My Route to Financial Freedom

One of my university majors was Finance. The reason for me on choosing this was that I like to explore all the possibilities and probabilities. I like figures and get around with them but I hate Accounts. I don't mean Accounting figures are meaningless but, to me, the process of doing this is rather boring. One good thing on Finance is that I could justify the figures by adding in assumptions with is not allowed in Accounts. In short, Finance allows me to carry out some assumptions to justify my analysis.

您犯了同样的错误吗？

栽自新洲日报投资广场（12/2/2018）第09页

近来的股市真的是如坐过山车。2018年初始，马来西亚综合指数节节上升。但过去两周的美国股市动荡却也连累了马来西亚股市。我不晓得有多少人适可而止，又有多少人又再一回烧到了手。今天看了“股神也会失手”这篇分享，觉得应该共勉之。

The Real Meaning of Early Retirement / Freedom

When talk about early retirement, I come across many books and internet articles on how to achieve this financially.  As a matter of fact, finance is only part of the equation.

Here, I would like to share what is the real meaning of early retirement (at least to me):

1: Am I wanting to have early retirement and why?

A: YES, YES, YES.  I have been planning for this for years and I finally achieved this at the age of 40 financially.  Why?  This is because I would like to have more time to do what I like to do which I can't do so when my time is sold for living.  When I was an full-time employee, at least 8 hours of my day are sold.  Therefore, beside full-time job, I did not have sufficient time for myself as I would be occupied by other tasks in my life (sending/picking up kids to/from schools and/or tuition classes, settling bills and other family matters etc) while I still need at least 6-hour resting time every night.  My life was busy but created no value as I could not enjoy it at all.  Routine tasks had been making me felt so dull.  I could only enjoy my life if I become the master of my time.  That is the motive of me for early retirement.

Miracle of Stable Investment Return

A number of my readers and students are asking for stock investment tip.  Why they do so?  Simply because they are expecting to earn big within short period of time without doing much work.  Accept the fact that there is no free lunch in this work.  What you get is totally depending on what you have input.  You give peanuts, you'll get monkeys.

When we were kids, our parents might keep telling us that we should study hard IN ORDER TO HAVE BETTER LIFE IN THE FUTURE.  In other words, we have been taught on input and output.  The same is applicable to stock investment and there is no shortcut.

你50岁还要烦钱吗？Are you still struggling for money at the age of 50?

栽自新洲日报投资致富2017年11月6日第27页

看了这个报章标题，有些感触。就在几天前，我去了间银行去存放定存。因为我要得到更好的利率，我便向大厅的一位Officer询问。谈好后，该名Officer没让我拿号码排队，而是直接将我的资料及批准的利率交到收银员那儿处理。看来这位Officer的来头不小。在等待定存收据时，我便和她聊了起来。当她问我在哪儿高就时，我说我是自由工作者（Freelancer)。（其实我目前我还是全职工作者。那为什么我会说我是自由工作者呢？那是因为在不久的将来，我将会是我自己的主人。现在是时候让自己习惯这样说了，好让心里有个准备。）那位Officer好不羡慕。她说她也希望能像我一样。后来我才知道那位Officer是原来是该银行分行的经理。

How Much Do You Need???

One day, while chatting with a friend after lunch, he shared with me on how he was dissatisfied with the current corporate management. He is about my age. So I suggested him to quit his job. Yet, he replied, "I am not like you.  I will do so soon after I pay off my housing loan." When I further asked him if he knew how much he needed to be "himself", he suddenly speechless.

真的需要那么多吗？

2017年9月25日，我在一家报章的财经版的专栏里看到一个询问。询问者今年40岁。想在60岁退休并得到财务自由。这位询问者说他们一家四口（两夫妇和两个10岁以下的小孩）月花费为RM6,570。该财务师用5%的通膨率及4%的投资回酬率来加以计算，得到的结果是该询问者需在60岁前拥有近RM590万来应付每年RM21万的生活费。这每年RM21万的生活费并不难计算。只要将现在每月RM6,570的生活费乘以12再以复利5%持续20年既可得到。可为何需要RM590万的退休金才能支撑呢？在计算上，道理很简单。以RM590万的退休金乘以4%的年回酬率就可得到。该询问者目前只拥有不到RM50万的投资加现金。也就是说他必须在20年里多存RM540万。是的，该顾问的确是说需要多RM540万，也就是半个RM1,000万（不是RM100万）。对许多人而言，若半个RM1,000万那么好存，那全世界将没有穷人。

现在该投资什么？

我上周见到了一位好朋友，并进行了很好的交谈。其中，他与我分享他在任何种类的投资都是非常保守。他非常不愿意踏出他的投资第一步因为他很害怕损失。事实上，他已婚但没有孩子。他也有良好的收入，也没有多少债务。

我告诉他，与其他同龄的大多数人相比，他的财务状况已是很好。他的主要缺点是他从来没有渴望学会如何投资。他同意我的看法。他一直认为投资是一个非常复杂的学科但我不同意。我进一步告诉他，他害怕投资是因为他缺乏相关的知识。要克服这一点，唯一方法就是打开他的心结去学习。他可以从书中学习，参加研讨会以及和志同道合的人一起研究。如果他愿意学习和参与，他将能够看清他的投资。

Where to Invest Now?

I met up a good friend last week and had a nice conversation.  During the chat, he shared with me that he had been a very conservative in any kind of investment.  He was very reluctant to move his first step to investment simply because he was very scared of losing.  As a matter of fact, he is married with no children.  He is also a decent income earner without much debt holding.  

Therefore, I told him that he is at a better financial position as compared with the other majorities with the same age. The major shortcoming of him was that he never has a desire to learn how to invest and he agreed with me.  He kept thinking that investment is a very complicated subject to learn and I did not agree with him.  I further enlighten him that he was afraid of investment simply because he did not have much knowledge about it.  The only way to overcome this is to open his mind and learn.  He can learn from books, attending workshops and seminars, and get around with people with same interest.  If he is willing to learn and get involve, he will be able to see the investment he had learnt clearer than anyone who did not do so.

Investor vs Speculator, Which One are You?

I participated a cross country run held at my daughter's primary school on 14-Jan-2017.  It was very crowded.  Of course, I met a number of old friends there.  One of my friends, who is also a reader of my book, asked me on whether I am writing a new book.  I told him that, instead of writing, I teach so that I could guide my students proactively according to my investment philosophy instead of letting them to guess based on their perception on I wrote in my books solely.

心得分享：孙子股市兵法（冷眼 著）

每一次读冷眼的书，就像长辈苦口婆心的劝告我们什么该做，什么不该做。不久前，冷眼出了他的第四本书《孙子股市兵法》。书的内容就是以孙子兵法的角度去剖析股票投资该有的正确态度。

全书共336页。内容贯彻的是冷眼的投资心得。借此机会，我来与冷眼的一些股票投资概念来做个比较。

一、冷眼鼓励投资者除了多读公司的年报、研究报告以及报章的资料外，最好养成每天读完上市公司文告的习惯。若你是股东的公司的文告，必须细读。你有意参股的公司的文告，只需略读。至于你无意参股的公司，只需游览其文告，以找出是否有新的发展既可。

Apply to be Accepted into the Program

The long waiting InvestBursa course is opening for new intake soon. But we are changing the way we enroll people into the program this year.

How?

You need to apply to get accepted. See what I mean here.

Why?

Because we want to keep the direct 1-1 coaching group small, it's quality over quantity. And we only want the right people with the right mindset to take action.

Not people who intend to get rich quick overnight without any hard work. Yes, investing is a hard work by its own, but the outcome is a rewarding one.

Click here to apply, and we will send you another exclusive content of the program next Monday if you apply.

So you have an idea of how valuable the content is inside the program

Do apply before Sunday night HERE

Investment Fund Allocation

For those who have basic understanding on financial planning should understand the importance of fund allocation.  Techinically speaking, fund allocation should be make according to your risk profile.  If you are a conservative investor, you might prefer to opt for more investment on bond-like investment as too much stock-like investment will create uneasy feeling.  Of course, for an agreesive investor, the scenario will be the other way round.

Are You Making Your Investment Decision Based On Opinions or Facts?

Every now and then, whenever there is an interview with an “expert” on stock investment, people likes to seek for his recommendation. The “expert” will then give his suggestion according to his understanding of macro and micro environment and provide his buy or sell advice accordingly.

I must admit that these “experts” are doing a great job on providing their views according to certain logic. However, what worrying me the most is that most people will tend to accept the advice or tips unconditionally without any validation which might lead to a disastrous ending.

Invest Bursa Course is Reopened

Since the inception of my Invest Bursa Course, my students have been benefiting from my stock investment methodology.  As a matter of fact, beside investment timing, correct mindset plays a key role on successful stock investment.

Let me give you an example.  During the course, one of my students analyzes a well-known healthy drink maker in Malaysia.  Yes, the company does has a very famous drink that even a 3-year-old kid can ask for one when he feels thirsty.  However, what happen is that, due to high operating cost, its net profit margin is rather less promising.  Therefore, this company is filtered out by my STARS Evaluation System.  My students reluctant to accept this fact initially and doubt about the effectiveness of my system.  As a matter of fact, my system is helping us to seek for potential winners.  These winners should be characterized with growing sales and profit trend with good profit margin in order to balance the risk we are facing.  It is just illogical to invest in a so-called famous company with the return just slightly better than FD.  In other words, my STARS Evaluation System is helping everyone to look for the truth but not what the market is saying.  After some mindset fine tuning, my students appreciate how my philosophy on identifying quality counters.

So, after the identification of the right counters, I also show my students on how to earn big by identifying the right investment timing.  I am not a speculator and I don't sit in front of monitor all day long.  Instead, I spend most of my time on reading, teaching and get around with family.  The most I use is 10 minutes a day to monitor my investment is only and I normally do it before I go to bed.  Yes, I use the most 10 minutes a day to make my investment decision.  Wondering how?  I will show you in my Course.

My students are now more confident on stock investment and have no worry over market fluctuation.  My system has been able to help them to identify high yield counters and telling them when to enter and when to dispose strategically.   To me, my system has been giving me a average return between 15% and 20% a year and I would like to show you how.

The next enrollment of my Invest Bursa Course is now opened for registration.  You may visit investbursa.com for more information.  Due to overwhelming demand, I have to close the enrollment by 7th October 2013.  Based on my past experience, I have to limit the number of students as I would like to give you my best to ensure your stock investment success.  Catch this invaluable learning opportunity and I hope to see you in my Course soon.

Huh? What is offshore investment?

Recently, I read a book by a local author that encourages people to put their funds offshore.  The author particularly emphasize that by investing solely onshore is risky.  He even spells out evidence on what sort of disastrous that the local policy will lead us to.  On this basis, he strongly suggests us to diversify our risks via offshore investment.

Attitudes You Should Have When Come To Stock Investment

I keep receiving questions asking me for the right counters to invest and to forecast market movement.  Well, I am just a normal person like everyone of you.  Therefore, I do not know where will the market move and I don't bother to forecast it.  Everyone has their own preferences.  What I like might be are those you hate most.  Therefore, I can't tell them which counters to invest neither.  Furthermore, I really don't bother to answer these speculative questions as I don't speculate at all.

Is Market Timing Working???

I am not a fan of market timing.  To me, market timing is for speculators and I really don't bother to be a speculator I just don't want to sit in front of computer and stare at the computer monitor at all time.  But just for my knowledge on how speculators are doing on market timing, I picked up this book.

Upcoming Webinar: Powerful Tricks on Successful Stock Investment

Since the inception of my online stock investment course, Inve$t Bursa, early this year, the respond has been overwhelming.  Early this month, the course had been opened up for the new enrollment while I regret to realize that some people had missed the opportunity.

 

This Saturday morning, 20th July 2013, I am going to conduct a live training session to share some powerful tricks on stock investment that I have been practicing.  Normally, similar sessions are opened for members only.  But for this time, the good news is that I have decided to open up this live event for non-member as well, with a minimum fee.  It will be a very informative live session and we will be able to interact with each other at Q&A session.  See you there.

Get more details here:

http://investbursa.com/onetimewebinar/

Happy learning!

Return on REITs Investment

When anwsering the questions raised by one of my readers, I realize that there was an error printing on Table 11-1 of my book, Freedom.  Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank for all the feedback from my fellow readers.  You feedback will indeed allow me to give your better in the future.

Instead of doing the correction over the table in my book, I would like to share with you the latest return of my REITs investment.