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Category: Investment and Finance

5 Best Counters for Passive Dividend Investing

Posted on by careyourpresent

Busy Schedule Busy Life

We are always very busy with work, life, hobbies, families, friends etc and many other things. With so much going on, it can be difficult to prioritize and find the time to invest in one’s financial future. Despite the importance of saving and investing, many individuals put it off, thinking they will have more time and resources later on. Hence, one of the good way is to take a more passive approach for many busy people.

Before i go on to talk about investing, I would like to reiterate that one should never forget to live a real fulfilling life. Live in present, don’t regret past or keep worrying about the future.

I only Truly understand Living in the Moment now after the passing of my mum.

I made the mistake last time and hope no one will do the same like me. Please live a fulfilling life – the final objective with Time as the most precious asset. Tools such as money, investing, planning etc are just the tools to reach your final target goal – LIFE.

What is passive investing?

Passive investing is an investment strategy in which a portfolio is constructed to mirror the performance of a market index, such as the S&P 500 or world index, rather than actively seeking to outperform it by buying individual stocks. This is achieved through low-cost index funds or ETFs, with the goal of matching market returns at a lower cost than active management.

Passive Dividend ETF investing

Passive dividend ETF investing involves investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that hold a diversified portfolio of dividend-paying stocks. The ETFs aim to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the performance of high dividend yielding stocks. This approach provides passive investors with exposure to a diversified portfolio of dividend-paying stocks with the goal of generating a steady stream of income.

In Singapore contexts, people like to buy Singapore Reits/Stocks because there is no withholding taxes. Some buy Hong Kong Stocks which most has no withholding taxes. Of course, there is an options to buy US dividend counters but usually these are less ideal due to withholding taxes.

Despite this fact, if one still want to buy US dividend counters with a more passive approach. I would recommend these 5 counters with low expense ratio.

Expense Ratio is important

Expense ratios are important to passive investors because they directly affect the net return on their investment. A high expense ratio means a higher portion of the investment is being taken as fees, reducing the overall returns. Low expense ratio funds allow passive investors to keep more of their returns, potentially leading to higher returns over time.

Schwab International Dividend Equity ETF – SCHY

The fund’s goal is to track as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the total return of an index composed of high dividend yielding stocks issued by companies outside the United States.

Some other key facts about this fund:

  • Invests in non-U.S. high dividend yielding stocks with a record of paying dividends for at least 10 consecutive years, financial strength and screened for lower volatility
  • Expense Ratio: 0.140%
  • Total Number of Holdings: 147
  • Weighted Average Market Capitalization: 63B
  • Yield: 3.67%
  • Highly diversified outside United States
  • Return since inception 04/29/2021: -3.24% (This fund is still quite new given that it started in the year where world markets are coming down.)

Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF – SCHD

For those who like US dividend stock, this ETF is for you.

The fund’s goal is to track as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100™ Index.

Some other key facts about this fund:

  • Tracks an index focused on the quality and sustainability of dividends
  • Expense Ratio: 0.060%
  • Total Number of Holdings: 104
  • Weighted Average Market Capitalization: 127B
  • Yield: 3.39%
  • Highly diversified within United States
  • Return since inception 10/20/2011: 13.82%
  • Look at the top 10 holdings, are you familiar with them?

iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF – DGRO

This is an ETF by iShares that would give you both growth and yield at the same time.

Some other key facts about this fund:

  • The iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. equities with a history of consistently growing dividends.
  • DGRO offers low-cost exposure to U.S. stocks focused on dividend growth
  • Access companies that have a history of sustained dividend growth and that are broadly diversified across industries
  • Expense Ratio: 0.08%
  • Total Number of Holdings: 448
  • Weighted Average Market Capitalization: 24B
  • Yield: 2.34%
  • Return since inception 06/10/2014: 11.02%
  • Look at the top 10 holdings, are you familiar with them?

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF – VIG

This is one of the major passive dividend fund by our passive fund manager Vanguard.

Some other key facts about this fund:

  • Seeks to track the performance of the S&P U.S. Dividend Growers Index.
  • Passively managed, full-replication approach.
  • Fund remains fully invested.
  • Large-cap equity, emphasizing stocks with a record of growing their dividends year over year.
  • Low expenses minimize net tracking error.
  • Expense Ratio: 0.06%
  • Total Number of Holdings: 289
  • Weighted Average Market Capitalization: 150B
  • Yield: 1.92%
  • Return since inception 04/21/2006: 9.08%
  • Look at the top 10 holdings, are you familiar with them?

S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF – NOBL

This is the only ETF focusing exclusively on the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats – very famous fund that many know of.

Some other key facts about this fund:

  • The only ETF focusing exclusively on the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats—high-quality companies that have not just paid dividends but grown them for at least 25 consecutive years, with most doing so for 40 years or more.
  • Often household names, NOBL’s holdings generally have had stable earnings, solid fundamentals, and strong histories of profit and growth.
  • Expense Ratio: 0.35%
  • Total Number of Holdings: 64
  • Weighted Average Market Capitalization: 91B
  • Yield: 2.68%
  • Return since inception 10/09/2013: 11.44%
  • Very diversified across sectors

Which ETFs/Funds should I buy?

If I am an investor who want passive dividend investing and interested more in United States with some exposure to international dividend counters, I would buy all these 5 counters using DCA approach. However, do note that for investors in certain country, there will be withholding taxes which are not ideal as it will eat into your returns.

Nevertheless these are solid passive funds that one can consider to put into its list of portfolio.

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

A real life case of Financial Independent but don’t dare to retire early

Posted on by careyourpresent

Financial Independent and Retire Early – The dream of many people

This is the topic that many people like to think and dream about. Work hard, earn high income, save more, spend less, grow your passive income in order to become Financial independent. After that you can retire early and have all the free time you have to do whatever you like – This is the daunting DREAM of many people including myself. However, how many people can really achieve this? Is it really that easy to FIRE (Financial Independent and Retire Early)?

Do you believe? Financial Independent is easy but Retire early IS NOT EASY

I can tell you that this is not easy! It is not easy. The not easy part is not the – Work hard, earn high income, save more, spend less, grow your passive income in order to become Financial independent. This is difficult but achievable. It’s the RETIRE EARLY part that is difficult. Too much time on hand is not easy. Regardless you are financial independent or not – Routine schedule, steady salary with a job is so much easier for most people. Don’t believe me? Really? Let me share a story.

Story of Financial Independent and Retire Early

Beginning of Story

Let me share with you a story that I have learnt from somewhere.

Ten, twenty years ago in a country, there lived a young chap who just started work after university. Similar to many young chaps, he is also disillusioned by the 9-6pm routine, working until you are very old in the 60s+ before retiring, then enjoy your last 20 years (if lucky) of retirement life.

How to achieve Financial Independent and Retire Early

Similar to many others, one of the most common ways to achieve this is studying for decades for a good degree, find a good job, climb corporate ladder, grow high income then Work hard, earn high income, save more, spend less, grow your passive income in order to become Financial independent. After Financial Independent, he can retire early and enjoy life, in SHORT FIRE!

He read books, study, learn investment, work hard to grow his income, reduce expenses. Like many others, he understands that Time is a more valuable asset than money. Most people are just exchanging your life energy for money. Hence, since entrepreneurship may not be easy, with higher risk of failure, he gets a decent job with good salary. Then he lives below means, save 50-80% of income, the actively read books, articles, learn from others in order to invest well and grow his investment income.

Overall, he is actively building his network over time.

Image of these books are from https://www.amazon.sg/

After slightly more than a decade of hard work…

Time flies, after slightly more than a decade of hard work. He got married, got 2 kids (one in preschool and one in primary one in year 2022) and live a life envy of many. In term of employment, although he didn’t get super high salary, but it’s decent enough for his family to live based on his income alone. Together with his spouse income and their family habits of living way below means, this family saved a lot, and achieved the following:

  • Exceeded CPF Full Retirement in Special Account only for both him and his spouse. This means that even both of them stopped work immediately, they should get at least 2.5k each (total 5k) from 65 years old onwards
  • A house that is not fully paid but can be paid off easily with CPF Ordinary account anytime. In fact, they balloted successfully for a new BTO which will be ready in 2024 which they should be able to pay off with CPF Ordinary account easily – they bought new house so that can refresh the lease to 99 years. In the worst case where they run out of money when they are old, they can downgrade the house.
  • Full Basic Health Sum for both of them
  • Medical and Life Insurance fully covered
  • Decent amount of Networth with dividend cashflow that should be able to cover their monthly expenses with a little buffer
  • Keeping to low expenses with no car (they rather save the money to invest although they can afford it)
  • War chest to invest into the markets should there be crash
  • Emergency Funds for 2 years put in Singapore Saving Bonds that can be redeem with few days to longest a month
  • Keep daily cashflow of around 1-2 months for usual spendings

Given the above and after procrastinating for at least 1 year, they decided to activate a plan that they had planned long ago since they got their first child.

Their Problem

Many would be asking what is their plan? If it the Financial Independent and Retire Early? FIRE?

The answer is no.

The main objective behind this plan is to solve a problem that is causing headache to many people – childcare when the child reaches primary one.

How to solve childcare problem? They are 4 main common options in this society:

  1. After School Care – many people took up this option! This is great. There are teachers to take care of them, help to do homework, fed them, many activities etc…
  2. Hire a helper – This option is much cheaper compared to the salaries that they are drawing now. They also get to be freer with more me time.
  3. Grandparents helping to take care – this option is great for many people.
  4. Latch key kid – Give money and keys to kid and ask kid to go home after school at 1.30pm. Most kid at Primary One should be able to do that.

Which option did they choose?

None of the above.

Their Plans and Beliefs

Let me go one step backward to share their beliefs first. They believe that a child should have someone to accompany when they are growing up so that the child feel that home is safe and can share theirs thought. Home will be their safe Habor. The question is who is that someone? They have analyzed the 4 options above:

  1. After School Care – they don’t want to put their kid into this. Their primary one kid was put in infant care since the kid was 3-4 months old because they need to work to get income. They have missed so much time with the kid already – kid is only young once. Once the time missed, it will never come back.
  2. Hire a helper – this is possible, but they have to get a good helper. But on second thoughts, even with a very good helper, they don’t want a scenario such that when the kid needs help, need someone to talk to/share feelings with (example fall down, feel sad/emo/happy due to whatever things happen in school) etc, to find helper instead of parents. Worse case, helper become the kid’s “Mom” instead of the real “Mom” (this is true, if you observe surrounding carefully).
  3. Grandparents helping to take care – this option is great for many people but not for them. Their parents are too old to be able to take care of young children and different parental beliefs.
  4. Latch key kid – They feel sad to create another latch key kid. It’s sad to go home and see empty nest. Most of the time, the kid just hangs out with other kids or something else which might lead them astray?

Oh No! All the 4 options don’t work. What can they do?

The Decision

They decided to give up one of the high salaries and has one of them stay home for 5 years (until the kids can manage on their own independently which is around 5 years). This mean a change from dual income to single income. However, with inflation, ever rising cost of living, this is a very tough option. It is a big risk that they are taking. Moreover, who is the one to stay home?

Who?

After much deliberation, the answer is the young chap. Why? Isn’t usually the wife who stay home to take care of kid? It is out of society norm to has husband stayed home. He will be laughed at! After finding out more from them, these are the reasons that they have given me.

  • In term of monthly salary and yearly bonus, the wife earns much more.
  • In term of flexibility in terms of hours/working from home etc, the wife’s work gives better flexibility.
  • In term of career progression, the wife’s job has higher salary/corporate ladder progression
  • The wife loves her job as she feels it is contributing to society.
  • The husband doesn’t like his job, treat it as something that generate money paycheck.
  • The husband is the one the spent more time with the kids whenever he is free after work. The wife preferred more free personal time. The husband is the one managing all the finances/investment, doing side hustles to earn more income for family etc. All these takes up time. If the husband quits, he will free up time for all these MORE IMPORTANT things.
  • Mentally the wife is stronger, the husband has childhood trauma with his parents, this might be a good time for him to take a career break to heal.

Additionally, since their cashflow from investments cover their expenses (as mentioned above), changing from dual income to single income should work.

Advantages of this option

Exercising this option have numerous advantages.

  • The kid has an adult (his own beloved parent) to grow up with them.
  • Someone will be there anytime rather than physically is there but mind is not there during work from home days. Those unexpected moments when the kids what to share things with them happen usually after they are at home in the afternoon after school. He challenged me that if I don’t believe this point, I can go ask my kid to share what had happened to the child in school today at around 7pm when I am back home from work.
  • Don’t need to worry who take leave when child sick/no school due to any special event etc.
  • Don’t need to worry about childcare arrangement for Jun/Dec school holidays.
  • The husband will have more free time to think through his life.

Risks of this option

After careful analysis, of course there are risks to this option. Below is what they have told me:

  • Although their cashflow from investments cover their expenses, but innately most FIRE people still have the fear of running out of money. What if there are sudden medical expenses? What is inflation/eve rising cost of living raised the expenses so high that their investment cashflow cannto cover the expense?
  • What if financial crisis strikes? Can their portfolio take the hit and maintain enough cashflow to cover the expenses? Of course, the wife’s salary can cover but this is still a risk.
  • What if the wife loses the job and at the same time investment cashflow turns into issue?
  • Both of them are late thirties, it is a big risk to retire early/career break early. What if they run out of money and want to go back work but no one want to hire back the husband? Resume with career break usually will be questioned by the employers.
  • Husband stayed home is against society norms. Can he take it?
  • Identity Crisis – what should he call himself? Stay at home dad (SAHD), Someone taking Career break? Unemployed? Someone Financially Independent and retire early? Penguin Daddy?

Benefits outweigh the Risks

After considering the pros and cons of the above method, they decided to still go ahead with this option. The husband tendered his resignation with last day at the end of January 2023. On the day where he broke the news to his boss, he was nervous and scared.

Nightmares begin

Few days after he tendered; the nightmare began.

Too much free time

He suddenly felt very loss. He was given less roles in his current jobs as he prepared for the handover. Suddenly he has so much free time. He suddenly realized that he might have made a big mistake. Too much free time is scary. How can he fill those voids of empty time?

Let’s say he identified himself as the Dream status of many people – FIRE! Now he achieved it. Remembered my first paragraph above (copied and highlight in yellow below for easy reference)? However, he suddenly realized what I meant by

Routine schedule, steady salary with a job is so much easier for most people.

Loss of identity is real

Although this was one of the risk items that he has already identified earlier but He suddenly realized that this becomes real. He really dont know what to call himself now, he doesn’t know how to cope now. He was a manager. Now what is he? Stay at home dad (SAHD), Someone taking Career break? Unemployed? Someone Financially Independent and retire early? Penguin Daddy?

Something really felt wrong when he called himself all these. Until today, he still doesn’t know what to call himself.

Loss of Purpose

He suddenly felt a loss of purpose. This wasn’t one of the risk items that he has listed earlier but it just came out. Everyone in this world is always seeking for the purpose of life. What is his purpose of life now? Just to take care of young kids which they might not even remembered/understand the sacrified that their dad made when they grow up? Stay home dad? FIRE and enjoy life while his wife still working?

Childhood Trauma

From what I know about him, he was suffering from childhood trauma. His parents never believe him, even when he is late thirties now. He once shared a story with me – One day when he cycled with his kids on bicycle to visit his parents to their houses, the first thing they told him is “You can cycle the kids safely meh?” Then they would nag and “teach” him that he must go on pavement instead of roadside, must go this route that route etc, then end with the line to tell him better he doesn’t cycle as he cannot. Whatever he wanted to do, shared with him parents what he wanted to try and do, is always ended with “You cannot do it”.

Hence, he grew up with a void, with no confidence in anything he does. He felt that he is useless although in fact his achievements are decent (met FRS, house no issue, emergency funds no issue, insurance no issue, decent cashflow from investments, nice family with supportive spouse and kid etc). Anyway, this is one of the key reasons(s) why he wants to grow up with his kid (to relive his childhood and be a supportive parent).

Worries Worries and more Worries

Back to the story, this weakness of him suddenly reality struck after he resigned. He became more and more worries every day. What if he can’t find a job after 5 years? What if his investment fail? What if his wife also falls sick and cannot work (hence no buffer should investment fail)? What if he got too much free time after Jan 2023 and really don’t know how to fill the time? What if he can’t be a good parent at home with kid? What if he really loses his sense of identities and sunk into depression? What if he can’t find his purpose of life? What if he really become useless? He Might sunk into depression…

What I have advised him

This is what I have advised him.

Will you regret missing out the time spent with your kids or regretting not working for another 5 years to earn more income on your death bed? Do what is important NOW that will not make you regret. But ultimate decisions belong to him as I am not him.

Conclusion: Do what is important NOW that will not make you Regret

Until today, he is still worrying, wonder if he did make the right decision. Everyday emoing, feeling worries… I can’t help him much, but I told him:

Do what is important NOW that will not make you Regret!

To whoever is reading this story out there, trust me.

Regardless of many Financial Independent Retire Early (FIRE) stories/articles that you have heard/dream of achieving, Financial Independent difficult but achievable. It’s the RETIRE EARLY part that is difficult.

Lastly, I want to end this article with my banner to remind everyone to CAREYOURPRESENT!

Anyway, this story will be continued again later. Those interested to know the update, please come back to read again. Please leave your comments if you have any advice to teach this young chap.

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

If I am a dividend investor, this is what I would do….

Posted on by careyourpresent

Type of Investors/Traders

There are many types of investors/traders, which type are you?

  • Index investor
  • Growth investor
  • Dividend investor
  • Bond investor
  • Traders – options, momentum,
  • and so on

The lists are very long. But before we start putting any capital investing, we should know what is your risk profile and what kind of investments would make you sleep well at night? This sleep test is one of the most powerful methods. If after buying any investment, you can’t sleep well after the price drop 50%, better don’t buy. If you still buy, you are sure to lose money, cut loss, and make the legendary mistake of buy high sell low.

Identify your cash for investment

After knowing what type of investors, you are, please plan your budget well.

Keep 6 to 12 months of emergency funds (for me I keep 3 years) at least where you can put in Fixed Deposit, Money Market Fund, short term bonds etc, then keep a daily fund that can cover your monthly cashflow for around 1-2 months. You can see my post on portfolio update to see how I allocate.

The rest of the funds you can put into a fund call “cash for investment”. Within this cash investment fund, you have to decide on your allocation. How much warchest/standby cash that you would keep buying when the market crash, how much do you want to invest etc.

Strategies

Once we know our own risk profile, how much we have for investment. We need to set our rules/strategies for investing. In this article, I will cover what is close to many people heart…

If I am a dividend investor, this is what I would do…

I would set the following 5 rules and abide to it:

1. No Dividend No Buy and only buy those that I am willing to keep long term of at least 10 years. Must pass sleep test.

Most people although calling themselves dividend investors, but they don’t really behave like a dividend investor. They buy/sell, buy/sell trade the dividend stocks/Reits instead of keeping for dividend. If the price crash, they would sell and cut loss.

You can see from the recent crash of the US Reits such Manulife US Reit, Keppel Pacific Oak US Reit, Prime US Reit – initially the investors sound so confidence, freehold assets, US assets etc., good rental income etc.. But see what happened now? Many of them cut loss after the price drop 50% or more.

If you have bought MIT at $2.80 instead of Manulife US Reit at $0.70, likely you won’t cut loss for MIT but will cut loss for Manulife, especially if you have put in an amount larger that you are comfortable with (see Rule 3 below).

Hence this first rule is very important. Please only buy reits/stocks that you are willing to keep at least 10 years, no speculation, no FOMO (Fear or Missing Out). Don’t listen to others. Have independent mind. Must pass sleep test.

Take for example, Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), Singapore Exchange (SGX), Mapletree Industrial Reit (MIT), Mapletree Logistic Reit (Mlog), Capitaland Ascendas Reit (Areit), Frasers Centre Point Trust (Trust), NikkoAM-STC Asia Reit (CFA) etc. No people will cut loss buying these, they will simply add more. Yes, the yield is low, but on long term basis, it is a 99% sure win. Remember Tortoise and Hare Story, Tortoise wins. Many people are enticed by high yield instead of the fundamental behind the companies which in the end lose their hard-earned money and cut loss when the shares drip in prices.

Just keep buy and collect dividend and reinvest for good stocks/reits. You will get this picture below.

2. GUTS (buy big) and PATIENCE (wait crash/dip) and dare to HOLD LONG LONG, think long term (10 years at least)

Most people are looking at short term. They should look at long term (10 years at least). If they did their shares selection well as per rule 1 above, the next step is to have patience and wait. When the time come, example 2020 March Covid Crash, Reits dip due to interest rates etc, they should be brave and buy! However, many don’t have the guts to buy when come. If even they have, they don’t dare to buy big. even if they dare to buy big, they don’t dare to hold. Additionally, people keep want to wait for lower price and then missed!

Are you behaving the same way as I have described above? I believe most are. Let me share a few rules that I have learnt:

  • Buy only dividend growth companies that I know Fundamental well so that I will not cut loss. Example, companies with yield >5% with net cash, low payout ratio, sustainable business. Or simply buy those big names that could rarely goes wrong in my rule 1 above.
  • Be patience. Do research while waiting.
  • Red buy, green sell. Similar to buy discounted groceries in supermarket.
  • Focus cashflow and certainty.
  • Few cents don’t matter. Can’t always buy at bottom price or sell at top price. Good price just dca buy and keep.
  • Better to put big sum (e.g. 100k) in good companies like MIT MLOG FLCT AREIT PLIFE DBS SGX etc for 10% than 10k in less strong stock for 10% gain.

3. Position size Important and no leverage

Position size important and possibility no leverage if you are not sure what you are doing. You can set for example 5% per counter, then you will have 20 counters. Chances of 20 good shares (if you have followed Rule 1 above) dying at the same time, not paying dividend at the same time is very very low.

This is especially true when portfolio get large, example 1 million and above. One should take less risk and do capital preservation. Why? 1 million at 6% already give you $5k per month (not difficult to get 6% yield with 2% cap gain every year). $5k per month is already a very good salary for most people.

However, people want haste and earn more. In the end, they lose more by putting too much in something which can’t let them sleep well. In the end they cut loss and lose money. Hence, only put the amount that you are comfortable with; that would enable you to sleep well.

4. No earn no sell especially for dividend stock. Keep long term, no stop loss policy because point 1 is followed.

This rule is contrary to what most people would do. No cut loss policy.

If you didn’t do any leverage/plan allocation well (Rule 3) and only buy good stocks that let you sleep well (Rule 1), there is no need for you to cut loss.

Price drop, just hold and collect dividends as Panadols. Throughout the years, treat the dividend (or simply use the Trading around Core Strategy – Rule 5 below) to reduce the average cost of your shares. The worst case is stock goes to zero or in most case, your average cost will be reduced over time.

See my real-life examples of 4 shares that I am holding now. Average price is the price that I have bought. Compared it to Average price – after Divy and Trade around Core. My average cost is reducing every year using dividend or even every few weeks using trading around core.

5. Trading around Core with only Good FA Dividend Reit/Stock

Of course, it is very hard to curb itchy hands. People feel that it is very hard to do nothing. You have to keep buy sell buy sell, especially if you keep seeing the shares of the companies that you are holding are going up and down every day. Hence what can we do? We can use Trading around Core Strategy.

This simply means that you allocate for example 100k to buy Share XXX for 5% yield. One can simply keep DCA down to keep and collect dividend (price goes down, dividend yield goes up). As long as the total amount of share XXX that you are holding doesn’t exceed your allocation (in this case 100k), you can do a trade buy/sell buy/sell 1-2 cents for profits to reduce your average cost.

For example, you plan to allocate 100k to Mapletree Logistics Trust (Mlog). Currently you are holding only 50k worth of Mlog. You can strategise and buy 10000 shares of Mlog at $1.58 and sell at $1.61. Every trade will win you few hundred dollars which you can treat it as lowering your average holding cost of the share. In the worst case, if the price drops below $1.58, it doesn’t matter too, you can just keep it and collect dividend. Do note that this only work if you follow Rule 3 (allocation) and Rule 1 – only applicable to those that you are willing to hold long term and passed your sleep test.

Conclusion

The above are the 5 rules that I would adopt and strictly follow if I am a dividend investor. What are your rules, please feel free to share in the comments below.

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

Financial Literacy 101 – Art of Managing your Wealth

Posted on by careyourpresent

Financial Literacy

Financial literacy is the ability to effectively manage your money, which can help people make good decisions about their personal finances. It is important for people to understand their financial situation and make decisions about how they will use or manage their money. This includes understanding how much money you have to spend, the interest rates you might earn on savings accounts, what investments are available and how much those investments are worth.

School never teaches me!

Unfortunately, financial literacy is seldom taught in mainstream schools. In schools, we are taught Math, Science, English, Chinese etc but never on the topic of money itself. Topics such as these are never taught in school. But why wasn’t it taught?

How to manage money? How to budget? How to plan your monthly income/saving/expenses? How to grow your wealth?

These are important questions that one should ask before one eventually graduate from school and get the first paycheck. But how many really ask these questions? In the end, we have many people having lots of credit card debts, no savings, no investment etc after years of working. They often asked where did the money goes to?

Financial Products from “Financial Advisors” will help you

When you first graduate from school, suddenly many of your friends, ex-friends etc become guru and came to you to sell financial products. Did you experience this?

They will come to you and tell you that you can invest in this investment linked policy which will be good for you in the long term. Investment linked policy can give you both insurance protection and investment return at the same time. Isn’t this great?

As compared to term insurance where it only gives your protection, but you cannot get back your money. For investment, as you are still new to managing your first paycheck, don’t worry I can help you to investment (suddenly your friend that graduate with you become guru? Isn’t it amazing?).

Just buy xxx Investment Link policy that have both protection and investment features. Best of both world. Isn’t this great? This marvelous investment linked policy can do the job for you – protect you and give you investment return at same time without you to do much. Just regular saving plan and put a small lump sum of maybe $100-$500 monthly from your paycheck. A simple thing from you!

Many of us (including me) fell for it and bought investment linked policy. What happened? Did you really get the return you want? Most of us after a while, will totally regret this decision. This decision didn’t fatten your pockets, most of the time it fattened the salesman’s pocket. Why do I say so?

Most of the time Investment Linked Policy has high commissions. High percentage of your premiums for the first few years will be given to your guru “Financial Adviser” and then slightly lower percentage given to them for the subsequent years. This is great “passive income” for THEM but not for you!

Decipher your monthly investment linked policy statement, the underlying funds for the investment linked policy usually has high first-time sale charges of 3-5% and expense ratio of 2% and above. Long term market return is 5-7%. Minus these, could you tell me how much you are left with, and can you earn from your this “investment” from your kind guru financial adviser? Furthermore, these are only the few charges. Go read this article and find out how many types of charges are there. It will scare you! Did you agent tell you the above when they sell you the product?

Of course, the above apply to most investment linked policy. They are some which are good, rare policy but you have to do your due diligence (provided you know how to do it).

Sadly, most people weren’t taught financial literacy in schools. We have to self-learn and discover. I have been through the hard way and lost a lot in the process. I can talk hours/days about investment and financial literacy. Let me share with you on some of the key things that you should at least know that it existed to shortcut your journey.

What is Financial Literacy?

Financial literacy is the ability to make informed decisions about personal finances. It’s a way to help people learn how to manage their money, protect it and build wealth. It helps people understand what they can do with their money, who they can trust with it and how to make sure that they’re making smart choices throughout their lives.

While most adults think they are financially literate because of the simple fact that they are able to use ATMs and sign checks without assistance, this isn’t necessarily true. There’s even a gap between what we think we know about our finances and the reality of our situation.

There are many components of financial literacy that one should learnt and make sure they are well versed in it.

Ensure Income larger than expenses

This is the first most important step.

Make sure your income is always greater than your expenses. You should try to have a surplus so that you are not living paycheck to paycheck, always worried about money and unable to save for the future.

Having an emergency liquid fund is also important because you never know when an unexpected expense might pop up (like if your car breaks down) or if something like illness or job loss comes out of left field and causes financial distress. Having some savings set aside means that you won’t have to go into debt just to get by until things get better again.

Create a budget.

The next step is to create a budget.

A budget is a plan for your money. It’s a tool that helps you achieve your financial goals, such as saving for retirement or buying a home. A budget can also help you save money by showing where your money is going so that you can make changes to reduce spending on unnecessary items and increase savings.

To create a budget, start with an estimate of your monthly income in each pay period and then subtract the amount of any fixed expenses that aren’t likely to change (child care fees, rent/mortgage). Next add up all other regular monthly expenses (car payment, groceries) and divide by 12 to get an average cost per month. The final step is to set aside some money every month for irregular expenses like car repairs or replacing worn clothes so that they don’t catch you by surprise later on when they pop up unexpectedly

Developing good spending habits.

Next, you can try to develop better spending habits. To do this, it’s important to understand the difference between needs and wants.

A need is something that you must buy in order to survive—food, shelter, health care and clothing are all examples of things that fall into this category. A want is anything else that’s not essential for survival. It may be someone’s preference or desire but it’s not necessary for survival; thus people have no problem living without them.

Once you’ve identified your needs versus wants and established a budget for each category of expenses (such as rent/mortgage payments), spend less than what you budgeted for each month by cutting back on unnecessary expenses such as cable television subscriptions or going out with friends every weekend night (which could add up quickly).

The importance of saving money.

Saving money is a habit that takes time to develop, but it’s something you’ll thank yourself for later in life.

There are several reasons why saving money is important: you never know when an emergency will happen, saving for the future helps ensure that you have enough money to enjoy it when you’re older, retirement savings can help fund your golden years, rainy day funds can help take care of unexpected expenses and provide some financial security if an emergency strikes, children’s education and other expenses should be planned for well ahead of time so there aren’t any surprises down the road when it comes time to pay those bills; finally having enough saved up for emergencies means that even if something happens unexpectedly (like losing your job or getting sick) then at least part of your finances won’t be affected by this change in circumstances.

Creating a realistic plan for paying off debt.

If you have any debt, do consider using the debt snowball method, you pay off your debts in order of smallest balance to largest balance. This is because paying off one account frees up more money to use on the next larger account, which means you’re able to pay down your debt faster.

The first thing you should do is set up a budget. It’s important that you know how much money comes in each month (your income) and how much money goes out each month (your expenses). This can help you make decisions about how to prioritize paying off your debts based on what’s most important or financially feasible for now.

When setting up a budget, remember: The best way for anyone who has trouble sticking with budgets is by keeping track of every dollar spent via an app or simply just excel/notion template (which also have features like tracking investments and net worth) so there’s no guesswork involved when it comes time to make spending choices later on down the road!

After sharing so many things above, do you know what is the most basic thing in Financial Literacy that one should know? See picture below.

Build emergency funds before investing

The next most important step for a beginner investor is to build an emergency fund. You need enough cash in your bank account to cover 6-12 months of living expenses in case you lose your job or have an unexpected health issue.

The best way to build an emergency fund is by saving regularly and consistently, rather than trying to save up large sums all at once. Once you’ve saved the money you need, invest it in low-risk investments such as savings accounts or fixed income until you’re ready for something more advanced.

The amount of cash that should be saved depends on how much debt you have and what your income looks like. For example, if someone has significant student loan debt (i.e., $50k+) with a high monthly payment ($600+), then they should aim for 10-12 months’ worth of living expenses before investing any money away from their savings account(s).

If someone has no debt at all but doesn’t make much money either (less than $30k/year), then it would still be wise for them not to invest too much into risky assets just yet because they could run into problems if they hit hard times without any savings available on hand! It’s always good practice when starting out as early as possible though—just don’t go overboard!

Wealth management strategies

Once you have enough emergency funds, you can cut out some funds for investment. Make sure you will not need the investment funds for at least 5-10 years.

After which, plan your wealth management – diversify and invest in a portfolio of assets. This can be done through mutual funds, individual stocks and bonds, or real estate investments.

Investments should be diversified across different asset classes (e.g., stock market, bond market). Diversification reduces risk and enables investors to maximize returns when markets are increasing at the same time they protect against losses when markets decrease. Investors are also encouraged to monitor performance regularly as well as develop cash flow management skills so they can ensure that their finances remain healthy despite market fluctuations

Investment to grow wealth and build cashflow

An investment is a commitment of money or capital to an asset with the expectation of earning financial return. For example, if you buy a stock for $10 and sell it for $15, then you have made an investment and earned a profit (i.e., $5) on your initial purchase. Do check out this timeless free investment guidelines.

Investing is different from speculation because it involves putting money into something that has intrinsic value – like real estate or gold jewelry – as opposed to just betting on something that may or may not happen in the future (such as buying lottery tickets).

Investing can also be used as a tool for building cash flow: when assets generate income streams such as interest payments or dividend (do check out this free checklist) or simply rental income, this is known as “passive income” because the investor doesn’t necessarily have any active role in generating these revenues from his/her investments; rather they are generated automatically due to ownership rights over specific pieces of property (or contractual relationships with tenants).

Retirement planning for the future.

After one has built sufficient wealth, the next step is planning your retirement is to look at your current situation and identify the changes you need to make. The following questions will help you get started:

  • What is my current financial situation?
  • How much money do I need to save for a comfortable retirement?
  • How much do I already have saved for retirement, and how much more do I need to save?
  • Should I top up my government aided retirement scheme such as CPF scheme in Singapore?

One way to check if you have enough for retirement is to use the typical 4% withdrawal rule as a guideline for how much of your retirement fund can be withdrawn each year without depleting it entirely. As long as you keep enough in the account, this will ensure that there will still be money available for when you do retire.

Conclusion

The topic of financial literacy is a big one. In this article, I have covered everything from setting up your budget to managing debt and planning for retirement. I hope that you now feel more confident in your financial knowledge and can use it to make smart decisions about your money.

Good articles that you should read!

People are drawn to dividend investing.

Why? Firstly, dividends provide a regular stream of income, allowing investors to receive a portion of the company’s profits on a periodic basis. This can be particularly attractive for individuals seeking consistent cash flow or looking to supplement their existing income. Additionally, dividend investing is often viewed as a more stable and predictable investment strategy compared to relying solely on capital appreciation.

I always write and share articles, especially on dividends which many people love them. Do read them!

Alternatively, you can go the right side of my page, there is a search bar where you can simply search “dividend” to see all my articles related to dividends!

Of course, you can search for other things that would interest you such as “Careyourpresent”, “Reits”, “Side Hustles”, “Fixed Incomes”, “Savings” etc.

CAREYOURPRESENT

Money just buy you the chance of freedom.

When you are young and working, you exchange time for money. When you are old, you can have lots of money but you can’t buy time back, especially the things that you have missed while busying striking out in career. Of course, if you love your career, and consciously know that you are missing out the first time your child walk or talk, that’s ok, but if you are the other spectrum, please do something about it.

Your kids grew up and they no longer need you to accompany them. They no longer want to sit on your lap to share/do things with you…all these time you spent in your 9 to 6 or even longer cubicles…can the money that you have earned by you back these?

We always thought we have more time with our old parents, but we are wrong. Time with them is ticking away every day. One day it will suddenly be gone. There is no regret medicine, no reset in time. Gone is gone and cannot come back. No matter you are billionaires or millionaires, you cannot reset this.

We always thought that we have more time with our spouse every day, but we are wrong. One day they will be gone too. When you read this, please go tell your spouse that you love him/her and he or she is the best thing that you ever had in your life.

I have picked out some of the more life reflecting articles of the CAREYOURPRESENT series. Do read them:

You can read more about my articles on Careyourpresent via the Category “Careyourpresent” or simply click “Careyourpresent” via the main menu bar.

REMEMBER:

Love your life daily.

You have one less day with your spouse, parents, children and yourself.

Time is ticking away.

For each passing day,

Enjoy and Treasure your Life!

For those who are interested in regular updates of my articles, please join the others to sign up for my free newsletter to has my newest blogposts sent to your mailbox for free!

For real time exclusive updates on market news/life (especially Crypto markets where the news move fast, important news will be shared directly via tweets or telegrams), do also join the platforms below and engage with other like-minded people!

You may also contact me via [email protected].

If you’re looking referral codes, do check out my referral and ebook page. Give it a try and who knows? You might end up loving these platforms! To be absolutely fair to all the readers, I am definitely using all these companies and they are useful to me! Likely will be useful to you too!

At the same referral and ebook page, you can also download my free ebooks and other free resources.

For quick references to these resources, you can see below.

  • Ebooks and other useful resources on enhancing productivity (Investment, Excel, Notion etc). Currently most of it are free at this moment (subject to change).
  • WeBull: A powerful brokerage with nice free welcome gift. You can refer to my guide here on how to signup! 4 Simple step only! Click here to register a new account!
  • MoneyOwl: You can use this 6SHU-93MC to get free grab vouchers and highly safe liquid cash fund account.
  • Trust Bank – You will enjoy free FairPrice E-Voucher referral if you sign up via my referral code KNDBPEPT. Simply download the Trust Bank SG App on the App Store or Google Play Store. Tap on “Use referral code” immediately after you start the app and key in: KNDBPEPT
  • FSMOne: P0413007. Good account to keep liquid cash in autosweep and to purchase investment at low fee.
  • Hostinger: You can use this link for hosting your new website. 20% off hosting!
  • Crypto.com: Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/h92xdfarkq to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂