Category: Investing

First Semester 2021 Passive Income

Establishing solid passive income streams is the first step to set a compounding machine in motion, putting us more and more into a position where we are less and less reliant on our daily jobs.

As long term oriented Dividend Income Investors, shareholder distributions from over 60 stock postions have been our main passive income sources in the past years, together with interest income from corporate bonds and Peer to Peer and Crowdlending Investments.

In June, roughly Swiss francs (CHF) 1’225 (USD 1’350) have been generated by our investments. Roughly 18 % lower compared to the same month in the last year. This was soleley due to one technical aspect: British insurer Legal & General – one of our largest divident payer (contributing almost USD 600 per semester) – last year made its semestrial payout in June while in 2021 that payout has been made in May.

For 2021, we set our target of at least USD 15’000 in total passive cash income.

Let’s look at the first semester 2021. In the first six months of 2021, over Swiss francs (CHF) 8’700 have been generated from our investments, corresponding to around USD 9’721. So, almost 65 % of our annual target has already been achieved.

Compared to the first semester 2020, we saw a very nice Year over Year increase of roughly 37 % amid several stock positions having resumed their dividend payouts. In the first semester 2020, we also had to make a write-down of over USD 2’000 due to the collapes of two Crowdlending Platforms (Kuetzal and Envestio) I had invested in. That write-down very negatively impacted our 2020 annual passive income results which stood at around USD 10’000.

But 2021 will be significantly stronger and our passive income sources as a group are now much more diversified and more resilient.

So, as for now, it looks very realistic to smash our USD 15’000 annual passive income goal, which sets us one step further towards Financial Independence which we want to achieve by the end of 2024.

How was your June in terms of Passive Income?

Disclaimer
You are responsible for your own investment and financial decisions. This article is not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action.

MyFinancialShape Tech Portfolio update

When I started my personal finance and investing blog MyFinancialShape back in 2016, I not only wanted to document and share our Path Towards Financial Independence by 2024, but also to provide my readers with tips and inspiration on topics like

The purpose of MyFinancialShape is also to show that it’s actually possible to achieve Financial Independence (FI) and that in the end, it all boils down to the savings rate (wich determines the number of years to achieve FI). I also want to show how a consistent investment process pays off over the long haul. The compound effect works handsomely for long term oriented Buy and Hold Investor.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020, our dividend stock portfolio lost almost 30 % in a matter of a few days. It has recovered handsomely since then. Our investment approach was tested and showed to be robust. We have been in a position to put our cash pile to work at market bottom to further strengthen our Dividend Portfolio.

But most importantly: April 2020 marked the beginning of our Tech Portfolio which today consists of 25 positions and has returned over 62 % since then. You can find here a Snapshot on these Tech Positions.

My Tech Growth Portfolio has a different purpose compared to the Dividend Portfolio, which should generate increasing passive income.

What I expect from Tech Stocks is to generate over time substantial book gains plus having the prospect of becoming strong dividend payers in future. Alphabet (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB) for instance could easily be very generous with shareholder distributions a few years from now.

As Dividend Growth Investors, we need to have a long term perspective and build up future income sources. And I want to participate in the long-term growth trend of the digitalization of our economies.

As you can see from the pie chart above, the my five largest Tech Stock postions are:

  • Facebook (13 %)
  • Shopify (12 %)
  • Fiverr (10 %)
  • Cloudflare (10 %)
  • Alphabet (9 %)

My Tech Portfolio developed quite well although I was very late to Growth Stock investing. For over a decade I have focused on dividend paying stocks, in particular in the consumer staple sector.

Which has proven to be just fine. But it’s never too late to adapt a strategy and give it a more dynamic shape.

I hope, my article provides you with some inspiration on how you can build up your own portfolio. Let me know in the comments below what you think.

Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.

Disclaimer
You are responsible for your own investment and financial decisions. This article is not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action.

June Crypto Portfolio Update

Dear fellow reader, thanks for stopping by for a new post.

In February 2021 I took the decision to start a Crypto Portfolio.

I’d now like to share with you how that new crypto investment portfolio has developed and how the positions have performed since they have been acquired.

As you know, the universe of Crypto Applications- and Currencies is huge, and I had an interesting time to get more information in order to focus on following selection I chose for my investment portfolio:

  • Bitcoin (BTC or XBT), the first ever Crypto has since its start in 2008 gained huge popularity. Bitcoin is sometimes even used as synonyme for Cryptos (which of course is not accurate). Bitcoin exists as digital currency resp. digital asset, relying on a decentralized blockchain. You can find further information on the history, applications and blockchain technology, Bitcoin Mining etc. in the article WHY INVESTING IN BITCOIN.
  • Ethereum (ETH), like Bitcoin is decentralized, based on blockchain. I contrast to Bitcoin, which is as a concept mainly seen to serve as a currency with storage function, Ethereum can do a lot more, for instance can it be used for smart contracts and decentralized applications. For information on the history, mechanism, ways of investing etc. you can have a look at the article BUILDING THE INVESTMENT CASE FOR ETHEREUM.
  • Cardano (ADA) is a cryptocurrency network and open-source poject bult on the blockchain which is both, a smart contract platform and a stard asset-based coinage (see article WHY INVEST IN CARDANO).
  • Ripple (XRP) sets its focus on improving international payments between financial institutions. There are currently hundreds of institutions that use XRP.

Currently, my Crypto portfolio has a market value of Swiss francs (CHF) 3’208 resp. around USD 3’500 whereas I am sitting on a book loss of roughly 12.5 %. or USD 500.

Now, how have the four Crypto positions performed since they have been initiated?

  • BTC/XBT – Bitcoin: – 16.44 %. Currently I am holding 0.038 XBT with a market value of CHF 1’254
  • ETH – Ethereum: + 60.78 %, currently 0.3 EHT held, market value CHF 680
  • ADA – Cardano: – 5.64 %, currently 430 ADA for roughly CHF 605
  • XRP – Ripple: – 39.40 %. Currently I am holding 430 ADA, market value around CHF 605.

Now what about you, fellow reader, do you have Cryptos in your portfolio? Which ones? Do you plan to add to your holdings?

Disclaimer
You are responsible for your own investment and financial decisions. This article is not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action.

May 2021 Passive Income Update

With another month in the books, it’s time for another Passive Income Report Update.

In this post, I will show you the amount of dividends and interests income that my wife and I received in May 2021 and the stock moves we made in the past month.

Let’s dive into the numbers (in Swiss francs: CHF; all numbers are net after taxes).

Total dividend income in May 2021 was CHF 2’860 (over USD 3’000), an increase of 30 % from CHF 2230 one year ago. 24 Stock holding positions paid dividend compared to 22 last year in the same month.

Following five businesses resumed their dividend payments after having halted shareholder distributions amid the pandemic in 2020: Banco Santander, Nichols, Heineken, Aviva and Glencore.

Total Interest Income from Peer to Peer and Crowdlending Platforms came in at CHF 42, compared to CHF 311 in May 2020, significantly lower due to significant cash withdrawals which were used to build up our Tech Portfolio in 2020.

Our savings rate was at around 65 %, quite solid and more or less in the range of the last months.

Despite the turbulent stock market movements in the last few weeks, in particular with regard to Tech Stocks and Cryptos, our total share investments hit an All Time High of over USD 460’000!

Our investment portfolio has been lifted by very strong performance of larger positions such as Nestlé, LVMH, L’Oreal, SIXT, Facebook, Alphabet, Legal & General and Tate & Lyle.

In May, we added two new positions to our Dividend Stock Portfolio for roughly USD 2’000 each:

What about you, fellow reader, how was your May in terms of passive income?

Disclaimer
You are responsible for your own investment and financial decisions. This article is not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action.

The recovery of our stock portfolio

In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdowns around the world, the stock market crashed in a matter of a few day.

Due to very decisive and concerted actions of central banks and governments around the globe, that huge blow had been cushioned and stock markets recovered very strongly in a matter of months.

One year after the global pandemic, our portfolio stands at all time high

Early in 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic had shown its full disastrous impact (on humanity, health systems, societies, economies etc.) our dividend stock portfolio had a market value of well above USD 300’000.

Well, in March that investment portfolio crashed within a few days to USD 210’000.

My wife and I had already experienced a 15 % fall of our stock portfolio in the past which in hindsight was a kind of “non-event”, given the fact that our investments stabilized and shot back in a matter of just a few weeks.

But the COVID-19 pandemic blow was much more severe and accompanied by a huge amount of fear and uncertainties all around the world.

That 30 % drop of our investment portfolio was more severe compared to any index I could think of.

This took me by surprise, given the fact that at the core of our investment portfolio stand strong businesses in the consumer staple sector and big names such as Coca Cola, Heineken, The Walt Disney Company and so on.

Now in the meantime, since March 2020, a lot has happened. The world we live in has completely changed.

So did also our investment approach. I started a Tech Portfolio in 2020 and for months have been consequently buying stocks names like Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple etc.

We also added to our Dividend Portfolio, mainly insurance companies such as Allianz, Admiral, Swiss Life etc., taking advantage of lower stock prices in 2020.

Today, our total stock investments (Dividend – plus Tech Portfolio) are moving towards USD 500’000, mostly driven by strong performance.

Our overall stock investments are now by far more diversified.

In contrast: before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had ZERO Tech Stocks.

Today, our asset distribution is broader and more resilient. And even though many of our tech investments don’t pay any dividends (yet), we can be confident to receive at least USD 15’000 in net dividends trough 2021.

Now let’s pick some of our stock holdings (we have over 100 positions) and let’s see how they have moved since the March 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Low.

A snapshot at some of our holding positons

Who would have thought that The Walt Disney grew stronger and more compelling despite COVID-19 lockdowns. The Walt Disney Company clearly is a pandemic winner!

Few people know that Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey – commonly known as LVMH – is the largest company in Europe by market value. This French conglomerate is the world largest luxury goods company. Just look at the amazing brand portfolio (wines, spirits, leather goods, perfumes, cosmetics etc.) and the business fundamentals and you can immediately see that we are talking here about a wonderful business.

Acquiring stocks of Alphabet at around USD 1’200 in 2020 was certainly a good move. Alphabet’s stock has gone up pretty smoothly for years and I see huge potential for further growth.

Since I initiated a position in Facebook in 2020, that stock went up like a rocket and our Facebook position has become our largest Tech Holding. Facebook is a hugely attractive blue chip stallwart.

Amazon is THE most robust and one of the most dynamic tech companies that ever existed. Its economic moat is so massive. I bought one stock in 2020 for around USD 2’200, thinking it was expensive. Well, little did I know about the earning potential of that wonderful company.

Shopify has been one of my various tech acquisitions in 2020 and I feel very confident about its bright growth prospects. Shopify helps small and medium size businesses around the world to compete with Amazon respectively not to be put out of business by that giant. Shopify has a very capital light business model that is extremely scalable. Shopify has turned into profit at the beginning of 2021 and will reward their shareholders handsomeley for the years to come.

Now, with these few examples from our Tech Portfolio, let’s pick some of our “older” Dividend Positions. How did they fare since the March 2020 Coronoa-Crash?

The Coca Cola is one of the very few indisputed high quality Dividend Kings with an extremely powerful and resilient business model. But yet, Coca Cola saw it’s stock price crash from USD 60 to well below USD 40 in a matter of less than a week. As the stock chart shows, the business is recovering. Due to global lockdowns, many restaurants, parks etc. all around the world had to be closed, but once the measures are relaxed, Coca Cola will return to growth again.

Now, let’s look at Coca Cola’s main competitor, PepsiCo, which has been for some time in our dividend portfolio as well.

PepsiCo took a hit, of course, but that was less severely than in the case of Coca Cola.

Why is that?

Well, PepsiCo is more diversified, they are not only in the beverage but also in the snack business. PepsiCo is also a major player in the breakfast business through its Oaker Oats products. PepsiCo litterally has the ability to serve its consumer around the clock with its products.

So, while PepsiCo and Coca Cola recovered nicely from the pandemic, the latter will need some time to come back to substantial growth. Both, of course continued increasing their dividends and I am confident that they will do so in the future.

Is there a consumer staple business more resilient than PepsiCo? Yes, of course. Take a look at Nestlé, where we have been shareholders since 2009 and have seen the stock price more than triple since than and been rewarded by increasing dividends each year.

Nestlé has made generations a fortune. There is so much to like about the world largest food maker and number two in the global beverage market. What few people know, that Nestlé owns almost one third of French cosmetic giant L’Oreal which makes Nestlé even more compelling. L’Oreal has incredible strong brands in its product portfolio and a very capital light busiiness model. Almost one third of L’Oreal’s dividend payouts go to Nestlé (the business has been hiking its distributions for decades).

Now let’s turn to another stock holding in the consumer goods sector, to Dutch beer giant Heineken.

From the very beginning when we entered into our position in 2017, Heineken has been a refreshing investment and we enjoyed receiving growing dividends year by year. Well, the globald lockdowns was a huge blow to Heineken’s business model. With restaurants and bars closed, revenues slumped drastically. Heineken even had to cancel its dividend in 2020. Heineken’s stock price plummeted by almost 40 % in March 2020 and as you can see in the chart, Heineken’s recovery has been a bit rocky, less smoothly than in the case of Nestlé and PepsiCo.

But still, after one year, Heineken’s stock price stands where it was before, and investors that have taken advantage of lower stock prices got pieces of a wonderful business with Heineken stocks.

In March 2020, I thought some time of increasing our holding in beer giant Heineken but chose to diversify and add some more consumer staple companies such as British tonic maker Fevertree, French nutrition company Danone and Italien spirit maker Campari to our portfolio.

The investment in Campari has been particularily a successful one. Campari is a high quality business, boasting more than 50 brands, the best-known of which include Campari itself, Cinzano, Appleton Estate rum and Skyy Vodka. And my favorite: Aperol!

Now let’s turn to our Insurance Investments.

Legal & General is by far our largest exposure to the insurance sector, our stocks of that company have a market value of more than USD 15’000. Legal & General is a multinational financial services and asset management company, its products and services include lifetime mortgages, life assurances, pensions annuities etc.

Legal & General has an extremely capital light business model and is very resilient. But of course, it’s operations and stock price had been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Legal & General was able to maintain its giant dividend. My wife and I collect almost USD 1’000 per year as dividends from that company alone and reinvest it into more stocks of Legal & General. Our positon litterally ballooned. The stock price might be at the same level than one year ago, but our position increased. That’s the beauty of lower stock prices, you can buy more pieces of wonderful businesses on the cheap.

Swiss Re has been in our investment portfolio for years and we enjoyed the huge dividends which are usually hiked by the company. Swiss Re is a very robust business, sitting on massive cash and being extremely shareholder friendly. But with many events around the world had been to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, insurances – and reinsurer as their back-up – had to pay billions. I was a bit surprised to see Swiss Re’s stock price litterally being cut in half in March 2020, crashing from well over CHF 100 to just above CHF 50.

Well, when shares of solid businesses get cheaper while the long term fundamentals remain intact, well that’s where we get interested. I pulled the trigger and increased our Swiss Re position at a very nice price. Swiss Re held its dividend payout stable and our total yield on costs for that investment is almost 8 %.

Now let’s turn to the commodity businesses.

Oil and gas supermajor Chevron was hit quite hard in 2020 due to lockdowns all around the world. The stock price crashed by roughly 50 %, jumped then back quite a bit to test again the March 2020 lows and was then steadily going up to pre-pandemic levels. Chevron clearly showed its resiliency. Not only did that great business maintian its dividend but also kept increasing shareholder payouts.

While Chevron went pretty unharmed through the COVID-19 pandemic, its larger competitor oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell experienced significant losses for several quarters. The stock price reflects the damage to the financial fundamentals of the company. Royal Dutch Shell cut its dividend by over 60 % to protect its balance shee and to preserve cash.

Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto came pretty well through the COVID-19 crisis. It’s a business that has perfectly adapted to volatile price dynamics. Iron ore prices briefly plummeted but recovered immediately which helped Rio Tinto to generate significant cash flows which the company generously distributed to its shareholders.

Mining and commodity trading company Glencore had a rough time for a couple of years as is reflected in its stock price. Bad business practice, litigations, scrutinity of governments etc. have been a drag on the company’s share price for quite a while, which was severely accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Glencore does not have yet have an optimized cost structure like Rio Tinto and Glencore clearly does not only have tier-1 assets. Glencore lacks not only the high operation quality but also the prudent management Rio Tinto has shown for several years. So, it didn’t come as a surprise to me when Glencore cut its dividend for 2020. But still, cash flow generation has significantly improved since mid 2020 and Glencore resumed its dividend payouts which gave the stock price a nice boost, clearly above the pre-pandemic levels.

Our Buy and Hold strategy has been tested, and has been successful

My wife and I have been long term oriented Dividend Growth Investors since 2009. We embrace market volatility as it give us the opportunity to strengthen our stock portfolios even further. We want to establish more and more Passive Income Sources and fortify the backbone of our wealth creation process.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a huge shock for the whole world. And a strong blow to our stock portfolios, that temporarily “lost” almost USD 100’000. But we sat thight, focused on acquiring more positions and seeing our book losses shrink steadily until they turned into very nice book gains.

That’s the beauty of Buy and Hold Investing. After high quality stocks are acquired, you do nothing. And you will be rewarded for doing nothing.

Disclaimer
You are responsible for your own investment and financial decisions. This article is not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action.