My 10 Pots of Gold for Financial Independence - Completed 5 Pots!

Back in Aug 2024, I explained my strategy for 8 Pots of Gold for Perpetual Income:

https://financeopti.blogspot.com/2024/08/update-on-my-5-pots-of-gold-for.html

Now, it is timely to provide my progress on this strategy.

Here is how full each pot is as of Feb 2025:

As of 25 Feb 2025.

Here is what the pots look like now:

 

As of 22 Feb 2026

Still some way to go, but I completed one more pot this year - the pot of 'SP500 ETF'. 

Also, I added one more pot - the pot of 'Income Funds'. I added this so that my monthly dividends can be increased to 5k a month.

Also made progress in topping up the other pots. 

I am getting there, 6 more pots left...onwards!

Portfolio Returns for Feb 2026

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. Crypto continues to crash. Will it crash to zero? I don't know, only time will tell. Fortunately, it is only about 1% of my total portfolio.

Keep in mind the 3 rules of investing:

1. Diversify

2. Diversify

3. (Still) Diversify

For the Robo-Advisors, all reached new all-time highs. This is the 7th positive month for Syfe Reit+ after a long wait.

                                            

Below are the time-weighted returns of the Income Funds. 

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

Market trends from the last 30 days: 

• Gold surges above $5,060 on stagflation fears and geopolitical tensions - all-time highs
• Bitcoin trades at $68,023, suffering a 25% year-to-date decline. Analysts warn quantum computing threats could pressure Bitcoin toward $30,000 by next year unless the network advances quantum-resistant upgrades
• US Supreme Court overturns Trump tariffs, leading to a stock market rise yesterday
• On 12 February 2026, the STI crossed 5,000 for the first time, touching about 5,004 intraday, signalling positive momentum and strong sentiment

  

Dividends for Jan 2026 - Towards 5k a month

Here are my dividends for Jan 2026:

                                    

So I collected $3,970.20 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:

Oops! My dividends for Jan 2026 is lower than previous year's. I think this is because I sold off 2 chunks of my STI ETF, as well as some other stocks to collect more dry powder for a downturn anticipated this year. Time will tell whether this was the right decision.

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

                          

My total dividends collected from 2019 till now: $126,819.83.

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

There is only 1 data point for 2026 so far, and the avg dividend for 2026 will likely change as the year progresses. 

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 $31.77 from my side hustle - GrabFood delivery. 

All in, I made $4,408.13 this month from dividends, interest, and food delivery.

Onwards!    

  

Portfolio Returns for Jan 2026

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. Crypto recovered a bit, not sure if it can recover to its previous highs. 

                             

For the Robo-Advisors, all reached new all-time highs. This is the 6th 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: 

• There was no Christmas rally this year

• US captured the President of Venezuela Nicholas Maduro under the charge of narco-terrorism. This had little impact on the stock market.
• On the local front, STI reached new all-time highs at 4,849.
• There is increasing noise of a market crash in 2026, one of which is this one: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/next-global-rebalancing-likely-dwarf-2008-financial-crisis-george-yeo
• Only time will tell whether there is a market crash or not

 

Dividends for Dec 2025 - Towards 5k a Month

Here are my dividends for Dec 2025:

                                    

So I collected $3,720.57 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:

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

                          

My total dividends collected from 2019 till now: $122,849.63.

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 $84.48 from my side hustle - GrabFood delivery. 

All in, I made $4,325.29 this month from dividends, interest, and food delivery.

Onwards!    

 

How much do I have in Stocks? | Financial Snapshot - Dec 2025

This is a snapshot of my finances at the end of 2025.

Naturally, I do not want to disclose too many details or my net worth, the amount I have in banks, etc., so I will just share the following:

Breakdown of stocks and bonds over the years.

Not included in the above are bank savings, insurance policies, CPF, SRS, etc. The above is just the amount of stocks and cash in my stock brokerage accounts, the stocks in my BCIP, SRS, and Robo-advisor accounts, and the current bonds I am holding. Since I have worked in the US before, I have also added my 401K investments to the above. Cryptocurrencies are NOT included in the Stocks portfolio.

For 2025, my stocks increased 3.47% from the previous year. I think this is partly because I rotated some of my stocks into bonds (note my Bonds increased 48.83% YOY). Also, I no longer have extra cash to pump into Stocks.

Here's a visualization of the Stocks (SGD) and Bonds (SGD) over the years: 

Combined stocks and bonds view in a stacked bar chart:

Onwards!

Portfolio Returns for Dec 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. Crypto is still down, not sure if it can recover to previous highs. 

                             

For the Robo-Advisors, a slight dip in the previous month, and this month it is back up again. This is the 5th 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: 

• Fed rate cut by 25 basis points in Dec 2025, bringing down interest rates to 3.5-3.75%
• The last few days have seen a market rout led by concerns over the AI bubble
• It is already 18 Dec, and Christmas rally is yet to be seen