Half year review of my Vrijheid Fonds 2018
Dear readers, fellow DGI’s
We have past the half waypoint in the calendar year 2018 recently, so it is time again to reflect upon the past performance of my Vrijheid Fonds. Time really flies when you having fun. Just as a reminder, see my blog post for my goals 2018.
With half of 2018 in hindsight, it’s time for a formal half-year review. Why do I do a review, you ask? Well there are actually a couple of reasons (besides because its fun to write). By doing my own review periodically it will help me understand whether I’m on course to meeting my goals, or whether I need to change my strategy or tactics. It also helps me to stay focused on actively managing my Vrijheid Fonds. And I believe it helps me, through reflecting on the past, to be a better DGI.
As I already told you in my Q1 report, I’m glad that volatility is back! 2017 was a great year were the stock prices shifted up and down in a very narrow bandwidth. And finally, 2018 is really different. This gives hope for a new dip in the stock market and new buying opportunities.
Total Return
Okay without further delay, it is time to look at my Vrijheid Fonds (and how it was affected by this volatility). Lets start with some key statistics.
Some key statistics on my Vrijheid Fonds for 2018:
- Net Value at the start of 2018: € 90,894
- Net Value at the end of Q2 2018: € 97,526
- Fresh added new capital in first half of 2018: € 4,020
With these numbers we can calculate the growth of my Vrijheid Fonds in the first half of 2018. My portfolio’s total return in the first half of 2018 was 2.75%. And lets compare my return with the return of some major indices. If we take a look at the chart below you can see that my Vrijheid Fonds did a good job in relation to the indices. I’m happy with a total return of 2.75% so far.
Now that we know how my Vrijheid Fonds has performed in the first half of the year, it is time to take a look at my four goals that I set for my Vrijheid Fonds in 2018
Goal 1: Receive €3,600 in dividends in 2018
In the first six months of this year I received € 1,792.73 in dividend income. Normally the first half of a year is the biggest half-year in dividend. I’m happy with this amount of passive income. And I can report that my projected dividend income for 2018, at this moment is €3,470.
| Dividend | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
| 2014 | 90.11 | 509.38 | 226.04 | 289.32 | 1,114.85 |
| 2015 | 323.04 | 634.43 | 401.28 | 414.83 | 1,773.58 |
| 2016 | 511.80 | 769.88 | 1,148.63 | 649.08 | 3,079.38 |
| 2017 | 673.10 | 923.18 | 726.82 | 758.06 | 3,081.16 |
| 2018 | 685.87 | 1,106.87 |
My reported dividend for the first half of 2018 isn’t as high as I hoped it would be at the time of writing down my goals for 2018. There are two major causes for this, as I already wrote in my month review for March 2018.
First Royal Dutch Shell has stopped the possibility to reinvest their dividend by mains of script dividend. Up on till the end of 2017 I recorded the dividend of RDS as gross dividend, because the script dividend was paid from the gross dividend. Now the possibility of script dividend has ended, I have to drip from my net dividend ;-( . And that is why from now on, I will state the net dividend from RDS in my overviews. And yes this differs 15%, which is approx. €20 on a quarterly basis!
The second cause is that my mutual fund: NN Euro Obligatie Fonds (Euro Bond Fund) will no longer issue a quarterly dividend from 2018 onwards. From this year on, the dividend payment will take place once a year. From now on, the dividend will be paid in July. For more information, take a look at my post on NN Euro Obligatie Fonds. And now that I have received my dividend for 2018, I can say that I got almost 30% less dividend than in 2017 (ouch).
So with a projected dividend income of € 3,470, I’m still lacking a bit to reach this goal in 2018 ;-).
I did pump up my projected dividend income with almost € 200 since Q1, but it still will be a real challenge to achieve this goal. If I take a look at the rest of this year, I project at least 2 new stock purchases of about (€ 1,200 or $ 1,500) in 2018. With an average of average yield of 2.5%, this will result in approx. € 65 of extra dividend. Ouch… with these numbers I will not reach my dividend income goal for 2018. So I have to do something extra. And I will do my utmost best to maximize my dividend income for 2018.
Grade: Challenging!
Goal 2: More diversification in my Vrijheid Fonds
My Idea behind this goal is that I want to position myself appropriately to protect my Vrijheid Fonds and decrease my risk factor for when the markets really dip. In order to do this, I want to diversify geographically by investing more in European companies.
| 2017 | HY – 2018 | |
| NL/Europe | 32,24% | 33,66% |
| USA | 52,78% | 51,80% |
Geographical diversification 7/1/2018
Furthermore I want to decrease my overall equity exposure and increase my Bonds exposure.
| 2017 | Q1 – 2018 | |
| Stocks | 85,01% | 87,01% |
| Bonds | 6,37% | 6,54% |
| Mix | 6,79% | 6,35% |
| Cash | 1,82% | 0,10% |
Assets allocation at 7/1/2018
Diversification is what saves my Vrijheid Fonds when the markets will hit a financial storm
And of course I always strive for more/better diversification in sectors.
| 2017 | HY – 2018 | |
| Consumer Discretionary | 19.98% | 19.92% |
| Consumer Staples | 20.74% | 19.43% |
| Energy | 15.33% | 15.41% |
| Financials | 3.92% | 3.22% |
| Health Care | 5.77% | 5.95% |
| Industrials | 0.96% | 2.27% |
| Information Tech | 2.51% | 2.77% |
| Materials | 1.26% | 1.32% |
| Telecommunications | 3.57% | 2.82% |
| Utilities | 2.21% | 3.67% |
| REIT | 8.77% | 10.23% |
| Cash | 1.82% | 0.10% |
| Mutual funds | 13.17% | 12.89% |
| Total | 100.00% | 100.00% |
Sector allocation at 7/1/2018
The tables above show the different diversification of my Vrijheid Fonds at the start of 2018 and at the end of June 2018. I don’t have a specific goal for these diversification.
If we take a look at these tables, you can see a small adjustment in all three tables. I’ll keep working on these diversification.
Grade: Passing!
Goal 3: Invest a total of € 7,500 new cash
In order to let my Vrijheid Fonds grow, it needs fresh cash. In the first six months of 2018 I added a total of € 4,020 of fresh capital.
I have put this new cash to good use. Every month I bought a lit bit more than € 100 worth of mutual Funds for my “Safe-haven-sleep-well”part of my Vrijheid Fonds.
I bought my first German company – Bayer AG, just click on Bayer AG to read my buy-report. Furthermore I bought some extra Realty Income (O). Read this post for some more information about this recent buy. I initiated a position in 3M – MMM, just click on the ticker for my buy-report. And last but not least, I bought some Consolidated Edison (ED).
And I also did one sell; I sold my Rights Bayer AG.
If I keep this pace up, I will definitely reach this goal!
Grade: Passing!
Goal 4: Receive €300 from side hustles
In 2017 I received € 90 in total of side hustle income and I wanted to set a new record for 2018. I’m working hard on this and set my self a goal of at least € 300.
My current side hustles are:
- Google AdSense
- Bol.com
- Amazon.com
- Member’s Board
- Euroclix: Click here to earn some extra cash with taking some surveys
Only Bol.com and Amazon haven’t paid out to me in 2018. The other three side hustles have paid out to me.
I received € 71.65 from Google AdSense, € 70 from Euroclix and a whooping € 360 of my membership of the member’s board. For more information on my side hustle income see my latest report hustle report May 2018.
To sum-up my progress in this goal; in the first six months of 2018 I made € 501.65 in side hustle money! As you can see, I already achieved this goal! So it is time to adjust my goal. My new goal is of course a little bit higher, I hope to make € 800 in passive income from my side hustles.
Grade: Passed and Updated!
This was my review of my goals that are related to my Vrijheid Fonds. I will do another review of the remaining goals, which are related to my website Polliesdividend.com, but first let’s have a closer look at the development of my Vrijheid Fonds in the first half of 2018.
Vrijheid Fonds
At the end of the first six months of 2018, I have 25 stocks, 4 mutual funds and 1 corporate bond in my Vrijheid Fonds. I just did 1 sell in 2018 so far and, as I already wrote, four new buys.
I had to accept one dividend cut 
and was pleased with 19 increases in the first half of 2018.
In the table below you can see the stock price changes for every individual stock of my Vrijheid Fonds in the first half of 2018.
| Ahold Delhaize | AH.AS | 11,84% |
| Bayer AG | BAYN | -9,28% |
| Royal Dutch Shell | RDS.AS | 7,14% |
| Unilever | UN.AS | 1,77% |
| 3M | MMM | 1,03% |
| AFLAC | AFL | -2,04% |
| Archer-Daniels-Midland | ADM | 14,29% |
| AT&T | T | -17,51% |
| Billiton PLC – ADR | BBL | 11,45% |
| Chevron | CVX | 0,84% |
| Coca Cola | KO | -4,59% |
| Consolidated Edison | ED | 0,53% |
| Franklin Resources | BEN | -26,08% |
| General Electric | GE | -22,23% |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | -13,26% |
| McDonalds | MCD | -9,01% |
| Microsoft | MSFT | 15,29% |
| Omega Healthcare Investment | OHI | 12,56% |
| Procter & Gamble | PG | -15,24% |
| Realty Income | O | -5,72% |
| South 32 LTD | SOUHY | -1,55% |
| Southern Company | SO | -3,72% |
| Target | TGT | 16,64% |
| Vereit | VER | -0,25% |
| Wal-Mart | WMT | -13,45% |
| NN Euro Obligatie Fonds – Mutual Fund | -3,73% | |
| NN premium Dividend Fonds – Mutual Fund | -8,44% | |
| NN Hoog Dividend Obligatie Fonds – Mutual Fund | -3,38% | |
| Kempen European High Dividend Fund – Mutual Fund | -4,29% | |
| Rabobank Certificates – Corporate Bond | -4,26% |
If I look at this table I can fairly say, that my Vrijheid Fonds, is affected by the volatility of the markets. I have a lot of stocks with a negative return in the first half of 2018. The stock market needed a dip because the stocks have become really expensive, which was seen by the high P/E-ratios and the low dividend yields. So now that the prices have dropped, it gave and gives me some nice buying opportunities. And because I’m in it for the long run, I only see buying opportunities.
The Dollar
The Dollar lost strength against the Euro in 2017, but in 2018 the Dollar is back and won a little bit more than 2.66% against the Euro in the first half of 2018.
And if you look at my portfolio, you can image that the value of my portfolio is positively affected by a stronger Dollar.
Finally
Well, things are looking pretty good. 2018 has been a volatile year so far and gave me some nice buying opportunities.
At this moment I’m passing 3 of my 4 goals and one of them I already adjusted upwards. The other goal is going to be challenging, but I will do my utmost best to reach it.
How was your first half of 2018? How are you doing with your goals for 2018? Passing or failing?
Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Pollie
The post Half year review of my Vrijheid Fonds 2018 appeared first on Polliesdividend.