The Power Of Compounding Dividends & A Mystery Counter Revealed

The Snowball Effect Over Last 5 Years
My overall portfolio value as well as dividend stream has grown considerably since 2014. Besides injecting fresh capital, consistently re-investing my dividends has started to make an impact. Compounding growing dividends over long periods of time has been the cornerstone of my investing strategy. I believe this strategy is probably one of the best 'wealth-creating machines' on earth, especially for the ordinary man on the street. Tried and tested. 

Time in market is better than timing the market

   Top 10 Core Holdings

Are you able to spot the mystery counter? :)

Returns On University Education

Going through the public education system is a rite-of-passage for most Singaporean children. The Singapore education system is highly-regarded world-wide on most measures. School fees are heavily subsidised from kindergarten to Junior College levels. It is generally considered worthwhile for students and parents to 'invest' time, effort and money into this glorious 20-year 'paper chase'. However, the ROIC (Returns On Invested Capital) becomes trickier at the tertiary level. Is it still worthwhile pursuing that part-time degree at a private university like SIM?

Many years ago, one of my friends got a degree from SIM after spending close to S$30k on fees and 3 years of his life.  When I casually probed him about the motivations behind his pursuit of this degree, he gave me the expected answers. "I wanted to make my parents proud. I see many of my friends and relatives are graduates and I want to be like them. I wanted to show them I am smart too. Having a degree will help me get a better-paying job too." Sadly, he was wrong on all accounts. Sure, his parents were initially proud of him, smiling widely at the graduation ceremony. They probably have the old-fashion mindset of equating a degree to a lucrative job. Well, times have changed. Graduates of all kinds are flooding the job market now.

Secondly, getting a degree from SIM will not make you appear 'smart' to your friends, relatives or future employer. In fact, it has quite the opposite effect. That degree from SIM actually showed my friend's academic mediocrity when placed against other candidates from more prestigious universities like NUS/NTU/SMU.

He gave up searching for a proper, full-time job after 2 years. Don't worry, he did not end up driving for Grab or delivering food for FoodPanda. He spent the next 8 years dabbling in 'small' businesses which he claimed vehemently he was passionate in. His latest business venture is running a pomelo farm in Vietnam. So far, he has little returns to show for it and almost no CPF savings at all. The harsh reality is that in the end, the ROC of his university education was practically zero. 3 years of his life and S$30k in fees down the drain, forever, plus opportunity costs. He did not get the status, recognition and job security that he thought he would. 

To conclude, I guess my hard-truth message to those impressionable youngsters out there who are dealing with social/peer pressures is this - if you plan to get a sub-par degree from a sub-par university, you are better off not getting one.

Dividend Warrior's Football 'Portfolio' Team (19/20 Season)

This post on my 'portfolio' soccer team was one of my most read posts last year. So, I decided to do another one :)

This season, I shall be using the 4-3-3 formation. This formation offers the best flexibility in the current low interest rate, slow growth macro environment. The pace and movement of the veteran attackers, support of the fullbacks, and offensive midfielders will combine to overload the opponent's defence with 'Power of CD'. I believe this formation can be a massive success if you have the right players to play to its strengths. You can sit back in a 4-5-1 formation when under pressure (market correction) and hit the opponent on the counter-attack (deploy cash warchest). Or the fullbacks can push forward and the defensive midfielder drops back between the two centre-backs to form a 3-4-3 formation (sit tight and collect CD). I have signed a new, top quality inside forward (UOB) on 14 May.

Substitutes bench: CMT, SATS, FLT, Propnex, APAC Realty, HRnet, F&N

Dividend Warrior's 3Q2019 S-REITs Performance And Passive Income Update

FCT acquired a one-third stake in Waterway Point Mall

FLT acquired 12 logistics properties in Australia and Germany

*Thanks for all the support over the years. My blog has finally surpassed 3 million views! ^__^