Iggy's Journal: Why a Record-Breaking Market Can Still Feel Like a Bad Year for Income Investors

31 August 2026, AM

Podcast Release:

New episode is up this morning. Everyone assumes a stock missing my income bar means the business is slipping. Almost never true right now. Prices have run up faster than payouts have, so the yield math shrinks on paper while the company itself keeps performing just fine. One bank stock hit a fresh share price high this month with profit still growing double digits, and its payout still landed under my hurdle, because a special dividend that used to boost the number rolled out of the trailing window this year.

My Personal Take:

Here's the part worth sitting with. My hurdle doesn't move just because the market's in a good mood. It's anchored to the CPF Special Account rate, which has held steady at 4.0% all year, the toughest guaranteed yardstick available in this financial system, not to whatever feels generous during a record-breaking run. What has moved this year is the risk-free curve underneath it, T-bills and the 10-year Singapore government bond yield have both crept up, which raises the bar for what a dividend stock needs to clear to justify the extra risk over safer options. A quiet yield year is not the same thing as a bad year for the business behind the stock, and conflating the two is exactly the mistake this episode is trying to head off.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/zzOCVbQDUQo

📩 Substack: https://investingiguana.com/p/why-a-record-breaking-market-can

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Cheers, Iggy 🦖