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. 

SG Portfolio Returns vs Holding Power

This is a post that I am only able to write after 10 years.

This is because it took me more than 10 years to collect this data, as it requires me to hold a stock for at least 10 years. 

First, a bit of background. 

In my readings on investment, I came across a chart that looks like the one below multiple times:

https://thesmartinvestor.com.sg/is-holding-stocks-for-the-long-run-worth-your-time/

Interesting finding from the article above: 

In a single day, your probability of winning in the stock market is roughly similar to a coin toss, about a 50-50 chance. 

Extend that out to one year, and your chances increase to over two-thirds probability. 

Stretch that to 10 years, and almost 90% of every 10-year period is positive. 

Do it for 20 years and more, it is 100% positive, and you never lose any money.

I was intrigued.

If I can make money by doing nothing, how good will that be?

I can free up more time for my work or pursue other things of interest. 

Hence, I calculated the returns of my stocks versus the holding period:

The longer the holding period, the better the returns.

Each dot represents 1 stock.

The blue dots are simple returns of the stock. The blue line is the trendline of the blue dots.

The red dots are simple returns of the stock with dividends and DRP(dividends reinvestment plan) included. The red line is the trendline of the red dots.

Without dividends and DRP considered, the correlation between returns and holding period is 0 (no correlation).

With dividends and DRP(dividends reinvestment plan) considered, the correlation between returns and holding period is 0.29 (weak correlation).

OK, I thought the correlation would be higher, but it is what it is. 

In case you are wondering which stock each point belongs to, here it is below.

The best and worst stocks.

The stocks in the top right (DBS, Sempcorp) are my best stocks with the highest returns (with a long holding period). 

The stocks in the bottom right (Keppel Reit, CDL Hospitality Trust) are my worst stocks with the lowest returns, even after a long holding period (more than 10 years).

The stocks on the left are my 'hits' (Boustead), for which I got a high return even with a low holding period.

Yes, I find that the longer I hold a stock, the higher the chance that I will not lose any money. Hence, now even with a loss-making stock, I won't sell. I simply wait until it recovers through sheer holding power. 

Next, I think it will be interesting to see a bar chart similar to the one above, where I calculate the percentage of stocks with positive returns given the holding period. 

But that will be for another article. Stay tuned!

Portfolio Returns for Oct 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. There is an upward tick across most of my portfolios. Only Crypto and USA portfolio has gone down a bit.

                             

For the Robo-Advisors, also an upward trend across all my portfolios. It's interesting how correlated/aligned the Stashaway General Investing and Endowus General Wealth Acc funds are. This is the 2nd 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: 

• The stock market is volatile, with trade tensions between the US and China easing, then increasing again
• Gaza war was declared over, with Trump doing a victory lap in the Middle East. However, from the news of the last few days, due to Hamas' failure to return all the dead bodies, it seems the end of the war is increasingly in doubt. 
• Increasing talks of an AI bubble, which caused the stock market to pull back a bit
• Gold is at an all-time high

One of the biggest crash in my Crypto portfolio

On 11 Oct 2025, I experienced one of my biggest crashes in my Crypto portfolio.

Since early this year, I have begun to track the biggest movements in my portfolio.

Here are the movements in my portfolio for 11 Oct 2025:

You can see that although Crypto dropped by 10%, my overall portfolio only dropped by 1.48%.

This is because less than 1% of my assets are in Crypto.

The 3 golden rules of investing comes to mind:

Number 1 rule is diversify.

Number 2 rule is diversify.

Number 3 rule is still diversify!

Some related links:

https://mothership.sg/2025/10/crypto-investor-found-dead-ukraine/

https://sg.yahoo.com/finance/news/crypto-anger-speculators-claim-insider-145044600.html

If you can't handle the volatility, don't invest in crypto!

Dividends for Sep 2025 - Towards 5k a month

Here are my dividends for Sep 2025:

                                    

So I collected $3,738.39 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:

                          

Already surpassed the yearly dividends from 1 year ago.

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

                         

The value for 2025 is just based on 9 data points, though, and it may decline as we get more data points.

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:

                                        

Since all the banks above nerfed the interest rates, I expect this income to fall in the following months. 

To counter this, I have moved more of my spare cash to Chocolate Finance, which still offers decent interest rates. 

Also, in this month, I made $62.10 from my side hustle - GrabFood delivery. 

All in, I made $4,435.78 this month from dividends, interest, and food delivery.

Onwards!   

  

FI status after 2.5 years of FI [Financial Independence]

                                   

I have achieved FI status in Mar 2023:

https://financeopti.blogspot.com/2023/03/breaking-free-i-have-achieved-financial.html

Now it is timely to re-evaluate whether I am still FI.

I did my spreadsheets and arrived at the following:

As long as the cell in the red box is negative, I am FI. 

I will do this analysis at the beginning of every quarter. 

From the above, it seems I am still FI. 

I have also attached a chart showing the % change in my total investable assets over the years. This is on a quarterly basis.

 

                       

For this quarter, Q3 2025, total investable assets increased to 8.78%. This is likely due to the good market bull run. 

I also share here how my portfolio has grown over the years:

The chart below shows the % change in the portfolio over the years (compared year-end value with value at beginning of the year). The value for 2019 was removed, because at 112.04% it seems like an anomaly.

On average, my returns are 19.18% per year.

  

Wrapping up my 28th month of Financial Independence [FI]

I just finished my 28th month of FI (Financial Independence) in Sep 2025.

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

Eating

Usual home-cooked avocado wrap meal. Getting a bit sick of this.

Old-school.

Bongkol dessert in Sarawak.

Nice creamy fish.

Quite ex but nice if you are a matcha lover.

Best laksa I had in a while. At Roxy Square.

This is good, but can't beat those in Korea.

Fun

September was the school holidays, and it was action-packed. We went to Kuching and enjoyed the nature!

Proboscis monkey?

Love the mountains and the mist.

Great view.

'Nuff said.

Lantern display at Gardens by the Bay.

Lantern display at Gardens by the Bay.

Expenses (Discretionary only)

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

 

Eating Out Target: $650

Eating Out Actual: $707.82

Household Target: $600

Household Actual: $256.57

Travel Target: $100

Travel Actual: $191.96 (GetGo to bring the kids to Science Center)

Entertainment Target: $50

Entertainment Actual: $24

Personal Target: $250

Personal Actual: $320.81 (made a donation to Gaza relief, bought expensive shampoo to prevent hair loss 😛)

Onwards to the next month of FI! 

  

   

Advice for Graduates that cannot find Jobs - Go West

I read with concern regarding graduates not being able to find jobs. 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/fresh-graduate-job-anxiety-search-employment-traineeship-5361196 

Reasons for prolonged job search

External factors have added to anxieties amongst the graduates – economic headwinds from increased trade tensions, the imposition of tariffs, and geopolitical conflict, and growing concerns over artificial intelligence taking over entry-level jobs. Because of these external factors, Graduates are reluctant to take a break or pursue further studies - this adds on to the problem of Graduates not being able to find jobs.

https://theindependent.sg/am-i-cooked-2024-nus-grad-remains-jobless-despite-internships-and-hundreds-of-applications/

On a more personal note, this NUS Data Science and Analytics graduate from 2024 has yet to find a job one year later. Now, Data Science and Analytics were a hot field back then, and I am very surprised by this article. He even shared that he did three internships and was not particular about starting pay. This is quite worrying, because I saw so many news articles that states the jobs with the most vacancies are software engineering, AI engineers, and data scientists. Like the article below, back in 2023, which likely motivated many youngsters to pursue a degree in this field:

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/developers-data-scientists-among-hot-jobs-of-2023

Having 2 young kids in primary school now, I worry this may be a problem they may encounter in the future.

Back in my time

Admittedly, uncle me had it easier when I graduated in the mid-2000s. The dot-com bust is a memory; I only had to do one internship, and I managed to sign a job even before I graduated. In fact, it was my one and only interview, and I got the job. Later, the company where I interned offered me a position, but I told them proudly that I already had another job! During other university holidays, I went on backpacking trips in Malaysia, self-studied on how to build websites, and did part-time work like distributing leaflets, etc. It was a fulfilling period of my life. There is NO such thing as internship stacking. 

My Advice

My advice for you is to go west - go to Silicon Valley. Apply for all the jobs you can in Silicon Valley. It could be small startups, it could be big tech. Just try.

Singapore is too small a market. You need to think bigger. As the saying goes, the world is your oyster. Why confine yourself to the Singapore market?

Did you know? The USA offers Singaporeans the H1B1 visa, which allows you to work in the US for up to one year. Thereafter, the company that employed you has to convert you to an H1B visa to continue. But no matter if they do not convert, because by then you will have gained one year of working experience in Silicon Valley. Somehow Singapore companies prize these folks with Silicon Valley experience (they call these people 'Jedis'), it will be easier for you to find a job back in Singapore. When I came back from the Valley, I got 2 job offers, and I had to decline one.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-citizens-do-not-have-to-pay-us100k-for-h-1b1-visa-us-embassy

From the article:

The H-1B1 visa, meanwhile, is exclusive to Singaporeans and Chileans, who have to prove that they do not intend to migrate to the US.


It does not allow permanent residency, and the one-year visa allows professionals to work in speciality occupations, such as engineering, medicine and biotechnology.


This visa is capped at 5,400 Singaporeans and 1,400 Chileans each year.


According to information on the US Department of State’s website for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, 939 H-1B1 visas were issued to Singapore citizens in fiscal year 2024, which ended on Sept 30, 2024.


There were 944 such visas issued in FY2023, 927 in FY2022, and 489 in FY2021, with the earliest instance of the H-1B1 visa being issued in FY2004, when 46 were issued.

Do you see? 5,400 visas are available each year, but only 1,000 are taken up. Go grab it!

In the same article above, it is explained that Trump has imposed a USD 100,000 fee on H1B visas - this means companies will be more reluctant to hire those on H1B visas now and have to look elsewhere. Imagine for startups, they cannot afford this money, they will have to source elsewhere for talent, and thats why they will be interested in those on H1B1 visas.

Singaporeans have a good reputation in the valley. The kids we send to their universities work very hard, are very bright, and always top the class. You stand a good chance. But remember, you carry the Singapore flag - prove yourself to the company that hired you.

All you have to do is apply for jobs in Silicon Valley (or New York, also good), suggest to the hiring team to get the company to sponsor you for an H1B1 visa, and you can work in the US.

Further, think about it - this is the best time of your life to work overseas - you have no kids, your parents are probably still working or young seniors, they are healthy and self-sufficient. This is the best window in your life to do this. If you are married or have a partner, ask him or her to go with you.

This advice is for my kids, should they encounter similar issues when they start work.