Portfolio
2011 is coming to a close, I reviewed at my overall portfolio today and see a sea of red. Against the STI index loss of 17% for the year, on my cash portfolio, I am sitting at a loss of 23%, on my cpf portfolio, I am in the red at 13% for 2011. I am sure some or most of the people are sitting in the loss for 2011 if they had purchased any stock anytime in first half of 2011. Thanks to our very "welfare" and "highly leveraged" friends in Europe and USA, the market went through a bad slide with concerns on Europe debt crisis and USA high unemployment rate. I do not have a forecast of how markets will turn out in 2012, but I believe that we should always continue to be positive and look out for opportunities. In fact during the correction this year, I managed to pick up more stocks and try to average down. With dividends in mind, I continued to load up on more reits. (sounds like I am consoling myself..)
Over the year, I became slightly better in financial knowledge as I read more books and also learnt more over the Internet. I began to be interested in reading financial statements of companies which I am investing in. Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement are something that does not interest me one year ago, now, I read them with magnifying glasses. Ironically, this does not help me in making more money this year, but I am pretty sure getting the fundamentals right for companies is very important over the long term.
My foray into having a trading portfolio proved to be a disaster and a wake up call. Having made some money during the recovery from 2009 to 2010, I got stuck in them this year and ended up selling some at a loss. The reason was lack of research, lack of understanding the way market is moving and lack of time. After this , I decided to stick to just holding for long term and stop being a smart ass.
Below is my current portfolio.
Budgeting
After some very useful advice from create8888, I did my own budgeting for 2012 and was shocked to see the amount of $$$ needed. The total bill needed to spend came out to more than 42,000SGD. This is a reality check. Having made good commissions over the last years in my day job, I foresee uncertain times during 2012 as everyone is predicting a slowdown. I cannot live the way and pretend to think I will still earn that kind of income for 2012. I realised that I need to buck up in my career and other areas where I can increase my income. I feel very guilty over this year as I had spent unnecessarily buying branded bags, belts and wallets, giving excuses like quality over years of amortisation can justify them. Comparing with my wife, I seemed to be more materialistic, which is bad, I needed to control over "wants" and "needs". For 2012, I will stop buying any branded goods and in fact had put aside only 500$ for clothing budget for 2012. Also, I had stopped to renew any facial package as this is really not a need anymore. Frugal will be my favourite word for 2012. And I am thankful for my wife for she is really setting a good example when it comes to spending and I appreciate the value in that now. :)
Lastly, I see the light to have more cash in bank. Currently, I have not much of liabilities, but my cash is not sufficient. My priority is to save, save and save.
Career
After slacking for the past few years, I am beginning to get fat and lazy, this is bad. I have very good bosses and I have enjoyed alot of freedom in my day job. Getting too much of it, I am starting to feel I lost the fire over the passion of my job, I need to be more hungry, more aggressive and really work harder to show results. With my baby boy being part of my family soon, I need to set a good example, I cannot be seen like a slacker to him right? With the news of reorganisation soon, everything is unpredictable, but I believe if I can show value to my company, there is nothing much to worry. My long term aim is to show more results in my sales job, climb the ladder and get a big fat retrenchment package when I am 55. :)
. Time shall be well spent in 2012 and I will focus on clients who know what they want.
Lastly, 2012 will be the year I will aim to be the better man, better husband and good father.
Happy new year!
2011 is coming to a close, I reviewed at my overall portfolio today and see a sea of red. Against the STI index loss of 17% for the year, on my cash portfolio, I am sitting at a loss of 23%, on my cpf portfolio, I am in the red at 13% for 2011. I am sure some or most of the people are sitting in the loss for 2011 if they had purchased any stock anytime in first half of 2011. Thanks to our very "welfare" and "highly leveraged" friends in Europe and USA, the market went through a bad slide with concerns on Europe debt crisis and USA high unemployment rate. I do not have a forecast of how markets will turn out in 2012, but I believe that we should always continue to be positive and look out for opportunities. In fact during the correction this year, I managed to pick up more stocks and try to average down. With dividends in mind, I continued to load up on more reits. (sounds like I am consoling myself..)
Over the year, I became slightly better in financial knowledge as I read more books and also learnt more over the Internet. I began to be interested in reading financial statements of companies which I am investing in. Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement are something that does not interest me one year ago, now, I read them with magnifying glasses. Ironically, this does not help me in making more money this year, but I am pretty sure getting the fundamentals right for companies is very important over the long term.
My foray into having a trading portfolio proved to be a disaster and a wake up call. Having made some money during the recovery from 2009 to 2010, I got stuck in them this year and ended up selling some at a loss. The reason was lack of research, lack of understanding the way market is moving and lack of time. After this , I decided to stick to just holding for long term and stop being a smart ass.
Below is my current portfolio.
| Stock | Net Qty | Last | Unrealized P/L |
| Cash | |||
| CDL HTrust@ | 5000 | 1.545 | -2761.06 |
| SuntecReit | 37000 | 1.075 | -11779.81 |
| TOTAL | -14540.87 | ||
| 23% | |||
| CPF | |||
| CapMallsAsia | 3000 | 1.13 | -2446.43 |
| GuthrieG | 12000 | 0.455 | -646.58 |
| Starhill Gbl | 23000 | 0.565 | -965.8 |
| SuntecReit | 14000 | 1.075 | -1686.4 |
| TOTAL | -5745.21 | ||
| 13% |
Budgeting
After some very useful advice from create8888, I did my own budgeting for 2012 and was shocked to see the amount of $$$ needed. The total bill needed to spend came out to more than 42,000SGD. This is a reality check. Having made good commissions over the last years in my day job, I foresee uncertain times during 2012 as everyone is predicting a slowdown. I cannot live the way and pretend to think I will still earn that kind of income for 2012. I realised that I need to buck up in my career and other areas where I can increase my income. I feel very guilty over this year as I had spent unnecessarily buying branded bags, belts and wallets, giving excuses like quality over years of amortisation can justify them. Comparing with my wife, I seemed to be more materialistic, which is bad, I needed to control over "wants" and "needs". For 2012, I will stop buying any branded goods and in fact had put aside only 500$ for clothing budget for 2012. Also, I had stopped to renew any facial package as this is really not a need anymore. Frugal will be my favourite word for 2012. And I am thankful for my wife for she is really setting a good example when it comes to spending and I appreciate the value in that now. :)
Lastly, I see the light to have more cash in bank. Currently, I have not much of liabilities, but my cash is not sufficient. My priority is to save, save and save.
Career
After slacking for the past few years, I am beginning to get fat and lazy, this is bad. I have very good bosses and I have enjoyed alot of freedom in my day job. Getting too much of it, I am starting to feel I lost the fire over the passion of my job, I need to be more hungry, more aggressive and really work harder to show results. With my baby boy being part of my family soon, I need to set a good example, I cannot be seen like a slacker to him right? With the news of reorganisation soon, everything is unpredictable, but I believe if I can show value to my company, there is nothing much to worry. My long term aim is to show more results in my sales job, climb the ladder and get a big fat retrenchment package when I am 55. :)
. Time shall be well spent in 2012 and I will focus on clients who know what they want.
Lastly, 2012 will be the year I will aim to be the better man, better husband and good father.
Happy new year!
There is widom in our Chinese idioms:
ReplyDeleteFirst form family; then work on career.
Your new baby boy and the love for your wife are the best motivators - more so than dollars and cents.
Your trading record is similar to what we have all experienced. Even qian bei CW8888 also overstayed at the party during 2008, just like you may have overstayed for 2011...
The trick of investing is simple to explain but difficult to execute:
1) Join the party early before the rowdy guests appear.
2) Leave when the party gets too wild and all sorts of strangers start to gate crash the party!
All the best to us all in 2012!
My ex-boss used the term 成家立业 on me few years ago :) I totally agree on that.
ReplyDeleteInteresting message on the trick to investing, but I think it makes alot of pretty sense.
Dear Sir,
ReplyDeleteYour post is very enlightening and interesting to me. Thank you very much for sharing with us your valuable investment experience.
I have added link to your blog to follow updates from you. Can you add my blog as well? SG Web Reviews (www.sgwebreviews.blogspot.com)
Thank you.
Regards,
Greatsage
www.sgwebreviews.blogspot.com
Hey Greatsage,
ReplyDeleteI had added you! cheers.
Regards
Guru