As I age and observe and learn from investing from bogleheads and their real estate counterparts, as well as learn about the nature of dividend stocks and tech stocks, I am getting increasingly clear that I will likely move away from both dividend, growth and tech stocks.
To be even clearer, I am moving away from individual counters / companies investing. I’ve moved the category from this blog as I dont want to hold individual stocks anymore.
Singapore Dividend Stocks
Lets distinguish between SG Dividend Stocks which has typical flat or little growth, because they’re focused on dividends which I really like (cashflow is king eh), ZERO dividend or capital gains tax (which is really wonderful) and generally passive. The usual problems are equity price fluctuations which is to be expected with stocks and equities and the other issue that’s bigger for me is that it’s:
- Active – you cant leave it to run on its own passively forever (nothing lasts forever too we can argue) but I want my investments to be largely passive as I actively live/manage businesses, relationships and personal growth.
- Concentration risk – going into single counters in stocks in SG means that we who’s in SG is all-in in SG, and that’s not bad cos Singapore is likely to not go anywhere bad (our government is really solid good) but this approach lacks diversity and safety hedge.
Next, US-based tech or growth stocks
- Great growth but very cyclical – the ups are very up, the downs are brutal – the argument for being, if you can catch and buy-in at the down, you can ride the wave up…but as I mention, I prefer something more passive so if you’re good with this, good for you!
- BIG ISSUE: Stocks outside of SG can be subject to withholding and estate laws, which can shave down 30%+ of your dividend value, and in the case of death, can translate to the country’s estate law taking a handsome 40% of your portfolio, which I cannot agree with.
- FLUCTUATIONS: Equities are subject to market price changes and fluctuations which is entirely normal, because price may not be intrinsic but can be due to sentiments and feelings or in weird situations, impacted by issues such as scandals and problems too
- CONCENTRATION: single stocks such as TESLA or NVIDIA can be either awesome or swing the other way in bad weather seasons (depending on which side of the fence you’re on)
And possibly my changing, evolving understanding and needs, which leads me away from these kind of investing to look at a combination of
Singapore Rental Property As My Baseline Moving Forward
Singapore Property / Real Estate by a company (NALCO) that I own for regular cashflow as well as leverage play for acquisition of more rental properties.
Likely commercial properties specific to food & beverage (F&B), mall shops and last option will be office or warehouse spaces.
I find that property (at least in Singapore) is resilient and stable, and I will apportion a percentage of profits from property rental income to be dollar-cost-averaged into
- 10-20% into index funds such as S&P or CSPX in my case, where it’s based on 500 of the top large cap companies in America. A variation of this can be index funds that have an exposure to world, different regions vs pure US – I rather invest in the entire market over time, rather than in individuals select few due to concentration risks and passiveness I prefer (plus these indices seem to perform conservatively 4-10%+ over the last 10 years!)
- 5-10% into cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin and ETH
- Existing insurance policies where the beneficiary is the company (NALCO)
This is likely better suited for my needs having young children and dependents, where I need month-to-month cashflow and predictability.
My goal is to create a trust fund that is self perpetuating and ideally to last forever with its own purpose to help my kids /future generation as well as a select few philanthropy recipients on a very long term basis.