Portfolio Performance in 2019

Let's take a look at how our overall portfolio did for the year 2019.

If you prefer looking at a graph. It seems that we have just very slightly outperformed STI ETF :)

For the year 2019, our portfolio time-weighted return was 20.71% vs 8.78% (ES3: STI ETF). The overall performance since 2014 is 19.50% (time-weighted return) and 6.93% (XIRR). It has been a pretty great year! Too bad for those sitting/hoarding cash though. If you are wondering what is the difference between time-weighted return and XIRR, do read this article by Investment Moats. In short, XIRR takes cash flows into account while time-weighted return does not so the way they are calculated is different.

Looking at the top 5 losers and you can see that these are huge losses:
1. Raffles Medical
2. Geo Energy
3. Tuan Sing
4. Eagle HTrust
5. Soilbuild Business REIT

No plans to let go of any at the moment but if I had to cut loss, the first to go would be Geo Energy followed by Raffles Medical. In addition, I realized this year I have not been keeping myself updated with all the various stocks or reading the financial statements. It feels like a combination of not much capital to inject and a lack of time. Anyway, I am also considering to do more passive investment besides StashAway and Endowus such as buying IWDA on a monthly basis.

These are our top 5 winners:
1. Sheng Siong
2. STI ETF
3. Capitaland
4. CapitaMall Trust
5. CCB (in HKD which is only about 1k+ gain) Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust

Similarly, no plans to sell/realized the profit for any of them at the moment but the first to go would probably be CCB/BOC because the country is still in a mess.

Together, we have a capital flow/injection of $‭35,768.54‬ ($32,268.54 + $3,500 to Endowus)! Capital flow is the amount of capital that is being injected or withdrawn from your portfolio where the dividends collected are considered as capital withdrawn. Our rate of saving/investing has dropped due to extremely high expenses from our new house - renovation and furniture. It is only around 15-25% of our salary this year.

Our portfolio gave us a total dividend of $21,307.84 at an average yield of 5.26%. That is $1,775.65 passive income per month! Having said that, there were a few special dividends last year that bump up the rate and this also includes the dividends from our StashAway portfolio, hence it appears slightly higher than our monthly portfolio update.

StocksCafe is even smart enough to project the dividends (removing special dividends) we will be getting for this year assuming everything remains constant which is still lower than our goal of 5% yield.

Based on our 10 years plan to accumulate a $1,000,000 portfolio for extremely early retirement (age 36), our target for this year was $431,301 and we have met the target despite injecting lesser capital than expected (total opposite as compared to last year). The current market value of our portfolio is $463,297. Our next year conservative target is $552,868 with a capital injection of $57,140. Our yearly target is pretty conservative as we believe our expenses will be growing exponentially year on year.

Our expenses are still going to be high this year because we will be travelling quite a bit (visiting >10 countries - Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Japan and Malaysia). As we become 30 years old this year, we can feel our bodies becoming weaker (can't hike as much) and our minds becoming more humji (giving Bolivia Death Road a miss where you can bike down as an attraction). This will be our last year travelling so crazily *pinky promise*.

As much as this is more of a finance blog, instead of just constantly saving/investing for retirement, we should all take a break once in a while and enjoy life a bit. Everyone will get that eventually but why not make your journey more interesting and maximize every dollar you spent (use miles instead of cashback to travel like us! lol)?

Let's hope 2020 will be a great and better year for everyone and your investment!

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- 2017 Net Worth
- 2018 Net Worth
- 2019 Net Worth
- Portfolio Performance in 2017
- Portfolio Performance in 2018

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Portfolio Performance in 2018

Let's take a look at how our overall portfolio did for the year 2018.

If you prefer looking at a graph. Ideally, the red line should be above the orange line >.<"

For the year 2018, our portfolio time-weighted return was -10.37% vs -6.63% (ES3: STI ETF). The overall performance since 2014 is -1.56% (time-weighted return) and 0.35% (XIRR). This is pretty bad and I will go into details later. If you are wondering what is the difference between time-weighted return and XIRR, do read this article by common fund. In short, XIRR takes cash flows into account while time-weighted return does not so the way they are calculated is different.

Looking at the top 5 losers and you can see that these are huge losses:
1. APAC Realty (average price $0.862 vs current price $0.465). This was one of our best investment when it went up to $1.20+. Then the cooling measure came and everything became a horror show. Looking at its latest quarterly financial report, its fundamentals have not changed so we will not be selling it. The possibility of averaging down exists.

2. QAF (average price $1.333 vs current price $0.595). Fundamentally, QAF has been struggling qoq/yoy and I should have sold it earlier. Oh well, it is now on the "cold storage" list. Definitely not averaging down.

3. CityDev (average price $9.963 vs current price $8.34) - Similar to APAC Realty, its price tumbled after the cooling measure falling from a high of $13+ and we decided it was a good time to attend. You can read about it here - Portfolio - August 2018. The possibility of averaging down exists.

4. Thaibev (average price $0.86 vs current price $0.615) - I have blogged about Thaibev a couple of times and continues to believe that it will come out stronger after the extremely expensive Sabeco acquisition. The possibility of averaging down exists.

5. Geo Energy Resources (average price $0.233 vs current price $0.182) - I just average down last month. You can read about it here - Portfolio - December 2018. The possibility of averaging down exists.

Ignore Ezion warrant (those are "free"), TSH is now a shell company after it sold everything and did a capital distribution and Gold shares are from StashAway portfolio.

Looking at the top 5 winners, 4 of them are REITs and that is why I love REITs so much. lol. They are less volatile (apart from those that do ridiculous rights issues, typically the "weaker" REIT without a strong sponsor) and pay out dividends regularly!

Generally, the market sentiment has been pretty weak and we have gotten more selective/humji.

Together, we have a capital flow/injection of $93,466.73! Capital flow is the amount of capital that is being injected or withdrawn from your portfolio where the dividends collected are considered as capital withdrawn. Our rate of saving/investing has dropped due to higher expenses from our wedding and honeymoon. It is around 50-70% of our salary this year.

Our portfolio gave us a total dividend of $14,347.58 at an average yield of 4.20%. That is $1,196.63 passive income per month! Unfortunately, the yield of 4.47% is below our target/expectation of 5%.

StocksCafe is even smart enough to project the dividends we will be getting for next year assuming everything remains constant. Seems like it is still at a low 4%, probably need to go back and hunt for REITs.

Based on our 10 years plan to accumulate a $1,000,000 portfolio for extremely early retirement (age 36), our target for this year was $357,268 and we have failed to the target despite injecting more capital than expected :( The current market value of our portfolio is $354,145 (close enough?). Our next year conservative target is $431,301 with a capital injection of $53,865. Our yearly target is pretty conservative as we believe our expenses will be growing exponentially year on year. Just like how some babies are unplanned, we bought First Class ticket on the first day of the year and will be flying to the United States again thanks to Cathay Pacific. We will also be getting our BTO house this year which means more $$$ flying away... We have yet to budget for baby/babies too so plan will change! Plans are made to change :)

Let's hope 2019 will be a great and better year for everyone and your investment!

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- 2018 Net Worth
- Portfolio Performance in 2017

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

An Honest and Brutal Wedding Vendors Review

KPO has been nagging all the time that I have not contributed to any blog post since the establishment of this blog. So in order to stop his nagging (and he promised to do 60 sit-ups after I write at least one post), here I am!

It has been two months since we got married (how time flies), and we have received our wedding actual day ("AD") photos, so I guess it about time to write a review of all our vendors. Details on the prices can be found on here - Our Wedding Expenses is Within Our Budget!

The following is our humble opinion (out of 5 stars):

1) Furama Riverfront Hotel (our AD venue) - 4.5 stars
We started looking for hotels in 2017 (1 year before our AD) and were initially looking for somewhere small (can hold about 12 tables max) as we wanted a small cosy place just to hold our relatives and closest friends. Given the requirement, we can only fit the requirement of 'solemnization' for most hotels (as the minimum banquet tables are typically around 20 tables). When we first approached Angela from Furama, we were delighted to hear that the venue allowed a minimum of 12 tables, and the price of a lunch banquet was not much different from the 'solemnization' package. The perks were attractive and we can 'lock in' the 2017 price though our banquet is in 2018.

Some of the perks are:
1) Free flow beer, red wine and white wine (in our opinion, please don't waste time on hotels which do not even give free corkage)
2) 2 nights stay at the bridal suite with free buffet breakfast
3) 1 night deluxe room for 'helpers' with free buffet breakfast
4) 2 nights at Furama Villa & Spa at Ubud, Bali (flight not included)
5) 1 night anniversary stay at Furama Riverfront
6) Complimentary food tasting for 10 pax
7) Free use of a function room for solemnization, teapot for Jing Cha
8) Other basic typical stuff like dry ice for march-in, fresh flowers etc.

For the price we paid (just slightly over $100 inclusive of GST and service charge), it is quite attractive and we do not have to worry about the alcohol.

In terms of payment, it works like most hotels where it allows partial/periodic payments until AD. To our pleasant surprise, Furama introduced an online payment system mid-way and we could use the DBS Woman's card for the banquet, allowing us to earn 4 mpd (cap at $2k a month). As a result, we managed to clock quite a lot of miles from the banquet itself.

Overall, we love the perks given (especially item 1 and 7). We heard that some hotels do not have item 7 for free, but they can only select it as part of 1 of the "wishlist". We shall not name the hotels, but that's why we love Furama as it is more "easygoing" in that aspect. The wedding coordinator Angela is very responsive on both emails and Whatsapp too. The banquet manager, Hayden, is also very professional and gave us very detailed instructions, which calmed us down greatly.

The only downside for this vendor is that they changed the wedding theme and choices of wedding favour less than 1 month before our AD. CZM does not like last minute changes, and can you imagine her horror when she has to re-select everything at the last minute?? I would have given 5 stars if not because of this.

Damage: $17,878.63
URL: Furama Riverfront Wedding

2) Bridal package from Rico-a-Mona - 5 stars
We had a pleasant experience with Rico. I was first drawn to Rico because of the huge selection of gowns, and they are so pretty (so is their models). Our coordinator is Sinny, and she is very professional. She allowed us to try on many gowns before we signed any package and did not pressure us to get a package immediately. In fact, she encouraged us to go to other bridal shops first to take a look.

For our pre-wedding shoot (PWS), we engaged their in-house photographer Charlie and make-up artist (MUA) Miki. I will review Miki below as she was my AD MUA as well. Charlie was a superb photographer who had a sense of humour and this made our photoshoot less awkward/more natural when we smiled.

I think Rico is generally more expensive than other bridal shops, but there is no hidden pricing (unlike some bridal shops which charge extra for 'premium' gowns) and I love the gown selection. All other extra charges are made known to us upfront before we signed the package. Overall, I think it is worth the money and I have no regrets.

Damage: $4,224.36
URL: Rico-A-Mona

3) Make-up artist Miki - 4 stars
I researched on Rico's MUA and both Miki and Milly are the "hot favourites" and I chose Miki eventually based on her pictures on Instagram. Miki is especially good with eyes and I love how natural her make up is.

However, I was rather worried when she turned up >30 minutes late for our PWS. Though I don't think she compromised on the quality of makeup, we had to rush through our PWS and had to make some last minute changes to the outdoor venues.

We continued to use her as my AD MUA as I really like her make up, hence, kept my fingers crossed that she will be punctual. We agreed on the time months in advance and I reminded her on the schedule a few days before. I was made known that she will have a bride before me, but the timing should be okay. However, she was also late on AD and the whole AD got pushed back 30 mins as a result. Luckily we had some buffer here and there and made it in time for our wedding lunch. I later learnt that she had 3 brides on the same morning (*gasps*) and she had to rush to the third venue after my make up was done. Oh well, don't really think she should accept so many jobs on the same day as some people's AD may be really tight..

Instagram: Miki

4) Jerome Goh Photography - 4.5 stars
We chose Jerome because I really like his photography and he is super responsive as well (typically replies within the same day). We took up the "premium" package which has two photographers as the photos of the second photographer were also really good. Both photographers were also punctual on AD and we were given the photos way in advance of the agreed timeline (the photos are expected to be ready only in about 12 weeks, but we have gotten it around after 8 weeks of our AD).

The only downside is that the photos taken by the second photographer seem to fall short slightly of our expectation. But generally, we are still pleased with our photos.

Damage: $2,000
URL: Jerome Goh Photography

5) Sparkle Live Music - 1.5 stars
We have engaged a live band through Sparkle Live Music, and have selected Peixin as our singer + emcee because I have heard her both live at my friend's wedding and on Youtube, and she is so good. I will have a separate review on her below. We noted that Peixin is kind of like a freelancer, and there are a few different live bands online which works with her. We chose Sparkle Live because my friend has engaged them before.

However, I was very disappointed with them. Firstly, there were double standards in the pricing as my friend, who wrote in to inquire, was quoted $200 less at almost the same period of time. We were coincidentally discussing about Sparkle Live before I noted the discrepancy. Immediately I called them on this and they mentioned that the brochure that was provided to me was not up-to-date and hence the difference. WHAT??? Fortunately, the new price was extended to us (and hence I am giving an additional 0.5 stars).

Throughout this engagement, the coordinator, Prinsten is always MIA. Not only was he unresponsive to emails, his work is bad. He was supposed to come up with the emcee script which he promised to turnaround in a few days, but it took him 2 full weeks to get back with a script full of errors. From one look, we can tell that it is simply a template copied elsewhere (which is fine because we expected so), but he did not even bother to change the bride and groom names. The additional details we provided him was not added to the script as well. Where is the duty of care??

We also provided him our preferred song list in early Sep, which he mentioned should not be a problem, but only informed us two weeks before AD that there were several songs which have to be amended. Luckily both of us weren't particular about songs, so we just let Peixin sing any song which she prefers.

Damage: $1,564
URL: Sparkle Live Music

6) Lou Peixin - Singer for live band - 6 stars
Yes, giving her 6 out of 5 stars. She is superb. Everyone whom I spoke to told me she is really good. Can check out her songs on Youtube too. We, however, recommend that you engage her through other live bands (see #5 review above).

URL: Lou Peixin
Youtube: Miss Lou

7) Infinity Hair Art - 2 stars
This is a hair salon package which we purchased on Fave because it was cheap. Conclusion - if something is too good to be true, it probably is. This place hard sells like crazy, and it seems like the case for a few years, according to this review. It is my bad for not doing sufficient due diligence. Was persuaded to sign up some package, end up it is nowhere cheaper than other salons.

Damage: $510
URL: Fave Deals (at your own risk)

8) Solemnizer Mr Tam Chee Wah
I first got to know of Mr Tam through a private facebook group for Brides-to-Be. Many brides highly recommended Mr Tam as someone bilingual, funny and brief. He was exactly the kind we were looking for, as we only had 30 mins for the solemnization.

I obtained his number online and texted him on his availability around 6 months prior to our wedding, though I was not carrying much hope that he will agree. Previously, I was rejected by some other solemnizer because it was simply too early. To my surprise, he agreed immediately and sent me some instructions on the process (such as to fill up some forms, and to write my vows etc). His clear instructions greatly assured us.

On the actual day, he arrived early. All our guests were engaged with his jokes and loved his sense of humour. More importantly, he kept within the 30 mins time frame so that I have sufficient time for my second make up for my banquet.

For brides-to-be, you can contact Mr Tam at +65 9380 1780 or email him at miketam@singnet.com.sg.

That's all I have on the vendor reviews. Now thinking back what is the one thing I could have done differently for the wedding, I felt that the entire wedding was over in a twinkle of an eye, so don't bother spending too much time on less important stuff like second makeup/march in etc. I will perhaps spend more time going table to table to chat with my relatives, friends etc.

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

2018 Mid Year Review

Hi everyone! CZM was telling me that it has been a while since I blogged, mostly due to the World Cup among other things. As a result, this post has been in draft mode for the longest time!

One of Our Goals is to have a one million dollar portfolio with a 5% dividend yield before 40 and I have a spreadsheet that forecasts how fast we will be able to meet that goal in a perfect/ideal scenario such as the market does not crash, we continue to invest with positive returns, etc. When I first made the spreadsheet, the forecasted age was 37 (we are currently 28 years old). However, over the last 2 years, we have invested aggressively (more than the forecasted amount) + increased in salary, the latest forecasted age is 35 years old (7 more years).

These are the assumptions which we are using to forecast our investment journey:
1. Salary increment (assumed 5% per year)
2. Percentage of your salary invested (conservative percentage but we are putting in > 70%)
3. Investment return (assumed 7% per year including 5% dividend return that is reinvested)
4. Dividend return (assumed 5%)

I have blogged about this and shared the spreadsheet, you can refer to this post for more information - When can I be a Millionaire?

At the end of 2017, I did a Portfolio Performance review and it turns out that we did much better than what was forecasted - Our target for 2017 was $217,340 and we had $293,858 by the end of the year. For 2018, our target is $357,268 which can be achieved by investing $42,840 + 7% return on $293,858. So how did we do so far?

Our XIRR for 2018 is -9.70%. Our portfolio which is property/REITs heavy took a hit when the cooling measure was announced  >.<" As you can see, the capital flow for this year is $57,557. Capital flow is the amount of capital that is being injected or withdrawn from your portfolio and dividends collected are considered as capital withdrawn. In addition, some of the money ($6,000 to be exact, not included in the capital flow) was invested into StashAway instead of our SGX portfolio.

The current value of our portfolio is $336,141. Although we have met and even exceeded the required capital injection, we are nowhere near our target for the year :'( On the bright side, we still have another half a year to go!

On a side note, congratulations to the Wheelock Properties shareholders! Although the offer is way below book value, the return should be quite decent (depending on your entry price). We were looking at it on 3rd May 2018 but decided not to buy in the end. In hindsight, based on our May purchases (Portfolio - May 2018), it seems like Wheelock Properties would have been the better deal. KPO jelly now. lol.

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right -->)

2017 Expenses Review

I have been tracking my expenses since I started working 2.5 years ago. However, I do not do any budgeting as I believe that both of us have inbuild "kiam" (thrifty/stingy) mechanism to prevent overspending and did not want to compromise too much on the quality of life. Hence, the yearly review is important (otherwise, it will be pointless to track them).

Looking back at my 2016 Expenses Review, at first glance I definitely did worst but I felt relieved when I dig deeper into the numbers.

	2017	2016	% Change
Wedding	$14,267.74	$7,800.00	82.92%
Parents	$8,611.00	$7,653.00	12.52%
Me	$4,891.55	$3,517.79	39.05%
Vacation	$3,573.02	$8,832.68	-59.55%
Food	$2,795.25	$2,729.01	2.43%
Insurance	$2,372.46	$1,208.46	96.32%
Treat	$1,713.17	$716.90	138.97%
Transportation	$1,182.64	$1,307.47	-9.55%
Gift	$992.77	$2,539.04	-60.90%
Credit Card	$939.90	$715.12	31.43%
Entertainment	$372.55	$195.94	90.13%
Health	$324.05	$286.51	13.10%
Gambling	$185.00	$135.94	36.09%
Other	$38.31	$177.50	-78.42%
Clothes	$5.19	$942.08	-99.45%
Investment	$5.00	$0.00	0.00%
Grand Total	$42,269.60	$38,757.44	9.06%

There is a 9.06% increase in the total expenses as compared to 2016! Not surprising at all that wedding expenses came out to be the top. We paid off quite a significant amount of the banquet in advance when Citi had a credit card miles promotion for existing customers, selected/paid partially for a bridal + prewedding package and recently (last weekend!) just purchase our wedding bands over the Christmas weekend.

Regular readers would know that CZM and I have a mutual fund which we contribute monthly. Let me remove the expenses from our mutual expense fund (KPO Expense Fund) and those 1 time expenses such as Wedding.

	2017	2016	% Change
Parents	$8,611.00	$7,653.00	12.52%
Me	$4,891.55	$3,517.79	39.05%
Food	$2,795.25	$2,729.01	2.43%
Insurance	$2,372.46	$1,208.46	96.32%
Treat	$1,713.17	$716.90	138.97%
Transportation	$1,182.64	$1,307.47	-9.55%
Gift	$992.77	$2,539.04	-60.90%
Entertainment	$342.55	$195.94	74.82%
Health	$324.05	$286.51	13.10%
Gambling	$185.00	$135.94	36.09%
Other	$38.31	$0.00	0.00%
Clothes	$5.19	$286.76	-98.19%
Investment	$5.00	$0.00	0.00%
Grand Total	$23,458.94	$20,576.82	14.01%

There is a 14.01% increase in my total expenses! On the bright side, about 33% of the increase came from an increase in allowance which I give to my parents :) This amount will increase next year as I will be getting promoted!

Me
I spent too much on myself this year! I bought a PS4 when FF XV was launched earlier this year. That is like a childhood game/series which I must spend even though CZM keep scolding me for wasting both time and money. lol. I am waiting eagerly for Monster Hunter to launch! Hahahaha. Unfortunately, my Surface Pro 4 which has served me for 2 years was having some issues (vibrating screen after a few hours of usage) so I had to spend money to replace it. I ended up buying a Lenovo YOGA 720 laptop with 3 years warranty for about $2,200 a few weeks back. It has the latest Intel i7 8th gen core, 12 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD. For the same specs, the Surface would have cost me > $3,500 with only 1 year warranty! As much as I love the Surface, I had to give it up. Some other expenses include haircut - $38 for a year! Technically, it is $38 for 12 haircuts which cost about $3.17 per haircut (when you think $10/$12 haircut is cheap). lol.

Food

Lunch	$1,286.65
Dinner	$869.21
Beverages	$396.14
Dessert	$105.30
Breakfast	$84.00
Others	$53.95
Grand Total	$2,795.25

The expense for food is roughly the same as compared to last year.

Insurance

Term - 1 Million	$854.00
Early Cancer Care - 150k	$780.00
Hospitalisation	$421.76
MediShield Life	$316.70
Grand Total	$2,372.46

Although the expenses from insurance were almost doubled (96.32%), there is no change to the coverage. I bought the term insurance and early cancer care late last year hence the full premium was not taken into account.

Treat

Darling	$1,089.56
Family	$488.90
Colleagues	$75.23
Friends	$59.48
Grand Total	$1,713.17

Treat is when KPO pays for the food/drinks. The 138.97% increase in Treat is ridiculous but once I break it down, it makes more sense. CZM and family were the beneficiaries. In the past, when we go out, I would always split everything equally by half. That's why CZM gave me this KPO nickname. lol. Judging from the amount of food she has been eating, you know why she is called CZM.

Transportation

EZ Link	$780.59
Cab	$312.47
Darling Cab	$89.58
Grand Total	$1,182.64

My transportation cost has reduced because I took lesser cab :)

Gift

Wedding	$440.00
Ang Bao	$285.00
Darling	$73.50
Friend	$65.22
Donation	$47.00
Family	$46.75
Colleague	$35.30
Grand Total	$992.77

The Gift expense has reduced significantly because I bought branded stuff for CZM and my family when we went to London, Iceland and Paris last year. I only got them Hang Heung Lao Po Bing (wife cake/biscuit) from Hong Kong and Amanda Brownies from Bandung this year. What a downgrade. lol.

The remaining are smaller expenses which I will elaborate briefly without any breakdowns:

Entertainment - We watched more movies this year and have decided to stop using our university student pass to get discounted student rate movie tickets >.<

Health - Expenses from dental and GP visits which are fully funded by company benefits. I am tracking it so that I know what to expect in the event when the benefits are gone for whatever reason.

Gambling - Damn it. I lost more money in mahjong this year! As usual, CZM would say I drag her down and that I should quit playing mahjong.

Other - Tracking error/missing cash in my wallet. Paid for something but forgot to record in the mobile application.

Clothes - I only bought a shirt from Lazada/Taobao during the 11/11 day for the whole year. Last year, I had to buy winter clothings for Iceland. Guys and girls work differently - guys like to spend on tech gadgets/games while girls spend on clothes/shoes/bags, etc.

Investments - IPO application fee.

I am estimating 2018 expenses to be much higher as we will be getting married next year + our honeymoon to the United States. We have only redeemed a one way ticket so far and I cannot imagine how much the whole trip will cost >.< With the increase in expenses in other areas, I guess the only area/category I can sacrifice is "Me". I will should be spending lesser on myself next year as I already have a lot of gadgets. lol.

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)

Portfolio Performance in 2017

2017 will be over soon! I hope everyone manages to meet their 2017 new year resolution if not you have about 2 weeks to do so :)

I believe we will not be buying/selling any more stocks as the year ends so let's take a look at how our portfolio did for the year of 2017.

The overall performance of our portfolio since 2014 is 8.98% (time-weighted return) and 9.60% (XIRR). Yay! We are easily contented, our return is positive and higher than bank/CPF SA interest :) If you are wondering what is the difference between time-weighted return and XIRR, do read this article by common fund. In short, XIRR takes cash flows into account while time-weighted return does not so the way they are calculated is different.

From the graph, you can tell that we have been consistently underperforming the market (benchmark against STI ETF) so do not follow what we buy/sell for better performance. lol. On a more serious note, I blame it on the first year when I started investing trading/speculating on penny stocks without any financial knowledge and broke Warren Buffett rule number 1 - Never lose money.

These are our time-weighted return, monthly volatility and max downdrawn benchmarked against STI ETF over the years. The year of 2014 was ridiculous -14.17% vs STI ETF 5.69%, can you imagine how much of catch up has to be done? 2015 was the turnaround year where I started reading and learning from books and blogs after paying some expensive tuition fee. We went on to beat the market return for the year of 2015 and 2016! Unfortunately, we could not get a turkey. The time-weighted return for 2017 is 16.02% vs STI ETF 21.46%!

The monthly volatility is pretty close to STI ETF and the lower the better. As our portfolio grows bigger and we grow older, the same percentage represents a larger amount of money. Volatility is not good for the heart. Not too sure how to interpret the max downdrawn but you can refer to this article by Investopedia.

The XIRR for 2017 is 14.85% with a capital flow of $94,428.15! Capital flow is the amount of capital that is being injected or withdrawn from your portfolio where the dividends collected are considered as capital withdrawn. We would usually redeploy the dividends collected back into the market hence the actual capital injection is around $84,000. If you are thinking we can do this because we earn big bucks and get demoralized. Please do not! I would like to say we are just extremely thrifty and without any debts. Our rate of saving/investing is at 70-90% of our salary for this year. Both of us are still staying with our parents and they are still feeding us. lol. How much can an accountant (4 years experience) and an IT guy (2 years experience) earn? There is a reason why I am called Kiam Pok Ong (KPO) which meant stingy in hokkien, not K-PO/kaypoh (busybody) which I suspect some readers think that way.

Our portfolio gave us a total dividend of $10,950.63 at an average yield of 4.47%. That is $912.55 passive income per month! The dividends received in 2016 is very high due to the privatization of Saizen REIT (payout in the form of dividend before delisting this year) and a capital distribution by TSH. Unfortunately, the yield of 4.47% is below our target/expectation of 5% and there was a bump by both Saizen and Croesus Retail Trust this year.

Stocks.cafe is even smart enough to project the dividends we will be getting for next year assuming everything remains constant. Seems like it is still at a low 4%, probably need to go back and hunt for REITs. 

Based on our 10 years plan to accumulate a $1,000,000 portfolio for extremely early retirement (age 36), our target for this year was $217,340 and I am proud to say we have exceeded that target with flying colors. The current market value of our portfolio is $293,858. Our next year conservative target is $357,268. Our yearly target is pretty conservative as we believe our expenses will be growing exponentially year on year. We will be getting married next year. Yay! Going on a honeymoon trip to the United States in Suites and getting our BTO house in 2019 which means more $$$ flying away... We have yet to budget for baby/babies too so plan will change! Plans are made to change :)

Let's hope 2018 will be a great and better year for everyone and your investment!

This is not a sponsored post but if anyone of you is investing and not tracking them, you should! If not you will never know how you are doing or learn from your mistake. I will highly recommend you to use/try stocks.cafe which is an intelligent portfolio manager with stocks data for Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the United States + many reporting features such as what I have shared above.

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2016 Expenses Review

I spent some time to compile my expenses for 2016 (CZM does not track hers). To my horror, I spent $38,757.44?!?!

Vacation	$8,832.68
Wedding	$7,800.00
Parents	$7,653.00
Me	$3,517.79
Food	$2,729.01
Gift	$2,539.04
Transportation	$1,307.47
Insurance	$1,208.46
Clothes	$942.08
Treat	$716.90
Credit Card	$715.12
Health	$286.51
Entertainment	$195.94
Other	$177.50
Gambling	$135.94
Grand Total	$38,757.44

The trip to London-Iceland-Paris really burn a big hole in my/our pocket. Let me remove those 1 time expense (e.g. Wedding Ring) and expenses incurred from KPO Expense Fund such as Vacation, some winter clothes, etc.

Parents	$7,653.00
Me	$3,517.79
Food	$2,729.01
Gift	$2,539.04
Transportation	$1,307.47
Insurance	$1,208.46
Treat	$716.90
Credit Card	$715.12
Clothes	$286.76
Health	$286.51
Entertainment	$195.94
Other	$177.50
Gambling	$135.94
Grand Total	$21,469.44

Even $21,469.44 is ridiculously high! I went on to look at the breakdown of each category except from "Parents" and "Me". I am giving my parents a monthly allowance and paying for some of their insurance. I bought DJI Phantom Advanced 3 for myself hoping that I would be able to capture the special moment in Iceland + some other miscellaneous costs such as installment plan for my laptop, haircut, etc.

Food	$2,729.01
Beverages	$329.57
Breakfast	$37.40
Dessert	$58.88
Dinner	$782.58
Drinks	$6.00
Lunch	$1,486.40
Others	$6.90
(blank)	$21.28

Food looks high but if you were to take $2,729.01 divided by 365 days. It is only an average of $7.50.

Gift	$2,539.04
Ang Bao	$100.00
Colleague	$50.00
Darling	$978.17
Donation	$2.00
Family	$928.06
Friend	$4.00
Wedding	$378.00
(blank)	$98.81

The major expenses are coming from CZM and family.

Transportation	$1,307.47
Cab	$450.74
Darling Cab	$79.06
EZ Link	$775.55
Ferry	$2.12

Looks like I have been cabbing quite a bit.

Insurance	$1,208.46
Early Cancer Care - 150k	$195.00
Hospitalisation	$642.56
MediShield Life	$78.90
Term - 1 Million	$292.00

Insurance probably going to increase since I got Term and Early Cancer Care around October.

Based on the above analysis, I came up with a target for 2017 and I shall review this 1 year later.