The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI) just crossed the 4,800 mark.
Your portfolio is up.
Shares of DBS Group (SGX: D01), Singapore Technologies Engineering (SGX: S63), and Keppel Corporation (SGX: BN4) are touching new highs.
And yet, you cannot shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen.
Should you sell and lock in profits?
Should you hold and risk giving it all back?
The questions swirl in your head as you refresh your brokerage app for the 10th time today.
These were familiar feelings from when I started investing in 2005.
And if there is one thing I have learned, it is this: worrying adds wrinkles to your face, but it adds nothing to your returns.
The Worry Trap
When markets rise, we worry about a crash.
When markets fall, we worry about losing more.
When markets go sideways, we worry about missing out elsewhere.
The common thread?
Worry itself.
It is a constant companion that offers no useful guidance.
Here is the problem.
Worrying feels productive.
It feels like you are doing something, taking the situation seriously, being responsible.
But in reality, it is just mental energy spinning in circles.
The antidote is not to stop caring.
It is to redirect that energy into something useful.
Reading Creates a Win-Win
At The Smart Investor, we spend our time reading about companies, following up on their businesses, and forming opinions based on facts.
When the right time comes, that is when we buy.
This approach creates a win-win scenario.
If the stock market goes up, you have made informed decisions.
You bought stocks you understood, at prices you were comfortable with, for reasons you can articulate.
The gains are earned, not just luck.
If the stock market goes down, you know what to do next.
You have a watchlist of quality businesses.
You understand their valuations.
You can act with confidence while others panic.
Either way, you come out ahead.
Not because you predicted the market, but because you prepared for it.
Getting Rich Slowly
At the end of 2025, The Smart Dividend Portfolio has generated over S$18,600 in dividends since we started.
That did not happen overnight.
It was built slowly, bit by bit, through consistent investing and reinvesting.
We call it getting rich slowly.
There was no market timing involved.
We did not try to catch bottoms or sell at tops.
We simply kept reading, kept learning, and kept adding to positions in businesses we understood.
The dividends did the rest.
They compounded quietly in the background while the financial media screamed about the crisis of the week.
That is the power of knowledge.
It gives you the conviction to stay invested when others flee.
It gives you the clarity to act when others freeze.
And it gives you the patience to let time work in your favour.
Get Smart: Replace Worry with Reading
The next time you feel anxious about the market, close your brokerage app.
Open an annual report instead.
Read about how the business makes money.
Understand its competitive advantages.
Study its track record through past downturns.
By the time you finish, the anxiety will have faded, replaced by something far more valuable: understanding.
The investor who reads is never caught off guard.
Markets rise, and they are ready to hold.
Markets fall, and they are ready to buy.
The outcome changes, but the confidence remains.
Worrying is a choice.
So is reading.
One leaves you paralysed.
The other leaves you prepared.
Choose wisely.
Many Singapore stocks fall behind inflation, which means your money quietly loses strength over time. Dividend stocks have a very different track record. Some continued delivering 6% to 13% every year across the toughest market conditions.
In this FREE report, discover 5 crisis-tested dividend stocks that kept rewarding investors while the market struggled. Download your dividend investing guide now.
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Disclosure: Chin Hui Leong owns shares in DBS Group.
