Tertiary education ends, onto another phase in life

As my university education finally comes to an end *happy dance* I know however that learning mustn't stop here. Investing my hard earned money obtained from tutoring have paid off pretty well the past 8months. My portfolio have gained a substantial 20% & I do admit it's quite tempting to take profit. However, I'm not selling yet as I feel there're still room for more growth.

Suntec DPU dropped to nearly 10% this 1Q13 but the price hasn't dropped as much as I have expected proving how much the market sees the value in Suntec. I'm very sure after Suntec fully completes it's AEI, her stockholders will see its price fly. And that's what I'm waiting for. I want to be there when the plane takes off & I'm waiting patiently like a kid packed with excitement.

When I  bought my REITs months ago, they were all undervalued. Today, Cambridge and Starhill Global are finally over their NAV. The only few REITs that are still undervalued in SGX will be Saizen, Lippo & Suntec. The past year, I've found great interest in the finance industry; planning & management. I've thought about joining a financial institution upon graduation but as I take time off to reflect and ponder, I feel it's best to put it off for now. 

I'm interested in this particular job which is stable, pays well (10k after 8-10years) & most importantly, no foreigner can ever replace me. It's frightening that today, graduating local Singaporeans fear not being able to secure a job they long for & have to compete with other nationalities for their dream jobs. 

I can't wait to start working now as I know a steady stream of income will flow in. I can't wait to invest! However, that will only manifest in a couple of months time.

In the meantime, Hello Tokyo & Mt Fuji!

REITs Fundamentals & Current Holdings

Here's a link to better educate yourself on REITs : Real Estate Investment Trusts

List of my current holdings as of 19th April 2013:

CDP Account (Getting started: Why & How)

Why be your own fund manager? 

Statistics over the past few years have shown that majority of fund managers underperform compared to the market. Simply put, if the market has grown 5% over the past 12 months & in that exact same time frame, if your fund manger is not able to help your capital rise 5%, they have underperformed. True that fund managers are usually motivated as they take a cut of your profits after using the money you have entrusted to them. What could possibly have caused them to underperform then? I guess it's this: carelessness. Ever wondered how you tend to be more aware of your spendings when it's out from your own pocket? Well, that's what I'm driving at. You would think twice or thrice before buying something expensive but if someone else is paying for it, you would grab it almost instantly like a kid at a toy store without guilt or shame. So who then should you entrust your money to? Yourself. Take charge of your own investments, be your own fund manager. Since you work so hard to earn money, shouldn't you work even harder to ensure that the value of your money isn't being eaten away by inflation? Shouldn't you educate yourself on how to make your money "grow"? 

How should I start?

Read up, invest your time properly. Online resources are usually free and readily available; SG Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, Financial blogs. The Business Times (Weekend) newspaper is one of my favorites. Make a trip down to any bookstore and browse the books under the "investment" section. Read a few pages or chapters to see if it interests you enough before bringing the book to the cashier. 

Talk to people preferably someone close to you (family, relatives, friends) . Ask them what they have bought, what they are going to buy next & their reasons for doing so. Find out what kind of investors they are & what their risk appetites are. What they invest in might not necessarily suit your risk appetite. For instance, I don't fancy my Dad's investing style (I'll elaborate further in another separate post in the near future) but I was still able to learn and understand why he does things in a certain manner.

Set up a trading & CDP account

Once you are sure you want to start investing, you will need to have a trading account & a CDP account. CDP account is where your shares are being "kept". Just like how we put money into our bank account, we put the shares we buy into our very own CDP account. Trading account can be opened at any major banks, preferably a bank which you already have a savings account with. Do note that different banks charge differently for each "buy" or "sell" position. Citibank offers the lowest brokerage fees of $5 for each "buy" or "sell" position however, it's a little more complicated at Citibank. The shares that you buy will not be "deposited" into your CDP account as Citibank will be "holding" onto it on your behalf. The biggest concern is, if ever Citibank collapses one day, what happens to my shares? For that reason, most people play it safe and don't mind paying more so that the shares they have bought are "deposited" directly into their own CDP account. 

DBS Vickers (Cash Upfront) Account is what I use. Usually it's about $25 for online brokerage fee across all major banks in Singapore but with dbsvickers (cash upfront) account I pay $18 instead of $25 for each "buy" position. However, I can't "sell" using this cash upfront account so when I sell, I have to pay $25 using dbsvickers account. When you buy a share, you are required to pay within the next 3 days but dbsvickers cash upfront requires you to make payment immediately. And because of the investor's willingness to pay immediately, there's a discount for that. 

Get started! I'm so excited for you! We've all heard that the hardest part is taking the first step. However, once the engine starts, it's much easier to "roll" along.

Book Review: Guide to Investing (Robert Kiyosaki)

Great introductory book for anyone interested to obtain some basic finance literacy. Robert is able to simplify things and make certain difficult/abstract topics easy to understand for anyone with zero background in the world of finance & investment.

For the price that I paid for this book, it was way too cheap in my opinion (less than $20SGD). I've learnt so much & it gave me a deeper insight to the world of investing. It taught about how to manage personal finance, the different investing styles of different investors.

Even though this book did not teach me what I was initially looking for, it challenged my inner core values and perspective on investing. Robert did not teach about trading or how to pick the right stock. Instead, his idea to be extremely rich is to be an "inside investor" someone who creates assets that the world would eventually want to buy. For example, Facebook is an asset & when its company's shares started trading in the NYSE, Facebook founders became multimillionaires/billionaires. That was Robert's idea of investing. He's an entrepreneur so this book is excellent for anyone who aspires to be an entrepreneur. Today, most of us are "outside investors" who buy stocks of companies instead of owning stocks of a company and selling it to the mass market.

I'm simple & I do not wish to be extremely rich living in Sentosa Cove (Beverly Hills of Singapore). Cause with everything that you want in life, there's always a price tag to it. Also, being an entrepreneur doesn't quite suit my risk appetite. There's just so much at stake. It's either you make it or you don't or keep trying til you're successful. I salute entrepreneurs like Robert however, I do not have to follow in their footsteps. (But who knows, maybe years down the road I might be an entrepreneur!)

I'd rather adhere to my initial life plan after much reflection & deep thinking. I figured that I'll be happier having a slightly above average income, work towards my goal of financial freedom & then live my dream of traveling around the world. 

I'm starting on another book now "the art of non-conformity" by Chris Guillebeau (travelled to all 193 countries in the world. On 4 April 2013, he completed his "world journey" with the last country being Norway)  which has nothing to do with investing but I figured it's a great book for someone like myself who's about to enter the workforce pretty soon.

Bull & Bear Market

Patient during bull markets (upwards trend) and aggressive during bear markets (downwards trend). 

Rather than siting on the sidelines in bear markets, investors can actually thrive and make profits. That's because stocks fall faster than they rise as fear is much stronger than greed. 

Just this morning, 2 out of 3 of my REITs hit their 52week high. My paper gain for REITs on average is about 16.8% in a span of only about 8months and less. 

	Buy Price	Current Price	Paper Gain	% Paper Gain
Cambridge Industrial Trust	0.655	0.810	0.155	15.50%
Starhill Global REIT	0.745	0.950	0.205	20.50%
Suntec REIT	1.775	1.920	0.145	14.50%

No doubt there's some fear in me that my REITs prices will/may dip in a bear market however, I'll still be receiving dividends so that's comforting for me to know. Also, REITs have actual physical assets and so any REITs that are undervalued (below NAV) are worth investing in. It's similar to how you will buy a house in an economic recession at a discount because you are confident its price will rise again when the economy recovers. 

Many people shun away from the stock market when the economy is down but I feel that if others can profit from it, then why can't I do likewise? 

"Short selling"/"Put Options" is what people do during bear markets. A general rule is to short stocks that are already going down. Get onto a moving train, it's a lot more profitable.

Other than short selling, it takes courage to buy when everyone else is panic-selling. That's when stocks become undervalued & you get a good discount to what a stock is really worth. 

I'm excited for the next bear market as I would like to see how I fare/respond to the market. Making mistakes are a great way to learn. The fear of making mistakes often prevents people from learning what could possibly be one of their best lessons in life.  Embrace mistakes. Growing up in a rigid educational system in Singapore where mistakes are often frown upon, it's hard to break away from that mental notion but once you break free from those "chains", you're free to "fly".

Ultimate goal at journey's end

Invest & Travel. 

One of life's best pleasures is to travel. I can't possibly live my whole life here on earth & only travel to certain countries. That's not the way life should be. There's no difference to being a prisoner in jail. In this instance, singapore being my jail cell and I can never "break" out to travel and explore the "outside". 

One of the biggest reason to embark on this journey to financial freedom is so that I can travel and travel and.. travel. 

Different people have different goals in life, what's yours? 

Financial freedom to me means that my passive income does not exceed my expenses. For e.g if my passive income is $2k/month and my monthly expenses is less than that, then I have reached my financial freedom! 

Financial freedom isn't hard to obtain but it does require a price to pay just like anything else. It requires you to save and not spend extravagantly & to invest at the right time in a particular REIT or any other stocks depending on your risk appetite. 

If you don't invest and only put the money in the bank, inflation will eat your hard earned money away. That being said, it's still better than taking your hard earned money and speculate/gamble in the stock market! So please, it really depends on how motivated you are & how willing you are to invest time to educate yourself before embarking on your own journey on financial freedom. Personally, I'm very motivated as I really wish to travel and not work forever or til 60+ years old. I don't like the idea of being a corporate slave for the rest of my life driving posh cars/staying in big landed houses. In fact,  people who do that aren't exactly rich as they are in huge debts! They have to keep working til they finally pay off their debts (if ever). They can't sleep at night in an economic downturn or recession as the fear of losing their jobs keeps them wide awake, tossing in bed. 

That's not the kind of lifestyle that I want or wish for anyone. Life can be simple, live within your means and pursue your goals. For me, my ultimate life goal is to set my foot onto almost every single country known to mankind. 

Why work your whole life away when you can work 10-15years and then semi-retire or even fully retire because your passive income allows you to do just that after much self-discipline & adopting a relatively conserved style of investing? That's exactly what I'm going to do.  

Investing is risky if the investor is financially illiterate & takes a gamble with the market. That's no different from someone trying their luck at the casino. But if a person is financially literate, knowledgeable & familiar with the market then it's less risky. Investment is never 0% risk. 

Of course I won't be solely investing in REITs. I have another life endowment plan that I took on a few years back and  I may also take up another similar plan once I enter the workforce for diversity purpose. However, the bulk of my savings will be going into REITs where it will generate at least 6-9% return on my invested capital. For instance, if I'm vested 150k into REITs and have an average dividend yield of 9% annually means I'll receive $13,500 in passive income annually. That translates to $1,125 monthly. Now, the question is, will I be able to survive on $1,125 monthly? If no, it means I have to invest more to get more passive income. Simple, isn't it? Don't forget that on top of dividends, there's also stock price appreciation. Also, these dividends that I receive while I'm still on full time employment can be used to re-invest into REITs. 

Most people are intimidated by the stock market & no doubt, I used to feel that way as well 2years back. Look at it this way, it's like trying to befriend a stranger. Initially the stranger is unfriendly or may even appear hostile but when you finally befriend that stranger, you realized his/her other "side". Or it's like learning a new language, the more you study, learn and practice, the better you get. It's likewise for the stock market.  

Many people today think they are rich just because they own big cars and houses. If those assets are not fully paid off, they are considered liabilities, NOT an asset. Most people are "poor" today due to their inabilities to manage their personal finances or they don't realize how much debts they have. Doesn't matter if you earn 10k a month. You still aren't gonna be "rich" if your expenses are over 10k. 

I definitely do not want to work forever or til I reach the supposedly retirement age. The world is our playground, I believe we were made to do so much more than sit at our office desk for 8-9hours daily. 

We spend 1/3 (1/4 for those who sleeps lesser) of our life sleeping away. If we spend another 1/3 working.. Then we're left with 1/3 for all else such as meeting friends, doing groceries, taking bus to work, eating, slacking etc.. Is that honestly enough? Well, it isn't enough for me and I ain't gonna be just another person working my life away just to pay off bank loans for my lavish lifestyle. Furthermore, I dont fancy the idea of working an entire year only to be entitled to 21 days of leave. That's tragic in my opinion. 

Stop being in the rat race. Get out quick & live your life the way you want to. Stop being the office warrior where you sulk all day long. However, if you love your job then I wish you all the best & I encourage you to continue if your job truly gives you happiness and meaning. 

Somtimes, I think its all a conspiracy. Bank lend people loans so that people will continue to drag their feet to work and pay off their loans. This in turns helps corporate companies as they will always have employees working their ass off afraid of losing their jobs. Nowadays, foreign talents are cheaper and an influx of them will be coming here to live in the next few years. Dreadful, but that's the harsh reality. Someday, you might just lose your job to someone else who's younger & cheaper. What will happen then? Will you still be able to finance your car loans and your house mortgage? Society labels you as "rich" but the next moment, you're jobless & in serious debts. "Loser" is probably what society will label you next. 

All of that, I want out. I want to be financially free. 

Because we were born to run, made to explore, to roam the world. 

Journey to Financial Freedom

I've never believed that we were born to work our entire lives.. Hence, my decision to kick start this blog to share with people my road to financial freedom & hopefully spur my readers to also begin their own road to financial freedom.

"Happiness is best experienced when shared".

Financial freedom means to not have any liabilities & thus, "not having to be a slave" to our jobs. It helps you to sleep in peace & also gives you the "power" to leave your current job & look for another or, simply not work at all. Passive income is therefore very important for anyone who wants to be free financially. 

How then, can an average someone like myself or you be able to have passive income? Many people think that we need lots of money in order to invest. Some feel that they need to buy a property, rent it out then collect monthly rental fees & when they think about buying property, they sigh and often say they don't have that much capital for downpayment of the desired property. 

I don't disagree that buying a property is bad. In fact, buying the right property is a good investment. However, this is not possible for students or someone who just entered the workforce for less than 5years. 

REITs also known as real estate investment trusts were started out about a decade ago in the Singapore Stock Market. It is one form of investment that I highly recommend to anyone who wants stable passive income. Different REITs are listed on SGX for e.g Suntec REIT, Starhill Global REIT, Cambridge Industrial Trust etc. 

Different REITs own different real estate properties. For example, Suntec REIT is a retail and office REIT whereas Cambridge Industrial Trust is into industrial properties. By buying the stocks of these REITs, you are a shareholder and in some sense you own a portion of their real estate properties. REITs collect rental income from their tenants & it is compulsory for them to distribute 90% of that rental income to their shareholders unlike other non-REITs stocks which pay out dividends when the economy is performing well or when the company still makes a profit in an economic downturn. However, dividends pay out by non-REITs are inconsistent and depends on the company's overall net income profit for that particular year. As REITs pay out stable dividends (since rental fees imposed on tenants are stable; long lease), dividends can be our source of passive income.

I am vested in REITs as I strongly believe that real estate properties are stable and will appreciate in value in the long term as land becomes scarcer and world population continues to increase. REITs are not high volatile stocks & relatively low risks in my honest opinion. Thus, it suits my risk appetite. Everyone is different & maybe investing in REITs might not be suitable for you. But if it is, there's no harm following this blog.

Our most valuable asset is time. Time runs out when we age and therefore, we should start investing while we are still young. Do not wait til you are in your late thirties or forties or fifties and justify it's then a "ripe" time to invest for retirement. 

Time is our most precious asset & the irony is that it is free given to us from God. It is of utmost importance to invest in yourself before investing in the stock market. Investing in the stock market is less risky with the right knowledge and guidance. Hence, for those who intend to invest in the stock market or equities whether high volatile stocks,  blue chip stocks or REITs, please ensure you do your own research/homework/effort to obtain the right information so that you can invest confidently and sleep peacefully at night. 

This blog will track my own road to financial freedom and hopefully inspire others to also embark on their own journey! (If you don't like the idea of visiting my blog daily to check for new posts, you can enter your email & subscribe below to receive emails whenever I publish a new post)