The Sun's Financial Diary

One of my investment objectives is to generate passive income from investments, including dividend-paying stocks/ETFs. In the past couple of years, I have paid increasing attention to stocks that pay generous dividends. Using mostly DRIP stocks and exchange-traded funds, I have built a small portfolio aimed to generate passive income. Recently, I reshuffled that portion [...]

The other day I read a paper on the October issue of Financial Planning magazine. The article, Think Globally by Bruce Eidelson, discussed the appeals of global REIT (real estate investment trust) to investors who seek diversifications and steady income streams, when the US real estate market struggles. One of the reasons to go global [...]

Do you like lifecycle funds? Do you use them in your portfolio?
I am not a big fan of lifecycle funds as I only use one in my entire investments, including both regular and retirement accounts. The reason is the lack of flexibility of such funds. However, lifecycle funds are getting popular among investors who opt [...]

There are many ways to invest in emerging markets, led by two most populous countries China and India. You can buy them as part of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries with State Street’s SPDR S&P BRIC 40 ETF (BIK) that I have discussed before. Or you can invested in ETFs that are [...]

As US housing market tumbled in 2007, REIT (real estate investment trust) investors have suffered big losses from their investments so far this year. In fact, 2007 is on track to become the first losing year for REIT investors since the beginning of the century. Year-to-date, the Dow Jones Equity All REIT Index (^DJR) has [...]

It’s BRIC, not BRICK!
For investors looking for growth outside US and other developed economies, emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) offer great opportunities. With 2007 estimated real GDP growth at 3.7%, 6.7%, 9.2%, and 10.7%, respectively (according to indexmundi.com), these countries just can’t be ignored. There are many options for US [...]

The S&P 500, as well as most of mutual funds and ETFs that track the benchmark, is a market-cap weighted index. This means the weights of the index’s components are determined based on their market capitals. The larger a company’s market value, the heavier the weight in the index. As a result, according to IndexArb.com, [...]

Then rotate them with Claymore/Zecks Country Rotation ETF (CRO).
Last month, Claymore Securities launched a new international ETF that tracks Zecks Country Rotation Index (ZAXCR). According Zecks Investment Research, the index uses countries that are components of the MSCI EAFE Index. Currently, the index consists of 200 stocks from countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, [...]

Vanguard launched a new international equity ETF on July 26, 2007. The latest offering, Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF (VEA), tracks Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Europe, Australasia, Far East (EAFE) Index. The index comprises 21 developed economies (PDF file) outside of North America, including Japan, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, [...]

As we are approaching the half-year mark, do you plan to do any adjustment of your portfolio?
I usually don’t make any change on our investments in the middle of the year. Any rebalancing will happen when the full year ends as I always feel the stock markets will do better in the second half of [...]