Friday 22 December 2023

2023 My Review & Dividends - $1.5k dividends per month, 5.63% dividends yield

2023 was a year where investors track the inflation rate and speeches of the US Fed bank members closely. From inclusion to exclusion of certain words, it made a big difference.

My portfolio is in the green as Reits have recently increased due to expectations of rate cuts in 2024. As of time of writing, my portfolio value is $361,431.80 compared to my capital $349,768.24. If all goes well, when the rate cuts come in, my 2023 purchase of Reits will help pull my portfolio up. But history has shown that life is not so simple and things may not go as planned. 

Click image to enlarge. Some stats are from stockcafe

For the year of 2023, I have collected a total of $18.777.94 of cash dividends, a 39.4% increase compared to 2022. This means that I have crossed the $1,500 dividends per month milestone. To be exact, dividends collected for 2023 is at $1,564.83 per month and $51.45 per day. Also, my portfolio average dividends yield has hit 5.63%. This is the highest in my investment journey and it is above CPF's interest rate. The yield was pulled up by the local banks (i.e. DBS and OCBC) that I purchased during covid19 period.

The dividends amount and yield would have been higher if I had not chosen scrip dividends for  Mapletree Industrial Trust, Lendlease Reit and Mapletree Log Trust. I had chosen scrip dividends as these stocks were still fundamentally sound and I had taken a long term view to continue adding the stocks. 

In terms of total dividends collected since I started this journey, I have collected $78,049.25.

This year I made a total of 16 transactions. 14 were buy/add/scrip/preferential offering transactions and 2 sell transactions. The 14 transactions were mainly for reits/trust except for Keppel Corp and Seatrium. I have been buying Reits in anticipation of the interest rates cut which will happen. The question is when it will happen. The 2 sell transactions were for Seatrium and Suntec Reit. Seatrium was given due to the Sembcorp Marine acquisition of Keppel O&M. I decided to sell to realise the 'gain'. Whereas for Suntec, I have held it for 10 years and the dividends has not been increasing. 

While most people do not bother to track the number of transactions made, I make it a point to do so on a yearly basis. I do so because if there are too many transactions in a year, it could mean that I am too trigger happy and have not been buying or selling at an optimal quantity to minimise transaction fees. Also, if there more sell transactions, it would mean that I would need to review why. Have I been buying stocks that are not fundamentally sound or did I panic sell? As an investor, I should have more buy compare to sell transactions.

As always, this update excludes Singapore Savings Bonds, T-bills and Foreign Stocks.

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