Wednesday, January 01, 2025

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 2Bought 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.

Thursday, December 05, 2024

19th Year Blog Anniversary

19 years....I really did not expect to keep this blog alive for such a long time. But this is a good digital avenue to keep records of the episodes of my life. Looking back, 2024 has not been smooth sailing for me. Company conducting retrenchment exercise (though I am not one of the statistic, thank God), pay freeze, passing of a colleague's hubby due to cancer, a friend's child died due to cancer as well.... seems like the once avoided topic "Death" has shown itself coming into the mid life cycle. I guess that's part of life.

On a happier note, my family went on 2 holiday trips this year (Australia and Japan). We certainly enjoyed ourselves. Hopefully, next year can be better! (Things certainly doesn't look good now. Trump incoming as USA president in Jan 2025, South Korea and France government are in turmoil, Ukraine and Russia war are still ongoing with the aggressor seems to be winning....etc) Sigh....

Some Statistic:

Page Count: 87197 +5163

Year on Year increase: +777 +17.71%

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Japan Day 6 - Cape Manzamo, Daisekirinzan Park, Cape Hedo

27 Oct - Today, we are on an excursion to the northern Okinawa island, so time management will be crucial as a 1-way trip takes about 90mins. Before breakfast, we dropped by the famous Cape Manzamo, which now needs a 100yen admission fee having built some nice souvenir shops and cafes after COVID.

Cape Manzamo Entrance

Cape Manzamo

Nice view overlooking East China Sea

We spent about 45mins there and left promptly when other tourists from tour groups started arriving and crowded out the photo spots. On the way to our next destination, we stopped by Flap Coffee and Bake Shop to have our breakfast. One thing I have to mentioned is that they served really the best coffee I ever had in Okinawa! Food wise, it is good, but you need to give them a bit of time to prepare the food.


Best Latte I ever had in Okinawa

Ham and Cheese Toast

After breakfast, it will be another 60mins drive before we reached the Daisekirinzan Park. Daisekirinzan is a subtropical forest national park with trails & unusual rock formations. We came totally unprepared as we did not expect to climb forest trails with elevation with the presence of mosquitoes!


Different rocks that can be found within Daisekirinzan 


Heart Shape Rock

Dinosaur face

Climbing steps after steps


Nice view from the top of Churaumi Observation Deck


Rock formation

End of tracking - We gave up after taking the most popular (and longest) route in hot weather

Last stop of the day - Cape Hedo. Just here to enjoy the scenery at the most northern point of Okinawa facing the Pacific Ocean.






After we are done with the photos, we dropped by a café near the carpark (辺戸岬こうようパーラー) where we had the best Taco Rice ever had. The stall offers a generous variety of ingredients for the toppings, eggs and side dishes, way more than what other restaurants provide. Rice was slightly purplish, which I have no idea is food coloring or they used the purple sweet potatoes for the color.

Taco Rice with many ingredients

Okinawa Soba

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Japan Day 4 - Cape Chinen Park, Okinawa World, Umikaji Terrace Senagajima, American Village

25 Oct - Today is another outdoor exploration day via a 10 hours rented car accompanied with a Chinese driver. For breakfast, we settled on Rose Garden which offers toast and waffles set with unlimited coffee or ice tea. The restaurant has accumulated a 4.2 rating with 1199 Google Reviews, which means the food must be good! Well the reviews certainly did not disappoint us.

Rose Garden

Maria's French Toast with lean bacon

Extra Thick Bacon with Waffles

After breakfast, we continued on to our next destination, Cape Chinen Park. The scenic view it provide was 100% worth our time to visit.

Cape Chinen Park





After spending about 45mins taking photos, we proceed to our next destination, Okinawa World to visit the underground limestone cave. The whole walk will need about an hour to walk through the cave system. It was quite educational, with signboard explanation how the cave was formed.

Gyokusendo Cave




Upon exiting the underground cave, you will reach the next section of the park - Tropical Orchids, where it grows about 50 kinds of 450 tropical fruit trees such as pineapple, mango, papaya, passion fruit, dragon fruit, star fruit, lychee, kegaki and jaboticaba.

Star Fruits!


After spending 3 hours within Okinawa World, we exit the park and drove to Umikaji Terrace Senagajima. The location is well known for their low, white structures lined up in terraced rows with a beautiful view of the sea simulating a distinctly Mediterranean flair. We did stop for a while to have the famous Blue Seal Ice-cream.

Umikaji Terrace Senagajima


With time running short, we did a drive by to the American Village. It kind of reminds me that we are back in the USA! The theme of Americana provides a nostalgic pleasure for residents of the American bases nearby as well as an interesting diversion for the locals. The Village resembles a big American outdoor shopping mall with lots of shops, restaurants and a large parking lot.


Thursday, November 07, 2024

Japan Day 3 - Exploring Sheraton Okinawa Sunmarina Resort

24 Oct - Today will be a "Stay in Resort" day as we hunkered down to escape the remnants of Typhoon Trami. With no outdoor activities that can be done, we plan to explore the rest of the resort facilities. For a start, we have booked a 1 hour Karaoke Room to try out some Japanese songs. We also plan to  accompany the little one as he explore the Indoor Playground and have fun jumping into the ball pit. Last but not the least, we will also be spending some time in the heated indoor pool and the outdoor water slides if we can brave the cold. 

Since the reviews for the resort breakfast is not fantastic, we ventured out to Buruno, which has a 4.6 rating out of 36 Google reviews. This is one of few shops which opens for breakfast serving Onigiri (Surprisingly, most open typically around 11am). I have tried most of their varieties and all tasted not bad! In the end, we came back again 2 days later... haha

Buruno shop front

Teriyaki Pork Wrap

Okinawa Cooked Rice

Spam & Egg (Okinawa Specialty)

For dinner, we tried the Izakaya Chinuman (Manza Tei) near our resort. An interesting fact about Izakaya in Okinawa is that most carried an adult cover charge ranging from 300-500 yen per pax. Once you paid, they will serve you some appetizer.

Chinuman (Manza Tei) Shop front

Sea Grapes (Okinawa Specialty)

Tuna Rice

Tuna Stir Fry Noodle (This is nice!)

Cover charge appetizer

Soba Noodle

Spam and Starchy Egg (Feels like oyster omelette)

Sushi