Review of Year 2013 & Some business lessons

In a few days time, it will be the last day of 2013, and it marks the first full year since I went self-employed. It has been a long way since I graduated from NUS in the mid of 2008.

I still remember the time where I just started work; I was full of optimism. I also gave tuition as a sideline then. In the "safe haven" of employment, it was so comfortable and the future looks bright. The company would try it best for us, or so it appeared.

But some events woke me up.
First event: Retrenchments
I see this company taking a loan from the government so that it could stay afloat and keep the jobs intact. A few months later, retrenchment came, and 10% have to be retrenched. Yet within a few months, hirings resume, for the positions that were retrenched. Jobs are never safe.

Second event: What I saw on my manager's desk
I remember there was once in the office, I saw a stack of printed powerpoint slides that titled: "How to motivate your employees without monetary means". There was a pay freeze at that juncture, and I was still at the pay of a fresh grad after working for 2 years. While I know this MNC isn't doing well in the crisis, and is logical from the business side, this event still left a deep impression on me.

Thus the tough decision to step out in 2012, and attempt to make a living by myself. The first few months were tough, my discipline was sorely lacking, and I was running around like a headless chicken. Fortunately for me, I have an experienced partner in the business, who manages the admin stuff well.

Which brings me to the first lesson I learned: Having an experienced partner or mentor helps greatly in the initial stages of doing business.

That is common knowledge, but I truly appreciate the wisdom in it. I could see the mistakes that I would have made, in terms of finance, HR (choosing tutors) and branding. I wondered if I would have learned these if I had just "do-it-myself". Fortunately for me, my previous dabbling in FAs of companies left me with some basic skills to manage and understand some aspects of SME finance.

Investing in Eratat?

I realised that recently, there are more people my age group into investing. This wasn't the case back in 2008 and 2009 when I first graduated. An interesting event.

Over the years, I realised investing in equities does not merely mean digging through the financial reports. It also mean doing the necessary homework on competition, as well as potential business growth.

In addition to all the pure FA data, I looked too at charts for confirmation at times.

In investing, objectivity is of utmost importance. Of course, this is easier said than done, and I do not profess to be able to do that 100% of the time. And this is made worse when we own shares in the company too; typically there is a tendency to be more optimistic about the shares we own, because we bought it, and we don't want to be wrong in our judgment! Who want to buy shares to lose money?

Recently I had some spare time since tuition winds down during the end of year, I took another look in a company I once studied a little again to see if it has improved in any sense, and why certain forumers are still very bullish about it. The company is Eratat.

Money Bombs! and my "risky" management of my finances

This post is a little inspired by a post by a new blogger I saw recently.
The post is at http://www.my15hourworkweek.com/2013/08/19/money-bomb-1-the-wedding/
and his blog is http://www.my15hourworkweek.com


The year 2013 has been quite fulfilling so far. Really learned lots, saw lots, thought lots and understood lots... But from now till mid of next year, I will probably be spending lots, more so than my income :p

Yep, wedding bells and bridal packages... Not that I am complaining :)
Also, my HDB BTO will probably be ready next year too... Renovation costs coming!

Just a short calculations of how much I need...
1) Photoshoots - $7k  =>  my wife-to-be wants one local and one overseas one (add another $1k)
2) Banquet - $30k  =>  I think ang bao will help cover some, although I don't think it will be 100%
These wedding banquets just get more expensive each year, with costs rising faster than income.
3) Renovation costs - $50k perhaps? Not so sure....
4) Rings and misc items... - $15k  => I probably over allocate some

Sold remaining GLP

I sold GLP, preparing funds for either SPH or SPH REIT.

But the more I read and think, it seems SPH may be a better deal than SPH REIT after all.


However, I do expect SPH REIT to rise a little upon IPO, so....... strategize strategize strategize.....