Looking Back into One Year Of Blogging

In a blink of an eye, the 53rd birthday of Singapore has came to an end, and so does our public holiday rest. It is already the weekend after our rest.

And in time soon, really soon, I will be conscripted to the National Service and it will be my time to serve the nation.


While I can still vividly remember about a year ago, I started writing on this little space here. 




Time truly flies. 

Do beware as this is probably gonna be a relatively heavy post for the week.

Taking a look back, I can still remember my initial aim of contributing $15/day for the year of 2017 to the newly created investment portfolio of mine, after being humbled of my past.

Read:  
My First Post 
Portfolio - July 2017 

 
Not long after, I became lucky and received a notice on the opportunity for an overseas attachment program and will be heading to Japan for the winter. This opportunity has brought me to penning down several different fun and widen my perspective greatly.

Thinking back, I recall that I do have another post for Sapporo Winter 2017 which still lies in my draft and I'm really guilty that I did not manage to complete it. I guess this is something I will be moving forward to next to share my journey in Sapporo the past winter.




Read:  
An opportunity to Japan
Hakodate, Hokkaido (Autumn 2017)
Self Drive - Niseko (Autumn 2017)
Self Drive - Lake Toya, Onuma Park (Autumn 2017)
Tokyo, Japan (Autumn 2017) 

Shortly after, I've started to read more about the different type of vehicles that can be used in Singapore such as CPF. 

Read: Peep into the 19 year old student's CPF Account - Transfer from OA to SA

In the process, I've also read more about the past financial disasters to understand from more from history. While they are definitely insufficient till I experienced it personally, I don't think I'm considered as an investor still. 

I've read up too on the 2008 Subprime Mortgage Crisis too. However, the post unfortantely is still stucked into drafts as I've yet to complete writing about the crisis, which I guess I will have to do it soon.




Read:
A lookback into 1987 Black Monday
A lookback into 1997 Asian Financial Crisis
A look back into 1986-1991 Japanese Asset Price Bubble
A look back into 2000-2002 Dot Com Bubble 

In between, I managed to understand majority of the investor's fear and evolved into reading and writing a little about the various fallacies of an investor. 

Read:
The trap in stock market
Transaction Cost - Are you trader or an investor



Fortunately or unfortunately, this sparked off another topic as I went into learning how to perform a Technical Analysis, and I'm sure that is not in my field of competence. This event had moved me into being a small trader deep down, venturing into the cryptocurrency market, which I got lucky and managed to profit a little from.

Read: 
A month as a cryptocurrency trader - Results 
Cryptocurrency for Dummy Series (link to other part at the bottom of each post) 

I've also went on to build up more positions with different companies, albeit some of them are not a good call. This had actually allow me to learn more from Mr Market and through the different books and blogs written by wise seniors, I managed to learn a little more on Mr Market. 

 
My portfolio size remains relatively small today still but hopefully with my fingers crossed, I hope that I'll be able to learn more along the way and get myself equipped with more sufficient knowledge. 




Read: 
Accumulating CDG
Portfolio Update - Far East Orchard
Increasing stake in SingTel by 250%
SGR's Analysis

As I'm learning more from Mr Market, I started to learn more to operate my personal finance to which successful companies are doing, hoping that my money will do more work for me. As I'm not a smart person to begin with, I decided to keep in simple and look into various government incentives to help us out like the SSB and deeper into CPF. 

Read:
Singapore Saving Bonds (August) - 1.78%
My 19 Year Old CPF Account - For Millenials and Young Adults
Polytechnic Student with $3.63 as net worth - 1 Year Later
Planning Ourselves and Our Finances 
Controllable VS Uncontrollable Factors 

I've been really lucky for the past year. 

Moving forward, I hope that with fingers crossed, I will be able to learn more from everything that is coming. 

 
With this, I would like to thank all the regular readers for the support as well as the wise advises from seniors and everyone that has left comment on this small space of mine.

Have a great weekend ahead!



You will also be able to look for me on some other platforms:
1. FB Page - The sleepydevil
2. InvestingNote - sleepydevil
3. SGX Cafe - sleepydevil
4. You may also subscribe to receive my latest email updates here. 

Planning Ourselves And Our Finances

With a clear objective in mind, we will be able to work towards planning.
With sufficient planning, we will be able to know which steps to take accordingly.

It's important to factor in contingencies into our planning as well to be prepared for such events.

If you plan to have no plan, you will have to first start with a plan.
If you have no plan from the start, you will end up having trouble planning.

"I shall not offer or say I’ll give anything unless I’ve 100% confidence to deliver it"
This action will only deviate you further from achieving what you are originally supposed to. Especially with our mental biases, we will tend to lack in the motivation to put effort into it since we are not obliged to.

Definitely, everyone is constructed differently.
And as much as I've highlighted it, the most important thing is to know ourselves.


Everyone has a different profile and there is no method that works best for anyone. Each individual will have a separate set of techniques to apply in different situations.

Bringing them into the topic of finances.

So long we have an objective in our mind, we will need to plan for our finances. Such as towards big ticket items, our lives and certainly towards retirement.



Understanding our current profile will allows us to move into the planning with our given situation. It's never good to be planning for yourself in another's shadow.

Having that said, we should also prepare for contingencies, such as preparing an emergency funds to weather us through stormy days. This contingencies also include events when your investments turn sour and jump into the sea of red.

If our situation today does not provide us with a good cashflow, we should identify the cause of it and work towards improving it. Only with a positive cash flow, we will be able to achieve our targets with a lesser effort.

Having that said, the next important thing is line is our motivation and mentality. 
If we tend to think that, just because I am not able to fulfill it, I shall not do it. It's time we reflect a little more on ourselves. 

When reflecting, apart from identifying the issue. The most important area will be the solution towards it. 

Read: Controllable VS Uncontrollable Factors

On a side note,
After sometime of contemplating, thesleepydevil has now joined Facebook!

Hopefully with that, there will be more interactions created between readers and bloggers! :)

Do drop by my new Facebook page/profile to say Hi!
Link to: thesleepydevil Facebook Page


You will also be able to look for me on some other platforms:
1. FB Page - The sleepydevil
2. InvestingNote - sleepydevil
3. SGX Cafe - sleepydevil
4. You may also subscribe to receive my latest email updates here.  

Account Size Does Matters.. Even In Punting!

At this very moment of typing this... The quadrennial event had finally ended with France taking home the World Cup and the team of France to take home $38 million in prize money.

Congratulations once again to the France and supporters of France.

The World Cup of 2018 had been a really interesting one this far and had kept me relatively occupied for a couple of weeks, despite my busy schedules. And yes, you're right. I did make a small punt this time round.




Earlier today, I made a visit to one of the Singapore Pools branches to get a ticket for France to be crowned the cup holder, with an odds of 1.4.

I'm never a fan of gambling and do not participate in such games even during joyous occasions like Chinese New Year where the majority does. However, for once today, I did something that I probably did not expect . Not to shy away from the nature of gambling, I do admit that this is not a good habit to follow. and is unlikely to continue any further with Singapore Pools. On a side note, I'm pretty surprised to see the long queue of punters in for different businesses.

How good would it be if Singapore Pools is a publicly listed company?

I've been pretty supportive of France for this year's world cup and to my pleasant surprise... The team had been making it's way north to holding the cup today.



I've been reading a little up about the games and statistics of the match and decided to hype up tonight's match a little by entering a small position with France. The position I've entered is a very risky 'investment' that puts you into a binary option, whereby it is simply based on a "Yes" or "No" proposition.

Having that said, I've written off the capital placed into this position and view this as an entertainment expenses for the night.

It is very important to know and understand yourself as this will allow you to know clearly what you are doing. 

With that in mind and some risk management in play, I decided to enter a small betting position with France taking home the World Cup today.

I've been pretty lucky tonight and this allows me to have an extra $20 in my pocket tomorrow.. LOL

This will translates to a 40% realized gain for the event that happened 2 hours ago. But taking the risk into consideration, I'm risking $50 capital for $20 gain.

Well. I guess my luck had been working well tonight and this speculative position today has paid off. Taking a sweet look back... If the bet amount is changed to $50,000. How will it looks like..?

Just a minute.

I vividly remember one golden statement from Uncle CW.

It will similarly translate to a 40% gain. But this time round, with $20,000 as profit in your pocket!!

Yes, the risk of losing $50,000 is equal to the risk of losing $50. But what does it tells?

Account Size Really Matters! Even when it comes to punting! 

Meanwhile, I guess this will mean I have 4 more Fillet-O-Fish meal and it's probably time for me to get one! :)

Controllable VS Uncontrollable Factors

There's many things in this planet.

Some are controllable and we will be able to control them within our means, while the others are uncontrollable.

I will be able to control the speed of my vehicle by stepping on the accelerator or the brakes.
I will be able to control my emotions to prevent myself from over reacting.
I will be able to control my decisions and body to do something.

BUT..



I'm unable to control the speed of another car and the chances of getting into an accident if the driver is reckless. But, I'll be able to stay vigilant and alert to the road conditions to prevent the odds of getting into one.

I'm unable to control another person's reaction when this person is filled with emotions. But what I can do is to console this person and possibly change the emotions they have in them, which might prevent the person from doing something silly.

I'm unable to control other's decision and body if they're going to do something. But, similarly, I'm able to provide help by all means to change the fact.

It can applies to Mr Market too!

Importantly, we have to first understand ourselves and define the controllable and uncontrollable in each situation.

I might be speaking a little too early today especially when it come to Mr Market's term as I'm relatively new.

But defining the controllable, I'll see things such as emotion, decision, portfolio sizing, risk appetite etc.



How about the uncontrollable? Market movement, the rationality of Mr Market, Volatility, price movements, upcoming company's performance etc.

Prior to making any decisions, it's important for us to do some homework to get a clearer picture, else it makes no differences from gambling or speculation.

I could use several tools along to help me with that. Upon seeing a clearer picture, I will then need to control my emotions and not act irrationaly.

As humans, if we are always thinking about the uncontrollable factors affecting us. We will soon be affected by things that are controllable. 

If I'm constantly affected by the price of a particular counter and losing sleep over it, it's likely that I'm overly-invested.



And having that said, things such as my emotions and decision will make it's way to the door. 

This is when we're going to be affected by things that are controllable.

It's important to make plans and be prepared for contigency! It's about the probability and not certainty. 

How good would it be if we've a controller all to ourself? 

20th Birthday Post

Today, I have bid farewell to the 1X club and officially entered the 2X club.

While I'm still relatively young as compared to majority of the peers around, this does not indicate that we are different.

Age is just an indicative number that tells us how long we're around on planet earth. What's more important is our mentality towards dealing with issues that cropped up in our lives.

We are all humans. And having to mention about this, I vividly remember one of my favourite sentence in AK's blog.

Source: AK71

Link: Chinese New Year of Dog (2018)




Much contradicting to my statement above, but we should take a look at the key in this statement - We must know ourselves.

Hence, I felt that irregardless of age, we are not different and we have to know ourselves. 

As we live longer on this planet, we've obtained something in return for our time - Experience and Wisdom.

I've been very busy lately which explained the reduce in blog post over this couple of months. Nonetheless, I still have many drafts awaiting for my to write on and publish.

Hence, to the regular readers who is looking forward to my post, I deeply apologize for it and please pardon me for that.

As this is a birthday post, I shall do a brief review for the my 19th Year of planet earth:



1. Finances
In my 19th year on this planet, I've embarked on this financial route. I started reading extensively on the topic of finances. I've also started to pen down my thoughts, learnings and route in this small little area here, despite having a poor command of English.

Personally, I'm not born in with a golden or silver spoon. Or rather, I should be. But that spoon happen to went to another side of the family 2 generations ago.

By a twist of fate, I ended up with a plastic spoon. But, I do not blame the fact that the spoon fell off and in fact, I embrace that situation.

Coming to it, as a single-parent student that is born in a plastic spoon. This has taught me many valuable lessons in life and finances.

Having this situation above, I'm unable to make significant contribution to my wealth building pot, but I know this deep down that this shouldn't be one thing that is stopping me from taking up this financial path.

Looking back, when I first set foot onto this journey. I've made a plan to allocate $15 into my portfolio each day, to a sum of $15 x 365 = $5,475.

Read: My First Post



After 10 months of hardwork, the plan materialize with a small help from the market and a huge contributing factor to it would be the income I receive from my part time job to finance this goal.

This allowed me to understand that your Primary Income is a big supporting factor and a push for you to finance your goals towards financial freedom.

Read: My First Pico Milestone - Conquered

I've made some adjustment then and have decided to go with a target of $7,000 by the end of 2017. As a lonely guy in Japan back then, I've decided to start with some trading and selected the cryptocurrency market to be my tool.

I do not know anything about TA prior. As I'm not a smart guy, I took a couple of months to understand it. Sadly to say, even till today, I'm not proficient in TA either.

I got lucky, and my wish once again came true with the help from my cryptocurrency adventures.

Now, in this episode, I understand that In order to achieve our goals, a plan is required. A big pushing force would be your luck.

Read: Portfolio - December 2017
 



Just before 2017 ends, I've made plans to obtain my first 5 digits in my portfolio before 1H2018, which is just before my birthday.

Once again, with the help of the bull market and the injection from my meagre income. Today, I'm glad to once again announce that I've achieved my 3rd goal I've set ever since I embark onto this journey.

The amount is little and insignificant to many around. But this lesson to me is indeed remarking. I've also made several adjustment to my portfolio this month and I'll soon be giving an update about it in my Portfolio Update for May 2018.

In the process of obtaining my first 5 digits, one of my adventures with CDG has allowed me to further understand the bigger concept behind Account Size and Market Timing. 

Read: Free Shares from CDG



There's still many lessons awaiting me ahead. All I could do is to get myself geared up and be prepared to learn.

There is a great number of people who are extremely curious about my transaction cost and how silly I am to take a huge shave off my gains from these expenses due to my peanut-sized portfolio and holdings.

Today, I'd also like to take this as an opportunity to share some of my thoughts about it.

This is an adventure taken by me to achieve financial freedom. And being educated is a part of it.
One can always not start if they feel that they're uncomfortable with fees being paid. Afterall, investing is not the only way towards achieving financial freedom.

There is many ways available. It's important to find out the way that is most suitable for you.  



2. Personal
I'm glad that things are starting to fall into places after some plannings made a year ago. Probably this is telling me that my hardwork is starting to get paid off? However, I guess I'm still a silly guy afterall.

I've missed out on many things.

I will not jump in too much on this area. But I guess I will have to learn more about things around me and how to better optimize myself.

In this year I manage to understand myself better and differentiate things better.

Sometimes, theory lessons are really simple and easily understood. But practically, it becomes a big problem for us.

To keep things short, there are 2 different things around us.
1. The Controllable
2. The Uncontrollable

If we are always thinking about the uncontrollable factors affecting us. We will soon be affected by things that are controllable. 

Exercising self discipline and controlling factors that are controllable is what human should be doing. But it seem that sometime, our heart takes a better lead.

I guess.. I shall not continue too much about this here. And today, I shall be a sleepy devil. A true sleepy one.

Good night.

Fake News: sleepydevil's CDP Statement

To begin with, I'm not someone that has a good command of English.

Through this journey of using blogger as a platform to jot down my thoughts, I'm really thankful and fortunate to learn from many wise seniors along the way. While I do not consider myself as a blogger or writer, I'm heartened that some readers enjoy my post.

It's really encouraging to receive emails from readers as well as comments from various seniors around that educate me through their series of informative articles and comment.

Recently, I've chanced upon a pretty significant amount of 'fake news' lurking around the various social media platforms to social influencer and even to bloggers.


This reminds of a post by STE earlier in February this year about fake news.

Here's a snapshot of STE's blog: 

Source: STE's Stock Investing Journey

Indeed. I thought to myself.

While I do not know the real idea behind some blogger's mentality towards blogging. Mine is simple and I've stated it in my very first post - to jot down on my journey towards financial freedom and to learn.

Perhaps like what STE wrote up there, to gain revenues in whatever form, be it advertising or promoting his/her own courses.

Some might be even here to 'boast' about what they 'have'.
There are indeed many ways to beautify things!

Inflating your account by various means? Playing around with mathematical equations?

I'm sorry but please don't hit me!

The generation today has evolved to one that uses social platform to 'brag' isn't it?
Or maybe for some to achieve self-satisfaction!?

I don't know. Beats me. I'm a simple guy and I really don't know that much.

Maybe if I ever find my second half and get married with kids, this blog is going to be a gift from Daddy to share on his journey. It might look good, it might look terrible. I have no idea. But I hope that if ever this happens, this will be a good 'Daddy's history book' for my kiddo.


Will my kid be surprised or doubt Daddy's actual financial situation when he is 19?
Are you sure this crazy 19 year old fella really has that money?

To my kid: Here's Daddy's CDP Account Statement

sleepydevil's CDP statement (end 31/03/18)

For some obvious reasons, I've removed my particulars in the statement above.

Daddy didn't lie, right?
Remember that being transparent and honest is an important virtue!

Once again, Daddy has been lucky this far as an 'investor'.
At this point of writing, he has yet to see any Nobita's attack on our local equities market. Perhaps, that's when he will chop his fingers!

To acknowledge this, I do not feel that I'm a good investor, writer or even a 19-year old peer. I've still many many things to learn about. I am really not.

I should only say that I'm lucky that my self-actualization comes early.
I'm glad if ever, this CDP statement above comes in useful for any millenial to motivate them into personal finance.

Once again, I do not advocate buying/selling anything nor investment.

But what the big deal with this?
Showing off his 19-year-old CDP/CPF account statement?
That's not the case Ah Boy or Girl.. Remember to work hard and save diligently. Else, there wouldn't even be a chance for you to beautify your accounts! Papa won't beautify your account for no reasons!!

Larger number and bigger account size are really nice and there will be many changing factor with that. But one must remember:

It's never on how successful you are by using leverage nor how lucky you are, although luck plays a fair share.

It's neither how successful you are by getting a big lump sum by your parents.

If you wonder how, please take a look at the few posts below to get a better idea.
Or maybe.. I'm not that simple and I like to complicate things..
Oh god...

Remember.. Don't hit me!

You may also subscribe to receive my latest email updates here.

Read:
The 19-Year-Old - Year Review, Reflection and 2018 Resolution 
How Many Account does this 19-Year-Old have? 
Polytechnic Student with $3.63 As Net Worth - 1 Year Later
My 19-Year-Old CPF Account - For Millennials & Young Adults
A Letter To My 30-Year-Old Self, 10 Years Ago

A letter to my 30 year old self - 10 years ago

This post is inspired by SGYI's post - A Letter To My 20 Year Old Self 10 Years Later

In SGYI's post, he was writing about the roads he have walked through in this few years, from a diploma student, to being conscripted into National Service, to entering the workforce with his first job, saving up for university and finally to who he is today.

I thought it would be very meaningful for me to revert to this letter when I'm 30 year old, 10 years down the road and look back onto the roads I've walked through and the thoughts I bear today.

On a contrary, this post today will be the reversal of his letter. Instead of a letter to my 10 year old self, which is really strange, I thought it would better to write a letter to my 30 year old self.

Dear 30-year-old self, 

At this point of writing, I hope that you remember vividly that it's -7 degrees now with the beautiful snow flakes falling off your roof. The moment you read this letter, it will mean that you've successfully entered the next phase of your life. I understand as life progresses, priority changes and things will start to change. I honestly have no idea if you'll remember this letter that I'm writing here today or if you'd ever chance upon it. But I sincerely hope that you'll not forget who you are and persevere.  

Here's a quick question - Do you remember who you are 10 year ago? 

10 years ago, you're 20. This is the age that you've successfully graduated from your diploma program and is currently waiting to be enlisted into the National Service, which will be the next chapter of your life. 

Just before I go onto Chapter 4, do you remember Chapter 3, 2 and 1?

Chapter 1
In the first chapter of your life book, you're just like any little kids out there. Not knowing what is going on around the world. All that is in your mind, is to enjoy yourself and make yourself happy. With a happy family, everything is beautiful. You can vividly remember standing outside the door each evening waiting for your daddy and mommy to return home so that you'd be able to play with them. As you're slightly older, you started to attend school. 

You've absolutely nothing in this chapter. No house, no wife, no kids, no success. Nothing. But you know what happiness is! 

School used to be really fun in your nursery and pre-school ages. But as you step foot into your first "official school" - primary school. Things started to change. The meaning behind "fun" changes too. From waiting for daddy and mommy to return home, you started to seek for permission from them to go over to your friend's house and have fun, in return, they'll request for good academic results from you.

Congratulations. You managed to do it well each time! Do you remember being the top in your cohort and the smile on daddy and mommy's faces? Your wish is easily granted. However, soon later, you become complacent. When that happens, you start to hate studying and start to rebel and many times going against traditional beliefs. Congratulations again to you for managing to secure a decent set of PSLE results despite that! This brings you to chapter 2 of your life. 


Chapter 2
In chapter 2, you became MORE complacent. This time round, you totally DID not give a bloody damn about studying, but you're still getting a decent result. On top of that, you start to realize what money is. At that point of time, you're doing an online business and your business is really good. With more money in your pocket at this age, you're a little lost on what you should be doing and you started to spend your money unnecessarily.

Now, this leads to your one of your biggest downfall you've experienced then. As things started to get worse in this chapter, you've lost many many things. From your academic, to your friends, and even to your dearest kins! As a result of your complacency and extremely rebellious self, you've caused yourself a very near-miss to saying good-bye to your O-levels certificate as well. Very fortunately, just months before your O-levels, you woke up one day and realize that you REALLY needs to do something to your life and not waste it.

Congratulations to you once again. With months of study to recover 4 years of education, you manage to do it and successfully graduated with a O-level certificate. Now this brings you to your next institution and the next chapter of your life.  

Chapter 3
This chapter now, chapter 3 is a very meaningful chapter in your life and you started to change very much. Piecing up bits and fragments of your fall in the previous chapter, you started to organize them and think about your future and who you truly are. Nonetheless, you had fallen down many times too. Your online business "folded" and you've "bankrupted" yourself in this chapter. This is also the chapter for your transition period. Despite that, you kept things going. 

You've realized that academic is important as well as the power of knowledge. You wanted to learn more. You started to attend classes like a normal student. You started to read news. You started to venture more into topics that are beyond your field of knowledge. You started to know who you are. You started to understand how things work and how create value for yourself. At the same time, you realize that earning more is not the only answer to the being "rich". Now, this is when you started venturing into more financially knowledge. Exploring on savings, earning more, investing. To learn more, you've started reading books, looking for resources online and even starting with practical lesson. This goes to another extend when you start to write them down! Writing is something you always hate! But! The journey of penning these lessons down has created another lesson for yourself too! During this time, you've gained more knowledge about things from pointers and comments in your blog and other's blog! Now, you know you want to be financially free in the future. Not because other people want it. It's because you want it yourself. 

You want it so that you'd be able to spend more time with your family in the future rather than spend more time in the office. 

You want it so that you'd be able to spend more time with your kids in the future and teaches them the right thing and guide them along the way. You want the best for them.

You want it so that you'd be able to do things you truly love. Even if it's not for money! 

You want it because you know time is limited and the lesser time you spend earning money, the more time you'll have!

Fortunately again, you're still really young. It might sounds like you've been through many things despite your age. But wait. This is just the beginning. 



Chapter 4
Now, as chapter 3 is coming to an end, you're about to go into chapter 4. In this chapter, you'll be conscripted into the National Service, and I believe this will be another important lesson for you in your life. It may sounds extremely terrible to be locked out of 2 years of your time. But always remember, this is how you take to compensate for the 2 years that is taken away. Either give your best, learn and make your time memorable. Forge valuable memories. Or dwell your way through it. You know it yourself. At this point of time, do not forget who you truly are and the lessons from chapter 2 and 3. This will also be the time you will think more on your next steps and to what you will be finally doing in your coming chapters.

Remember the goals you've set for yourself!

Just as you leave the NS, you will be entering the next chapter. Chapter 5. This will be the chapter where you will move on to further education in a university and maybe further on. This will be your final chapter as a full-time student, do not forget to enjoy each and every moment of it. Perhaps, you might be a part-time student due to finances. But don't give up. Remember the lessons from Chapter 2 and 3? Now you've a bonus! The extra classes from Chapter 4! Don't forget your family! They're waiting to see you when you book-out each time! I'm sure as a mommy/daddy, nothing beats seeing your own kids and spending time with them!


Chapter 5:
This will be another big transition chapter. You'll be going to your first full-time job! Now here, you'll finally draw your first pay check and it should be able to better fund your goals! In this chapter, you will learn many things as well. You will learn about what truly working is and how it felt to be squeezing in the MRT in early morning peak hour. How it felt to be screwed by your superiors. How to deal with annoying people.

If you're lucky, you may skip all this and go ahead with being your own boss! If you're even lucky, you may jump forward to chapter 6! I don't know which day will chapter 6 comes, and it may probably never come. Should it come before the age, you may wish to take a look below. 

Today now, you're getting older. Don't ever forget. Time do not stop for anyone. As you progresses with age, so do everyone around you. Remember to spend more time with those people and not only care about earning money! I'm sure you'll have more ups and downs as compared to what you're experiencing in your younger years. Don't ever forget your belief and who you are. 

Chapter 6:
This is the time whereby you've found your dearly. Your partner for life. And in this chapter you will learn about how people get together and live together. How to accommodate with each other and how to start your own family. Now you're promoted! You're gonna be a daddy! At this point of time, I honestly do not know which chapter this unicorn will appear out of and how the magic happen. But now. You must remember. You're no longer who you are in chapter 2. You've been through chapter 3,4 and 5. You've your goals. You are who you are. And soon later, you will have to impart the right things and give the best things for your kids! 

Hey! Don't forget your parents! Now, you're really getting older! Your dearest kins is never as young as they are when you write this letter! 

As your kiddos grow up, I'm sure you'll have many life lessons along the way. 
You'll also feel how your daddy and mommy felt when you're going through chapter 1 and 2!

The letter is now coming to an end, and hereby now, I wish you all the best in your coming years ahead and the coming chapters of your life. There may be nobody that will ever remember you. 
But, you, yourself. Please remember who you truly are. 


Yours Sincerely,
Your-20-year-old-self

An opportunity to Japan

First and foremost, a very big thank you to the kind compliments & advice some readers and seniors is providing me with. I'm extremely grateful for that.

As much as I will remember that I'm still very young and there's a long journey ahead, I must also constantly remind myself that I'm only 19 once, I will need to have some fun along the way and not be regretting that I did not enjoy myself when I'm younger.

Coming to my final year in the school, I will be embarking on my internship, which I will be able to gain more working experiences. Months ago, I was chosen for an overseas internship to Japan later this year.

 

Niseko, Japan

This will be my first trip to Japan, a country which I always wished to visit. I believe this will be a very good opportunity for me to be exposed to the Japanese culture as well as learning from the world's third largest economy. It will also be a very good lesson for me to live independently over a period of 3 months in another country. Hopefully, I will be able to forge many wonderful memories when I am there.

 

Two wise quotes from two wise man....

“ The most important investment you can make is in yourself. ” 

 Warren Buffett 

“The best armour of old age is a well spent life preceding it. ” 

 Charlie Munger

My First Post

This blog serves as a personal finance diary for me. 

At this point of writing, I'm 19. Studying in a local polytechnic as a 3rd year student.

I've recently embarked on my journey towards financial freedom.

Started out investing in the stock market about a year ago, however, I wasn't disciplined enough and did not know anything much. Made some money, however over confidence teaches me a lesson. Nonetheless, after the painful lesson, I've adopted a different approach towards investing. 

After which in 2017, I stood up from my fall and continued on my financial journey.
 
I'm still learning as much as I'm able to and hopefully with this blog, I will be able to jot down my journey towards financial freedom. 

As a plan, I will try to keep a war-chest ready and makes it a point for to allocate about $15 a day into the war chest through part-time jobs and savings. When an opportunity arises, the war-chest will then be deployed into purchasing a counter after due-diligence is done on my part. The war-chest will not be money that I will be using or needing in any coming future.

As such, having that said, my plans for 2017 is as such:
Portfolio + Warchest = $15 x 365 = $5,475

I understand that this is a very small amount, but I believe with perseverance and determination, I will be able to achieve my financial freedom.I sincerely hope that this will be a fruitful and exciting journey for me.