A dollar saved is a dollar and fifty earned

Being a teenager, what bothers me is that my fellow friends at this age aren't doing much saving, not to mention investing! Time and time again I read comments about how friends have to find part-time jobs as they are broke, not much savings left in the bank but still continue their daily lifestyle of eating at restaurants or cafes.

It isn't wrong to socialise, but here are some saving tips which may help you to save that dollar:

1) Bring your own water

I think this is the most common and major source of money-making and method of profiteering for F&B owners. That can of coke which you bought for $1.20? It only costs less than a cent INCLUDING LABOUR COSTS to manufacture! Sometimes I wonder although people know that they are being ripped off by such a high selling price, they would still foolishly drink it. Why not bring a bottle of plain water from home? It can save you that dollar and furthermore, plain water is healthy and purifies + detoxifies your body after consuming all the oily and spicy food!

2) Eating at restaurants

I admit that one should pamper themselves once in a while, dining lavishly. But one should also dine within one's means. These are wants and not needs. I am a person who eats to live and not live to eat. I believe in just filling up my stomach with whatever food that I can find

3) Walk / Cycle / Public Transport

With rising costs of living, taxis are becoming extremely expensive. Although Singapore's public transport ain't worth of the world class status as mentioned, it is still the most efficient + affordable mode of transportation in Singapore. If you have time to spare, wake up earlier and you can save yourself 2 or even 3 plates of chicken rice from your cab fare.

Now, after you have saved up that dollar, what do you do with it?

You INVEST!

SAVINGS ACCOUNT

The simplest way of investing would be to put it in your bank (although the interest rates are miserably and pathetically low)

FIXED DEPOSITS

If you have about $10k to spare and you won't want to be and won't be using this sum of money anytime soon, you could put it in Fixed Deposit (FD) accounts which offers rates slightly better than your savings accounts, at least there's 1%.

Pros: It is GUARANTEED rates (I think this is by far the most important factor as both your capital and interest rates are guaranteed thus even though you put in a larger sum of money, the risk factor is basically the same as Savings Account)

Cons: There is a minimum commitment period

Thus I would advise those who are interested in placing their money in FD that this sum of money should not be a necessity but rather extras that you would not touch and move for the commitment period. You could head on to any banks websites for more information

In my next post, I would be blogging about other investment instruments!

Stay tuned!
Billy~

Portfolio

Hope the weekends have been great for you guys!

As promised, this post would be dedicated to presenting my portfolio:

Figure 1 shows shares which have been held since IPO while Figure 2 shows shares bought from the market.

Figure 1

With regards to the losses for those in brackets, I have fortunately already recouped it from their dividends distributed.

Figure 2

Well, I suppose I don't have much luck in choosing stocks. Before the Federal Reserve mentioned about the tapering of interests rates, REITS have performed relatively well with high yields of up to 8-9% (E.g Sabana REIT), unfortunately, after the Fed chairman spoke about the possible tapering of interest rates, REITS have become quite unstable, with prices dropping dramatically. 

With regards to Ascendas Hospitality Trust, it recently released news that it is offering shares at a premium of $0.69 to Institutional Investors, thus resulting in the dramatic drop of it's share price. However, with the growth in the hospitality industry all around the world, together with it's portfolio of 11 branded and recognised hotels located over the world, although one point to note would be it's gearing ratio is slight on the high side at 35.8% as compared to it's other peers in the hospitality industry.

Since I'm more of an investor than a trader, it would take around 3-6 more months for me to recoup my losses for these 2 shares.

Just received news that Capitaland would be purchasing over Capitamalls Asia! I wonder if my preference share from Capitamalls Asia would be affected.. With it's acquisition, Capitaland seems to be a good share to lookout for. Adding on, the last traded price was at $2.93, close to about a 13% lower than it's Net Asset Value (NAV) at $3.32. 

Signing off,

Billy~

How it all started...

If you are reading this blog now, I'm sure we must share the common interest of investing!

Some background of myself:

I'm going 20 this year, just finished my tertiary education in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, majoring in Tourism and Resort Management! I must admit that my dad largely assisted and influenced me to start investing when I'm young. I must say that I'm glad that I listened to him!

The first investment I made was 6 years back in 2008. During that time, the New Zealand Dollar (NZD) currency exchange rate was considered low (although now it's much lower). But thanks to it's high interest rates makes it seem like quite a worth investment to be in. So I placed 10000 NZD, which was around 11,182 SGD. Returns then were as high as 8% a year, which is countless folds higher than Singapore banks. After placing it for 6 years, I've generated close to 2000SGD. 

The first share investment was the Hyflux 6% CPS bond in 2011. Fortunately I managed to get 50 shares of the then issuing $100 IPO price. A billionaire CEO which aims to change how Singapore utilises it's water, being a preference share, there is very little chance of Hyflux going bust.

I've made a couple of other investments till date, some good some bad. As my dad always tells me, you win some you lose some. 

Stay tuned to my next post where I'm gonna share my portfolio!

Signing Off

Billy~