Added 4k to my Portfolio

Markets were generally up this week, with positive economic data from the US on Thursday night driving Asian markets higher. An upward trend will form in the second half of the year as markets see a rebound. It’s a new quarter, and people can leave the second quarter behind. It was a quarter plagued with Japan being hit by natural and man made disasters, Europe’s debt crisis flaring up again and the US economy also running into a soft second quarter.

However, overall, my portfolio was just 2.3% over the last 3 months so I really have no grounds to be feeling down. In fact, with a lot of the worries now behind us, the second half of this year is looking good and I am confident that equity markets will make up for the lost ground.

I added another $4,000 into my portfolio today as follows:

DBS Enhanced Income Fund - $3,000
Aberdeen Asia Smaller Companies - $1,000

Now, the reason I am adding so much more to a short term duration bond fund has nothing to do with how I see markets. Given a choice, I would certainly rather add most of it to equities. However, my new home is almost about to TOP, and that means spending money time is coming up! So, I continue to add to a very low risk fund like DBS Enhanced Income, but one that will still enable me to beat normal savings accounts returns. Thus far, the DBS Enhanced Income is already up more than 1.4% year to date, which no matter how you square it, is a lot better than 0.1% I am getting from my savings account or a possible 0.43% if I had placed it into a 12 month fixed deposit. Furthermore, it demonstrated it resilience over the last 3 months. Despite volatile markets during that time (I had one equity fund which was down nearly 10%), the DBS Enhanced Income fund was up 0.14% over the same period. So, for money which you know you are going to take out within a couple of months, like my case, its just more prudent to keep it in a parking facility type fund like the DBS Enhanced Income.

Anyhow, I am looking forward to getting the keys to my new home, and for a much better second half of the year for equity markets!