March 2026 Portfolio Update: S$111k Invested in a Tough Quarter

Note: Dividend tap refers to the portfolio average monthly dividend which is estimated from Snowball Analytics.

Welcome to my March 2026 Portfolio Update. This one covers roughly three months since the last update on 26 Dec 2025, so it is less “what happened this month?” and more “did the machine keep working through a messy quarter?” I think it did. I bought a lot of core, added to healthcare REIT income, cleaned up one old US stock, and let the cashflows do their quiet compounding.

• IWDA (Core): 545 shares, approx S$91.3k

• C2PU REIT (Country Tilts): 2,800 shares, approx S$11,188

• EXCS (EM ex China): 500 shares, approx S$4.7k

• AAA (AUD FX): 86 shares, approx S$3.8k

• Lemonade (LMND): sold remaining 350 shares, proceeds approx US$33,860 (~S$43.5k)

Net capital deployed into markets: approx S$67,582 (Purchases-Sales)

January, February and March each arrived with a different mood, which is probably why this period felt longer than a calendar quarter. The Federal Reserve held rates steady in both January and March and kept describing inflation as “somewhat elevated.” In plain English: cash and short-duration assets stayed useful, REIT funding costs still mattered, and anything priced for a perfect falling-rate world had to work harder.

Singapore, on the other hand, had a proper moment in the sun. SGX said the STI was up 8% for the year by the end of February and hit an all-time high of 5,041 on 23 February, helped by broad-based strength across real estate and industrials. For a portfolio with a meaningful Singapore income sleeve, that was a nice reminder that “boring local names” can still surprise people.

Then the quarter ended by throwing a chair through the window with the onset of Ops Epic Fail. Reuters described Q1 as a period in which geopolitics wiped roughly US$7 trillion off global stocks, oil logged its second-biggest quarterly rise of the century, and global interest rates suddenly started pointing up rather than down. By 26 March, the Nasdaq had fallen into correction territory and Brent crude settled above US$108.

That backdrop matters because it explains why this update is not about calling tops or bottoms. It is about whether the Atrahasis machine behaved sensibly amidst the changing weather.

The core finally got a proper feeding

The clearest story is that the Core got fed. Hard. I added 545 units of IWDA across 13 separate trades, making it by far the biggest destination for capital this period.

That is exactly what should happen. The portfolio still needs more weight in the broad global engine and less emotional attachment to old single-stock baggage. I do not need to know whether oil spikes, AI excitement, tariff headlines or central-bank gossip will dominate the next fortnight. I just need to keep buying the world in a disciplined, repeatable way.

There is something calming about seeing the same boring ticker appear again and again in my transactions log. It tells me the portfolio is slowly becoming more like the plan and less like my past life as a stock picker.

One old position finally left the building

Back in November, I wrote that Lemonade was one of the “bagholders” I was essentially waiting to exit at break-even, partly to reduce clutter and partly because of the broader US-situs watchlist problem. January finally gave me that window, so I sold the remaining 350 shares and moved on.

This was not a heroic trade. It was housekeeping. Not every sale needs a grand macro thesis. Sometimes the right move is simply to close the tab on an old mistake, free up the capital, and redirect brainpower toward assets you actually want to own for the next decade.

C2PU kept proving why it belongs

After starting Parkway Life REIT in December, I added another 2,800 units this period. That took the position from a starter holding into something more meaningful inside the income sleeve.

I still like it for the same boring reasons I liked it three months ago: healthcare demand is less mood-dependent than retail, long leases help cashflows behave, and built-in rent escalators are useful when inflation refuses to fully disappear. This is not a “story stock.” It is a “please just keep paying me sensibly” stock, which is exactly the energy I want in the dividend sleeve.

EXCS and AAA stayed in their lanes

EXCS got a one-trade top-up. AAA got one small batch reinvestment. That is precisely how I want these supporting actors to behave.

EXCS gives me emerging-market exposure without automatically making China the whole conversation. AAA remains a legacy AUD cash sleeve that I am happy to let chug along quietly, especially when distributions accumulate and can be reinvested in batches rather than dripped in at random. Supporting roles are good roles, provided they actually support the plot.

Bitcoin behaved exactly like Bitcoin, which is why it stays small

One reason there were no crypto heroics in this period is that Bitcoin was already doing enough cardio on its own. Reuters reported on 5 February that Bitcoin fell 12.6% in a single day, dropped to its lowest level since October 2024, and was down 28% for the year at that point as ETF outflows and weaker risk sentiment hit the sector.

That is not a reason for me to panic. It is a reminder that the sleeve is sized correctly. Bitcoin is here as a small satellite, not as a substitute for a plan, a cash buffer, or adult behaviour.

The income spine kept doing its job

Across this roughly three-month stretch, there were about S$7.7k of SGD distributions, A$4.9k of AUD distributions, and about US$1.4k of net USD dividends after withholding. Using late-March FX, that works out to roughly S$13.9k equivalent in cashflows over the period, with March doing most of the heavy lifting.

That matters because it changes how the portfolio feels in volatile markets. When prices wobble, I am not staring at a screen waiting for emotional closure. Cash is still landing in the account. And every dollar, Aussie dollar and US dollar of that income gives me options: reinvest into weakness, top up safer assets, or simply let the dividend tap get thicker.

Reuters also reported that investors poured a record US$11.1 billion into short-term bond funds in the week through 25 March. That is basically the institutional version of the same instinct behind my Bridge Cash Bucket: when headlines get ugly, boring assets stop looking boring and start looking intelligent.

Looking ahead to April and the next Quarter

I am watching a few things, not to predict markets, but to decide where the next dollars should go.

• Oil, rates and the late-March wobble
  • Why: If the energy shock lingers, inflation could stay sticky and markets may keep repricing growth and income assets.
  • What I might do: Keep feeding the core and quality income sleeves instead of trying to call the exact bottom.

• Further simplification of the legacy tail
  • Why: Every old position I can exit intelligently reduces clutter, concentration and US-situs noise.
  • What I might do: Keep pruning when the price and logic line up.
  • What would change my mind: If a sale would mean giving away obvious value for no good reason, patience is still allowed.

• Dividend tap and bridge progress
  • Why: These matter more to my actual retirement plan than winning some monthly performance beauty contest.
  • What I might do: Keep nudging reliable cashflow assets higher, while refusing to reach for fragile yield.
  • What would change my mind: If I find myself buying income because it looks exciting rather than durable, I will slow down.

Same rules, messier headlines. Boring is still beautiful.