The Straits Times recently published an interesting piece titled "Young investors drawn to Singapore equities as safe harbour amid wild seas" and reading it, I couldn't help but reflect on my own journey.
As a university student in my early 20s investing in the Singapore market, I sometimes get asked why I’m not chasing the massive, volatile swings of crypto or purely focusing on strong growth tech plays.
To me, good old fashioned Dividend Investment just makes sense. It is a disciplined approach on cash-flowing, fundamental value. It is easy to get swept up in the noise sometimes but keeping my investing strategy clear and focused is my structural advantage as an investor.
Here is why I myself am drawn to the safe harbor of Singapore equities and built myself a portfolio for Dividend Investment.
Investments Backed By Hard Assets
When you look at the bedrock of the Singapore exchange—our banks, REITs, conglomerates and more, you are looking at companies heavy on hard assets. They own the shophouses we walk past, the commercial buildings where business is done, the land, and the critical infrastructure in our country.
These are safe-haven assets that serve as a robust hedge against inflation. More precisely, their value and the rent that they collect will tend to rise with the economy and with the general costs of living.
I sleep soundly knowing exactly where and what my dividends come from. They are derived from highly reliable physical assets that simply cannot be replicated, digitized, or replaced by artificial intelligence.
As mentioned in the Straits Times article, "Know what you are buying". Beyond looking at analyst reports or looking at what AI says about the companies, I like to look directly at their earnings releases and financial statements too. I can look at the exact financial line items, hear exactly what management had to say, and then recently I started liking to write it all down in my blog.
Many of my blog posts have been exactly that. The primary benefit of writing these posts would be the whole process of thinking out loud and building my own convictions. If my posts helped anyone learn a thing or two along their own investing journey, that's even better.
My recent post about Suntec REIT shows how we put theory into practice, looking at exactly where and why money comes from in my portfolio companies. On top of being from my favorite sector of retail REITs, looking at Suntec's valuations and financials ourselves would show you exactly why it has been a value-reversion and dividend-recovery play in my portfolio.
Cash Flow Is King
My investments never feel like a liability or a drag on my finances. Why? Because I know there's quite a high probability that every dollar I put into the market today is going to generate tangible free cash flow for me in the months and years to come.
This makes Dividend Investment so addicting. You feel the compounding effect in real time, the reality that your money is indeed printing more money. Reinvesting those dividends buys more shares, which print even more dividends.
More practically, Dividend Investment is how I see myself carrying out this wealth accumulation phase from now until the day I retire. retirement. This portfolio acts as an engine; it will eventually generate enough liquidity to support me on big-ticket purchases, giving me the optionality to either aggressively reinvest or draw down the cash when life requires it.
Patience, Realistic Expectations
While Singapore is a financial safe haven, equities are never entirely "safe." As a stock picker, I am consciously taking on distinct exposures: market risk, sector concentration risk, and execution risk. It is very plausible to lose money on Singapore stocks, even when my portfolio is almost entirely blue chips. Many investors have lost before.
Because my portfolio companies are asset-heavy rather than asset-light, it is structurally harder for them to pursue the aggressive, astronomical organic growth we've seen from US tech giants like the Magnificent 7 over the past decade. A physical mall simply cannot scale at the speed of software.
But by modeling a realistic 10% annualized return, combining capital appreciation with a steady 5-6% dividend yield, I have a clear roadmap. It is a good, steady, and reliable rate to compound my wealth over a lifetime. I am avoiding the Wild West in favour of good old Dividend Investing. All Huat!!
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