Yes, I am feeling tired. Quite stoned than usual. All thanks to that sleeping at 4-5am reading storybooks for a few nights in a row last week. Then I tried to adjust back the timing to very mixed and not much success. Sleeping at 2am++ and the hot weather at night also made it difficult to sleep. SO feeling more stoned than usual. This week, heading out for a swim in the morning was so difficult. I woke up for it on tuesday but decided to postpone to wednesday, which I did wake up tired but dragged my sorry butt out of the home and into the pool. Then going out also tiring. The only day I felt better was actually Tuesday, the swim woke me up sufficiently and the driving lesson was good. Then Wed, Thur deteriorated. Need to sleep earlier...
That's what I tell myself when I hopped into bed at 10.30pm, hoping to sleep. Guess what I am stoned but my mind is active. Too active. Hence I am here at my blog to make a deposit of thoughts so that I can finally sleep, hopefully by 1am so that I can wake up less zombified and go for guitar tomorrow.
There are various thoughts swirling in my mind, guess that is what I get when I go to FH office and did work without listening to music for half the time there. There are various threads going on.
1) Housing in Japan. The research that I was doing, concluded and showed FH the sites and information found, plus some of my thoughts regarding investing in a housing over there. But that meant I dont have that much mind-consuming tasks left to do... Later I was looking at the actual prices and doing currency conversion and also calculating the cost per square metre and per square foot, to compare to Sg prices.
2) Housing in Sg. Was reading up articles after articles about sg housing. Then checked up some developments that I passed by on my journeys on the buses. Curious about the price ranges and checked. Unfortunately I DO not have that amount of money and I dont think houses priced at certain ranges have a lot of upside left, even if one is thinking of capital appreciation. Then was reading about the seller stamp duty news, PRs housing articles etc.
3) Was also monitoring the stock market in-between tasks. I had already keyed in the orders at home and just checked on the prices periodically. I hadnt had the time and energy to sit down and focus on coming up with an exact strategy yet. I do have thoughts here and there about how to reach the goal of $30k this year but a thought struck me on my bus journey home. I need to also look for LONG-TERM and buy and keep for long term. Currently among my portfolio, there is only 1 share counter that is cheap enough for me to do a long term thing. Hmm... Monday I shall key in an order for that. Also need to write down and record and remind myself NOT to sell off this batch of shares unless it gains in capital, more than 300% of current price. Think that can help somewhat address some long term thingy. That also meant my 1/3 funds left, might not be enough to buy more shares, cos have to buy LT, put aside some for reserve in case of funny stuff like rights... but most counters already had right issue. Still has to be done.
4) The last and most thought given to was with regards to what I was talking with FH about. Basically it boils down to money. Nope, we werent arguing about my wages. I quite enjoy talking with FH cos he does understand and share certain concepts about money and investment. Basically to cut the chase, we were talking about the property investment and how though there are gains to be made, a normal person can only afford 1 house. Whether that is the correct or wrong decision, really meant a person can end up repaying 30 years or losing in the region of $200k mistake...
He was saying that many cannot afford such a mistake. It would take perhaps a peson 10 years to save that sum. I agreed. Even if a person saves $10k a year, it still takes that many years. Then he told me that not many can save $10k/12mths = $830 a month. Also instead of saving, he reckon probably I could do agency work and earn more. That 'extra' earned is the 'savings'. I told him its the same financial equation "Earn more, Spend less". For most of us, with single income from work, the earning more part is from promotion, bonus. But mainly is the spending less. I want to remind that spending less is NOT saying that you dont buy things you want, need, nor eat out nor spend on lesiure. It just means managing them so that you can do most of them pretty regularly and yet be able to accumulate savings in the bank, which can then be used for investment.
Then he was remarking that I seem to be quite well-off financially, at least from what he could observe. Ya being one of the other amongst us who is 'fun-employed', guess its obvious enough, plus I work for him doing flexible so he had more interaction with me. I agreed that I dont have much financial obligations comparatively, try to manage my money well, dont buy that much wants.
I did tell him that I hope he doesnt misunderstand this as being a Scrooge. He clarified that its not being scrooge. He was saying how he was surprised at the amount of money I spend when I go holidaying (I presume to be Bangkok, Macau, HK and even KL, JB) *Yes I surprise even myself when I total up the amount I can spend in one trip... luckily never hit beyond maximum of $1.7k, all in* He was saying that judging from the way I buy things, pay for things, he can gauge that I am not stingeing. Its more of paying for things that are worth the value, eg the memories of a good holiday than on something branded/material.
I agree with that. It is true that I can afford eg a $1k bag, even now being unemployed. But what is stopping me is my perception of value for it. I dont derive that much value from owning it, using it. Its too overpriced for me. This is also connected to my problem of spending $1k on things I want. I was telling him that really the things I want, that $1k cannot buy. It really requires alot of money to 'buy' what I really want; time and energy and money enough to pursue whatever it is that I want to learn, not have to rush to work.
Things he also envied when I told him I got to go for guitar class tomorrow. I told him that at this point, he is still setting up the firm. Give another 3-5 years, he should definitely get somewhere (way higher than me) and then surely can take a good break.
At this point of time, I wont rule out agency work or whatever but it has to be in my own time. I have many things going on all at the same time. I want to focus on a few, when more stablize then explore others. Learning and developing skills that can translate into monetary benefits are always welcome, provided I can manage. I believe that is the key.
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After he dropped me at Cityhall after work, I sat on the bus and gave further thoughts about the several topics that came up today. I was thinking about just being a Saver, is that basis enough to be able to invest?
I still remember exactly HOW it was like when I first graduated. I had been a Saver then but my savings (from pocketmoney) wasnt enough to do much at all. Buying shares was out of the option then. I Had To Work. Then I actually sat down and thought about saving up enough money so that I could start buying some shares, as part of investing, while I continue to earn an income (at this point, I havent thought of passive income) It was a thought similar to what my dad did; working and then buying shares.
From the day that I started working, from temp to intern to Untrained to NIE days, I monitored my monthly overall savings (Using the budget way which I wrote in earlier entries) I refined, modified and rethink along the way and then checked out the overall nett savings at the end of every month (using the monthly bank balance update way and cut-off) Along the way, I did brush up my Excel skills and did up an Excel file to monitor which I still use now. It has been 5.5years since.
If you want to compare salary, I started at $1.2k temp, $1k intern, $2k gross at Untrained, all the way until my last drawn salary. Compared to my friends, there are those amongst who earn way higher than I did, compared to JC friends, all of them earned higher salaries than I. After this 6 months of almost $0 income, I would say, whatever headstart I had is gone.
Then what is the difference? Its Not that Savings alone can let a person become wealthy. The truth is that "Savings is the basis for investment to happen." Unless you are one whose job pays exceedingly well >$10-20k a month, most of us live with decently high salaries and have to accumulate.
For me I did save dilligently. I reminded myself of the earlier temp days, where I had to hold 2 jobs, which the total amount didnt hit the starting pay of a grad at all. I remind myself that I want to manage my money/resources well so that I dont have to worry about income (as I have a buffer) I actually decided that I wanted to save extra $5k to try a first initial investment foray into stocks.
I did save that. Yet due to work taking up a huge chunk of my energy and time, I wasnt sure then if I was ready to enter. Really had no idea. YET I didnt want to end up being Most of those people who enter blindly and actually LOST their savings (they should have just kept it in the bank until they figure things out a bit more) I had to save dilligently and carefully so I wasnt about to become them. Hence I did my Investment Homework. I tried a 'paper trade', monitored certain counters. Over time, I recorded the prices in Excel and refined my criteria of counters. Added and removed certain counters and continued monitoring. When prices were within my range, I took a leap-of-faith and plunged in. I ended up using most of my funds, except my Reserve for expenses. The rest of the story is documented on this blog. Which I myself also re-read to remember certain points which I might have forgotten at times.
My point is this.
Being a Saver Does Not gurantee investment success. It does not mean that you dont have to work.
It is the basis for Investment to be possible (in whichever instrument you are comfortable; property, bonds, unit trust, equity, derivatives) Without savings, investment is not viable because of holding power. Investment funded by credit cards and even bank loans might not be as viable, if interest is high.
It is the means also to have a buffer in case of unemployment, not have daily stress about money problems and to be able to afford certain things you deem important.
At least these are my thoughts about Savings and Investing. I am glad that FH does agree on most of it. It is easier when I speak to him regarding these, and at times I come out with new thoughts, perspectives. Interesting indeed.
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K I think I have exhausted all thoughts in this deposit. Finally can sleep well.
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