NOL again

Okay. I bought 2 lots of NOL at $1.16 today.
Willing to keep it for long or sell it if it manages to go up.
At current price earnings, should be pretty safe to just hold

Financial Freedom Goal Setting

I have learnt from previous workshops that goals must be SMART:

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Realistic
T - Timely

In my earlier postings, I defined financial freedom for myself as when my passive income exceeds my expenditure. I gave myself the timeline of 2022 to bring down my monthly expenses to $2800 and to bring up my monthly passive income to $2800.

Based on increasing my passive income by $2400 every year, I will be able to increase my monthly passive income by $200 each year. The plan is as such

2008 - $200 (achieved)
2009 - $400
2010 - $600
2011 - $800
2012 - $1000
2013 - $1200 (Car loan fully paid for)
2014 - $1400
2015 - $1600
2016 - $1800
2017 - $2000
2018 - $2200
2019 - $2400
2020 - $2600
2021 - $2800 (Housing loan fully paid for)

Therefore, by 2022 I will be effectively financially free! Of course, this is based on the assumption that I have paid off all my car and housing loans by then.

Bank Account is Fat

Monday:

Bank Account is Fat from the year end bonus.. Looking for stocks to increase my passive income again.

Tuesday :

I put a queue of 3 lots of Ascott REITs to add to my income portfolio. I shall not engage in trading. This will be kept as part of my passive income portfolio/
I might put the remainder of my cash into my Maybank iSaavy account or simply buy more stocks. I actually put a queue earlier today but did not manage to buy it. Hopefully the market tomorrow will allow me to purchase this 3 additional lots of Ascott REITs

Wednesday:

Still did not manage to get Ascott REITs. Queued again 3 lots at same price.

Friday:

Still did not manage to get any Ascott REITs. Makes me wonder whether I should have just bought the stocks at whatever price the market was selling. Updated my networth (current @$467,372)

Trader or Investor

I bought 2 lots of NOL at $1.15 yesterday. Today, the price of NOL shot up to $1.34 and I sold it.

Was it right for me to sell? Only time will tell. But it seemed like too good a deal to miss. More than 10% gains in a single day.

So I guess you can call me a trader - investor. Investor because I keep some stocks for the long term. Trader because I do keep some stocks for the short term.

These are my current list of stocks:

1. First REIT
2. Ascott REIT
3. Suntec REIT
4. Pac Andes
5. Kingboard
6. Innotek
7. Unifood
8. NOL
9. China Aviation Oil
10. Hongguo

My Monthly Passive Income has hardly budged over the past month as I have not bought any income stocks. The $300 plus that I got in dividends for the Month of November will go to my Maybank iSaavy Account.

During this financial turmoil, I also have rebalanced my portfolio under my investment linked policy.

Equity markets (US, China, Europe, Emerging Markets) - 60%
Bonds, Fixed Income - 20%
Global Resources/Commodities - 20%

Hopefully this rebalancing of my portfolio will aid me in my financial freedom journey as my ILP now has over $20k in it.

Wanted to end one of my life policies but decided against it as its current surrender value is lower than all the installments I (and my parents) have paid for. My parents bought it for me when I was young and handed it over to me when I started work. While the current surrender value is very low (13k), the bonuses accumulated is close to 18k. By paying it off for another few more years, I should be able to break even and maybe surpass the installments that I have been paying for it. It is a life policy anyway so I will just treat it as part of my retirement plan.

During this period, I also increased my life insurance coverage and critical illness coverage.

Bonus Bonus Bonus!

Yup. The year end bonus is coming and I am expecting a nice yummy sum of money.

Have bought an additional 2 lots of NOL at $1.15 today to average down on my previous position.

Saving and Spending

Below is a list of items that I am saving for and also items that I would like to spend my money on.

I personally believe that it is important to save/invest more than 10 percent of one's salary. Of equal importance is also to spend at least 10 percent of one's salary to make your home a better place for your family.

List of things I am saving for:
1. Retirement ( est. $1,000,000) ~ currently $70k
2. Son's education (est. $150,000) ~ currently $0 saved
3. My Second Home deposit (est. $200,000) ~ currently $80k saved

List of things I want to buy:

1. A piece of Art to hang on the wall. Bright coloured. It will brighten up my house and make it a much nicer place to live in (Budget $100)

2. Window Grills. For safety reasons as my little boy grows up.

3. 3 x Soap Dispensers (Those beautiful and classy kind of soap dispensers that cost around $20 to $30 each). 1 for the kitchen and 2 for the bathrooms.

4. A nice swivel chair to use for the computer. (budget $200) Will probably buy this from Ikea

5. A door to prevent my boy from entering the kitchen. (est $400)

6. A nice chair for the living room. (budget $200)

7. An air conditioner for the living room. (not sure how much it costs)

8. A Wii / PS3 / X box (purely for entertainment sake)

Networth Main Contributor : My House

So far, one of the large ticket items that I have bought is my 4 room flat.

Based on the 3Q 2008 housing statistics obtained from HDB, my 4 room flat is worth $481,000 (based on the median price). Considering that I bought my home at just slightly above $300,000, this has by far proven to be my best "investment" (note: I do know that this is not really an investment per se)

TOWN	4-ROOM	5-ROOM	EXECUTIVE
ANG MO KIO	$333,000	$468,000	-
BEDOK	$305,000	$430,000	$471,000
BISHAN	$390,000	$537,500	$600,500*
BUKIT BATOK	$335,000	$441,400	$470,000
BUKIT MERAH	$438,300	$572,000	-
BUKIT PANJANG	$284,000	$360,000	$457,500
BUKIT TIMAH	$431,900*	$615,000*	$667,500*
CENTRAL	$386,000*	$593,000*	-
CHOA CHU KANG	$299,000	$358,800	$413,000
CLEMENTI	$367,000	$503,900*	$630,000*
GEYLANG	$364,000	$570,000*	$500,000*
HOUGANG	$303,000	$380,000	$462,000
JURONG EAST	$308,500	$418,000	$465,000
JURONG WEST	$294,500	$363,000	$406,000
KALLANG/WHAMPOA	$400,900	$520,000	$542,500*
MARINE PARADE	$395,000*	$632,500	-
PASIR RIS	$320,000	$375,000	$500,500
PUNGGOL	$327,000	$391,500	$450,000*
QUEENSTOWN	$481,000	$620,000*	$780,900*
SEMBAWANG	$300,800	$355,000	$420,000*
SENGKANG	$320,000	$374,000	$458,000
SERANGOON	$325,000	$414,000	$485,000
TAMPINES	$330,000	$395,000	$488,000
TOA PAYOH	$397,000	$553,000	$617,500*
WOODLANDS	$283,400	$330,000	$420,000
YISHUN	$251,000	$338,000	$401,000*
OVERALL	$313,000	$380,000	$455,000