How much have I earned and lost in 2021?

"Objective for 2021 will be to buy more good stocks. I can't predict what the future will be, I can't control the dividend income, but I think that there will be more opportunities to buy good stocks at discounted prices because of market volatility. I will be targeting companies with property and/or high cash flow."

I will say I met the objective as I bought property counters. More of that below.

I tried really hard to find good stocks and it was really really tough because asset inflation has set in unfortunately. Monetary policies remain loose, hence cheap money is still reigning. I didn't write any detailed financial analysis of any stocks, mostly because prices just didn't meet my screening criteria. There are signs of bubbles everywhere, but we will never know when it will pop, so if you see advertisements touting to be able to "help you" be prepared for a market crash or continuous inflation or even hyper-inflation (hyper-inflation is very far-fetched but marketing is all about playing on fear), do yourself a favour and apply some common sense.

Here's how to prepare yourself:

1. Check your cash flow. MAS has a really good ratio which everyone should follow 55%, which means your monthly debt repayment amount should not exceed 55% of your gross income.
2. Check your debt level. Ensure that your assets > debt. Assets = property, investments, bonds, cash.
3. Check your emergency cash level. Many people tell you to have 3 or 6 or 12 months of your monthly income. Personally I suggest you calculate your monthly cash flow surplus (i.e. the amount after debt repayment and monthly expenses) as well. If your surplus is > 75%, probably 3 months income will tend you through. If your surplus is <25%, you may want to have 12 months income because it means you are living on a rather tight budget.
4. Plug any leaks. Terminate any non-income producing business ventures or assets. Review any recurring monthly expenditure, and switch to more cost effective alternatives where possible.
5. Don't quit your job. Continue to work for as long as you can.

Stocks I bought for the year:

VICOM (Jun)

Daiwa House Log Trust (Nov)

Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust (Dec)

Stocks I sold:

Wilmar (Feb)

Singapore O&G (Sep)

Hongkong Land (Nov)

Full year dividend income for my SG portfolio was lower at $13k (3.5% yield), mainly because of dividend cuts. I also sold some shares and received $4k profit.

This year I also calculated how much interest I get from my CPF accounts, and it's 3.2% across all the fancy account names and bonuses. Although it's a can-see-cannot-touch-until-55 account, I think it's a good mental exercise to condition yourself with a risk-reward threshold. If you can't beat 3.2%, you really should max out your CPF accounts first or hire someone to do the job, while you buy time to improve your competency.

I also diversified to managed investment services with Autowealth (30k) and a Manulife Financial Advisor (12k/year commitment) mainly to buy into US and China markets. While I could buy the unit trusts myself, I decided to pay for services while I learn the ropes. The financial analysis aspect is really too much work, or rather, the level of detail I expect of myself cannot materialise with the amount of spare time I have now.

Objective for 2022: Stay the course and trim down the non-performers. I really need to analyse whether I should hold or cut loss on the lagtards.

This year I decided to also plot cumulative passive income to give myself a moral boost. It's almost 100k after all these years!