BRIAN HALIM: My portfolio has reached $900K (after saving, investing, working hard)

Republished with permission from Brian Halim's blog, A Path to Forever Financial Freedom. Brian (photo), who is 34, has a MBA and previously worked as an analyst and financial controller. He will soon be taking a break from his current job in a top Singapore bank.

Mar 19 - Portfolio & Networth Update

Earnings season is finally over so we are back to this muted season where share prices are just gyrating along with the overall trend of the market.

I've made a few changes to my portfolio with the objective of getting a higher yield and a lower risk or one of the combination of the two.

My portfolio is constructed to capture both defensive profiles and stability of the cashflow, as dividends remain an integral part of my life now, especially given my "loss of income" in the next few months.

No.	Counters	No. of Shares	Market Price (SGD)	Total Value (SGD)	Allocation
1.	Starhill Reit	377,000	0.70	263,900	29.0%
2.	Vicom	31,300	6.48	202,824	22.0%
3.	Netlink Trust	236,000	0.795	187,620	21.0%
4.	First Reit	152,000	0.995	151,240	17.0%
5.	Manulife Reit	81,000	US$0.85	92,759	11.0%
6.	Ho Bee Land	300	2.51	753	1.0%
7.	Cash			1,000	1.0%
Total				900,096	100%

The portfolio continued to do well, spurred by the defensive profiles of companies and Reits in the portfolio and also some divestments.

It increased from $876,954 in the previous month to $900,096 this month (+2.6% month on month; +39.7% year on year).

This is the 15th consecutive month that the portfolio has broken a new high.

This is also the first time the portfolio has hit above $900k.

(You can read about the portfolio movements in Brian's blog)

“Over time, I managed to do rather well in three areas - climbing the corporate ladder, maintaining a ridiculously high savings rate and getting a very decent return on my investment.”

-- Brian Halim

... this blog is a chronicle of the journey of an ordinary person who is looking to achieve financial independence at the age of 35 and I had given myself a 10 year timeline to do that from when I started working at the age of 23 (but only "woke up" after 1-2 years of working).

When I started working, I was not immediately enlightened by this whole idea of financial independence.

My salary at the end of the month was wasted on all sort of gadgets and the latest trends in town. My bank account would quickly diminish from 4 digits to 2 digits by the end of the month.

I eagerly waited for the next paycheck to arrive and I thought this was a common practice among the colleagues who were practically almost doing the same. I wasn't really sure if I should be deviating from that practice.

One day, I was somewhat enlightened by my ridiculous spending and saving pattern, with little to no investment. I started this blog to start afresh and to keep tabs on my spending, saving and investment.

The "Cashflow" Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki was my first inspiration book while there are many bloggers I was inspired by who also contributed well to where I am today.

Over time, I managed to do rather well in three areas -- climbing the corporate ladder, maintaining a ridiculously high savings rate and getting a very decent return on my investment.

In April 2014, I managed to reach my first milestone target of $250k which I am extremely proud of. It took me 6 years to achieve this result. You can view my thoughts on achieving that here.

Then, my first son was born and I upgraded myself by studying for a part-time MBA. I thought expenses were going to balloon and it would derail my journey to the next milestone.

Thankfully, while expenses have creeped up, the bull market resulted in me getting a decent return on my investment. Hence I was able to continue to push my net worth up further and it took me about 3 years to reach the next milestone.

In March 2017, I managed to reach my second target of $500k. You can view my thoughts on achieving this here.

I knew things were going to get even harder, given that our second child was born during the year and that means expenses had to double.

(You can read the full article at Brian's blog)

BRIAN HALIM: My portfolio has reached $900K (after saving, investing, working hard)

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