Author Archive

Posted on August 7, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Up Close with Resorts World Singapore (Casino)

I was at the Resorts World Singapore Integrated Resort recently and stepped into the casino for the very first time. The occasion was my mother’s birthday and she was staying at Hard Rock Hotel for her birthday vacation with my father. My parents are social casino patrons who do visit Genting and those Casino Cruises on occasion given their status as retirees who have provided for their medical and living needs.

It was truly interesting to see that even on a weekday afternoon, there were enough patrons to keep many of the tables at RWS humming along. Pai Gow, Pontoon, Blackjack, Caribbean Stud Poker, Roulette and countless number of Jackpot machines lined rows by rows with neatly attired croupiers and supervisors greeted the visitor who came in there.

Why am I talking about the casino at Resorts World Singapore?

Epitome of Singapore Inc.

The integrated resorts (aka. casinos) encapsulate what is the essence of Singapore. MONEY. The casino is a place where despite the $100 levy, Singaporeans and PRs queue up to throw money at the gaming facilities. It is a place where fortunes can be made or lost in a few short seconds, minutes or hours. It symbolises really that with MONEY, anything is almost possible. (more…)

Posted on July 24, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Lifestyle Design and Retirement

The more I read about lifestyle design and think about how it applies to retirement, the more I realise that my paradigm on what constitutes retirement has fundamentally changed.

Previously, I used to think like what many of us did, that retirement was an age and it was not to work. But increasingly, my own research and reading of books such as Tim Ferriss’ “The Five Hour Workweek” and thinking about the day-to-day trends we see in Singapore has led me to re-evaluate what it means to retire when I advance another 20 years in life from today.

Retirement is Not an Age

The CPF system and the traditonal life of study-work-retire is under pressure. First of all, increasing life expectancy sees us living longer and hence needing to fund our living over a longer period of time. Secondly, the concept of lifelong employment and having a job for life is under threat from today’s volatile world. Thirdly, research has shown that mentally we degenerate if we do not keep ourselves active mentally and physically after we transit from a full-time career to a post-career lifestyle of not going to a routine of working from 8.30 AM to 6.00 PM Mondays to Fridays. (more…)

Posted on June 9, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Untiming the Market

When you participate in the stock market, timing your purchases and sales is important. You want to buy low, hold and sell high. Or you want to sell high and buy low or you want to buy a dividend paying share at a low price.

In order to buy or sell at the price you want, some form of market timing is inevitable. But how do we do time the market? You Cannot Time the Market (All the Time)

One of the key lessons I’ve learnt from investing (and the occasional gambling) on the stock market is that you cannot time the market all the time. As a retail investor, one is limited in being able to call the troughs of the bear market and the peaks of a bull market. Hence you cannot hit the highest of the high or lowest of the low because these change and evolve so long as the market is still running and the market can go on long after we have moved on from this world.

You still need to observe the market and try a limited form of timing, i.e. buying blue chips when the market has corrected sharply (e.g. Dow plunging 300+ points) if you have a long-term and more positive view about the business prospects of the underlying fundamentals of the company. This doesn’t guarantee that you will buy low but at least you’re not buying at an over-valued price.

The value versus price of a share requires judgement and our interpretation of the facts, information and market news surrounding the company. Thus, my own rule of thumb is to consider nibbling a few lots of the dividend paying blue-chips that I am eyeing during such periods of overall market correction. I also buy within my means and never commit more than 75% of my portfolio into equities (I’m currently at 17% equities and 83% cash). Read more…

Posted on June 2, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

How to Manage Change in Financial Freedom

I have spent the long weekend shifting from my current place to my new place. It has been a tiring but interesting journey in finding out about managing change in financial freedom.

Changes in life are inevitable. As we progress along this journey towards financial freedom, things change all the time. Our financial situation, our health, our relationships at work and at home. Change is the only constant is the common phrase we hear but are we truly able to embrace change in our quest towards financial freedom?

Managing Change

1. Be Open

Human beings are creatures of habit and like to continue to be in the comfort zone. It takes a fundamental mindset change to be open and receptive to new ideas, environments and situations. It was the same for me when my spouse first brought up the idea of moving house. At first, I was quite resistant because I hated the idea of packing and unpacking all my stuff and also spending money on renovation, top-up in home equity for new house and related administrative and monetary costs.

However, the more I listened and opened up myself to the possibility of moving, the more I realised that it was not all bad and the change would result in a shorter commute time to work for me, better rest and sleep for the whole family and a family friendly location near to a park and other green areas.

Thus being open to change to a new residence did result in outcomes that were more positive than I had envisioned. Read more…

Posted on May 5, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Meeting Koh Boon Hwee: My First Annual-General Meeting at DBS

Having started investing in shares since 2003, I finally did what a shareholder is expected to do, that is to attend an annual general meeting and actually vote on the ordinary and special resolutions at the meeting with management and the Board of Directors of the business.

30 April 2010 2.00 P.M. was the Annual General Meeting for DBS group holdings. I have been an on-off investor in this share for a few years but only this time I still had 1 lot after taking profit on another lot for speculative play.

How I ended up at the Annual General Meeting

I happened to receive the annual report while still holding on to DBS and decided I should at least try to attend an annual general meeting of a listed company to find out just what happens at an AGM. What questions would shareholders raise and just what type of people actually invest in DBS and actually bother to attend AGMs?

I also had an “ulterior” motive in that I genuinely wanted to know how listed AGMs were carried out as one of my aspirations is to be a director on a listed company eventually when I am transiting to a different type of career post “retirement”. As I am an Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Internal Auditor, I do have the basic academic and professional experience to qualify to be a member of audit or finance committees and believe this is one development path for me post traditional “retirement”.

The answers to these questions were addressed at what I would call a very interesting session.
(more…)

Posted on April 29, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Singapore’s Third Casino: Singapore Exchange

Singapore’s Second Casino Integrated Resort Marina Bay Sands will be opening today at 3:18 P.M. following Resort World Singapore’s opening of the first casino in Singapore.

Did you know that these two Integrated Resorts are not the first casinos in Singapore? We already have one of the biggest and the best Casinos over in Singapore and it is the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

Why Stock Trading Can Be Gambling

The thin line between investing and trading is so evident when I read the Channelnewsasia Market Talk forum. There are threads where forummers share their losses in stock market punts besides their gains. It is the stories of the losses that make you realise that the human drama unfolding.

If you lose heavily, it is a tragedy happening in real life. Savings get wiped out. Families have to tighten their belts because the breadwinner has invested in stocks that are under-water and cannot hold.

Perhaps they bought on margin using leverage. Perhaps they had some unexpected cash requirement that necessitated the sales of their shares at a loss.

Whatever is the reason, I realise that no-one can beat the market all the time and that one needs to time his entry and exit in line with his lifestyle cash needs when he is investing in equities on the Singapoore Exchange.

Investing requires patience, an ability to see the longer term but at the same time, an ability to buy when the market valuation of the share is fundamentally lesser than its “real” or “intrinsic” value. Value investing proponents believe in analysing and researching about the companies as well as the businesses they are in. But there is still an element of timing in that a fundamental investor such as Warren Buffet would buy when value is higher than the price that an asset can be bought. Read more…

Posted on April 10, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Sucker’s Choice in Financial Freedom

I just attended some corporate training on communication skills and learnt about the false dichotomy known as “Sucker’s Choice”.

What is Sucker’s Choice?

The concept of sucker’s choice is straightforward. In times when we are under pressure and stress, we are subject to physiological changes in our body (i.e. the flight or fight reflex) that raises our blood pressure and reduces flow of blood to the brain to our limbs to enable us to react to a perceived threat. This makes us think poorly because our brain is starved of oxygen from the reduced blood flow.

As a result, we tend to only think superficially that there are only one or two choices to solve the threat. The extreme example of sucker’s choice is how flight crew of a aircraft that crashed because the pilot was so distracted by a faulty error light that he didn’t realise the plane was running out of fuel and subsequently crashed. When the surviving crew members were asked why they didn’t tell the pilot about the fuel situation, they said that they didn’t want to disrespect the pilot by questioning his competence and telling him about the fuel situation.

This is the classic sucker’s choice, i.e. the crew member thought he couldn’t tell the pilot as it was a form of disrespect and so chose to endure silence and consequently put at risk the entire plane and its crew and passengers. Read more…

Posted on March 30, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Passive vs Active Income: Continuum vs Dichotomy

It’s coming to the close of the first quarter of the calendar year (or last quarter of the financial year for organisations with their financial year ending on 31 March 2010) and bonus time.

I was fortunate that my efforts in the last 12 months from January to December 2009 were recognised and received a decent bonus from my employer.

Comparing my passive (and semi-active income from capital gains and blogging) against my bonus, I realised that my bonus was still higher.

What are the implications for me in terms of my journey towards financial freedom?

Salaryman/woman Don’t Quit Your Day Job Yet

For many of us who are salaryman (and women) who earn most of our income from employment, it is a sobering reminder that active income will still constitute our primary source of savings and investible capital. Singapore is a place where you can get a job if you are still relatively young, have the relevant paper qualifications and experience for the jobs available in the industry.

Of course, there is global competition in the labour market given the lax immigration policies of the Government for the last decade or so which has made life quite challenging for the less educated and skilled.

Even though I have a decent job now that pays me a fair income to sustain myself and my family. I am driven by the constant worry about financial independence and freedom. Thus, even as my active income from employment is the main driver of savings. I continually push myself to look out for passive income opportunities. Read more…

Posted on March 20, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Fortune Favours the Bold: Taking Small Risks

My journey towards financial freedom has taught me a number of things. One of the key lessons I’ve learnt is to take small risks in life with my money and to be less attached to it. What do I mean by this?

Life is full of risks. When we get up in the morning, do we know if we’re going to be hit by a bus (*touch wood*) or to be able to get home safe and sound? In our quest for financial freedom, we are seeking to live within our means, to save and invest, to grow and protect our means.

Risks and Opportunities (Different Sides of the Same Coin?)

The saving and especially investing part of the financial freedom journey entails risks. When you take some of your savings and invest it in the stock market. You risk the amount being invested becoming zero if the company collapses due to fraud, irregularities or mis-management. You also take a risk (or opportunity) that the amount being invested grows by more than the low 0.1% to 0.5% interest that is being paid on savings and even fixed deposits. (more…)

Posted on March 9, 2010 - by PanzerGrenadier

Personal Growth and Financial Freedom

I attended a Thai language workshop that my organisation offers as part of the self-development training that staff can apply for and realised that personal growth comes from trying new things all the time.

Personal growth by itself is rewarding. You feel that you gain mastery over a skill, ability or technique and you are also exposed to a new world, culture and reality that makes your life that little bit more interesting.

In today’s globalised world, personal growth also helps you move nearer to your goal of being financially free because you gain skills and abilities that if matched with the right market who demands it, you can achieve a new source of income or alternative second career that could be your ticket to financial freedom.

Planning Your Personal Growth

Financial freedom comes when our lifestyle expenses is met by passive income from investments e.g. rental from property, interest, dividends etc. Many of us can build up our investible capital only through savings from employment income which will remain as the key contributor during our productive years.

Planning projects for personal growth increases your abilities and skills and life-long learning is about about life-long earning! Read more…