Is the Coast Clear?

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Last week has been an eventful one for the markets, with the week starting out bad with a Black Monday of sorts, before recovering back a fair bit. Is the market cleared to return back to normal levels with the worse behind us or is this the calm before the storm?

(Image souce:https://www.flickr.com/photos/20401442@N08/15777223905)

How I Started Investing

Going to share how I started my investing journey last year in this blog post. Before I started investing, most of my savings were kept in fixed deposits, which as all of us know, gives quite pitiful returns that is lower than the long-term inflation rate. So, I was actually losing the real value of my savings, which is definitely a very bad incentive to save for the future.

Singapore Savings Bonds

With the applications for the Singapore Savings Bonds opening in the next week, this post is going to be an update (more like an add-on) to the 2 previous posts I've done on the Singapore Savings Bonds previously, which are Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs) Issued in October and Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs) and will be more on the up and downsides as compared to fixed-term government bonds, SGS and fixed deposits.

(Image source: https://www.drwealth.com/2015/05/12/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-singapore-savings-bonds/)

Silverlake Axis

Since I haven't done a share analysis in a while, I'm going to cover Silverlake Axis in this post, it's one of the shares that has been hit badly in the current market. This share has dropped from around $1 per share to a price of $0.45 yesterday and then climbing to its current price of $0.55. So, is it worthwhile looking at this share as an company that is just having a bad day or is it on its path down?

(Image source: http://www.forbes.com/companies/silverlake-axis/)

Investing is not Gambling!

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across a comment that the stock market is akin to a huge legalized gambling den for the non-institutional investor. I think this is a common misconception, especially among the uninitiated that investing the the stock market is almost the same as going down to the two casinos. It may seem true in the short term, especially in periods such as now where market volatility reaches a peak, when people try to guess the next move of the market, but in the long-term I believe that the market is a weighing machine and is not all that unpredictable.

(Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/cube-gambling-card-game-570703/)

Markets in the Red Today

Everywhere I look I see red now. The STI is down more than 120 points, the Hang Seng Index is down 1158 points, the Nikkei shed 895 points. The Shanghai Composite Index is down almost 8.5%. The Dow dropped 500 points on Friday as well. My own holdings are also down. The strangest part about all this is that I still feel a good sense of optimism, weird right?

(Image source: http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/66843-crash-alert-the-stock-market-is-falling-like-a-stone/)

Analysis of Aspial 5-year 5.25% Bond

I guess most of you must have heard about this bond. Just some basic info: The company is selling $75 million in bonds, of  which $25 million is offered to the public. You can start applying for it now until noon on 26 Aug and it is expected to be issued on 28 Aug and start trading on 31 Aug. You need to have at least $2000 to subscribe to the bond.

Traits of a Good Investor

Let's face it, some of us are just better investors than others. Just like some people are better at writing, math, managing people and in so many other topics. But then what are some of the traits of these people that make them better investors? I'm going to share some of my observations and understanding on this.

Singapore Stock Market This Week

For the past three weeks, I've shared on the stock market, I'm thinking of continuing this (maybe making it a more permanent on the blog?) The previous posts can be seen here at: More Volatility in the Market, Some Thoughts on the Stock Market Today and Singapore Stock Market Decline Today. In this post, I'm going to share three of the companies that I've been watching this week.

(Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market)

Wongamania Challenge 2015

(Just to be clear, I'm not affiliated with Wongamania or the company which designed it, Capital Gains LLP, sharing this as I thought I should share a nice event by a local company)

This is a way overdue post, but since the event is still a week away I think its still timely to write this post to share this event. The event is the Wongamania Challenge 2015. The game played is Wongamania (one of the games I mentioned in my post on 3 Board Games that Help To Increase Your Financial Literacy) I'm not able to make it (due to other commitments), but I think its a good opportunity for people to learn more about finance and interact with like-minded people.

Having a Strong Stomach

As the STI reaches just below the 3050 mark today and nearing the 3000 level, I'm starting to learn the importance of having a strong stomach when investing in the stock market. Falling from its peak of above 3500 in April, the STI has fallen by more than 450 points, almost 13% since 4 months ago. I think its the deepest drop of the market since I've started investing.

(Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/business-graph-statistics-growth-163462/)

Keep Things Simple

Investing can be complicated at times, trying to understand the different aspects of a financial statement, following the many different pieces of news that could adversely affect different industries. With most of us having day jobs and unable to spend a large portion of our time, wouldn't it be best for us to simplify investing?

(Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gdsteam/14064123625)

What type of Wealth Accumulator are you?

In The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley and William Danko classfied people into 3 different types of wealth accumulators: The Under Accumulator of Wealth (UAW), the Prodigious Accumulator of Wealth (PAW) and the Average Accumulator of Wealth (AAW).

(Image source: amazon.com)

Setting My Priorities in Life

This post was very much inspired by Rolf Suey's 5 sets of Priorities in Life (Part 2) and B's Financial Independence Isn't Necessarily All About The Money. Yeah, so I was thinking about my own priorities in life....

More Volatility in the Market

The Singapore stock market has been volatile again this week, losing almost 130 points in the first two trading days and then going up 30 points today, so around 100 points or almost 3.5% loss for the week so far. I'm just going to do a quick analysis of the stock market this week.

(Image source: https://sg.finance.yahoo.com)

How to Allocate Your Portfolio

I did a guest post on the topic at moneydigest.sg, the link to the post is here: How to Allocate Your Portfolio

(Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Investing_money.jpg)

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3 Factors to Consider Before Investing in a Company

I'm going to share 3 of the factors that I consider before investing in a company in this blog post and why I use them. The factors are growth prospects, people and price. While there are some more industry specific ones such as profit margins for manufacturing firms, but I think that these three are the general factors that I consider before investing in a company.

(Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Investing_money.jpg)

Thoughts of Technology on Investing

Going to share some of my thoughts on technology and its impact on companies and how this will affect the way that we view these companies as investments.

(Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/code-technology-software-internet-459070/)

Reflections on SG50

Happy National Day, Golden Jubilee and SG50! :)

Looking at the special section of the Straits Times today, with the different companies that have a local presence and some of the home-grown local companies, such as Crocodile and OCBC, it seems hard to dispute that our nation has been able to grow tremendously over the past 50 years since its independence. I'm going to share some of my reflections on SG50 in the post (writing this while watching NDP)

(Image source: https://www.singapore50.sg)

3 (More) Bad Money Habits and How You Can Break Them

This is going to be my second post on the topic of bad money habits, the first post on this topic can be seen at 3 Bad Money Habits and How You Can Break Them, where I covered keeping a balance on your credit card, not tracking your spending and impulse spending. I'll cover 3 more bad money habits in this post

(Image source: http://www.womansday.com/life/work-money/tips/a6793/bad-money-habits/)

Is Investing like Shopping?

I was just thinking about investing in shares, which has some similarities like regular shopping. Both of them look to get the most value for one's money, involve an upfront cost for possible future benefit and also, too deep discounts make us question their quality. The last point is the one that I'm going to highlight in this post.

(Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portones_Shopping_Mall.png)

3 Board Games that Help Increase Your Financial Literacy

The national day long weekend is finally here :) In this post I'll be covering 3 board games that you can look at and maybe play with your family and friends over this national day long weekend which can help increase your financial literacy while playing them.

Hobbies Can Make or Break You

I think that one important that can make or break you, at least financially, are your hobbies. There are many types of hobbies, some of which range from the expensive, for example traveling, to free ones such as jogging, reading or blogging. There are also some hobbies that can even help us make money by using some of the information acquired with our interest in the topic, for example investing.

Some Thoughts on the Stock Market Today

After an eventful last week, this week has been quite volatile for the market, especially so for some shares. With some of the companies' releasing their second quarter results (for those who start the financial year on 1 Jan), some of the companies' share prices have obviously been quite affected in terms of the share price. I'm just going to cover briefly some of the shares that I've taken an interest in for the past week.

(Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market)

Is Retiring a Millionaire Just a Dream?

Is being a millionaire an almost impossible dream? In reality, most of us are going to need at least that magical seven digits in order to retire comfortably. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy at times, thinking at it is too large a sum basically convinces us not to even try. But then, is it really that hard to reach the seven-digits? I'll break down the numbers in this post into annual, monthly and daily savings that we will have to start in order to reach it, to prove that it's not so impossible for most of us.

Thoughts on Oil and Gas Companies (Part 2)

This is the second part of my thoughts on oil and gas companies. The first part of this can be found at: Thoughts on Oil and Gas Companies (Part 1). Here I'll be sharing some of my thoughts on oil prices, interest rates and some general factors that may affect the industry. (Not an expert on this industry but this is what I understand by reading online and asking Mr. Google)

(Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/oil-monahans-texas-sunset-106913/)

Thoughts on Oil and Gas Companies (Part 1)

With the price of oil continuing to stay quite low and with oil shares trading at some of their lowest prices of the year, oil and gas shares (and their related services) may look like good purchases with their low P/E  and P/B ratio for long-term investors taking advantage of the downside of the cycle.

With a lot to talk about this topic, I'll be splitting this into two parts, the first part being this one and focusing on the financials of the oil and gas companies (focusing on Ezion and Ezra) and in the second part, discussing on the views of the oil price and other factors that would affect these companies.

(Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/oil-monahans-texas-sunset-106913/)