My Monthly Passive Income - Nov 2025

Sharing my passive income for the year 2025:

                                

Yearly and Monthly Passive Income.

Basically, I am collecting $3,707.61.22 in passive income monthly this year, compared to $3,502.22 last year.

This is cumulative sum from stocks, bonds, ETFs, SSB, TBills, fixed deposits, bank deposits, MMF. There is a new addtion this year to the list: Income Funds.  

Here's what it looks like on a chart:

Monthly passive income by year.

The increase for this year is not as large as I hoped; one reason is that the USD to SGD exchange rate fell from 1.34 to 1.30. 

But any increase is good.

Onwards!

 

Portfolio Returns for Nov 2025

I felt it would be good to track the returns of my portfolios regularly since they fluctuate frequently depending on the stock market.

Here are the movements for this month. The biggest drop is in my crypto portfolio. As the saying goes, "what goes up must come down".

                             

For the Robo-Advisors, a downward move across all my portfolios. This is the 4th positive month for Syfe Reit+ after a long wait.

                                            

Additionally, I think it will be interesting to see the breakdown of my portfolios in percentages (below). 

                                  

Market trends from the last 30 days: 

• Gaza war was declared over, and surprisingly I think the general consensus is that it is still over. 
• Increasing talks of an AI bubble, which caused the stock market to pull back. This is even after Nvidia announced blockbuster earnings and 5-year backlogs.
• The defining feature of the last 30 days has been a retreat from all-time highs and a notable sell-off in the technology sector, particularly in the mega-cap AI-related stocks
• Rate Cut Hopes vs. Reality: Market sentiment remains highly sensitive to the Federal Reserve's path. Hopes for a December rate cut have fluctuated significantly. Dovish comments from Fed officials (like New York Fed President Williams) in the last few days of the period helped spark a sharp rebound, but the general technical environment remains cautious.
• The Singapore government, through the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), recently announced a significant upward adjustment to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast for the current year, 2025, from 1.5-2.5% to 4.0%.

 

Dividends for Oct 2025 - Towards 5k a Month

Here are my dividends for Oct 2025:

                                    

So I collected a paltry $693.66 in dividends for this month. 

 
In case you are wondering, some stocks are repeated because I have 2 brokerage accounts.

Here are my monthly dividends over the last 6 years, with Oct typically being the lowest month:

                                 

Here are the dividends I collected every year until the current day:

                          

Already surpassed the yearly dividends from 1 year ago.

Here is the progress of my average monthly dividends over the years:

                         

I plan to first receive $2500 (achieved), then finally $5000 in dividends every month on average.

By simple projection of the above chart, I will only hit my target of 5k a month in dividends after 2027.

Additionally, I share the interest I received from the various banks for the deposits this month:

                                        

Also, in this month, I made $117.87 from my side hustle - GrabFood delivery. I tried to set a target for myself of earning 83.33 a month, so that in a year, I will make 1k from GrabFood. 

All in, I made $1,496.82 this month from dividends, interest, and food delivery.

Onwards!   

  

 

Wrapping up my 29th Month of Financial Independence [FI]

I just finished my 29th month of FI (Financial Independence) in Oct 2025.

Below is what I ate and did for fun, and a record of my expenses.

Eating

Home-cooked meal. Sweet potato is a new addition.
I find it has one of the highest ratios for tastefulness over effort, which I like.

A new kimbap stall opened, and it was good.

Lei Cha in Kulai over the Deepavali long weekend.
Only recently did I learn Kulai is a haven for Hakka food.

Also in Kulai.

Good Times Cafe at Eko Botani, JB.
There is quite a bit of vibe about this place.

Good Time Cafe at Eko Botani, JB.

Sinful cakes to celebrate a birthday.
Suspect it was these cakes that made me gain 1 KG.

Fun

The highlight of this month was going to Malacca during the Deepavali long weekend.

Went to this resort in Malacca.

Enjoyed the nature and the serene surroundings.

Raffles banded langur?

Flowers of the Cannonball tree.

Health

I have started tracking my fitness levels, and below is what I have so far. I used to be able to do at least one muscle-up back in Mar 2025, but after an illness, I lost it. Now trying to get it back 💪. 

Expenses (Discretionary only)

Burst a few budgets this month. I think I may have to revise the budgets for 2026. For one thing, the children are definitely eating more.

 

Eating Out Target: $650

Eating Out Actual: $761.67

Household Target: $600

Household Actual: $396.17

Travel Target: $100

Travel Actual: $170 (petrol for travel to Malacca)

Entertainment Target: $50

Entertainment Actual: $0

Personal Target: $250

Personal Actual: $404.51 (birthday present, made a donation to Gaza relief, went for dental)

Onwards to the next month of FI! 

  

    

10th Year Anniversary of this Blog and its Returns

I think the earliest form of content creation is writing blogs.

This was during a time when there was no YouTube, no Instagram, no Facebook, etc.

I recall some articles advocating writing blogs for a living in those days.

Inspired by the above, I started this blog in 2015.

Below are my earnings each month versus the number of articles I wrote.

 

Earnings each month versus the number of articles written.

In general, the more articles written each month, the higher the earnings.

In fact, the correlation of articles written each month vs. earnings is 0.63, which can be considered a strong correlation. 

Here's how monetization works in Blogger - every time a visitor clicks on an ad, you make some money. When it accumulates to 150, you can cash out the money.

You can also see from the above chart that my total earnings are much less than the required 150 to cash out, even after 10 years.

However, no regrets writing this blog as it helps me to chronicle my FI journey every step of the way. 

So I will continue documenting my FI journey on this blog!

My learnings:

• The more articles you write, the higher the earnings
• It is tough to make a living by writing blogs
• If you want to jump on a trend, jump in right at the start of it, not at the end - but this is not easy, as everyone is likely preoccupied with one thing at any point in time (kids, work, caregiving, etc.)

Returns of my STI Portfolio after 10 years + STI ATH @4478

Today, the STI reached another all-time high(ATH) at 4,478.15.

Today STI reached 4,478.15 all-time high.

In fact, it is now commonly referred to as the Super Terrific Index. 😀 

So I decided to write another feel-good post about my returns from investing in STI, which should be higher than the 8.2% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) reported in my previous post. 

I have collected $25,734 in dividends over the last 10 years. I started DCA on 24 Aug 2015. 

So, how much have those returns netted me?

To get a clear picture, I looked at the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of my investments. Think of CAGR as the smoothed annual rate of return—it tells you what your average yearly growth rate would have been if the investment had grown at a steady rate from start to finish, without considering the ups and downs in between.

This CAGR is computed using the FV() formula in Google Sheets, which stands for Future Value. In my case, I plugged in the lump sum invested at the start, the number of periods invested in months, and the final portfolio value.

Without dividends included, I achieved a CAGR of 6.0%. 

CAGR without dividends included.

With dividends included, my CAGR increases to 8.8%!

CAGR with dividends included.

With this CAGR of 8.8%, it means my portfolio will double in 8-9 years.

Results are as of 28 Oct 2025.

 
In summary:

Metric	Value
Dividends Collected	+$25,734
Unrealised Profits	+$41,433
Simple Returns	+46.7%
CAGR (Excluding Dividends)	+6.0%
CAGR (Including Dividends)	+8.8%

Let’s compare this to the ever-popular S&P 500 index.

According to Wikipedia, since its inception in 1926, the S&P 500 has delivered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 9.8% including dividends (around 6% after inflation).

So yes, my STI portfolio CAGR of 8.80% still trails the long-term performance of the S&P 500 by exactly 1%. But this is home ground for me, and I’m genuinely happy to see the Straits Times Index (STI) holding up reasonably well—especially with dividends included. It goes to show that solid, long-term investing in local markets can still yield respectable returns.

Anyway, since I’m Singaporean, don’t mind me blowing my own trumpet a bit here (referring to the Singapore stock market). 🇸🇬📈

STI is poised to go higher. Let's see what the future brings!

SG Portfolio Snapshot - CAGR and Breakeven Price Oct 2025

Here's a snapshot of my current SGP portfolio:

CAGR of my current portfolio.

The column 'cagr' represents the compound annual growth rate of that stock.

The column 'cagr_inc_div_drp' shows the compound annual growth rate including dividends paid out and additional stocks obtained through distribution reinvestment plans.

The column 'cagr_benchmark' shows the compound annual growth rate of the benchmark. The benchmark is the SPDR STI ETF, stock code 'ES3'.

The column 'cagr_benchmark_status' shows yes if we beat the benchmark.

The column 'returns_one_year' shows the returns in the past year.

The columns 'cagr', 'cagr_inc_div_drp', 'cagr_benchmark', and 'returns_one_year' are shown in percentages.

Here's a comparison of the stats with previous years:

Statistics of my portfolio over the years.

Here's a chart depicting the stats above:

Bar chart of my portfolio statistics over the years.

Here's another snapshot of my portfolio based on the breakeven price:

Indication of whether each stock broke even.

The column 'price' indicates the current price of the stock.

The column 'breakeven_price' indicates the breakeven price of the stock with dividends and stocks from the distribution reinvestment plan included. As long as the price of the stock is above the breakeven price, I can sell the stock for a profit.

The column 'breakeven_price_status' indicates if the stock price is above the breakeven price.

Here's a comparison of the stats with previous years:

Breakeven statistics of my portfolio over the years.

Here's a chart depicting the stats above:

Bar chart of percentage of stocks that broke even.

Here are the returns of my portfolio versus the benchmark:

CAGR of my portfolio over the years. 

Here's a chart depicting the total dividends collected for this SGP portfolio to date:

Total dividends collected.

The value for the 'Weighted CAGR with div and drp included' is a bit of an anomaly this year, because of the issuance of Keppel DC Reit rights a few days earlier. The time period is too short, and hence the computation of the CAGR is probably not accurate.

Here's my comment from this topic in 2023:

        If 2022 was a bad year for stocks, 2023 is even worse. Mainly due to the ongoing Ukraine war with no end in sight, and now with the Israel-Hamas war. Interest rates are still at an all-time high. On the other hand, as long as interest rates start to fall, my bond and REITs are in position.  

Happy to share that 2025 is a much better year. The Israel-Hamas war seems to have wound down with the help of Trump, and interest rates have come down from all-time highs. Financial markets are at all-time highs. The only worry now is of an AI bubble. But my stocks have ridden the wave.