Mini-Retirements and New Year Resolutions

After reading the 4 hour work week (well, perhaps I should say skimming through), I came across the idea of mini-retirements. Of course, it is not always possible to implement every single thing that is written in the book but I tried to take a mini-retreat during the holiday season, not really being bothered about the money that I would have to spend.

My idea of retirement has changed over the years. I previously shared some of my thoughts on retirement. And I must say that it is quite aligned to what Tim Ferris says in his 4 hour work week book. Basically, retirement is an insurance policy or last resort if I am spending my life doing work that I do not like. Ideally, I should be enjoying my work so much that I do not want to retire. And if that does not happen, then of course, retirement is the only option left to get out of the hole that I might be in.

2011 is really just around the corner and I took a mini-retirement/retreat at a really reasonably nice hotel. Sipping margaritas and listening to lounge music, taking strolls by the beach, dipping in the emerald blue infinity pool and just lazing around with magazine in hand. These were some of the things that I did and I feel rejuvenated to get back to work when the new year starts.

Usually, I spend the year reflecting about what I have done in the past one year and set some resolutions that I would like to achieve for the new year. But I realised that I should just throw away the idea of making resolutions this year. I am bad at keeping them anyway and just feel that I am at a certain place in my life where I am pretty contented with where I am at right now. So I don't really need to make any resolutions at the moment - or at least for the year 2011.

2010 has been a good year for me. At the blogging end, I managed to make inroads into areas I never thought possible. Financially, everything is going well and I would like to think that I am quite financially secure at the moment.

I registered a new domain (sgstockscreener.com) and it has been getting good hits too. So that has been another area which I have been proud of. Just registering the domain and getting the site up was a feat by itself considering how prone I am to procrastination. There are definitely other areas that I would like to explore to bring my blogging to the next level. But that will have to wait till the new year and we will see how things go.

I wish all my readers a happy 2011.

Stock Picks for 2011

At the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010, I posted some of the stock picks by analysts/brokerage houses for the year 2010.

To check out the various stock picks by these analysts for the year 2010, you can look at the following links:
1. DBS Vickers Small/Mid Cap Strategy

2. Stock Picks by Terence Wong (co-head of research at DMG)

3. Stock Picks by Janice Chua (head of research at DBS Vickers)

4. Stock Picks by Carmen Lee (head of research at OCBC)

Were there any stock picks that you followed and made a profit from?

For the year 2011, some of the analysts have also begun to publish their stock picks:

1. OCBC's Market Strategy for 2011

2. Phillip Capital Market Strategy for 2011

What are your stock picks for 2011?

First REIT again?

I have been monitoring First REIT for sometime after exiting it for a tidy profit a while back. First REITs had been consistently giving out good dividends. Its yield was relatively high compared to the other REITs and it also had a very low gearing of 15%. During the recession, the price dipped quite a bit but slowly recovered and I decided to lock in some profits and sold my entire stake in it.

The reasons for exiting it are mainly twofold. While it is a healthcare REIT, it does not really have a parent company to back it up. That is unless u consider Lippo to be its parent. The other thing that weighs heavily on my mind is that majority of its assets are based in Indonesia. There are thus country risks involved. And that is perhaps the reason why it is trading at a seemingly more attractive valuation than the other REITs counters. Personally, I did not want to hold something that was overly exposed and narrowly focused. And that was why I decided to exit it. A stock is cheap for certain reasons and the same applies to First REIT. It reminds me a bit of various s-chip shares I had held over the years because it was cheap when compared to its peers. Remember Unifood and Pfood?

The decision I took then was to start investing in blue chip companies and avoid stocks that were of a higher risk. And that will remain my strategy at least for the time being. I hope to liquidate my small cap stocks slowly and transfer them to bigger and better blue chips. Of course, we are in the midst of an expansion right now so I will perhaps wait a little longer before I start refocusing my efforts.

Though I was tempted to enter into First REiT recently, I shall resist it for the moment.

Iced Caffe Latte at Gusttimo Ion Orchard Rocks!

Was walking around ION Orchard today when I passed by Gusttimo and decided to try one of their coffees to get my caffeine fix which I had missed the entire day.As I had just eaten dinner and still wanted to walk around a bit, I decided to buy an iced cafe latte which is not what I would normally buy for my caffeine fix.

Well, the price is 7 bucks for a very normal looking cup of iced caffe latte but I must say that it tasted superb. Coffee sometimes tend to be too sweet or bitter but the cup that I drank was perfect. Perhaps I managed to add just the right amount of syrup to my drink. I was actually quite worried at the start as there wasn't a single soul in the cafe. But that was probably because I had an early dinner and it was probably dinner time for most people when I bought the coffee.

Continued my festive spending by spending over 40 bucks on a book from Prologue. Was pretty fascinated by the wide variety of books there. Almost comparable to Borders and Kinokuniya. I could have spent the entire night there and would have bought a truckload of books if I wasn't reminded by the fact that I still had a huge number of books waiting to be read at home. Anyway, the book that I bought was by a previous permanent secretary, Ngiam Tong Dow, and the book is titled "Dynamics of the Singapore Success Story". I must say that I have always had a certain fascination with how policies are made in Singapore and the various issues involved for a single policy. This book should keep me busy all the way till the New Year.

Have been splurging quite a bit recently with some mini-retreats planned towards the end of the year. Christmas is really just round the corner and I am sure I will be lamenting how soon it is over. Saw a decoration today that read "Christmas is Love". Indeed, Christmas is all about love if one understands the true meaning of why we celebrate Christmas and give gifts to one another.


Wishing all readers a most Blessed Christmas in advance. Take time to smell the roses and spend time with those you love.

Make a call and save $150

I received my credit card bills last week. Apart from the usual horror of discovering that I have been swiping my Amex and Visa far too frequently, I realised that they had also charged me $150 for the annual fee.

Picking up my courage, I called the hotline expecting to have to make another of those threats to cancel my credit card to one of those innocent call operators. I was almost reciting the exact words to say to the operator.

To my surprise, I realized that it was now automated and just by punching in a few details, I got immediate confirmation that my annual fee for my credit card could be waived. All this without speaking to a human being. The banks must have been getting lots of phone calls and have thus implemented an automated service!

I really wonder whether there are people who actually pay annual fees for their credit cards nowadays. Almost everyone I know of does not pay their annual fees anymore. If that is the case, why don't the credit card companies just waive the fees once and for all?

Some reasons not to buy a car

There are many good reasons to buy a car. Convenience is definitely one of them. Some might however view a car as a status symbol or fashion accessory. These are the people who are willing to splurge on a more expensive car. When one is thinking of buying car, the reasons that one can come up with are plentiful.

There are however also many reasons not to buy car. And I wished that someone had told me this before I bought my car.

A car is expensive to upkeep. For a fresh graduate working in Singapore, buying a car can easily cost you up to 1000 dollars per month. Do not be fooled by the monthly installments alone. You still have to take into account petrol, insurance, parking, repairs. And all these add up to easily 1k per month. Think about what you can do with 1k extra cash every month! Even if you do not save it, you can use it to go for a short holiday trip. That is a serious tradeoff you would like to consider.

A car is like a drug. Once u own a car, you will most probably be addicted to it and will keep on driving for the rest of your life. Driving is a habit that is hard to kick. And it is a very expensive habit to maintain.

People are not impressed by the car you drive. Stop thinking that people are going to be impressed by the car that you drive. Seriously, most people are not even envious and do not even take note if you change a new car. Spending so much money to impress people is also not worth it. You could use that money to treat them to expensive meals every month if you really want to impress them. That includes impressing potential girlfriends.

Think Different - Living Life Differently

It worries me that I am getting less innovative as each day passes. And that somehow, my creative juices will one day stop flowing and I will become just like everyone else - an employed person who works from 9 to 6 and just goes through the motions of life.

No way! That wasn't what I signed up for. I have big dreams for my life when I was little. And big goals too. And I shall not let anyone dampen my spirts or kill my dreams. Yet, there are moments in life when I feel discourage and feel like just moving on with the flow of life. You know, stable job, have kids, watch them grow up, get promoted, etc, etc. Basically, it means walking the path which millions have walked before me. And why not, I have a comfortable path or life laid up ahead of me. All I have to do is play by the rules and I am more or less guaranteed a cushy job that pays relatively well enough.

So why risk it all?

Because I believe that each individual's greatest fear is that he/she is immeasurably more powerful than we dare imagine. And we are afraid that people we know will look at us with doubting eyes and wonder: "Is this the XYZ that I really know?" We are bounded and held back by the chains that imprison our minds. We refuse to move ahead because others expect us to stay where we are in life.

After all, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."

How does this link to innovation?

Well...innovation is all about creativity and doing things differently. That includes living life differently. And I believe that Singaporeans are generally an innovative bunch. We have managed to solve many problems even when faced against great odds.

But can we really think differently to create a global company that is as distinctive as Apple or Microsoft or Google or Facebook? Why does the United States churn out such billion dollar companies with seemingly brilliant ideas at such pace and with such ease?

Why is our Singapore economy so still reliant on exports for survival? Why are we reliant on MNCs to set up their bases here? Where are the thinkers of this generation? Where are our Bill Gates and Steve Jobs?

Is the reason we fail to innovate caused by the fact that we live too similar lives to all those around us? In fact, I am almost one step closer to making the sweeping statement that "having a university degree is almost a sure way to kill innovation." (But of course, I know that is not true and many graduates are truly innovative people but perhaps not in the billion dollar kind of way. That's why I said I am still one step away. ) But getting a degree makes one afraid to take on the path least travelled. Afterall, why risk a good job and pay when it is all laid out in front of you. Why be different?

Think left not right & Change the World at the same time.

Think out of the box. That is what they taught us in school. But why did we even assume that there is a box in the first place? The statement " Think out of the box" highlights the fact that there is a box and somehow we need to think out of it. That goes against our logical mindset. We are too used to giving the earth is at the centre of the universe kind of answers that we simply dismiss the possibility of our CRAZY ideas. You don't want to look crazy in class..and definitely not in front of your boss. Our "outside the box ideas" are actually still very much within a larger invisible box. In fact, the sure way to kill creativity is to ask someone to "think outside the box" or "think creatively". You see, the crazy answers are often so CRAZY and out of this world that noone will even root or vote for that idea. Not even your boss. Cos he/she doesn't want to look stupid infront of their bosses. (okay, I admit, some ideas are really too crazy and probably lie close to the realms of pure stupidity)

And so the phenomenon is that crazy people will hang around with crazy people and make billions of dollars while changing the world at the same time. Their ideas tend to be so revolutionary that they end up changing not only their immediate surroundings but the entire world. What problems are there in the world? What crazy solutions are out there?


How Am I Different from 5 Million People in Singapore?

Yes, Singapore is getting crowded. So what makes you different from all the rest of the people on this tiny island? Of course, we all are uniquely different in terms of our experiences, skills, education, personality, etc.

The question then is not about being different but differentiating oneself from the rest of the population. One thing is for sure: If you are doing the same stuff as everyone else (study hard, get a job, work, go home, sleep) , you can't expect a different outcome.

The craziest thing in this world is to do things in a similar manner and expect a completely different outcome. How is that for lunacy? (Sadly, many of us still fall into that trap)