Can anyone afford to be a SAHM and still save for retirement

"Cat's In The Cradle" by Harry Chapin 

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you, Dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home, Dad
I don't know when, but we'll get together then
You know we'll have a good time then

My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home, Dad
I don't know when, but we'll get together then
You know we'll have a good time then

Well, he came from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while"
He shook his head and said with a smile
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son
I don't know when, but we'll get together then, Dad
You know we'll have a good time then

I've long since retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
When you comin' home son
I don't know when, but we'll get together then, Dad
We're gonna have a good time then

This song makes me very sad. My little one is growing up so fast. In a blink of an eye, he can now walk and gesture to bring his point across. My job is great because i get to leave work on time, but it still requires me to be at a certain location from a certain time to a certain time. And by the time i am done fighting the peak hour traffic, i am so so drained. I don't know how other mothers who work long hours does it. I just know i am missing out on parts of my little one's life and it makes me sad. 

sometimes i feel like quitting and just saying i want to be the domesticated goddess - cook, clean and watch my little one grow up. but how does that square in with the reality of living in singapore, a fast paced modern city where inflation increases at an alarming pace and materialism and consumption is at sky high? 

what did our parents do? was it easier or worse back then? i don't think anyone kept late hours then. my days as a kid was predictable. my mum went off before 9 am, my granny would sent me to kindergarten by 10 am and i came home at 12 pm. lunch, nap, day dreaming and then my mum would come back home before 6 pm. dinner, tv and bed. simple. 

now? i think most of us office warriors would consider ourselves lucky to be home before 8pm. 

SAHM? possible?

Inspired to blog (seriously) again

It has been nearly three and a half years on since my last post on Wing Tai. Sadly, I have not done major thinking / investing in these three and a half years. My personal life has moved in leaps and bounds though - I changed jobs (for a worse deal in monetary terms) but I got married and have a one year old baby. I also bought my own property to live in since I got married.

So what inspired me to post this? This post. Not merely because the author's life resonates with my life - growing up in a lower middle income family and my (used-to) endless comparisons with others on money BUT because of the sagely advice the investing community gave to him after. It warms the cockles of my heart knowing that as much as the investing community is about making money, we are making money for a purpose, not as an end in itself, and that we truly care about imparting the right values to others.

Anyway, since this is a financial blog, I have decided to discuss the recent additions to my small portfolio and to share my portfolio through this platform. Hopefully, this will spur me to be more disciplined with my investments.

SIA Engineering 

I bought 1 lot of SIA Engineering at 3.78 recently. Reasons for buying this share? Click here for key statistics.

1. I have decided that dividend stocks are the way to go in this 6 year bull market. SIA Engr has a dividend yield of 4.6%
2. 5.42B market cap and gross profit of 796M. If gross profits remains the same, it would take about 7 years to break even, assuming that I had paid in full to a private buyer for this company. In other words, this is a company that a real investor would be keen in.
3. Leverage free cash of 40 m. Cash is king!
4. Growing industry. We are expanding to have even more terminals. i.e. even more planes to land in Singapore. Surely SIA engineering would have better business? Also, with the boom in budget airlines, i think more servicing would be required.

Not so good stuff:
1. Unfortunately, i never really read why the yoy quarterly earnings is a negative sum
2. book value per share is only 1.16, which means i am overpaying by 4 times (P/B ratio) for my shares
3. PEG ratio of 3.75 seems a bit high to me
4. only bought one lot because i wanted to conserve my smallish war chest.

AIMS AMPI REIT

I bought 2 lots of this REIT. Reason for buying this share?
1. high dividend yield. remember? i want to go into dividend stocks now.
2. commercial properties / warehousing / logistics space. I think warehousing is something that would be highly in demand in the future. With more online shopping / online shops, these shops need space.

Updates on Wing Tai 

Since my last post was on Wing Tai, i will give a short update. I held Wing Tai through the years, and sold it off early last year. I did not sell during the share buy back. My selling price was 1.95. Pretty ok, but it went up as much as 2 dollars plus after that. I am still looking at it - when it went down below 1.7 i really wanted to buy recently but did not make the purchase. Property market is shaky (which sucks for me) but in the long run, i think Wing Tai will still do well.

I will try to share my portfolio the next time. For now, I plan to sell off some US shares to get more power for my war chest!