Snowballing of dividends - Super May

Traditionally May is good month for dividends as many companies are paying dividends in May.  14 of my 22 counters paid dividends in May and produced a new monthly dividend harvest record for me. 

Dividends collected in May:
1. SPH: $350
2. Starhub: $300
3. Keppel Corp: $288
4. Boustead: $274.17 (sold the free Boustead Project shares)
5. CapitaLand: $180
6. Keppel InfraTr: $161.18 (incl. special dividends)
7. SGX: $160
8. SCI: $110
9. Suntec Reit: $109.27
10. CMT: $107.20
11. Starhill Global: $100.80
12. SPH Reit: $81.20
13. Frasers CT: $59.26
14. FCOT: $23.76 
Total: $2,304.84


The amount of monthly dividends collected easily smashed the previous record of $1,503.17.  This shows that this dividend investing strategy is working for me, and my snowball is getting bigger as it rolls down the hill.

We can be considered Financial Free when the dividends collected exceed the monthly expenditures.  This is in fact the first time that my dividends are more than my monthly expenditures.

Looking forward to August, which is the second best month for me in the year.

My First Insurance Policy

I bought my first insurance policy on the first week of my army recruit days.  I had no financial and insurance knowledge at that time.  On hind sight, probably I will not buy such policy.

It is just a simple life policy and does not include any medical illness benefits.  Yes, it is still in force. And miraclely I still have the same insurance agent after so many years.

The early "benefit" of this policy was only paying 50% of the premium for the two-and-a-half years of my army life.  The full premium will kick-in only after my army ROD (nowaday known as ORD).

ROD - Run Out Date
ORD -  Operationally Ready Date

The first consideration then was to leave something for my ageing parents in case something happens (that was also what the insurance agent said).  The second reason was probably herding mentality as most of my platoon mates brought it.

After my army ROD, the policy is being paid by GIRO in "auto-pilot" mode.  I only remember the policy when the agent sent me birthday and new year cards.

After so many years, the only comfort is that the surrender value of the policy is now much higher than my total premium paid. And it is now growing at a faster rate than if I am leaving the money in the bank.  

Also, it is good to know that the money in this policy is no longer important to my family any more.

Now I am treating this policy as part of my warchest and will terminate it for the next bear hunt bullets.

My Stock Portfolio @ end April 2015

No.	STOCK NAME	No.of SHARES	PORTFOLIO%	MARKET $
1	SGX	4,000	18.75	8.52
2	Starhub	6,000	13.96	4.23
3	SPH	5,000	11.53	4.19
4	SingTel	2,190	5.34	4.43
5	SATS	3,000	5.27	3.19
6	CapitaMall Trust	4,000	4.82	2.19
7	Suntec Reit	4,900	4.77	1.77
8	AIMS AMPI Reit	5,000	4.21	1.53
9	CapitaLand	2,000	4.06	3.69
10	Starhill Global	8,000	3.85	0.875
11	Keppel Corp	800	3.84	8.72
12	SPH Reit	5,800	3.35	1.05
13	CDL HTrust	3,000	2.83	1.715
14	Sembcorp Ind	1,000	2.49	4.52
15	SIA Engg	1,000	2.31	4.19
16	FCT	2,000	2.28	2.07
17	CitySpring	5,000	1.60	0.58
18	HPH Trust	3,000	1.53	0.675
19	OCBC	200	1.18	10.68
20	FCOT	1,000	0.83	1.51
21	Boustead	1,000	0.78	1.415
22	FE HTrust	1,000	0.45	0.82

Movement in my portfolio in April:-
Sold:- Nil.
Bought:- Suntec Reit.

Dividends collected in Apr: $0
2015 avg dividends/month: $317.39 [0.13% down at this stage cf. 2014]

Boring process of building up my passive income portfolio brick-by-brick (bit-by-bit).

Comments:
1. Big fat ZERO dividend in April.  Perhaps I should buy M1 to have some dividends in April.

2. My total portfolio value crossed $180K for the first time.

3. Despite the increase in portfolio size, the total dividends collected is surprisingly 0.13% down at this stage comparing with 2014.  This is because Starhub and Suntec paid dividends in April last year, but they are paying in May this year.

4. Finally May the dividend harvesting month has arrived.  My hard works in planting my dividend trees are starting to bear dividend fruits.  It will be a record harvest of about $2K dividends in May, easily surpassing the previous record when SPH paid special dividends.