Recently, I have read a book title "Whisky . Japan" and it inspired me to plan for  a whiskey distillery trip in Japan.

While planning , reading and stuff I chanced upon some old libraries around the world and I thought wow maybe I should do a library tour too. Library of Alexandria, Harry Potter library etc etc..

So there.. in case I forgot Whiskey Tour and Library Tour

Recently I feel that I am on the brink of evolving or growth. I have plenty of thoughts and ideas, most of which I have not panned out the execution portion of them.  I feel that there is a need to pen down my thought process and perhaps one day it will become a great business idea, a good nugget of information or just laugh it off at my younger self's thoughts.

Work is definitely getting busier ever since I decided to gun for a promotion. But at times I wonder if the extra hours and effort is worth the end rewards? Although my organization is a stable paymaster and compensation packages are fairly good (especially during bad economic climate) the scope of work I am doing does not seem to propel me for future growth. Nor do I feel that it is able to link me up with the future opportunities and trends.

I must remind myself to read broadly and selective in the way I spend my time, should I wish to be able to stay healthy and enjoy ample time to pursue the things I truly love.

Hopefully, before age 45 or so I would be able to reach my goals and embark on my new phase of life.

I took the plunge recently with the small pot of savings I have to invest in a venture (call it venture A). This would be significant risk and may jeopardize many things such as marriage and ability to say f**k you at work. If it turns out well, not only would I stand to hold significant capital gains, it would likely fulfil my criteria of 6%yield on a long term basis.

Since this venture place a significant dent to my warchest, I would be on a semi-hiatus for my stocks portfolio, likely rotation play and yield accumulating only.

I would also need to cut expenses and rack up savings to prepare for new warchest and also fund the venture A.

In a sense this is also a good discipline exercise for me to save up. I am not getting any younger and I figured that a need a way to force myself to save. Rather than taking my chances with insurances and endowment I would rather spend my money on a venture.

Stocks wise, I bought back into UMS after seeing it reached a support of 0.9SGD and felt that it was oversold. It is now $1.SGD and I feel more is to come once bonus shares (1 for 4) is confirmed.

I also bought a few lots of Accordia Golf Trust as a form of replacement over Croesus Retail Trust's hi-yield role in my portfolio. I would buy more if it dips as this trust carries more risk than CRT. Looking at Dec dividend of 4.5% to 5% based on its monthly reports.  - Update 2018 Sold AGT in Late 2017 for 1.5 yr gains on yield due to lower utilization rate. Good decision to take quick profits.

Investing for Hi-yield 2

So one of the short cuts I take when searching for stocks to purchase would be to scour the net (forums, magazines, bank investment articles and such) for some ideas. Two ways to work on this: one is to research on the recommendations, the second method is to avoid those recommendations as you would assume that all attention is being placed heavily on it and it is probably fully valued or the BBs are creating a hype to unload it to retailers. (comfort anyone?)

I saw a mention of Pan Hong Holdings some weeks back, being an undervalued counter (way below nav I think -50%?) and it pays out pretty high dividends of >5% I started to look into it. Normally I am skeptical of anything related to china , especially if these related to properties in less than ideal 3rd tiered cities. However the valuations and figures are so compelling, assuming it was slightly overvalued, there is still much meat left. I took the plunge with a small position and it all turned out well shortly after with the company announcing a div in specie to unlock shareholder value by distributing shares of Sino Harbour. Two weeks, 25% gain including div. Some hindsight as a lesson to myself:

1) always do enough groundwork- work caught up with me recently and I did minimal research which led to selling too soon (no confidence) and not averaging down (when it drop from 23c to 19c)

2) I forgot to look at float. At 74% (cant recall) privately held, PH is definitely something like FCL and Simlian where majority shareholder would feel the pain of a low share price. Its high dividend policy also suggest that like the aforementioned two companies, the "returns" are distributed via dividends. Simlian took themselves private due to the severe undervalue and in that year (2015?) they were slated to distribute around 10% yield. Why share the profit with a bunch of fools who doesn't not value your wonderful company? I would take myself private too. lol

3) always have a clear pre-buy list ready. You never know when you will be busy to the point where you are unable to make off the fly decisions. I missed out on Wilmar and CWT as I was unsure, but in end it was a clear free angbao by the BBs which many of my friend took advantage while I was out of the picture and was too late.

4) not keeping up with news. I didn't even realized NK shot some missiles till my colleagues told me.. oh man...

Investing for Hi-yield

The local stock market has been extremely buoyant lately and to add on the stock picks I've achieved exceptional returns for some stocks due to entering much earlier than analyst calls. I felt its 50% luck 50% effort. I do not think I would be able to achieve the same type of returns at the 2H 2017.

UMS - 70% returns for 5months time
Hotung - 35% for 5 months time
FCL - 15% for 3 months time (ex div)
Croesus - Pte offer 32% up (this is a sad lost)
I am still holding on to Design Studio. (30% gain)

The issue with rising prices and chasing for yield is when big boys sweep up good companies which are undervalued. I'm now stripped of the following ;8% yielders since 2015: Croesus, Saizen, Sim Lian, UMS, Hotung (first 3 being completely privatised so there is no hope of coming back).

Now what do I do with the profit? Too little to purchase property to lock up value.. I'm stuck with a market that offers APPT, BHG, IREIT, LIPPO for high yielders ... ugh... the quality pales in comparison.

Non-reits which off >7% are increasingly rare and usually these dividends fluctuates. I shall hold on my cash for now.. but this surely would hurt my dividends in 2018 if I could not identify replacement stock for Croesus reit past Q3 2017.

the 2nd quarter of the 2017 whizzed past so fast that I didn't realise it until my mid-year bonus was announced.  Since the annual appraisal with my supervisor, it seems to me that competition has notched up. In all likelihood it has always been this way and it is likely a product of my own state of mind.  I do hope everything turn out well.

Bought UMS holdings at the start of the year, and averaged up once I realised that the trend is looking good - no announcement of renewal plus buying of shares. First entry point at 60c second entry at 79c? overall price was 71c. and sold all of it at an average of $1.15. very very pleased with the result. I saw some people got burnt on the forums as they chased th eprice only to be hit by the recent US Tech Selldown.

When I made this purchase it was based on its stability of business and its MD's effort to diversify. it was yielding 9% on my buying price. wonder what was on these people's heads when they bought it at 6% and all time high PE?




Sudden urge to buy a car for its convenience and joy of driving *manual please
I don't mind a cheap 2nd hand one for refreshing my skills. but it costs quite a bit and will likely affect my TDSR as well as cash on hand. Shall patiently wait 2 more years.

Here how I am going to hard-save my "car money" : 1) Set aside the money that would have been spent if I purchase a car, 2) buy something really high risk high reward. win or loss it is still probably going to be a more worthwhile investment that a car. hahaha Noble Group anyone?

this will be the "leave it to fate funds"

This month I took profit off FCL and clocked a small profit as my invested sum isn't big. However the percentage gains is quite decent. about 16% gain for 6 month holding period. The original intention is to hold for a much longer period and adding on to the position for long term dividend yield. Three decisions: 1) lack of funds to invest in potential higher gain sector 2) protect profits as starhub sale made me clocked negative numbers for the first quarter already. 3) property uptrend does not seem fundamentally sound at most only a small uptick

I am trying to manage this small portfolio like I'm a fund manager. See if I could be on par or even beat them. The focus is of course income investing with growth supplementing the returns.

A few things I would like to state here as a reminder of my investing ethos:
1) Invest in things I like. What I have no interest, whether if it is management style or business sector I will not invest. reason: Interest generates proficiency. With no proficiency one cannot out do others. This includes trading, by and large I am not a good trader for many reasons: a) no time to commit, b) not much guts to make quick decisions c) do not like penny stocks and cash poor companies
While I do trade some, many of my best investment decisions and outcomes has nothing to do with short term profit taking.
2) Net cash or High FCF companies. This is something I learnt after a few years of investing. The majority of my shares should be cash rich or +FCF to allow me have a more passive stance. I have a full time job and investing is just a part time thing for now.
3) The Most Important Thing is... I have read that book. It is one of those old school investment gurus (Howard Marks) that inspires me. I realised I am an old schooler. Conservative, wins by overpowering, Risk adverse, and also I use a bit of old school "gut feel"
4) Avoid hot stocks, Avoid crowds, Avoid anything overhyped. Most importantly avoid distractions.
5) Keep Fit. Only when your body is perfect then you can make informed a quick decisions. As an old saying goes: A sound soul resides in a sound mind and healthy body! (Ok not old saying its from Soul Eater anime but makes perfect sense)

Investment has made me a better person. I learnt to appreciate the hardwork done by many corporate people and business foresights of investors and business owners. I also read more political and financial news.

Onward to my next AUM goal!