This will be my very first post as a noob investor. I have come a long way before i come to realise that i should take control of my own money and invest in stuff i truly understand.
A brief investment history of me: I have invested $15k in mutual funds during 2007 after i ORDed, thinking that mutual funds are much more stable than stock trading and end up making losses within the first 6 months. I stubbornly held on to my mutual funds after being persuaded by my financial planner and eventually my investment is only worth $10k by the end of 2012 which i sold in order for me to buy my Kia Picanto (I need a car because I need to bring my newborn baby to my mum-in-law's house every morning before I go to office). A loss of $5k in 5 years (33% loss). This was not what my financial planner told me! My financial planner, whom i do not wish to name, only told me that mutual funds is better than putting my money in my banks but he/she fails to tell me that i will make a loss of $5k in 5 years! If any financial advisors want to sell u a product, always ask them how much you will lose if u invest in their product!
As a parent, watching my baby grow up gives me a blissful feeling. However, as my baby boy started rolling over, crawling and eventually learning how to walk, I realised that I will have nothing to leave behind for my child when I retire(at a young age of 50 hopefully!). Furthermore, my plan was to have 4 kids! I immediately feel that my current job ($3500/month) is not sufficient for my family planning at all! To tell you the truth, this is the very problem that an average Singaporean couple faces. That's why the current government campaign of encouraging young couples to give birth has not shown any significant results yet.
I decided that in order for me to reach my goal of having 4 kids and possibly being financially free, I have to think of means to get a 2nd income or starting a business to generate endless income for my family. However, my immature mind at that time can only think of getting a part time job in order for me to get a 2nd income and immediately I realised the limitation as I will be sacrificing my time for a limited amount of 2nd income. Starting a business involves high capital which will drain up all my savings and furthermore I will have to spend all my time and energy on my business. I will miss out the moment when my child grow up. Furthermore, the risk of starting a business with my life savings is that I may lose everything if my business fails which I am not prepared to do so because I have my family to support.
One fine day I was having dinner with my wife at Sembawang Shopping Centre. After dinner, i went to Popular bookstore and came across a book that caught my eye. It is "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" written by Robert Kiyosaki. Miraculously, I bought the book (for a person who hates to read since young, it's a miracle!). I learnt a lot from this book. It opened my eyes to the possibility of financial freedom. It teaches me that being rich is not about having 1 or 2 million dollars in your saving account, it is about having unlimited cash flow that can sustain your lifestyle even when you are not working at all. In the book, Robert Kiyosaki encourages setting up businesses and owning properties to collect rental income as the main source of his cash-flow. It hit me at that time that I can own a condominium unit to rent out to earn rental income like how Kiyosaki does it! After looking at the Singapore Gov't's "cooling measures" on purchasing private properties and IRAS's taxation requirement on property tax and rental income tax, I flinched and realised it is impossible for me to be able to invest in properties in the near future!
As a hot-blooded, enthusiastic investor-to-be, I was determined to find my way out of the rat race even with the obstacles I am facing. I was still at my infantile stage where there were limited knowledge of the investments that were available to me due to my limited funds and I still believed that investing in stocks and shares, bonds and related securities are very risky due to the recent Lehman brothers' incidents that took place in 2008. However, i came across Adam Khoo's free Wealth Academy seminar through a motivational talk conducted by Adam Khoo himself. I attended the free seminar and it totally blew my mind! Prior to attending this free seminar, I admit that I knew nothing about investing in stock market, after the seminar I was so determined to invest in stock market to the extent that my wife was terrified by my behaviour towards stock market investment. I told my wife I wanted to sign up for Adam Khoo's Wealth Academy programme for a wooping $4.8k for a 4 day course! My wife managed to calm me down and made me think carefully if stock market investment is the right way to go. I did some research and read some books written by Adam Khoo (because there were few books on Singapore stock market investments). Eventually, I made up my mind and I decided that I have to keep in mind that I will invest in businesses rather than going into speculation in stock market. That was when i bought my first 6000 shares of Chasen Holdings(5NV.SI @ $0.18 during July 14) in Singapore Stock Market using the "kindergarten method" shared by Adam Khoo during his free seminar. Apparently this "kindergarten method" did not really work out well for my first investment and as of today(8/9/2014) the market price of Chasen Holdings is $0.159.
Realising my mistake in my first stock market investment, I have been constantly trying to seek out what I have been missing to make a successful trade in the stock market. I came across a charting software recommended in Adam Khoo's book called Chartnexus. My first impression of using the Chartnexus software for the first time was that it is abit complicated to use for a noob investor like me. After trying to figure out how to use the charting software for a few days, I decided to give up using the software. Just before I was going to forget about Chartnexus presence, I received an email from Chartnexus about their free workshop on how to maximise your profit in stock market. I decided to give Chartnexus free workshop a go and even invited a few friends to attend the workshop with me. To tell you the truth, the free Chartnexus workshop was a "no nonsense" workshop. Unlike the Wealth Academy's free seminar which focussed more on motivation, Chartnexus free workshop was a 2 hours of technical analysis explanation with about 10 minutes of short introduction of what Chartnexus is all about. I clearly know that what I have been missing in my stock trading is the technical analysis knowledge. Using what I've learnt from the Chartnexus free workshop, I made a successful trade within 3 weeks after attending the free workshop. I bought 5000 shares of Thaibev(Y92.SI) at $0.64 and sold it at $0.70, making a $285 profit (that's almost 10% capital gain in 3 weeks!). Although $285 gain in 3 weeks is a small gain for most traders, to me it is a great motivation for me to continue my investment plans to reach my goals of financial freedom!
Ever since my first successful trade, I have been looking at REITs and securities that pay out dividends regularly. I am convinced that I should slowly build up my dividend income to allow me to have some usable funds of $10k before I go into stock trading to earn big bucks. Furthermore, I am motivated by the coming of my 2nd child in March 2015 to invest wisely so that in the near future, I will be able to build up a dividend income sufficient for my wife to quit her job to take care of the kids at home (this has been her dream for a long time and it seems workable with our new financial direction). I am also looking at signing for the Chartnexus 2-day workshop after I saved up for the fees of about less than $3k to better gear myself to make use of technical analysis in my future investments.
I am starting this blog as I believe there are also a lot of young Singaporeans like me, just started a family and having their first kid, worrying about where the money is going to come from. This blog signifies a new start for me and my family moving forward to a new direction to our financial freedom!
To sign off, I would like to thank the following gurus that had motivated me even though they do not know me at all:
1) Robert Kiyosaki: For opening up my mind to the idea of cash-flow and financial freedom.
2) Adam Khoo: For showing me that in the midst of various "cooling measures" and Gov't policies that discouraged me from investing that in Singapore we also BOLEH!
3) Gerald Yeo from Chartnexus: For teaching me in details the tell-tale signs to achieve my first successful trade with Thaibev!
For the above-mentioned gurus, I really hope that you guys continue to do a good job in motivating more people like me to do invest wisely. Thank you!
As you follow my blog posts, you will be able to see how I make my investment decision based on certain factors, I will accept all comments and I will try my best to reply with the limited knowledge I have. Time to time, I will also share my portfolio every month so you guys can take it as a reference.
***Disclaimer: Do keep in mind that I learnt how to invest by myself through books and free workshop as of now and that certain fundamental & technical analysis are very subjective. Please do not hold me responsible for the failed investment because you followed my portfolio. =) I am also a newbie in stock market and investment like many investors out there.
Happy Investing!
- The Rat Racer
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