First Stock Purchase of 2009

I made my first stock purchase for this year.

Bought 1 lot (1000 shares) of Keppel Land @ $1.97. For the long term investment and part of my bid to increase the number of blue chip companies I am holding in my portfolio.

Over the next few months, I will be mainly buying into the various blue chips in the Singapore stock exchange while looking for opportunities to increase my passive income stock portfolio which comprises of a basket of high dividend paying stocks as well as REITs.

New Year Resolutions

Guess it is time to pen down my new year resolutions for 2009:

1. Run the Standard Chart 42km full marathon.
2. Lose 3 kg.
3. Achieve a $400 per month passive income.
4. Pass CMFAS Module 5,9 and Health Insurance
5. Read at least one book per month:

Jan 09 - A random walk down Wall Street (still reading since Dec 08)
Feb 09 - Globalisation and its discontents
Mar 09 - The age of turbulence
Apr 09 - Capital ideas
May 09 - The World is Flat
Jun 09 - Jewish Antiquities
Jul 09 - The Intelligent Investor (thanks to patlim for the recommendation)
Aug 09 - ???
Sep 09 - ???
Oct 09 - ???
Nov 09 - ???
Dec 09 - ???

6. Send out resumes to at least 10 companies by end Feb 09

Any good books to recommend? Preferably non-fiction books =)

Welcome 2009

So I end off the year 2008 with an estimated monthly passive income of $220.

The next goal that lies ahead for 2009 will be for me to increase my passive income to $400 per month. That will require an increase of $180 per month or $2160 per year. If I am able to find some investment vehicle that gives me a 10% cash payout annually, I will require $21,600 in cold hard cash.

Time to save up for my investments for the coming year!

Drinking and Eating Your Way to Financial Freedom

Eating out is expensive. A meal for 2 at a reasonable restaurant will easily cost you $50. If it is a really nice restaurant, maybe $100 to $150.

So what is the alternative? Well... you can always eat at home of course!

This is what I had for dinner today. It wasn't cheap but compared to eating out, it is much cheaper.

I had a Campbell's Soup. It was a long time since I drank Campbell's soup and now I remember why I like it so much. They just taste so GOOD! Even better than those Soup of the Day at some restaurants. Well, for appetizer, we had Campbell's Country Style Mushroom Chicken Soup. Simply YUMMY. One can of this roughly feeds two. Sprinkle some ground pepper and eat it with bread.

For the main course, honey glazed chicken:
Well, I tore this and sandwiched it between bread, dip it into some tomato sauce and dunked it into my campbell soup. Delicious.


Drinks - Yellow Tail Chardonnay


The cost of the meal (for 2) was less than $35 =)

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)