Journey through the age range – is 20% good? It has been a remarkable, and sometimes exciting, journey. Initially, I had developed only invested in insurance-based schemes. Whether it is whole-life endowment programs or investment-linked policies (ILP). Work, work, work was normally all I focused on. Making ends meet from the salary I earned and saving cash in to the bank were pretty much the game plan otherwise.
Marriage, housing, post-graduate studies and kids much took up everything else I put quite. Had it not been for the early years buying in to the various ILPs, I wouldn’t have much of an investment to speak of. Interestingly, I had the fortune of experiencing adopted ILPs in the period post Asian Financial Crisis and it acquired generated quite a tidy sum. It came in useful when I needed the money to complement my CPF to buy my first home. Then I found out Fundsupermart.
- Like many industries, investment banking is becoming less profitable
- Unique Opportunity
- Sucsy, Fischer & Company
- Failing To Offset Gains
- Grisons Peak, London
- Waimea Water Limited
- Don’t overdo it – there’s such a thing as too much candy
- Gold Investor Status
A small sum in its cash fund gave me self-confidence to take the next step – i.e. to invest into various device trusts funds. As I learning much more and gained a better understanding of the concept of diversification, bonds and stocks, the machine trust money I invested into became more managed systematically.
Then I uncovered the tax benefits of the Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS). Max’ed out my SRS, minimise the taxes I must pay, and make investments the SRS into unit trust funds at Fundsupermart. It’s all too easy! In the depth of the Global Financial meltdown, I saw my unit trust funds sink miserably. And I miserably mean. But I stayed faithful to the diversification plan with the confidence that the marketplace will generally recover in the long run. It has not disappointed.
In 2009, I assessed that there were many opportunities to get stocks. I must say I put a confirmation bias when I saw a video interview with Warren Buffet where he recommended that he was on the look out for things to buy. So began my stock picking journey.
After 5 years investing into the stock exchange, I did an analysis recently to see how I’ve faired. Turned out, not bad. Not bad at all. Using Excel’s XIRR function, the internal rate of return showed 20.6% within the 5 season period investing in shares. The stock portfolio, both from valuation uptick and from cash additions to the investment finance, is continuing to grow in bounds and leaps, from zero to hundreds of thousands for the reason that 5 years.