Legoland 2025

07 Mar - It is our annual trip to Legoland with our *OEE*! Having grown taller these past 1 year, now he has reached a new milestone to be able to ride roller coaster within the park! Much has changed where we stayed for 2 nights compared to 1 year ago. A new Greentree Hotel is currently being built to be ready in 2026. A lot of new and cheap eateries has open up surrounding the hotel. Imagine having a breakfast for just RM35 for 2 adults and 1 kid! The food is nice though!

Kokomo restaurant (Rating 4.2 - 257 reviews) where we have our usual lunch

Medo Restaurant (Rating 4.3 - 65 reviews) where we have our breakfast

As usual, we picked a weekday to visit Legoland to avoid the crowds. All the rides practically have no queue and we cleared them pretty fast. Its the first time riding the roller coaster for *OEE* and the experience did not go down well for him. He wanted to ride one time only as he is scared! Haha >.< In the end, most of our time are spent chasing the 4D shows and the live shows on stage.

*OEE* did managed to get his hand on the Junior Driving School to drive a car on his own and the Boating School to steer a boat through the winding course. Thank God it did not rain when we were at Legoland to enjoy the full day!

4Q 2024 Investment Strategy Update

It is a crazy world. Just when I think the USA folks are clear headed enough to see through Trump's flowery commitment (After going through 4 years of his rule), they went back and elect him as the next term president. 2025 could just be a Year of Chaos, where tariffs and Trump's way or the highway politics will take center stage. Overall, I believe Trump's politics will benefit the US stock market, with tax cuts and deregulation. Fed's interest rate should still be on the downward trend, but at a slower rate. After all, Trump always has a tendency to rate his performances based on the strength of the US stock market. With the downward trend in interest rate, I will be staying clear of bank stocks. Instead, I may take a look at REITs that have exposure to USA Offices. Things have started bottoming out, with companies demanding employees to come back to offices to work, and that means they need more space!

DJI ended at 42544, an increase of 214 points (+0.50%) compared to 3Q 2024. For Singapore, STI ended at 3787, an increase of 202 points (+5.63%) compared to last quarter. Banks in Singapore have taken central stage in the last 6 months with their stellar results, but with the looming downward interest rate trend, I will only do opportunistic buy-in if they drop too much a price.

With 2024 drawing to a close, it is time for the annual review against my 3 year plan (Next 3 years (2023 - 2025) Investment Plan) set back in Nov 2022. Below are my result:

Original 2023-2025 plan: 

1. 50% Equity, 50% Reits/Trusts 
2. Portfolio Dividend Yield to be 3.80% in 2023, 4.30% in 2024, 4.80% in 2025.

End 2024 result: 

1. 49.22% Equity, 50.78% Reits/Trusts 
2. 80.58% SG Equity, 19.42% USA Equity 

Portfolio Yield at 3.46% in 2024 (-0.12% from 2023, and miss 2024 4.30% target)

Verdict: Miss Target

Note: In 2024, Prime US Reit only gave out dividend at a much reduced rate. Keppel Pacific Oak US Reit elected to suspend dividend until 2H2025.

Below is my end 2024 portfolio snapshot:

Total dividend received in 2024: $6,595.05 (~$549.58/month)

For this quarter, I continued accumulating Keppel Pacific Oak US Reit and Mapletree Industrial Trust to take advantage of Fed starting cycle in reducing interest rate. Overall, this move should be a positive for Reits as a reduction in interest rate = reduction in interest expenses = more distribution available for investors.

Transaction 1: Bought 1 batch Mapletree Industrial Trust shares in December. 

Overall positive for the Reit as they started investing into Japan Data Center market, partly due to low interest rate for Yen and Yen currency weakness. At current 5.9% dividend yield. this is a good deal.

Transaction 2: Bought 1 batch Keppel Pacific Oak US Reit shares in December. 

Current weakness was due to its suspension of dividend until 2H2025. I personally don't see this Reit in any potential danger as the manager has been keeping a close eye on its gearing level. Continue to buy in while waiting for dividend to resume.

That is all for now. See you all in Q1 2025 update and thank you for reading thus far.