Financial Freedom

5 Million by 2010

Nope. I do not mean that I hope to have 5 million by 2010. Instead, I just read the news that Singapore could have up to 5 million people pretty soon. The official figure currently stands at 4.99 million people in June 2009.

I remember the days when Singapore's population was just around 3 million. Those were the days.

Today, it seems that everywhere I go, there is a huge crowd. And the fact is this: I hate crowds. Go to Orchard road and it is crowded. Go to Vivocity and it is also crowded. Even the foodcourt downstairs is crowded. Ha.. Guess that will be the way of life in Singapore in the future.

I once read that if the whole world had the same population density as Singapore, we could squeeze the entire world's population into South Africa.

So let me try to do an analysis of what 5 Million People living in Singapore might mean to me:

1. More cars on the road? Definitely. With more people, there will be a need to increase the number of taxis, buses and cars on the road. The roads will be more congested I guess and perhaps.

2. More people on the streets. There will be alot more people on the streets. So there better be large shopping malls and complexes in every corner of Singapore. If you haven't figured it out yet, people in Singapore LOVE to hang out at shopping malls and complexes. So the best way to deal with this problem is to built like mini Orchard roads in all the four corners of Singapore so that people stop congregrating at Orchard Road.

3. More food to Eat? With a bigger population, hopefully there will be a greater variety of people from different countries. Perhaps then we will have more exotic food like Russian cuisine and stuff. Let the European people in I say!

Oh well. That is all I can think of at the moment. I sure look forward to seeing Singapore become more cosmopolitan. We need these foreigners to push our country to greater heights!

Majulah Singapore!

Free Stuff

It is time for me to share with people some free stuff that you can get online. Afterall, keeping our expenditure low is one of the best ways to become financially free.

Free Charting or Trading Tools

For charting purposes, there is a free software out there called ChartNexus that is extremely easy to use. The download is pretty fast too. The user interface is likewise easy even for the begineer. I would seriously recommend it to anyone who is trying out charting for the first time to download this software. Just type ChartNexus into Google and you should be able to find the site to download it from.

Free Sites for Movies or Drama Serials.

I am not talking about downloading movies illegally. Rather, it is about watching movies through streaming websites. You are not downloading anything per se. My current favorite site is www.mysoju.com . In this site, you can find all the latest korean and japanese movies and drama serials. The time it takes to load these movies are also pretty fast.

Free Sites for EPL matches

Want to watch English Premier League matches but can't afford to pay for the sports channel? Fret no more. Simply type MyP2P in google and you should see a website that allows you to watch live matches. You will need to download Sopcast (which is a sort of media player) in order to watch these streaming matches live. If you just want to watch the match highlights, go to YouTube or type matchhighlights.com and you can watch all the goals of the lastest matches.

Free Sites for News

Why buy newspapers when you can read them online? Apart from getting a free copy of the Today newspaper, there are a wide variety of news that is available online today. The following is a non-exhaustive list where I get my daily news from:

So there you have it. Some of the free stuff you can get off the web at no cost to you. Hope you enjoyed this posting.

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Income Investing - Bonds

Bonds are probably investment tools that most people are familiar with. A bond is basically a debt instrument in which the issuer is obliged to pay the holders or buyers of the bond an interest (usually in the form of coupon payouts) and the principal sum at a later maturity date.

I never really liked buying bonds due to the hassle involved and the lack of liquidity. I prefer to get my exposure to bonds through unit trusts as it is a far simpler way compared to going down to the banks or ATM to subscribe for government bonds or treasury bills.

In Singapore, you can invest in bonds by buying it through the primary market. The good thing about bonds is that the income that you get from it is exempt from tax. You can also use your CPF to invest in bonds. You are however required to set aside the first $20,000 in your CPF-OA and the first $30,000 in your CPF-SA before you can invest in the rest.

There are some great links to read up on the bond market in Singapore. You can view some useful info here: http://www.sgs.gov.sg/

Formula 1 Singapore

So its the Formula 1 Race for Singapore again. The whole town is jam packed and everybody (well almost) are suddenly Formula 1 fans. People who don't usually watch the race are now catching it on TV. Now that's what I call good marketing by F1. People here can't really tell the difference between any of the race drivers. I am still abit surprised that the F1 fever is actually quite hot in Singapore.

I sold away Suntec REITs @ 1.08 on Friday as I felt that the price should hopefully drop further. Been monitoring a few stocks lately and have been thinking of trading the stock market a bit more actively since now I have time on my hands.

Have been reading some ebooks on trading lately. Hope to brush up my skills on trading especially in terms of the Mind, Method and Money. What struck me perhaps was the focus on money management and how much of each stock one should buy when trading. It never cross my mind that money management was such an important aspect of trading.

Adsense earnings have been pretty decent this past few days and if this keeps up, I think my broadband expenses can be covered by my monthly expenses pretty soon. I still think it is possible that there are people who earn more than 3 digit per day from online income. If one really puts in the effort, everything is possible.

Signing off,
Sleepless in Singapore on Sunday 1.31AM

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Portfolio Update

I have sold off Hongguo and PWE (Penn West Energy Trust) for profits of around 30%. Decided that a 30% gain was good enough so decided to exit both stocks. If the opportunity arises, I will enter into both PWE and Hongguo again.

I have also been trying learn more about technical analysis. Just downloaded ChartNexus. It seems like a pretty good software to play around with. Think I will be combining both FA and TA for my purchases of stocks next time round. Still need to learn a great deal about the various indicators and stuff though.

Still no success at the job front. Just bumming around each day with nothing to do. Don't really know what job I am passionate about. I just feel so weary and tired and feel like I could do with a really really really long break.

Just for my records purposes:

Dividends received from PWE = $11.27
Dividends received from ST Eng = $30.00
Cash from selling 24000 shares of Hongguo @0.355=$8488.93
Still waiting for the proceeds from the sale of PWE.

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Hello Canadians!

I realised that a lot of Canadians have been visiting this site lately.

Just wanted to say a big "Hi!" to all Canadians who are visiting this site.

It is interesting how the internet has really shrinked the entire world such that whatever I am typing here in sunny Singapore is actually being read by a Canadian in Canada (which is like right across the other side of the globe).

While I am sipping coffee here in noon, it is probably like the wee hours of the morning in Toronto.

I wonder what Canadians eat. What clothes do they wear? What are their dreams? What are their fears? What are their working hours like? How do they spend their free time? What do they invest in? What are the online newspapers they read?

Is it as stressful as it is in Singapore? Is the pace of life as fast as that in Singapore? Is the cost of living high? Do Canadians also hope to be financially free?

I really wonder..

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2. Investing in Canadian Royalty Trusts

A Perfect Day

I am a morbid person. I have recently been thinking about life and death. I realise that death is a respecter of noone. It can visit you when you are young. It can visit you when you are old.

Too many times in our lives, we are just cruising through. We are not truly happy. We are just making a living.

We all know that we should live each day as if it is our last. But how practical is that? If everyone was to do that, I am pretty sure that noone will be going to work. Everybody will be hanging around and doing nothing.

So as much as work is a "curse" in that sense of a word, it is still a necessary part of our lives. Without work, most men will not find meaning in their lives. Without work, there will be no food on the table. So how do we balance work and life? What would make a perfect day?

This is my thoughts on the perfect day (inclusive of work):

8.00am - Wake up and wash up
8.30am - Breakfast, coffee, read newspapers
9.30am - Leave home, DRIVE to work, listen to the radio
10.00am - Reach work, say HI to all your colleagues
10.30am - Settle down and clear all your emails
11.30am - Plan out what you are supposed to do by the end of the day. Meet boss.
12.00pm - Eat lunch with colleagues
1.00pm - Coffee to go, start finishing the work that you have planned out.
3.00pm - Tea Break, catch up on the latest news in football
3.30pm - Back to work, read your email, finish your work
4.30pm - Meet boss, clarifications
5.00pm - leave office
5.30pm - Reach home and change
6.00pm - Get out of the house and meet friends
7.00pm to 10.00pm - Chill out.
10.00pm to 11.00pm - Surf net, read books

That will be a perfect day for me =)