What is fair or not fair?

First story.

An employee signs an employment contract with an employer whose official working hours start from 9am to 6pm (5 days a week). In the contract, there's a small clause that states that the employee may be required to work overtime occasionally during peak period. The employee comes to work everyday at 9.10am and goes back home at 6.30pm.

Fair or not fair?

Second story.

A young couple who was recently married and are both working full-time discusses the amount they should contribute to the household. Not knowing what methodology to use, they decided to use the percentage of income method at the beginning. Since the husband is earning 20% higher income than the wife, the husband should contribute a corresponding 20% higher expenses than the wife.

Fair or not fair?

Third story.

A young man who is very close to his mum since young, gets married to his childhood sweetheart. Even though he treats both equally well, there is always a disparity in the eyes of who is number one or two. Some might argue on the theory of unconditional love - giving without asking for return.

Fair or not fair?

What was your experience dealing with Investor Relations?

I had started my new role at a new company a few weeks ago and I enjoyed some of the detailed learning which I've never really encountered in my previous work experience. Sadly, one of our portfolio analyst is resigning and due to the small organizational structure of the company the CEO had asked me to take over his role as an investor relations.

The Scope of Investor Relation?

So what is exactly the role of an investor relations?

Here are some of the main purpose why an investor relations department is set up in a company:

Bridging communication between the investment community and management

Providing feedback amongst Internal communication

Liaise with external parties (existing/potential shareholders, analysts, media) to provide value creation by adopting an open and transparency approach. 

In the past, I've always wanted to try out the investor relations role one way or another, thinking what they did was fun and easy. That was until his handover to me last week. The investor relations role can be quite tough and grumpy. Not only I had to deal with various regulatory SGX and MAS compliance, but I also went through the list of questions that some of the investors had asked and it can be range from pretty irrelevant to really daunting types of questions. 

For example, some of the easier questions I saw in the email was "What does the company do?" Or, "Where can I find the annual report of the company?"

Some of the harder questions include questions relating to very specific details such as the tenure of the specific loan or the hedging interest rates or the incumbent use of the SPCs, etc. The thing about answering these type of questions is not only do you need to understand the background of the specific operations well but also to go through the CEO for approval before replying - this can be pretty tiring since there are tons of questions in the mailbox :(

Dealing with an investor relation can be pretty rewarding at times. By liaising with them directly, you can gain insightful information which you might have missed when you are researching otherwise. Having said that, the information gathered must not be something that has not been publicly disclosed. So it can be hard to draw the lines at times.

So the next time you see those quarterly presentations on the SGX website and replies from your company's investor relation, do appreciate what they do. It is not as easy a job as I thought it would be.


What was your experience with an investor relation? Please share.

How much do you really need to open a restaurant/cafe in Singapore?

You're a fresh grad out of university or you're one of those who have been dreaming about opening a restaurant or cafe and now you're raring to go to make your dreams come true. I have once been in this position - trying to live my glamorous dream, but yet not too sure on whether I had enough money to start off.

How much do you really need to budget your costs before setting up your restaurant or cafe?

This weekend I have the privilege to meet up with one of my former classmate who has been in the F&B business for the past couple of years. Through our conversation, I managed to gather some important considerations which I hope will help those who are thinking of setting up their own F&B business.

Before we start, I would like to present the hard truth figure to those who thinks of the glamorous successful rate of the F&B business. Based on the statistics over the past 10 years, slightly more than 70% of new businesses fail in the first year and about 90% of them fail in the next 3 years. That leaves us with only 1 out of 10 who are in existence after 3 years or more. One can remember that restaurants that have closed recently include Wok & Barrel, Preparazzi, Tea Cosy, One on the Bund and many more.

Budget Calculation

One of the main contribution for the high failure rate is usually due to either the underplanning of the costs or being over optimistic on the sales front.

When I talked to my ex-classmate, he mentioned that the budgeting for F&B business are usually bottom-up - which means that we need to calculate the fixed and variable costs such as rent and raw materials and work our way up to determine the sales figure. Obviously, the lower the operating costs the higher chances you are likely to be successful in your business. So let's analyze deeper the importance of each components.

Rent

Rental costs are usually the killer factor we have in Singapore. One can look at a few owned Reits malls such as CMT or FCT and you can see how they are consistently revising their rental rates to increase their DPU and value to unitholders. 

Based on Williams, Richard in his valuation journal in 2002, he mentioned that restaurant owners cannot afford to pay more than 5% to 8% of the total gross sales in rent if one is to be successful in the long term. In the Singapore context, my friend argued that it is virtually impossible to get the rent rate this low and he estimated the figure to be closer to 10% of total gross sales, unless the place warrant a premium of competitive advantage such as sea view or no competitor within the 2.5km radius, then it would make sense to add a percent or two more on top of it.

For example, the average price psf on Plaza Singapura is around $14/psf. So if you are looking to lease a small shop for your cafe at around 800 sqft, you are looking easily at around $11,200/month in rent. Taking the 10% rule, this means that you should be expecting around $112,000 in gross sales for the month or $1.34 million per annum. If you are looking to charge your customers at around $20 per customer, your breakeven point would be at  183 customers/day.

Some landlord will propose a variable component on top of the fixed rent. So you might get something like $6,000 + 5 % of sales. In this case, your rental costs are no longer fixed and have to bear in mind the variable components involved.

Food (Raw Materials)

The general rule of thumb is your costs for the food and other raw materials should never exceeds 35% or 1/3 of your overall gross sales. Price is always a sensitive factor to the consumers and not something that can be easily passed down to your consumers even if the price of your raw materials is up. To ensure that you get the cheapest deal, ensure that you have a network of vendors who are willing to work long term with you in times of good and bad economy. Having said that, it is important not to compromise cheap for quality as this will backfire in the long run.

Labor Costs

Labor costs are another difficult component to handle especially in Singapore. The labor tight crunch means that you probably need to hire foreign workers who are willing to dedicate service and the right attitude to the customers. The general rule of thumb is these costs should not exceeds 30% of your overall gross sales. Think of ways on how you can save costs by using automated service, e.g there are a few Japanese restaurants who are using IPAD for order and delivery of the food. The more you can save these costs at start, the higher likelihood you are going to succeed in your business.

Other Intangibles

These intangibles such as service, attitude, timeliness of the delivery and consistent quality of the food are key important ingredients to customer's brand loyalty. Often, many restaurants and cafes neglected on these aspects which can prove to be costly to the business in the long run. With Facebook, Tweeter and Instragam highly dominant in the modern technology of our everyday lives, the word of mouth can spread rather quickly for your business - either good or bad.

Sample P&L done by B

I am not an expert in this business but I think it is interesting to understand how the successful of an entrepreneur goes back to how prudent he is on the budgeting. As with investing, the higher the margin of safety, the higher chances you are likely to be the one standing out in times of adversity.

The next time you want to venture out opening a restaurant of cafe, ask yourself again, how well have you prepared?

IREIT Global - IPO Review

Markets seem to be bullish as there are more IPOs coming in the 2nd half of the year than the first.

Today, we look at the latest REIT IPO  - IREIT GLOBAL.

To give a little bit of some of the macro background on this IPO in case you have not read the prospectus. They are the first SGX listed office REIT with an investment mandate solely focused on Europe, with an initial 4 properties located in Germany (Bonn, Darmstadt, Munster, Munich).

Also, based on the Q1 data, it appears that the office market is in the upward trend of the accelerating phase, which makes it favorable if you are in the landlord position. Again, all this would depend back on the macro factor of the economy. The consensus believes that the recent ECB interventions - particularly its pledge to support the sovereign bond markets through the OMT facility - have effectively quashed the near term risk of the eurozone disintegrating and will pave the way for stabilisation of the eurozone over the next 5 years.

Forecasted and Projection Financial Statements

Based on the forecasted and projection income statement from FY 2014 - 2016, it appears that they are forecasting DPU CAGR growth of around 5% from 2014 to 2015 and beyond. Interest Coverage ratio stands at around 7x while DPU is at 7.6% for FY2014 and 8% for FY2015 and beyond based on 100% distribution of earnings.

What I like about the Reit?

1.) The projected yield of 8% (if projections are met)

2.) The 4 properties are freehold in nature and purchased only recently (still new)

3.) Latest market valuation of the assets are largely in line (EUR 284.1 M) with the historical purchase cost (EUR 283.1 M)

4.) Average WALE of about 7.6 years and 100% committed occupancy for all the 4 properties

4.) Committed strategic partner (owned by Mr. Tong) and include the first and second lock up period for the next 18 months

5.) Management fee structure directly linked to DPU growth (aligned with unitholder's interest) rather than asset value or NPI.

What I dislike about the Reit?

1.) EURO risk - EU breakdown still possibility with uncertainty in Portugal and Italy

2.) Forex risk - The projection yield of 8% is based on a projected forex of EUR1: SGD1.70. Note that during the 2011 Euro crisis, the rate goes as high as EUR1: SGD 1.85. If this happens, this will severely affects the DPU projection.

3.) 100% committed occupancy means there is unlikely to be further upside surprise. Projected growth is expected to come from revised rental lease.

4.) Listing price is above NAV which is at 78 cents.

Conclusion

For a quick comparison amongst foreign asset listed reits, we can take a look at both Ascendas Hospitality Trust (AHT) and Lippo Mall Indonesia Retail Trust (LMRIT) even though they may be in different industries. AHT was listed at 88 cents and have since gone down the hill due to unfavorable forex rate. Similarly, unitholders of LMRIT have also suffered due to unfavorable rate of the rupiah. It is never easy to have your earnings denominated in foreign currency.

I also question the need to have the reit listed in singapore. Due to favorable reits environment we have over here, we are always attracting funds raising over here. The cost of capital might also be low here which makes sense for them to pursue.

At 8% yield the projected yield may seem to interest investors while the listing at 88 cents is priced above the nav level. It remains to be seen how this would work out but i would certainly want to see how it played out before venturing in into another unchartered foreign asset territory.

Why do Bronze winners ended up happier than Silver Losers?

The world cup has finally ended. GERMANY triumphed over second place Argentina by a score of 1-0 courtesy of Mario Gotze goal in extra time.

What I would like to point out here is the psychological consciousness of the 2nd and 3rd place.

As we all know, Bronze medal winners would need to lose first then win. On the other hand, Silver medal winners would need to win first then lose. So what is the difference between the two? Why would silver medal winners be more upset than bronze medal winners? A good example would be the Dutch and Argentina players when they clinched 3rd and 2nd place respectively. The Dutch are looking so happy clinching their 3rd place while Argentina players are looking like dead zombies on the street.

Based on a research, it appears that this behavioral aspect is due to the psychological comparison for silver medal losers to compare themselves against gold medal winners. Silver medal losers torment themselves with counterfactual thoughts such as "If only... that a** Higuain scores in the first half". 

On the other hand, bronze medal winners subconsciously compare themselves against 4th place losers who did not receive a medal at all.

Does this mean that we should eliminate 3rd/4th place playoff? Maybe the way Tennis and NBA ranking can be applied to soccer and other sports.

Personally for me, I have encountered such scenario myself and the feeling in entirely true if you are a loser in the final.

What about you? Do you think 3rd/4th place playoff is meaningless? Should the silver medal deserves better?

The Correlation between Fulfillment and Money

On hindsight, the correlation between fulfillment and money should be positively correlated, that is the more money one earns the more fulfillment one gets. But is that really the case?

Based on a research done by Stevenson and Wolfers on the Life satisfaction metrics against Real GDP for each individual nation, we can deduce that our intuition is correct, but not absolutely. It appears that the correlation came up to about 0.70 instead of 1.0 that we imagined it to be. Why is that so?

The Fulfillment Curve

There has been many debates for a number of decades on whether money can truly buy happiness. Based on Robin, V in his book Your Money or Your Life, the fulfillment curve shows that the amount of money spent for Survival, Comforts and Luxuries does indeed improve the fulfillment of one's life. To a certain extent that the marginal benefit of spending money is less than the marginal cost, the fulfillment began to decrease substantially to the point of R.I.P. So how does this exactly work? Let's dissect each individual phase of life.

Phase 1: Survival

The Survival phase is the most important aspect of one's life. As human beings, we are at the mercy of basic needs such as oxygen, food, shelter, etc. Without them, we are unable to sustain our lives to see the very next day. Even though there are reports saying humans can live on 100 hours without having a single drop of water, we don't want to go to such extent. This is why we see that the survival phase has the steepest increase in the fulfillment curve on every unit of money spent.

Phase 2: Comforts

The Comforts phase is probably where most of us are at right now. We can afford a shelter but probably not the bungalow at Sentosa Cove. We can probably indulge in a few fine dining activities but not all the time. We can take the public transportation but not afford a car. We can travel anywhere we want by flying with budget airline but not first class or business class seat. The list goes on. If you are at this stage of your life, then money will still serve as a purpose for you as you aim for the luxury phase of life. Perhaps you want to drive a BMW one day or maybe own a condo at the town area. You work hard to meet the next phase of life.

Phase 3: Luxuries

Very few acquaintance I know are at this stage of their life. This is also the phase where the marginal benefit of spending money is at its closest to the marginal cost. This is the "ENOUGH" phase. You have all the monetary means to spend on any luxury items you fancy and money probably means nothing more than repeating the same activities or buying the same luxury goods over and over again. This is the PEAK.

Phase 4: Overconsumption

In his book, Robin called this the "Clutter" phase - the stuff beyond anything that is excess. And it is easy to see why. Let me give you a layman real life example. I had a buffet lunch with my family this afternoon at the Lime at Park Royal Hotel at Pickering. Friends who know me would know that I love to eat raw Sashimi very much. So when I grabbed my first plate of the Sashimi, there's only one word that can describe my feeling at that point in time: "Simply Awesome" (okay, it's two words, I cheated there). When I went back to grab my second plate, the feeling was still fantastic. The Sashimi was fleshy and thick and it melts in the mouth when you put in right there. When I grabbed my third plate, it tastes okay. By that time, I was already quite done with the Sashimi and wanted to try something else (After all, who eats only Sashimi throughout the buffet right!!!) The idea was that the fulfillment when I ate my third round was definitely not as fantastic as the first and second round. The same concept applies to money. To a certain extent that money is excessive, it only becomes a burden. You are worried about getting robbed. You are worried about how you should decline your relatives who approach you for money. You are worried that money cannot sustain your already high fulfillment level.

What is my Magic Number?

When I began my journey for Financial Independence (FI) back in 2011, I had some numbers in mind based on a few assumptions I made of what should be the peak. The numbers, unchanged from 4 years ago, stand currently at $1,414,705.83. This does not mean that the numbers will not change over time. If any of the assumptions I made earlier have changed, the magic figure would change accordingly. What remained the same is the Fulfillment curve that applies to everyone. My "Enough" figure might shift upwards, but the curve will not deviate from it.

Phase 5: Participation

Apparently, there is a cheat code to the curve. This final phase is called the participation - the contributing phase. This is where fulfillment is derived not from money but rather from the contributions you give back to the society. More specifically for most people, the fulfillment curve slope upwards when you help people attaining the Survival and Comforts phase, usually in poor developing countries where basic necessities such as food and water are scarce. In Singapore, there are a larger group of people who contributes to this and it is heartening to see fellow human beings helping one another in times of difficulties.

The different phases of life is something that we go through in life. They may not be the same for most people. Some of us can be stucked at the comfort phase for life and we may never experience the others. For others, they may experience all the 5 phases of life from the Survival to the Participating phase. Regardless of where you are, the curve would probably serve the same for you and me. It is now up to you to determine what you should do not only your money but also your life.

"Jul 14" - SG Transactions & Portfolio Update" + Child Portfolio

No.	Counters	No. of Lots	Market Price (SGD)	Total Value (SGD) based on market price	Allocation %
1.	FraserCenter Point Trust	30	1.865	55,950.00	22.0%
2.	Vicom	6	6.77	40,620.00	15.0%
3.	SembCorp Ind	5	5.40	27,000.00	10.0%
4.	SPH	5	4.17	20,850.00	8.0%
5.	Ascott Reit	15	1.255	18,825.00	7.0%
6.	Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust	20	0.89	17,800.00	7.0%
7.	China Merchant Pacific	19	0.92	17,480.00	6.0%
8.	FraserCommercial Trust	11	1.38	15,180.00	5.0%
9.	Neratel	20	0.765	15,300.00	5.0%
10.	First Reit	10	1.20	12,000.00	4.0%
11.	ST Engineering	4	3.77	15,080.00	5.0%
12.	Second Chance	13	0.47	6,110.00	2.0%
13.	Ascendas Hosp. Trust	7	0.75	5,250.00	2.0%
14.	Stamford Land	3	0.66	1,980.00	1.0%
	Total SGD			269,425.00	100.00%

This month portfolio increase has been largely boosted by the surging for Vicom in recent weeks. It appears that investors are expecting a good result for the 2nd Quarter and a potential increase in their dividend payout. What had remained the same is probably the positive FCF they are generating quarter to quarter. But we'll see if they decide to do anything with its humongous cash they had in their asset. Multiples now stand at an all time high of 22x based on current earnings and the market had positively priced this upward.

In addition, I added more CMP and ST Engineering at $0.915 and $3.77 respectively for the month of Jul. For analysis on CMP, you may want to refer to investmentmoats for his thorough analysis on CMP for the last couple of results. My impression for CMP remains that 1.) they are well generating FCF comfortably and 2.) it appears that the management is trying to increase their payout ratio so that it will generate more interests from retail investors to increase the price beyond its convertible option exercise price. I may be wrong in my understanding here.

For the latter, I am looking at more stability and defensive stock to add on. While I do not expect them to increase their payout ratio beyond what is already high at 90+%, I think their book order for next year is stable and should give them in line at least to what they had for FY13.

Child Portfolio

No.	Counters	No. of Lots	Market Price (SGD)	Total Value (SGD) based on market price	Allocation %
1.	ST Engineering	2	3.77	7,540.00	100.0%

In addition to my own portfolio, I've also decided to start managing my son's angbao money by investing in what I "think" will be stable for the next 20 years. I've also topped up a bit on top of what he already has.

Based on a couple of responses I received in my previous post (What should I do with the savings for my child), I've decided to go with the savings bank account option (for dividend and other angbao money) and investing (stock for now) option. The endowment plan may seems like a good option to diversify but since the amount is too small, I do not want to divide them into all the options available.

So this is it, ST Engineering - this will be entirely his and the strategy will be entirely different with what I have in my portfolio. The plan is to stay through the thick and thin for the next 20 years and I will not be surprised to see a couple of up and down along the way.

What about you? How is your portfolio doing for this month? Any shock or upside?

Startburst IPO - Results

 

 

Third time unlucky in IPO application.

 

To be fair, the chances were pretty slim to begin with, from around 3% to 16% based on the number of lots you applied.

 

From the allocation balloting, we can also see that the management is appreciating long term shareholders more than those who were bidding just to sell it off in the near term.

 

The stock made its debut performance today and it closes at $0.42 on its first day of trading. That's a 35% increase in the stock price and a strong debut performance from the Starburst. At $0.42, I think the upside could be somewhat limited as I projected around $0.36 to $0.40 as the fair value based on their historical earnings.

What should I do with the savings for my child?

There's been a couple of bloggers out there who have posted on what they would do to help their parents invest their money.

I've been thinking over the past few weeks on what I should do with the angpao savings my son received from families and friends during his birth and the 1st month baby shower. The savings amounted to around S$6,200 for now and the objective is to pay for his college and university school fees when he matures later.

There are a couple of choice which has been lingering on my mind. The one thing certain is he has a longer time horizon (around 20 years) and the argument is he can stomach more risky investment. Still, I am not sure if that is going to be the best option.

Option 1

I was planning to open up a junior savings account for him. My idea was to put in these sum of money on the savings account and we have the flexibility to take out as and when it might be required (sort of acting as a secondary emergency fund). However, it appears that this move may be unwise given the rate of inflation that would eat up the sum of money in 20 years time.

+ : More Flexibility, Act as a secondary emergency fund

- : Inflation

Option 2

The second option is involving endowment plan under an insurance plan. This is a rather good option which gives me the rate of return required and also higher than the normal savings account. However, I am not sure if this is the best option as first of all it doesn't give me the flexibility to either stop or withdraw the premium and secondly, I might already have something like this plan in the form of my life insurance plan (where after 15 years and I no longer want to be covered for life, I can withdraw the money and breakeven, SHOULD I really need the money)

+ : Returns are better than fd and safe from recession

- : Less flexibility

Option 3

The third option is to invest in stocks which will compound over time after 20 years. Stocks is a risky instrument in general and hence I might be looking more into defensive stocks that yield good returns over the past couple of years, proven. Stocks such as ST Engineering or Singtel are what I have in my mind.

+ : Higher returns

- : May be subject to recessions and volatility

Whay do you think? Are there any other options which might be suitable?

Starburst - IPO Review

Everyone seem to be talking about the IPO for Fraser Hospitality Trust (FHT) that Starburst gets hardly noticed by retail investors. There's a couple of fellow bloggers who have also blogged about this IPO so I will try to give my views here.

They will be offering 50 million shares (48 million shares for placement and 2 million shares for retail investors) at a price of $0.31. The IPO will close next week on the 8th July at 12pm.

Introduction

Starburst is a Singapore based engineering group specialising in the design and engineering of firearms-training facilities. The company has a track record and experience of close to 15 years in this niche industry.

Their business can be classified into 3 main business segments: Firearm Shooting Ranges, Tactical Training Mock-Ups and Maintenance Services and Others.

Financials

If you take a look at its Profit and Loss Statement for the past 3 financial years, both top and bottom line numbers are escalating, which is a great sign. They also have a healthy profit margin figures increasing from 26.4% in 2011 to 41.5% in 2013. I believe the management well execution track record in handling a more complex project resulted in this higher margin.

The balance sheet here might not have shown an insight into what those assets and liabilities are. A deep delve would show that the company has a $7.5 million borrowings from OCBC, Hong Leong Bank, and DBS. The fixed rate at OCBC is rather worrying as it bears a fixed interest rate of 5% per annum while Hong Leong is fixed at 1.88%. The DBS loans is floating.

Looking at the Cash Flow Statement, the main stand out would be the negative cash balances at the end of 2011 and 2013. Looking at it deeper, the negative net cash from operating activities is mainly due to the company's inability, perhaps due to business nature, to turn around their general working capital faster than they would like to. The company stated that due to the nature of their business, it is common for contractors to bill and receive payment for completed works only when the customers have certified that the projects have reached the relevant milestones. As such, the company may be required to pay the suppliers and sub-contractors first notwithstanding customer's pending verification.

The nature of the company's business means that they would also have to incur quite a high number of CAPEX for its machinery, plant and leasehold land and inventory. This means that Free Cash Flow is going to be lumpy in one year onto the next.

The company has intended a dividend policy of at least distributing out 20% of the Group Profit for 2014. At $0.31 cents, this stands to be about 2.17%

Use of Proceeds

The use of the proceeds from this IPO listing will mostly be used to fund its CAPEX acquisition of land and machinery (50%) while some 36% goes into funding its working capital.

My take

I think this is a fairly niche business with some degree of risk. Even the management has stated that one of its biggest risk is that almost 84% of its projects are non-recurring and their profits will depend on how they are able to find more complex projects to sustain their high level of profit margin.

Obviously, the management are optimistic about the growth of this business and it is easy to see why they are only opening up 50 million shares to the public. I suspect the reason they do so is to fund their continuous growth by using the proceeds to purchase land and machinery while they got into some trouble with their working capital turnover as well. 

The current NAV after the dilution will be about 15.25, so at $0.31 the Price to Book value will be about 2x. Their PER after adjusting for the dilution will be about 8.88x.

If you are a long term investor, I think this is worth a bet for a run. Obviously, by only having limited liquidity in the market, it is hard to see how you can take a quick short term profit out of this. I suspect if you applied 1:49 lots, they probably will only allocate 1, while 50:99 lots will probably get you 2. 

I will probably take a punt at this and keep this for the longer term if i do successfully manage to get them. Due to the small amount of public tranches this would be over-subscribed. But we'll see whether I am third time "unlucky" this time (The first two IPO was unsuccessful ^^)

Mid Year Goals Review

We are officially now halfway through the year and whether we choose to believe or not, it's happening. People are advocating that time is money, but to me time is a priceless piece of art - which is precisely why I seek for a financial independence.

 

 

2013 seems like a very far away back and it is only back then in December (My Investing Goal for 2014) that I set my usual yearly goals and targets to achieve for 2014. Since we are now officially entering the 2nd half of the year, it's good to review how these goals stand at the moment:

 

1.) Life Insurance

 

I've acted swiftly on this goal right at the start of January when I see the much needed use for a life insurance. The premiums I have to fork out amounted to $543/month and continously for the next 15 years, after which I do not have to fork out any amount left for the remainder of my life. The coverage that I decided for the policy is on $500,000 upon death, which I think is sufficient given our family financial structure.

 

Rating: A+

 

2.) Child Expenditure

 

I've been coping well so far on this and my child is officially into his 2nd month right now. If I had to put an amount to the costs incurred right from the day he was born until today (including hospital, injection, pampers, milk, nanny), it's probably around $18K. I can feel the pinch of how my savings are drained because of this but the moment of seeing how he smiled to me, I knew it's all worth the effort.

 

Rating: B+

 

3.) SMU MBA Graduation

 

The electives are now up and running which means that I had to go back for class perpertually everyday from Mon to Sat until the day I graduate in Dec. For most of the times, I had this feeling of having my energy drained like not even any amount of red bull will help. Imagine having to work full-time from 9 to 6, then continue with classes Mon to Sat from 7 to 11 and by the time I reached home, it's almost midnight. On top of that, there is the crying baby in the middle of the night (ohh yes, baby doesn't sleep as soundly as us adults).

 

Fortunately, I have not been failing any of the classes I took which means I am scheduled for graduation in Dec. YAY.

 

Rating: A-

 

4.) Other $20K endowment

 

This is a high risk high return sort of investment, probably having more risk than the "12% Return per Annum" scam you see outside.

 

With the world cup underway right now, I admit that I've been losing some money.

 

Habits are just hard to change isn't it.

 

Rating: C

 

5.) Dividend Investing Purchase

 

I've been accumulating some of the dividend stocks that I think still presents value in 2014, some if not all of them related to Mapletree Greater Commercial Trust, Stamford Land, China Merchant Pacific, etc.

 

I am also scheduled to hit my target of $16,000 dividend income for this year and given the overall bullish market sentiment, it is easy to see why everyone portfolio value has increased.

 

Rating: A-

 

 

Last but not least, there's a couple of additional goals I really would like to add this year which I thought was still fairly reasonable to achieve. And I'll be honest why they've not been my strengths thus far.

 

6.) Building more emergency funds

 

I don't usually build up much emergency funds in the past but I think I may overlook its importance.

 

I usually have about 1 month of income (equivalent to about 2 to less than 3 months of expenses) as my emergency funds but I'm really looking to double the amount, just to ensure no surprises along the way.

 

This means even lesser funds for investing in the future but I will try to overcome this as much as I can.

 

7.) Reading more books

 

I've been gaining more interests in reading books recently despite my already packed schedule. The latest book I'm currently reading is a book my wife bought entitled "The Fault of Our Stars", which I think is also currently premiering in the movie theatres. I also had a couple of books on hand which I highlighted in my Books Trending page recently. They should be good according to the reviews.

 

So there it is, my mid year review of the goals I had and it looks like it is going on fine.

 

What about you? How is your goals coming along in 2014?