Hong Kong does not own a well-established retirement system, so most workers must prepare their own retirement plans. Among the various kinds of these plans, the simple and effective self-made long-term income with dividend stocks is welcomed by many retirees.
One friend of the author, who has planned to retire two years ago, realized that the prospect of the 
property market was gloomy, so he decided to sell out his residential property for HK$ eight million. With this cashflow, he set up a Hk$ seven million dividend stocks portfolio with a yield return of 5% annually and put the remaining Hk$ one $million in time deposit as reserved fund.
My friend's investment portfolio provides dividends up to Hk $ 350,000 per year, and his two-person household depends on these dividends to live a prosperous retirement life in mainland China. Until recently, my friend still holds these stocks portfolio, and the receivable dividends is unchanged, but the market value of his portfolio has fallen by 40% and it is equivalent to a book loss of HK$2.8 million. This portfolio’s value drops to Hk$ 4.2 million, along with the remaining one million time deposit, the total asset value of his personal wealthy is about 5.2 million.
If my friend sells his property now, the market value of his property will be reduced from eight million two years ago to 6.8million at this moment. He believes that it is more advantageous to hold stocks than properties, but the result has proved him wrong.
My friend was anxious about the prospects of Hong Kong stocks, and asked the author whether he should sell his stock holdings and then switch to the time deposit for a 5% yield return. The author replied that the yield return on his existing stocks portfolio had risen to about 8% due to the decline value of its stocks, but he could only receive a return of 5% after selling stocks for a time deposit, and his annual income will be decreased Hk$ 126,000 to 210,000 from 336,000.
The author does think that if his portfolio’s dividend keeps steady, it seems better to hold his equities portfolio, but if the stock price continues to fall, its receivable dividend is most likely to be cut in the future, so whether to switch the investment strategy is indeed a dilemma.
