why i declined to let my uni prof work for me

the title could be rather unbelieveable for most. it was for me too.

just last week, i received an sms from my university nus professor's PA asking me for a job to work at my company.

is it another person with the same name? i  thought about it and i did some checks. no, its him.

i thought about it for a while. yes, true that i need help in my company.

but i declined after second thoughts.

1) at 60 plus years old, surely he must have made enough as a professor. professors in nus must at least earn 300kpa. strange thing. may be poor investment wipe out all his savings? i don't know.

2) job scope of what he is currently doing doesn't fit mine, though he credentially he is much much more than qualified.

3) if he makes mistakes, can i tell him off?

so to avoid potential trouble, better avoid it in the first place.

(the identity will be kept confidential- the purpose of posting this is just to remind myself that education is important, so is managing ones life and finances)

Education is cheap in singapore? Read this

it is said that primary and secondary school education is free if not cheap for the citizens in singapore.
in reality, the truth is, far from that, if you consider education in totallity ie from the acedemic and non acedemic points of view.

30years ago, during my time, how many people did have tuition and enrichment lessons? It was the exception rather than the norm then

fast forward 30yrs later, now, ask again, how many people don't have tuition?
is it sufficient just to rely on the school's teachings and notes? i have been to a number of talks given by the teachers of the school of my children. they say its enough to study from the school books and notes.

my children attends enrichment lessons for various subjects, costing 30kpa for just their tuition fees.
looking at the notes from the premier tuition centres, i have to agree that the teachings complement and in addition broaden up a whole new perspective from the school's one.

my son is currently in NYPS gifted program and recently he was accepted into Raffles Institution.

personally, i haven't attended a day of tuition and don't believe in it. if u ask me, i still don't.

but sometimes, we just don't know the outcome if you don't invest in it or rather don't want to take the chance if you don't invest in it.

"they"say education is affordable and cheap in singapore. Yeah, if just attend the normal school and nothing else, its true. but i believe most parents know whats the real situation.

Portfolio Update August 2017

Dividend by month

1) singtel
2) fcot sgx capitacom lian beng starhillg fct sphreit cmt
3) spost  taisin lippo
4) roxy
5) fcot steng sgx  uob sph starhillg fct sphreit cmt cdg hcg lippo Singre lmg
6) tcil ocbc lkh lmg
7) singpost
8) fcot singtel  plife  ocbc  capitacom starhillg sci steng fct singpost sphreit cmt lippo singre
9)  uob tcil cdg lmg
10) sgx lian beng
11) fcot taisin sgx spost  starhillg fct cmt lippo
12) sph sats ksh lmg


Remarks:

Roxy dividend was a little of a diasppointment but will continue to hold this counter for the sake of its asset appreciation in time to come, which is slow but sure imo.

Taisin dividend maintained as earnings can support it. price overvalued imo, we might see it correcting below 40c barring surprising earning report next quarters.

uob scrip opted, as usual. scrip price is a bit high but i believe the bosses think that its still value for the process.

cdg undervalued imo. added more of this. dividend even up yet price did not reflect this

singre counter added during a selldown yet can enjoy dividend. counter revisited. now its even more undervalued as nav continues to rise

lippo malls added to existing stake. plan of this counter is to invest in indonesia real estate. currency devaluation land lease issues etc...i am aware of all these, but investments all have risks right? And risk of adding lippo actually decreases risk to my original portfolio, itself will be limited to at most 2-3% i guess.

last but not least, tan chong dividend up 25%, a bullish point to support it at or above hk240. remains deeply undervalued, even more as its net asset is still growing. when will it gap closer to its nav? its anyones guess. its just a horrendously undervalued stock which just got even more undervalued.

my comments:



Overall,

nothing fanciful and nothing new: dividends received will be used to reinvest in the same counters and/or the counters which are about to pay dividends soon.

No further input is necessary. Portfolio creates the income every month and gets reinvested. One reinvestment move means one more continuous stream of income in the future.

Market up or down doesn't matter too much, in fact is not a bad thing after all. Dividends provided new cash flow as compounding and dollar cost average tool.



DON'T FORGET TO ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:


1) WILL THIS COMPANY GO BUST IN 10 YEARS?
2) WILL THIS COMPANY STOP DIVIDENDS?

3) WILL THIS COMPANY STOP INCREASING DIVIDENDS OVER TIME?

Inspiring stories of how ordinary folks can become rich

I decide to compile some interesting but probably true stories of how ordinary folks in the streets can become rich.

One example from singapore, the others from overseas. All have something in common. ie they began poor, earned quite a basic salary in their years of working but they used the element of time to end up with eye popping and hard to believe kind of wealth.

If they can do it, why can't we?

I doubt they used technical analysis and used charts to know when to buy and sell or calculate the fundamentals of the company like the back of their hand.

I believe they only buy things they are familiar with and know which paid good dividends in the past and will most likely continue to pay good dividends in the future. And they simply keep receiving their dividends and keep adding once they come in.

Enjoy!

The first investor is Anne Scheiber, who turned a $5,000 investment in 1944 into $22 million by the time of her death at the age of 101 in 1995. Anne Scheiber worked as an IRS auditor for 23 years, never earning more than $3150/year. The one important lesson she learned auditing tax returns was that the surest way to become rich in America is by accumulating stocks. She accumulated stocks in brand name companies she understood and then reinvested dividends for decades. She never sold, in order to avoid paying taxes and commissions. She also never sold even during the 1972-1974 bear market as well as the 1987 market crash because she had high conviction in her stocks picks. She also held a diversified portfolio of almost 100 individual securities in brand names such as Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Bristol-Myers (BMY), Schering Plough (acquired by Pfizer in 2009). She read annual reports with the same inquisitive mind she audited tax returns during her tenure at the IRS and also attended annual shareholders meetings. Anne Scheiber did her own research on stocks, and was focusing her attention on strong franchises which have the opportunity to increase earnings and pay higher dividends over time.

In her later years she reinvested her dividends into tax free municipal bonds, which is why her portfolio had a 30% allocation to fixed income at the time of her death. At the time of her death, her portfolio was throwing off $750,000 in dividend and interest income annually. She donated her whole fortune to Yeshiva University, even though she never attended it herself.

The second investor is Grace Groner, who turned a small $180 investment in 1935 into $7 million by the time of her death in 2010. Ms Groner, who worked as a secretary at Abbott Laboratories for 43 years invested $180 in 3 shares of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) in 1935. She then simply reinvested the dividends for the next 75 years. She never sold, but just held on to her shares.

She was frugal, having grown up in the depression era, and was the classical millionaire next door type of person who was not interested in keeping up with the Joneses. Grace Groner left her entire fortune to her Alma Mater. Her $7 million donation is generating approximately $250,000 in annual dividend income.

The reason why dividend investors are not highly publicized is because dividend investing is not sexy enough to be featured in the financial mainstream media. In addition to that, it is not profitable for Wall Street to sell you into the idea that ordinary investors can invest on their own. Compare this to mutual funds, annuities and other products which generate billions in commissions for Wall Street, despite the fact that they might not be in the best interest of small investors.

The third dividend investor is Ronald Read, who left an $8 million fortune behind when he passed away in 2015. I find this story to be very inspiring, because it showed how an ordinary person who never earned a high income was able to amass a dividend portfolio worth $8 million by the time of his death. The portfolio was generating close to $20,000 in monthly dividend income on average.This portfolio was a result of frugality, hard work, and ability to buy stocks to hold for decades, while patiently reinvesting dividends.

Ronald Read didn't have a finance degree, nor an MBA, but was an ordinary Joe who managed to save and invest for the long term. The story is appealing to me because it shows that investors who pick quality blue chip stocks to hold for decades, and reinvest those dividends patiently, can accumulate a sizeable portfolio over time. The important trait is patience. I follow the same slow and steady approach to long term dividend investing as Ronald Read.

The last investor is Uncle Chua from SINGAPORE!

This is a true story told by the remisier in his book. The story of Uncle Chua, an elderly man, who was barely literate and knew nothing about market tantrums or even how to use the Teletext facility on his TV set to monitor his portfolio of stocks. He managed to accumulate an incredible wealth in excess of $17,000,000 (Seventeen million dollars) by investing in stocks and shares alone. 

2 armed robberies in 2 days and big houses

what has this got to do with investing? well, maybe a lot ...

most of us must have read this piece of shocking news today. 2 armed robberies within 2 days. one in a petrol station and one in a money transfer centre in ubi. But both involved miniscule sums of one to two thousand dollars. most people reading this must have thought the culprit committing the offence is crazy. yes, perhaps they are crazy.  but more likely, these people are drawn into great desperation and probably think they stand a better chance robbing these small shops than the banks with a armed guard.

meanwhile, as i took a walk recently pass my old estate in serangoon gardens where i used to stay some 25 years ago, wow... i noticed that the old single storey terrace houses are being replaced by monstrously huge three to four storey houses, and in the car porch are parked not toyota but many luxury cars. I saw one bentley and one ferrari in one lane there.


so the rich gets richer and most of them do not do very hard work and let the money work for them ie in a thing called investing, while this other opposite group of people are living hand to mouth, passing today not knowing of what will happen tomorrow. speaking of investing in the latter group, they think you are crazy, no money to eat already, still got money to invest. but oh yes, a handful of them buy the toto/4d and hope to strike it big, and they rather starve one meal to exchange for this chance.

portfolio update - july 2017

Dividend by month

1) singtel
2) fcot sgx capitacom lian beng starhillg fct sphreit cmt
3) spost  taisin lippo
4) roxy
5) fcot steng sgx  uob sph starhillg fct sphreit cmt cdg hcg lippo
6) tcil ocbc lkh
7) singpost
8) fcot singtel  plife  ocbc  capitacom starhillg sci steng fct singpost sphreit cmt lippo
9)  uob tcil cdg
10) sgx lian beng
11) fcot taisin sgx spost  starhillg fct cmt lippo
12) sph sats ksh


Remarks:


my comments:

Singtel. steady blue chip counter which gives dividend  in jan and august. august dividend maintained at 10.7c. Just went XD by the time i post this. Dividend will come in the next week or two.

Comfortdelgro. a transport giant. distinct pattern of raising dividend. like singtel, cdg has also gone global. vesting in this would mean having interest in its transport business in different parts of the world. investing in this means indirectly investing in vicom and sbs. Not sure why the market is selling this counter down. if the earnings and dividends can be maintained, this sell down is uncalled for. Result will be out by very soon and should the earnings and dividend be maintained at least, imo, the price will shoot up.

Singpost. we await the reporting of its results eagerly. dividend wise, not so hopeful, but this is one proxy to invest in the growing ecommerce and elogistics business in this region. i am in this counter for the long term.


Taisin. humming by its usual business. earnings and dividend later this year likely will be maintained and rather predictable.


Roxy. barring unforeseen circumstances, it should be a winner in excess of 5 years. take a walk around marine parade area and one can see that the upcoming mrt is just literally in front of its hotel and roxy square assets. It just cut dividend from 0.6c to 0.2c. payout ratio less than 20% if i recall correctly from memory, irks investors like me who invest for income. but looking at the share price, it did not correct much after results were announced. company is still profitable and making money and nav is growing, just that directors were cautious of the economic situation at the moment i believe. it remains at a deep discount to its rnav.


lian beng. deeply undervalued. of course we wont expect it to trade at nav, but its discount to its nav and its low pe appears attractive. lots of hard asset backing and recurring income. its contract works will keep it busy and provide income till 2021. Another big venture announced lately in a hougang en bloc project. another counter which i had expected to pay more but it decided to pay 1.25c later this year. actually, this could be viewed as a uptrend in dividend, if we add the special dividend of 1c which was given last year. this year no special dividend. company is still growing. nav near 120 now.


low keng huat, another deeply undervalued counters. revamp of paya lebar area will give it a boost. slow and steady counter. won perumal site bid, this is in close proximity of farrer park mrt. it probably will hold the ground floor units for recurring income, as in the case of plsq.
Another steady ship. 4c dividend declared. nav up to 90c, cash plus deposits equals 1/4bil, so much of the company is actually cash.


tcil, each passing year represents an increasingly wide pb gap. lots of hard asset backing but no clue when would it be unlocked. more than 10 acres of freehold land in  singapore in its books. hk3.5b worth of japan equities. amongst its assets. dividend hk0.07 declared on eps 9c. more tan chong added from my dividends at around 2.40hkd, which is deemed very cheap. to buy a cheap stuff and still enjoy dividend cannot be a bad thing.


sph. fighting digital disruption. downside will be limited by its real estate and cash.


hotel grand central, which imo is a discount to its hard assets. if you trace it to its beginnings, you would have seen it growth in the number of hotels over the years. shareholder friendly is definitely a plus, as can be seen as a willingness to increase dividends when earnings permit. compare and contrast this with hotel royal. will get scrip.


banks. ocbc and uob, provide steady may and august/sept dividend. ocbc's 'hidden' 1b assets provides much comfort in holding it, while uob family conservatively run style provides safety. both has discernible dividend rising trend. getting scrip for uob


sgx. singapore as SEA financial hub now and in the future holds a lot of promise to this counter. 4x a year payout is definitely pleasing. current and historical average yield is a tad low though.


ksh. to me its overvalued. market is pricing it too high. it has lots of jv and its gao bei dian project will take years to happen and years before earnings happen and hence years before increase in dividends take place.


sats. 4th 5th terminal coming up should keep this company with lots of people to feed and things to manage.


sph reit. stable dividend churner.


frasers reits, starhill and parkway life. business as usual.

St E. One of my long term holdings. steady big ship cruising along. Another blue chip which has gone across the globe to usa.

lippo malls. high yield because of its geographical risk i suppose but adding this reduces my own risk to my current portfolio.

I added one more counter and might add more, but will only post it next month.

Overall,

nothing fanciful and nothing new: dividends received will be used to reinvest in the same counters and/or the counters which are about to pay dividends soon.

No further input is necessary. Portfolio creates the income every month and gets reinvested. One reinvestment move means one more continuous stream of income in the future.

Market up or down doesn't matter too much, in fact is not a bad thing after all. Dividends provided new cash flow as compounding and dollar cost average tool.



DON'T FORGET TO ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:


1) WILL THIS COMPANY GO BUST IN 10 YEARS?
2) WILL THIS COMPANY STOP DIVIDENDS?
3) WILL THIS COMPANY STOP INCREASING DIVIDENDS OVER TIME?

June 2017 portfolio update and review

 this month, i decided to add on a subject before posting my usual portfolio update

I spotted this recent post by the boring investor about value investing and how long to wait,

and decided to share my expericnces and views on this, as I felt it was a timely update both to myself and to others who find this useful.

Readers who have been following me would find that my portfolio has grown in size to under 10 stocks to around 25.

i used to be regard myself as a value investor, to me, it means buying a stock before its intrinic value and waiting for it to unlock itself.  This post by the boring investor resonates with me. To wait nearly a decade and still ending up nowwhere is certainly not a good experience.  But at least it pays dividends so making the wait not so unbearable. What about a counter which does not pays dividend and yet is deemed to be price at 1/2 of its intrinsic value? And intrinsic value itself can be subjective according to the methodology used.

Moreover, one shouldn't forget that to reap the most out of this way of investing, is to use a focused appoach to avoid the diluttional effects of too many counters.  This attaches the increased risk to the entire portfolio should a single counter turns against the investor. To minimise this risk, one can increase the number of counters, sure, however if a counter which occupies a 1:20 portfolio stake, even if it becomes a 10 bagger,  the entire counter moves less than 50%, and that is provided the other counters do not go southwards. And how many people have the skill or the good fortune to own a counter which occupy a substantial part of their portfolio and becomes say a 5 or 10 bagger? This really describes the dilemma of value investors who use a focus approach and hold them until Mr Market realises this true value. And value investors who already done this homework in buying a value stock and if its futher reduces in price, how many can still have unwavering conviction? In my observation, many value investors will simply bail out and hop to another "value stock". They do this and repeat this until they realised their money gets less and less and find that gee, investing is not as easy as it seems. And very often, if it rises, due to broad market forces rather than individual counter unlocking effects, many would simply sell off to lock in their gains. How different is this to being a trader?

In addition, when one uses this strategy to an undervalued stock with the aim of a unlocking it when it double bag or triple bags, do take note that most of the time either he is in cash or in invested in these counters. To hold either entity for prolonged periods of time could be trying and the subsequent rewards would need to commensurate with this.

Personally, I only experienced a two bagger happening within a 2 year investing time frame in one of my stocks which happen to occupy a more than 50% porfolio size, earlier on in my investing journey. Because of this, i enjoyed a nearly 40% gain yoy. However, the time spent, the effort put it and the psychology behind this makes me feel its too risky to employ it as the porfolio grows. Time, effort and knowledge do mitigate the risk but it does not eliminate it. If the rare event of a unknown unknown happens, its back to square one, which means that the time spent is all wasted and we are all growing older and time and tide waits for no man.

So slowly, my portfolio begins to evolve to include more counters, some of which are value stocks in the sense that the sum of parts is greater than its current price, which others are simply value stocks in the sense that its yield has gone up because its price has come down, or those which are in between.

One constant which i made use of it that all of them must pay dividends and there should be a dicernible long term trend,. The latter point is more important for non blue chip stocks.

The other deliberate arrangement is that the counters are planned in such as way as to provide an more even distribution of dividends throughout the year.

In this sort of arrangement, the gains are not so dependent on indivdual counters "unlocking" in value per se, but more predictable in the sense of using dividends compound in a very regular and close sequence and yet enjoy a lowever risk mitigated my the counter number. Any counters which "unlocks" itself in this process would be an added bonus, though the focus would be the compounding power. Example would be KSH, which was sold in majority when it gained 50% recently.  LKH which was purchased at 54c is still kept, as it is still deemed to be undervalued.

This investment strategy, like the value investing one alluded to earlier, both have a low correlation to market levels, as whatever the sti, the adding goes on.






Dividend by month

1) singtel
2) fcot sgx capitacom lian beng starhillg fct sphreit cmt
3) spost  taisin lippo
4) roxy
5) fcot steng sgx  uob sph starhillg fct sphreit cmt cdg hcg lippo
6) tcil ocbc lkh
7) singpost
8) fcot singtel  plife  ocbc  capitacom starhillg sci steng fct singpost sphreit cmt lippo
9)  uob tcil cdg
10) sgx lian beng
11) fcot taisin sgx spost  starhillg fct cmt lippo
12) sph sats ksh


Remarks:


my comments:




Overall,

nothing fanciful and nothing new: dividends received will be used to reinvest in the same counters and/or the counters which are about to pay dividends soon.

No further input is necessary. Portfolio creates the income every month and gets reinvested. One reinvestment move means one more continuous stream of income in the future.

Market up or down doesn't matter too much, in fact is not a bad thing after all. Dividends provided new cash flow as compounding and dollar cost average tool.



DON'T FORGET TO ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:


1) WILL THIS COMPANY GO BUST IN 10 YEARS?
2) WILL THIS COMPANY STOP DIVIDENDS?
3) WILL THIS COMPANY STOP INCREASING DIVIDENDS OVER TIME?