Financial Review - May, 2014

May was a solid month for my investments.

Net worth moved higher as gains in my Hong Kong and emerging market equities equities and rental income were enough to overcome living expenses, a small decline in Au/NZ equities and marginally unfavourable FX movements. Expenses were low.

Here are the details:

1. my Hong Kong equity portfolio appreciated meaningfully. The only transaction this month was to elect to take my NWS (HK:659) dividend in scrip. The special dividend from Hutchison (HK:13) was also received this month;

2. my AU/NZ equities declined moderately there were no transactions this month;

3.my equity ETFs were up (India, Vietnam, Hong Kong and China) in line with the local markets. There were no new purchases;

4. my commodities were lower. Silver is my only position;

5. all properties are back to full occupancy and all tenants are paying on time. There were only minor repairs this month;

6. currency movements were slightly adverse with a small fall in the NZD. The AUD was flat;

7. my position in bonds remains small;

8. expenses were low;

9. there were no transfers to Mrs Traineeinvestor this month.

My cash position increased slightly. I currently hold 47.2 months of expenses in HKD cash or equivalents. This is now calculated on a different basis from last year - I have included the principal component of the mortgage on our home as an expense and added some additional near cash items to the cash side of the calculation.

For May, my net worth rose by 1.02%. The year to date increase is 1.40%.

Although eight months is too short a period from which to draw conclusions, it is encouraging that (so far) returns from my investments are exceeding our living expenses (and the transfers to Mrs Traineeinvestor).

NWS - top up

With there being a meaningful difference between the market price (above $13 at the time I had to make a decision) and the reinvestment price ($12.3918), I elected to reinvest my dividend in NWS (HK:659). At this morning's opening price of $13.94 the unrealised gain is $1.54 per new share or 12.4%.

In generally, I like taking dividends in scrip on companies that I anticipate holding for the longer term. Unfortunately, many (but not all) of the companies I invest in in Australia and New Zealand will not allow non-residents to participate in their dividend reinvestment plans - meaning I lose the opportunity to buy shares at a discount to market and I am getting diluted.

Of course, the other issue I face now that I am no longer earning employment related income is  that I need cash to pay the bills.