Author: Singapore Man of Leisure

When Correlations Break

When Correlations Break

Posted by | Feb 15, 2018 | |

Yesterday evening 9:30 pm was a highly anticipated event – US CPI report! OK, those of you bottom-up stock picking and Singapore stocks only pandas and koala bears would yawn… Ya, spending 5 minutes on economics is 5 mintues wasted you would parrot. But to us macro top-down, interest rate, precious metals, forex and stock index traders, its like watching the World Cup for soccer. Last night did not disappoint. Come to think of it, the price action was like Trump’s surprise election win! Quick! Data out! Inflation was higher than expected. It reinforces the higher average hourly earnings...

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Focus On Our Strengths

Focus On Our Strengths

Posted by | Jan 4, 2018 | |

Men have a lot to learn from women! Women intuitively know how to focus on their strengths: Got hair; toss their hair back or slide their hair with finger behind back of ear. Got shoulders; show shoulders with halter tops or spaghetti straps. Got bosoms; reveal cleavage or wear T-shirts meant for kids. Got wasp waists; skinny jeans and tube tops. Got miles of legs; short skirts and hot pants. What do men do? Comb overs. I mean you are drawing even more unwanted attention to your bald patch… Who’s kidding who? And when I were in Secondary 2,...

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My First Down Year Since Turning “Pro”…

My First Down Year Since Turning “Pro”…

Posted by | Jan 1, 2018 | |

I’ve always taken a bit of pride in being “different” from the mainstream herd. Me being left-handed, right-brained, and likes to play the role of the 2 dots in the Tao symbol and all that jazz… Others lip-sync the tools shepherds impose on their flock like goals and KPIs; I sing the visions and dreams of land owners. That worked fine until today. Everyone seems to be doing very well for 2017. All made money! Idiot! And I have to be the only blogger to make trading losses for 2017? I’m not really sure about the “pro” part, but...

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You Think You Know The Fundamentals and Technicals?

You Think You Know The Fundamentals and Technicals?

Posted by | Dec 14, 2017 | , |

When you look at the Sun in the sky, do you know that’s the image of the Sun 8 minutes 20 seconds ago? You may think you are looking at the Sun; you are not. Talk about looking at illusions. Wink. When you use fundamental analysis, are you not driving using the rear view mirror? Unless you tell me you have access to the annual reports for 2018 up till 2048 now? Same for those of you who prefer the voodoo art of technical analysis. All those beautiful chart patterns and indicators, are they not a snapshot of what...

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Useless Financial Life Hacks

Useless Financial Life Hacks

Posted by | Dec 7, 2017 | |

Tired of boiling water everytime you want instant noodles? Boil a large amount in the beginning of the week and freeze them for later use! Can you think of similar useless financial life hacks? Can’t thnk of any? Can I steer you towards credit cards? Yes, you spot them now… Cashback and frequent flyer miles… Its the equivalent of saying I’ve paid $300 for my electricity bills, but look! My aircon usage is totally “free”! Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google...

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The Ability To Read Patterns

The Ability To Read Patterns

Posted by | Dec 5, 2017 | |

Have you read in the papers several years back where some new cases of Dengue Fevers were not diagnosed by some younger doctors? Experienced doctors are usually the ones who will report to Ministry of Health if they spot patterns of unusually high cases of Dengue Fevers that require a co-ordinated response to root out the breeding grounds… Similarly, those medical professionals who have experience working with SARs would have the muscle memory burned into them. Next time if Singapore is once again faced with an “unknown” highly infectious disease, these medical professionals would ensure they protect themselves and...

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Can Investing/Trading Be Taught?

Can Investing/Trading Be Taught?

Posted by | Nov 29, 2017 | |

Of course can! That’s because you’ve asked the “wrong” question, silly! Look, if you have not learned financial accounting or business finance in school, of course I can teach you how to do fundamental analysis – look at numbers that sort of thing. And by calling it Value Investing, I can charge you even more by swapping old wine into new bottle! Same for technical analysis. If you want to learn Candlesticks, I can teach you Candlesticks. If you prefer the more esoteric like Elliot Wave, I can teach you Elliot Wave too. What’s so difficult? But that’s not...

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How to avoid saying you jobless

How to avoid saying you jobless

Posted by | Nov 16, 2017 | |

Jobless sounds negative. As if you can’t find or hold on to a steady ob.   Unemployed is worse. Now people assume you got fired or retrenched… No employer wants you…     Some may say there are “in between jobs”. Good try. People are not fooled. They straight away think you jobless or unemployed. LPPL.   So what to tell others and at the same time can make ourselves feel good? Never mind they are little lies we tell ourselves?       1.  I’m studying; I’ve gone back to school.   Ego feels better right? For the...

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Investment Not Required – Real Life Cases

Investment Not Required – Real Life Cases

Posted by | Nov 5, 2017 | , |

I think I’ll follow up with more real life cases where Singaporeans are living or retiring well without the need for investments. Remember this old post:  Landed Property and Car with $6K per month Household Income Here’s one interesting case about a 67 year old ex-Regional Sales Manager’s retirement in Singapore: Merits of HDB 2 Room Flexi Scheme What’s my takeaways? Staying healthy can be more important than dollars and cents. CPF savings enough if you had a good career and didn’t over invest in properties so that you are asset rich but CPF poor. Flexibility and adaptability give...

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Which CPF Life Plan To Choose – Part 2 of 2

Which CPF Life Plan To Choose – Part 2 of 2

Posted by | Oct 31, 2017 | |

Its easier to score distinctions in Science and Math subjects as the answers are more binary – you are either right, or wrong. Precision. It’s either black or white. Simple! But for Arts subjects like Literature, there’s no such thing as right or wrong answers – you are marked according to how well you’ve argued out your case. Its grey, murky, and fuzzy, but we can see all 7 colours of the rainbow! (History can score distinction that’s because you have memorised the version that’s told by the victor; if you ask the subjugated, they’ll have another version –...

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Which CPF Life Plans To Choose? Part 1 of 2

Which CPF Life Plans To Choose? Part 1 of 2

Posted by | Oct 27, 2017 | |

Its amazing isn’t it? One would expect questions on CPF Life Plans to come from financially illiterate people or those not very into DIY investing or trading – not those from our community of financial freedom seekers… I mean if one can’t make an independent decision ourselves, it sort of brings into question our abilities to practice active DIY retail investing and trading, doesn’t it? Half the readers will leave in a huff now. Good. Now that I’ve filtered out the freeloaders, lets move on… I come with foreplay; I’m the man with the slow hands. Its all our...

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Buy and Hold – Who sold you that idea?

Buy and Hold – Who sold you that idea?

Posted by | Oct 25, 2017 | |

Nope. Not going to tell you what to believe. If you game for a simple exercise to test your conviction on Buy and Hold, do read on… Have you bought an Investment Linked Policy before? Your conviction on the suitability of the product for you must be strong, if not you would not have bought it, wouldn’t you? Fast forward to today when you are more financially literate. How? Almost all the hobbyist bloggers honest enough to admit they were dumb enough to buy ILPs have cancelled their policies. Even at a loss. Yes, ILPs are that toxic… What?...

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How to seduce customers to voluntarily pay their annual CC membership fees

How to seduce customers to voluntarily pay their annual CC membership fees

Posted by | Oct 12, 2017 | |

Remember a time several years ago when financial bloggers and bleeding heart people were sharing in forums how to “save” money by calling your credit card companies and asking for waiver of the annual membership fess? I guess the message was so successful that it was “understooded” no one pays our credit card annual membership fees. Those who do are either so rich they couldn’t be bothered, or they are “bei kambings” who didn’t know better… Imagine if you were working in one of these credit card companies. How to turn this situation around as each dollar from these...

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Yield Hogs and Bird Brains

Yield Hogs and Bird Brains

Posted by | Aug 1, 2017 | |

Dividend investing has several derogatory labels attached to it. Like being called yield hog (its a pig if you don’t speak american), or being sneered as an investment style more suitable for widows and orphans… What? Why you all looking at me? Ar ber then? How much money we need to live off dividends is quite simple to calculate. If one just need $4,000 per month for retirement, then at 5% yield, we need minimum $2 million to sleep soundly at night. What’s with that “extra” $1 million? Those who drive a car or ride a motorcycle would know...

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LPG, Newspaper, and TV

LPG, Newspaper, and TV

Posted by | Jul 24, 2017 | |

Liquified Petroleum Gas At my current weekend sales gig, one of the home appliances that I help “promote” are hobs (stoves). When we sell a hob, we need to ask the customer whether they are using piped PUB gas (aka Town Gas), or using those blue liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders. Of course the majority of customers are using PUB piped gas. I’ve noticed the minority still using LPG are the elderly (60s and above). And learnt something I didn’t know before – there are some ancient HDB flats that have no piped gas installed for the whole block!?...

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