Funds Holdings

I bought my 1st fund(can't remember the name but it's a internet fund) about 9 years ago during the internet bubble. Luckily, I bought only $1,000 because it nosedived to $200-300 ever since the internet bubble burst. Subsequently, the fund house decide to close this fund and I only got back $200+.

Then in 2001, I decide to read more about funds and bought Shenton Global Equity($1k) and Shenton Greater China($1k). Both these funds have quite impressive historical performances. The global equity is for diverification and the China one because I feel China would do very well in coming years. I deduced right. I am proud that Shenton Greater China fund has returns of 104% of of today. If divided by 5.5years, it means it has grown an average of 19% each year. As for Shenton Global Equity fund, I started to add $100 to it every month for the last 1 year. So the returns have been much muted by this addition of funds. But before I have added this RSP(Regular Savings Plan), this fund was way better than the China fund. Even at the price, and with the RSP, I am still getting returns of about 70%.

Last year at around this time, I felt that the market is very bullist and funds are a good buy. But problem is that I do not have cash and my CPF is stuck because of the intention to buy a new house. So I recommended to my sister and wife. My wife put $5k and my sis put $1k with me for my investment. I bought Schroder BRIC fund($2k wife and $1k sis), Henderson Global Property fund($3k wife). I also bought Henderson Asia Pacific Property fund($1k+ $100/mth RSP). This fund is more for Ryan. HAPP has also given me a dividend of $71.18(2.3%). As of today, BRIC is up by 20%, HGP is up 14.5% and HAPP is up 14%. I felt that this 1-year returns has been quite impressive. For funds, my target return is 5-10% pa. As there was a promotion in Fundsupermart, I got $25 worth of Shenton Income fund FOC. Though it is not much, this fund has also grown 4.5% and has also given me dividend os $0.33. And at the same time, both my wife and me left some money in Fundsupermart's cash account which was giving about 2.6% interest. It has converted to the Cash fund which gives daily interest(2.4-2.8%). From the compunding point of view, I think the effective interest is around 3%pa.

In Feb 07, though i believe a correction is coming real soon, I got impulsive and bought Henderson European Property fund($10k), Schroder BRIC fund($10k) and DWS China Equity fund($20k) with my CPF. I was quite happy for the 1st 2 weeks as each of these 3 funds were climbing at a steady rate. All were up between 2-4% within 2 weeks. I was a bit panicky when the 28 Feb 07 came. All became negative within that 2 days. I was thinking of selling both DWS and BRIC but held on in the end. Anyway, as of now, HEP is now 2.8% up, BRIC is 3% up and DWSCE is 5.3% up. Think this is also not bad for a <3mths fund investment.

Lastly, one of my goals is to grow my investments(both stocks and funds) at a steady rate and one of the actions which I have done is to put a small amount of money into these 2 investments on a monthly basis. Besides the 2 RSPs, I add $200/mth to my stock investment porfolio. As for my funds, I intend to save enough for my emergency fund before I continue putting more money into the fund investment account. The amount should not be less than $300/mth.

I will write more about my recent switches and actions in my next blog.