$1.48 mil Daedalus Income Portfolio Update – December 2024

Here is the update for my Daedalus portfolio for December 2024. If work is not too busy, I will try to provide an update where possible.

I explain how I constructed this portfolio in Deconstructing Daedalus Income Portfolio. You might not understand what I wrote below if you haven’t read this post.

All my personal planning notes such as income planning, insurance planning, investment & portfolio construction will be under my personal notes section of this blog. You can also find the past updates in the section.

Portfolio Change Since Last Update

The portfolio was valued at $1.536 million at the end of November and is currently at $1.481 million at the end of December.

We reported a portfolio change of -$55,000 for December 2024.

As of 2nd January 2025, the portfolio is valued at $1.494 million.

Here are the primary security holding returns for the month-to-date and year-to-date:

The returns of Dimensional funds are in SGD, with the rest in USD. I have also listed the major index ETF performance for comparison. The performance would have been a little higher if I listed the Dimensional funds in USD.

Majority of equity markets were down in December. Emerging markets were down roughly 1.5%. International developed markets was also down. The performance of the S&P 400 and S&P 600 index show that majority of US mid-cap and small-cap gave back the gains. In fact, the S&P 500 equal-weighted ETF (not shown here) gave back -6.3% in this month as well.

S&P 500 cap-weighted index did the best, notching 25.25%. The indexes and funds that have the Mega caps was able to do returns in the high tens. However, aside from that markets ended with single digit or low double digit returns.

The portfolio gains 1.98% due to the weakening SGD against the USD.

Full Year Returns.

Since this is the last month of year, I will report the full year portfolio performance.

• Portfolio Starting Value: 1,296,000
• Portfolio Ending Value: 1,481,000
• Capital Injection: $15,000 SRS Money
• Capital Withdrawal: $0

Return based on XIRR: 13.05%.

Role of Portfolio

The goal of the portfolio is to provide consistent, inflation-adjusted income for my essential and basic spending. The portfolio is sized based on a conservative 2.0-2.5% Initial Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) so that the income can last even considering challenging historical sequences such as the Great Depression, external war and 30 years of high inflation averaging 5.5-6% p.a.

The timeframe that the income stream to be planned for: 60 years to Perpetual

I am currently not drawing down the portfolio.

For further reading on:

1. My notes regarding my essential spending.
2. My notes regarding my basic spending.
3. My elaboration of the Safe Withdrawal Rate: Article | YouTube Video

Based on current portfolio value, the amount of monthly passive income that can be conservatively generated from the portfolio is

The lower the SWR, the more capital is needed, but the more resilient the income is.

Nature of the Income I Planned for

Different income strategies will give you different characteristics of income streams. They can be more consistent or volatile, inflation-adjusted or non-inflation-adjusted, for limited duration or perpetual.

An income stream based on the Safe Withdrawal Rate framework is consistent and inflation-adjusted, and if we use a low initial Safe Withdrawal Rate of 2.0-2.5%, the income stream leans towards a long duration to perpetual.

Here is a visual illustration of how the income stream will be based on the current portfolio value:

The income for the initial year is based on a 2% Safe Withdrawal Rate. The income for subsequent years is based on the inflation rate in the prior year (refer to the bottom pane of inflation in the previous year). If the inflation is high, the income scales up and if there is deflation, the income is reduced.

Investment Strategy & Philosophy

After trying my best to learn how to invest for a while, the portfolio expresses my thoughts about investing at this point.

The portfolio is run in a

1. Strategic: allocation doesn’t change by short-term events.
2. Systematic: rules/decision-tree-based implemented either myself or an external manager.
3. Low-cost: investment implementation cost is kept reasonably low both on the fund level and also on the custodian level.
4. Passive: I spend relatively little effort mentally considering investments and also action-wise.

You can read more in this note article: Deconstructing Daedalus My Passive Income Investment Portfolio for My Essential & Basic Spending.

Portfolio Change Since Last Update (Usually Last Month)

With the launch of the USD denominated Avantis UCITS funds in December, I decided to start my transition from the SPDR MSCI USA Small Cap Value Weighted UCITS ETF (USSC) to the Avantis Global Small Cap Value UCITS ETF (AVGS).

I rebalanced SG$40,000 of USSC into AVGS.

I have also decided to switch the Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF (VWRA) to the Avantis Global Equity UCITS ETF (AVGC). The first reason is to invest in Developed markets and emerging markets separately. The second reason is to have a cleaner multi-factor portfolio.

I rebalanced the full SG$115,108 into AVGC.

Current Holdings

The following table is grouped based on general strategy, whether they are:

1. Fixed Income / Cash to reduce volatility.
2. Systematic Passive, which tries to capture the market risk in a systematic manner.
3. Systematic Active, which tries to capture various proven risk premiums such as value, momentum, quality, high profitability, and size in a systematic manner.
4. Long-term sectorial positions.

Portfolio by Account Location

Portfolio by Region of Securities

Portfolio by Fund, Cash or Individual Security

Portfolio by Strategy.

Main Custodians

The current custodians are:

1. Cash: Interactive Brokers LLC (not SG)
2. SRS: iFAST Financial

If you want to trade these stocks I mentioned, you can open an account with Interactive Brokers. Interactive Brokers is the leading low-cost and efficient broker I use and trust to invest & trade my holdings in Singapore, the United States, London Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange. They allow you to trade stocks, ETFs, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds worldwide from a single integrated account.

You can read more about my thoughts about Interactive Brokers in this Interactive Brokers Deep Dive Series, starting with how to create & fund your Interactive Brokers account easily.

Kyith is the Owner and Sole Writer behind Investment Moats. Readers tune in to Investment Moats to learn and build stronger, firmer wealth foundations, how to have a Passive investment strategy, know more about investing in REITs and the nuts and bolts of Active Investing.

Readers also follow Kyith to learn how to plan well for Financial Security and Financial Independence.

Kyith worked as an IT operations engineer from 2004 to 2019. Currently, he works as a Senior Solutions Specialist in Insurance Start-up Havend. All opinions on Investment Moats are his own and does not represent the views of Providend.

You can view Kyith’s current portfolio here, which uses his Free Google Stock Portfolio Tracker.

His investment broker of choice is Interactive Brokers, which allows him to invest in securities from different exchanges all over the world, at very low commission rates, without custodian fees, near spot currency rates.

You can read more about Kyith here.