market slump 60points, more to come?...should u worry?

what a steep fall....more than 70 points during lunch.

as I type this, it is 66 points in the red.

you should NOT worry if

1) the stocks u bought are based on sound fundamental analysis and market ups and downs are beyond anyone's control

2) u are investing on a long time frame.

2) no contra deals involved. 

3) no borrowed money.

4) the original plan is still intact, 

In my case, I am a dividend investor, so if this fall continues, this sounds like good news for i can buy more for the same amount of dividend received.

I will be a little concerned if a dividend cut happens and will be  more concerned if no dividends declared when i expect some. The latter senario is the one i would least expect since the counters i owned, have paid dividends faithfully for the past 1 decade and have weathered several crises. Even if the least expected senario happens, i am satisfied that i should be diversified enough not to be affected too much. 

dividend investors - tips on how to make your money work harder

Not sure if anyone covered this...but I find the following tips useful to increase wealth more quickily and also safely. '

(experts might want to give this a miss)

I shall go to the point, as I know most people don't have so much time to read long essays.

1) go only for company which pays dividends, and increasing trend (this sounds familiar if you have been reading my earlier posts, if not, no harm going through). Avoid companies which doesn't and those which has rights history, as personally i prefer a uni-directional money flow.

2) this point is important. plan your cash cow company carefully. ☆☆☆Singapore companies are unlike US ones like MCD Colgate etc which pays quarterly dividends. Here, some homework and planning is required.

A) try not to have heavy dividends in certain months and then dry months thereafter. This will make the compounding effect even greater and over long term...wow!!!

B) my suggestion divide a year into 4 parts or even 6 parts if possible, and plan in such a way that the dividends are well distributed in those quadrants.

C) don't sit on your dividend. U have a few vases half full or half empty depending on how u call it, n a jug of water, pour into those vases which have the least water.

D) use it to buy the next company before it releases news of any impending dividends.

E) don't worry too much about brokerage fees. Just as an illustration, u see, a 1000 buck dividend can buy 1000 metro shares costing near 900. Don't think too much of the 25 bucks brokerage fees as remember, you are there for the long haul. in a year, if metro pays 5c dividends, the stock itself would have paid 1/2 of such fees and the next year, its all yours. we are not trading, but we are in for the long haul, so in the long run, the compounding effect would have more than made up for those fees.

F) keep repeating process, disregard market movements, till you become rich.

G) this works even for small sums of money. Don't think only millionaires or billionaires can play this game. Remember u are here for big money in the long haul. 25bucks brokerage fee...treat as one time, u will get it all back n much more.

3. Don't forget your own health and don't forget to spend time with love ones.

4. Don't forget to donate to needy once you are there.

my 2 cents.

my views on marcopolo marine

my 2 cents quick analysis on MPM.

Summary on findings/observation/thoughts

1) pb0.6 0 looks undervalued, question in my mind- why is it undervalued, any valuable fixed assets in its books

2) pe10, looks decent, not high

3) dividend

Company Name	Type	Ex-Date	Record Date	Date Paid/Payable	Particulars
MARCO POLO MARINE LTD.	DIVIDEND	10 Dec 2013	12 Dec 2013	20 Dec 2013	SGD 0.014 ONE-TIER TAX
MARCO POLO MARINE LTD.	DIVIDEND	10 Dec 2012	12 Dec 2012	21 Dec 2012	SGD 0.008 ONE-TIER TAX
MARCO POLO MARINE LTD.	DIVIDEND	09 Dec 2011	13 Dec 2011	22 Dec 2011	SGD 0.01 ONE-TIER TAX

This is the key for me to avoid this stock

1) too short a history- 3 years only to make a sound judgement

2) no clear trend, 0.01 then goes down and then goes up again. I wouldn't want my heart to go yoyo like this stock.

I will avoid MPM, at least for the next 5-7years, and keep cash as cash if there is nothing else to buy.



pls, this is just my personal view and i understand lots of people might still make a lot of money buying mpm.

(i like old companies with discernible trend of past history with extrapolation of future history.)

have a workable plan and stick to it.

through a blog i came across recently, i saw that some people buy based on recommendation on other people's blog.

now, the reasons for the blog owner's buying might be different from that of the readers. or worse still, the reasons might NOT be sound at all.

so it's far more important to develop a strategy based on one's own unique situation and circumstances and buy/sell/hold based on the latter.

personally, I feel it's important to question the purpose of buying an equity. is it for long term capital gain or short term flipping (the latter type i do not practise and i do not recommend? is it for dividend income? what is the downside of the equity we are talking about? what are the safeguards?

in addition, for myself, I ask the following questions:

a) how does one know and have this conviction that price increase will happen in the next few years?
b) how does one know and have this conviction that dividend increase will happen in the next few years?
c) what then is the appropiate entry price, wrt a long term investing horizon?

the answer to b) is actually sufficient to answer a), as dividend increase will invariably be accompanied by share price increase.

Last few days to get free petrol vouchers from hougang ave 3 esso

I visited this petrol station and pumped $100 bucks of petrol and was pleasantly surprised when the cashier handed me 2 booklets of petrol vouchers.

-  $5 off with every $50 petrol, usable from dec onwards at any Esso petrol stations; this discount is offered on top of prevailing credit card and station discounts.

The discount vouchers are given for every $50 petrol purchased at Esso Hougang, and it is a booklet with 4 x $5 vouchers usable from 1 December 2014 all the way till 31 December 2015, ie 13 months, and constitutes a savings of $260.

2 booklets means a savings of more than $500. 

Feels like a dividend payout slowly over 1year...or I am thinking too much about investments...LOL

Anyway, jokes aside, anyone seriously wants this good deal should head down for there within these few days.

cheers!

One good reason why you should not bail out even if your portfolio halves during crisis

just look around during the last crisis, some of the singapore richest men's net worth fell more than half. but we don't see any fire sale of their businesses during those scary times.

agreed that a person whose net worth 500m half that will still be a very high 250m. fractionally speaking, it's the same as someone 100k becoming 50k. But losing 250m net worth is much more than the lay person losing 50k.

then why is it that almost all the richest do not bail out and yet its those smaller investors that do?

and we know that bailing out at the height of the crisis would make all the difference.

One reason is that they own the company and this could be painstakingly built up by themselves or by their forefathers. Throwing in the towel is the last thing on their mind. And time and again, a lot of them are proven right and most businesses become stronger after each crisis.

But shouldn't investing be the same way? Is it not owning part of the businesses as well?

perhaps we could do better having the same mindset of the towkays of the businesses we invest in, apart from just analysing reports.

pioneer generation scheme..good or not?

I had the opportunity to mingle with a few doctors, some of whom owns GP clinics in Singapore.

Most of them voice out similar problems associated with the pioneer generation program.

1) unhappiness is not infrequent at the counter where patients and clinic assistants argue over what should be paid and what is borned by the scheme. patients often don't complain their unhappiness to the doctors. to make matter worse, some of older folks are not very educated and not sure of what the scheme is all about exactly.

2) there is a limit to the scheme and the co payment component. ended up, most patients still head back to the good old polyclinics. at least there is MSW at polyclinics, in case patients really can't afford to pay a cent. GP clinics have overheads, and to give FOC services long term out of good will are really limited and difficult. Frankly, the pioneer generation batch aren't that many, and this number will only fall with time. I am not sure if the government could possibly consider absorbing all the fees out of goodwill?

3) increase paper work and record keeping. and need to pay staff extra to do claim procedures. Sure, doctors can do it, but as it is, they are already so busy and most would want more leisure time instead of doing claim procedure.

anyone got any views?

so is the scheme really good or not good? perhaps more time will tell.