Rainbow on FI

"The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, owns no cars. The world’s most popular media company, Facebook, creates no content. The world’s most valuable retailer, Alibaba, carries no stock. And the world’s largest accommodation provider, Airbnb, owns no property. Something big is going on." "But business relationships do not stay stable, particularly if there are huge profits involved. So now we would see the battle of the existing interfaces, with each extending beyond their initial footprint to try to win more territory. So Facebook goes into news, Twitter into television and so on. And because they can be so profitable we will see more and more challenger interfaces, each trying to find some way to get their icon on to your mobile phone or iPad." The above are taken from an  article published in 2015 . Today we can see evidently how these 'new generation' intermediary companies have changed the way we used to do things - in a relatively short time-span, an...

I would stay... 1. Keppel Corp (sold one-third of holdings with loss @ $6.19) Bought in Aug 2015 @ $7.50 Current $7.75 (Missed upside 25%^ ) 2. CDL Hospitality Trust (sold with no gain) Bought in Apr 2016 @ $1.40 Current $1.64 (Missed upside 17% ) 3. DBS (sold with gain at $20.55) Bought in Mar 2016 @ $15.35 Current $25 (Missed upside 21.6% ) ^Missed upside is calculated by the difference in current price and sold price / sold price. ------ Stop loss, Cut loss, Take profit, inaction  all depend on our MENTAL STRENGTH , SKILL and PATIENCE . ------- Why did I sell those stocks away even though they have good fundamentals? I seriously thought I could catch a short-term correction to buy back at a lower price than when I sold. Alas, Mr market didn't give me that opportunity and just ramped on. *** Related post: If only I could turn back time II

1. Money Money and work are closely intertwined. The base of most work is to put bread on the table, for satisfying our physiological and safety needs under the  Maslow's hierarchy of needs . As we climb up the Maslow pyramid, we will start to attain the kind of lifestyle we want and use it to achieve some kind of self-fulfillment. But up to a point, the effect of money may start to exhibit a diminishing rate of return  on these. Whereas for some, the pursuit of money may be like a game. More money = more score = sense of achievement. Money's also the main reason why so many are interested in personal finance and investment to achieve FIRE. 2. Sense of Purpose / Responsibility (aka 使命感) This is the "mission" part. It comes about when you discover a problem that you need to solve for yourself or others. It may or not may be what you like to do. But you know that you just have got to do it. 3. Passion and love I guess this is the strongest motivator of all.  Wha...

My old guide for equity holding %: Straits Time index Tier% Equity holding % above 3800 90 3600 80 20 3400 70 30 3200 60 40 3000 50 50 2800 40 60 2600 30 70 2400 20 80 2200 10 90 1800 0 100 below 1600 impossible? This is an 'off-loading' concept - meaning that when the stock market gets over-heated, we retrieve back part of our capital as war chest and wait for suitable opportunities, eg. when STI drops, to build our position again in equities. We can use that in conjunction with Technical Analysis rather than blindly 'catching falling knife' when there is a market downturn. My revised % in a bigger bear market: STI level Warchest deployment % above 3500 0 3000 10 2300-2500 25 2000-2200 50 below 1800 100 You can adjust the % upward or downward accordin...

Learning points from this book: In the long-run (the author used data of US traded stocks over 86 years), low-volatility stocks are shown to give a higher return. Comparing portfolios of varying volatility - as volatility increased from 13% to about 20%, compounded return increased. As the volatility increased further beyond 25%, compounded return declined. How to select the right low-volatility stocks? Look at Beta less than 1 the stock's income yield and momentum (price trend) People who underreact to news when it comes in gradually run the risk of being 'boiled' (boiling frog syndrome). The selection of low-volatility stocks can be applied to other investment vehicles as well e.g bonds.  Hold if the above three points still hold true while reviewing your portfolio. *** A fairly simple to read book, with simple concepts and no 'cheem' investment theories. The back chapters talked about some zen which I fell asleep reading.