Risk N Returns

Personal Finance and Investment Ideas

Musings

My early relationship with money

By

Another year, another birthday and work anniversary. This year's milestone brings added irony, given that I'm on the verge of retrenchment. While this is horrible news by traditional standards, I'm actually quite excited with where my career will pivot to. So I'll be ok. Really. As is tradition now, I usually would share a personal story about money at these milestones. 2 … [Read more...] about My early relationship with money

Berkshire Hathaway 2019 Annual Letter Highlights

By

Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, released his annual letter to shareholders last week. People in the investment world would know that this annual letter summarises Berkshire's financial performance for 2019 and usually contains nuggets of investing wisdom. The letter was so influential that before the advent of the Internet, professional money managers … [Read more...] about Berkshire Hathaway 2019 Annual Letter Highlights

Focus on the right Personal Finance areas

By

There are certain personal finance areas that is extremely popular among Singaporeans. This can be seen from the popularity and prevalence of websites dedicated to finding and shilling the best 'insert financial product here'. We Singaporeans lap all these information up as we love a bargain. 5% off my credit card spend? Awesome! Sign me up! 2% interest if I jump through … [Read more...] about Focus on the right Personal Finance areas

Personal Lessons from 2019

By

It's the holiday season. As I cruise through the gift exchanges, Christmas gatherings and festive merrymaking typical of December, it is also usually the time I think about the year I've had and the lessons I've learnt. As we send off 2019 (and the decade) into the sunset, here are my personal lessons of 2019 which I will bring forth into the new year. On … [Read more...] about Personal Lessons from 2019

My Favourite Finance related Shows

By

I always struggle when trying to educate friends and family with little to no personal finance and investing knowledge. As a result, I'm always interested in ways to introduce personal finance and investing knowledge to this group of people. One way I thought of is to introduce them to great shows / videos already out there in popular culture or on the Internet. In today's … [Read more...] about My Favourite Finance related Shows

The dreaded Inverted Yield Curve – What it means to you

By

Investors are sometimes like astrologers, they are constantly on the lookout for signs of a coming windfall or disaster. The field of technical analysis (studying charts to determine future price movements) is pretty much the embodiment of that. One indicator that historically signaled a coming recession occurred recently, with the longer term US Treasury bond yields falling … [Read more...] about The dreaded Inverted Yield Curve – What it means to you

REIT Unit Buybacks – Boon or Bane?

By

REIT Unit Buybacks has been a recent topic of debate. In Hong Kong, Link REIT created minor controversy in 2018 by buying back units from the open market to boost DPUs to existing shareholders following the sale of some of its properties. Closer to home, Keppel REIT initiated the first unit buyback programme among all the S-REITs in Singapore. They have also been quite … [Read more...] about REIT Unit Buybacks – Boon or Bane?

Portfolio changes and others

By

Just some quick updates on my portfolio, blog and other things. Portfolio Updates As mentioned in my recent portfolio update, I'm looking to reduce my property and REIT exposure and up my growth stocks portfolio. I closed my Frasers Property Ltd position and part of my Frasers Logistics and Industrial Trust position this week upon review. I was concerned with … [Read more...] about Portfolio changes and others

Why you can’t totally trust independent valuation reports

By

As investors, we rely on the professional opinion of various sources to make informed investment decisions. One of these sources, especially as REIT / property investors, are from independent valuation reports completed by professional valuers. These valuation reports have a huge impact on the valuation of REITs and property stocks as it affects a important ratio: the Price to … [Read more...] about Why you can’t totally trust independent valuation reports

Highlights from Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Letter 2018

By

Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, released his annual letter to shareholders yesterday evening. People in the investment world would know that this annual letter summarises Berkshire's financial performance for 2018 and usually contains nuggets of investing wisdom. The letter was so influential that before the advent of the Internet, professional money … [Read more...] about Highlights from Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Letter 2018

My thought process in selecting my Masters programme

By

I'm well into my 6th year in my career and unbeknownst to readers, I've been thinking of going back to school to upgrade and specialise my skill set over the past year. The whole thought experiment culminated recently when I accepted a place in a part-time Masters of Science in Accounting (Data & Analytics) (MSA) programme at SMU. As such, it felt like a decent time … [Read more...] about My thought process in selecting my Masters programme

Risk N Returns 2.0 Beta

By

Welcome to my "new" blog! It's been a busy couple of days. Between visiting relatives and working on migrating my blog from Wordpress.com to self-hosting, it's been hectic. I'm proud to say I've mostly successfully migrated my blog to self-hosting (as you can see). The process was confusing at times for someone who doesn't know much about building websites and coding, but … [Read more...] about Risk N Returns 2.0 Beta

Health is a form of wealth

By

The turn of the new year brought a reminder in our pursuit of financial freedom - health is ultimately the most important wealth. No amount of scrimping, saving and income can replace your health. You may be wealthy financially, but if you do not have a healthy body to spend that wealth, you might as well not have it. At the least, your financial wealth will be drained by … [Read more...] about Health is a form of wealth

Market insights from my travels – India

By

As promised in my last post, I'm finally back! And pretty timely too, as I've started to feel pretty worn out from all the travelling and really needed the rest over the past week. Looking forward to all the rest I can get over the holidays. I've said in the past that by making investing a way of life (where you get investing ideas from your personal experience), you … [Read more...] about Market insights from my travels – India