1H2021 In 10 Mins

If one were to wonder, it has slowly becomes a thing in my recent writing style that I’m disclosing lesser details compared to what I would have done in the past. Probably, as I become a more seclusive person and will not go into too much details as I used to be. 

It has also become a thing, that I’m moving away from just sharing my data but my thoughts, while trying to be a little bit more philosophical. 

Well, I’d still be doing some analysis and sharing so long an opportunity comes with uncluttered thoughts filling up my mind. 

It has also a frightening experience when I come to learn that a sharing that is shared a little too much, would have caused certain bias-ness or decision flaw to one when making an impactful financial decision.

It has also come to a point that “clickbaity title” is no longer appealing to me as I’m not that concerned about “Ads revenue” should there be today and would rather this space be a little more for personal sharing and lessons learnt. 

2021 is the year where I turn 23 years younger. Also a year that I’ve conquered another milestone in life.

This is also a year that many crypto millionaires were “born” or “destroyed”. Whichever way, one were to perceive it. But unfortunately, I’m not the one. As oppose to what many would have thought, I belong to the camp where everything happened before I’m aware of. Haha. 

Being one that has explored the crypto space in 2017, it would be something that is very refreshing to me today, but I stand at a point that I’m neutral towards the arena. It’s good to note that, there is more and more people we can see around owning some form of digital assets in the form of digital value storing currency!

If I were to make a statement, I’d probably feel that there is still more room for things to fall in place before we see any realistic outcome yet. 

In the year of 2021, it has also been a thing, where trading platforms become a heavyweight champion in the securities trading industry, funded by giant houses with enormous amounts of marketing and promotional fees to spare. A simple gain one were to get, would easily come in 3 digits, just by signing up :)

I must also comment that referral marketing has worked extremely well, in the houses favour, as more and more unaware folks are getting on board to become a partial owner of companies that they probably wouldn’t know it existed. I’m sorry if this statement makes you feel uneasy or makes you nod silently behind the screen. That wasn’t the main intention for it. 

The flavours behind arbitraging around the coupons issued with speculative flavour does not mix well together, unfortunately. Maybe for me, or probably he/she understands something that I don’t, unfortunately. 

Undeniably, as a user. I'd say these are relatively good platforms to use with cheap brokerage platform fees! 

In a summary:

1. In the local SGX market, I've accumulated more shares from ComfortDelGro & AIMS APAC REIT
2. Accumulated more shares of Apple at around USD 118 in March.
3. After several rounds of nibbling, the position in Alibaba turned out to be a gobble size in my portfolio, pushing Mr BABA to the greatest position as of 30 June 2021.

With this, I close 1H2020 with only 9 positions namely; 

• OCBC Bank
• DBS Bank
• UOB Bank
• ComfortDelGro
• AIMS APAC REIT
• Suntec REIT
• IREIT Global 
• Apple Inc
• Alibaba

On the investment front:

• Collected a dividend of SGD 1,112.17 which translates to roughly SGD 185.36 monthly
• Realised P/L of SGD 2,496.14 this far.
• Portfolio at this juncture (1H2021) closed with a value slightly above SGD 80,000 with around SGD 20,000 in war-chest. This brings the overall portfolio value to cross SGD 100,000 barely.

Notice that the dividend at this point, is relatively pathetic. This is because roughly 20% of the monies are idling in the war-chest waiting for opportunity, with roughly another 20% that is vested in counters that does not pays a dividend. 

With this, I also put a conclusion towards the hiatus status. 

Full episode:

2018 In 10 Mins

2019 In 10 Mins

2020 In 10 Mins

2020 In 10 Mins

Zooming forward, it's now 2020. And the first case of COVID-19 has touched our homeland, Singapore!

The pandemic has then go on a wide rampage shutting down several cities around the world and in fact countries! 

The cash hoarding from 2019 has allowed me to make very good use during the pandemic where the stock market face with extreme pessimism from Mr Market from March 2020. 

Being in an environment where there is so much discounts available and limited amount of cash, it would be easier if I go harder onto "Dragon Head Counters"... if one were to understand it in Chinese. 

The "massive" accumulation begin with DBS when it falls below SGD 23.00 a share and OCBC below SGD 9.50 a share. The way which I averaged down and accumulated the shares, at that point poses a serious threat on my war-chest at that juncture till at a point, my war-chest is wiped out. 

This also comes with the conviction to channel my funds I've prepared for my 2nd Year of university fees in as well. 

After some serious rounds of accumulation and simple trading with the various banks, I managed to have OCBC at an average price of SGD 8.38, DBS at an average price of SGD 18.98 and UOB at SGD 19.01.

Which till date (2021), the banks alone add up to about 30% of my portfolio. 

The portfolio at the end of 2020 that is invested, has ballooned up to almost 2.5 times of its size!

If one were to wonder... this is also the year I left service and begin working fully on the project I've mentioned on embarking at the last few months of my journey as a NSF, oh yes. Did I forget. I'm also enrolled into university as a full-time student as well. 

It has been a year that has past so fast, that honestly, memories of it, becomes so bleak, despite just being a year ahead today. The pace for all the things to fall in place was done in at a very high intensity level where as a result, causing me to be very depressed at a certain juncture.

In this year, I've also made an effort to give up riding, officially (for now at least!) after witnessing a death from a family member that was a rider as well. And by a twist of fate, I also took the opportunity to "upgrade" to a very well conditioned 4-wheeler from the suspended COE market during Circuit Breaker, where motor-vehicle prices are largely disturbed.

If one were to realise, with that much outflow of liquidity in the same period and a side project that is in materialising phase, it is worth noting that the liquidity I held in total, at that juncture was just a tiny bit on top of what 1 big purple notes would hold. Something that MAS actually discontinued towards the end-of 2020. 

With some blessing from god and luck, things started to change for the better in 3Q 2020. It is the point where the project I was working on, starts to take off and turns out to generate another stream of income to supplement my poor soul. 

In 2020, I've also taken up even more responsibilities at home with more commitments. 

It is also worth a mention that the project I've undertaken was a combination of majority of the skills and experience I've acquired from the past ventures years ago, coupling with the work I've done in the last few years :) 

Aside from this, in late 2020, I've also explored the US market.

With this, I close the year with only 8 positions namely; 

• OCBC Bank
• DBS Bank
• UOB Bank
• ComfortDelGro
• AIMS APAC REIT
• Suntec REIT
• IREIT Global 
• Apple Inc

In a summary:

1. I've accumulated a position from ComfortDelGro, DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, UOB Bank, AIMS APAC REIT.
2. Subscribed & Over-subscribed to IREIT Global's right issue.
3. Attempted IPO for Credit Bureau Asia, but did not manage to have any success. 
4. Sold partial holdings from DBS, OCBC and UOB 
5. Perform several trades around DBS, OCBC and UOB
6. In late 2020, initiated a position in US Market, with a position in Apple Inc.

On the investment front:

• A XIRR rate at +10.72%
• Collected a dividend of SGD 1,772.04 which translates to roughly SGD 147.67 monthly
• Realised P/L of SGD 3,410.81 for the year
• Portfolio at this juncture (2020) closed with a value around SGD 50,000 and around SGD 20,000 in war-chest which brings the portfolio to value roughly around SGD 70,000

It would also be good to notice that, the pace at which this portfolio is growing at, is mainly attributed to 

1. The cash hoarding back in late 2019 which was channeled fully during the pandemic 
2. The relatively high savings rate that I’ve held throughout the years which allows me to accumulate wealth a little faster. 
3. The unrealised gains from banks that roses sharply towards the end of FY2020. 
4. Another significant portion that contributed to it at the later part, was where earnings starts to become a little bit more substantial when the side projects start to bear fruits. 

With the double amplification from the more substantial earning and a higher or maintained saving rate, it will be much easier to accumulate wealth. 

If one were to question, I turned 22 in the year of 2020 :) 

The investment performance that my portfolio has yielded, is nothing compared to the savings rate and earning power in the later stage, from starting the journey in 2017 with $3 to what 2020 has ended with. 

Till then, we'll see more in 1H 2021 in 10 Mins. 

Full episode:

2018 In 10 Mins

2019 In 10 Mins

2019 In 10 Mins

Carrying on from the last episode of 2018 In 10 Mins, now we’re fast forward to 2019. 

The disaster from 2018, has awarded be with 3 words and a change in my Physical Employment Status. This also means that, I’d be a normal soldier that draws the least pay! Now, this is actually a very remarkable difference if you’re to work it out mathematically, especially with the vision to earn the 2nd Year Academic Fees... 

The difference in pay that I will draw from a simple calculation would set me back by at least SGD 7,000 apart! This amount is a little shy of “a year of school fees” if one were to visualise it in another angle. 

Anyways, as a seclusive person by nature. A virtual me, and a physical me will draw a very significant differences, which after sometime, it shy me away from writing as I’d like to have more personal spaces, which now explains the hiatus after my recovery. 

Coming to think back now, the years as a man, does not reward me too poorly too as I became a right-hand man to a senior advisor in the force, which allows me to see and learn more thing from a different angle, top-down. 

The workload was insane, especially with the several safety timeouts from army due to some mishap that the forces experience in that work year. Being the right hand man to the senior managements in the unit does allow you to learn very extensively about what is going on and the pressure that you carry, is very different from your peers, that are on the ground. 

Now, it comes to a point, I figured out that, I have to make very good use of this well opportunity that I have, to learn as much skills as I can and make this 2 years (1 year 10 months in actual fact) a rewarding one. There should be no excuses because I do not want a regret later on in life that I wasted 2 precious years of my life. 

Even if I’m not on route financially, I must not shy myself away responsibilities. It comes to a point that I begin to dislike the bunch of people who took the easier way out for their own benefit, especially when I’m in the shoes of the senior managements. After sometime, I must say, the lesson learnt from this experience, I would say is by far one of the most fortunate thing that happened to me.

Anyways, the year of 2019 is a very “army” year to me. And yes, being in the army, you’d also come across many different type of people that I probably wouldn’t think they existed. There is also plenty of “investment gurus” we can see or “people that have successful parents, very successful parent or super successful parents”…Opps.

In 2019, there is not much big movements to my portfolio. While interest remains attractive at that period of time, the amount of liquid cash in my account does enjoy much better interest than it would today. 

Oh yes, did I forget? With the blood of a biker, it must a shame to abandon this passion after an injury right? As you’d probably guessed, I actually upgraded my bike license and bike LOL. In turns out that this purchase was one of the best purchase I made in 2019. At an expense which cost me less than SGD 150 a month to own a 400cc bike, with fuel, insurance, season parking all accounted for. Interesting? Probably riders here would like to make a guess, but I’d say NEA rebate does help!

Ahhh. Where is my financial summary again. I must remind myself that I must also talk some finances! In 2019, I’ve also decluttered my portfolio, experiment with some trades as well as decided to focus fire to hold lesser counters as the capital is little and it makes no much sense to waste too much on the brokerage fees. 

In a summary:

1. In the year of 2018-19, I’ve accumulated SingTel sufficiently, starting from my first purchase of 140 shares to it becoming my greatest position, an average price around 3.10 before selling every share of SingTel at 3.52 in July 2019. This position turned out to grow to more than 15 times of what I first purchased.
2. I’ve also did a trade for APTT late in 2018 at 0.170 and sold it for 0.179 in April 2019. With account to the final “big” distribution from them, this trade turns out to provide roughly a 15% ROI. 
3. I’ve also decluttered my portfolio and sold away Wilmar (turns out to be a big mistake today) for a return of 33%, SGR for a return of 10% and FEO for a loss of 25%
4. I’ve performed a trade for UOB in June 2019 @ $23.68, before selling them at $26.00.
5. I’ve accumulated a small position in Suntec REIT @ $1.80, OCBC @ $10.50, IREIT Global @ $0.76
6. I’ve performed a trade for Hong Kong Land for a returns of about 5%

With this, I close the year with only 5 positions namely; 

• OCBC Bank
• ComfortDelGro
• AIMS APAC REIT
• Suntec REIT
• IREIT Global 

On the investment front:

• I manage to close the year with a performance of +20.05% vs STI of +9.08%
• A XIRR rate at +27.74%
• Collected a dividend of SGD 392.85 which translates to roughly SGD 32.74 monthly
• Realised P/L of SGD 515.50 for the year
• Portfolio at this juncture (2019) closed with a value around SGD 20,000 where there is a massive hoarding of cash towards the end of the year, which in turns, work out extremely well in 2020. 
• The portfolio did not have much injection this year due to the very small amount of allowances that is drawn month on month when I’m a soldier.
• As such, the year closes with a portfolio value + cash holdings of roughly about SGD 40,000

Towards the end of the year, I manage to have an opportunity where I begin to divert some of my attention to after camp hours, to work on a project that by a twist of fate got executed right after I leave the service, which indirectly affected FY2020 and 2021. 

At this juncture, it is year 3 in this journey and I’m 21 years young, in 2019.

Till then, we'll see more in 2020 in 10 Mins. 

Full episode:

2018 In 10 Mins

2018 In 10 Mins

The year of 2018… was interesting. 

Thinking back, this is the year where I got myself a position in a field, where at that point of time I had great interest for before I got myself conscripted towards the end of 2018. This job has indirectly changed several viewpoints of mine and got the entire direction for the coming years, changed drastically. 

The knowledge and insights acquired during this 10 months journey, did take a significant toll which impacted me mentally and financially. 

This has also changed my style of writing, a sense of being as well as a regret that I did not manage to pull. 

The initial thoughts was very cluttered, back when I was contemplating to join the workforce or be a part of the gig economy. The thinking process back then was simple, with 2 main objectives. One to build a more significant buffer so that I will be able to continue my journey as a student, in 2 years time, financially, hopefully with the ability to not take on any student loans and secondly, to acquire enough fun points or wisdom points along the way.

Well, it seems pretty obvious at this juncture that I’ve chosen the former option with a greater consideration to continuing my student life with lesser financial burden and to accumulate more knowledge/wisdom points instead of fun points. Ha.

The journey has been insightful, being exposed to a field that I’ve always wanted to take on (fortunately, with certain prior experience and a wonderful internship, the exposure does create a path for me to enter this interesting field) 

During this 10 good months, I’ve experienced a very complete “working-life” which indirectly has deterred my thoughts a little further onto working forever till my death bed. 

I also learnt first handedly, that a regular dose of injection to our CPF accounts, is a big encouragement financially, especially when the employer is paying 17% extra! This tour has allowed me to pay even more attention to my CPF accounts, and of course, with a little more readings, comes a little more thinking, and a little more learnings, which inspired me to a post somewhere in August 2018.

Read: Peep into the 20 year old boy CPF Account - Transfer from OA to SA

Being in the workforce at that point, also prompted me to do a little bit more homework about tax planning (although, with the meagre paycheck, it shouldn’t do a big damage to my profile in IRAS), which inspired a post regarding SRS account back then. 

Read: My Newly Created SRS Account

After some sorting out and self-realization, the isolation and differences between Cash and Cashflow is drawn further apart, which inspired another post! And, this sentence, when carried to 2019, turns out to be a laughing factor for some, and eye opener to some in my army days. 

Read: Cash is Not King, Cashflow is

Since, I chose the former route as mentioned earlier, with a main priority to continue my student life after the mandatory conscription, a simple behind-the-envelope calculations brings me to a figure somewhere around SGD 32,000 that I’ve to prepare myself for, before 2020 where I commenced my full time university. Or at least, I must be able to segregate a good SGD 10,000 for my 1st academic year to be safe. 

So true enough, that’s a target, that I worked tirelessly for during the 10 months that I was employed. To spice it up a little, at the point of calculating, I come to figure that, unless I have an extremely high saving rate, else definitely it would not come true. 

To ensure that I’m a little safer, I’ve utilised the bike license I’ve gotten in 2017 and the bike I’ve gotten for myself when I’m back from Japan to take on the latter option as well in the evenings after work and on weekends to draw a higher income.

I also come to realise that if I’m hard-working enough to get myself as a commissioned officer in the force during my 2 years of National Service, I will be able to come out, beautifully on route to what was planned! 

Shortly after, I’m conscripted for service. I could still recall how I enter Tekong with a neat tidy hair, and come out, with what was called a “Number 1 Haircut”.

As much as planning are flawless, the reality is filled with flaws. 

With a lofty ambition to enter the OCS, I worked hard. But, in one of the booking outs, I encounter with a mishap that prematurely terminated all my “plans” I had. And I guess it is not that foreign to one, especially a rider. 

The day will come, for you to fall. From your bike, or with your bike. This episode has given me a 60 days hospitalisation leave and a fracture to my arm. Oh yes, and another punishing 3 alphabet! OOC!

Demoralised as I always am. I have since stopped writing and isolated myself for awhile to re-organize my path ahead.

Oh, and I guess the most fortunate part of this episode is, every visit to the hospital for appointments and follow-up, there is always a loud chop of “PAID” at the counter. Perks of being a NSF, I must say.

This injury carries it selves over to 2019, which I believe I should continue in another post, soon.

As a financial blog to begin with I guess there has to somewhat be a rounding of 2018.

A simple round up financially for 2018:

1. My portfolio at closing was doubled of what I had in 2017. 
2. I’ve achieved a nett savings of 20k 
3. I’ve managed to set aside about 1.5 Year of my university school fee (This amount is not inclusive in my portfolio/warchest)
4. 2018 ended with a figure somewhere above SGD 35,000 (The figure here consist of purely war chest + invested capital into the market) 

On the investment front:

• I manage to close the year with a performance of -3.97% vs STI of -6.63%
• A pathetic XIRR rate at -5.44%
• Collected a dividend of SGD 566.58 which translates to roughly SGD 47.22 monthly
• Realised P/L of SGD 813.77 for the year

Side note, at this juncture (2018), I actually have not enrolled myself into university as I’m afraid that I would not have enough to go for it. Hence, I actually enrolled myself only in 2020, the same year I commence study. I was even preparing to take a leap year to save more money so that I will have sufficient monies to settle my academic fees.

I guess, that’s all for now. Stay safe, till the next episode of 2019 In 10 Mins. 

Personal Wealth Building: Money Management

Money management is the greatest key to unlocking all the treasures on your road to wealth. This post is somewhat inspired by STE once again on his latest post (Is Winning the Lottery Cursed?)

I strongly believe that it is never about how good of an investor you are or how high your income is neither about how great your windfall will be. If one is not prudent and does not manages his/her monies well, I believe that no one should be blamed for your mishap. 

I personally know many of such people around my life. Those high flyers with a household income of $250-300k annually, having debts and live from paychecks to paychecks with insufficient funds to tie them through when a misfortune happen. And surprisingly, I’m even more shock to know that they’re blaming everyone aside themselves for the bad luck that is shown on them! 

The significance of money is presented differently to every individual and it is very subjective to be making any comment about it. It would not be expensive for a watch enthusiast to spend $100k on a Richard Milles but it would be a crazy to majority out here who doesn’t know how to appreciate them. 

Most commonly, I refrained myself from making any comments or talk about finances to anyone I know personally as much as possible as I’m not in any position to do so. I also don’t enjoy the stereotype that is given from people about the fact that I’m only 20 years old and it’s never wise to act smart. 

The topic about finances is a very sensitive one and it’s very subjective to each person’s profile. 

To regular readers, I believe most would know that I will keep my explanation to the simplest term possible for easier understanding and to avoid further complication. Ha! Please pardon me for that terrible excuse here to cover on the fact that I’m actually not that smart. 

Back to where the topic started - Money Management. 

As shared in my previous post on Cashflow, this post will be a small supplement to the topic and to keep things simple, we’re back down to the 2 points again to improve on your financial situation. 

1. Increase your income

2. Decrease your expenses

Yes, it’s that simple to type it out. And I’m placing a relatively big bet that majority of the population knows about this. But the question is how?! 

As an investors, most are screwed towards buying a company that is consistantly poses an ever-increasing revenue. While that is not wrong, but can you imagine that the expenditure and cost is also increasing as well? The whole key to looking at the picture is to identify if the company’s profit is growing steadily. 

Perhaps a small simple example below in a few words could explain this:

FY2015 Revenue = $100M, Cost = $50M, Profit = $50M

FY2016 Revenue = $150M, Cost = $100M, Profit = $50M

FY2017 Revenue = $250M, Cost = $220M, Profit = $30M

FY2018 Revenue = $400M, Cost = $380M, Profit = $20M

This company we see above has it’s revenue increasing steadily from $100M-400M in 4 years! Which is nearly 100% growth a year we’re looking at! How impressive is that! But taking a look at the cost, it’s increasing much more steadily as well. 

But if we take a look at the profit, the company actually doesn’t earn as much as it used to in 2015. They’re infact earning less than half of what they used to earn! 

In fact, as an investor, we might even see our dividends get thinned out if they’re paying it from their free cash flow!

But it is always the case that it is more glamorous for a company to pose that they’re getting a greater revenue than it is to tell you it is reducing on it’s cost. Most commonly, when cost reduction comes into play, it represents that the company might be trying save themselves from something. 

It is also widely used that if a company has it’s cost increased due to the start of a new project, it is fine. But the only question will comes when the CAPEX could not taper off after sometime. 

It’s important to have FCF, and it’s even more important when we invest, we invest in a company that manages their monies well. Which is why I always believe that, it is important for a company to have an excellent management. 

A little too much here.. let’s relate this back to us, personally on the money management front. 

Person A is earning $2,200 when he first step into the society and slowly after years, the salary 

increases. But here’s one thing that is still common, which is that he will still have to live on his paychecks with no significant progression in savings because as his income increases, so does his expenses. 

Person A will pamper himself a little more than indulge in some form of luxury that depletes his wealth. Unknowingly, restricting himself from further savings despite having a growth in income.

It is important for one to have a higher income to accelerate the speed of savings to build more wealth. But it’s more important for one to have discipline and some form of money management in order for them to be able to accumulate wealth faster. 

So simply, the very first step is MONEY MANAGEMENT. 

I shall end this small idea about money management here before I progress into the next topic. 

Cash is not King. Cashflow is.

When it comes to the topic of investing, I believe everyone out here wanted the same outcome - which is to allow our money to grow. In another words, by investing, we want our money to come out more than what we place into.

But sadly, the perfect world is never constructed in such a fashion and it is not always the case as there is many that actually came out with lesser money than injected.
 
Being a not-very-smart investor myself, I believe that aside the homework or due-diligence that is done, we need a fair share of luck to help us out as well.

By receiving dividends from my stock holding, it does provide me with a decent level of comfort, and at the same time, it does help me a little by reducing on my transaction fees as there is lesser buying and selling.

When a company pays us dividend, this actually creates an additional source of income for ourselves, which increases our cash flow. 

Similarly to a business, cash flow is a very important aspect in our financial state.




When we spend more than what we earn, our cash flow is negative. To finance the expenditure, we will have to tap on our retained earnings (savings) or take up loan to do so. However, if a negative cash flow is a norm, our savings will deplete or we will end up with a snowball of debt.



If we do not know how to manage our finances, regardless of how high our salary is, we will still end every month with a sad note, while we anxiously wait for our salary to be in.

If you're taking home $3,000 a month and spending $2,500 each month. We're still positive with $500 here. This will also translate to a spending rate of 83%

However, if you're spending $4,000. This is when you have a negative cash flow of $1,000!




Assuming, the salary now increases to $5,000. Taking the same rate of spending, we're actually looking at positive cash flow of $1,500!

The equation today is pretty clear cut.

To increase our cash flow, we can either:
1. Increase our income/Create additional stream of income
2. Decrease our expenses

Optimally, both 1 and 2 has to be done together to yield the best result. 

So why is cash flow exactly the King and not cash?

I'll draw a simple example to illustrate this.

Person A, retired with $200,000 in cash. Spending $1,000 every mth, with inflation at 3%. This person will not be able to make through the 14th year. Person A has a negative cash flow every month and has been using his savings to make it through.

Person B, retired with $200,000 in assets generating 5% dividends per year, inflation at 3%. This person will not be able to make through the 26th year. And yes, person B is having a negative cash flow as well! But with a source of income, the impact he'll face to die from hunger is delayed by 12 years!

Realize the differences?

So what if one has an inflow greater than outflow? 

Your guess is as good as mine. With a greater inflow than outflow, this person will be able to even accumulate more wealth as he is spending money! 

If this person continues to re-invest his excess cash into this retirement pot, he would probably be able to survive till the day Hades decided to look for him!




But again, at certain point of times, being filled with cash represents opportunity. But if the cash here is not being used meaningfully, it defeats the purpose and the cash here is just a stagnant pile of papers. 

By having a certain level of cash with us, this will provide us with some form of hedging. But if we are overly-hedged we have indirectly incurred more losses to our monies than we could do to "protect" it!

To make it clear, it is important for one to have cash to protect themselves. When they're lucky with cash, they will be presented more opportunities. 

However, if we do not make good use of it, it is still useless.

Whereas, it is essential for us to have a strong free cash flow.


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. 
 

Being Frugal or Being Cheapskate?

Everyone is born with a different spoon in their mouth. Some entered the world with a golden spoon right up while some are out with a plastic one. Nonetheless, I believe that majority of us today should be contented that regardless of spoon they're having, they actually have one.

Comparing to the slightly unfortunate ones in some other neighboring countries who probably not have any spoon to go with, we should be glad and count ourselves lucky.




Personally, I do not have the privilege when I enter the world 20 years ago to be fed with what we see in the image up there. Or rather, I should be. But the spoon happens to fell to another wing of the tree and I've come to earth with a disposable spoon in my mouth.

In fact, I believe that this is the best gift I'd ever receive from God. Who would ever know what these rich families could be engaged in just like the dramas we see out there?

 

I'm honored and blessed to come to this world and definitely more than happy to have my family with me. The experience of my childhood might not be perfect but I certainly know and am aware that I have a loving family to begin with till some time later. 

Soon later, my family enrolled themselves in a dangerous and sticky financial situation.

Having to live through such a childhood had brought awareness to me about perspectives and making financial decisions prudently while I'm growing up.




As a result, I became more conscious when it comes to taking monies out of my pocket and more commonly I'm perceived as a cheapskate to my friends.

Probably due to differences in each eye for how money is perceived, I'm a cheapskate for most of the time.

Having that said, I'm still a human and I do have my soft spots as well. I certainly believe that as a human we should not thrift ourselves too much to the point we are living just to build our bank account balances. 

We should also have a fair share of entertainment and enjoyment to keep our lives occupied. 

Shortly after, I got a taste of what my family went through myself in a miniature way as I got over-whelmed and complacent by what we can do with money.

So am I fortunate? I guess I certainly am.




This bad event had turned out to be another lesson that constantly reminds me to not ever fall into such a situation ever again and had educated me on the word - DISCIPLINE. 

Read: A letter to my 30-Year-Old Self - 10 Years Ago



We can be prudent but it's also essential for us to have discipline.

As a human, we are all brought up differently. We have different speed of learning and different perspective towards the issue. But however, I do believe that we are the only person that should be responsible for our well-being and wealth. 




It is never good to not take responsibility for your own positions when it comes to the financial aspect.

Before we even jump into any topic of investment, I strongly believe that managing your own finances is the most important lesson one could pick up.

When we earn, it's important for us to know about saving too. 

If we don't learn how to save up, we will not be having a choice or say when an unfortunate event arises.




Yes, you will then be in the mercy of your situation. 

So am I a cheapskate?

Part 2 coming soon.

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.  

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.

22 Years Old, Stepping Into The Field Of Investing

Reader:
Hey there,

I'm XX, ladyyoucanbefree introduced me to you when we have a quick chat. I have look across your blog and it was very impressive and eye opening for a guy at your age to have such planning on future.

I'm 22 this year, and would like to step into the field of investing. I'm currently working full time and studying part time now, and as what you quoted, I'm definitely not interested to be sticking at my office for more than half of my life. I'm very new to this game, and if you don't mind, can you guide me through how to start off in this journey? 

Side note, just curious, how much are you putting in for invest per month?

Thanks and hope to hear from you soon!

Me:

Hi XX,

First and foremost, a warm welcome to my blog. I'm really glad to know another young adult that is interested in taking the path towards financial freedom. A big thumbs up to you for the courage to venture into the field of investing. 


Ladyyoucanbefree is a very wise and experienced senior in our local financial blogosphere. Personally, I enjoy her post really much and have learned much from her. 
I've to first say that I'm in no position to provide any financial advice and I'm still learning along the way too :)  

Nonetheless, I'm more than glad to share my journey and thoughts with you.

To start off, let me answer your question on 'how much are you putting in for invest per month' - I do not have a fixed amount that I invest every month. As I'm previously studying full time and engaged in different part-time jobs, my income fluctuates pretty much around. I follow more closely to a fixed % rather than fixed amount. This % is a variable and you may tune it to your own comfort :)
Do note that this war chest is used strictly for investment only. In another word, funds for investment. The funds here will be used to purchase different investment vehicle such as stocks, bonds etc. 

The war chest is only used when I see opportunity in investment. Else, that funds will be inside, waiting for Mr Market to turn moody. When my income is lower, my war chest will have a lower amount and the opposite when my income is higher. 

In that sense, I understand that higher earnings in important, and that I will be able to live comfortably when my income is not that high for a particular month. 

1. Emergency Funds & Understanding your risk appetite:

For your case, I believe having a full-time job, your income is pretty much stable and fixed and it will be much easier for you to follow a fixed % if you should. Discipline is important for us and we must remember to set aside an adequate amount of emergency funds (based on your 6-12 month's monthly expenses).  This emergency funds will have to come in first before any investment so that in any case that an emergency comes, such as job-loss (loss of income) etc. you will not be suffocating from paying your day-to-day expenses. Having that said, your war-chest will not be utilized in an emergency for non-investment related activities. When your funds in war chest are used for non-invested related activities, this defeats the purpose of having one.

Some might be fine without emergency funds, some prefer more, some prefer less. 

This ultimately voices down to your risk appetite and level of comfort.
 
It is very important to first know yourself to determine this and certainly to choosing your investment gameplay/vehicle.

You may wish to refer to this post of mine for some a little more clues about my various accounts: 
How many accounts does 19-year-old student have?

2. Decide your investment vehicle (eg. Stocks, Bonds, FOREX, Precious Metals, Commodities, Cryptocurrency etc.) and Gameplay:

Next up, it's also important to differentiate and choose your gameplay in the market. Eg. Investor or Trader as both of their game works differently. An investor buys shares and keeps them for a really long-term whereas a trader trades for profit.

After choosing your gameplay, this is when you will need to identify the tool you will be using to "amplify" your wealth. It does not make perfect sense for me to invest in precious metal for dividend as they are non-income generating assets. 'Investors' of such asset classes typically buy into such asset in an attempt/believe for its value to appreciate. This is when they sell it to realize the capital gain/profit.

In that aspect, it may probably sound better to trade them as traders "earn" by the difference in price between buying and selling.

If you're into investing, there are another 4 routes for you to choose - Growth investors, Income investors, Passive Investors or certainly Speculative Investors and the common vehicle used here is the equities market (shares).

Growth investors or even value investors buy into things where that they see a growth/value in. Do not be confused by them although both growth and value investors sound pretty similar. In that aspect, they are looking into the fundamental of the company they are buying into and would tend to hold for a really long time.

Growth stocks receive returns from future capital appreciation (the difference between the amount paid for a stock and its current value), rather than dividends while Value stocks are those that tend to trade at a lower price relative to their fundamentals (including dividends, earnings, and sales).

For a simple analogy, it's just like buying a condominium at 800k when it's worth 1m.
For this condominium, there are future developments like MRT that are currently under construction and in an area near town. Hence, when the developments are completed, the value of this condominium is likely to fetch a higher price. The owner can then chooses to sell the property or certainly rent it for a higher price.

Income investors invest primarily in equities for the regular dividend. Eg. REITs or Business Trust. Likewise, we have to also understand the fundamental well for the REIT we are buying into and not a value trap. For a simple analogy, it's just like buying a house and renting the house out for rental income.

Speculative investors are more commonly seen around where they will buy into a particular investment vehicle with no homework is done or purely based on what they hear.

For example - John and Brock are good friends. Brock recommended Creative to John when Creative is trading at $10 after surging from $1 in 2 weeks. John, after hearing this piece of news, eagerly cashed in $10,000 and went in to buy stocks from Creative at $10. He then speculates that Creative will continue to surge past the $20 mark. However, the price is seen tumbling to $5.86 today. The question now is - Is Brock to be blamed? 

There's also another type of investors - the Passive Investor which invest in ETFs and maybe even robo advisor. Some common methods that they employ are the DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging) and Buy-and-Hold approach. Passive investors aim to maximize returns over the long run by keeping the amount of buying and selling to a minimum. The idea is to avoid the fees and the drag on performance that potentially occur from frequent trading. Passive investing is not aimed at making quick gains or at getting rich with one great bet, but rather on building slow, steady wealth over time.

This long-run could easily stretch over decades and several market cycle.

Read more: Passive Investing - Investopedia 

Related post:
Is Investment Really So Difficult?
Transaction cost - Are You a Trader or Investor

3. Setting up the required accounts for your gameplay:

I'd first have to admit that I'm more of an equities investor than a trader. Hence, I believe that my knowledge in the other field is inadequate.

  

Let's say you've decided to go along with investor and have chosen equities (stocks) to be the vehicle you would like to use, the next step for one to be engaged in Singapore equities will be to have a brokerage and CDP account.
The brokers will act as an agent for which you buy and sell your securities from and CDP account will act as an account for which your shares and bonds are deposited into/withdrawn from. There are many brokers available around and personally, I do own 2 different brokerage account - POEMS PCMA and DBS Vickers Cash Upfront. I have been using more of the latter recently due to the attractive commission they're charging for the moment.  

CDP account can be easily created when you register with your brokers and this is a one-time thing. When you decide to change your brokers, simply link your CDP account to your new brokerage account.  

Now, this is easy and it will only involve some waiting time and probably a visit to the broker.

For passive investing, one could use certain tools like OCBC BCIP, POSB Invest-Saver, POEMS share builder or Maybank MIP to purchase some shares or ETFs.

4. Preparing for the fight

Now next step is to do some homework. This can come by performing Fundamental Analysis (FA) to look into the fundamentals of the company you're buying into. FA will equip you with the necessary knowledge on how the company is currently priced at, their earnings, financial situation, cash flow etc. For this, you will look into the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, financial report and annual report for more clue. 

Another approach most commonly used by traders is Technical Analysis (TA). This is a tool which will tell us the probability of the price movement in the shorter term. We will also be able to identify if the counter is overbought, oversold, resistance level, support level, divergence etc. This can be used along together with FA for a possibly 'better' entry price.  

I will point you to some of my different post I've written previously and you may wish to take a look for some clue. 


Unfortunately, with my tiny capital and insufficient knowledge, I'm not a successful investor like what many would see around and I still have much to learn along the way. 

There are many bloggers around which have really insightful and comprehensive analysis around. Similarly, do take note that this is not a buying/selling call and take them with a pinch of salt!   

TA: Wilmar's Technical Analysis

FA: Wilmar's Analysis

There's many senior, wise and very experienced blogger around the local blogosphere which I would recommend for different insights and learnings as well.

1. AK71 - ASSI

2. Lady - Lady You Can Be Free

3. Uncle CW - CW8888

4. B - 3Fs

5. STE's Stock Investing Journey

You may also wish to drop by TheFinance.sg

TFS is basically a blog aggregator for the local financial blogs and you will be able to find many other bloggers around :)

Having that said, I hope that I've answered your queries and that you find the information above useful for you.

Do feel free to get back to me anytime, I'm more than glad to be of your service and will reply at my very first availability.

Regards,

sleepydevil