Silverlake Axis - Update

This has been a company which I was hoping to get before the short seller allegations and even after I was considering (I wrote a post during that period, but it was after the share price had recovered from the sudden drop) But now, with the company's share price declining since it's ~$0.70 peak to $0.49 in the past week, I decided to invest a bit in the company

Invest in the Company, Not the Industry

Ever catch yourself saying "(Currently hot industry) looks like it's going to grow, so (company in the industry) is definitely going to grow in the future as well"? Some times I find myself doing it as well, but we should create a clear distinction between the company and the industry. Just because a company is in a hot industry doesn't mean that it will be able to grow in that industry as hot and growing industries tend to attract the most competition

Hyflux 6% Perpetual Security

There seem to be quite a few stock and bonds offerings coming up for the market recently. Now, there's a 6% perpetual capital security being offered by Hyflux.

Idiot-Proof Businesses

While it may be tempting to invest in companies with great leaders, such as Tesla with Elon Musk at the helm or Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, we should instead be looking out for companies that can be run by fools yet still deliver good profits year after year. A company could always do better with good rather than poor leadership, but a company that needs a superstar management team to keep in business may not survive after management changes over time.

Manulife US REIT

There are 2 IPOs going on the market this week, one being the Manulife US REIT and the other another Oxley bond issue (5.15%, 4 years), since I've covered Oxley bonds before (here), I'm going to cover the Manulife US REIT, which is the first pure-play US REIT to be listed in Asia, which would make it a convenient way to diversify into US property. It is also listed in US dollars, but for the initial public offering here, investors will pay in Sing dollar ($1.138 per unit).

Have you started saving for retirement?

I think I talked about this topic before a while back, but I recently came across this article from the Straits Times, which I found quite interesting. It's about a survey conducted by Aviva that shows that about 44% of people surveyed said that they have not started saving for retirement, among them, 27% of those aged 55 and above have not started, which is a pretty shocking number considering how close they are to retirement.

(Image source: flickr.com, 401(K) 2012)

Diworsification

This is a sequel to my previous post on diversification and is intended to cover (on the contrary) why we shouldn't diversify too much as well.

Diversification

Are we doing diversification wrongly? We may think that we are well-diversified when in actual fact we are still concentrated largely in one area or type of investment. Why should we even practice diversification in the first place, wouldn't it dilute our returns on the good investments?