Financial Freedom

David Bach Automatic Millionaire

We have all heard from the various wealth experts be they Robert Kiyosaki or Suze Orman or Donald Trump. Today, I will introduce David Bach.

Intro to David Bach

David Bach is the author of books like the Automatic Millionaire Homeowner, Smart Couples Finish Rich and Start Over, Finish Rich. Just by reading the first chapter of Automatic Millionaire Homeowner alone, I had already gained insights into how home ownership can actually slowly make one a millionaire over the years.

The thing about the way David Bach writes is that he uses real life examples in his books so that all can follow and relate to these cases. It shows that nothing is impossible and getting ourselves out of debt and onto an abudant life is really easy. Of course, one will still need to gain the necessary knowledge when it comes to various things like mortgage loans, retirement plans, buying real estate, managing your debt, etc.

Grow Rich

The true life examples or success stories remind me that wealth is possible as long as you believe that it is achievable. Important concepts like paying yourself first are also once again highlighted. I guess it is by studying all these concepts from all these wealth gurus can we then see where the commonality lies and what are some of the principles they have applied in their lives that have helped them to achieve financial freedom.

Buy A Home For Financial Freedom

One of the things that struck me was the concept that buying a home instead of renting one makes much more financial sense in the long run. Just imagine: a person who rents out a home will definitely be renting it out at a rate that is much higher than his monthly mortgage payments so as to make a profit. Thus, it makes sense to buy a home once you are able to afford it.

The author thinks that people should read David Bach's books or at least visit his website. His ideas are not new per se but serves as a timely reminder for us on our road to financial freedom.

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Portfolio Update

I have sold off 10 lots of Suntec REIT at a price of $1.08 which I bought previously at $1.02. This is a return of almost $550+ in profits not counting the dividends that I have collected from it.

Re-invested that amount of money into NOL at a price of $1.75. The chart above is that of NOL which was plotted using ChartNexus. I believe NOL is a good company facing troubled waters and this could be the reason why its price is so depressed now. It used to trade at the $3 to $4 range. I am prepared to keep NOL for the long term even if the stock price trades lower in the short to mid term. However, I am also willing to take any profits if I can get a 5% ROI in the next few weeks

I am abit disappointed with my selling of Penn West Energy Trust (it's a Canadian Royalty Trust if you haven't heard of it yet). After selling it at $14.63, the price has shot up way past the $15 mark. But guess I will just wait on the sidelines and see if it is worth re-entering into this canroy

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Free Tickets To Singapore Zoo

Apparently, there are 1000 free tickets up for grab to go visit the Singapore Zoo.

This is thanks to Dr Madeleine Chew, the 37-year-old managing director and founder of MW Medical, a Singapore health-care firm which specialises in home medical services. She forked out her own money to allow the celebration of the International Day for the Elderly.

What is the criteria?

Singaporean or permanent resident aged 60 and above. Offer lasts from Thursday to Sunday. Only limited to the first 1000 readers.

How do you claim the tickets?

Those who are interested in the zoo visit can call 6250-0625 up to Friday from 9am to 5pm to register for a ticket and choose their dates.

Tickets, which will be handed out on a first-come, first-served basis, can be collected at any ticket booth at the zoo on the entry date.

An identity card is needed for verification.

Inform the counter staff that you have registered with MW Medical when collecting your free ticket.

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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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