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A Liang Teh and An Evening with AK and Friends – 23 May 2015 (4th Session)
By Derek  •  May 31, 2015
How time flies, I attended the first AK's 'chit chat' session in Jan and just last week I attended his fourth session - that makes it an average of one session a month. AK was recovering from his illness and was less animated, but his voice held thanks to the "liang teh" he drinks and distributed some to the audience. Back to the 4th session, his guests for the evening were: Paul Chen from Value Investing College, Matthew Seah, AK's guest blogger at ASSI Elvin Hayden Liang, a financial blogger. I also bumped into a fellow financial blogger and he came prepared with his notebook and questions. Most of the topics discussed were not new - the audience was asking about what stocks to buy, the impact of interest rates, the different industry sectors and of course the now already famous Asset Portfolio Pyramid. [caption id="attachment_114356" align="aligncenter" width="360"]Asset Portfolio Pyramid v3.0 Asset Portfolio Pyramid v3.0[/caption] AK always use this to explain his investing strategy and if you noticed in v3.0, there are the letters "E B W I S". This is AK secret in investing with a peace of mind. Click here to find out more. The session started with the usual self introduction. In light of the recent property scam, Matthew talked about potential danger in buying properties in distress areas. I believe  there is a change in 'tactics', instead of promising high returns in a short time frame, they are now promising smaller returns in a mid range time frame. This makes it more 'believable' but due diligence is always needed. We work hard for our money and we should be equally prudent on where we place our money. Since we are on the topic of property, AK shared his views on the property market - more units will be hitting the market which will lead to a fall in rent and subsequent yield. He used an example of the falling rent in District 14 and I agree with his views. I have been monitoring the properties in this area since last year and have even contemplated buying one but I dropped the idea after working out my sums. A member of the audience brought up an interesting question on how AK manage to live frugally. AK sort of answer the question by explaining that he has his fair share of indulges like his car and the occasional meal in a restaurant. Personal Finance topics are far and few between. In all the sessions I have attended, almost all the questions are on investment. I have no problems on that since these are the questions by the audience but I suspect that there may be some who want to ask about personal finance matters. Matthew and I spoke to a gentleman who was looking for someone who can offer assistance on his insurance policy. There are also a few young people in the audience who will benefit from good personal financial advice. Maybe AK can look at introducing a personal finance speaker to encourage more personal finance questions. There was a long discussion on ETF. Just when I thought there was nothing new to learn, a member in the audience pointed out that ETFs are not as simple as just buying an index. There are cash based and synthetic ETFs. You can read more about it here. Someone in the audience asked about investing in Data Centres. I am intrigued as I am working in the IT industry but I know very little about its commercial value. Unfortunately, none of the speakers or audience are able to share their views. I like stocks that go under the radar, perhaps a hidden gem?  Although no one has an answer, the speakers shared that we can always turn to the Internet. Look up on the writers background and credentials, and find people who are the leading experts in their field. There is where you can dig up a whole treasure cove of information. One other tip, look at what the authorities are doing. If IDA intends to establish Singapore as a Data Centre hub, I am pretty sure that they will inject funding into it. I believe my IT professionals will remember the SOE project. And that concludes my review of the fourth evening with AK which I thoroughly enjoyed except for the 'special seat' that AK arranged for me. Please read the following links on my review of the previous sessions. An Evening with AK and Friends – 30 March 2015 and my personal thoughts. An Evening with AK and Friends – 23 March 2015 A Burger and An Evening with AK and Friends
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By Derek
Derek is an investor who follows Peter Lynch style of investing. He prefers to use simple and straight forward information for stock analysis. He started TheFinance.sg with the intention to bring together all bloggers and professionals who are interested or already in the area of Finance and Investing, and to create a community where everyone is free to write and to share their articles, experience and opinions.
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