Time really flies. We are already coming to the end of the first week of Feb 2016! And CNY is just a few days away.

This year didn't start well at all for the stock market with the value of my stock holdings declining by roughly $250k. I have been through a few economic crisis previously (97/98, 03 (Sars period), 08/09 and 11/12 (Europe crisis)), where my stock holdings declined in value but nothing as much as this time simply because I have ramped up my investment to build up my passive income flow for my retirement. Naturally when the stock value declined, I was concerned if it would impact the dividends I would be receiving.

For Jan this year, I have collected $10.3k in dividends slightly better than last Jan (2015). Some companies have indeed reduced their dividends payout, but this was compensated by others which increased their payout resulting in a little net gain. For Feb, the companies paying dividends in Feb have all announced their dividends and I should be getting $9.4k in dividends. Again this is a little higher than last year's Feb dividend.

Going forward, I am keeping my fingers crossed as the world economy struggles to find its footing. If this uncertainty drags on, I think more companies will suffer losses and retrenchment may be widespread with dividends cut. Then we will have to hang on to our jobs longer.

Right now, as we are still working, our Jan 2016 income, together with the passive income comes up to $34k. For this Feb month, we are expecting $33k.

The weak stock market also presents a good opportunity to pick up good stocks for long term investment and dividends. So far, we have increased our holding of the 3 local banks, SGX, Comfortdelgro and a few other blue chips. As we are already passed our mid fifties, I think this could be the last window of opportunity for us to pick up bargain stocks.

If you have the money to buy a new car now, you might want to delay that decision and invest the money instead. When the market recovers, you may be in a position to own a new car and the stocks! How about that? We have been using our passive incomes to buy our last two new cars!