Rainbow on FI

The Human Side of Investing - Uncle8888's blog, excerpt from Robert Huebscher "One of my favorite adages is this one: Never forget the six-foot tall man who drowned crossing the river that was five feet deep on average. The important thing to remember about investing is that it is not sufficient to set up a portfolio that will survive on average. The key is to survive at the low ends. It is the “I know” school who concentrate and leverage and so forth, who got into trouble in 2008. It was leverage in particular that prevented people from making it through the low points, and that is what we must do. In particular, most investors ignore the possibility of extreme outcomes – the so-called back swans, the things that have never happened before, or happened so infrequently that they are dismissed." --- The Anatomy of Annoying "My biggest takeaway is that the key leap wasn’t in discovering that the sounds came from a radiator. The lesson is that acting like it comes fr...

"Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday (Aug 18) that these changes, which were recommended by a tripartite workgroup and accepted in full by the Government, "will support older workers to continue working longer and to be more financially independent". He announced at the National Day Rally that the statutory retirement age will go up to 63 in 2022, and eventually to 65 by 2030. The re-employment age will also go up from 67 now to 68 in 2022, and eventually to 70 by 2030." Source:  https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/national-day-rally-2019-retirement-age-to-go-up-to-65-older-workers-cpf-rates-to-be-raised 活到老，做到老? Would the future silver generations have the mental and physical health to do so?  Statutory retirement age going up but trending 'dream' retirement age going down. Younger generations hoping to be FIRE (financial independent and retire early). Which social norm would prevail come 2030? Hmm... we ponde...

This week's reads (they are kind of random): Cramer: Don’t break these rules if you want your stock portfolio to make money Panic is not a strategy There is always a better time to sell than into the maelstrom Stay away from after-hours trading Check your emotions at the door Don’t sell all at once Investors can hide out in domestic stocks from the China trade war “What we are focusing on with our clients now... are companies that are more domestically facing in terms of the source of their revenue,” Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin, There's another article that advised investing in companies that generate revenue from services rather, which suffer less impact from the tariffs raise. Definitive Guide to Dividend Withholding Tax in Stock & Passive Investing (by Investment Moat) He did a wonderful write-up demystifying withholding tax and these are the areas covered: Tax When Money Flows out of the Country ...

This post is not related to finance or investments.  I was reading this interview transcript (warning: it's loooong) by Tim Ferriss (the author of 4-hour work week) on Tony Robbins a couple of days ago and found the below highly enlightening. Worth a read if you are interested. [Source: https://tim.blog/2018/06/06/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts-tony-robbins-on-achievement-versus-fulfillment/ ] "The reason you’re suffering is you’re focused on yourself. You’re obsessing on yourself. People tell me, “I’m not suffering that way. I’m worrying about my kids. My kids are not what they need to be.” No, the reason they’re upset is they feel they failed their kids. It’s about them still. In fact, I began to uncover where all suffering comes from. I found the simplest little tools. I dug in. Suffering comes from three thought patterns: loss, less, never . If you are in a situation where you believe that someone did something – the government, your friend, your co-wo...

Is this a phase of consolidation before coming to a waterfall? This month did not start well with Trump's new tariff slap on China. Just as I was gloating over a 12% gain on my Capitaland's shares, the gain has quickly plummeted by more than half in the blink of an eye before I could react.  Obviously I didn't learn my lesson too well. My Equity portfolio on the whole is still afloat. Generally speaking, if one uses the war chest to buy good dividend stocks during sales (that's why I say market timing matters ), one's portfolio would have a higher margin of safety to weather a market downturn. Are we at a market downturn? Hmm we are probably nowhere near signs of waterfall yet... (although by the time we catch sight of it, it's often too late to react). Let us take a brief glance at the highest to lowest points during STI plunges over the past 10 years. 3189 (07/2011) to 2646 (12/2011)   -17% 3487 (04/2015) to 2539 (02/2...

Good readings are like old adage - they never go outdated but market news do. What I am reading this weekend: Beware of Geeks Bearing Formulas "Over-reliance on flawed models has hurt people over and over and over again. Beware of geeks bearing formulas!" John Neff - a Fifty Seven Bagger! "It's ironic that at the time time Neff published his book in 1999, one of the greatest investment bubbles in history was approaching its climactic end point. In the book's final chapter titled 'De Ja Vu', Neff noted the S&P500 was trading at 28 times offering just a 1% yield. And although, Neff could not see the typical warning signs he looked for, [capital expenditures, inventories and consumer debt] he recognized the risks..." A Margin of Safety "The most important piece of information when buying a stock (or any asset) is — the price you pay. That’s right. Even with bad management, terrible growth, and bad profitability, ...