Open Your Eyes To Financial Freedom

Why? Why? Why? You asked yourself why is it that you are working harder these days but you are hardly getting by with whatever you are earning? You asked yourself why is it that after years of working with a rising salary and you are still unable to catch up to the rising economy? If you are asking these questions, do take a minute to think it through. What exactly is wealth? If you think that wealth equates to money then you have gotten it all wrong! Money is simply a currency that is used to complete a transaction. Essentially, it is a tool that is used to facilitate the process of bartering a trade. Its value is determined by the actual item that it is used for the exchange. Say for example, if you have a million dollars Indonesia rupiah, the value of a million dollars does sound decently high valued. However, when we convert one million Indonesia rupiah to Singapore dollars, it is only slightly under a hundred dollars. As such, having a high value currency does not represents wealt...

Straight to the point... You should not invest if you are in this situation: IN DEBT 1) You are in debt. If you have a recurring debt which require you to repay the loan, you should focus on completing the payment (partial/full) before you decide to invest. Debt in this case refers to bad debts such as credit card loans, loan sharks payment and personal loans from friends or families. Unpaid loans can lead to complication. It just roll the debt snowball bigger and bigger. NOT EDUCATING YOURSELF 2) You have no head or tail about investing. You may have probably heard of someone making good returns buying stocks and decided to do the same but the results can widely differ. There are many factors resulting why two investors buying the same stock can have different returns. Not understanding when to enter a trade can lead to losses. When it comes to investing for beginners, I would like to recommend all to consider the CARROT rule: C - Capital, A - Assets, R - Risks, R - Risk Appetite, O -...

This is my story, and I am writing it down so that you do not ever have to make the same mistake that I have made. This is also the biggest loss that I have taken in a single trading day, and I have zero intention to commit the same mistake ever again. I have decided to pen this down to remind myself that that trading is not a bed of roses, there are ups and there can be downs. One must always understand that the stock market is bigger than any one and every trader must give respect to the stock market for what it is. One must stay humble and not be too big headed. To be honest, I have come across this wise saying somewhere but to personally experienced it, happening right before my eyes is a different level altogether. We have seen posts of winning trades with huge profits but not many are keen to show the losing end. And this is what it is… On the first day of December 2021, as usual, I have decided to take a day trade. As per other trading days, I will usually single out a stock to ...

An expert was once before a noob. Everything that we know now starts from not knowing. If you want to be an engineer, you need to be competent in mathematics, if you want to be a doctor, you need to understand about the human anatomy, if you want to be a pilot, you need to assess the involving risks before flying a plane. These examples are indication of success where one is good at their craft and is able to provide professionalism. Now, let's take a step back where we imagine a scenario where a person can form an opinion or an action without being a professional in his trade. In this case, you don't need to be an engineer to basic math, you don't need to be a doctor to know that someone is having a fever, you don't need to be a pilot to travel to another country. My point is, investing seems like a big puzzle or mystery that many are unwilling to start because it involves taking risks with your money. Investing does involved taking calculated risk for returns but ther...

If you have been following this blog and have finally let the dust settled, it is now time to take action. Action speaks volume, action turns imagination into reality, action kicks start the entire thought processes. Action speaks louder than words, you get the idea... So what is your very first step? When I first introduced investing and trading to my dad and mum, both have high expectations. When I asked them what would be their ideal annual returns and their reply was 40% and 50% respectively. Let's take 40% return as an example, if you start an investment with $1000 at the start of the year, you are expecting to achieve a return of $400 at the end of the year. Sounds good? Mind you, these are sound beings who have worked their entire life with savings and CPF contributions. EXPECTED RETURNS If I benchmark their expected returns against the world's most renowned investor, Warren Buffet's whose Berkshire Hathaway multinational conglomerate averages about 11% in a 10 years...

One thing for sure, investing and trading is not gambling otherwise there will be investing and trading houses otherwise known as casinos in the Nevada desert or anywhere across the world. Quite often, I have heard people told me that investing is as risky as gambling and one can lose a lot of money... well, not exactly. In fact, gambling is an activity based on luck. Nothing much, just luck, period. Poker players will bash me for this strong statement but let us be clear, poker is a different class of gambling. Even in poker, the general term used is gaming, hardly gambling. The gambling which I am referring is all that you see when you enter a casino.  Choose a colour, red or black and if it turns out in your favour, you win money. Pick a series of numbers and if you get them in the right order, you win money. Press the spin button and if you get a combo pattern, you win money. All of the mentioned require luck. The house always win and luck can run out eventually.  TO GAMBL...

Into my 40s, I am halfway through living. If the average life expectancy of an average Singaporean Joe is 83, I have exactly 40 years left. Take out the last 5 years if I am torment by illnesses and unable to get off the bed for a simple walk to the nearby coffeeshop, I will have 35 years left to live. If I continue to work into the age of 63 years old (by the nation's standard), I need to live for another 15 years while I am physically capable and retired with no monthly income. 15 years of not working with no stream of income sounds pretty scary to me especially if I am living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Income refers to money received through 1) work or 2) investment. Technically speaking if I am physically capable and work into my late 60s, keeping up with tabs should not be a problem but hey... life at old age is not about working. Like everyone else, I would like to retire as early as possible and still be able to enjoy my life after I have stopped worki...