Over the last 6 months, there are not much activities from my stocks.
On my funds, I am glad that both my Lion Global Asia Bond SGD and First State Regional China Fund have done rather well. Since Jan 15, I have also started a regular saving plan and invested $400 to Lion Global Asia Bond every month. I have also put in some money in another new fund: United Global Healthcare Fund. Reason is a no-brainer. This fund has been the most outstanding fund over the last 5 years, giving an annualized 21%. I m glad that over the last 6 months, it has appreciated by 12+%. I have just put in more of my investment funds to this fund. At the same time, I have also invested in a new fund, Amundi Global Luxury & Lifestyle SGD. Unfortunately, this fund is not starting as well as the others and is in the red at the moment.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Update on my Recent Investments Sep 2014
My last post was 1 Nov 2010, nearly 4 years back. That was about the same time which I have not touched my stocks and funds. In fact, i checked my unit trusts transactions and i sold all of my unit trust in Feb 2011 and have not touched a unit trust since....till lately. That showed how busy I was with my full time work.
Anyway, I have kept most of my income earning stocks, mostly reits. Over the last month, I have added OUE Com Reit. I chose this reit because of its price stability and the higher than average yield. Over the last 1 month, it has hovered around my buy price.
I also bought into 2 funds: LionGlobal Asia Bond SGD(SGD) and First State Regional China Fund(SGD). I have been looking for income funds and doing some research on Fundsupermart. These 2 funds looks solid and has been paying out dividends on a very stable basis. Over the last 2-3 weeks since I have these 2 funds, each of them have increased in price between 1-2% and i am happy.
Before i forgot what i had encountered over the last few months, let me just write a bit so that i can remembered what is good or bad and maybe my readers can learn a bit from my experiences.
1) Wine investment from AWI. The presentation sounds great and the Takashimaya vouchers looks better. In the end, I bought into the deal, which are 2 crates of premium wine at $3K. The agreement was that they look to auction it off at a 30% profit for me in Aug 14. I purchased the wine in Jun14. Now, my problem is that the company and my broker/agent has not contacted me. I had a chat with a friend recently and he told he he went into wine investment and was not able to get his money back. So I am not very optimistic about this investment. Will write again if something positive come up of this.
2) I saw in the newspapers about buying a resort room for $35,000 from Castlewood. I have always wanted to invest in properties but have been strapped of cash. I arranged for a meetup and this nice lady gave me a good explanation. The investment's returns and the arrangement sounds great but there is one thing that does not fit my requirements. With the money put in, I do not own the property. I will only own the lease nights of the hotel. There is also an observation which I am surprised. This investment started at least 3 years ago and the hotel is still not completed. And more surprisingly, the company is still selling the lease nights. If the investment model is as good as they sell them, they would have been snapped out within a year. Thus, I did not invest.
3) A good friend introduced me to another guy(YJ). He's great, started a business and have been living from mostly the passive income that comes out of it. He and my friend was trying to talk me into joining them in their business. After listening and hearing the company Amway, I was disappointed. I am still disagreeing with the business model that encourage tiered marketing. But I must say that YJ has been very patience with me and have even lent me some motivational CDs and a book.
My next investment is to put some money into a regular investment fund. One that is stable enough and provides a 5% increase, whether with a price increase or by way of dividends. And I am hopeful to save some money to invest in a Australian property.
Anyway, I have kept most of my income earning stocks, mostly reits. Over the last month, I have added OUE Com Reit. I chose this reit because of its price stability and the higher than average yield. Over the last 1 month, it has hovered around my buy price.
I also bought into 2 funds: LionGlobal Asia Bond SGD(SGD) and First State Regional China Fund(SGD). I have been looking for income funds and doing some research on Fundsupermart. These 2 funds looks solid and has been paying out dividends on a very stable basis. Over the last 2-3 weeks since I have these 2 funds, each of them have increased in price between 1-2% and i am happy.
Before i forgot what i had encountered over the last few months, let me just write a bit so that i can remembered what is good or bad and maybe my readers can learn a bit from my experiences.
1) Wine investment from AWI. The presentation sounds great and the Takashimaya vouchers looks better. In the end, I bought into the deal, which are 2 crates of premium wine at $3K. The agreement was that they look to auction it off at a 30% profit for me in Aug 14. I purchased the wine in Jun14. Now, my problem is that the company and my broker/agent has not contacted me. I had a chat with a friend recently and he told he he went into wine investment and was not able to get his money back. So I am not very optimistic about this investment. Will write again if something positive come up of this.
2) I saw in the newspapers about buying a resort room for $35,000 from Castlewood. I have always wanted to invest in properties but have been strapped of cash. I arranged for a meetup and this nice lady gave me a good explanation. The investment's returns and the arrangement sounds great but there is one thing that does not fit my requirements. With the money put in, I do not own the property. I will only own the lease nights of the hotel. There is also an observation which I am surprised. This investment started at least 3 years ago and the hotel is still not completed. And more surprisingly, the company is still selling the lease nights. If the investment model is as good as they sell them, they would have been snapped out within a year. Thus, I did not invest.
3) A good friend introduced me to another guy(YJ). He's great, started a business and have been living from mostly the passive income that comes out of it. He and my friend was trying to talk me into joining them in their business. After listening and hearing the company Amway, I was disappointed. I am still disagreeing with the business model that encourage tiered marketing. But I must say that YJ has been very patience with me and have even lent me some motivational CDs and a book.
My next investment is to put some money into a regular investment fund. One that is stable enough and provides a 5% increase, whether with a price increase or by way of dividends. And I am hopeful to save some money to invest in a Australian property.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Updates on my Investments 101010
A friend of mine just commented that I have not written on my blogs for a very long time. Yes, I have been lazy. To cover myself a little, I have also been super busy with my new work regime over the last 10 months. In any case, I was not in the mood of working for the last couple of weeks and monitored the market and have been the following investments.
Stocks. As I need to raise some money for my renovation of my new home, I sold my profiting First Reit. It has been one of the best investments which I purchased, giving me on the average 8% yield each year. After the renovations, i monitored the market for good buys. I queued for a few stocks, namely Raffles Education, Pacific Shipping, Starhub, China Aviation, Suntec Reit and my beloved First Reit. For the record, my 1st priority is still to grow high yield stocks. Pacific Shipping, Suntec Reit and Fiest Reit are in that category. Starhub is one of the big chip which offers high yield, about 6-7%. As for Raffles Edu and China Aviation, I felt that both are in the growth industries. I had both these stocks some time ago and felt that both companies should be able to grow. In any case, I have gotten Suntec Reit and Pacific Shipping. First Reit has grown out of my reach. Both Suntec Reit and PacShipping are either breakeven or just slightly up by couple of %. I am now about 85% heavy on Reits and Shipping trusts. Think I have readjust a bit. I am too heavy on First Lease Shipping trust, about 25%. Will reduce my exposure when the price is right. If possible, will reduce to about 15%.
Unit trusts. My existing funds crashed >50% a couple years back and has not recovered. My China fund was the worse hit. Till now, I am still down by 40%. The other funds, ie Legg Mason SEA and AIA Acorns of Asia, are both still down by about 7-8%. I have read a no. of articles about yield or income funds. After doing a bit of research on Fundsupermart, I went in and purchase some Pru Mthly Income Plan Cl A. It seems to have a good record and I am thinking of transferring my Cash Fund money to this fund. I have also purchased LionGlobal Thailand and Schroder AS Gold&Metals A Acc SGD. I made small investments each for these 2 funds due to the good reviews and the fantastic run ups over the last few months. As expected, over the last 2 weeks, both these 2 funds have increased by 4+% each. Right now, I am considering to have some regular investments into a fund, ie putting a fix amount of money into a fund every month. Right now, my heart is to Schroder AS Gold&Metals A Acc SGD, as gold is much more stable than any other sectors or industries.
With my recent purchase of the high yield stocks, I have yet to achieve $1000 in yield every 3 months. My aim is to have $1000 in yield every month. This means that I have to put in about 300% of my existing capital into the stock market to achieve that aim.
Stocks. As I need to raise some money for my renovation of my new home, I sold my profiting First Reit. It has been one of the best investments which I purchased, giving me on the average 8% yield each year. After the renovations, i monitored the market for good buys. I queued for a few stocks, namely Raffles Education, Pacific Shipping, Starhub, China Aviation, Suntec Reit and my beloved First Reit. For the record, my 1st priority is still to grow high yield stocks. Pacific Shipping, Suntec Reit and Fiest Reit are in that category. Starhub is one of the big chip which offers high yield, about 6-7%. As for Raffles Edu and China Aviation, I felt that both are in the growth industries. I had both these stocks some time ago and felt that both companies should be able to grow. In any case, I have gotten Suntec Reit and Pacific Shipping. First Reit has grown out of my reach. Both Suntec Reit and PacShipping are either breakeven or just slightly up by couple of %. I am now about 85% heavy on Reits and Shipping trusts. Think I have readjust a bit. I am too heavy on First Lease Shipping trust, about 25%. Will reduce my exposure when the price is right. If possible, will reduce to about 15%.
Unit trusts. My existing funds crashed >50% a couple years back and has not recovered. My China fund was the worse hit. Till now, I am still down by 40%. The other funds, ie Legg Mason SEA and AIA Acorns of Asia, are both still down by about 7-8%. I have read a no. of articles about yield or income funds. After doing a bit of research on Fundsupermart, I went in and purchase some Pru Mthly Income Plan Cl A. It seems to have a good record and I am thinking of transferring my Cash Fund money to this fund. I have also purchased LionGlobal Thailand and Schroder AS Gold&Metals A Acc SGD. I made small investments each for these 2 funds due to the good reviews and the fantastic run ups over the last few months. As expected, over the last 2 weeks, both these 2 funds have increased by 4+% each. Right now, I am considering to have some regular investments into a fund, ie putting a fix amount of money into a fund every month. Right now, my heart is to Schroder AS Gold&Metals A Acc SGD, as gold is much more stable than any other sectors or industries.
With my recent purchase of the high yield stocks, I have yet to achieve $1000 in yield every 3 months. My aim is to have $1000 in yield every month. This means that I have to put in about 300% of my existing capital into the stock market to achieve that aim.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Passive income through Dividends
Passive income is broadly defined as money coming into your pocket without you working for it. You may have worked at the start or have put money at the start of the business but you no longer works for the money.
For me, I have a goal of getting passive income through the dividends from my stock portfolio. After doing some calculations, i realised that though it is easy to earn money via dividends, it is not easy to have dividends enough to cover my expenses.
For an illustration, let's assume you need $2,000 as your monthly expenses. This means that you would need $24,000 to be credited into your bank account every year. At this moment, for blue chips, i believe the average dividends is about 4-5%. Let's take 5%. If 5% is $24,000, it means you would need to put in $480,000 in the 1st place. For those of you who have that type of money, please ignore my blog, i don't think this is suitable for you. If you think you can slowly accumulate, you can but it would take a long long time. Let's assume that you are 30 years old. If your goal is to have $2,000 as dividends by the age of 50, you would need to save $24,000 per year, which also means saving $2,000 a month. I am not sure how many of you can save $2,000 a month, but i sure can't.
After pouring enough water over your initial fire, I am here to say that though it is hard, there is a faster way. This method has the compounding effect. Let's say your initial capital is $10,000. After the 1st year, you would have $10,000 still in your portfolio(assuming market is stagnant) and the $500 as your dividends. At the start of your 2nd year, assuming you save $10,000 each year, you would have $20,500 as your portfolio. Every time you get your dividends(which will be always increasing), put everything back into your dividend earning portfolio.
With this method, you would be surprised at the rate that the dividends are able to grow. If you saved $10,000 a year, you will have $200,000 in 20 years. Using my method, assuming no change in the stock market prices and the dividends is held steady at 5% pa, you will have $357,192.52 in 20 years. That is a difference of $157,192.52, which is 78.6% more than the normal savings. So what do you think?
For me, I have a goal of getting passive income through the dividends from my stock portfolio. After doing some calculations, i realised that though it is easy to earn money via dividends, it is not easy to have dividends enough to cover my expenses.
For an illustration, let's assume you need $2,000 as your monthly expenses. This means that you would need $24,000 to be credited into your bank account every year. At this moment, for blue chips, i believe the average dividends is about 4-5%. Let's take 5%. If 5% is $24,000, it means you would need to put in $480,000 in the 1st place. For those of you who have that type of money, please ignore my blog, i don't think this is suitable for you. If you think you can slowly accumulate, you can but it would take a long long time. Let's assume that you are 30 years old. If your goal is to have $2,000 as dividends by the age of 50, you would need to save $24,000 per year, which also means saving $2,000 a month. I am not sure how many of you can save $2,000 a month, but i sure can't.
After pouring enough water over your initial fire, I am here to say that though it is hard, there is a faster way. This method has the compounding effect. Let's say your initial capital is $10,000. After the 1st year, you would have $10,000 still in your portfolio(assuming market is stagnant) and the $500 as your dividends. At the start of your 2nd year, assuming you save $10,000 each year, you would have $20,500 as your portfolio. Every time you get your dividends(which will be always increasing), put everything back into your dividend earning portfolio.
With this method, you would be surprised at the rate that the dividends are able to grow. If you saved $10,000 a year, you will have $200,000 in 20 years. Using my method, assuming no change in the stock market prices and the dividends is held steady at 5% pa, you will have $357,192.52 in 20 years. That is a difference of $157,192.52, which is 78.6% more than the normal savings. So what do you think?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The Mass Misinformed
I am reading "Creating Wealth" by Robert Allen and the 1st page wrote about this message that I think is very true, yet most people don't see it as a problem in the present society. Quote Josh Billings "The trouble with people is not that they don't know, but they know so much that just ain't so."
In this age that we live in, information is "fast and furious". Information flows continuously and is available to anyone with a computer. The old school of thought often taught us to enrich our minds with more information. Yes, I do agree but when you do find information, please filter the good and bad information before depositing into your mind.
In terms of investments, a lot of people i know "invest" on the basis of heresay. They listen to their guru friends, listen to so-call stock experts on TV, newspapers and magazines on their tips to the next growth stock or a fund. To me, I do listen or read such reports, but with a lot of salt. I do agree with some experts when they say that if the news get printed or go on air, it's old news. Furthermore, one can also see that a lot of the experts and "investment houses" are just going with the flow of the market. When it's a bull market, just pick any stock and says it's good and more than likely, the price do go up. But once the price start to nosedive, these "experts" will suddenly change their tack and give all sorts of excuses.
We do live in the information age and due tot he massive inflow of information we receive every day, we are bias towards a certain direction, no matter if it's true of false. For example, for the 1st half of 2007, the construction sector here was a massive boom and the prices of all construction companies shot up to their highs. But if you do some simple calculations, the prices are unsustainable. Some stocks were trading at >100X P/E, when it should be <30X. But due to the positive inflow of information from all medias, this sector was the darling of everyone.
It is not what we do not know. On the contary, we do know a lot, sometimes too much. Most importantly, it is what we know that is not true or inaccurate. We base our decisions on what we know and if what we know is not true, we make the wrong decisions.
Think I really have to filter the information i get everyday.
In this age that we live in, information is "fast and furious". Information flows continuously and is available to anyone with a computer. The old school of thought often taught us to enrich our minds with more information. Yes, I do agree but when you do find information, please filter the good and bad information before depositing into your mind.
In terms of investments, a lot of people i know "invest" on the basis of heresay. They listen to their guru friends, listen to so-call stock experts on TV, newspapers and magazines on their tips to the next growth stock or a fund. To me, I do listen or read such reports, but with a lot of salt. I do agree with some experts when they say that if the news get printed or go on air, it's old news. Furthermore, one can also see that a lot of the experts and "investment houses" are just going with the flow of the market. When it's a bull market, just pick any stock and says it's good and more than likely, the price do go up. But once the price start to nosedive, these "experts" will suddenly change their tack and give all sorts of excuses.
We do live in the information age and due tot he massive inflow of information we receive every day, we are bias towards a certain direction, no matter if it's true of false. For example, for the 1st half of 2007, the construction sector here was a massive boom and the prices of all construction companies shot up to their highs. But if you do some simple calculations, the prices are unsustainable. Some stocks were trading at >100X P/E, when it should be <30X. But due to the positive inflow of information from all medias, this sector was the darling of everyone.
It is not what we do not know. On the contary, we do know a lot, sometimes too much. Most importantly, it is what we know that is not true or inaccurate. We base our decisions on what we know and if what we know is not true, we make the wrong decisions.
Think I really have to filter the information i get everyday.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
What to do with $4k?
Whoopie, I have just gotten my bonus and I should have $4k to invest.
After evaluating my choices, I decided to put this money into high yield stocks rather than speculative or growth stocks due to volality of the current market. Before I go into teh high yield stocks that I am eyeing on, I would just want to write about the 2 growth stocks which has reached my buying price. One is Contel and the other is UOL. Contel has been in my watchlist for a while and I have seen it going from 16c to the present 8c. It has also broke its 52 wks price of 8c but recovered to 8c. UOL has the backing of the Wee family and news that he bought a sustaintiate amount a couple months back at about $3.60 puts this stock into my watchlist. It has been see-sawing between the prices of $3.50 to $4. And 2 days ago, it broke my buying price of $3.50. I will monitor these 2 stocks further before i make a move.
For the high yield stocks, as you can read from my previous blog, I am holding 4 of them, of which 2 were bought using my CPF. One criteria for myself is to diversify the sectors. Currently, my four stocks are a) FSL, which is leasing ships, b) Cambridge, leasing warehouse and industrial properties, c) First Reits, which lease hospitals and homes in Indonesia, Spore and China, and lastly d) LMIR, leasing of malls in Indonesia. I am interested to get some Spore Reits but their yield is low as compared to those I am holding.
Out of the 4 stocks, I will not add to FSL as I think I have quite enough of cash tied to that. Cambridge is on the rage due to rumours of bigger Reits buying it over. I have very little First Reits and would like to up the amount and also to average down my buy price. LMIR has the lowest price of all the 4 stocks.
I feel that out of the 4 stocks, LMIR has the least potential as there isn't much activity about what they want to do. First Reits has expanded into Spore and China since IPO and I feel hospitality is a good business to be in. Cambridge has an advantage of getting bought over, so it has a short-mid term positiveness about the business. FSL has the most activities from its buying and leasing ships and furthermore, the price has appreciated and dividends is one of the highest.
After considerations, I will try to buy First Reits 1st. If I can't get at my preferred price, I will try Cambridge and lastly LMIR. Wish me luck!
After evaluating my choices, I decided to put this money into high yield stocks rather than speculative or growth stocks due to volality of the current market. Before I go into teh high yield stocks that I am eyeing on, I would just want to write about the 2 growth stocks which has reached my buying price. One is Contel and the other is UOL. Contel has been in my watchlist for a while and I have seen it going from 16c to the present 8c. It has also broke its 52 wks price of 8c but recovered to 8c. UOL has the backing of the Wee family and news that he bought a sustaintiate amount a couple months back at about $3.60 puts this stock into my watchlist. It has been see-sawing between the prices of $3.50 to $4. And 2 days ago, it broke my buying price of $3.50. I will monitor these 2 stocks further before i make a move.
For the high yield stocks, as you can read from my previous blog, I am holding 4 of them, of which 2 were bought using my CPF. One criteria for myself is to diversify the sectors. Currently, my four stocks are a) FSL, which is leasing ships, b) Cambridge, leasing warehouse and industrial properties, c) First Reits, which lease hospitals and homes in Indonesia, Spore and China, and lastly d) LMIR, leasing of malls in Indonesia. I am interested to get some Spore Reits but their yield is low as compared to those I am holding.
Out of the 4 stocks, I will not add to FSL as I think I have quite enough of cash tied to that. Cambridge is on the rage due to rumours of bigger Reits buying it over. I have very little First Reits and would like to up the amount and also to average down my buy price. LMIR has the lowest price of all the 4 stocks.
I feel that out of the 4 stocks, LMIR has the least potential as there isn't much activity about what they want to do. First Reits has expanded into Spore and China since IPO and I feel hospitality is a good business to be in. Cambridge has an advantage of getting bought over, so it has a short-mid term positiveness about the business. FSL has the most activities from its buying and leasing ships and furthermore, the price has appreciated and dividends is one of the highest.
After considerations, I will try to buy First Reits 1st. If I can't get at my preferred price, I will try Cambridge and lastly LMIR. Wish me luck!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
My Buys and Sells for Last Half Year
I have not written in this blog for 9 full months and am pretty ashamed of it. The last 9 months was bad for my investments as the markets tanked. During this period of time, my main investments were:
1) Stocks.
A) Buying of warrants which I failed miserably. I started buying warrants using swing momentum and was gaining a bit, but when the markets start to get irrational, my winnings was wiped out in a blink of the eye and got into more losses. My weakness is that I often do not get out of a losing trade. Mainly trading in HSI warrants under Macquarie.
B) The other investments I have made, which I have gathered and will accumulate, are the high yield stocks. Mainly the reits or shipping trusts. Presently, I have First Reits, Lippo Maple Infrastructure Reits, Cambridge Industrial and First Shipping Lease Trust. My priority is to get the highest yielding stock. Currently, these stocks are giving at least 8%pa dividends. My aim is to accumulate enough to get some passive income from these stocks. Target is $10k/yr from dividends by 2015(7-8yrs).
2) Funds
The funds did badly over the whole period. I made the mistake of putting money into a China fund and it is now <70%.>30%. I have also supported a friend, who has just joined the insurance field by buying a couple of funds. I have not monitored the funds but I know it is losing money.
3) Lastly, over the last few months, I chanced upon an investment which is a bit controversial. It's basically a high yield deposit. As the "bank" does not have the reputation to guarantee the amount, it puts down a collateral to the depositor. I have tried with small amounts over the last few months and have received the interest and gotten back the principal.
I have a few stocks under my radar and is itching to buy but i am very tight in cash. Moreover, I heard that the market has a good possibility of going down again. Thus, I am staying put. When I have the money, I will put most of it in my yield stocks first before considering the others.
1) Stocks.
A) Buying of warrants which I failed miserably. I started buying warrants using swing momentum and was gaining a bit, but when the markets start to get irrational, my winnings was wiped out in a blink of the eye and got into more losses. My weakness is that I often do not get out of a losing trade. Mainly trading in HSI warrants under Macquarie.
B) The other investments I have made, which I have gathered and will accumulate, are the high yield stocks. Mainly the reits or shipping trusts. Presently, I have First Reits, Lippo Maple Infrastructure Reits, Cambridge Industrial and First Shipping Lease Trust. My priority is to get the highest yielding stock. Currently, these stocks are giving at least 8%pa dividends. My aim is to accumulate enough to get some passive income from these stocks. Target is $10k/yr from dividends by 2015(7-8yrs).
2) Funds
The funds did badly over the whole period. I made the mistake of putting money into a China fund and it is now <70%.>30%. I have also supported a friend, who has just joined the insurance field by buying a couple of funds. I have not monitored the funds but I know it is losing money.
3) Lastly, over the last few months, I chanced upon an investment which is a bit controversial. It's basically a high yield deposit. As the "bank" does not have the reputation to guarantee the amount, it puts down a collateral to the depositor. I have tried with small amounts over the last few months and have received the interest and gotten back the principal.
I have a few stocks under my radar and is itching to buy but i am very tight in cash. Moreover, I heard that the market has a good possibility of going down again. Thus, I am staying put. When I have the money, I will put most of it in my yield stocks first before considering the others.
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