Opening A POSBKids Savings Account

Today, I walked into the DBS branch at Great World City to open a POSBKids Savings Account.

The reason for opening it is twofold:

1. Firstly, to start saving a sum of money for my child's education (pre-school, primary school, enrichment classes, university education) and stuff. I am already investing some money for my child's education but would like a more liquid form of savings so that I can make withdrawals anytime.

2. Secondly, this account lets me deposit all my coins without any charges. I have lots of coins lying around the house always and having such an account will let me save regularly for my child.

Nevermind the low interest rates. As long as it allows me to deposit my reservoir of coins without charge, I am a happy man.

So the amount that is in the bank account now stands at $1350. Hopefully, I can start putting money into this account more regularly.

10 Ways This Blog Can Help You

I have been reflecting on what it means to blog and what my blog is meant to achieve during my lifetime. And if I could focus it down to ONE word, that word would be HELP.

The main purpose that I hope this blog can achieve would be to HELP others.

Throwing all my expertise (whatever little that I have) and experience into this blog, I hope to be able to help others in one way or another. Just thinking out loud, these are the 10 areas which I think I can help you through this blog:

1. Studying in University. I have made a few mistakes when I studied in university. I would like to think that my experience in university would be able to help others make a better decision on what to study for their degrees.

2. Doing what you don't like. I am an expert in this. I did a job which I did not really like for what seemed like an eternity. Yet looking back at it, I realised that I have gained tremendously from it. If you are doing something you absolutey dislike, I can share with you my experiences to help you look at things from perhaps another perspective.

3. Blogging Tips and making money using Adsense. As much as I don't like to admit that I am a blogger, the fact that I am using a blog betrays me. I would certainly like to think myself of a philosopher who rants his pieces on the internet for all to see. Nevertheless, I believe that in my short years of blogging, I do have a few tips to impart here and there. I have already received two Adsense cheques thus far and will be receiving my third cheque next month. If you are not making a single cent from Adsense, I would like to think that there is perhaps some way that I can help you.

4. Investment Decisions. I am not a guru when it comes to investment. There are many other gurus out there. However, I dare say that I have made a lot of mistakes in investing and I could share with you all these mistakes that I have made so that you pay less tuition fees to Mr Market. The market is a cruel place and unwise decisions can sometimes be avoided if you just spent the time asking around. Everyone is sure to have their own opinion but at least you get another point of view. I have been investing in the stock market since 2001 and I think I know a thing or two about investing for beginners. If you are looking for experts, please look elsewhere.

5. Career change and Purpose in Life. This is perhaps my forte. I have spent the last 2 years pondering over a career change and also thinking about my purpose in life. I come from a Christian background so my perspectives are naturally shaped in the Christian thought. If you would like to bounce off ideas with someone should you feel hazy about life, feel free to find me =)

6. Bible questions. I can help you understand the bible better if you are a non-Christian. I was once an aethist but coverted to Christianity when I was in secondary school. My rational thinking and scientific mind in the past made me refuse to believe in a God that created the entire universe. Now, I am pretty convinced that scientific methods are limited in the sense that they are just models to best describe certain events and happenings. A black swan event could just come along and prove everyone wrong. I don't like to debate with ppl because when i was a non-Christian, I did not like people to debate with me about religion. Now that I am a Christian, I would say that I could offer you certain ways of viewing the Bible that you might never have seen.

7. Marriage and Parenthood. Being married and being a father, I can share with you my experiences about queuing for a HDB flat, getting married, holding the wedding dinner, living together with your wife, and also the joys of being a father. This will all be based on personal experiences but it is better than nothing.

8. Financial Freedom. As this blog suggests, I am trying to attain financial freedom and not become a slave to money. I am not there yet but I believe that God willing, I should get there someday. I can share with you my experience as I make this journey. I encourage you to follow me on my journey and not become one who has to worry all day about retirement

9. Singapore. I live in Singapore. I have a view of Singapore that outsiders might not have. If you are a foreigner, I am willing to answer any questions you have about Singapore to the best of my ability.

10. Books. I love books and try to have a book at hand wherever I go. I will do my best to recommend good books to read. My book reviews are terrible though but I would certainly think that I can identify a good book when I see one.

Discovering That Your Friends Are Reading Your Blog

This blog of mine is quite a secret actually.

It started out as just a site for me to rant my thoughts, write down some stuff which I could refer to in the future, etc.

Over the months and years however, it has grown and grown.

I would dare say that I have not told anyone I know about this site of mine yet. It was more of an online community thing where I could just interact with people without them knowing who I really am =)

So I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a friend whom I knew actually visited this site. It is amazing because I know that he visited the site but he does not know that the author of this site is me!

That is simply amazing to me. In a sense, I am able to touch people without leaving my seat in the living room and even when I am no longer around, I would have left some kind of digitial footprint on the internet.

The problem of course is that people would never have known who actually authored this blog unless I reveal myself in due time.

This has always been one of the questions that I have been asking myself.

Should I reveal who I am to people?

Do people want to see a face to this blog?

Am I comfortable letting family and friends know that I am the author of this crazy site which talks about nothing but investments, savings, job rants, job search, my ups and downs, financial freedom, the things I buy and the things that I don't buy....

The worst thing is to be misunderstood and for people to think that I am this money crazy guy who is totally obsessed about money.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.... it is really something that I do not know how to deal with.

After all, I have noticed that a lot of successful blogs do make themselves known. This sorts of adds a personal touch to it. Even in today's newspapers and magazines, you will also get to see the photos of the journalists who wrote the article. Is this what is expected of me now?

What do you think?

Resolutions for 2010

This is way way overdue. But it beats not making any resolutions at all.

I am not a great keeper of resolutions but this year, I really hope to be able to meet all my resolutions. So here they are:

Financial Resolutions:

1. I earn $40000 per month

2. I earn $6000 per month of passive income (dividends, etc)

3. I have a networth of $6,000,000

4. I have an emergency fund of $200,000

5. I earn $100 per day in Adsense.

It sounds crazy but this is what I decided to do. After watching T.Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind videos, I simply added a zero behind each of my original financial goal for this year.

"The problem is not that we set goals too high and miss it. The problem is that we set goals to low and hit it"

2010 Here I COME!

Easy Money Already Been Made for 2009

Since we all are aware that the easy money has already been made in the stock market, perhaps it is time to think of divesting whatever gains we have.

Yes, the stock market looks poised to soar even further but one question still remains in my mind: "How much higher can the stocks that I am holding go?"

Coming into the new year, I have already divested my First REIT and a portion of Neptune Orient Lines. I will sure invest in them if the price comes down a bit more. In the mean time, I am just content to sit on all my cash.

Another stock that I have been thinking of liquidating is Ascott Residence Trust. DBS afterall had a price target of $1.32 and since it is currently trading at $1.34, I am thinking that it might make a good sell price. The only thing I fear is that the stock will rise further after I have sold it.

Ascott REIT afterall is trading at 5.6% yield, has a NAV of $1.32 and has a gearing of 40++%

Good time to sell out now and collect back later?

2010 will be a difficult year to make money in my opinion. I would like to think that the small caps will be playing catch up and this will likely include some S-shares. However, as we all know, small caps tend to be very volatile and you might end up stuck with some lousy shares if you liquidate your more stable blue chips & should any crisis hit us again.

WaveSecure featured on Lifehacker

For you who don't know, the Lifehacker website is quite popular amongst web users.

Recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see that WaveSecure was featured on Lifehacker. You can view it here.

Why I am pleasantly surprised is because the company that developed WaveSecure is based in Singapore and more importantly , a friend of mine is actually one of the founders. I am glad that he has found success in an area of his passion.

It lets me believe that I can also achieve something of the magnitude that he has achieved in my lifetime. This is despite me not topping my course in university and stuff.

Kudos to you my friend! I wish you further success in your business.

Money and Marriage

I was reading the Straits Times today on Money and Marriage and how the writer felt that it takes two to tango.

He suggests couples could ask each other these questions:

1. Do you know what insurance policies or investments you have?
2. Do you have the ability to manage money well?
3. Do you have absolute trust in the other person?

Taking the cue from the author, I picked up a conversation with the wife regarding the remaining car loan that we had of $23K ++

I started off: "So we still have a car loan of $23K++"

Wife: "Yup, want me to pay off? I got money in my bank."

Me: "Chey..I also have."

Wife: "Then you pay la"

Me: "I am making my money work hard. So as long as I can earn more than the car loan interest rate, it does not make sense to pay it off. Your one is sitting in the bank and if it is not working harder than the car loan interest, then maybe should use it to pay off."

Wife: "Yah lor. That's why I say use my money to pay off"

Me: " But we can invest it to get better returns."

Wife: "Then you help me invest."

Me: " Of course I can, but it is better you participate. Two heads are better than one. Always good to have a second opinion to make my investment strategy better."

Wife: "My investment knowledge is zero... that's why I leave it in the bank. My brain is used for other things."

Me: ""

Wife: "I don't know la. My only financial goal is to make sure my bank account stays above $78K"

Me: "..............................."