My Investment Machine 2018 Year End Review

2016 and 2017 was the year where stock prices in Singapore and around the world rose after sentiments changed after Brexit and Trump being elected as The President of United States of America. 2018 will probably be remembered as a year where it was a reality check. The bear took over as things were not as rosy as expected. But well that’s life. What goes up will go down. Similarly, what goes down will go up.

My portfolio has taken a beating as majority of my unrealized gains were wiped out. Thankfully, with the dividends collected over the years, I still in the positive territory. It has also reinforced the fact that investing is long term.

In 2018, I received $6,959.32 of dividends. A brief summary of my portfolio over the years is appended at the end of this post. My average dividends yield has increased slight by 0.13% while dividends received increased by 26.1% when compared to 2017. I had expected more dividends but several companies did not perform well including Accordia Golf Trust which used to pay handsomely.

I made 16 transactions in 2018, more than last year which was 11. Good or bad? Only time will tell. 12 transactions were buy actions and 4 were sell actions. As shared in my 2017 review, I had been wanting to cut off Hyflux and luckily enough, I did sell it off before the share was suspended although it was at a loss of 67.2%.

Next year, will be a test my endurance and discipline in the market. I hope that as the market presents more buying opportunities, I will have the courage to continue to buy more and stay invested. There are so many stocks which are at their 1 year low such as Keppel Corp, Singtel, SIA, SIA Engineering, Accordia Golf Tr, Sing Post, Jumbo and NetLink NBN Tr. I expect the dividends yield and my actually dividends to decrease next year as companies go through rough times. That is all for the year end review!

All the best in the year of 2019. May you and your love ones be healthy, happy and safe. May the odds be with you!