Author: Rolf Suey - Better Late Than Never

Without specific reason, I was prompted to update my blog. While deliberating for a topic, it struck me that my last H2F3 updates was 3-4 months ago. Refer here for what does H2F3 (Health, Hobbies, Family, Finance & Friends) means. Refer here for Q12019 H2F3 update. So here I am, writing to update 2019Q2 H2F3. At the day of writing this article, I was reading Ray Dalio’s Book “Principles: Life and Work. One section of the book told about the “first principle of life”. It is summarized as. ·      Think For Yourself to decide: 1.     What do you want, 2.     What is true, 3.    ...

As I am writing, Gold price crossed the $1,400 an ounce mark in 5 years and Bitcoin crossed the psychological $11,000 mark per coin.  GOLDThe increase in Gold price is likely to due to several factors mentioned below, but often related to uncertainty and low interest rate. If economy is good and looking good, with rising interest rate environment, then Gold price will fall. Vice versa. – increasing tensions in the Middle-East primarily reflected by the attacks of two tankers in the Gulf.– global uncertainties from US-China trade wars.– USD weakened while its 10 year yields dropped below 2%...

Which country can benefit from the trade war?Definitely not Singapore. We are very dependent on trade of these two countries and it’s going to be disruptive to our economy. But one country that can benefit is Vietnam. Background of Vietnam Vietnam is a country that is very similar to China few decades ago. It is a communist country gradually being more and more open. They are very friendly to foreign investors. People are getting more and more educated. Labour force is still extremely competitive in the manufacturing sector, with GDP per capita in Vietnam is fairly low at 2.6KUSD...

Bitcoin more than doubled since Feb 2019.Now at US$7.5K per BTC. Read my post on Mar...

–> Collapse of Laurel Tree and Sycamore Tree projectsToday business times reported two condo projects Laurel Tree along Hillview Terrace and Sycamore Tree in Joo Chiat under receiverships. Developer is vehicles of Tan Hock Keng. TOP supposed to be in Dec 2016, but had stalled due to insufficient funds. Receiver told buyers either:  1) cough up extra premium to ensure completion of project or  2) receiver to sell the property and return money to the bank.  Then normally there is no more money left. The buyers were of course the victims.   Investment knowledge is vital Therefore, whether to invest...

It’s been awhile since any changes to my investment portfolio, except that lately, I splashed out some monies into: 1) Bitcoin (BTC) Refer to my post last month, here.At current pricing, I continue to put my belief in BTC’s upside.I started accumulating at US$3-4K, although now its US$5K+, it is still 400% down from its high of US$20K 2) Raffles Medical A stock I owned for many years. Pricing had dived 50% since 2015, despite little changes in fundamentals, except that a huge part of the cash is dashed out to invest in new hospital in China and expansion...

The Maritime and Offshore exhibition Sea Asia took place in MBS this week and I was there. It is my 17th year in the industry. I met many old pals, although the number of them still active in the industry has significantly declined. Had many chats and below are some of the key takeaways? The big question: “Has Marine and Offshore Industry Recovered?”  Still at Bottom! I am not too sure if the industry is recovering? But one thing I am certain is “we are still at the bottom of the cycle”. Obviously when you hit rock bottom, the only...

Over the last 15 years, I had several different cars registered under my name. They are either new or used-cars from 1.5L to 2.5L, from Japanese to continental cars and from sedan to MPV. No posh cars though. Cannot afford. I had also rented cars for few months, and even had experience of selling cars in the old days. That said, the one experience I do not have, until recently, is the renewal of car COE. Last week, I renewed COE of my Toyota Estima.Initially I opted 5 years, but a friend of mine gave the rationale why 10...

Prompted by another blogger SI, I wrote this article. Addressing the question, there are always the push the and the pull factors. Let’s evaluate both sides of the coins. Current job is shitty. Lousy pay, lousy boss, lousy colleagues, low satisfaction etc. Time to move on to start my own. To take control of our own destiny where we are not answerable to our boss, and create something that can impact the world with abundance of self-satisfaction. Excellent idea awaiting to explode. A good partner or investor already knocking at the door. Too good to resist because it’s going...

Towards the end of 2017 early 2018, the most talked about investment topic was the buying of crypto-currency. The news of Bitcoin is everywhere. Even aunties and uncles talked about it. My wife who knew nothing about investment told me about Bitcoin (BTC) and how her colleagues and friends mentioned to her. Another friend of mine back then, ask if I should start looking into investing in the Crypto mining business as his uncle is quitting his job and poured in close to S$200k into the Crypto mining business. I also have clients from abroad telling me how excited...

This post continues from Part 1. YOUR TWO BIGGEST BARRIERS  Going through the biggest mistakes in life, can give you a “healthy fear” of being wrong. In other words, it will give you deep humility. At the same time, it will not stop you from going after the things you wanted.  To succeed, you need to see more than what you alone can see. But standing in our ways are the two biggest barriers everyone faces.  1. Our ego  2. Blind spot barriers  EGO BARRIER  This is the part of the brain that prevent you from acknowledging your weaknesses...

Ray Dalio is one of my favourite investment guru. He is clever, truthful and humble and always see the bigger picture that matters. Last year he created new animated mini-serial videos on Youtube after the all famous “How the Economic machine works”. The new video series, Principles for Success focuses on the life principles that have Ray Dalio the most. Refer to link here.   Below is the extract I summarised from the vid. 1 – THE CALL TO ADVENTURE Deal with your “not knowing” You do not know much relative to what you need to know. Success in life...

Hi all, it’s been a while since I am online blogging. This does not mean that I stop writing and sharing. In fact, I have written as many articles about life since the last 2.5 years, but in a more privately manner sharing within my own circle of friends.This week, I took a leave to relax and spend time with my family during school holiday. I was prompted intuitively to update my blog. Here I am, my first article in 2019 based on my 5 priorities in life that I blogged about many times in the past – H2F3. Generally...