Rainbow on FI

In view of the Skillsfuture Credit kicking into effect from this year, SG citizens age 25 and above are given $500 to kickstart learning. Since it's free lunch given by 'ah gong' (sg government), why not? BUT before you excitedly start signing for courses around, you might want to first find out what courses are eligible for the $500 subsidy. Check out the list here  http://www.skillsfuture.sg/credit . What courses can help you improve on financial literacy or understand investing better? Check them out here: https://portal.wda.gov.sg/content/wda/course-search-directory.html?CourseTitle=finance https://portal.wda.gov.sg/content/wda/course-search-directory.html?CourseTitle=invest SIM modular courses: http://www.unisim.edu.sg/CET/Documents/SkillsFuture%20Courses%202015.pdf You could also check out SGX Academy for more investment courses (may need to verify against the course list on Skillsfuture for eligibility). Some of them are FOC. Happy learning!

To deliver excellent Customer Service in FMCG retail is hard. It is even harder than doing so in burger chains. You don't believe it? Go and try working in one instead of being a customer who just observe. At the burger chains, the Counter Staff multi-tasking duty revolves around two things - cashiering and passing the correct prepared food to customers. If you go to the big shopping malls these days, you might have noticed that most of the fast-food chains are evolving their services. Mcdonald's and KFC starts to have separate cashiering and serving counters plus automated self-order kiosks, instead of the old school way of multi-tasking. I haven't been to Burger King frequent enough but I do know that the one at Kallang Wave Mall has the same layout with a digital Q number screen long before I see MCD's. It is also a form of optimising their 'production line' to speed up sales (many POS versus 1 service counter). On the other hand, staff working at small...

Some time back last year, I briefly penned a post Time or Money?  at a point when I was gloomiest about work. Today incidentally, I caught something interesting in the book 4-hour Workweek : "People don’t want to be millionaires—they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy. Ski chalets, butlers, and exotic travel often enter the picture. Perhaps rubbing cocoa butter on your belly in a hammock while you listen to waves rhythmically lapping against the deck of your thatchedroof bungalow? Sounds nice.  $1,000,000 in the bank isn’t the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows. The question is then, How can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom without first having $1,000,000?" This set me thinking.

[First published on 03/09/2014] It became a slow burning question after I have embarked on my investment journey for some time. Why? Because it's all too easy to buy but when it comes to selling... it's a different story. "Buy because of the price but don't sell for the price . Sell because it's value has depreciated or there's a better value investment elsewhere to park your money." In essence, I have categorized the reasons for us to sell below... Internal factors that determine selling of your shares P/E ratio goes sky high P/B ratio goes sky high Eroding fundamentals of the company External factors that determine selling of your shares Poor outlook of business sector eg. competitive edge has worn off, declining industry It is at a downside of a business cycle (for cyclical businesses) In macroeconomics point of view, when market sentiment is turning bad -share prices can't break through long term resistance and start to break throu...

I used the DBS retirement calculator here . And discovered I need at least $ 1 million to retire if I want to retire 20 years from now (that's in 2036). Assuming I spend only 60% of my current income on retirement.  (I suspect the system didn't take into account any prospective pay rise or maybe it just assume a flat inflation rate of an unknown x% for all the current figures. My shortfall predicted at $xxx,xxx with a beautiful chart representation.) So what now ?

I borrowed this book from the library last week by chance. It is the third book of the famous Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. If you expected it to be your usual FA TA book then you would be sorely disappointed. I find it more of a pep talk book - to help in adjusting the reader's mindset to think rich. The first couple of chapters in the book reminded me of SMOL 's favourite line "come have a kopi and char shao bao...". Then it goes on saying one should get to know oneself and what type investor one wants to be.

My mom likes to call playing the stock market gambling. I rebutted that it is NOT gambling, because you know the cards dealt to you and there is the element of control which is absent most of the time in gambling. This 4D is not your toto 4D. These 4Ds are well within your control . Don't catch a falling knife. Don't capitulate (too late) when there's a sell-down frenzy. Don't try to average down, especially with margin. Cos this is like number 1+2 combo which equates money suicide.  But is short-selling with CFD a good idea? Do diversify. Do not put all excess cash into 1 stocks, do not make up your portfolio with only stocks, do not buy stocks from only one market or sector. If you don't know which to pick, ETF is a good choice.