Running yourself like a company - Balance sheet

The next report to look at is the balance sheet. This shows how your liabilities are like against your assets, and also the breakdown of the liabilities and assets. The sum of your assets minus your liabilities will be the book value of a company. In terms of your personal balance sheet, this is known as your net worth. I know there are a million ways to calculate net worth, so it's up to you to decide which definition you want to adopt. It doesn't...

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Beware of percentages

On Saturday, I saw this newspaper clip on the Forum section of Straits Times, where readers write in to comment on issues. I put a copy here, with my own underlined paragraph: Click on it to enlarge. Taken from ST, 25/01/14 (my own underlined paragraph though) The author wrote that "total expenditure for social development (...) increased by 54.5% - much faster than the 31.5% increase in tax revenue". I take issue with the fact that using...

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The poor who commutes by public transport

We all heard about this ang moh Anton Casey who post in his facebook that people who took public transports are poor. Hmm, really? Well, for one thing, a Porsche (a car that he reportedly drives) cost around half a million. If I can save half a million dollars from buying that porsche and take public transport, wouldn't that make me half a million dollars richer? And why is he taking public transport in the first place? It seems that his car was...

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Running yourself like a company - Income statements

You should run yourself like a company. There are certain beneficial practices in running a company that we can learn from. There are 3 important reports that can determine the state of the health of a company. These are the balance sheet, the cash flow statements and the income statements. A company needs to have these reports generated so that the managers and also the investors can have a look at whether the company is doing well and also for...

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Wheatgrass: from seedlings to harvest

Not sure if you've heard of the benefits of drinking wheat grass. Apparently, it's good for the health, but of course there'll be naysayers who say that it's over-rated. Whatever the case, drinking it certainly won't cause harm, but might or might not have a good effect. Good risk-reward LOL! Anyway, I went to Katong flower shop near my place to look around for some Chinese new year flowers. Having no intention to get anything, I was surprised...

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The year 2013 in terms of books read

As per tradition, I always like to mark the year that had just passed by looking at the books I've read. Long time ago, I made myself a challenge that I would read 52 books a year - that's an equivalent of 1 book per week, regardless of length. I no longer do that, though I must admit that with the challenge, I did treat reading books with a lot more discipline and thus allocate more time towards it. Let's see how many books I've devoured in the...

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13 things that happens when you don't work a 9 to 5 job!

I saw this great article posted on facebook here that talks about the 13 things that happens when you don't work a 9 to 5 job (while others do). I found it totally relevant to me. For those looking to be self-liberated and join the ranks of the self employed, do check them out! 1. You learn that having the workday open is a solid foundation upon which to build friendships. You have a group of “day” friends who you might not have been...

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The musical chairs of investment

I saw this comment in one of my blog post recently. It goes like this "Bullion Invest - Invest $500 Return $350 daily for 50 days Program A: You will receive Receive 70% daily for 50 days for every deposit made to the Standard Program. You will get your principal back immediately after your investment term is expired.. Minimum spend is US$350 Program B Receive 200% daily for 20 days for every deposit made to the Premium Program. You will get...

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The allocation of my parent's 50k

On the last day of 2013, I've finished investing all the 50k entrusted to me into the market. I didn't do it irrationally. I've been thinking about it for a few weeks already. My aim is to invest the 50k for a min of 2% and above, with very good chances of not losing the capital. This is not a growth-dividend portfolio, because I'm guaranteeing the capital. This is also not a high dividend yield portfolio, because I don't need to take the necessary...

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SPRD Gold and OCBC charts

Haven't posted charts for ages! I haven't decide to enter or not, so this is just my trading thesis. Here's the two: 1. SPDR - Gold Weekly bullish divergence. A good entry price will be around 116.7 to 118. Exit around 124 (1st target) and 130 (2nd target) 2. OCBC Possibly daily bullish divergence Let's see how it handles 9.71 first, but a good entry price (depending on conditions) should be around 9.63 to 9.71, with exit price at around...

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Systems vs Goals

I don't know if you've noticed, but suddenly everyone seems to be talking about the difference between goals and systems. I'm not going to define these terms, but I'm influenced more by Scott Adams way of throwing goals away and adopting a systems approach towards life. You can read his books about it but there's a short extract found here. It's not that goals are not important to me, it's just that I know how I react to not meeting them. You either...

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When to be IDEALISTIC or REALISTIC as a Self-employed

Being self employed, it's important to always have the ability to pay off your monthly expenses because your income does not come in the form of a pay check at the end of the month. Due to the variability of the income, I think it's easy to be either too slack or work too hard. I know what I'm talking about because I've been to both extreme ends. The hard part is to find that fine balance between working hard enough to pay off your bills, save up...

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