The Unnecessary Job

Recent Actions: Bought 20 lots First REIT @ 1.29 Bought 2 lots Keppel Corp @ 6.8 Bought 6 lots Singtel @ 3.150 Entry into Singtel and Keppel were probably ill-timed. But timing the market is a fool's errand anyway. FIRST REIT I already discussed why FIRST REIT was attractive to me here. SINGTEL During the GFC, Singtel's lowest ever was 2 dollars. Singtel is nowhere near a crisis level. It's free cash flow (FCF) continues to grow (up 13% to S$1.47 bn), giving the company significant firepower to weather the price cutting wars in India and Indonesia.  While near term metrics are unfavorable, I maintain that Singtel is oversold at 3.050. KEPPEL Keppel's net order book for its marine business appear to be recovering (around 4.6bn ). Notably this number excludes the orders from Sete Brasil.  During the oil peak days when Keppel was trading around $11-12, its net order book was around 10-12 bn (which then included Sete Brasil).  The worst does appear to...

Starhill REIT closed at $0.70 today.I blogged about Starhill couple of weeks ago. Then, it was trading around $0.68. After my post, Starhill dropped further to a low of $0.635. I did not have sufficient capital to take a meaningful position in Starhill at the time of posting. And now that I have some additional liquidity , it appears that the boat might have sailed. But as the (slightly sexist) adage goes, guys regret the girls they didn't sleep with, but girls regret the guys they did. Which gender perspective will my failed purchase of Starhill ultimately adopt? I guess only time can tell. Perhaps it is sour grapes at work, but alarm bells were going off stridently in my head when i read Starhill's latest quarterly report . 1) I had estimated DPU for FY 17/18 to decline to 4.57 cents, the actual DPU was 4.55 cents. 2) Office space occupancy did recover as expected, with occupancy rising to 95.% from 90.7% in the preceding quarter. 3) Starhill's stake ...

I am an avid coffee drinker. Two cups a day is my minimum. On particularly strenuous days, e.g., when I am having a marathon 3 hour Fun Run session, I might even take three. Because I am your typical Singaporean Ah Pek, I drink the kopi siu dai type of coffee. I mean, Starbucks is good, occasionally. However, for my daily coffee fix, it needs to be that eluted mixture of coffee beans sinfully roasted with butter, and dosed with a splash of condensed milk.You could say, I am the reverse coffee snob. A cup of coffee costs around $1.30 - 2.00 now, depending on where you get it from. Ya Kun and Fun Toast are starting to get too pricey for me. Time was when you could get a nice hot cuppa for 1.00 - 1.20.  What is progress without crazy inflation right? Hence, you can imagine how glad I am to have now secured a lifetime supply of coffee.   No, i did not suddenly strike TOTO, or get a sponsorship from a coffee brand. Although I would welcome both with open arms. Trut...

Some REITs are by nature defensive. I like to call these reits the Zettai Bogyo REITs. Naruto fans would know what I am talking about. Offensively, these REITs may be nothing to crow about but defensively, they are analogous to Gaara's Shukaku. Healthcare REITs are one example. Commercial REITS with office/malls in their portfolio are constantly experiencing risk of non-renewal of leases, and/or the exit of an anchor tenant . Recall the impact of HP not renewing their technopark lease on Frasers Commercial Trust. Industrial REITS tend to have short 30 year leases and tenant fluidity is relatively higher due to business volatility. Recall how Soilbuild was dragged down by Technics Oil going belly up. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine a hospital terminating their lease to save a few psf in rent. For this reason, healthcare REITs are highly defensive.  But the whole world knows this. As a result, for this safety buffer, investors have to overpay significan...

Ah, the original FIRE anthem. Obviously the song is a little bit dated (written in 2001 I believe) and there are limits as to the FIRE lifestyle one may reasonably finance with $1M today. But it is probably not a stretch to say that, this song served as inspiration for many FIRE compatriots when they were starting out. I am 35 going on 36 in 3 months'  time.  And I am pleased to announce that, excluding any CPF funds, my total Assets Under Management (AUM) crossed the milestone 1M mark this month. June 2018 AUM AIMSAMP Cap Reit 81000 1.4 $113,400.00 Ascendas-hTrust 235000 0.78 $183,300.00 Cache Log Trust 13600 0.77 $10,472.00 Ezion 19500 0.091 $1,774.50 Frasers L&I Tr 189700 1.05 $199,185.00 SingTel 36000 3.08 $110,880.00 StarhillGbl Reit 20000 0.645 $12,900.00 Co whom shall not be named 14620 4.45 $67,010.77 Warchest $56,202.00 Property sale proceeds (cash) $245,000.00 TOTAL $1,000,124.27 Almost didn't make it due to a particularly annoying Tel...

A much-awaited, all-time high dividend income was recorded this month June 2018.  We should be looking to continually break this record in the years to come. This month's star performers are: Ascendas H Trust - $7,355.50 Frasers Logistic Trust - $ 6,137.00 AIMSAMP - $2,130.30 Total - $15,622.80 Combined with the May distributions by Cache Log Trust and Starhill Global, the TOTAL DIVIDEND INCOME for 2Q 2018 is $16,045.76. Combined with 1Q distributions, my half yearly passive income is $22,266.40, which translates into a tracking monthly income of around S$ 3,711 per month. Far from ideal. Will be looking to drastically raise this number by re-investing my capital  once I receive the proceeds from my property sale. My June earned income is also expected to be slightly more than normal due to the extra weekends worked. This is also the end of the financial year for my firm, which means performance-linked incentive bonus cash and stock payouts would be made in...

 Ong Ye Kung clearly did not receive the memo to speak plainly. To wit, Ong visited the Swiss, fawned over their education system, and suggested importing particular aspects of their system. In a three page borefest , Kelly Ng of Todayonline notes: He noted the Swiss system’s emphasis on vocational training and “alternate pathways” for nurturing talent have created a more egalitarian society — one where parents and children pick either the academic or apprenticeship route based on a child’s interests, talent and aptitudes. The Swiss society also “embraces and celebrates many forms of achievements and success”, said Mr Ong. Here we go again with that "multiple pathway to success". You know why Swiss society can celebrate "many forms of achievements and success"? Because of substantial income equality . For example a postal worker in Switzerland makes an average annual income of  S$90,335. A teacher? S$118,684.  A doctor? S$149,202. Yes, doctors an...