Investing November 5, 2025 0 Comments

How This $1.6M Daedalus Portfolio Is Defying Market Chaos—And What It Means for Your Next Move

Ever wondered what it takes to build a portfolio that not only weathers the storms of market chaos but also keeps your essential expenses covered, come rain or shine? Well, welcome to the Daedalus portfolio update for October 2025 — where steady, inflation-adjusted income isn’t just a dream, but a meticulously crafted reality. Navigating through dollar values inching past $1.6 million, carefully deployed strategies, and a blend of systematic passive and active funds, this portfolio is designed with a resilient withdrawal rate that laughs in the face of historical financial upheavals. Stick around as we dive deep into how the numbers dance, what’s behind the scenes of portfolio construction, and why sometimes the market’s logic feels like a riddle wrapped in an enigma. Ready to peel back the curtain on a portfolio that aims to last a lifetime? Let’s get started! LEARN MORE

img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:64.94140625%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}img#mv-trellis-img-2::before{padding-top:26.26953125%; }img#mv-trellis-img-2{display:block;}img#mv-trellis-img-3::before{padding-top:62.3046875%; }img#mv-trellis-img-3{display:block;}img#mv-trellis-img-4::before{padding-top:114.63414634146%; }img#mv-trellis-img-4{display:block;}img#mv-trellis-img-5::before{padding-top:70.814030443415%; }img#mv-trellis-img-5{display:block;}img#mv-trellis-img-6::before{padding-top:64.6484375%; }img#mv-trellis-img-6{display:block;}img#mv-trellis-img-7::before{padding-top:61.190328580285%; }img#mv-trellis-img-7{display:block;}img#mv-trellis-img-8::before{padding-top:66.946417043254%; }img#mv-trellis-img-8{display:block;}

Here is the update for my Daedalus portfolio for October 2025. If work is not too busy, I will try to provide an update where possible.

I explain how I constructed this portfolio in Deconstructing Daedalus Income Portfolio and Why I Currently Invest in These Funds for Daedalus. You might not understand what I wrote below if you haven’t read this post.

All my personal planning notes such as income planning, insurance planning, investment & portfolio construction will be under my personal notes section of this blog. You can also find the past updates similar to this in the personal planning notes section.

Portfolio Change Since Last Update

The portfolio was valued at $1.587 million at the end of September and is at $1.610 million at the end of October.

We reported a portfolio change of $23,000 for October 2025.

The portfolio is valued in SGD because that is the currency that I would most likely be spending on.

As of 6th October 2025, the portfolio is valued at $1.612 million.

Here are the primary security holding returns for the month-to-date and year-to-date:

The table that shows the fund holdings denotes the month-to-date and year-to-date performance of the funds that I own, against Major Index ETFs. The Major Index ETFs is present to compare the performance. Just to be clear, I do not own the major index ETFs and you should see the top table (Fund) as what I own. The bottom table (Major Index ETFs) are benchmark ETFs to provide performance reflections.

The returns of all funds are in USD. This includes the performance of the Dimensional funds, which I use the returns of the USD share class so that the returns are comparable. I have also listed the major index ETF performance for comparison.

The market looks good and truth to be told, the returns should be more than just $36,000 from this table alone but that is the weird thing about the market.

Here are some comments about the portfolio:

The Russell 2000 perform very well, driving the R2US up by 2.05%. However, the performance was driven mainly by small cap healthcare (biotech) and also a small group of mining, quantum, AI related tech companies.
- The mid-cap (S&P 400) and small-cap (S&P 600) has a minimum profitability requirement and therefore don’t have the companies that drive the returns. They return -0.11% and -0.39% respectively.
- USSC, AVGS, Dimensional Global Targeted Value all have some sort of value and profitability angle to them, and they end up with much less unprofitable companies that benefit. They did 0.03%, -1.01% and -1.58% respectively.
MSCI World (IWDA) is up 2.53% against the following multifactor ETFs on Global equity that I own (except for the Dimensional Global Core Equity)
- GGRA: 1.49%
- JPGL: -0.15%
- AVGC: 1.41%
- IFSW: 2.66%
- Dimensional Global Core Equity: 0.85%
- IFSW has done tremendously well through the years, although I have the least exposure there.
MSCI Emerging Markets IMI continued its good run with 3.6% and AVEM is trying its best to keep up at 2.9%. MSCI Emerging Markets IMI have narrowed the difference. Now the AVEM outperformance is just 2% (even lower than last month).
MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap did rather well at 1.97%, a performance that is quite different to the other small cap region.
The global aggregate bonds did well this month.
ERNA, the ultrashort bond ETF returns have gradually go down as the yield to maturity goes down.

The portfolio gain 0.82% due to the strengthening USD against the SGD this month. YTD the portfolio lost 4.2% just from currency alone.

Role of Portfolio

The goal of the portfolio is to generate steady, inflation-adjusted income to cover my essential living expenses. It’s built using a conservative initial withdrawal rate of 2.0–2.5%, which is designed to hold up even under extremely tough market conditions — including scenarios like the Great Depression, prolonged periods of high inflation (averaging 5.5–6% over 30 years), or major global conflicts. In other words, it’s stress-tested to withstand some of the worst financial environments in history.

The income needs to last: from today (age 45) for the rest of your life — potentially forever.

I am currently not drawing down the portfolio.

For further reading on:

My notes regarding my essential spending.
My notes regarding my basic spending.
My elaboration of the Safe Withdrawal Rate: Article | YouTube Video

Based on current portfolio value, the amount of monthly passive income that can be conservatively generated from the portfolio is

The lower the SWR, the more capital is needed, but the more resilient the income stream is.

Nature of the Income I Planned for

Generally, different income strategies produce different types of income streams. They can vary by:

Consistency: Some provide steady income, others fluctuate over time
Inflation Protection: Some adjust with inflation, others remain fixed
Duration: Some last for a set number of years, others are designed to last indefinitely (perpetual)

An income stream based on the Safe Withdrawal Rate framework is consistent and inflation-adjusted, and if we use a low initial Safe Withdrawal Rate of 2.0-2.5%, the income stream leans towards a long duration to perpetual.

Here is a visual illustration of how the income stream will be based on the current portfolio value:

The income for the initial year is based on a 2% Safe Withdrawal Rate. The income for subsequent years is based on the inflation rate in the prior year (refer to the bottom pane of inflation in the previous year). If the inflation is high, the income scales up and if there is deflation, the income is reduced.

Amount of Cash Flow/Income Withdrawn/Extracted from Daedalus Income Portfolio

I wish to be fully transparent about the schedule of withdrawals from the portfolio because if the goal of the portfolio is eventually or currently provide income for spending, you would be interested to know how much is taken out from the portfolio.

There have not been any withdrawals or cash flow extraction for spending since the publication of the portfolio. I will update as and when it happens.

Investment Strategy & Philosophy

After trying my best to learn how to invest for a while, the portfolio expresses my thoughts about investing at this point.

The portfolio is run in a

Strategic: allocation doesn’t change by short-term events.
Systematic: rules/decision-tree-based implemented either myself or an external manager.
Low-cost: investment implementation cost is kept reasonably low both on the fund level and also on the custodian level.
Passive: I spend relatively little effort mentally considering investments and also action-wise.

Portfolio Change Since Last Update (Usually Last Month)

There were no change to the portfolio in October 2025.

Current Holdings – By Dollar Value and Percentages

The following table is grouped based on general strategy, whether they are:

Fixed Income / Cash to reduce volatility.
Systematic Passive, which tries to capture the market risk in a systematic manner.
Systematic Active, which tries to capture various proven risk premiums such as value, momentum, quality, high profitability, and size in a systematic manner.
Long-term sectorial positions.

Portfolio by Account Source Location

Portfolio by Region Exposure of Securities

Portfolio by Fund, Cash or Individual Security

Portfolio by Strategy.

What Systematic Active Means: Funds that help me execute passively very specific, repeatable underlying securities selection on an ongoing basis. Here are some examples of the systematic active strategies in my portfolio:

Global Multifactor: From a basket of 1,600 developed market large and mid-cap stocks, rank the stocks by their value, by their 12-month momentum, by their degree of ROE and debt to asset, and then own the top 300. Do this every half-yearly or quarterly. You end up with a strategy that consistently owns 300 companies that are cheaper, quality and have greater momentum relative to a market cap weighted index.
Small Cap Value: From a basket of 3,000 developed market small cap stocks, rank the stocks based on price-to-book value (include intangibles in the book value). Also rank the stocks by operating earnings minus interest divide by book value. Eliminate the companies with low profitability. What we end up is two group of small cap stocks: The more profitable small caps but not too expensive, and the small caps stocks that are at least profitable but are very cheap. Own the top 30-35% of this cohort consistently. Have a manager that consistently helps me execute this.

The Main Custodians for the Securities in this Portfolio

The current custodians are:

Cash: Interactive Brokers LLC (not SG)
SRS: Philips FAME

If you want to trade these stocks I mentioned, you can open an account with Interactive Brokers. Interactive Brokers is the leading low-cost and efficient broker I use and trust to invest & trade my holdings in Singapore, the United States, London Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange. They allow you to trade stocks, ETFs, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds worldwide from a single integrated account.

You can read more about my thoughts about Interactive Brokers in this Interactive Brokers Deep Dive Series, starting with how to create & fund your Interactive Brokers account easily.

Kyith is the Owner and Sole Writer behind Investment Moats. Readers tune in to Investment Moats to learn and build stronger, firmer wealth foundations, how to have a Passive investment strategy, know more about investing in REITs and the nuts and bolts of Active Investing.

Readers also follow Kyith to learn how to plan well for Financial Security and Financial Independence.

Kyith worked as an IT operations engineer from 2004 to 2019. Currently, he works as a Senior Solutions Specialist in Insurance Start-up Havend. All opinions on Investment Moats are his own and does not represent the views of Providend.

You can view Kyith’s current portfolio here, which uses his Free Google Stock Portfolio Tracker.

His investment broker of choice is Interactive Brokers, which allows him to invest in securities from different exchanges all over the world, at very low commission rates, without custodian fees, near spot currency rates.

You can read more about Kyith here.