"An additional $560k gone..." -- Calculating the dollar losses to investments and business

When I first started this blog years ago, it was meant to chronicle my journey, to be accountable to myself for my financial decisions.

Gradually, I have people telling me they learned from my blog. That kept me motivated, until I got busier and busier, and reduced the frequency of writing drastically, to the point I have almost not written much.

And... I'm glad that I have posted more in the earlier days. It's like I'm reading on my past self, how much more disciplined and stingy and scroogy I was than now.

So this blog post serves as chronicle for my future self to read and re-read again.

Instead of a blog post with a positive tone, this would take on a more negative tone.


More stock losses (~$29k)
I like to talk more about my losses in stocks, than gains. For me, it serves as a reminder of my stupidity, lapse of discipline, and how much more I have to think and learn. For others, it serves as a warning that the stock market is not here to feed you or give in to you, but a double edged sword that can slit your throat any moment.

Losing at Noble Group
After my past estimation that the estimated capital gain was near $0, more losses were chalked up. First, Noble. That was an additional ~$8k in losses. I have to admit, it was more of a gamble to buy. I cannot remember the price I got it now, but I remember having a minor profit after buying.

Subsequently, the management decided on a 10-for-1 consolidation, before the share price drop to its pre-consolidation price. In one fell swoop, this caused the share price to drop 90%. Failed gamble. Entirely my fault. I thought I did my homework, but obviously I do not know enough.

The busy past few months... and some lessons I learned

Past few months were crazy. First up was the HDB renovation. For a 5-room flat, I managed to finish the complete the renovation within a budget of $40k inclusive of furnishings. Guess I was pretty lucky to chance upon IKEA's sale and save a few hundred dollars on furniture. A 55" TV, LED lighting, built-in wardrobe, big dining table. My $40k isn't used up yet I guess, didn't really count, but there are still some portions of the house which need building, but it's pretty much done. :) And typing this blog post as I sit in my study room, of which furnishings come entirely from IKEA.

Next was my wedding in the early part of June. Photoshoots, actual day videos and bridal packages set me back nearly $27k. Ouch. But overall, it was pretty manageable in terms of finances. This excludes all the misc, i.e. lunch buffet at church, wedding banquet, etc. But if I include everything in, $60k was probably the costs. Still less than the $100k incurred by the couple on newspaper who went into debt just to get married.

While the government is encouraging couples to marry younger, I realised that at 30, with our combined finances, house renovations and wedding was pretty comfortable on the financial side. No stress and no need for any sacrifice for things we wanted. Certainly no need for any debt. The next big expenditure would probably be kids.


Next up for the month of July, I conducted olympiad trainings for 4 different schools. That was pretty crazy for the month because this is on top of my usual tuition workload. I also involved myself in a startup on indoor positioning systems. Basically, in the near future, you might probably see the fruits of our labour involving you somehow in some parts of your daily life :)

Finally, I have been studying more about businesses past few months, watching shows like Millionaire Intern on BBC Knowledge. What I see is that many businesses struggle because there was minimal sales. Even though their products or services may be very very good, as long as the sales are dismal, the business will not grow or may eventually go obsolete. The goal of marketing is to generate leads, and eventually conversion of leads to purchasers.

And in show Millionaire Intern, it seems that everything boils down to knowing marketing well. Personally, I have been studying more on copywriting, as well as experimenting different forms of marketing, on FB, Google, etc. I now have an idea of why some of the previous experiments failed, and probably will be adding my fix to it. Many many things learned, which boils down to even more application. Till then...

Probably unable to do a PhD

A turn of events probably made it impossible for me to do my PhD now. Might be a blessing in disguise?

Cutting a long story short, the original plan was to be
1) employed as a research staff, and do research on a full-time basis
2) turning into a part-time phd student while using the research as the research project for the phd
As such, I turned down all other offers... sort of...

Everything else looked perfect. My qualifications were sufficient to meet the entry requirements.
But I forgot something. I have a co-ownership of a tuition centre. I declared that in the application form, and now I'm told it is not allowed, and I have to relinquish the tuition centre to be employed as their full-time research staff. Granted, this is the protocol for most other companies. It is probably fair.

I don't run the day to day operations of the centre, so I do have some spare time, which was one of the considerations on whether to apply for a PhD. But looking at how things are progressing, instead of relinquishing the tuition centre, I will probably choose to relinquish the PhD instead of appealing against the requirement, and start other businesses instead. I don't want to give up working with students, helping them score, and looking at their faces of joy and glee when they finally understood a concept that was Greek to them before. It is little things like these that make both life and work interesting.

It's a hard decision to make, hopefully I won't regret it.

2.5 months after resigning from employment...

I realised I didn't do anything much....

...

...

...

...

...


Actually I took a short break (that's important!). It's time to restart the hard work I did to build up my portfolio again. Goal 2013 seems a little impossible to reach at this rate that I am moving, so I will need to buck up and gear towards it.

With the time freed up, I will be looking into a few areas of my life.

1) Health
I actually failed my IPPT. When I both working as a full-time engineer and teaching tuition, I had very little time to exercise. In fact, I reached a stage where I just didn't have enough sleep, so I had cut down on exercise to get more rest.

Subsequently, body fitness declined substantially. Failing the IPPT is a wake up call, and I'm making use of the RT now to kick start my fitness program again. I'm also watching my diet by taking in more oats than before, now that my mornings are spent at home. Also, I have probably reduced lots of my sleep debt over the past year the past 2 months :)

Investments in health is more important than in equities :)


2) Education
Having rested a little, I have decided I will attempt to apply for a sponsored PhD. There will be some monetary allowance too :)

While it may have been better to study immediately after graduation, I have to serve my scholarship bond, which I did.

Crossing my fingers now. If successful, studies begin in Aug 2013. Looking forward to being busy again!

Personal Updates

As you might have realised, my updates are getting less and less frequent.

I'm bogged down by work and tuition as usual. But my time for writing blog posts have now been mostly re-directed to working on authoring my A level physics guidebook. As such, I will be reducing  updates to this blog substantially till I complete this book, this aim, this dream of mine.

Granted, such a guidebook will not yield high margins when it gets published. According to http://www.business.gov.sg/, publishing gives the lowest margin compared to other businesses. Indeed, the ROE is probably between 50% to 100% after most expenses are deducted if I'm the author.

Then again, while I do need the money for food (I'm being practical), I'm more concerned on getting a book out and attempting to make a small contribution/impact on the learning of physics in Singapore. I find that a number of students get disillusioned about physics around O levels, and most ceased to take it at A levels, or perhaps struggled at A levels physics because of self-beliefs that physics is hard.

In my opinion, schools have to take a responsibility, and I do think that most schools perhaps do something wrong in teaching physics. I have my own beliefs and ideas, and by implementing it, I have successfully gotten a total of 5 As out of 7 students I taught over the past year for O level physics. That is 71.4% of my total number of O level students in my group class. The remaining students, 1 received an unexpected B3 of which he was sorely disappointed, the other received a B4 of which he was extremely happy because he fought back from a fail grade without giving up, perhaps because I did not give up on him.

Growing Networth -- My Journey so far

A reader of my blog sent me an email:

I'm working on a framework to allow a fresh grads to generate more passive income ( through dividends investing ) than their monthly expenses and my current spreadsheet shows this as being possible by age 31. The caveat is that the grad has to save 75% of take home pay.

You clearly broke all my financial assumptions on my spreadsheet so I'd like to understand more about your own personal ideas.

This blog post serves to answer his questions, and at the same time, help me to consolidate my thoughts.

I'm writing a book

Yes, you heard right. I'm currently attempting to write a book on A Level Physics. It's a lot of hard work, and that explains my infrequent updates on this blog. Definitely not easy. I sleep <5 hrs a day to try to write, and think of ways to improve it, to make concepts clearer to the students.

What am I writing
I'm writing on an A level physics study guide. I chose to start on physics because physics is my forte.
After all, I'm among the top 10 scorers for 2001 A level Physics in Singapore, and among the top 39 in Asia for the 2nd Asian Physics Olympiad.

A little insight into a common week of my life

So there are 7 days, 24 hours a day, in a week. Although I really wish I have more than 24 hours a day and more than 7 days a week, in reality, it's not possible. Unless perhaps someone invents a time machine so that I can do what Hermione did in Harry Potter, that is, go back in time again for a concurrent lecture.

If you are merely looking for talks on the market, you might want to skip this section.


This is a little post on a common week of my life now. It should be interesting for me to look back in time at this post 10 years down the road, that's if, blogger is still around. Perhaps one day, I should see my time allocation like how I see my investments; put them into an excel chart.

Your Luck in 2010 (based on Chinese Zodiac)

A happy Chinese New Year to all readers!
May you be prosperous, healthy and successful in the year of the Tiger!

{I'm born in the year of the Boar! Huat ah!}


Rat
The Rat is strongly affected by the star of love and romance this year, which brings distractions to the work front. This star can bring a lot of marital happiness and good relationships so long as the Rat does not succumb to the effects of the External Flower of Romance star, which affects everyone. In order to ensure that good relationships come into your life, it is important that you attract legitimate love and romance luck. The Rat also gains education luck, which is very fortunate for those still in school. Two unlucky stars affect the Rat in 2010 and these are the 3 killings and the Natural Disaster star.

A suitable amulet is to hang up the Vairocana Plague on the north wall.

Ox
2010 brings the Ox a special kind of good fortune with the Big Auspicious Star only to be hampered by the presence of the Illness Star. The energy of the Ox is low this year, which is only to be expected since it is in side conflict with the Tai Sui. This results in the Ox enjoying excellent success and wealth and career luck, at the expense of their health. So as to avoid obstacles brought about by the Tai Sui, they should invoke some divine help. All Oxen must strengthen their health luck in 2010 otherwise they will miss out on a years worth of good luck.

A suitable amulet is to display the Antahkarana Wu Luo in the Northeast

My First 100K -- a long journey

I finally achieved my first $100k in cash investments/trading funds 2 months back, excluding any unrealised capital gains or losses, and excluding my CPF funds/debts. It has been a long journey, starting from my days as a kid. $100k might not be a lot to some people, but it is a personal achievement, considering I have only started working for 1.5 years.

Back then, I did not think so much about achieving financial freedom. It was not my goal; my goal was to score well in exams as a student. However, I do not like to spend on new gadgets, new clothes, etc. It's just not in my nature to spend that much. My main expenditure was, and still is, on food, food and food! Yes, I like to eat :)

I have to say, I was lucky on my journey so far. I saved up nearly 10k by the end of serving NS... Savings from young plus army allowance, teaching tuition during army, and even doing 'duties' in NS for a token fee during weekends, all played a part in my savings. During my 2nd year in uni, I was lucky to get a 3 year scholarship for the rest of my studies. The scholarship is not as much as most of the government scholarships, but it is sufficient to boost my personal wealth.

Of course, I taught a little more tuition during my university days as well. I saved up during my industrial attachment, and managed to secure a scholarship for my student exchange trip to Germany, of which I spent little overall, nett of all the scholarships. My savings were put into fixed deposits, which yield nearly 3.3% in 2007. I was totally focused on my school work instead of the stock market. This sort of protected me from the down turn.

So when I graduated, I found myself with about $45k in savings which includes $36k of scholarship money, and excludes my $25k CPF debt for university fees which I decided to pay off slowly since the interest rate is very low. This is in May 2008.


Fast forward to Dec 2009.


Many things have changed. At the moment of post, I have a portfolio which costs me $101k. I have $10k in opportunity funds. My dividends stand at $460 a month on average. My job is stable. My tuition sideline is growing well.

The journey has been long and arduous. Hard work and actions played a major role. I dream, I have ambitions, and I take action to work towards them.

How should I proceed from here, how should I move on from here... That's my main question and concern now. It's becoming increasingly difficult to plan my life. Back then, it was easy... A student planning to get employment after graduation could seek a scholarship with a bond... Right now, I'm in the wilderness.... Should I stay on in the current company? Move on to new challenges in another company? Expand my tuition sideline by setting up a tuition centre? Or perhaps just set up some other business?

On the cards are also... Marriage... First property with my future wife... Any babies...

The burden on me is getting increasingly heavy. The rat race appears to be going nowhere. I'm starting to get a bit tired.

About Me

About Me

Me is 27 yrs old (in the year 2009). Graduated from Uni in May 2008.
Me nothing better to do, so chart here chart there.
Me also nothing better to do, so invest for dividends
here and there.

Me main investment style: dividend investing,
in both blue chips and small caps.

Me play stocks only within Singapore at the moment,
adopting long-only approach, no shorts yet. Will plan
to play with US stocks one day.

Why leh? Nothing better to do mah.


And in case you wonder, of course I know I should use 'I' instead of 'me' in the above sentences.
But me nothing better to do.