Ronald Read: US Secret Millionaire With US$8 Million Fortune

This is not a new article but was published last year in CNBC. Now maybe a good time to bring out a motivational story to remind our long term investors that market volatility is quite expected in stock investment. Instead, we should take this opportunity to collect our 'dream' dividend stocks. Things should turn for the better in time. If you are feeling down or depressed, fear not, the rain will stop, dark cloud will clear and we shall see rainbow and sunshine shinning on us again :)

How about if I tell you that you just need to work as a gas station attendant and a janitor and you will end up as a millionaire when you retired?

That's how Ronald Read did it
1. Invest in a small basket of 6 dividend blue chips. Ronald invested in a list of major U.S. companies. They include AT&T (NYSE:T), Bank of America (BAC), CVS (CVS), Deere (DE), GE (GE), and General Motors (GM).

2. Live till ripe old age to allow your investment to compound and multiply. He lived up to 92 years old.

3. Stay invested and contribute roughly $300 a month for 65 years, assuming an eight percent rate of return. Its not a big sum of money right?

4. Frugal. Lead a very simple life, he often was seen wearing an old cap, a jacket with safety pin as the zip was not working. No car and just a small house.

Out of the US$8 million fortune, US$6 million was donated to a local library and hospital in his home town

2015 Year End Portfolio Review

Its the end of 2015, let's see how close am I to my target :) I started building my portfolio in Oct 2014. This is a full year of 2015 results.

STI vs my portfolio:

My portfolio got hit by China stock market crash, oil crisis and Fed rate hike effect around Jul 2015 and STI has been a downtrend for the rest of the year. It was a tough year where we see the beginning of the bear market. At the end of 2015, there was still no recovery in sight although there was a relief rally during Oct 2015 but things havent changed much as we were still in the bear market.

Portfolio by stocks:

I am currently still in the process of diversifying my portfolio such that they should not exceed more than 5% of my total portfolio. I am still looking out for more high dividend stocks to buy so that I will be more diversified. I have 21 stocks with me now and will be targeting to reach more than 30 of them.

Portfolio by sector:

In the sector diversification, I am quite max up with the Capital Markets sector. I also bought in quite a number of shares in the Industrial conglomerates which consists of Keppel Corp and Sembcorp Ind, it is now about 17%. Still got room to load up a bit more during this sector weakness :) Probably not more than 20% for each sector of the other stocks.

Checkout my portfolio → portfolio

Target:

Target	Targetted Portfolio size	Targetted Monthly dividends	Period	Yearly CON	Dividends Reinvested
1st target	$85,000	$495	2015	$30,000	$5,900

My 1st target is to invest up to $85,000 and receive monthly dividend up to $495 per month. I think I already met my 1st target!
I have invested $123k and expected to receive monthly dividend of about $570 :)

Checkout my target → target

Dividend:

Total dividend is $6,800+
Dividend per month is $570

Checkout my dividend → Dividends

Portfolio Analysis:
My worst performer is Noble(-40%) Grrr. Not sure if I am unlucky or what. Bought it when I thought it was low enough and there were many institutions buying it at that time :(

My best performer so far is Ascendas Reit (6%). This was bought quite recently when it was heavily sold down, but glad that there was a recovery after that.

Overall, my portfolio ends negative in 2015. No thanks to all the many reasons for causing the stock market to go downhill.

At end of 2015, I already invested close to $123,000 and receive monthly dividend of $570. This is very close to my projection of my expected annual dividend of this current portfolio, I should be getting around $7000 which is about $580 per month. So I should have met my 1st year target! Yea! I will continue to follow my strategy of allocating $5000 each month to buy high dividend stocks and march towards my 2nd target which is ...

Target	Targetted Portfolio size	Targetted Monthly dividends	Period	Yearly CON	Dividends Reinvested
1st target	$85,000	$495	2015	$30,000	$5,900
2nd target	$120,000	$700	2016	$30,000	$8,400
3rd target	$161,000	$920	2017	$30,000	$11,000
4th target	$213,000	$1200	2018	$30,000	$14,900
5th target	$257,000	$1500	2019	$30,000	$18,000
6th target	$320,000	$1800	2020	$30,000	$22,400
7th target	$372,000	$2100	2021	$30,000	$26,000
8th target	$428,000	$2490	2022	$30,000	$29,900
9th target	$487,000	$2800	2023	$30,000	$34,100
Final target	$551,000	$3200	2024	$30,000	$38,500

My 2nd target is to invest upto $120,000 and collect a monthly dividend of $700. Hmm, I have already invested $123,000 in 2015, so I have already met my 2nd target. Which means that I am will ahead of my plan! Hooray! The reason why collected lesser dividend is because some of the stocks bought in 2015 I didnt received the full dividend. 2016 I should see higher dividend around $700. This doesnt mean I will stop investing, I will still try to space out my investment and continue to be well ahead of my targetted plan. Hopefully I can reach my financial independence earlier :)

Checkout my strategy → Strategy

Dividend Stock Tracker
I keep track of good SGX dividend stocks such as 10 years consistent SGX dividend stocks, REITs, Business Trusts, etc with real time information update. Checkout the link below:
Checkout my Dividend Tracker

Dec 2015 Portfolio

DEC 2015 was rather quiet with the long weekends and festive seasons. There wasn't much activity on the market. But market tend to recover abit after much selldown in the early part of the month. Looking at the charts, it seems like some blue chips like SIA Eng is making a slight recovery and all pointing to a good start in 2016. Let see what we have on Monday :)

This month I added Sembcorp Marine into my portfolio.
I finally added Sembcorp Marine into my portfolio after watching it going down down down for a while. I guess it should be right to get some now. This blue chip will be here for the long term and understand it will be reporting a loss quarter soon but it should be able to weathered out this oil and gas crisis with ease. Right now it is trading at low PE of 8.9. Pretty low already.

STI vs my portfolio

My portfolio is still hovering in the negative region :( but good news is that I beat STI at least a consolation prize :)

Period	STI	My Portfolio (Realised)	Verdict
Jan 2015	2.71%	3.21%	I win
Feb 2015	2.41%	2.16%	I lose
Mar 2015	3.31%	0.62%	I lose
Apr 2015	6.02%	4.18%	I lose
May 2015	3.31%	3.84%	I win
Jun 2015	0.90%	1.14%	I win
Jul 2015	-2.41%	-3.83%	I lose
Aug 2015	-10.54%	-9.07%	I win
Sep 2015	-14.16%	-9.34%	I win
Oct 2015	-8.43%	-4.48%	I win
Nov 2015	-12.05%	-8.57%	I win
Dec 2015	-11.14%	-8.26%	I win

Total 21 stocks in portfolio



Dividend
This month I received dividends from Lee Metal, UMS, Asian Pay TV Tr, SPH.



Checkout my Dividend history

Dividend Stock Tracker
I keep track of good SGX dividend stocks such as 10 years consistent SGX dividend stocks, REITs, Business Trusts, etc with real time information update. Checkout the link below:
Checkout my Dividend Tracker

Successful Investors Have No Regrets

VS

I chanced upon an article or book (cant remembered which one) titled 'Successful people have no regrets'. Though I didnt read the article but I sort of agree with this statement.

Let me give you an example, during time like this when market was weakened due to potential Fed's rate hike and China stock market crash or any other reasons. It's a good time to buy the market right? Some people will be procrastinating as to 'when' is the good time or best time to buy stocks?

They are worried that if they buy too early, the stock prices could dive deeper due to more incoming bad business news. They want to avoid this and want to sit out and wait for the best time to buy. But what happens if they wait for too long and the stock market suddenly perform a V shaped recovery and they missed the boat? Well, there isnt any best time to buy.

So, when is the best time to buy? The lowest point of the dip and just before the stock market recovers? Well, I am afraid nobody knows when it will be the lowest point till it happens! ie the market recovers and stock analyst will say 'There! thats the lowest point' when its already happened and thats in the past, gone, opportunity lost!

Many a times, you will hear someone with full of regrets and say things like 'Aiya! I missed the boat! The market recovered and I thought its going to drop further!' or you rather be a successful investor with no regrets who will stroke on his chest and say 'Heng ah! Luckily I nibbled and bought some shares when the price was low'

Though I dont considered myself to be a successful investor yet, still learning to be one :)

I gathered that to become a successful investor with no regrets, you buy bit by bit and space out your buys. Some average down when their stock prices fall by a certain margin, others buy consistently across different time frame eg monthly. That way, you will buy some shares when the price is low. Of course, it may not be the 'best' price but at least you bought your targeted stocks during bearish market opportunities like this.

This is just one solution to at least buy bits of shares when market is down and next time when the market recovers, you will be patting yourself on your shoulder and uttered silently that you have done a great job :)

This downturn, I am going to take advantage of this opportunity and definitely not going to be the one who say 'Sh*t! I missed the boat!'

Nov 2015 Portfolio

This month STI dip down abit after having a fantastic V shaped recovery in Oct 2015. This is quite expected as all goes up must come down for a while. Its quite common to see a retracement down a bit. Also in the month of Nov 2015, there were quite a few companies paying out dividends so its quite expected for STI to go down abit.

This month I added Keppel Reit into my portfolio.
Keppel Reit is trading at quite low price with a low PE of 7 and low PBR of 0.66. It has some solid portfolio of office towers in both Singapore and Australia. Big names such as Bugis Junction Towers, Marina Bay Financial Centre, One Raffles Quay and Ocean Financial Centre are all under its card.

STI vs my portfolio

My portfolio is still hovering in the negative region :( but good news is that I beat STI at least a consolation prize :)

Period	STI	My Portfolio (Realised)	Verdict
Jan 2015	2.71%	3.21%	I win
Feb 2015	2.41%	2.16%	I lose
Mar 2015	3.31%	0.62%	I lose
Apr 2015	6.02%	4.18%	I lose
May 2015	3.31%	3.84%	I win
Jun 2015	0.90%	1.14%	I win
Jul 2015	-2.41%	-3.83%	I lose
Aug 2015	-10.54%	-9.07%	I win
Sep 2015	-14.16%	-9.34%	I win
Oct 2015	-8.43%	-4.48%	I win
Nov 2015	-12.05%	-8.57%	I win

Total 20 stocks in portfolio



Dividend
This month I received dividends from SIA Engineering, Ascendas Reit, StarHub, Sabana Reit, Lippo Mall Tr.



Checkout my Dividend history

Dividend Stock Tracker
I keep track of good SGX dividend stocks such as 10 years consistent SGX dividend stocks, REITs, Business Trusts, etc with real time information update. Checkout the link below:
Checkout my Dividend Tracker

Try To Be Yourself

We often hear people say that life is like a movie or serial drama. Many a times we have to wear a mask and be pressured by fellow peers and environment, we are forced to become another person. If not, we are considered outcast or people who does not blend in the group. This is especially so for the youngsters who are conscious of what people think of them or are they nerds or geeks. They are very concern of others perception of them.

Nowadays, I am more immune to this kinda of things. If I am not happy, I will just find an excuse politely and walk away. That makes me happier than when I was much younger. However, not very true. In workplace, no choice, when I need to entertain or attend a official event, I still need to wear my mask and look friendly.

Guess my happy hours are not in any pubs or drinking session but in my home with my family where I can do whatever I want, be it staring at my TV or playing with my pet fish or children.

I particularly like this song 'Try' by Colbie Caillat and find that its very meaningful. Even the MTV casts are not any super models or pretty lass. They are just plain Jane who wore no makeup or wigs.

This song is about being yourself, no need to change yourself or try to act like another person or pretend to be somebody so that other people will like us or accept us.

Every day when we wakeup, when we look at the mirror. We should like what we see. We should like ourselves.

Oct 2015 Portfolio

This month I witnessed the amazing V-shaped recovery of the SGX stock market. In Sep 2015, it went down down to a low trench of -9.34% and this month, Oct 2015, it suddenly went up with a almost triple times recovery of -3.30%. This definitely caught the pants off for those short sellers and could be a result of short recovering. The reason for this V shaped recovery is more likely due to Fed postponing of rate hike and China implementing more measures to help prop up their stock market.

By the way, this month marked my portfolio one year anniversary! Time flies, its one year already but was glad I embarked on this journey towards financial freedom. Onward !

This month I added M1 into my portfolio.
Added more M1 into my portfolio because there was weakness in telco stocks due to the arrival of the 4th telco company my republic. Telco stocks are defensive and dividend stocks which I believe will ride out all economic cycles. So I took this chance to add in.

STI vs my portfolio

My portfolio is still hovering in the negative region :( but good news is that I beat STI at least a consolation prize :)

Period	STI	My Portfolio (Realised)	Verdict
Jan 2015	2.71%	3.21%	I win
Feb 2015	2.41%	2.16%	I lose
Mar 2015	3.31%	0.62%	I lose
Apr 2015	6.02%	4.18%	I lose
May 2015	3.31%	3.84%	I win
Jun 2015	0.90%	1.14%	I win
Jul 2015	-2.41%	-3.83%	I lose
Aug 2015	-10.54%	-9.07%	I win
Sep 2015	-14.16%	-9.34%	I win
Oct 2015	-8.43%	-4.48%	I win

Total 19 stocks in portfolio



Dividend
This month I received dividends from Global Invest and UMS.



Checkout my Dividend history

Dividend Stock Tracker
I keep track of good SGX dividend stocks such as 10 years consistent SGX dividend stocks, REITs, Business Trusts, etc with real time information update. Checkout the link below:
Checkout my Dividend Tracker