Don't take things for granted

** "BIAS" is a special feature in my blog where I get to say whatever I want with scant regards for your feelings. I'm not politically correct in this feature, so go ahead, judge me." A dear friend of mine just broke up with her long time girlfriend. When I asked him about his feelings regarding this unexpected event, he just advised me not to take things for granted in a relationship. I didn't probe him further but I promised...

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5 tips from a senior undergrad of the stock market

It's funny when I recalled how I started doing technical analysis. It was after I was wondering why warrants are going up and down that I wanted to find out more about TA. Yes, I started on warrants even before I learn anything about techniques or money management. It's a surprise why I wasn't killed, especially so when I started on the more volatile HSI warrants instead of the more benign STI warrants. You know, after reading a few books on TA, suddenly you felt all invincible. It felt like you know the 'trick' behind how to make money. The...

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Psyching myself for 2011

One of the good point about being a self employed tutor is that you can control the amount of work that you do in order to control the amount of income that you earn. This in turns affects the amount of savings you can feasibly achieve, especially after you've kept track of your expenses and know approximately your savings ratio. I can imagine being an employed worker who wants to increase his saving ratio but will be hard pressed to squeeze more...

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Growing bigger than your problems

I've just renewed my subscriptions for my infamous cbox. There's a holiday offer running now. Usually it's 20USD for 12 months of premium subscriptions to the cbox, but for this offer, they are giving another 12 months worth of subscription, totalling 2 yrs for 20 USD. Since it's such an important feature in my blog, and it doesn't cost much per month ($1.10 SGD/mth?), I just renewed my subscription immediately. Looking back at my older post...

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The three bombs in life

I've heard a lot of people telling me that there are three 'bombs' in your life that can take away huge chunks of your money. These three bombs are wedding, housing and kids. I'm mentally prepared for them as I've heard them straight from the mouths of those who had been there and done that. But when two of the big bombs dropped on me this year, I was still shell shocked from the huge amount of money that I have to cough out. Let's take a close...

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Findings about trading behaviour in Singapore

I did a survey recently by Investment trends. Okay, maybe not recently but I remembered I was lured by some prizes if I took part in it. Since I've got time to spare, I took part in the online survey. I can't even remember what prize that is but they did promise to send me a report on the trading behaviour in Singapore. I thought It'll be quite interesting to list out the summary of the findings. After each point mentioned below, the comments following the points are from me, not from the report. 1. There are 290,000 active share traders in...

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Thoughts after my Batam trip

** "BIAS" is a special feature in my blog where I get to say whatever I want with scant regards for your feelings. I'm not politically correct in this feature, so go ahead, judge me." I just went to Batam and returned today. Making the trip made me realise how fortunate we are in Singapore. You know, as a typical Singaporean, I have my own share of complaining and whining. Eventually, it's only when you're out of home that you'll...

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Interview with LP part II

This is continued from the Part I posted earlier. The interview comes because a fellow blogger wanted to publish a book detailing the real life examples of people who had combined their passions and hobbies and live a life that is both fun and rewarding financially. Not so sure why I'm in though. ------------------------------------------- Share with me some of the feelings you have while giving tuition? Like were you ever frustrated, felt very Sian? Where there periods of triumph etc? Most of the feelings are felt in the earlier days...

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Interview with LP part I

A fellow blogger wanted to do a new book and I was invited to be one of the diverse people interviewed for the book. I thought it'll be a good read for those who follows my blog to know more about me. The whole interview is pretty long, so I'll split up into two installments. Here goes: -------------------------------- Specifically what subjects do you teach? I started off teaching secondary school subjects like e.maths, a.maths and science (physics and chemistry). That's because I'm much more confident of the subject content in secondary...

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Seeing value in an otherwise overpriced resale flat

I think for every Singaporean, the biggest purchase for him/her would be property. As I'm about to start getting mine, I just realize just how big that commitment can be. I'm getting a resale flat in a matured estate, so the valuation of the flat itself is 568k. Of course there'll be a COV, and that is 40k on top of the valuation of the flat. 600+k for a roof above my head and a debt of 30 yrs, with monthly installment of 2k+ per month - that is...

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Death by shark bite or piranha bites?

** "BIAS" is a special feature in my blog where I get to say whatever I want with scant regards for your feelings. I'm not politically correct in this feature, so go ahead, judge me." Piranha attack in swarms. Each bite is small and if there's really only one piranha, it's not going to be fatal. But as nature goes, piranha are deadly when they attack in a massive group, each taking a small bite. On the other hand, shark bites are...

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Models of thinking Part II

In my last post, I shared about the different models of thinking that transcends the content of the discipline that we're studying. It is this way of perceiving the world, this different lens that gave you a different view of the world that stays with you long after the content had fled. In this post, I'm going to share with you how mathematics and science form the dominant way in which I perceive the world. Mathematics 1. Discipline and perseverance...

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Models of thinking Part I

I think it's a good thing to be multi-disciplinary. Besides adding flavour to your life, you can actually engage in meaningful discussions with many diverse people. I think the dabbling in a bit of this and that can expose you to different models of thinking. Models of thinking is the way you perceive things when doing certain disciplines, like psychology, science, maths, accountings etc. A lot of students ask me why they have to learn trigonometry...

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Month end accounting

I had just finished my month end accounting. Every end of the month for the past 2-3 yrs, I had been tallying up numbers to fill in 4 excel spreadsheets. The first is my stock holdings, the second my balance sheet, the third my income statement and the last my cash flow. I started doing that when I wanted to know exactly how much I had in order to plan ahead. Personally, I find it hard to plan ahead when I do not know how much resources I had in...

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