If you have 20 counters then the dividend fees will be high for $2k dividend income. You may need to pay 20 counters x $5 x 2-4 times per year = $200-$400. This is 10%-20% of your dividend received.

If you only have 1 counter, the you only pay 1 counter x $5 x 2-4 times per year = $10-$20. That is only 0.5%-1% which is ok

Have you look at the fare from MAS lately ? It is competitive to AAX with meals and luggages. Actually Atas feel for any airlines can only feel if you travel non-economy lah....



edit - While you are willing to pay broker for buying stock, distributing dividend for you involve cost also. Because the company pay a lump sum dividend to your broker, then the broker has to distribute the dividend to their customers. Charging $5 may not be able to cover the cost. So if your broker waive the fee, they are absorbing the cost actually

This post has been edited by Showtime747: Jul 27 2019, 09:22 PM

Wah, you are better in choosing broker than our cost-OCD bro ramjade

Anyway, you are ok with paying the dividend fee, so no problem for you.

Brokerage and the associating cost is the last thing to worry in share investment anyway. Energy should be directed into picking the right shares. Profits will cover the small cost easily.

Buying shares also use computer programs. But you are willing to pay for it.

Of course there are human in the management of the computer system. They need more IT people and less clerk in this age. Whenever there is an action (like distribution of dividend to thousands of client), there will be costs involved.

When MKE make changes, you jumped and called your broker, your broker has to answer you call, that is already cost involved

Well said

Investment ultimate objective is making money. Everything is in numbers.

But I can see some forummers here get satisfaction from having the cheapest trade platform and success in opening foreign countries bank/trading accounts itself. Whereas the real objective of investment, ie investment returns is not their main focus.

Apparently they are happier with the process than the result

You have a very good and inspiring blog. Recording down your journey in numbers. Show your milestone by adopting an investing strategy - dividend strategy

I wish ramjade and plumberly can also learn from you by sharing their experience in their strategy - buy at low target (ramjade) and sell in anticipation of a crash (plumberly)


On a side note (for everybody's comment), a rough calculation of your dividend yield is ($13kx2=$26k) / $457k = 5.7%pa

Some banks offer structured products with 5%-6% return with the following terms and condition :

1. Underlying shares in major market (eg. FANG)
2. Knock-in at say, -30%. Meaning if any of the FANG falls 30% below original price, then knock in event occurs.
3. If knock-in event never occurs, then you are paid 5-6% pa. Typical length is 15 months
4. When knock in event occurs, bank refund you 100% original amount you put in. But you don't earn any return

Question to everybody : would you take up the structured product or invest in dividend strategy ?

Yes. Every bank has its own rating by the 3 major rating agency. So, some investment banks have higher rating, some lower. So, it is part of the consideration when subscribing to the product. Many banks have highest rating, so the risk is lower. For some shaky banks, it may not be a good idea

The idea came about when comparing to the "expecting a crash" strategy. In such instance, there may be a multi point and across the board failure.

The product is a defensive product I guess. May not be suitable for "normal" market and agressive strategy

In this product, the issuer pays bank the service fee and interest. Investor pays nothing. Banks are just the intermediary earning the service fee from issuer. So, as oppose to you paying your broker when buying shares (which you enrich your bank), for this product, investor pays nothing. He just takes the risk.

If you are really adamant to not allowing banks to make your money, this product actually suits you

Accountant speaking now

Ya....during bears, you don't earn anything and you also won't lose anything. If you stay in stock market, you will lose money. This product limits the downside risk, as well as limit upside gain

All banks offer this type of product, with many types of variance. Mine is from banks in Singapore

Haha, now reach your target price, see market also scared, shift target again......

How to be a good investor like that ? Later sudden u-turn you miss the chance....

Aiyoh....put order "good till cancel" at the price you want lah....then you won't miss out good deal...

No pain no gain lah in this world. Best case scenario won't happen....sure need to take some risk...

All investors including you and me take risk right ?

Just my personal feel.....your targets are too wide. From your list, pick maybe 5 counters as jewels in the crown and concentrate on them

Oh....he has issue with paying for too much dividend fee because the fee constitute a big % of the total dividend received.

So suggest to him to cut down the counters to hold. Then don't need pay too much dividend fees

I think Reits is still ok....with expected lower interest rate worldwide and uncertainty in trade war. Singtel sell fast fast....Telecom and broadband business is very uncertain anywhere in the world now

Your investment is not leveraged, so can ride through the downturn if really happen...

What a miserable investment life you have. Have to always track how you are charged, transfer here and there, busy on the admin part

Worse still you always don't have time due to work.....I see you investing also pening

Got 2 we know here...ramjade and plumberly.

That's right....money has to be on the table in order to win. If money is not on the table, they may not lose money, but they lose out the opportunity

3 month performance of the above portfolio for Ramjade

Original cost @20/5/2019 = S$70,793.14

1 month @ 19/6/2019 = S$72,774.43 +S$1,981.29 or +2.8%
2 month @ 19/7/2019 = S$74,903.73 +S$4,110.59 or +5.8%
3 month @ 19/8/2019 = S$71,074.40 +S$281.26 or +0.4%

I am surprised portfolio still in +ve zone with such market correction over the past month.

Paper loss is -S$546.14, but with dividend S$827.40, it more than covered the paper loss. I would say it is a resilient portfolio

Bro, no point to make it complicated. Confusing only.

I compare his “wait, wait, wait” price vs “buy now” price. I keep track of “buy now” price, so in year 1, year 2 etc....let’s see if he is better off buying outright.

For the first quarter performance, overall portfolio is a small negligible positive return. As of yesterday, it was about +S$1.6k or about +2.3%. Market rebounded a bit.

His selection of stock is quite good. Even at this bad market, it is still a respectable positive

4 month performance of the above portfolio for Ramjade

Original cost @20/5/2019 = S$70,793.14

1 month @ 19/6/2019 = S$72,774.43 +S$1,981.29 or +2.8%
2 month @ 19/7/2019 = S$74,903.73 +S$4,110.59 or +5.8%
3 month @ 19/8/2019 = S$71,074.40 +S$281.26 or +0.4%
4 month @ 19/9/2019 = S$71,681.45 +S$888.31 or +1.2%

The portfolio paper value in the 4th month is breakeven. But because of dividend received, the overall gain is S$888. What a nice number !

I will be re-investing the dividend income into the portfolio for ramjade when cash from dividend reaches S$1000

Bro aspartame, hansel and ramjade,

What I compiled is just to show a real life project of whether it is good to time stock investment. We are fortunate to have ramjade willing to give his preferred counters and target price to make this project more interesting. I don’t know why, but some other forummers tend to refuse divulging details when I asked them. Especially they often claim “after event” 20/20 vision in their comments.

The timing of entry for ramjade’s portfolio is in May, the height of 2019 rally. It seems like a bad timing on hindsight. If without specific counters and numbers, I (and probably everyone else) could have assumed the portfolio must be in the negative numbers. However, with specific tracking, to my surprise, the portfolio is actually a resilient investment. I must say ramjade is a good stock picker.

Ramjade’s comment immediately above this post shows another typical rhetoric comment without cold hard numbers. As a reader, I don’t know whether what he claims is true or not. Hence, with this portfolio tracking we put aside opinions and only look at cold hard numbers