen to chance upon your site. very interesting read!
is there a reason for not getting into US market as much?
also, is there a reason for a large portion of your portfolio in ETFs? aren’t they a little “slow” so to say? please enlighten me, thank you.
p.s new to investing
Hi Josh, I have a bit invested in MSCI World and FTSE all world which have a lot of US exposure, but overall I think the US market is overvalued… Regarding ETFs, they have often been shown to outperform picked stocks and other bets. Even the best managers cannot beat the market in the long run, so getting the market return at low cost is what makes ETFs so attractive. I recommend the book “Random Walk Down Wallstreet” – it explains this in detail. Good luck on your investment journey!