I’m back from my 2 week holiday to Italy in Europe! My wife and I have been there before during the second year winter break of our undergraduate study. Even with a limited budget as students, we had a great time in Italy then and figured we would enjoy it even more now with our increased budget as working adults. We were right! Nicer accommodation, food and travel options do make a difference. Anyway, we are happy to be back in Singapore and are still recovering from jet lag. Will also need to get ready for our first day back at work this week and readjust to the daily routine.
I updated the Google Sheet and SGXCafe portfolios for the automatic Oct 2016 purchases so far:
- SPDR Straits Times Index ETF (ES3) – Maybank Kim Eng Monthly Investment Plan (S$400)
- Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF (G3B) – POSB Invest-Saver (S$400)
The SPDR Gold Shares (O87) automatic purchase under the Maybank Kim Eng Monthly Investment Plan did not happen because I only allocated S$100 to it. Which is not enough to purchase even 1 share as I found out from the broker. Not sure why I didn’t think of this before. Increased it to S$200 and I’m hoping at least 1 share gets purchased every month from Nov 2016 onwards.While I was away, the Philip SGX APAC Dividend Leaders REIT ETF S$ (BYJ) was listed and started trading last week. I’m not going to analyse the pros and cons of this REIT ETF as there is plenty of online material on that by the other finance bloggers and websites.
After making my own assessment, I reckon it makes for a decent addition to our ETF portfolio. I have considered including a REIT ETF before to increase the dividend yield of our ETF portfolio but couldn’t find a suitable one so far.
The BYJ has some level of diversification into different types of REITs and Asia-Pacific countries but with a substantial exposure to the retail sector and Australia. It’s not ideal as I would have preferred a more even spread across the various sectors and to other developed countries. But it works for now and I have added about S$1,200 of the BYJ to our ETF portfolio.
There will be an automatic Oct 2016 purchase of ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund (A35) under the POSB Invest-Saver (S$100) tomorrow and I will update the Google Sheet and SGXCafe portfolios then as well.