WHYMOOLAH AND HOW TO SAVE MONEY

This whymoolah game first caught my eye when i read about the founders in a magazine.

SG Young Investment then blogged about it and so I decided I had to try it! 

In my usual obsessive compulsive ways, I played the game at least 6 times! The first time I played myself, and made the decisions of getting married at 29 and having a kid at 30. Funnily enough, although i bought a condo IRL, i could not afford the same in virtual and had to settle on a resale HDB. This was because of the 60% TDSR mostly and my partner's paycheque. 

(A nagging feeling was telling me i should not have overspend on my condo!)

After playing the other 5 or more times. I realised that to maximise your net worth you should: 

1. GET MARRIED AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE
2. with step 1, then you can BUY THAT BTO
3. be a lawyer
4. DON'T GO for social gatherings or give your parents money 
5. DON'T have kids
6. start selling shares in stages when the auntie wants to buy 
7. start buying shares in stages when the man on the street wants to sell 

Heh, some of the above advice should be applicable in real life! 

Go PLAY it! It was fun for me. 

My second topic is on HOW TO SAVE MONEY! 

The inspiration of this piece? A friend approach me to be a guarantor for 80,000 SGD. Would you? 

I was a bit shocked. He had been working for about close to 10 years - mid 30s. He disclosed to me that he wanted to pursue a change of careers and needed money for an education loan. He only had 30,000 to his name as savings and needed this loan to tide him through the payment of the course, and his living expenses. He lives with his parents and has no car, no girlfriend, no mortgage. He was already at mid management level and was earning close to SGD 8,000. He never struck me as an extravagant guy who would buy fast cars, designer jeans or watches so i was a little shocked that he had so little to his name. 

After thinking about my friend's lifestyle, perhaps i had some clue to why he had so little and how one should save even if he / she was earning a pretty decent amount:

1. Don't take taxis everywhere. Each trip is about 20 SGD. In a month, that's like 600 - 1200 SGD!!!
2. Don't buy that daily designer coffee. Seriously, opting for a 3 in 1, or even a kopi from coffee and tea will give you a savings for 80%! buying that starbucks every day is going to cost you a whopping 150 SGD. 
3. Say no to expensive lunches. He has a habit of eating in a nice restaurant over lunch. That's fine but not on a daily basis! Save it for once a week when meeting up with good friends. 
4. Say no to too many holidays. What's with the trend of going bali for a weekend? you end up more tired than before! Savings? close to 2000 SGD annually. 
5. Brand conscious? Save for that splurge! Instead of buying so many bell & ross / tissot / rado, just save for that ONE ROLEX / Patek 

In short: Don't upgrade your lifestyle too much! Every penny counts! Stick with your daily KOPI! 

So after much thinking, i won't be agreeing to be his guarantor. Until he shows he can control a spending, that's only harming him.... not helping. 

Finding happiness in your job

Do you think this generation has it easier or worse than the last generation in terms of work?

For many, it feels worse. Many of us are in an office job and yet, feel far from satisfied. For those of us in a professional job, we look back in envy at our fathers' generation - they did well enough to easily save up for a landed property within a few years of work, for the lawyers, doctors and engineers among us? I don't think any of us can really do that within a few years. We probably have to be shackled to our mortgage and jobs for a few decades if we bought that landed property. Our fathers' generation had no blackberries, smartphones, emails. And no law suits (even if there were, there were few and far between). They commanded respect just by being a university grad armed with a degree. Our time? I am sure we know of some professionals but are deeply dissatisfied with their jobs.

However, i think the key difference is that if we were born in our fathers' generation, very few of us would have got our university degree. Only the very rich or the very intelligent would have made it to university and get the degree. Most of us would not have made it so far. So it is not a fair apples to apples comparison. There is an education inflation everywhere in the world.

Those who are earning a lot of money are now in the financial industry. Bankers, lawyers servicing the finance industry are the ones racking in the cash. Bankers way more so than lawyers. But everyone seems unhappy. With a year long bonus, some still whine that it is not enough for the pain they go through. i wonder why.

sometimes i think that the human being is not made to sit behind a computer editing word documents, or keying in formulas in excel spreadsheet, or drafting long unwieldy emails to confuse others. Doing 9 hours of this kind of work vs 3 hours in the hot sun? Most of us would choose the 9 hours of office bound job. But perhaps this is not what the human body was made for. We can't see the fruits of our labour. The email we type? we can' see how it affects others or make a change in the physical world. And perhaps that is why, the paper pushing lawyers, the excel spreadsheet bankers are just clamoring for more money, more money as a salve to their pain. The pain which they do not even understand.

My take? We can't stop the modern madness. Get in touch with nature. With people. With the sakura flowers that are blooming everywhere, organise a little picnic with your family. I think that is the only way to balance out the glowing screens that is sucking the happiness from our jobs. And most importantly, count your blessings. Breathe. Smile. Live. Exercise.

Share Update - Nam Cheong

Sold Nam Cheong @ 0.355

I was pleasantly surprised that Nam Cheong went up a fair bit this morning. The financial reports for this share has been really positive. I must admit I have not looked at its financial report myself, and have merely read recommendations from various brokerage houses on this.

Well, the reason why I sold this was because I want to move my portfolio into a dividend based one. I need all the spare cash I have to purchase higher dividend yield shares. When i purchased this share awhile back, it was really based on a whim - you know how you just feel like punting on a good share? Yes, that is why i bought it. Not the best of reasons. With a family and work demands, it is just impossible to do this kind of punts on a regular basis. There are weeks and months last year where i just did not look at the share market or even read the news! and that is a big no no if you put money where uncertainty lies.

I know the TP for this is about 0.45 but in light of the uncertain market conditions, I think I will play safe and pull out of this stock. I do expect the share price for this to trend downwards next week, and if it does fall to a level i am comfortable with, I may pick up a little bit just for the sake of satisfying my risk taking appetite.

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!

Wing Tai

I bought Wing Tai 2 lots at 1.62 today. A bit high, I did decide without much thought when I noticed price going upwards that I would put in a bid for 1.62.

Why Wing Tai? It is based more on fundamental and my own analysis as compared to the charts.

NAV = 2.1267
Current price = 1.62
Price / NAV = 0.7398
PE = 7.79 (one of the lower ones in the share market)

I liked the fact that its NAV is higher than current price. I also remembered reading reports that Wing Tai took a conservative stance in buying land earlier this year. Which is good, since with the property market looking to cool off, and the bids earlier this year seems to be on the high side. It is likely that Wing Tai can pick up better land deals later this year as compared to earlier.

Also, it does have new property launches later this year but they are mostly high end property. Not mid market property. I believe that those people in Sg who can afford Orchard Road / Bt Timah property are not going to be deterred by the new property measures. The hardest hit are the HDB dwellers looking to upgrade or invest in property. Not the people who can afford the orchard road or bukit timah property.

Perhaps there may be a dip, which I expect looking from the charts. But I am new to charting so I will risk it. I won't mind adding another 2 lots of need be if prices go lower.

Kepcorp

Is Keppel Corp a good buy?

Last bought Kep Corp last year, but sold it earlier this January after market scare of a dip. Note to self: don't lose nerve and sell it. Since i have the holding power, why should a down turn scare me. I am young and not in any financial commitment, and in a well paying job that should continue for the next few years.

financial anaylst calls: outperform at 10.27 in July
market current trend: on a down turn since cut MA 20, 50 and 100. RSI at 40 - lowest in 1 year.
eps: 1.01
nav:3.67
pe:8.54

Will line up to buy at 8.64.