Reading log:Beating the street by Peter lynch

I read this book over the weekend, it describe peter lynch life as a portfolio manager. Expanding his portfolio and most importantly how he managed to make profit from stock market. He also explained step by step on how he goes about picking stocks, step-by-step. For example, he sits in his favourite shopping mall and observe people around him, what do they buy etc. He also visit the companies, factories and understand more about how they make money. 

There are a few principles which I would highlight here. 

1. When the operas outnumber the football games three to zero, you know there is something wrong with your life. He regretted being unable to spend time with his family. 
2. Gentlemen who prefer bonds don't know what they are missing. 
3. Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon. 
4. When the yield on long term government bonds exceed the divident yield of the S&P 500 by 6%, sell your stocks and buy bond. 
5. If you like the store, chances are you'll love the stock. To me, it is more important for me to love the business/products or even shop. Before I would put my money into the shop. This would be the number one priority to me now. 

Reading log: 4-hour work week by Tim Ferriss

Just recently, I have got hold on a book which I personally like, the title of the book is called 4-hour work week by Tim Ferriss. In his book, he explained what is New Rich. He uses the acronym DEAL for the four main chapters. It stands for Definition, Elimination, Automation and Liberation.

I understand more about my own fear, and definition about about the life I always wanted. On top of that, he emphasised on the 80/20 rules, which I have learned from Jonathan Hiew, a friend of mine when I was in secondary school. (80% of your results come from 20 % of my effort).

The book also mentioned about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is about how we could complete a task with minimal resources while effectiveness is about working towards our goal, which means doing the right thing. Before reading this book, I used to work hard before planning a strategy. I would pump hours and hours into things I wanted to master, and achieve things I wanted to achieve. But there are times, when all the effort is wasted due to lack of planning. Worse, there are times when things I have achieve are not the things I wanted.

When it comes to Automation, this is the item I wanted to achieve this year, by using resources around me to achieve automation. I guess being rich without time is just  a joke, all I got is just additional figure in my bank account. I would like to set up something which I could run on this year, hassle free. Be it investment, passive income or and internet business. I have managed to set up a substantial amount of my asset in investment generating passive income for me. My money is now working very hard for me even I am sleeping. Sometimes, I would even smile while sleeping.

Liberation, once I achieve automation this year, liberation would be another step for me. I would want to free myself geographically and time. Meaning, I would be able to work everywhere in the world. The idea of this is to leverage the currency, earnings and living standard. Let's say for example, earning SGD while spending in pesos or Thai Baht. All these would give me an edge in achieving ultimate goal. Time and location free.

2nd week of January

I found that my aunty Jo was diagnosed with some sort of health issue. She will be undergoing an operation on 5/2/2014. I believe she needs a lot of strength from people around her to support her and more importantly a lot of attention. I hope she will get well soon. After reading her message this morning, about her diagnosis and reading word by word from the text, my tears soon flowing out from my eyes, running down my face. There are things we have been taken for granted, day in, day out. My relationship with Aunty Jo is like my step mum, I would spend a lot of time with her, she lived with us for a while and have been very helpful for all the while. She sent my to school when I was in Primary school, bought my favourite roasted pork bun for me. I would not dwell too much on the details here. There were a lot of thoughts recently, after knowing that she was probably diagnosed with cancer. In this blog post, I would like to wish her all well, and may god be with her all the time.

Simple happiness

Last weekend, I started a few rounds of swimming session, it was indeed a wonderful experience for me. I guess if I am still the old thinker, I would probably don't have any time for sport and reading session. These two hobbies of mine have been very important to me recently, time for these two activities are not to be compromised. By being able to do these two activities more in Singapore, I need to focus on earning more rather than saving more in the past. I need to leverage capital which I have got on hand and eventually obtain the simple happiness I have been looking for, the ultimate goal of mine is to free up some of my time, for people I treasure/cherish and love. 

The idea is to find people which I could trust to work for me, to earn money for me, even we are talking about RM100.00 a month. I guess it is essential for me to start this year. I am looking for a business model which is simple to maintain and hassle free, automation would be awesome as being hassle free, is by far more convenient than being rich. There are times when money could just not solve the problem. 

There are some precious lesson I have learned from people around me regarding the importance of time versus money. Of course, there are a lot of things which we would probably have to sacrifice just live a life which we truly wanted. I guess becoming a business owner does not sound as attractive as it used to be, I found business to be very time and energy consuming. On a certain manner, it affects our health too ( by looking at the way all my colleagues drink whisky). 

Simple happiness is something I am looking for...

Things I have learned from Tom Yuen in his preview.

I attended a preview yesterday and would like to jot down a few key points which I have learned from Tom.

He started off as an engineer, and worked in Sweden for the first 3 years of his working life, he then found the power of foreign exchange as the fund he received from Singapore government is getting more and more each year during 1980s as Singapore dollar is getting stronger and stronger.

There are a few critical points which he highlighted in his preview. One is to learn from others, this would not make you to become successful quicker but will definitely make your learning curve easier and also less painful.

I guess he had worked very hard for the past 20 years. and had mould him to who he is today.

After consideration, I would like to conclude:

1. Starting risk capital for TA is SGD 20K. 
2. Course is about SGD 4.4k.
3. Learn how to learn from others. 
4. Learn how to let go emotional attachment to my money/stock. They are just tools. 
5. I need to use analysis tools in a way which is different from majority so that you are not part of the herding instinct. 
6. Think of a sustainable way of making money
7. Know myself more
8. Adapt- after all it is all about surviving

2013 brief summary

So a brief summary on my 2013, mostly critical actions I have taken last year.

• Ended Pet Ranger Project
• Attended Value Investing Program
• Joined gym membership. 
• Invested in stock, sold options
• Trip to KK, climbed mountain KK for the second time. VIA Ferrata Route
• Fell in love
• Trip to Brisbane for Brother's graduation
• Went to KL for Eason's Concert
• Attended Sector Connect
• Went to Guang Zhou for Canton Fair
• Went to Chiang Mai for Loy Krathong