Singapore Investor Bloggers with min. 1 SGD Million Stock Portfolios

This will probably be a fun post.

I reckon we always want to learn from the best, and from people with real results to show. There are many hustlers around us and not everyone is as successful as they claim to be.

Well, having said that, among the Singapore investment blogger community, a few have reached the million dollar portfolio mark. Firstly to clarify, I don’t think they are the best investors around in Singapore, I am sure there are plenty more, just that they don’t really blog or I may not be aware of them.

Many are long time bloggers with long track records for all to see. Not all post the actual amount of their portfolio, but given their passive income from the portfolio, it is reasonable to say many are way past the 1 SGD million mark.

We all can learn a lot from them.

By the way, I probably missed many…And also it is only about the portfolio size, not net worth. If net worth is included, I am sure there are many many more.

1) Kyith Ng from Investment Moats (click here)

39 yrs old. Many call him a gem within the investing blogshere. I find his blog packed full of useful information. Can be quite technical (which is rare), and lengthy.

He is very transparent in his trades and portfolio (in his blog).

Money Muse: IT engineer by day, investment blogger by night (read here)

He mentioned he tend towards dividend investing (do correct me if wrong) hahaha.

He left his IT job to join Providend in 2019 (read here).

2) AK from A Singaporean Stocks Investor (ASSI) (click here)

3Q Passive income (read here): S$ 32,023.29.

FY2019 Passive income (read here): $210,254.16

49 yrs old this year. He has a unique sense of humour (in his blog post). From time to time, he will let us know about his thinking when investing or divesting (eg. via his back of envelope calculations).

A dividend income investor.

Typically many queries in the comment sections in his blog posts and he often offer useful tips in his replies.

Next time when the markets crash, just remember that he is probably still playing Neverwinter and replying to panic stricken fellow investors with a quirky sense of humor in his blog.

3) STE from STE’s Stocks Investing Journey – blogger (click here)

If I am not wrong he should be 50 yrs old this year. The portfolio is technically under both his wife and him (together) if I am not wrong. Still, even if we divide by two, it is still impressive.

He is married with kids, and retired at the age of 44, since end 2014. (read here)

STE and his wife came from Malaysia (read here).

STE likes to pen down and document his thoughts on stocks investing and also “talking to himself “ on some issues relating to investing ideas/world in his blog. He does not talk much about any particular stocks, and tend to use more graphics/chart/table/quotes…

I find his style more towards the psychological aspect of investing and not too technical. Good read.

Also a dividend income investor like AK. Predominately in ‘old industry’ income stocks.

However his portfolio is more diversified (beyond Singapore listed stocks) eg. HKEX, KLSE, LSE and SGX.

3rd Qtr 2020 : Portfolio and Dividend Update (read here)

YTD 2020 Dividend & Interest : $142,609.16

Top 30 Holdings:

4) CreateWealth8888 (read here)

Some say he is the Hokkien style millionaire investment uncle and like to keep his word simple and straight to the point.

5) Lady, You can be Free, I grew 112k to 1SGD million in 7 years (read here)

I think she needs to change her blog title… “I grew 112k to 2.XX SGD million in 15 years.” :p

46 yrs old this year.

She started 2005 with SGD 112K. In her recent blog post, her US portfolio is worth around SGD 1.8mil and SG portfolio is worth around SGD 448k. Probably more now.

Among the bloggers in this list, this blogger is unique in 2 ways (well, at least, to me). Firstly, she is the only woman on the list. Secondly, many are predominately more towards (or totally into) dividend investing (with the exception of TTI eg. deep value contrarian stocks). Her portfolio straddles between local stocks (typically dividend stocks) and US listed stocks (typically growth stocks). Remind me of the barbell investing concept by DBS.

I was told she started from income investing then along the way pivoted to include growth investing.

Given the pandemic driven tech rally (and her long track record), the returns from some of the stocks in the US portfolio is good (To quote recent post: counting down to $2 million profit for the USD portfolio).

My Stock Report Card for Jan-Aug 2020 (2 mil profit countdown) (read here)

Total Passive Income Collected Between Jan – Aug 2020 : SGD 19,558.71

Interview With The Owner Of “Lady You Can Be Free” Blog (read here)

Top 3 holdings as per latest post:

1) Apple

2) Facebook

3) Alibaba

6) Chua Ghim Hock from My Investment Portfolio (read here)

He left his engineering job and became a full time investor around 2011. On Blogger since October 2004.

Should be 47 yrs old this year.

In his own words: “Why I left engineering/IT: I didn’t leave because it was hard.
I left because it was no longer worth it.”

A dividend income investor, with many counters in his portfolio.

In his own words: A self-directed investor, looking to invest for retirement needs and bypass all those expensive financial planners/insurance agents. Investing is fun, profitable or most important of all, knowledge gained is useful for the rest of your life!

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. iFAST2. PM Data3. Hong Leong Finance
4. A-REIT
5. Hong Fok6. Hotel Properties7. Sing Investment & Finance8. GK Goh9. Hotel Grand Central10. Far East Orchard
11. Bonvests
12. Singapura Finance
13. Haw Par
14. Metro Holdings15. VICOM16. Hotel Royal17. EnGro18. Stamford Land19. LHT20. Venture21. SGX22. CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust23. Hiap Hoe24. Bukit Sembawang Estates25. UOL26. Tat Seng27. UIC28. Jardine C&C29. Isetan30. Yeo Hiap Seng

Top 5 Holdings (US$ Denominated shares)
1. Jardine Strategic
2. Mandarin Oriental
3. Hongkong Land
4. Jardine Matheson
5. Dairy Farm

Top Holdings (HK$ Denominated shares)

1. Tan Chong International
2. Shangri-La Asia

Top Holdings (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Streettracks STI ETF
2. CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust3. A-REIT
4. Keppel Corp
5. Challenger

Hong Kong Stock Portfolio
1. Peace Mark Holdings – Under Voluntary Liquidation
2. Alpha Professional Holdings Ltd (formerly known as Z-Obee Holdings Ltd)

Australia Stock Portfolio
1. GPS Alliance Holdings Limited

6) Sanye from Sanye’s Investment Portfolio (read here)

A dividend investor. On Blogger since September 2007. Another person with engineering background like GH Chua.

On 31 Dec 2019, he mentioned he received a total of S$198,000 in dividend, from shares (42%), UT(21%) and bonds(37%). (Read here)

Below are his top 30 stock holdings as at 31 December 2019:

7) SG Thumbtack Investor (read here)

In his words: A Singaporean male in his mid-30s, and the blog chronicles his investing ideas and activities. He hopes to search for and find contrarian and deep value investing ideas and will chronicle all these ideas in the blog, both the successes and the failures. (read here)

+1,680% IN 4 YEARS! (read here)

In the above 2019 blog post, he mentioned:

– Total portfolio value in SG markets is SGD 243,092;

– The bond portfolio is approximately SGD 550,000;

– The total portfolio value (in US markets) is SGD 2,196,369.

– The property fund has about SGD 600,000 worth of liquidity. 

I find his thinking and investing philosophy very different, and yes contrarian. Not easy to emulate. In terms of equities, he is more overweight in the US. As he works (or worked) in the healthcare sector, some of his stock picks are towards that sector plus many are listed in the US (which unfortunately is alien to me hahaha).

And to quote him: As the focus is on deep value situations, I’m mentally prepared for my portfolio to show great volatility. In some years, I should outperform the indices spectacularly. In others, I should underperform spectacularly as well. Over a multi year period, I hope to achieve above normal returns

As mentioned in his recent post, the top 4 holdings are probably:

1) Broadcom (AVGO)

2) GameStop (GME)

3) Bausch Health Companies (BHC)

4) Frontage Holdings (HK listed – 1521)

Some of them are multi-millionaire.

Others, perhaps have million dollar portfolios but no post to show:

1) CoryLogics (read here)

2) Rolf Suey (Read here)

3) Brian Halim from Foreverfinancialfreedom (however, that is including his second property).

FYI, I only mention stock portfolio. There are other sources of wealth, for example:

1) CPF: If we include CPF, then the portfolio size will increase. AK’s CPF is already around SGD 1 million (read here).. Then there is Loo Cheng Chuan from 1M65 (read here).

2) Property: If I include investment property then Property Soul (read here) and Foreverfinancialfreedom (read here).

3) Cryptocurrency: Got Money Got Honey (read here)

4) Not so active bloggers: If include these bloggers – there is Lim Der Shing (read here), and his blog here.

And yes .. talking about Der Shing, wealth through entrepreneurship /Venture Capital / Start-ups investing.

I actually posted this question on social media (Facebook) earlier. Eg. Who are these investor bloggers with min SGD 1 million stock portfolios?

After I posted, I got many feedbacks.

Some asked what is the purpose of this post. Other asked if we should look at the CAGR of the growth of the portfolio to determine how successful it is. Or if the age of the blogger should be a consideration (eg. 30 to 40+ old blogger vs a 70 to 80+ old blogger with million dollar portfolio). Then others question the source of their wealth, it could be from inheritance or from a high income. And how do I know if they are really worth min. 1 million, can the figures be verified.

Actually, I was mulling this for a while. After all, for many, we live in a ‘KPI – Key Performance Indicator” driven world. Everything needs to have a purpose so as to meet the target hahahah… Just joking.

To first start off, the question itself was never meant to be perfect neither was it meant to be accurate.

For instance, I only asked about the size of the stock portfolio. There are other sources of wealth, be it cryptocurrency, property, bonds, even the CPF accounts…. or people just leave it as cash / fixed deposits in their bank accounts.

I can’t verify the figures. Many of these bloggers are anonymous. AK even though he appears in public, wear a mask, sun glasses and a hat. I don’t know most of their names or know them personally. I guess the only one who does show his face and let us know a bit about himself (in the list above) is Kyith from Investment Moat (and Brian from Foreverfinancialfreedom, Der Shing and the lady from Property Soul).

Some post their portfolios values on their blogs, some I reckon so via looking at their passive dividend income, others from other blogs, etc.

By the way, if I am incorrect, please feel free to correct me, in the comment section below.

So yes, it was not meant to be accurate and I don’t know the CAGR. Nor do I know their income or if part of their wealth comes from inheritance, etc.

However, is that critical?

There are many wealthy people around us in Singapore, many are successful via their own effort. Of these, many became wealthier through investing, via the long slow way. However, seldom do we know much about the way they think.

Blog posts: Just words from the mind.

When I am free, I like to read blogs. Sure, many information are crap, they are not accurate and there are not much details, etc. However, they offer a glimpse into what and how the writers think.

Sure they can bluff, come up with rubbish figures. After all, in today’s social media world, we are always bombarded with those hustlers with endless advertisements trying to sell their courses, products, etc (some with dubious credentials).

Many of these bloggers are anonymous, sure they can lie, try to gain viewership, but I reckon, if you do read their blogs, I trust it would be safe to say, they are not really trying to sell you anything (except for the ads on their blogs). And I don’t see why they need to or want to bluff. And that is not the intention of their blogs. Many just treat the blogs as a platform to pen their thoughts, or to help to educate the public (eg. Kyith).

Then on the question on how successful their portfolio is, or their age. Well, I guess the intention here is not to compare. My question here, is not who has the biggest net worth / portfolio or whose portfolio is better. Does it matter to us, if Warren Buffett or Bill Gates is the richest man on earth? Does it matter even to them, if their net worth increase by 10 billion in the next year and they beat the other guy? I reckon among the list above, many are also not a ‘flash in a pan’ example… eg. they got their wealth young by a stroke of luck, etc. Ultimately, in our lifetime, we are competing with ourselves.

I am more interested in how they think.

The process is important. From where they start (with basic salary) to how they achieve it, and where they go from there, is more important than the amount. A blog is a good platform to read up on their thought processes.

Reflections: Personally for me, I find blog posts a good way to reflect on the past. For instance, sometimes I would read back to my old posts esp. those written when markets crashed. What was I thinking then. Likewise, we can also read what other successful investors were thinking then from their old blog posts. Having said that, some of these bloggers are more organised with their blogs than others.

Some people mob about their losses from their 5 figure portfolio when market crashes. However, typically with a bigger portfolio, the fall is harder (larger amount) unless the investor somehow manage to hedge it or is superb at picking the right stocks that went against the flow. So yes, add a few zeros when you think about their losses when markets tank and how they react, with their 7 or 8 figures portfolios. Simply said- It is the magnitude.

And since we are talking about volatile stocks, it is also the speed. Imagine the markets decline by 7 to 8 percent over 2 to 3 days and the portfolio decline by 10 to 12 percent. For just a 1 million dollar portfolio that is min. $100k unrealised loss. Given the median income in Singapore, that is much more than what most people can earn in a year.

It has happened, it can happen, it will happen… only a matter of time.

And vice versa when markets rise.

Seeing Red? Here’s what 10 Financial Bloggers think (read here)

For many, it is already a struggle to save and invest. To go further and achieve a min SGD 1 million stock portfolio is not easy. Sure, for many, in today’s context 1 million is a not a big amount. There is no end in comparing. For people working in the tech industry or finance industry, 1 million is probably small peanuts. For me it is just a round simple figure to estimate. But then, for 1 million, within the local blogsphere, how many can we find? Put it in another way, how many want to tell? Just a few handful.. with numbers.

Then there is the case that there are many high net worth people, with multi-million portfolios, but not living in a financially sustainable way. The recent cases of pilots who have high income but little or no saving and high monthly expenses, ending up struggling to survive when the pandemic/recession hits come to mind. Are they rich? Well they sure look rich.. can they retire? Eh no…

One sees his flying dream cut short, other SIA pilots become delivery drivers, retire early (read here)

On the other hand, some families can also survive with less than this figure if they are financially disciplined.

The number (SGD 1 million) by itself has no meaning.

So the relevancy of the portfolio must also tie in with how sustainable they live / consume. Many of these bloggers, I reckon are financially free. Eg. Their income is much higher than their consumption rate. Their passive income amount is high. They are very disciplined in their finances (and many mentioned that they did not have high income to start with). All these, I think is more important than the absolute amount of the portfolio. Nevertheless, not all live a monk like lifestyle or only for themselves (eg. STE will blog about his overseas trips with his family, AK giving his parent a bigger allowance, or Brian setting aside money for his parent medical bills, etc).

Why bloggers you may ask. Well it is one medium that is public to all. There are also Youtubers, people who post on social media etc. To each his own preference.

To put it in another way, we can raise the bar and ask those in the billionaire league. Who bother to share their thoughts? Even fewer. However, if you ask me who can I relate more to (in terms of thought process) especially, during a market downturn, I would say Howard Marks. I would be scratching my head if you ask me the same question about Seth Klarman. Howard Marks share his thoughts via his memos, which is accessible by anyone online, and the intensity/frequency of his writing increases when a crisis hits. He also goes on TV and gives talks, engage in telephone interviews, etc. As for Seth Klarman, he is very protective of his thought process.

We live to learn, and learn to live… never ending process.

Have fun along the way!

By the way, I am sure I have missed some. Do let me know (if any).

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The Five Titans of InvestingNote (read here)

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