Living investment Volume 2

Ideas on living, a collection of blog posts

Living Investment Volume 2 Ideas on living, a collection of blog posts

by Lim Kim Tong

Š Copyright 2016 by Lim Kim Tong Book Design by Lim Shu Ning Illustrations by Lim Shu Ning All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Typefaces used: Gill Sans and Fertigo Pro

Contents Introduction to book I Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning 2013

Singapore GDP annual growth rates and STI (1997 to 2012) Concept of opportunity cost 5 Dividend-Price Ratio as predictor of Stock prices 7 Asiasons Capital, Blumont, LionGold – Who lost money? 8 Stock data on-line 9 Stock Indices at 31 October 2013 and GDP Forecast 10 Investing in Singapore Stock Market in 2013 12 2014

3

Stock Indices 2011, 2012, 2013 13 Singapore Inflation for Years 2007 to 2013 14 ROE of companies – 31 December 2013 year end 15 Monthly amount to save before retirement 17 Singapore GDP annual growth rates and STI (1997 to 2013) 19 Taking profits on unit trusts 21 ROE of companies with year ends other than 31 December 2013 22 CPF Life – Standard or Basic Plan? 23 How to get more interest income from CPF, the legitimate way? 26 How much to live on during retirement? 28 CPF – Voluntary contribution for self-employed 29 Started an Equity Portfolio 31 Current Asset Allocation – 31 October 2014 32 China Stock Market had a good run 33 2015

Stock market indices 31 December 2014 35 Buying stocks using PE ratios and Dividend Yields 37 Buying stocks using P/B Ratio 40 Invest with knowledge of Stock Beta 43 Share Prices over 4 years from 2011 to 2014 45 Using Return on Equity to assess stocks 47 Financial Management

Investments

Retirement Planning

Investing in 2015 - Uncertainties 49 Investment Behaviour 51 Using StockFacts of SGX website 52 It is not about income but expenditure too 54 Would I sell my REITs? 55 China equities soared and then dropped 57 What factors move share prices – a graphical representation 58 Another look at factors affecting share prices 60 How much is the retirement nest egg? 62 Investing in Gold – Time to take a dip? 64 Buying Unit Trusts on-line, local banks are in it too 66 Where is STI heading at end of 2015? 68 Individual Stock performance against STI 70 Business Confidence affecting share prices 72 Return on Equity as a guide to investing 74 STI in two halves 76 Latest Price-to-Book Ratios based on Q3 2015 financial results 78 Investing in 2015 – Uncertainties (Part 2) 81 Changes to Price-Earning ratios (from start of year to now) 82 Property Tax reflective of economy 84 Dividend stocks with Debt-to-Equity Ratio information 85 Investing in 2015 – to stay calm was difficult 87 Time of year to take stock of personal financial position 88 Know your personal income and major expenditure for the year 90 Latest Asset Allocation 92 2016

STI component stocks pulling STI downwards in 2015 94 Performance of stock markets for 2015 96 Performance of FTSE ST Indices for 2015 98 Stretching my retirement funds 100 Investing is for long term 102 Interest earned on CPF balances - 2015 103 Why I remain relatively calm this round of market turmoil 104 Singapore inflation and GDP growth rates were linked 105 Enhanced retirement sum in 2016 107 Speculation and sentiment impact share markets 108 Better off investing in STI ETF than selecting stocks for portfolio 109 Financial Management

Investments

Retirement Planning

Brexit, it is 111 Total Shareholder Return of portfolio 112 Chasing for yields 113 Singapore GDP growth rates correlate with world GDP 114 Has investing become a gamble? 116 Global stock markets had forgotten about Brexit 117 Lessons learned in 2008 - Extreme fear after Lehman Brothers I feel that I may be better off if I have not invested, is it? 121 To stay invested? 122

119

II Living Tips 2013

Value System 127 Peace of Mind 129 How to live? 131 Doing Nothing 132 Being with yourself 133 Rejoice 134 Transforming Stress into Joyous Effort 135 Living up to our own expectations 137 How to simplify your life? 139 2014

Live life and not sweat over money 141 Calming an over-active Mind 142 Let it Go, Revisited 143 Why do we say and do the meanest things to our closest ones?

Each of us is different 145 Wisdom in the Age of Information 146 2015

Living with Imperfections 148 Caring for others increases compassionate joy Throw-away Society 151 Knowing yourself 152 Living a simple life 154 It is good enough! 155 Financial Management

Investments

150

Retirement Planning

144

Reduce and stop accumulating 156 Staying with the present moment with mindfulness training 157 Life’s ups and downs – Do not try to straighten things up 158 Name and Reputation are just concepts 159 Viewing thing as it really is 160 2016

Anxieties and Restlessness 161 Dilemma of modern society 162 Love yourself first before you love others 164 Why are we so unkind to ourselves? 166 Being mortal - illness, medicine and what matters in the end Keeping aging and illness at bay 169 All things impermanent, staying in the moment 171 III Life Journey 2013

Being a Singaporean 175 Lost Buildings and Lost Heritage 176 Looking after Brownie with splay legs 177 Teaching 178 Resignation from job – a personal reflection Recollections of 2013 184 2014

181

Stop chasing and be rewarded 187 If your child wanted to start a business 189 Preoccupation of current generation 191 Rejoicing and Remembering Brownie 193 International Day of Happiness 195 Suffering burnout on a job 196 Fear 198 What I treasured most being a Singaporean? 200 Reduce and Benefit 202 Memory of Primary School or Lack of It 203 Memories of 2014 205

167

2015

Money is tight 209 Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) 210 Letting go and living in the present 212 Lifestyle adjustment: Food and Drinks 213 One day, we will get old 214 Talking about fathers on Fathers’ Day 215 Getting the flu 216 Three Years On 218 Lifestyle changes since retirement 219 Parenting requires plenty of love and care 221 Inner Peace 222 Does it really matter? 223 Chasing Grades and Titles 224 Language Education in the 1960s 225 Fading away from corporate world 227 Being Alone 228 2016

Looking back at 2015 229 Looking after mum 231 Remaining calm 233 Growing old and a burden to others 234 Tiring times 235 TOUCH Home Care - Meals-on-wheels 236 Are you prepared to retire? 237 Raise your child to love reading 238 Dad 239 Time to be less intrusive 240 Aging concerns 242 Parenting: Have we done enough? 244 Raising kids to excel in academic pursuits 245 Get used to getting old 247 Glossary References About the author

To Lim Chau Lee and Lim Shu Ning, Love of my life

Introduction to book

This book is Volume 2 of Living Investment. The first volume was published in 2013.

The blog Living Investment (http://limkimtong.wordpress.com) was started when I went into early retirement in 2006. Because I was trained as an accounting and finance professional and I was able to retire at age forty-nine, I have experiences to share in areas of investments and retirement planning. The second aspect of Living Investment is living this life. It is a journal of personal encounters.

In the first book, I collated blog posts from 2006 to 2012. In this volume, I picked entries from 2013 to 2016. In the four years, I found it increasingly difficult to invest with good returns. It was the nature of the financial markets that were volatile because of the economic conditions faced by various economies of the world. The world has not really gotten out of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/09.

This book is structured in chronological order and blog posts are marked by themes. It captures moments of past as major events happened, like the collapse of oil prices in 2014/15. The writing is therefore in context.

This book has three main themes: 1. Financial management, investments and retirement planning 2. Living tips 3. Life journey

Disclaimer The material presented is intended to be general and written in layman’s language as much as it is possible. The author shall not be liable for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of material written. Please seek professional advice from your financial advisor or financial institutions on material written covering financial matters.

10 August 2013

Singapore GDP annual growth rates and STI (1997 to 2012)

Annual growth rates for Singapore real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are mapped to the Straits Times Index (STI) at the end of each year.

Year GDP growth rate (%) STI 1997 + 8.3 1529 1998 - 2.2 1392 1999 + 6.1 2479 2000 + 8.9 1926 2001 - 1.0 1623 2002 + 4.2 1341 2003 + 4.4 1764 2004 + 9.5 2066 2005 + 7.5 2347 2006 + 8.9 2985 2007 + 9.1 3482 2008 + 1.8 1761 2009 - 0.6 2897 2010 + 15.2 3190 2011 + 6.2 2646 2012 + 3.4 3167

Source: Singapore Department of Statistics (for GDP numbers)

The table below shows the major financial crises that affected the STI. Date Crises STI 31 Aug 1998 Asian Financial Crisis (1997/98) 856 31 May 2000 Dot-com Bubble 1795 28 Sep 2001 Sept 11 attack on twin towers 1319 31 Mar 2003 SARS 1267 31 Dec 2008 Global financial crisis (2008/09) 1761 9 March 2009 Global financial crisis (2008/09) 1456 STI declined significantly during a crisis.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 3

After SARS, economic growth gathered pace for a good four years from 2003 to 2007. STI reached its highest level in October 2007 at 3,807 points. When the global financial crisis started in December 2007, the STI was at 3,482. It went through a major dip touching 1,456 on 9 March 2009.

After 2009, Singapore GDP shot up 15.2% in 2010 which was an exceptional year. Real GDP then moderated to 6.2% in 2011 and lowered further in 2012 at 3.4%.

Forecast GDP 2013 The recent forecast for GDP growth rate is between 2.5% to 3.5% by the end of this year.

The current level of STI was 3,229 points (7 August 2013). STI at end of 2012 was 3,167.08 points when GDP growth rate of last year was 3.4%.

If one were to consider GDP as a gauge of performance of STI, what would STI be at end of 2013? Only 4 months+ to know the outcome. Then again, there may other unknown unknowns during this period that could throw the GDP number haywire.

Afternote: The STI ended 2013 at 3,167.43 points that was quite similar as in 2012. The GDP growth rate for 2013 was 4.4% and it was better than 3.4% in 2012. The STI did not move as much since the GDP growth rate did not decline in 2013 after 2012.

4 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

3 September 2013

Concept of opportunity cost Concept Choices incur costs. For every choice that is made, some benefit is gained and something else is lost. That loss is the result of foregoing benefits from the alternative action that was not chosen. This is known as opportunity cost.

Opportunity cost is the cost in terms of the next best alternative forgone.

(Economic theory) Application of Concept When I was in a public accounting firm long ago, I had a charge-out-rate that the firm used to bill our clients for work done. It was an hourly rate that took into account my salary, overheads of the firm and a profit mark up. This hourly rate is how much I am worth to the firm. If I was sitting in the office and not working on a client job, this is the opportunity cost to the firm for not using me productively.

Since I have retired, how much is my time worth now? I have no employment income but I have skills set which is worth some value. There is no objective way to measure this value precisely. This boils down to how I intend to use my time between leisure and non-leisure activities, such as time spent on investing funds. Very low percentage, maybe 20% of waking hours, was spent on latter activities. Therefore, I have more hours that cannot be translated to a dollar amount. It is only intangible benefit derived from former activities. So, my opportunity cost of my time in dollar term is not substantial.

Taxi or public transport I find taxi too expensive for me. Each trip starts with at least $3.00. Bus fare starts with 73 cents. MRT ride starts with 73 or 78 cents. Given that I have time to spare and I am not rushing for time, it does not make sense for me to take a taxi ride and “burn’ cash. Cash is a limited resource when one stops gainful employment.

Fixed Deposit Interest income We are in this low interest rate environment since the global financial crisis Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 5

erupted some six years ago. A Singapore dollar fixed deposit (FD) placed with OCBC for one year will only pay 0.25% per annum at their board rate. There is this promotion rate for fresh fund at 1.0% p.a. So for 0.75% point more, I made a trip to a quiet branch of OCBC this morning to place a FD. I spent about 45 minutes of my time to do just that. Time spent is necessary and worth it to gain an advantage of higher rate. Bearing in mind, my opportunity cost is low currently.

6 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

17 October 2013

Dividend-Price Ratio as predictor of Stock prices

Three American professors won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

One of them is Robert J. Shiller, Professor of Yale University. His research paper published in Winter 1998 in the Journal of Portfolio Management was the subject of this write-up.

Prof Shiller’s research paper pointed towards valuation ratios are extraordinarily bearish in 1998. He used two valuation ratios: Dividend-Price ratio and Price to Smoothed-Earnings ratio to make that observation.

His research pointed to the fact that Dividend-Price ratio forecasts movements in stock price. The stock price has moved to restore ratio to its mean value (i.e. normal historical level). It is the stock prices and not the dividend in the Dividend-Price ratio that brings ratio back to its mean.

Note: D-P ratio is measured by previous year’s dividend divided by January stock price.

Price to Smoothed-Earnings ratio can also forecast 10-year growth in stock prices based on Shiller’s research. Smoothed-earnings is average of real earnings for past 10 years.

So two important ratios commonly known as Dividend yield and Price-Earnings ratio are good predictor of stock prices. (Dividend-Price ratio is actually Dividend yield.) If one can determine long-term mean (also called average) for both ratios for companies, then if the ratios deviated extremely from the mean, warning bells should be set off for investors. Buying and selling decisions can be made based on these ratios.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 7

26 October 2013

Asiasons Capital, Blumont, LionGold – Who lost money?

So much had been written about these companies in major newspapers. I am not into penny stocks but $8 billion of market capitalisation wiped out because of recent crash in these three stocks made me sit up. For a sense of $8 billion, it is 8 thousand times of $1 million each. That is a lot of money lost.

I looked at their latest sets of full-year financial results and the following data were extracted.

Asiasons Blumont LionGold Net assets per share 17.3 cents 5.96 cents 32.2 cents Earnings/(loss) per share 2.96 cents 1.93 cents (94) cents 12-month High price $2.83 $2.54 $1.755 25 Oct 2013 share price 18.9 cents 16.3 cents 25 cents Based on net assets of these companies, the 12-month high share prices were extremely high in comparison. The last traded share prices were more in line with the net assets per share.

In terms of earnings, LionGold made losses in the last financial year. Even calculating Price-to-Earnings ratio is just mind-boggling: 95 times and 131 times for Asiasons and Blumont respectively using 12-month high prices. The P/E ratio for STI was only 13 times.

So what went wrong with investors/traders of these shares in the run up to peaks and then crashed spectacularly? Who are these investors who could not get out in time when these shares crashed and therefore holding on to greatly reduced share values? That is the $8 billion question. MAS and SGX could shed lights in months to come since they have started investigating the trading activities of these three stocks.

Afternote: In March 2016, we have yet to hear about the investigation results.

8 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

27 October 2013

Stock data on-line

Before one considers trading or investing in a particular counter, it is important to look up information about the company. The recent fiasco in Asiasons Capital, Blumont and LionGold might have been avoided if traders took a step back and reviewed key financial data of each company before taking actions.

With the Internet, there is no dearth of information of any listed companies in Singapore. I went to search these companies in Bloomberg and Reuters websites. These websites provide information such as current Price-to-Earnings ratio (trailing 12 months), Price-to-Book ratio (most recent quarter), 52-week high and 52-week low share prices, earnings per share, etc.

If a particular counter overshoots the industry norms of such ratios (e.g. Priceto-Earnings, Price-to-Book), alarm bells should sound.

For retail investors who went in to buy and sell a counter on advice of remisiers/dealers because they have no access to such information or ignorant of financial ratios, it is my view that remisiers/dealers owe a duty to inform them of such information. Some of them may not have that kind of money to lose.

Of course there were investors who still continue to trade despite information were provided out of greed. Making fast bucks is just too tempting to miss out.

Woe to those who went in late in the game and left holding a very expensive stock and were not able to exit before the collapse in the share price. They are left holding the problem while others before him had already made their money when the irrational euphoria was at its peak.

It reminded me of a saying by Chuck Prince, former Citigroup Chief: “When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.”

The music stopped.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 9

7 November 2013

Stock Indices at 31 October 2013 and GDP Forecast

When compared with 2 July 2007 before the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) recovered and went on to increase 14.8% as at 31 October 2013.

What about other key indices comparing 2 July 2007 against 31 October 2013?

Stock Index 2 Jul 2007 31 Oct 2013 Change (%) Sensex - Mumbai 14,664 21,164 + 44.3 Dow Jones Ind Avg 13,535 15,545 + 14.8 Hang Seng Index 22,151 23,206 + 4.7 London FTSE 6,590 6,731 + 2.1 STI 3,550 3,210 - 9.5 Aust All Ord 6,298 5,420 - 13.9 Nikkei Index 18,146 14,327 - 21.0 Shanghai Composite 3,836 2,141 - 44.1 India, USA, Hong Kong and UK had positive performances. Singapore, Australia, Japan and China have yet to reach the peaks on 2 July 2007. There are rooms for future increases in the indices for these countries.

The next table looks at this year’s year-to-date performances and the GDP growth forecasts for this year. (Source of GDP numbers: World Economic Outlook Report October 2013 by IMF) Stock Index Nikkei Index Dow Jones Aust All Ord London FTSE Sensex - Mumbai Hang Seng Index STI Shanghai Composite

31.12.12 31.10.13 Change (%) 10,395 14,327 + 37.8 13,104 15,545 + 18.6 4,664 5,420 + 16.2 5,897 6,731 + 14.1 19,426 21,164 + 8.9 22,656 23,206 + 2.4 3,167 3,210 + 1.3 2,269 2,141 - 5.6

10 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

GDP Forecast (%) 1.95 1.56 2.47 1.43 3.79 2.97 3.54 7.60

Nikkei, DJIA, Australia All Ordinary and London FTSE were running up very well in that order. Sensex was up 8.9% so far.

Hang Seng and STI moved up slightly in comparison with the rest. Is there room for a rise? Their GDP growth forecast are still positive but not great compared to past performances.

China’s Shanghai Composite was the only index in the negative territory. This despite that her GDP is forecast to grow at 7.6% for the year. Investors seem not keen on China stock market at this present moment.

With two more months to go till end of 2013, how would the indices be like at the end?

Afternote: Stock Index 31 Dec 2012 31 Dec 2013 Nikkei Index 10,395 16,291 Dow Jones Ind Avg 13,104 16,576 Aust All Ord 4,664 5,353 London FTSE 5,897 6,749 Sensex - Mumbai 19,426 21,170 Hang Seng Index 22,656 23,306 STI 3,167 3,167 Shanghai Composite 2,269 2,115

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 11

7 December 2013

Investing in Singapore Stock Market in 2013

We have another three weeks to the end of 2013. The Straits Times Index (STI) was down 1.67% from the start of the year (3,114 points at 6 December). So how is the performance of my portfolio, which was invested in stocks, REITs, retail bonds, and preference shares?

Through the year, I received dividends, coupons (interests) and profits made on sale of stocks. For this year, my portfolio was increased by further purchases than sales of stocks. Have I done the right thing by actively managing my portfolio?

I add up all cash received resulting from income and realised capital gains (sum denoted as X). I then deduct the paper loss (between current valuation and cost of purchase) from that sum X. With this net amount, the rate of return was 2.41% on average total portfolio costs.

Had I stay passive and did not invest in Singapore stock market and place the portfolio in bank fixed deposits, I would only get about 1.0% per annum. This is lower return from active investing.

Singapore stock market was a difficult market this year. It was really challenging to make a good return.

Afternote: In 2013, active investing seems advantageous. However in another year (2015), it might be better off to just invest in STI ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) than to pick stocks and creating a portfolio.

12 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

2 January 2014

Stock Indices 2011, 2012, 2013

This is for the record. The table below shows the indices of some major stock indices for years 2011, 2012 and 2013. The percentage change column is to compare 2013 with 2012.

Stock Index Nikkei 225 (Japan) S&P 500 (USA) Dow Jones (USA) Germany DAX Australia All Ord FTSE100 (UK) Mumbai BSESN Hang Seng (HK) STI (Singapore) Shanghai Comp

2011 8,455.35 1,257.60 12,217.60 5,898.35 4,111.00 5,572.30 15,454.92 18,434.39 2,646.35 2,199.42

2012 10,395.18 1,426.19 13,104.14 7,612.39 4,664.60 5,897.80 19,426.71 22,656.92 3,167.08 2,269.13

2013 16,291.31 1,848.36 16,576.66 9,552.16 5,353.10 6,749.10 21,170.68 23,306.39 3,167.43 2,115.98

Change 56.7% 29.6% 26.5% 25.5% 14.8% 14.4% 9.0% 2.9% 0.01% -6.7%

Clearly Japan Nikkei 225 was a runaway success story. The index jumped 56.7% between 2013 and 2012 and it was up 92.7% between 2013 and 2011. The US stock market and Germany stock market rose more than 25% in the same period. Australia, UK and India did alright.

In the case of Hang Seng Index, its index rose only 2.9% in 2013 but 26.4% over two year period.

As for Singapore, the STI was flat in 2013. If we compare end 2013 with end 2011 the STI was up 19.7%. Money could have been made in 2012.

The worst performer was the Shanghai Composite. The index lost 6.7 per cent last year. While the major stock indices were up, it was down instead.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 13

22 February 2014

Singapore Inflation for Years 2007 to 2013

Singapore inflation is measured by consumer price index (CPI). The CPIs for years 2007 to 2013 were: 2007: 93.2 2008: 99.4 2009: 100.0 (base year) 2010: 102.8 2011: 108.2 2012: 113.1 2013: 115.8 (Source: DOS Singapore)

Annual Inflation rates The annual inflation rates for each year from 2007 to 2013 are listed below: 2007: 2.1% 2008: 6.6% 2009: 0.6% 2010: 2.8% 2011: 5.2% 2012: 4.6% 2013: 2.4% Inflation for 2013 was lower than 2012.

Inflation over six years Inflation was 24.2% over six years from 2007 to 2013, averaging about 4 per cent each year. Had salary increment outpaced 4 per cent each year?

Were investment returns higher than 4 per cent per year in order to see real return on investments? This is a challenge if we factor in not just income on investments but also capital gain/loss on investments.

14 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

6 March 2014

ROE of companies – 31 December 2013 year end

Return on equity (ROE) is a financial ratio which is hard to pin down. Try getting it from Reuters, Bloomberg, DBS Vickers and you will find different values for same companies depending on which source you are accessing. Not all companies release this ratio in their announcements of results through the SGX portal.

Therefore, I compute the ROE ratio based on net profit attributable to shareholders over shareholders’ funds using the Profit & Loss Statement and the Balance Sheet of these companies.

ROE tells the shareholders how the company is generating profit for the owners of the shares for past one year (as percentage of shareholders’ funds).

The higher number means postive performance.

The following companies had 31 December 2013 as their year end.

Stock Counter M1

StarHub *

ST Engr Sembcorp Marine Keppel Corp

Sembcorp Ind

Keppel Land

Comfort Delgro UOL

UOB

OCBC DBS

City Developments CapitaLand

SBS Transit

Net Profits 160

370

580

555

1,845 820

885

263

785

3,008 2,768 3,672 682

849

11

S/H Fund 395

1,219 2,116 2,677 9,701 5,027 6,989 2,154 6,759 26,388 25,115 34,233 7,845 16,067 344

ROE 40.5 30.4 27.4 20.7 19.0 16.3 12.7 12.2 11.6 11.4 11.0 10.7 8.7 5.3 3.2

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 15

Note: Net Profits and S/H Fund are in million of dollars * S/H Fund of Starhub is for the company and not for the group

The stand-out companies include M1, Starhub, ST Engineering, Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Corporation. Sembcorp Industries followed behind them.

In the property developers sector, Keppel Land (12.7%) and UOL (11.6%) did well. City Developments (8.7%) and CapitaLand (5.3%) did poorly.

Comfort Delgro’s ROE was 12.2% but SBS Transit was only 3.2%.

As for the three local banks, UOB (11.4%) and OCBC (11.0%) are ahead of DBS (10.7%).

16 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

28 March 2014

Monthly amount to save before retirement

Back in 28 January 2011, I wrote a blog “How much is enough for retirement?�.

In it, I used annuity to work out the lump sum to set aside at retirement in order to receive a constant stream of cash flow from retirement date.

In this post, I will determine how much a person must save each month to achieve the same amount of monthly payout from retirement date till 85 years old.

I use the Retirement Planner available at DBS website to come up with the results.

The parameters are: Retirement at age 65 years old Life expectancy at 85 years old (ie 20 years from date of retirement) Monthly payout after retirement = $3,000 Member has $148,000 minimum sum in CPF at 65 years old Expected annual inflation rate 2.5% Expected annual return rate 2.5% (conservative rate) The table below shows the monthly amount a person must save under different scenarios based on number years left till retirement.

Age No. of years to retirement 55 10 45 20 35 30 25 40

Monthly savings $5,701 $3,340 $2,569 $2,195

In order to get $3,000 per month payout after retirement (at today’s dollar and inflation adjusted into the future), a person who is already 55 years old now and has 10 more years of working left must save $5,701 per month. This amount of monthly saving drops to $2,195 when he is 25 years old now. The Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 17

point is that when a person is younger and starts saving earlier, his quantum set aside into saving is lower than an older person.

This amount set aside each month is for retirement use and not for purchase of property or car. For asset purchase, one has to work out a separate sum to achieve that goal. (This is not the subject of this post, eg. monetising a property to support retirement spendings.)

We have to consider that part of monthly saving may come from either cash or contribution to CPF (meant for retirement needs).

So you have it. Start saving early for retirement.

18 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

21 May 2014

Singapore GDP annual growth rates and STI (1997 to 2013)

Annual growth rates for Singapore real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are mapped to the Straits Times Index (STI) at the end of each year.

This table is updated with new real GDP growth rates as a result of change in the base year in calculating GDP. The new base year is 2010 instead of 2005 used previously.

Year GDP growth rate (%) STI 1997 + 8.3 1529 1998 - 2.2 1392 1999 + 6.1 2479 2000 + 8.9 1926 2001 - 1.0 1623 2002 + 4.2 1341 2003 + 4.4 1764 2004 + 9.5 2066 2005 + 7.5 2347 2006 + 8.9 2985 2007 + 9.1 3482 2008 + 1.8 1761 2009 - 0.6 2897 2010 + 15.2 3190 2011 + 6.1 2646 2012 + 2.5 3167.08 2013 + 3.9 3167.43

Source: Singapore Department of Statistics (for GDP numbers)

Slowdown in GDP growth rates for 2008 (+1.8%) and 2009 (-0.6%) was the result of the global financial crisis. In 2010, GDP grew a spectacular 15.2%. In 2011, the GDP growth rate was a good 6.1% but it turned down to grow only 2.5% in 2012.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 19

As for 2013, GDP re-bounded and grew at 3.9%. Though a reasonable growth rate, the Straits Times Index (STI) did not reflect the fact that the Singapore economy did okay. The STI remained flat between end 2012 and end 2013.

Because STI tends to be forward looking of the economy 6 months ahead, analysts and investors were not overly optimistic of Singapore condition 6 months to one year ahead. There are still uncertainties in the global economy (in particular China economy affecting the rest of the world). There are political risks too, such as Ukraine crisis, Thailand political stalemate, and China territorial claims of the East China and South China seas.

20 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

4 June 2014

Taking profits on unit trusts

I decided to realise some gains from owning two unit trusts, namely First State Bridge Fund and First State Regional China Fund. The redemption of some units in these two funds was to withdraw the gains over initial costs and hold on to the original cost of investments in my portfolio.

Is this the good time to redeem? I cannot answer that except that both unit trusts were above cost price right now. I thought that I should take profits now.

First State Regional China Fund did very well. The price differential was 20.4% over 1-2 years of holding period.

Details of transactions are highlighted below.

1. First State Bridge Fund (Balanced fund, Asia Pacific excluding Japan) Bought on 23 April 2008 Net Asset Value $1.3859 Sold on 3 June 2014 Net Asset Value $1.4961 Price gain = 7.9% over 6 years 2. First State Regional China (Equity fund, Greater China) Bought between 18 July 2012 and 7 March 2013 Average cost of $2.0567 Sold on 3 June 2014 Net Asset Value $2.4768 Price gain = 20.4% over 1-2 years I am not abandoning funds with focus on Asia Pacific (ex Japan) and China by still keeping my original investments (at cost) in these two funds. In fact, I bought into First State Asian Growth fund on 13 May 2014. The net asset value had since moved up from $1.9917 to $2.0891 (+5.08%) in less a month. This fund invests primarily in securities in the Asian region excluding Japan (such as S Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Singapore, China).

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 21

9 June 2014

ROE of companies with year ends other than 31 December 2013

This a follow-on of an earlier blog written on 6 March 2014. I added companies with year-ends other than 31 December 2013. (mainly with 31 March 2014 year ends) I compute the ROE ratio based on net profit attributable to shareholders over shareholders’ funds (S/H funds) using the Profit & Loss Statement and the Balance Sheet of these companies.

ROE tells the shareholders how the company is generating profit for the owners of the shares for past one year (as percentage of shareholders’ funds).

The higher number means postive performance.

Counter SingPost SGX SIA Engr Singtel SPH

SMRT SIA

Net Profits 143

336 265

3,652 430

61 359

S/H Fund 346 889

1,360 23,868 3,536 801

13,237

ROE 41.3 37.8 19.5 15.3 12.2 7.6 2.7

Year End 31-Mar-14 30-Jun-13 31-Mar-14 31-Mar-14 31-Aug-13 31-Mar-14 31-Mar-14

Note: Net Profits and S/H Fund are in million of dollars

Except for SMRT and SIA, the other companies had a good historical ROE. SingPost and SGX gave good returns to shareholders (41.3% and 37.8% respectively).

22 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

30 July 2014

CPF Life – Standard or Basic Plan?

I attended CPF’s talk “Life @ 55” last night. This was my second attendance at this annual talk. The first was two years back.

Those born in or after 1958 will be placed on CPF Life Scheme automatically (conditions apply - see CPF webpages). For those born before 1958, you can still opt to join the CPF Life Scheme from the Minimum Sum Scheme (the predecessor of CPF Life).

There are two plans now for CPF Life, the Standard Plan and the Basic Plan.

Which one would you choose?

Simply put, you decide on whether you want higher monthly payout on retirement or higher bequest to your loved ones after you passed away.

Type of Plan Monthly payout Bequest CPF Life Standard Higher Lower CPF Life Basic Lower Higher Besides differences in monthly payout and bequest amounts, what else can affect your choice? What I am writing from here on is simplified and can be technical for some.

CPF Life Standard Plan: At age 55, 50% of Minimum Sum in Retirement Account (RA) is deducted as first annuity payment. At age 65, second annuity payment from remaining balance in RA (cash component) is made. RA (cash component) amount is now fully placed in a common pool called the Annuity Fund.

The Annuity Fund will pay out the monthly amount to you after 65 and as long as you live. (Note: RA is exhausted in Standard Plan.)

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 23

CPF Life Basic Plan: At age 55, a small portion say about 10% of your RA will be deducted as first annuity payment. The rest of the RA savings will stay in your RA. At age 65, another small portion of any new money that has built up in your RA between 55th birthday and 65th birthday will be deducted as annuity payment. So you have money in your RA and some annuity payments made to the Annuity Fund.

Your RA amount will pay monthly payout to you between age 65 to age 90. From age 90 onwards, the Annuity Fund will then take over and pay the monthly payout as long as you live.

Based on actuary calculations, both schemes are fair and one should not lose out by choosing either scheme.

CPF Board provides a CPF Life Payout Estimator in their web pages. Use this to see your payout under both schemes before making your decision. I have generated one example and the screen shot is attached at next page.

Which one to choose, the Standard Plan or Basic Plan?

You would realise that CPF Life Basic Plan has substantial amount of your CPF money still in your RA account after age 65. The bequest amount is so much higher than the Standard Plan should one passes away at ages 65, 75, and 85.

The monthly payout for Basic Plan is not much lower than the Standard Plan.

I would go for CPF Life Basic Plan. (For readers, consult CPF Board and base your decision on your unique circumstances.)

24 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 25

31 July 2014

How to get more interest income from CPF, the legitimate way?

We know that CPF Board pays 2.5% per annum interest on Ordinary Account (OA) and 4.0% p.a interest on Special Account (SA), Medisave Account (MA) and Retirement Account (RA). It also pays an additional 1.0% p.a. for first $60,000 of a member’s combined balances, with up to $20,000 from OA. Between OA and RA, the interest income differential is 1.5 percentage points (4.0% - 2.5%).

For those who are already passed 55 years old, you would have a Retirement Account set up with some balances. The Minimum Sum (MS) for this RA had moved up over the years: Birth Year 1956 1957 1958 1959

Prevailing Minimum Sum for the cohort born in that year $131,000 $139,000 $148,000 $155,000

Let’s take a case of one born in 1957.

For the 1957 cohort, his Minimum Sum was set at $139,000 two years ago. For this year the current Minimum Sum is $155,000. CPF Board has this scheme known as CPF Minimum Sum Topping-up Scheme to allow those above 55 years old to top-up RA from $139,000 to current MS of $155,000 (ie max $16,000 top-up amount to RA).

If this member’s Special Account has zero balance, he can choose to top-up RA using Ordinary Account (OA) balance.

Instead of leaving CPF money in OA and earn 2.5% p.a., he can choose to move CPF money from OA to RA to the tune of $16,000 and earn 1.5% p.a. more interest on this $16,000. This may not seem much but additional interest 26 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

income helps. In addition, when his RA balance is raised to $155,000, the monthly payout after 65 years old from CPF Life will be higher too.

This example is applicable to one (above 55 years old) who intends to keep balance in his Ordinary Account even when he can withdraw it out and his Special Account has no balance. This is because, the MS topping-up scheme draws from the Special Account first before moving on to draw the remaining top-up balance from the Ordinary Account. The Special Account and Retirement Account has the same interest rate of 4.0% p.a. and therefore has no interest rate differential advantage.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 27

3 August 2014

How much to live on during retirement?

A young lady wanted $10,000 per month when she retires. She was captured saying that on a CPF Board corporate video shown during the recent talk by CPF. That can’t be right. Say she retires at age 60 and lives till 85 years old, the total retirement amount can come up to $3 million (without factoring in investment returns on retirement sum set aside).

If we were to rely on CPF Life for retirement income, the monthly payout amount is about $1,000. $10,000 per month is too much! Do we really need $10,000 per month for retirement?

I looked at my family circumstances and prepared a detailed budget of monthly and annual expenditures. Some expenses are absolutely necessary like food, grocery, transport costs, utilities bills, telecom bills, and housing related costs such as property tax, management fees etc. Other expenses include some money set aside to support elderly parents, medical and dental costs.

Discretionary expenditures include costs incurred on overseas trips and on personal grooming.

Based my own calculations, I would need about $3,000 per month to live adequately as a family. This amount does not include the discretionary expenditures. Payout from CPF Life is not sufficient. Even with both my wife and I are getting CPF Life payouts, the family is still short by $1,000. So we have to see what else can be cut in order to depend on CPF Life for retirement. If not, we have to have other savings for retirement or obtain other sources of income.

28 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

16 August 2014

CPF – Voluntary contribution for self-employed

My daughter is self-employed and has a business in her name. She is not required to contribute to CPF Ordinary Account (OA) and Special Account (SA). Only contribution is required for her Medisave account based on the year’s net trade income of her business.

Most of us are employees and we contribute to CPF monthly (both employee CPF and employer CPF portions). Self-employed is not required to under the Act except for Medisave account. If there is no contribution, then there will be no CPF Life payout for her when she reaches CPF drawdown age (65 years old).

As part of retirement planning, I suggested to her to put in a yearly lumpsum of money to her CPF accounts on a voluntary basis. The aim is to build up a sum of money at age 55 to reach at least $155,000 Minimum Sum amount.

CPF pays 2.5% interest on OA, and 4.0% on Special Account compounded monthly. It also pays an additional 1.0% p.a. for first $60,000 of a member’s combined balances, with up to $20,000 from OA. These interest rates are way better than putting money in the banks. Why not earn this interest income from the CPF Board?

How much yearly voluntary contribution are we looking at?

The parameters are: Current age = 25 years old.

Total number of years to 55 years old = 30 years.

Future value of savings = $155,000 Interest per year = 3.0% (considering a rate between 2.5% and 4%, and additional 1% extra interest) Interest compounding = yearly Yearly lumpsum contribution = $3,260 Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 29

This $3,260 per year is just $271 per month. If this yearly contribution is kept up till 55 year of age, total amount contributed is $97,800. $57,200 is the total interest received over 30 years. ($155,000 - $97,800) This is the power of compulsory savings and the compounding impact of interest accumulation.

30 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

16 August 2014

Started an Equity Portfolio

Back in March 2011 when my daughter was already 21, we started an online stock trading account for her. The reason is that we wanted her to start accumulating some known stocks and bonds listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Stocks, bonds, REITs and ETFs are investments that could provide yearly returns and capital appreciation over longer period. Instead of keeping cash in the bank, it is better to invest some of this cash balance in these financial assets as they offer higher returns.

More than three years had passed, how did we do on this portfolio?

The Straits Times Index moved up from 3,067 points in March 2011 to 3,314 points as of yesterday (+8.0%).

Her portfolio was 19.5% higher than costs. Dividends and coupons received since 2011 was 9.3% on current cost of the portfolio. (exceeding 3% per year).

The portfolio includes: 1. MapleTree Commercial Trust 2. Singtel 3. Comfort Delgro 4. SPH 5. SingPost 6. SMRT 7. CapitaMalls Asia Bond (3.8%) through IPO 8. Nikko AM STI ETF 9. SPDR STI ETF 10. CapitaMall Trust Bond (3.08%) through IPO When investing starts at a young age, we hope to impart good investment habits to my daughter. In the end, she has to take it from there and grow her investments on her own. At least, the basics are already taught.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 31

6 November 2014

Current Asset Allocation – 31 October 2014

Portfolio theory suggests that investors should spead their investment risks over different classes of assets that are not correlated in a similar fashion. A loss in one asset class can be mitigated by gain in another asset class.

My asset allocation as at end of last month was: Asset Class Percentage Cash 14.5 Structured deposits with banks 8.2 Preference shares of local banks 22.7 Retail bonds traded on Singapore Exchange 3.3 Unit trusts – equity and bonds funds 16.8 Currency investments 12.2 Singapore equity 11.9 Insurance plans 10.4 On an overall basis, the market value of total portfolio was 0.95% below costs.

But on an individual asset class basis, some asset class was 9% below while others were in positive territory. The spread into different asset classes helped to cushion the negative impact of some investments.

As one gets into retirement, it might be better to consider increasing investment into fixed income instruments to get a constant stream of income.

Some preference shares of local banks offer returns that are about 3% to 4% (depending on investment cost when one first bought into the preference shares). Assessing risk of preference shares collapsing is necessary before one puts money into them.

32 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

15 November 2014

China Stock Market had a good run

The China stock market had a good run so far this year. Since the start of the year, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 17.1%. In 2013, the index actually declined 6.7%. In 2012, the index managed a small increase of 3.1%. See table below.

Date 1 Jan 2012 1 Jan 2013 1 Jan 2014 14 Nov 2014

Shanghai Composite 2,199.42 2,269.13 2,115.98 2,478.82

Change (%) NA + 3.1 - 6.7 + 17.1

See the graph for the index in 2014. The spike in index happened in the second half of this year. For nearly two and half years, the Shanghai Composite index was declining and was unexciting for investors.

First State Regional China Fund – S$ I bought units in the above fund between July 2012 to March 2013 at average cost of S$2.0567. Latest market value as at 13 November 2014 shows that the fund had increased 27.6% over the period. I kept faith with this China fund and did not sell out when the China stock market was declining.

Date Jul 2012 to Mar 2013 31 Dec 2013 13 Nov 2014

NAV of Fund 2.0567 2.4639 2.6260

Change (%) NA + 19.8 + 6.5

Forex rate for Chinese Yuan Furthermore Chinese Yuan (CNY) for this year has increased 1.29% against Singapore dollar. This spells good news for investors in CNY denominated investments.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 33

Date 1 Jan 2014 14 Nov 2014

CNY/SGD 0.2089 0.2116

Change (%) NA + 1.29

34 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

1 January 2015

Stock market indices 31 December 2014

We came to the end of 2014. How did the equity markets perform?

The following table shows the stock indices of 2013 and 2014. The percentage change between two dates are provided in the table.

Stock Index Shanghai Composite Sensex (India)

S&P 500 (USA) Taiwan Weighted Dow Jones (USA) Nikkei 225 (Japan) STI (Singapore) Hang Seng (HK) Australia All Ord FTSE100 (UK) Kospi (Korea)

31.12.2013 2,115.98 21,170.68 1,848.36 8,611.51 16,576.66 16,291.31 3,167.43 23,306.39 5,353.10 6,749.10 2,011.34

31.12.2014 3,234.68 27,499.42 2,058.90 9,307.26 17,823.07 17,450.77 3,365.15 23,605.04 5,388.60 6,566.09 1,915.59

Change (%) 52.9% 29.9% 11.4% 8.1% 7.5% 7.1% 6.2% 1.3% 0.7% -2.7% -4.8%

Shanghai Composite Index did very well in 2014 with the index jumping 53%.

We must not forget that Shanghai Composite Index was low in the past three years before 2014. The index reached a high of 5,954 points in October 2007, before the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

2011 Shanghai Comp 2,199.42

2012 2,269.13

2013 2,115.98

2014 3,234.68

The next best performer was India stock market. Sensex Index rose 30% for 2014. Sensex rose continously every year since 2011.

2011 Sensex (India) 15,454.92

2012 19,426.71

2013 21,170.68

2014 27,499.42

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 35

As for the US stock market measured by S&P 500, the index was up 11.4%.

Like India, the US market rose every year from 2011.

2011 S&P 500 (USA) 1,257.60

2012 1,426.19

2013 1,848.36

2014 2,058.90

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) managed to rise 6.2% for 2014 after staying virtually unchanged in 2013.

2011 STI (Singapore) 2,646.35

2012 3,167.08

36 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

2013 3,167.43

2014 3,365.15

3 January 2015

Buying stocks using PE ratios and Dividend Yields

The Money pages of the Straits Times provide prices of stocks traded the day before. Besides share prices, it provides information such as Dividend Yield (Gross Yield %) and Price Earning ratio (Net PE). How can we make use of such data?

Price Earning ratio is Stock Price divided by Earnings Per Share. It indicates how investors and traders view about the value of a particular stock. The PE ratio gives an idea of how many years an investor can recover his initial investment from the company’s yearly profits. For an example, a PE of 10 times = 10 years to get back your capital. For PE to be meaningful, we make assumptions on company’s future earnings, and that is anybody’s guess. An investor who is willing to pay a stock with higher PE is expecting the company to perform at that kind of level, or he is speculating on the future price movement.

As a general rule with other things being equal (such as sustained good performance of company), a stock with low PE offers potential for price upward movement.

For long-term investor, he may want to consider acquiring stock with history of high dividend yield. Company is willing to pay higher dividend only when it is doing well for the year.

On using both indicators such as PE ratio and Dividend Yield, how are stocks like as at end 2014? I extracted some numbers for some select stocks using information provided by the Straits Times.

Stock as at 31.12.2014 Stock Price PE Div Yield Keppel Land 3.42 6.00 3.80 UOL 6.96 6.80 2.90 Keppel Corp 8.85 8.70 5.60 SembCorp Industries 4.45 9.70 3.80 SembCorp Marine 3.26 12.30 4.00 Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 37

Stock as at 31.12.2014 Stock Price PE Div Yield UOB 24.53 13.30 3.10 DBS 20.60 13.70 2.80 OCBC 10.46 13.80 3.30 City Developments 10.27 13.90 0.80 CapitaLand 3.31 16.60 2.40 SPH 4.21 16.80 5.00 Sing Tel 3.90 17.00 4.30 SATS 3.05 18.90 4.30 StarHub 4.15 19.30 4.80 M1 3.61 20.70 5.80 Comfort Delgro 2.60 20.90 2.70 SGX 7.81 24.80 3.60 SingPost 1.92 28.40 3.30 SIA 11.60 37.90 4.00 SMRT 1.580 38.50 1.40 No surprises that property developers, oil and marine companies were trading at low PE ratios. The three local banks had nearly similar PE ratios (PE of 13.0+). Those trading at high PE include telco companies (which also pay good dividends) and transport companies (which benefitted from low oil prices recently).

As an investor, one has to understand the business of each stock and the prospects of these companies in delivering the earnings before he uses PE ratio and Dividend Yield to make buy/sell decisions.

Some stocks that stand out for me: Keppel Corp (PE = 8.7, Dividend yield = 5.60) SembCorp Industries SembCorp Marine SPH Singtel, SATS M1 StarHub I have avoided making a call for property developers. I am not sure of this 38 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

sector for 2015.

Afternote: I was wrong on the calls for Keppel Corp, SembCorp Industries, SembCorp Marine, M1 and StarHub. The oil price crisis hurt the first three companies and the entry of a potential fourth Telco operator affected M1 and StarHub.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 39

4 January 2015

Buying stocks using P/B Ratio

What happens when I bring in Price to Book ratio (P/B) into my investment decisions?

Price to Book ratio is Stock Price divided by Net Assets of the company.

Net Assets amount of a company is the same as Shareholders’ Funds in the balance sheet of the company. Shareholders’ Funds belong to the shareholders ultimately when the company exits from the business completely. The amount that a shareholder is willing to pay for its stock should be compared with the Net Assets of the company. The more he pays above the Net Assets is considered premium on purchase. Conversely, the less he pays than the Net Assets is considered discount on purchase. The P/B ratio shows that comparison.

Generally speaking, when an investor buys a stock with low P/B: i. Investor is not overpaying for a stock. ii. It has a chance that stock price could rise higher in a longer term (on condition that the business continues to operate profitably). iii. Should there be a breakup of the business, investor did not overpay to recover net assets of the company.

The following table shows the P/B for some select stocks sorted from lowest P/B to the highest. The PE and Dividend Yield are included for additional decision parameters.

Stock as at 31 Dec 2014 Stock Price P/B PE Div Yield Keppel Land 3.42 0.756 6.00 3.80 UOL 6.96 0.821 6.80 2.90 CapitaLand 3.31 0.875 16.60 2.40 SIA 11.60 1.047 37.90 4.00 City Dev 10.27 1.211 13.90 0.80 DBS 20.60 1.492 13.70 2.80 40 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Stock as at 31 Dec 2014 Stock Price P/B PE Div Yield SBS Transit 1.705 1.517 33.31 1.27 SembCorp Ind 4.45 1.524 9.70 3.80 UOB 24.53 1.548 13.30 3.10 Keppel Corp 8.85 1.660 8.70 5.60 OCBC 10.46 1.768 13.80 3.30 SPH 4.21 1.829 16.80 5.00 SATS 3.05 2.428 18.90 4.30 SembCorp Marine 3.26 2.568 12.30 4.00 Sing Tel 3.90 2.598 17.00 4.30 Comfort Delgro 2.60 2.601 20.90 2.70 SMRT 1.580 3.047 38.50 1.40 Raffles Medical 3.89 4.680 25.20 1.30 SingPost 1.92 5.952 28.40 3.30 M1 3.61 8.580 20.70 5.80 SGX 7.81 8.995 24.80 3.60 StarHub 4.15 86.629 19.30 4.80 Important notes: P/B ratios were extracted from Clarity of DBS Vickers. The book values are based on latest full year financial statements that could be one year old (since 31 December 2014 accounts are not available yet for most companies).

No surprises that property developers were trading at low P/B ratio. P/B ratios for Keppel Land, UOL and CapitaLand are below 1.0. Property counters were beaten down significantly because of the cooling property markets. I have avoided making a call for property developers. I am not sure of this sector for 2015.

SIA was trading at 1.047 P/B. However, PE was 37.90.

Comparing the P/B of three local banks: DBS 1.492 UOB 1.548 OCBC 1.768 DBS has the lowest P/B among them.

As an investor, one has to understand the business of each stock and the Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 41

prospects of these companies in delivering the earnings before he uses P/B ratio, PE ratio and Dividend Yield to make buy/sell decisions.

42 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

5 January 2015

Invest with knowledge of Stock Beta

Analysts use beta of a stock to view its volatility in relation with the overall stock market.

Beta used by Morningstar is a measure of a fund's sensitivity to market movements. “The beta of the market is 1.00 by definition. Morningstar calculates beta by comparing a fund's excess return over Treasury bills to the market's excess return over Treasury bills, so a beta of 1.10 shows that the fund has performed 10% better than its benchmark index in up markets and 10% worse in down markets, assuming all other factors remain constant.

Conversely, a beta of 0.85 indicates that the fund's excess return is expected to perform 15% worse than the market's excess return during up markets and 15% better during down markets.

Beta can be a useful tool when at least some of a fund's performance history can be explained by the market as a whole. Beta is particularly appropriate when used to measure the risk of a combined portfolio of mutual funds.�

(Source: Morningstar) Stock as at 31 Dec 2014 Stock Price Beta Div Yield Keppel Land 3.42 1.94 3.80 SembCorp Marine 3.26 1.83 4.00 CapitaLand 3.31 1.45 2.40 Keppel Corp 8.85 1.35 5.60 SembCorp Ind 4.45 1.34 3.80 City Dev 10.27 1.17 0.80 UOL 6.96 1.09 2.90 DBS 20.60 1.09 2.80 UOB 24.53 1.09 3.10 OCBC 10.46 1.01 3.30 Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 43

Stock as at 31 Dec 2014 Stock Price Beta Div Yield The Market 1.00 SGX 7.81 0.94 3.60 SIA 11.60 0.90 4.00 Raffles Medical 3.89 0.84 1.30 SATS 3.05 0.76 4.30 Comfort Delgro 2.60 0.73 2.70 SPH 4.21 0.54 5.00 Sing Tel 3.90 0.54 4.30 SMRT 1.580 0.44 1.40 SBS Transit 1.705 0.43 1.27 SingPost 1.92 0.37 3.30 M1 3.61 0.33 5.80 StarHub 4.15 0.31 4.80 Source: Data on Beta was taken from Morningstar

By definition, any stock nearer to 1.0 (Beta of Market) in either directions (ie >1.0 and <1.0) is less volatile when compared with the market.

Looking at the list, the stocks nearer to the Market Beta (1.0) are listed below: Stock as at 31 Dec 2014 Stock Price Beta Div Yield City Dev 10.27 1.17 0.80 UOL 6.96 1.09 2.90 DBS 20.60 1.09 2.80 UOB 24.53 1.09 3.10 OCBC 10.46 1.01 3.30 The Market 1.00 SGX 7.81 0.94 3.60 SIA 11.60 0.90 4.00 Raffles Medical 3.89 0.84 1.30 This is an academic exercise to test out our views of each individual stock.

44 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

6 January 2015

Share Prices over 4 years from 2011 to 2014

I track share prices over years as part of decision making. The table shows some select stocks and prices at end of each year. The change (%) is calculated between 2013 and 2014.

23/12/11 SingPost 0.81 SMRT 1.75 SBS Transit 500 1.71 Comfort Delgro 1.41 Raffles Medical 2.03 DBS 11.64 UOB 15.27 UOL 3.74 SIA 10.20 M1 2.44 CapitaLand 2.29 City Dev 8.67 SGX 6.09 Sing Tel 3.13 Keppel Land 1.95 OCBC 7.83 SPH 3.72 SATS 1.91 StarHub 2.91 SembCorp Ind 4.10 Keppel Corp 9.53 SembMarine 3.55

31/12/12 1.15 1.685 1.495 1.78 2.55 14.84 19.81 5.97 10.75 2.71 3.70 12.87 7.01 3.30 4.03 9.73 4.03 2.89 3.79 5.25 11.00 4.60

31/12/13 1.28 1.16 1.315 2.01 3.06 17.10 21.24 6.05 10.41 3.24 3.03 9.49 7.26 3.66 3.22 10.20 4.12 3.10 4.29 5.49 11.19 4.33

31/12/14 1.92 1.580 1.705 2.60 3.890 20.60 24.53 6.96 11.60 3.61 3.31 10.27 7.81 3.90 3.42 10.46 4.21 3.05 4.15 4.45 8.85 3.26

Change 50.0% 36.2% 29.7% 29.4% 27.1% 20.5% 15.5% 15.0% 11.4% 11.4% 9.2% 8.2% 7.6% 6.6% 6.2% 2.5% 2.2% -1.6% -3.3% -18.9% -20.9% -24.7%

2011 was a difficult year for Singapore equity on a whole. Most share prices were really low. The Straits Times Index (STI) was 2,646 points in 2011. 2012, 2013 and 2014 were more comparable as the STI for these years was above 3,000 points.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 45

From the table, we can tell which stocks had run up significantly and which stocks were down badly in 2014 when compared with 2013.

46 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

7 January 2015

Using Return on Equity to assess stocks

Return on Equity (ROE) is an important indicator for investors. It tells investors how much the company is earning (profits) for the shareholders. It is net profits attributable to shareholders divided by shareholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; funds calculated as a percentage term.

The higher the ROE, the better for the shareholders. Because it is calculated as a percentage term, we can compare one ROE with another ROE of another company.

I had extracted ROE data for some select stocks from Morningstarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s database.

Stock Share Price at 31/12/2014 ROE (%) StarHub 4.15 374.40 M1 3.61 48.94 SGX 7.81 39.25 Raffles Medical 3.890 18.77 SingPost 1.92 17.35 SingTel 3.90 15.55 Keppel Corp 8.85 13.80 OCBC 10.46 12.51 Keppel Land 3.42 12.08 UOB 24.53 11.94 SembCorp Ind 4.45 11.86 SATS 3.05 11.77 DBS 20.60 10.98 Comfort Delgro 2.60 10.00 SMRT 1.580 9.74 UOL 6.96 8.44 SPH 4.21 8.29 City Dev 10.27 6.06 SBS Transit 500 1.705 4.56 CapitaLand 3.31 4.29 Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 47

Stock Share Price at 31/12/2014 ROE (%) SIA 11.60 1.52 SembMarine 3.26 0.46 Note: StarHub has a unique shareholder fund compared with all other companies. The Group has a very low shareholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fund because of substantial goodwill written off.

The table gives an indication of ROE for each company (as computed by Morningstar). The future ROE is not known until the company releases its final annual report.

48 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

20 January 2015

Investing in 2015 - Uncertainties

This is third week and just the start of 2015. We already see volatility. The Shanghai Composite declined 7.7% yesterday but rebounded 1.82% today after China released its 2014 GDP growth rate (at 7.4%, better than anticipated by analysts).

The International Monetary Fundâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GDP growth forecast for global economy is 3.5 per cent for 2015 and 3.7 per cent for 2016. These are downward revisions of 0.3 percent relative to the October 2014 IMFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s World Economic Outlook (WEO).

World oil prices slumped about 50 per cent since June 2014. Brent Crude oil is now US$49 per barrel. WTI Crude oil is now US$48. Concern about global deflation is gathering momentum from Europe to Japan and rest of the world.

Deflation suggests slow growth for the economy. This is not good news.

The only exception is US, which is projected to do well this year. Investors were expecting Fed to raise interest rate this year, quantum and timing are however unknown. This also creates uncertainties.

The recent concerns resulted in flight to safe investment instruments such as US dollars and Treasury Bonds. US dollar advanced against Euro, Singapore dollar, Aussie dollar in the past three months. The yield for 10-year Treasury Bonds is now 1.81% way below 3.0% expectation in 2014. This means that prices of Treasury Bonds shot up (when yield declines). Gold prices went up too since Thursday, now at US$1,288 per ounce.

All these suggest unstable investment climate. How are we to invest in this climate? Not easy.

For me, I am looking at parking cash in fixed deposits when some of my investments mature in early part of this year. I am not liquidating my Singapore equity portfolio because these companies have potential to grow in the long Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 49

term. During time like this, buy equity based on business fundamentals and hold on to it even if it declines in price. Do not speculate on very short-term basis. It is too risky right now. As for bond investments, there are good bonds and there are risky bonds (most with very high coupon rates or yields). Good bonds include debts issued by reputable and stable companies (whose yields may be low but there is likelihood of them not collapsing).

Timing the market to buy in or sell out is now most difficult due to these uncertainties. I bought some stocks at the start of 2015 and now they are below my cost prices. Therefore, I am holding back for a breather and wait for clearer signs of the global economies and watching price movements of key investment products.

50 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

23 January 2015

Investment Behaviour

When it comes to our own hard-earned money, it is difficult not to be emotional about investing it. We can easily become irrational in face of vagaries of the markets. So it is between greed and fear that we toggle.

Worry is to be expected too. I worry that I may have sold out too soon and the stock price rises. Some examples were selling DBS and SIA too soon. I worry that I may buy a stock and then the stock price declines. Some examples were OSIM International and SATS. This is despite that I have done due analysis of these stocks.

Impatience is the other behaviour. When market is moving (either up or down) there is this itch to get into action. To be able to wait out and take no action can be difficult. The rational part of me told me to stick to the strategy decided on and wait out. But no, the transaction must simply be done.

These types of investment behaviour go round and round so long when you are in the market and it involves your own money.

One advice is to get on with your life once a deal is done. Do not brood over the decision made. If you have made a loss, so it is a loss. If you make a gain, do not get carried away and hope for similar performance.

Another is for one to reduce investment risk such as invest in a portfolio of assets that are not positively correlated with each other. One asset category is down but the other asset category is up. This is a balanced approach to investing.

To reduce anxieties, think long term for investments. Can you hold on to the investments for the long term? If one is a very short-term investor (e.g. trading on borrowed funds), this period of volatility can be damaging to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mental well being. Caution is the order of the day in 2015 (as far I can see).

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 51

27 January 2015

Using StockFacts of SGX website

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) website provides a wealth of information for investors. It ties up with reputable S&P Capital IQ to provide latest financial and non-financial information of each company listed in the Singapore Exchange.

Investors do not have to align with any particular stock broking firm to get such information and it is freely accessible.

The SGX StockFacts provides: a. information of a particular stock counter. It includes Consensus Estimates Recommendation on Buy, Hold, Sell decision and Consensus Target Price for the counter. b. a search criteria facility to search for stocks that satisfy up to 5 criteria. I find this interesting to play with to narrow the number of stocks for investment decisions.

For an example of a search criteria: 1. Market Capitalisation greater than $3 billion (large cap companies) 2. Dividend Yield of at least 4.5% This throws up 11 counters. See print screen image of the results of the search criteria. The results can be customised to display other key metrics such as Price-to-Earning ratio and Price-to-Book ratio. These can further help you make investment choices.

Play around with this and see what you can get out of this.

52 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 53

2 March 2015

It is not about income but expenditure too

I keep reading that Singaporeans are finding it harder to retire and to have adequate retirement funds for old age. Singapore has reached developed country status (measured by per capita GDP) and it is better than my fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s times in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Yet, some of us find it money is not enough and worry that cost of living keeps rising.

Everyone has his/her own personal income and expenditure statement. Income exceeding expenditure results in surplus of funds. The reverse results in deficit and to fund the shortfall some may resort to borrowing money.

Most time, we focus on the income side of the equation, trying hard to earn income such as employment income, dividend income, etc. There is however a limit to how much one can earn and these sources of income can be inconsistent.

Why not change our perspectives and focus on the expenditure side of the equation. The less we have, we then spend less. This is not new revelation and sometimes we forget. Ever since I stopped work and not earning wages, I watched my expenditure carefully. A person can be earning a lot but if he spends every cent each month, there can be no surplus to talk about.

Conversely if a person is thrifty, he can save some money even when his income is low.

There are many ways to control expenditure. For me, I always ask some questions before spending: Do I need the item? Is there a cheaper alternative?

Can I afford it?

54 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

22 May 2015

Would I sell my REITs?

Federal Reserveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chairman announced tapering of bond-buying program in June 2013. That was the start of rising Treasury bond yields. Fed raising interest rates some time this year also affects real estate investment trusts (REIT) that borrow heavily for their operations. As a consequence, REITs underperformed since 2013. Prices continue to drop for REITS. I own two REITs namely Keppel REIT and SPH REIT. Keppel REIT was bought in May 2013 and SPH REIT was bought in July (IPO) and August 2013.

The price movements were shown in the table.

Counter Keppel REIT SPH REIT

Bought at cost $1.484 $0.947

Current Price $1.19 $1.08

Price Movement (%) -19.8 +14.0

Keppel REIT lost 19.8% at current price while SPH REIT gained 14.0%.

Would I sell both REITs now? This will depend on the dividend distributions to the unitholders. Distribution to unitholders depends on the operation of these REITs and to a large extent the borrowing costs of these REITs (which depend on interest rates moving up).

On a historical basis, I tracked the distributions received in 2014 (full year).

Counter Keppel REIT SPH REIT

Bought at cost $7,420 $7,576

Total Distributions $542.10 $479.20

Dividend Yield 7.3% 6.3%

In 2014, the dividend yields based on my costs of purchase were a decent 7.3% and 6.3%. I ignore the daily price movement in this calculation since cost of purchase is key for my decision-making.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 55

This year 2015 turns out to be a weak first half with regard to distribution to unitholders. I was getting less than in 2014. We will see what happen for the rest of the year. In the meantime, I continue to hold onto both REITs without any intention to offload them. Price gains in SPH REIT offset some of the price loss in Keppel REIT. Afternote: Counter Keppel REIT SPH REIT

Bought at cost $7,420 $7,576

Total Distributions in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;15 Dividend Yield $331.50 4.46% $437.60 5.77%

The dividend yields based on my costs of purchase were lower at 4.46% for Keppel REIT and 5.77% for SPH REIT in 2015.â&#x20AC;&#x192;

56 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

19 June 2015

China equities soared and then dropped

China equities had a spectacular run since the start of this year. The Shanghai Composite Index started 2015 at 3,234.68 points. After 5 months, the index was 55.2% up on 5 June at 5,023.10 points. This level was closer to end 2007â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s figure of 5,261.56 points (before the global financial crisis blew up).

5,000 points level seemed to be the upper limit to cross decisively. In the last two trading sessions, the index lost 4.7% and 6.4% respectively. The index stood at 4,478.36 points as at 19 June.

The following table shows the Shanghai Composite Index at various dates. The percentage change between two dates are provided in the table.

Date 31 Dec 2007 31 Dec 2014 5 Mar 2015 4 May 2015 5 Jun 2015 18 Jun 2015 19 Jun 2015

Shanghai Composite 5,261.56 3,234.68 3,248.47 4,480.46 5,023.10 4,785.36 4,478.36

Change (%) NA -38.5 +0.4 +37.9 +12.1 -4.7 -6.4

Will the Shanghai Composite Index continue the downward trajectory?

Afternote: The Shanghai Composite Index was 3,546.13 points as at 31 December 2015.

Whatever gains made in the first half of 2015 were almost wiped out by the end of the year.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 57

24 June 2015

What factors move share prices â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a graphical representation

There are many reasons why share price moved. The following page is a graphical representation on factors that move share prices.

It is therefore difficult to pin-point why a stock moved in a specific way on a particular day. In the end, we should go back to fundamentals of the company and not get caught up in panic selling or irrational exuberance. That would be to look at the left-hand side of the chart that shows the balance sheet of the company. Even the balance sheet is historical data, it is still better than not knowing and shoot in the dark.

58 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Price Sensitivity -­‐ Factors affecting Share Price Irrational Exuberance Speculative elements General share market environment Economic growth of countries Industry specific news (e.g. oil prices) Growth in company earnings

Net Assets (Book Value) (or Shareholders' Fund)

Company specific news (e.g. change in CEO, scandals, new contracts made)

Forced sale (Assets > Liabilities)

Irrational Selling

Cash & Cash Equivalent

Panic selling

$0

Copyright © 2015, limkimtong for Living Investment

Note: This chart excludes situations such as net losses in earnings and where there is negative net assets (liabilities exceeding assets)

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 59

28 June 2015

Another look at factors affecting share prices

The share price of stock is dependent on several factors starting with: 1. company specific data and outlook 2. industry specific information and outlook (company belonging to that industry, e.g aviation industry, oil & gas) 3. government policies affecting the industry (e.g. property curbing measures, foreign workers quota) 4. economic growth outlook of countries that the company has operations in 5. monetary policies of central banks (e.g. US, EU, China, Japan, Singapore) 6. fiscal (or budget) policies of the Singapore government (e.g money going to specific industries, corporate tax revision, GST revision) The above factors are concrete and measurable in that they can be worked into the share price movement equation. The factor that is less measurable is the investorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behaviour during daily trading. We could see irrational exuberance in share prices going sky-high (e.g. dot-com bubble of 2001) or downright panic selling in share prices reaching the floor (e.g. global financial crisis of 2008/9).

Interest rates in monetary policies In the world of finance, interest rate is the most important element in valuation of stocks, bonds and projects. Interest rate is used by almost all central banks in their monetary policies. Interest rate affects the cost of funds for investors investing in equities, bonds, properties. etc. Interest rate also affects businesses in their operations, acquisition of assets and project financing.

That is why, the business community and investors are fixated on when and how fast is the US going to hike interest rate. The current loose monetary policy of China (with few rounds of reductions in interest rates by PBOC, with the latest announced on Saturday 27 June 2015) had resulted in the China stock market running up so fast in the one-year period. As long as the cost of borrowing is low, the risk appetite of investors rises to take advantage of low 60 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

cost of funds.

When investing, it is best to stay with known information and it pays to do some homework and look at the various factors affecting share prices. This is easier said than done. Information is not readily available to retail investors. We only get to know some company specific information much later in the news of the following day. That is the reality. The least we can do is to analyse more data points before we sink money into a particular stock.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 61

15 July 2015

How much is the retirement nest egg?

In the Sunday Times (12 July 2015), the on-line poll indicated $1,380,000 was the ideal retirement sum for the affluent investors. Seriously, do we need so much in retirement sum to retire adequately?

The amount of retirement sum to aim for at the time of retirement is dependent on firstly the interest rates prevailing during retirement and secondly, the inflation rates also. Inflation rate reduces purchasing power of money. More has to be set aside as inflation rises.

For simplicity, I did not consider inflation rates for this post.

The parameters are: Retirement at age 65 years old Life expectancy at 85 years old (ie 20 years from date of retirement) Monthly payout after retirement = $3,000 (conservative depending on individuals) What is the retirement sum at age 65? This amount set aside is dependent on the interest rates prevailing during retirement. See table below.

Retirment amount at age 65

Interest rate (%) Retirement amount ($) 0.5

685,000 1.0

652,000 1.5

621,000 2.0

593,000 2.5

566,000 3.0

541,000 4.0

495,000 5.0

454,000 Where interest rate is low like 0.5%, the retirement sum is higher at $685,000 62 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

at age 65. When interest is at 5.0%, the amount to set aside for retirement reduces to $454,000.

Part of the above retirement amount can be from CPF Life set aside at age 55. For a person with full retirement sum of $161,000 in CPF, he can draw between $1,220 to $1,320 per month for life. (Source: CPF) The on-line poll of $1.38 million is indeed a large amount for retirement purposes. This is meant for the affluent and not for majority of us.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 63

27 July 2015

Investing in Gold â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Time to take a dip?

I started writing about investing in gold back in November 2007.

It was during this period when we started seeing US sub-prime mortgage crisis unfolding before a full-blown Global Financial Crisis took hold in 2008/09. The gold price was at US$816 per ounce on 14 November 2007.

For four years, price of gold went up to hit a peak at US$1,900 in September 2011. Since then the price of gold had retreated to touch US$1,093, four years later.

Date 14 Nov 2007 Dec 2008 3 Dec 2009 24 Sep 2011 Sep 2011 16 Dec 2011 20 Jan 2015 27 Jul 2015

Price of Gold/Ounce US$ 816 US$ 756 US$ 1,226 US$ 1,639 US$ 1,900 (peaked) US$ 1,539 US$ 1,288 US$ 1,093

Gold and US dollar often moved in the opposite direction. When US dollar was down, gold price rose. When US dollar was up, gold price declined. We are in this position where the US dollar is strong against most currencies. Investors and traders go for US dollars instead of parking money in gold.

Gold is used as a hedge against inflation. Where there is inflation, the purchasing power of money decreases and holding money is not a wise investment decision. Money is then invested in gold where its value can hold up better than cash. In this climate of benign inflation (low inflation) and low interest rate environment for most major economies, there is less compelling reason to hold gold. Money can be placed in other investments (other than gold) to earn a higher return in relation to low interest rate expenses.

64 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

The other factor affecting gold prices is the demand for physical gold and the supply level of physical gold. Demand for gold by China had declined in recent times and that also caused gold price to decline.

Since gold had dropped to US$1,093 per ounce, is it a good time to dip our toes in and invest in gold? Is US$1,000 the floor or could gold drop to US$800 last seen in November 2007?

Investing in gold can start small and it is not advisable to place a huge amount in gold relative to your total investable assets.

Afternote: Current gold price is US$1,247.30 per ounce (27 April 2016).

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 65

29 July 2015

Buying Unit Trusts on-line, local banks are in it too

I bought unit trusts in the past from Fundsupermart.com. It performs the independent role of online unit trust distributor for many fund houses.

Now, the three local banks namely UOB, DBS and OCBC allow their savers/ customers to buy and sell unit trusts through internet banking, subject to them clearing the Customer Knowledge Assessment (CKA) as stipulated by MAS. (Note: Fundsupermart has to conduct similar CKA on their customers.) CKA is required by law to protect the consumers from investing in some financial products without adequate knowledge of what they are getting into.

One does not have to wait in queue at a bank to buy a unit trust. This process takes too long from waiting your turn, to hearing sales pitch, financial risk assessment and finally transacting. It was really time consuming as far I can remember. The internet banking way is a breeze.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, the sales charge using internet banking is lower than what is offered at the branch. For example, DBS offers 1.5% discounted sales charge, OCBC offers 1% promotional sales charge, UOB offers 2% sales charge (with a trailer fee of 0.21%). As for Fundsupermart, it does not charge sales charge but it charges platform fee of 0.125% per quarter. (Please access various websites to establish the latest information.)

Buying Singapore equities via unit trust In recent days, Singapore equities lost values. One could take the opportunity to buy STI Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) from the Singapore Exchange. 1,000 units of STI ETF cost about $3,330 to $3,340 before transaction costs. Instead of investing in ETF, one may consider investing a few thousand dollars in a Singapore equity fund that is managed professionally by different fund houses.

Two local banks owned their asset management companies: OCBC has LionGlobal Investors and UOB has UOB Asset Management (UOBAM).

DBS is closely related with Nikko Asset Management (formerly DBS Asset 66 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Management). These fund houses have funds that invest in Singapore equities.

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s see some Singapore equity unit trusts listed by date of launch order.

Asset Management UOB AM Nikko AM LionGlobal

Unit trust United Singapore Growth Singapore Dividend Equity Singapore Dividend Equity

NAV as at 27.7.15 $3.399 $1.629 $1.010

Date of launch 2 March 1990 2 August 1999 2 June 2015

Most funds invest in Singapore equities that have a track record of paying dividends.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 67

10 September 2015

Where is STI heading at end of 2015?

Annual growth rates for Singapore real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) were mapped to the Straits Times Index (STI) at the end of each year. This table shows real GDP growth rates since 1997 and the corresponding STI at the end of that year.

Year GDP growth rate (%) STI 1997 8.3 1529 1998 -2.2 1392 1999 6.1 2479 2000 8.9 1926 2001 -1.0 1623 2002 4.2 1341 2003 4.4 1764 2004 9.5 2066 2005 7.5 2347 2006 8.9 2985 2007 9.1 3482 2008 1.8 1761 2009 -0.6 2897 2010 15.2 3190 2011 6.2 2646 2012 3.4 3167.08 2013 4.4 3167.43 2014 3.3 3365.15 2015 F 2.2 ?

Source: Singapore Department of Statistics (for GDP numbers)

Forecast for 2015 We are now in September. The GDP forecast made by the Ministry of Trade and Industry for 2015 was between 2.0% to 2.5%. DBS released its forecast for GDP to grow at 1.8%. The private sector economists forecast GDP to be +2.2%.

68 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

STI at end 2015?

GDP forecast for 2015 appears to be worse off compared to last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (3.3%). Confidence in the Singapore economy was weak based on a survey of business sentiments. So naturally, confidence in Singapore equities is getting a hit. At GDP growth of 3.3%, the STI ended at 3,365.15 points in 2014. What about 2015? There are many factors influencing the STI. STI as at yesterday was 2,928.18 points. One thing I can wager on is that 3,365 points will be hard to attain with slightly more than a quarter to go in 2015. I am not too sure about the floor for the STI. Afternote: The STI as at 31 December 2015 was 2,882.73 points. Real GDP growth rate for 2015 was 2.0%.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 69

15 September 2015

Individual Stock performance against STI

Are we seeing a new normal with regard to share prices? How did each STI component stock changed from the start of this year?

See table below of 30 component stocks of STI. Stock 31/12/2014 14/9/2015 Change Comfort Delgro 2.60 2.88 10.77% Hongkong Land (USD) 6.76 6.74 -0.30% OLAM Intl 2.02 1.985 -1.73% SGX 7.81 7.59 -2.82% Thai Bev 0.69 0.67 -2.90% Sing Tel 3.90 3.72 -4.62% Ascendas Reit 2.38 2.19 -7.98% CapitaMall Trust 2.04 1.87 -8.33% SPH 4.21 3.84 -8.79% StarHub 4.15 3.58 -13.73% ST Engr 3.40 2.93 -13.82% SIA 11.60 9.98 -13.97% OCBC 10.46 8.99 -14.05% DBS 20.60 17.62 -14.47% SIA Engr 4.22 3.57 -15.40% CapitaLand 3.31 2.79 -15.71% Global Logistics 2.48 2.08 -16.13% HPH Trust (USD) 0.69 0.565 -18.12% Wilmar Intl 3.24 2.62 -19.14% JSH (USD) 34.20 27.39 -19.91% City Dev 10.27 8.18 -20.35% UOB 24.53 19.48 -20.59% JMH (USD) 60.95 47.25 -22.48% Keppel Corp 8.85 6.78 -23.39% SembCorp Ind 4.45 3.38 -24.04% SembCorp Marine 3.26 2.33 -28.53% 70 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Stock 31/12/2014 14/9/2015 Change Jardine C&C 42.60 28.76 -32.49% Golden Agri-Res 0.46 0.31 -32.61% Genting Singapore 1.08 0.72 -33.33% Noble 1.14 0.475 -58.33% Sum 288.35 231.27 -19.80% STI 3365.15 2871.47 -14.67% STI ETF 3.40 2.93 -13.82% The Straits Times Index (STI) declined 14.67% during the review period. The performance of STI ETF (-13.82%) was not far off from the performance of STI. I drew a line across in the table to mark the stocks that did better than the STI. Analysis Only ONE stock â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Comfort Delgro â&#x20AC;&#x201C; had positive change.

14 of the 30 stocks did better than the STI. My Portfolio My portfolio includes stocks, REITs, STI ETF. I picked stocks from both the 30-component stocks of the STI and other stocks from the mid-cap range. This portfolio was down 16.70%. I would have been better off buying into STI ETF (-13.82%). But I was spared much worse results.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 71

27 September 2015

Business Confidence affecting share prices

I wrote two articles on 24 and 28 June 2015 on factors that affect share prices.

I want to add one more important factor that can move share prices. That is Business Confidence.

Business confidence is based on sentiments of business owners projecting into the future. These are the people who run businesses and are better at gauging business operating environment.

There are three such business confidence indicators available for us to study.

1. “Business expectations of the manufacturing sector (business sentiments for July – December 2015)” based on survey conducted by EDB. 2. “The Business Expectations Survey for the services sector for July – September 2015”, conducted quarterly by the Singapore Department of Statistics.

3. Business confidence among SMEs, SBF-DP SME Index for third and fourth quarter of 2015.

One and two are public sector driven while three is by private sector. One focuses on manufacturing sector, Two focuses on services sector while Three concentrates on Small and Medium-sized enterprises.

According to the SME Index, the business confidence index dipped for three consecutive quarters this year. That did not sound good.

In the case of Services Sector, the latest survey indicated a net weighted balance of 2% of firms is optimistic about business prospects for the second half of 2015 compared with the first half. This number was not a strong indicator of confidence in the service sectors.

As for the Manufacturing Sector, the same level of confidence was shown when compared with the Services Sector. “Overall, a net weighted balance of 2 per 72 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

cent of manufacturers expects an improved business situation for the period July â&#x20AC;&#x201C; December 2015, compared to the second quarter of 2015.â&#x20AC;?

Since June/July 2015 when the surveys were conducted, the business conditions faced by businesses deteriorated. Confidence of investors was affected negatively. The Straits Times Index (STI) declined from 3,317.33 points on 30 June 2015 to 2,832.64 points on 25 September 2015. That was a drop of 14.6%.

If the business confidence continues to decline, then the stock market will see dismal times ahead. I am not entirely optimistic at this current moment.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 73

6 October 2015

Return on Equity as a guide to investing

Return on Equity (ROE) figures were extracted from StockFacts in Singapore Exchange website.

Stock ROE (%) StarHub 292.31 M1 47.49 SGX 36.73 Keppel Corp 18.18 SembCorp Marine 18.14 SingTel 15.55 SingPost 14.72 SembCorp Ind 14.19 OCBC 13.10 Raffles Medical 12.69 SATS 12.69 Comfort Delgro 12.18 UOB 10.94 DBS 10.85 SPH 10.61 SMRT 10.38 City Dev 8.52 UOL 7.69 CapitaLand 7.21 SBS Transit 500 4.94 SIA 3.40 Despite the challenging business environment, some companies are expected to give positive return to shareholders for this year.

For every $100 an investor placed with the company, it could make $15.55 for investor in the year (as in the case of SingTel). When one buys shares of a business, he is buying into a part of the company. Investors can study these 74 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

ROE numbers to make their investment decisions.

One should not panic with wild swings in share prices. Have faith in some companies as they make profits for the shareholders. Making profits is not dependent on how the share price moves. It is business decisions that determines profits for the year.

Notes: Return on Equity (ROE) is an important indicator for investors. It tells investors how much the company is earning (profits) for the shareholders. It is net profits attributable to shareholders divided by shareholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; funds calculated as a percentage term.

The higher the ROE, the better for the shareholders. Because it is calculated as percentage term, we can compare one ROE with another ROE of another company.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 75

9 October 2015

STI in two halves

The Straits Times Index (STI) climbed to 3,549.85 points in April. Since then, the STI was on a downtrend until 29 September (2,787.94 points) before it turned the corner.

For this week alone, the STI rose 7.3%.

Date 2 Oct 2015 5 Oct 2015 6 Oct 2015 7 Oct 2015 8 Oct 2015 9 Oct 2015

STI 2,793.15 2,851.25 2,897.41 2,961.81 2,947.03 2,998.50

Change (%) NA + 2.08 + 1.61 + 2.22 - 0.49 + 1.75

The graph shows the one-year performance of STI. What is STI next moving forward?

Afternote: The Straits Times Index as at 31 December 2015 was 2,882.73 points.

76 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 77

16 November 2015

Latest Price-to-Book Ratios based on Q3 2015 financial results

Companies were reporting their financial results for the quarter ended 30 September 2015.

The following table provides information on net profit attributable to shareholders for the quarter and latest Price-to-Book ratio (P/B) based on share prices at 13 November 2015.

Counter Net Profit NAV($) Price($) P/B Ratio UOL 100 9.77 6.22 0.64 CapitaLand 192 4.14 3.06 0.74 City Dev 106 9.53 7.63 0.80 SembCorp Ind 122 3.64 3.36 0.92 SIA 213 10.83 10.83 1.00 DBS 1,066 15.42 17.14 1.11 OCBC 902 7.78 8.92 1.15 UOB 858 17.49 20.15 1.15 Keppel Corp 363 5.91 6.81 1.15 SembMarine 32 1.433 2.21 1.54 SBS Transit 5.4 1.07 1.90 1.78 Singtel 1,029 1.54 3.86 2.51 SMRT 25.7 0.574 1.445 2.52 SingPost 53 0.679 1.85 2.72 Comfort Delgro 85.2 1.052 2.98 2.83 SATS 59 1.305 3.90 2.99 SIA Engr 44 1.19 3.77 3.17 M1 45 0.394 2.77 7.03 SGX 99 0.794 7.55 9.51 StarHub 118 0.11 3.56 32.36 Net Profit in $m for third quarter NAV = Net Asset value Price at 13 November 2015

78 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Property developers such as UOL, CapitaLand, and City Developments had P/B of less than 1. SembCorp Industries was the other company with P/B of 0.92.

DBS (1.11) had the lowest P/B ratio when compared with the other two local banks (1.15).

P/B ratios of SembCorp Industries (0.92) and Keppel Corp (1.15) were lower than SembCorp Marine (1.54).

P/B ratios for Singtel, SMRT, SingPost, Comfort Delgro, SATS, SIA Engineering ranged from 2.51 to 3.17.

Note: P/B table as at 31 December 2014 was included for comparison.

Stock as at 31 Dec 2014 Stock Price ($) P/B UOL 6.96 0.821 CapitaLand 3.31 0.875 SIA 11.60 1.047 City Dev 10.27 1.211 OCBC 10.46 1.402 UOB 24.53 1.435 DBS 20.60 1.492 SBS Transit 1.705 1.517 SembCorp Ind 4.45 1.524 Keppel Corp 8.85 1.660 SPH 4.21 1.829 SATS 3.05 2.428 SembCorp Marine 3.26 2.568 Sing Tel 3.90 2.598 Comfort Delgro 2.60 2.601 SMRT 1.580 3.047 SingPost 1.92 5.952 M1 3.61 8.580 SGX 7.81 8.995 StarHub 4.15 48.256 When comparing P/B ratios between two dates (13.11.2015 to 31.12.2014), I noted that majority stocks declined except for Comfort Delgro, SBS Transit, Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 79

SGX and SATS. This reflects the price decline since the start of this year. (STI declined to 2,925.68 points vs 3,365.15 points at start of the year.)

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24 November 2015

Investing in 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Uncertainties (Part 2)

At the start of 2015 (20 January 2015), I wrote about uncertainties investors would be facing in the year. Investing is going to be difficult. Risk is higher. With about one more month to the end of 2015, investing was indeed challenging.

China economy is a big drag. Oil prices declined with Brent Crude falling below US$50 per barrel.

Global economies slowed this year. The only bright spot is the United States and interest rate lift-off is going to happen. Japan and European Union are still in monetary expansionary mode. It was that bad.

I mentioned in the January post for caution in investment. I was not active in investing in 2015. At the rate this is going, I am not going to do well when compared with 2014. But it is better to be careful than to take unnecessary risks.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 81

25 November 2015

Changes to Price-Earning ratios (from start of year to now)

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s see the Price-Earning ratios (PE ratio) of some select companies. I tracked the PE ratios as at 31 December 2014. I added the current PE ratios obtained from SGX StockFacts. I then compute the changes in the PE ratios between two dates for each stock. The following table shows the results.

31.12.2014 Current Counter PE

PE

Change in PE SIA 37.9 23.0 -14.9 SMRT 38.5 24.7 -13.8 M1 20.7 15.0 -5.7 CapitaLand 16.6 11.5 -5.1 SingPost 28.4 23.7 -4.7 City Developments 13.9 9.6 -4.3 OCBC 13.8 9.7 -4.1 DBS 13.7 9.9 -3.8 UOB 13.3 10.3 -3.0 StarHub 19.3 16.5 -2.8 SGX 24.8 22.6 -2.2 Keppel Corp 8.7 6.8 -1.9 SembCorp Marine 12.3 10.8 -1.5 SembCorp Industries 9.7 8.6 -1.1 Sing Tel 17.0 15.9 -1.1 Comfort Delgro 20.9 22.1 1.2 SATS 18.9 20.4 1.5 UOL 6.8 8.4 1.6 SPH 16.8 20.0 3.2 The biggest drop came from SIA (-14.9). The highest increase in PE ratio was SPH (+3.2).

One way of interpreting the changes in PE ratios is to see how investors were confident with the stock. The bigger drop in the PE ratio suggests less 82 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

confidence with the stock. On the other hand for a contrarian, he may consider a significant decline in PE ratio is a potential for more upside to the share price in the future.

To further help investors with decision-making, I have included another table with share prices of the two dates and the current dividend yields. (Current dividend yields were extracted from SGX StockFacts.)

31-Dec-14 24-Nov-15 Change in Current Counter Stock Price Stock Price Stock Price Div Yield

$ $ $ % SIA 11.60 10.74 -0.86 2.51 SMRT 1.58 1.445 -0.14 2.25 M1 3.61 2.86 -0.75 6.61 CapitaLand 3.31 3.13 -0.18 2.88 SingPost 1.92 1.80 -0.12 3.75 City Developments 10.27 7.52 -2.75 1.06 OCBC 10.46 8.86 -1.60 4.06 DBS 20.60 16.91 -3.69 3.55 UOB 24.53 19.89 -4.64 4.27 StarHub 4.15 3.68 -0.47 5.43 SGX 7.81 7.68 -0.13 3.78 Keppel Corp 8.85 6.84 -2.01 7.02 SembCorp Marine 3.26 2.17 -1.09 5.53 SembCorp Industries 4.45 3.37 -1.08 4.75 Sing Tel 3.90 3.87 -0.03 4.52 Comfort Delgro 2.60 3.05 0.45 2.79 SATS 3.05 3.91 0.86 3.58 UOL 6.96 6.16 -0.80 2.44 SPH 4.21 3.99 -0.22 3.76 Note: Price Earning ratio is Stock Price divided by Earnings Per Share. It indicates how investors and traders view about the value of a particular stock. The PE ratio gives an idea of how many years an investor can recover his initial investment from the company’s yearly profits. For an example, a PE of 10 times = 10 years to get back your capital. For PE to be meaningful, we make assumptions on company’s future earnings, and that is anybody’s guess. An investor who is willing to pay a stock with higher PE is expecting the company to perform at that kind of level, or he is speculating on the future price movement.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 83

2 December 2015

Property Tax reflective of economy

My property tax will be reduced by 15.5% come 2016 because of lower annual value of my property.

The annual values from 2000 to 2016 are in the table.

Year

2000 to 2002 2003

2004 to 2005 2006 to 28/2/2007 1/3/2007 to 2008 1/1/2009 to 1/3/2009 2/3/2009 to 31/3/2010 1/4/2010 to 28/2/2011 1/3/2011 to 2015 2016

Annual Value ($) Per month ($) 18,000 1,500 16,200 1,350 15,000 1,250 16,200 1,350 19,200 1,600 26,400 2,200 22,800 1,900 25,200 2,100 31,200 2,600 27,600 2,300

Change & Remarks N/A Decrease/SARS & 9/11 attack Decrease Increase Increase Increase Decrease/Global Fin Crisis Increase Increase Decrease/Economic Slowdown

Is there any correlation between the annual value and state of the economy?

There were two periods of decline in the annual value.

1. Year 2003 to 2005 – SARS in 2003, 9/11 attack on US’ WTC in 2001 and DotCom bubble burst 2000/2002.

2. Year 2009 to 2010 – Global Financial Crisis.

The reduced annual value for 2016 suggests that the state of Singapore economy is not going to be good next year.

In the five years from 2011 to 2015, the annual values were very high (at $31,200). This was crazy and it was because there were strong demands for properties due to low interest rates of credit financing. It is about time that some sense should be brought to the property market.

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15 December 2015

Dividend stocks with Debt-to-Equity Ratio information

Some blue chip stocks were down substantially since 2014. With that drop, dividend yield (in %) looks attractive for some stocks. (REITs are not subjects of this post.)

One investment strategy in this climate is to go for dividend stocks offering good dividend yields based on most recent annualised dividends.

When borrowing cost of company is going up as a consequence of US Fed raising interest rate, it makes sense to go for companies with lower debts where debt servicing does not seriously impact the company. Debt/Equity (D/E) ratio provides that kind of data.

Information for the table was extracted from SGXâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s StockFacts. D/E (in %) is total debts divided by equity.

Counter Share Price Div Yield % D/E % Keppel Corp 6.22 7.50 66.79 M1 2.68 6.97 95.20 SembCorp Marine 1.67 6.92 90.00 StarHub 3.59 5.54 360.32 SembCorp Ind 2.98 5.26 74.87 Singtel 3.79 4.55 43.98 UOB 19.16 4.42 OCBC 8.54 4.17 SIA Engr 3.55 4.06 2.64 SGX 7.53 3.92 SPH 3.88 3.88 29.93 SingPost 1.70 3.85 16.32 SATS 3.81 3.66 7.12 DBS 16.32 3.65 ComfortDelgro 3.00 2.84 25.89 CapitaLand 3.12 2.83 66.90 Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 85

Counter Share Price Div Yield % D/E % SIA 10.96 2.47 10.67 UOL 5.98 2.45 34.31 SMRT 1.44 2.20 95.53 SBS Transit 1.895 1.42 158.31 City Development 7.03 1.12 56.57 Note: Share price at 14 December 2015

One needs to strike a balance between Dividend Yield and D/E ratio. My threshold for D/E ratio is 50%, ie corporation borrows up to 50% of total shareholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; funds.

Note: Debt financing is a complex matter and it cannot be simplified into just a number.

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18 December 2015

Investing in 2015 – to stay calm was difficult

It is too soon the year is coming to an end. One word to describe 2015 with regard to investing, it was volatile. One word to describe 2015 as a whole, it was uncertainty. There was uncertainty throughout 2015 as to when the Federal Reserve is going to increase federal fund interest rate. (Fed decided only in December to increase 0.25% point.)

When 2015 started, we did not know that China is gong to devalue Yuan in August. I did not expect Brent crude oil could drop to below US$35 per barrel from US$56 in January 2015. This was a drop of 37.5%. The price was above US$100 in August 2014! Oil prices had collapsed and this brought a new dynamic to economic growth of countries.

China’s, the world’s second largest economy, economic slowdown affected Asia, Australia and others. Europe and Japan had to institute accommodative monetary polices to prop up their economies. US is the only bright spot but the world’s biggest economy cannot lift the economies of others.

Singapore Gross Domestic Products (GDP) real growth rate is expected to be close to 2% this year. It was 3.3% in 2014 and 4.4% in 2013. 2015 is turning out to be the worst year since 2009. 2016 is not going to be good as well. The Ministry of Trade and Industry forecasted it to be between 1.0% to 3.0%.

The Straits Times Index (STI) climbed to 3,549.85 points in April. Since then, the STI was on a downtrend. It was 2,861.18 points on 17 December 2015.

Between April and now, the change was negative 19.3%. From the start of 2015, the drop was 15%.

If one is invested in the Singapore stock market, capital gains were harder to achieve. However if one is invested in dividend stocks, the dividend yield was alright. My overall dividend yield based on my stock portfolio was 3.41%. But I am nursing a paper loss of about 18% much like the STI change in the year.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 87

26 December 2015

Time of year to take stock of personal financial position

It is time to take stock of personal financial assets. Do you know how much you have? What are the market values of these assets? What is the net increase/ decrease when compared with last year (2014)?

This write-up excludes real assets such as real estate, motor vehicle, physical gold, art collections, etc.

Consider the following when compiling your personal financial position.

1. CPF balances (OA, SA, MA, RA) 2. SRS investments and un-invested cash in SRS (Supplementary Retirement Scheme) 3. CDP â&#x20AC;&#x201C; cash invested in Stock Exchange 4. Banks - cash accounts, fixed deposits, structured deposits 5. Cash invested in unit trusts, Investment-linked insurance policies (ILP), Singapore Savings Bonds 6. Others (e.g. annuity plans) For each item, you should have the actual amount invested (at cost). Determine the market value of these items. By doing this, you can decide on the action plan in the future: to either hold, sell, or add some more.

Take a sum of the total costs of all these items. Compare this amount with last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total costs. Net increase consists of amount received less amounts used in the year. Net decrease is where amounts used were higher than amounts received.

It is also good if one can list all insurance policies taken up. Set up a separate spreadsheet to record each insurance product, e.g. whole life policy, term policy, Medishield Integrated Plan, home insurance, etc. At least, you have all insurance details in one spreadsheet. In this way, you would not lose sight of these policies, such as premium to pay, bonus accumulated.

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Once you have started the record keeping, subsequent updates for a New Year would be easier.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 89

28 December 2015

Know your personal income and major expenditure for the year

In the previous write-up, I talked about changes between two financial positions (last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s). The difference between them is the result of total amount received in the year less total amount used in the year.

Total amount received consists of your personal incomes. Total amount used consists of your personal expenditures.

Personal Incomes Your personal incomes could include: 1. Salary, bonuses and commissions (from employment) 2. Income from trade, business, profession or vocation 3. Investment income (I am leaving out rental income and related property expenses in this write-up.

This can be tracked by each rental property. The gain or loss forms part of your total income.)

The tedious item to track is investment income received throughout the year. Despite this, I recommend a system of keeping records of all investment incomes received. With this data, one can then determine the return on investment (ROI) in a particular investment product.

Broadly speaking investment return is made of 1. capital gain or loss realised when disposing an investment 2. investment income received, e.g. dividend, interest (or coupon) 3. CPF interest income If you keep your money in CPF, the interests earned on various accounts in CPF are quite substantial in this poor investment climate.

Personal Expenditures Knowing your personal expenditures (and includes expenditures spent on the 90 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

family) has many advantages. Controlling expenditures besides earning income is one way to riches.

To make the task easier, keep track of those that are big-ticket items and those with readily available statements.

Some examples of expenditures (or cash outflow) to track: 1. Car related expenses (road tax, car insurance, car services) 2. Overseas travel expenses 3. Household and IT appliances/equipment purchases 4. Repairs and maintenance costs 5. Membership fees 6. Major donations 7. Utilities bills 8. Phone bills 9. NTUC Fairprice expenditures (If you have a credit card tied to NTUC Fairprice, the task of tracking is simpler.)

10. Lived-in property related payments (e.g. property tax, S&CC charges or Management fees and Sinking fund) 11. Medical expenditures 12. Ang Pows The list above is not exhaustive. One can start with easy tracking first and not to start with a comprehensive tracking. It gets easier subsequently.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 91

30 December 2015

Latest Asset Allocation

The investment climate for 2015 was challenging. The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s richest billionaires lost billions in 2015 including Warren Buffet who lost US$11.3 billion and Bill Gates lost US$3 billion.

People like most of us could not get away unscathed.

Investment gurus and textbooks advocate diversification to avoid horrendous losses in investments during uncertain investment climate.

My asset allocation as at end of 2015 when compared with March was shown below.

Asset Class 29.3.2015 (%) 30.12.2015 (%) Preference shares of local bank 21.1 21.0 Cash (including fixed deposits) 16.7 18.6 Singapore equity 11.3 14.4 Unit trusts â&#x20AC;&#x201C; equity 7.7 10.1 Bonds Funds 9.9 9.8 Insurance plans (annuity) 10.4 9.4 Currency investments 12.2 8.1 Structured deposits with banks 5.7 5.7 Retail bonds traded on Singapore Exchange 4.9 2.8 I started 2015 by saying that I would be careful and intended to place money in fixed deposits when some investments matured. On that front, cash including fixed deposits is now 18.6% of total portfolio, up from 16.7%.

The biggest investment amount went to buying preference shares of a local bank offering 4% dividend.

Singapore equity was increased to 14.4% from 11.3%. This was not a good move as the market value was down 19%.

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I went on to buy additional equity unit trusts during the year bringing the allocation to 10.1%.

I reduced foreign currency exposure to just 8.1% down from 12.2%. This is now just Australian dollar deposit and its value is down 15.5%.

On a net basis, the total portfolio is down 4.5%. The diversification helps to cushion some of the losses in some asset classes.

As for income earned and realised during the year, it was 4.26% on invested assets (excluding cash and savings accounts which do not earn much interests.)

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 93

1 January 2016

STI component stocks pulling STI downwards in 2015

Singapore stock market declined by 14.3% in 2015. 25 STI component stocks went under with only 4 showing positive performance and 1 remained unchanged.

See table below of 30 component stocks of the Straits Times Index (STI).

Stock 31/12/2014 31/12/2015 Change SATS 3.05 3.84 25.90% Comfort Delgro 2.60 3.05 17.31% Hongkong Land (USD) 6.76 7.00 3.55% CapitaLand 3.31 3.35 1.21% Thai Bev 0.69 0.69 0.00% SGX 7.81 7.70 -1.41% SIA 11.60 11.20 -3.45% Ascendas Reit 2.38 2.28 -4.20% CapitaMall Trust 2.04 1.93 -5.39% Sing Tel 3.90 3.67 -5.90% SPH 4.21 3.94 -6.41% YZJ Shipping 1.205 1.10 -8.71% Wilmar Intl 3.24 2.94 -9.26% UOL 6.96 6.24 -10.34% StarHub 4.15 3.70 -10.84% ST Engr 3.40 3.01 -11.47% SIA Engr 4.22 3.70 -12.32% Global Logistics 2.48 2.15 -13.31% OCBC 10.46 8.80 -15.87% Jardine C&C 42.60 34.85 -18.19% DBS 20.60 16.69 -18.98% UOB 24.53 19.61 -20.06% HPH Trust (USD) 0.69 0.53 -23.19% City Dev 10.27 7.65 -25.51% Golden Agri-Res 0.46 0.34 -26.09% 94 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

Stock 31/12/2014 31/12/2015 Change Keppel Corp 8.85 6.51 -26.44% Genting Singapore 1.08 0.77 -28.70% SembCorp Ind 4.45 3.05 -31.46% SembCorp Marine 3.26 1.75 -46.32% Noble 1.14 0.40 -64.91%

STI 3365.15 2882.73 -14.34% STI ETF 3.40 2.95 -13.24% Analysis SATS and Comfort Delgro did exceptionally well. SATS was only added as STI component stock in 2015.

The bad performance came from Noble, SembCorp Marine, SembCorp Industries, Genting Singapore, Keppel Corp, Golden Agri-Res, City Developments. The three local banks followed them in performing poorly.

SPDR STI ETF was down 13.24% tracking the STI (down 14.34%).

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 95

1 January 2016

Performance of stock markets for 2015

The following table shows the stock indices of 31 December 2014 and 31 December 2015. The percentage change between two dates are provided in the table.

Stock Index STI (Singapore) Taiwan Weighted Hang Seng (HK) Mumbai BSESN FTSE100 (UK) Dow Jones (USA) Australia All Ord S&P 500 (USA) Kospi (Korea)

Nasdaq (USA) CAC 40 (France) Nikkei 225 (Japan) Germany DAX Shanghai Comp (China)

31 Dec 2014 3,365.15 9,307.26 23,605.04 27,499.42 6,566.09 17,823.07 5,388.60 2,058.90 1,915.59 4,736.05 4,272.75 17,450.77 9,805.55 3,234.68

31 Dec 2015 2,882.73 8,338.06 21,914.40 26,117.54 6,242.32 17,425.03 5,344.60 2,043.94 1,961.31 5,007.41 4,637.06 19,033.71 10,743.01 3,546.13

Change -14.3% -10.4% -7.2% -5.0% -4.9% -2.2% -0.8% -0.7% 2.4% 5.7% 8.5% 9.1% 9.6% 9.6%

The worst performing stock index in the table was the Straits Times Index (STI). Taiwan Weighted and Hang Seng Index folllowed closely behind. Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s KOSPI surprised with positive performance of plus 2.4%.

The best performing stock indices were Germany DAX and Shanghai Composite. The European indices such as Germany DAX and France CAC 40 did well this year. FTSE100 (UK) was down 4.9%.

In the case for the US, Dow Jones and S&P 500 were down by 2.2% and 0.7% respectively. However, Nasdaq was up 5.7%.

For purpose of comparison, the table below shows the performance of some 96 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

indices between 2013 and 2014. Some stock indices like Shanghai Composite and Mumbai Sensex shot up a lot in 2014.

Stock Index Shanghai Comp (China) Mumbai BSESN Nasdaq (USA) S&P 500 (USA) Taiwan Weighted Dow Jones (USA) Nikkei 225 (Japan) STI (Singapore)

Hang Seng (HK) Australia All Ord FTSE100 (UK)

Kospi (Korea)

31.12.2013 2,115.98 21,170.68 4,176.59 1,848.36 8,611.51 16,576.66 16,291.31 3,167.43 23,306.39 5,353.10 6,749.10 2,011.34

31.12.2014 3,234.68 27,499.42 4,736.05 2,058.90 9,307.26 17,823.07 17,450.77 3,365.15 23,605.04 5,388.60 6,566.09 1,915.59

Change 52.9% 29.9% 13.4% 11.4% 8.1% 7.5% 7.1% 6.2% 1.3% 0.7% -2.7% -4.8%

If one held on to Singapore stocks, it was a terrible year to invest in 2015. It was so unloved.

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1 January 2016

Performance of FTSE ST Indices for 2015

It is interesting to drill down and see how each sector of the listed companies was performing over the year. I use the FTSE ST Indices and compare them from 31 December 2014 to 31 December 2015.

FTSE ST Index 31 Dec 2014 31 Dec 2015 Change STI 3,365.15 2,882.73 -14.3% Mid Cap 748.62 667.53 -10.8% Small Cap 492.31 403.51 -18.0% Fledgling 806.99 839.25 4.0% Catalist 735.89 496.61 -32.5% ST Catalist stocks were down 32.5% followed by Small Cap stocks (-18.0%). STI were down 14.3% and Mid Cap stocks were down 10.8%. ST Fledgling stocks were up 4.0%.

Looks like both Catalist stocks and Small Cap stocks did badly.

The performances of various industry sectors are listed below (ranked from worst performers to the best performers).

FTSE ST Index 31 Dec 2014 31 Dec 2015 Change Oil & Gas 577.51 381.60 -33.9% Technology 411.30 316.72 -23.0% Industrials 807.27 666.32 -17.5% Basic materials 125.46 107.80 -14.1% Financials 884.94 771.65 -12.8% Consumer goods 490.40 429.93 -12.3% Utilities 473.86 417.87 -11.8% Reits 779.50 695.93 -10.7% China Top 186.62 171.82 -7.9% Consumer services 838.09 773.01 -7.8% Real estates 755.98 701.61 -7.2% 98 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

FTSE ST Index 31 Dec 2014 31 Dec 2015 Change Telco 1,025.04 954.39 -6.9% Maritime 239.55 223.77 -6.6% China 221.82 208.96 -5.8% Real estate hldg & dev 746.11 720.96 -3.4% Health care 1,156.42 1,471.12 27.2% It is not surprising that Oil & Gas companies did the worst, down 33.9% followed by Technology and Industrials. Financials was down 12.8%.

The best sector for the year was Health Care, up 27.2%. It is the only sector with positive performance.

Notes from FTSE web pages: STI comprises 30 component stocks. FTSE ST Mid Cap represents about 18% of SG market capitalisation. FTSE ST Small Cap represents about 12% of SG market capitalisation.

The FTSE ST Fledgling Index comprises the constituents listed on the ST Universe that are too small for the FTSE ST All-Share Index.

The FTSE ST Catalist Index aims to raise the profile of growth companies listed on Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SGX Catalist market and offers investors a tracking tool on the performance of Catalist sponsored companies.

The FTSE ST China Top Index is a subset of the FTSE ST China Index and aims to capture the performance of the 20 largest Chinese-listed companies on the SGX Main Board by full market capitalisation.

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6 January 2016

Stretching my retirement funds

When I stopped work, I did not get monthly salary and bonuses. I rely on my retirement funds and investment returns to pay for my expenses. I definitely cannot spend freely knowing that my retirement funds can run out. Therefore, I watched my expenses and cash outflow very carefully.

Between 2012 and 2015, my spending budget was cut by 30%. The way I did it was to eradicate or to reduce some expenses. Below are some ways.

1. I resigned from some professional bodies. I gave up memberships to Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK), CPA Australia, and Singapore Computer Society. I only retain one professional body, that is the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants.

2. I have stopped attending CPA Dinner talks held every month. This costs $810 a year.

3. I gave up membership to club houses. One club house was Temasek Club.

4. I only watch movies on weekdays to take advantage of senior citizens concession rates (for age 55 and above). Ticket price is $4.50 (for GV theatres) Even for that, I hardly go to movies. Nowadays, my family borrows DVDs from public libraries and watches them at home.

5. I change my Singtel mobile plan to a Silver Plan. This plan is for those aged 55 and above. The monthly subscription is reduced by 20% from normal plans. In my case, I opted for Combo 2 with 2GB local data. This plan is sufficient for my daily usage. It costs me about $40 per month.

6. I do not spend much on clothing, just enough to keep me looking presentable. I do not buy office wears now.

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Future plan I still own a car bought in 2009 at about $53,000 (inclusive of COE) during the Global Financial Crisis. Car expenses are a huge outlay. It takes up about 13% of my total expenses. This car has another 3 years to go. I plan to stop owning a car and take public transport in three years time.

What is worrying me?

My concern is keeping medical costs down as I get older. I spent on medical checkups, dental care, and eye health. These are at private patient rates because I am not entitled for CHAS (Community Health Assist Scheme) or PGP (Pioneer Generation Package) . For major hospitalisation, I bought medical insurance and living assurance policies to help cover some of these costs. These insurance premiums cost money.

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1 February 2016

Investing is for long term

When investing, consider putting money in stocks that have potential for dividends and capital gains on sale in the future. Very short-term buy and sell strategy or punting is not my kind of investment style.

For each stock I bought, I set up a spreadsheet and track the dividends received. If I sold the stock, any capital gain or loss was also tracked for that particular stock. In this way, I can then factor in the money received for that particular counter and average down the actual purchase cost price of the stock.

My Singapore equity portfolio lost 27% in value. This is paper loss based on actual purchase cost prices and the current market prices of stocks. If I consider the money received on stock investments (dividends and realised capital gains/ loss) since the time I started investing, I am still in the black. 27% paper loss became 11.4% gain. (This simplistic calculation ignores time value of money.)

I regard investing is for long term. Therefore, if one were to pick stocks that were meant for long time frame, then it is important that one picks them as if they are going to own part of these businesses. As owner of the business, you certainly do not want this business to fail. Business owner would also not jump ship, if the business encounters some turbulence. This is Warren Buffett way of value investing.

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3 February 2016

Interest earned on CPF balances - 2015

My CPF balances consist of Medisave Account (MA), Retirement Account (RA) and Ordinary Account (OA). I have hit the maximum for MA and RA accounts.

I still keep some balances in the Ordinary Account (that earns less interest compared with MA and RA). I have no more balance in the Special Account (SA).

Interest payment for Ordinary Account is 2.5%.

Interest payment for Medisave Account is 4.0% Interest payment for Retirement Account is 4.0%.

Additional interest will be paid out to all CPF members. An additional 1% interest is paid on the first $60,000 of a memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s combined balances, of which up to $20,000 comes from the Ordinary Account.

Interest Yield of 3.3% Looking at total interest earned in 2015 on CPF balances, this works out to about 3.3% p.a. on opening balances of 2015. (I had few transactions through the year.) By keeping money in CPF and not withdrawing had added a significant cash amount to my account. This rate of return with near zero risk is hard to achieve in current financial climate. It makes sense not to withdraw money from CPF and try to beat this kind of return on your own.

Additional interest from 1 January 2016 Starting this year, CPF members aged 55 and above get an extra 1% per year interest on their first $30,000 of combined CPF balances.

This extra 1% interest is on top of the existing additional interest to be paid out to all CPF members.

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11 February 2016

Why I remain relatively calm this round of market turmoil

Back in 2008 when the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was unfolding, I remember that I was very nervous with the economic crisis. I was worried about my investments. Starting last year, I witness another market turmoil of a similar global scale. Investors and fund managers were jittery and the market turbulence has not abated. Surprisingly, I was calmer than back in 2008/09.

In 2008, I parked huge sums in Currency-linked Investments (CLI), DBS Creditlinked Notes, DBS High Notes and narrowly-focused unit trusts like Middle East fund and commodity fund. After the GFC, I reduced my exposure in CLI, redeemed DBS Credit-linked Notes, got out of DBS High Notes, and cut out from Middle East fund and commodity fund.

Now my portfolio was allocated more widely. I diversified investments into equity, fixed income securities, CLI, insurance products and S$ fixed deposits.

In equity space, I focus on Singapore equities and some regional country funds. I looked out and parked money in funds that pay regular dividends or interests. Even as the funds were below the costs when I purchased them, I am not too concerned. I am able to withstand any major fallout in some of these investments since the quantum parked in each product is now lower than in 2008.

This spreading of risk is one reason that I am feeling not too depressed this time round. As in any loss of confidence in financial markets, confidence will return some time in the future when the global economies recover.

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25 February 2016

Singapore Inflation and GDP Growth Rates were linked

When inflation is low, there is likely chance that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate is also low. Countries fear runaway inflation as well as deflation. With deflation (or very low inflation), consumers and producers may not want to spend for fear that prices decline further. This will result in low GDP growth rate or recession. Let's see how this play out historically in Singapore context.

Singapore inflation is measured by consumer price index (CPI). The annual inflation rates for each year from 1995 to 2015 are listed in the table below.

The GDP growth rate for each year is also provided.

Year Annual Inflation Rate % GDP Growth Rate % Remarks 1995 1.7 7.0 1996 1.4 7.5 1997 2.0 8.3 Asian Financial Crisis 1998 -0.3 -2.2 Asian Financial Crisis 1999 0.0 6.1 2000 1.3 8.9 Dot-com bubble 2001 1.0 -1.0 Sep11 Attack WTC 2002 -0.4 4.2 2003 0.5 4.4 SARS 2004 1.7 9.5 2005 0.5 7.5 2006 1.0 8.9 2007 2.1 9.1 Global Financial Crisis 2008 6.6 1.8 Global Financial Crisis 2009 0.6 -0.6 Global Financial Crisis 2010 2.8 15.2 2011 5.2 6.2 2012 4.6 3.4 2013 2.4 4.4 2014 1.0 3.3 2015 -0.5 2.0 Oil price declines

Source: Department of Statistics Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 105

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s look at year 1998, 2001, 2009, and last two years 2014 and 2015.

Year Annual Inflation Rate % GDP Growth Rate % Remarks 1998 -0.3 -2.2 Asian Financial Crisis 2001 1.0 -1.0 Sep11 Attack WTC 2009 0.6 -0.6 Global Financial Crisis 2014 1.0 3.3 2015 -0.5 2.0 Oil price declines

GDP growth rates were negative for 1998, 2001, and 2009 for the three major crises faced by Singapore.

Last year the All-Item CPI was -0.5%. The GDP growth rate declined further from 2014 to 2.0% in 2015. In 2015, oil prices were already starting to decline and contributed to negative inflation rate. If negative inflation rate were to continue into 2016, then the likelihood of poor economic growth for Singapore may be a reality.

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5 March 2016

Enhanced Retirement Sum in 2016

Starting 2016, CPF members above 55 years old can contribute up to three times the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) into their Retirement Accounts (RA).

Current Basic Retirement Sum is $80,500. Full Retirement Sum is two times BRS, i.e $161,000. Enhanced Retirement Sum is three times BRS, i.e $241,500.

The basic interest rates (without considering additional interest rates for certain conditions) are: Interest payment for Ordinary Account is 2.5%.

Interest payment for Special Account is 4.0%.

Interest payment for Medisave Account is 4.0% Interest payment for Retirement Account is 4.0%.

If one has enough money in his Ordinary Account and there is no need to use this amount for property purchase or for personal withdrawal, it is an advantage to put more into the Retirement Account to earn 4.0% interest instead of just 2.5% interest in the Ordinary Account.

In addition, with higher Retirement Sum, your monthly payout on reaching 65 years old is also raised.

Amount in Retirement Sum $80,500 $161,000 $241,500

Monthly payout in CPF Life $660 - $720 $1,220 - $1,320 $1,770 - $1,920

One must bear in mind that once the money is transferred from the Ordinary Accout to the Retirement Account, this amount cannot be reversed.

If one can earn more than the 4% interest rate per annum based on their investments (without dilution in investment sum), then the additional top-up into the Retirement Account is not necessary.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 107

23 March 2016

Speculation and Sentiment impact share markets

January 2016 saw a stampede from share investments globally. It coincided with oil prices dropping to below US$30 per barrel. The other factors affecting share markets were slowing China economic growth (the China factor), US Federal Reserve planning to raise Fed Interest rates this year (hence increasing cost of funds), and slower global economic growth (Japan and ECB using negative interest rates to arrest the fall in their economies).

All economies are now so interconnected that no one economy can remain closed to external influence.

The months of January and February saw fear in investorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; minds. Investors were willing to sell off even at huge losses. One thing about fear is that it tends to overshoot on the downside to below what is reasonable or fundamental value of any equity.

This month reversed the losses in the stock indices. The Straits Times Index (STI) recovered to the level last touched at the end of last year. If we strip the fear factor away, the sell-off in stock markets would not happen the way it did.

Sentiment in stock investment is something we have to live with and it can result in irrational decision-making. Quick traders wanting short-term profits jump at this kind of sentiments to speculate which way the stock prices are moving. Investment in stock market can be one of speculation and predicting the future. We all do that at varying degrees, but this is not going to get us very far unless one is lucky. I still prefer to invest with a view of picking a stock with good business potential. This is one way of hedging the risk in investing in stocks.

The outlook for the global economy is still not rosy. That has not changed. In this month alone, I had been reducing some investments and realising them for cash even at losses. Cash and cash equivalents are now about 25% of total portfolio. I am still invested 75%.

108 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

16 May 2016

Better off investing in STI ETF than selecting stocks for portfolio

Is active management in investing better than passive investing in stock index? I select stocks for my Singapore equity portfolio and took actions in buying and selling certain stocks at different times. At the same time, I bought into SPDR STI ETF as well. This Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is designed to track the performance of the Straits Times Index (STI).

Is my active stock investing better than or worse off when compared with investing in SPDR STI ETF? To do this, I compare two columns of data: Loss in Portfolio (%) against Loss in STI ETF (%). Loss (%) is calculated against cost of purchase. The results were obtained for more than one year of data. This one year had been very volatile and investments in general were not performing well.

Date Loss in Portfolio (%) Loss in STI ETF (%) 30-Apr-16 -20.8 -11.7 31-Mar-16 -20.3 -12.0 29-Feb-16 -25.6 -17.2 31-Jan-16 -27.0 -19.1 31-Dec-15 -19.0 -9.2 30-Nov-15 -18.2 -10.1 30-Oct-15 -13.8 -6.4 30-Sep-15 -18.0 -12.3 31-Aug-15 -15.8 -8.6 31-Jul-15 -11.0 -0.3 30-Jun-15 -6.9 3.1 30-May-15 -5.5 5.6 30-Apr-15 -3.1 8.3 31-Mar-15 -3.9 5.9 27-Feb-15 -3.2 4.7 30-Jan-15 -3.2 5.0

The graph below shows the same data.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 109

What is the conclusion? I am better off in just buying SPDR STI ETF. So passive investing triumphed in my case over active investing during this period of study.

My choices of some stocks were off the mark because of circumstances of the global economic environment (e.g oil prices plunge).

Note: I did not factor dividends received in the study. Each stock provided dividend and STI ETF gave dividend as well. The portfolio was relatively stable in terms of size and there is no change in my STI ETF amount over the period of study.

110 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

24 June 2016

Brexit, it is

United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union with votes of 51.9%. The economic repercussions of which would take time before the global community can have some clarity. It will not be business as usual for flow of goods and capital funds.

As an immediate impact, Sterling Pound (GBP) took a big hit. GBP dived 7.60% against Singapore dollar (1 GBP = S$1.855 as at 7.15 pm). FTSE 100 (UK) stock index plunged 4.45% at 7.17 pm.

In this part of the world, the stock markets declined.

Stock Index Nikkei 225 Aust All Ordinaries Seoul Composites Hang Seng Index Taiwan Weighted NZSE50 BSESN (Mumbai) Straits Times Index Shanghai Composite

Percentage change - 7.92% - 3.09% - 3.09% - 2.92% - 2.30% - 2.25% - 2.24% - 2.09% - 1.30%

As the European markets open for trading, Germany DAX is down 7.22% at 8.05 pm (Singapore time), France CAC 40 dropped 8.74%.

Those who were invested in some of these financial instruments would see their investments affected. For those who are not invested, it is the right move.

In a few more days, it will be 30 June. Half year into 2016 and we see so much happening to the financial markets. The world does not need a Brexit to add to the already volatile markets.

The Brexit event is still evolving and it is better to stay cautious with investments.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 111

11 July 2016

Total Shareholder Return of Portfolio

Temasek Holdings released the financial results for the year to 31 March 2016.

The one-year return to shareholder was -9.02%. This is the measure known as Total Shareholder Return (TSR) in S$ term. It comprises dividend return (actual income received) and price return (resulting from changes in valuations of investments as at year end). It includes both actual cash inflow resulting from income earned on investments and the price differential between fair value of investments and cost of investments. The latter is unrealised gain or loss on investments that can be reversed in the next accounting period.

The Total Shareholder Return (TSR) is a good measure of your investments. It is reflective of investing skills of investor.

Generally 2015 was a difficult year for fund managers/investors. Temasek Holdings suffered -9.02% TSR for the year ended 31 March 2016.

I decided to compile the TSR for my portfolio. The results were as follows: Year TSR 2011 -3.93% 2012 1.70% 2013 1.03% 2014 3.01% 2015 -0.84% 2011 was a challenging year for investors. The Eurozone debt crisis was in full swing that started in 2010. There were bailouts for some countries like Greece, Italy and Spain. My TSR for 2011 was -3.93%. 2015 was also a difficult year. The oil crisis hurt the investors generally. China was not doing well economically. My TSR was -0.84%. 2016 was particularly difficult so far. The Brexit (Britain exiting EU) on 23 June had so far hurt investments. My interim TSR was not good. I cannot imagine the end performance for 2016.

112 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

21 July 2016

Chasing for yields

Credit costs have come down globally in this slow-growth economic climate.

Most central banks are lowering their benchmark interest rates. Some central banks have reduced interest rates to negative, notably Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark. The Fed is holding interest rate unchanged in the wake of Brexit (UK leaving EU). The interest rate for the 10-year Treasury bills is now low at 1.58%. Some two years ago the interest rate was about 2.50%. This was a huge drop in interest rate of ONE percentage point.

When you cannot get decent yields from government bonds, where would you invest for better yields? Even when you invest in real estate investment trust (REIT) or some corporate bonds because the yields are higher, investors are subjected to diminution in capital sum invested. Take the recent example of Ausgroup corporate bonds. The bonds have slumped 23.4% this year. (Source: The Straits Times 19 July 2016).

When investing, one has to look at both income yield (by way of dividends or interests) and the possibility of not losing on the capital sum invested. If we throw in currency in the mix, eg investing in foreign currency denominated investments, then fluctuations in currency rates can cause you to lose a great deal when you are on the wrong side of the bet.

We are in an unstable global financial and economic environment. Investing can be tricky. Where do I get ideas for investing? I get them from two banks that I have relationships with. I read their news and sometimes my relationship manager called me to share some thoughts. Ultimately, I decide on what I intend to do. For most part, I stay safe and set up just a sum for some risk taking. This is an amount I can afford to lose. Bulk of it is still in cash or cash equivalent. I became active in looking at my portfolio during this uncertain period. I am prepared to cut loss and move funds to safer instruments. I have never been so concerned about investments since the Global Financial Crisis (2008/09).

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 113

11 August 2016

Singapore GDP Growth rates correlate with World GDP

Singapore economy is open and dependent on the world economy to drive growth.

How closely related are we with the global performance of economic growth?

The following table shows Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annual growth rates of both Singapore and the World over 20-year time horizon since 1996. GDP growth rates are based on constant 2010 dollars.

Year S % Growth W % Growth Remarks 1996 7.5 3.34 1997 8.3 3.76 1998 -2.2 2.45 Asian Financial Crisis 1999 6.1 3.30 2000 8.9 4.33 2001 -1.0 1.97 Dot-com Bubble 2002 4.2 2.18 2003 4.4 2.90 2004 9.5 4.46 2005 7.5 3.82 2006 8.9 4.38 2007 9.1 4.31 2008 1.8 1.84 2009 -0.6 -1.68 Global Financial Crisis 2010 15.2 4.35 2011 6.2 3.13 2012 3.4 2.48 2013 4.4 2.40 2014 3.3 2.63 2015 2.0 2.47 Source: World Bank and Singapore DOS S % Growth = Singapore GDP % W% Growth = World GDP %

The graph below is a representation in chart form of the same data.

114 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

The thicker line is World GDP while the thinner line is Singapore GDP. The dips and spikes in GDP growth rates were in tandem.

Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s forecast for 2016 Since 2012, the world was seeing slow growth of about 2.5%. Singapore is slowing also. 2015 GDP growth rate for Singapore was only 2.0%.

The latest forecast for Singapore GDP growth rate for 2016 is now at 1.0 to 2.0% (Source: MTI, 11 August 2016). This is no comfort for investors and workers alike. As long as the world economy does not improve, Singapore will suffer as well.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 115

23 September 2016

Has investing become a gamble?

Central banks around the world rule the financial markets. Since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008/09, central banks have been in the forefront in steering the economies and injecting liquidity in the financial markets.

This comes in the form of monetary policy that is either expansionary or contractionary.

Fund managers, financial institutions and investors watch the policy decisions of central banks. We are obsessed with when the Federal Reserve (Fed) is going to raise its benchmark interest rate and by how many basis points. The markets even provide you with the likelihood of raising interest rate in the next policy meeting. It has become a game of chance down to the percentage of probability.

In the last policy decision of Fed, the markets got it right. Fed did not raise the interest rate. The stock markets rose after that. The US dollar weakened against currencies.

If one is a gambler for immediate gains, would he bet with the majority punters or take the risk with the minority punters? Or like most investors, they just sit out and wait for the Fed’s decision to be released and then act. Assuming that Fed did increase interest rate in the recent meeting, what upheaval it would have caused to the financial markets. The minority risk takers would be laughing all the way to the banks.

It is terrible when investors are subjected to the decisions of the central banks and these policy decisions were coming in thick and thin since the GFC. Whether you like it or not, we have become “gamblers” unwittingly in this financial world, wishing that the central banks deliver what we expected or the other way round depending on what you “bet” on.

116 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

25 September 2016

Global stock markets had forgotten about Brexit

The day after Brexit (25 June 2016), more than US$2 trillion were wiped off the value of stocks worldwide.

The global stock markets had forgotten about Brexit in the latest stock indices.

All stock indices had jumped since 24 June 2016. The best performing stock indices are shown below. UK’s FTSE 100 jumped 12.6% ranking third in the list.

Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were up too. Calm has prevailed for the time being until the actual Brexit occurs and people get a clearer picture of the impact of it.

Stock Index 24-Jun-16 Hang Seng (HK) 20,259.13 Nasdaq (USA) 4,707.98 FTSE100 (UK) 6,138.69 Nikkei 225 14,952.02 Germany DAX 9,557.16 Taiwan Weighted 8,476.99 CAC 40 (France) 4,106.73 Mumbai BSESN 26,397.71 Kospi (Korea) 1,925.24 Shanghai Comp 2,854.29 Australia All Ord 5,192.80 S&P 500 (USA) 2,037.41 Dow Jones 17,400.75 STI (Singapore) 2,735.39

23-Sep-16 23,686.48 5,305.75 6,909.43 16,754.02 10,626.97 9,284.62 4,488.69 28,668.22 2,054.07 3,033.90 5,518.60 2,164.69 18,261.45 2,856.95

Change 16.9% 12.7% 12.6% 12.1% 11.2% 9.5% 9.3% 8.6% 6.7% 6.3% 6.3% 6.2% 4.9% 4.4%

How did the stock indices perform since the start of this year?

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 117

Stock Index 31-Dec-15 Taiwan Weighted 8,338.06 FTSE100 (UK) 6,242.32 Mumbai BSESN 26,117.54 Hang Seng (HK) 21,914.40 Nasdaq (USA) 5,007.41 S&P 500 (USA) 2,043.94 Dow Jones 17,425.03 Kospi (Korea) 1,961.31 Australia All Ord 5,344.60 STI (Singapore) 2,882.73 Germany DAX 10,743.01 CAC 40 (France) 4,637.06 Nikkei 225 19,033.71 Shanghai Com 3,546.13

23-Sep-16 9,284.62 6,909.43 28,668.22 23,686.48 5,305.75 2,164.69 18,261.45 2,054.07 5,518.60 2,856.95 10,626.97 4,488.69 16,754.02 3,033.90

Change 11.35% 10.69% 9.77% 8.09% 5.96% 5.91% 4.80% 4.73% 3.26% -0.89% -1.08% -3.20% -11.98% -14.44%

While so many stock markets were doing well, Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Straits Times Index (STI) was struggling to stay above water.

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28 September 2016

Lessons learned in 2008 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Extreme fear after Lehman Brothers gone into bankruptcy

I went back to read my blog postings in the year 2008. There was extreme fear in the global financial markets brought on by the sudden bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. We read in the papers how investors lost millions.

Like most investors with investments in financial products, I was not spared. I was invested in currency-linked investment, DBS Credit-linked Notes, DBS High Notes, some unit trusts and Singapore equities.

I remember fearing the worst for DBS Credit-linked Notes and DBS High Notes. Would I get back the full amount invested on maturity? Most of my unit trusts were down more than 20%. These unit trusts were narrowly-focused such as Commodity Fund, Middle East, China. Singapore equities were down 18%. The currency-linked investment was down 13%.

Such was the state of affairs back in 2008. I was lucky that I held on and did not panic into selling my investments. I recovered the full amount with interests on DBS Credit-linked Notes and DBS High Notes in 2011.

What lessons have I learnt from 2008?

1. I reduce my exposure to higher risk products. The quantum of investment in each financial instrument is now lower.

2. I decided that currency-linked investment is too risky. I sold off my currencylinked fixed deposit. I now sleep easy without worrying about currency pair exchange rates on a daily basis.

3. I sold off narrowly-focused unit trusts such as the Commodity Fund and the Middle East Fund.

4. I do not go into structured notes without fully understanding them. I prefer plain vanilla corporate fixed income instrument of established corporation.

I have to make sure that the corporation is one that can pay the debt on maturity.

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 119

Is 2016 the same as 2008?

For one, the US presidential election happened in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected and now the presidential election is happening again. That is where similarity ends. 2008 was a turbulent year when the US sub-prime mortgage crisis erupted. Now United States is the only developed country with the best showing in economic growth. The fear was not the same as in 2008. 2008 was unprecedented when it comes to fear factor.

120 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

1 November 2016

I feel that I may be better off if I have not invested, is it?

I am talking about Singapore equities.

The experts would always say that we have to stay invested to reap the rewards of dividends and future appreciation of investments. This is better than not doing anything and allowing inflation to erode the value of our idle money.

Well, it is not that straightforward.

Since July 2015, my Singapore equity portfolio had suffered double-digit percentage drop in value. It got worse month by month. It is now 23% down on cost of investments. To think that buying into blue chip stocks would reduce the risks of investing in equities. This was far from the truth. Such is the state of Singapore equities.

If I have not invested, the principal sum of my money is still kept intact. This argument seems right on the surface. This is accurate on the one hand. On the other hand, we do not then enjoy the dividends declared by these companies.

Based on my experience, my dividend yield averaged 3.0% per annum.

So where do we stand? Is there a good time to invest in equities?

I believe that Investing is for the long term and I am not advocating punting. I started investing in Singapore stocks in 2008, nearly 9 years ago. Over these years, my total dividends received had more than adequately covered the paper loss on my current investments. When Singapore economy does recover in the future, the overall stock market would rise again in tandem. The current paper loss may be reduced in the process (provided these blue chip companies do not fold before then).

Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning | 121

13 November 2016

To stay invested?

The financial markets were unstable after Donald Trump won the US Presidential election. More than US$1 trillion was wiped off the value of bonds around the world in the week ended 11 November. (Bloomberg 11 Nov 2016).

Emerging Asian currencies had fallen against US dollars. Singapore dollar was down 1.8%. Malaysian ringgit was down 1.6%. (Source: DBS via The Business Times 12-13 November 2016) Investors must be counting their losses. The market volatility is not going away. With less than 2 months left to the year, 2016 is turning out to be a nightmarish year with regard to investments. Singapore third quarter financial results for most big named companies were dismal.

I am already locking in losses on some of my investments to reduce some exposure to poor investments (realised loss of 0.68% on total cost of portfolio). The income on investments had been about 1.65% per year. This was lower than 2015.

My cash portion on investment is now 28%. The rest were still invested. If I do not stay invested, I would lose the portion of income arising from these investments. In the meantime, I am watching the markets to guard against degradation of my investments. It was a difficult year as 2016 turned out.

122 | Financial Management, Investments and Retirement Planning

17 August 2013

Value System

We live in a materialistic world. We are competitive so that we can be better than another person. It is survival of the fittest. One can be labeled brilliant or otherwise in a meritocratic society. Parents want to get their children to elite schools because they think that their childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s academic results can be assured.

We see people wanting to be associated with successful people for favours.

Wealth and status are pursued at all costs.

As such, we see negative attributes in society: selfishness, impatience, less respect for others and less caring.

What can we do to see a more caring society and less materialistic society?

1. Expect that we are not born equal. Accept who we are. Some will be more intelligent or more fortunate.

2. Rejoice in successes of others. They deserve them through hard work and sacrifices. (We do not know what they had been through to achieve good results.)

3. Have humility if we are above others.

4. Be a good role model for our children. Children pick up good and bad habits and behaviour by learning from adults. Love your children and be there for them.

5. Kids and parents must respect teachers as they tried to help students cope with study and life in general.

6. Cultivate good moral values. Some values include honesty, not to take what is not given, and to respect lives.

7. Treat all fairly. Do not show favouritism. Respect people belonging to different Living Tips | 127

income levels. Even the cleaners deserve our respect.

8. Pay it forward. As we benefited from the society, remember to pay it forward.

Donate generously and offer time to help others. Lend a hand to support the less fortunate. Be generous in caring for others with varying capabilities.

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9 October 2013

Peace of Mind

Nature of our mind is to think. We cannot stop thinking.

We think of wholesome things as well as unwholesome things.

Thinking of generosity, compassion, loving-kindness, non-covetousness are wholesome thinking. Thinking of unwholesome things will be the exact opposite of wholesome thinking.

We think of past events and associated past emotions. We remember the hurt of the past and anger arises. We think of not getting what we wanted and was jealous at someone getting it, such as a promotion. We play out these events in our mind and get embroiled in it all over again.

We think of future and arise emotions attach to future events. Often times, we plan what we want to do. We think of future and think the worst that may happen. We worry about it. We may fantasize about the future and derive temporary happiness.

We also think in the moment on task on hand. We concentrate and get lost in the activities.

So we think the past, the present and the future. Our mind is so busy every second. Many thoughts occurred in that second. We cannot catch all the thoughts as they happen, especially subtle thoughts. We may not recall what thoughts have passed by in our mind.

With thoughts, we may take actions that may be unskillful. For example, when we are angry with someone, we are not fully aware how angry we are. We may hit out at that person in the moment. With unwholesome thoughts, we may dwell deeper in the thinking and do not know how to snap out of it quickly.

What a waste of mental energy this brings.

Bodily and verbal actions arise from the thinking mind. When we can be clear Living Tips | 129

and aware of thoughts that come into mind, we can reduce unwholesome bodily and verbal actions.

What can we do? First, start off by being aware of as much thoughts that come to mind. We cannot prevent negative thinking since the role of our mind is to think. We just note both positive and negative thinking. Just note the thinking and reduce tendency to follow through the thoughts if they are unwholesome.

Over long practices, we hope to reduce the span of time we dwell in one single negative thought. With awareness, comes restraint in carrying out negative body, speech and further mind actions.

Over time, we hope to achieve peace of mind with wholesome thoughts.

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25 October 2013

How to live?

These are some pointers that I picked up from a talk I attended.

1. Learn and move on. Live in the present moment with wisdom and clarity. We should not live in the shadow of the past or worry about the future.

2. Change your perceptions. Change your perspective of past events that cause us misery. There was this case of a person who felt that her mother loved her sister better when they were growing up. Now she realised that her sister was of poor health back then and her mother loved her sister differently from loving her.

3. Accept imperfections and rise above all problems. Avoid negative habits because it gets harder to change as one gets older.

4. Do not compare, it is the cause of many heartaches. Appreciate what you have. We are short-sighted if we choose to compare with others. One cannot say what is fair or what is not fair.

5. When talking to another person, be mindful of what is said. Ask yourself, is it beneficial to that person? It may hurt the other person unnecessarily without you knowing it.

Living Tips | 131

24 November 2013

Doing Nothing

Doing nothing is hard to attain in my case. When there is nothing pressing to do, I would find things to do to occupy snatches of free time. I might clear my dustbins in the house even when that can wait. I might start to vacuum the house even when it is relatively clean. Sounded that I have this compulsive behaviour to do something. If I am not doing things physically, my mind never stops thinking â&#x20AC;Ś planning ahead, looking at tasks that are outstanding. The chatter in the mind does not stop.

Would I not feel guilty if I do nothing? I was brought up to achieve something in this competitive society. Success is somehow measured by what you have achieved by results.

Doing nothing is important to re-charge and keep a balance in my life. So I am going to attempt this once in a while and pardon me if I appear â&#x20AC;&#x153;lazingâ&#x20AC;? around and not doing things.

132 | Living Tips

29 November 2013

Being with yourself

I am home alone now. I only have myself for company. For one week in late October, I kept to myself without my family members. They were away in Tokyo on a business trip. My contact with another person was kept to the minimum.

I remember some years back in the 1980s; I was alone in a big apartment in Brunei Darussalam after work. This lasted for nine months. Same feelings of being alone surfaced last month.

The sound of silence was calming. The sound of nature was felt more keenly.

Now with the rain, thunder broke the silence once in a while. On a good day, I could hear the birds. I could “hear and read” my thoughts. These thoughts came on fast and disappeared as soon as I was aware. They were what I was concerned with at that time and interspersed with random thoughts. As I slowed down without the hurry, thoughts slowed down too. Retreating from the busyness of everyday life allows us to be with ourselves, to know one’s true self.

I was more careful when alone. I made sure I was safe without any nasty fall.

Was I scared at night? Not really. Now, I understand one aspect of how singles live alone and the fear of falling seriously sick or have an accident at home.

During the one week of being alone, I was only accountable to myself. This was very different from being a family person. My agenda cannot be just for myself only. So it is refreshing to be alone and I can sort out things that are personal and to know myself.

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2 December 2013

Rejoice

I did not run the Standard Charteredâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Marathon yesterday but a friend did the half-marathon and many runners too. I rejoice in their accomplishments knowing full well how tough it is to complete the run.

Rejoice is a happy word. It offers joy all round. It is therapeutic and calming. If one is rejoicing, feeling of ill-will and hatred cannot arise. They are opposites of the spectrum.

It is easy to rejoice and one can do so in many situations. You can congratulate someone on his or her achievements with sincerity either publicly or privately with the person. Or you can mindfully rejoice in your heart, which is pure nature of gladness and it is not for show.

If people rejoice at the fortunate living environment they are in, there would be less animosity. Hating your enemy could be eliminated. Even your enemies have good things going for them. The political turmoil in Bangkok right now might not happen if they can see the good sides of the opposing camps and rejoice.

With less animosity, the world can be a happier place.

You can rejoice at generosity even if you may not have the means to donate.

You get the feeling of happiness all the same. You can rejoice at how others are having better lives, promotion to higher offices, getting a windfall, excel in study and many others. You can rejoice about your own fortunate circumstances.

To rejoice with people you do not quite like is difficult. However, if one day you can do it spontaneously, the noble feeling of magnanimity can arise. I know it is difficult and it is still work-in-progress for me.

I notice that those friends who are generous with their compliments are almost all very successful in their own ways. The merits of rejoicing are clear. The more you rejoice, the more joy you can feel in your heart. So, go on and compliment others and rejoice in othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; happiness. Feel the difference.

134 | Living Tips

3 December 2013

Transforming Stress into Joyous Effort

How does stress come about? We live in a groupthink environment. It is mental thinking of expectations: we must do more, we must be more. It is human created, inflicted on ourselves and is not objective external reality. We say, “but I have to!” But who says, “you have to.” Who is making you do all these things?

This stress is created simply by the way we think. The society, country included, imposes on us to think that we are never good enough even when we are producing goods and services. It is not worthwhile pressure made up by human minds and we have a choice not to buy into this groupthink.

Whatever the societal migration, we take it as no choice. Some examples of societal migration, keeping up with latest fad, fashion, gadgets, and social media.

If you are not stressed, you do not have a life. Must this be the case? Now with social media, such as Facebook, we are thrust into this social life sphere. With smart phones, we conduct human relation by texting each other, even with each other at home! We can decide how much we are going to participate in it. Choosing not to join in is not a failure. With the right attitude and motivation we need not join in the societal chaos.

Secure some private time for yourself without the cell phone and Internet.

Keep to my time without the interruptions and practise it on a daily basis.

Settle down, be alone during this quiet time and think. Get in touch with your heart. Make a conscious choice of what is important in life. Do not become what other people think I should be. Don't be a square peg in a round hole.

Get in touch with our values that are truly in our hearts.

When a person dies, money, rewards, fame do not go with the person. When a person is dying, regret usually is wishing he/she was kinder with other people.

Nobody regrets that he/she had not worked hard enough! Being number one is stressful. You have to work hard to keep on maintaining pole position. One day, someone is going to win over you.

Is it worthwhile to be unethical? Must one lie in business to close a deal. If we Living Tips | 135

lie, it will create a mess in business dealings. So why create unnecessary stress?

Be honest both in business and in personal life. At the end of the day, we still have to live with ourselves. Ask ourselves, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Is there peace and tranquility in our mind?â&#x20AC;?

Think of connections with other people. Are we being helpful, are we being kind? Move away from self-centred mind, the kind of me first attitude. Practise generosity, patience, fortitude and kindness. Be virtuous. Seek opportunities to offer service and time. This gives special kind of satisfaction. Live with the heart and reach out to other people in need.

We need to step back from our mental habit that is not ideal and create new habit. See stress as an opportunity to do good. For example, we may find it burdensome to drive our children to some places. If we see the situation as an opportunity, then time spent talking to our child in a car journey is precious.

This is the joyous effort arising from recognising self-perceived stressful situation.

Take delight in virtues, this is of highest importance. There will be no regrets, no fear. We have this precious human life and we can have the courage to live a life of kindness and compassion.

The above was heard at a talk given by Venerable Thubten Chodron, the Abbess of Sravasti Abbey in Washington State, USA. Date of talk: 2 December 2013 in Singapore.

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20 December 2013

Living up to our own expectations

It is impossible to live up to our own expectations. If it is possible, we can be a neurotic mess. Our lives are conditioned by society, family and schools. You cannot avoid that. We dreamed up our own expectations. “I want to accomplish something by age …”; “I want to make my first million by age …”; “I want to beat Michael Phelp’s records in the Olympics”; “I want to have 2.3 children”, etc.

Parents pressure their kids to fulfill expectations.

We may have our own expectations what we want to achieve. Even if it fell short of expectation, “I am OK.” This life is still worthwhile. Accept ourselves for our own capabilities and weaknesses. From then on it is easier to change and improve in the future, a step at a time. Accepting ourselves does not mean we can be complacent. We leave rooms for improvement and not to knock ourselves for not accomplishing our goals at the start.

Practise at rejoicing at own merits and other people’s merits. Stop complaining about ourselves to others. Rejoice what my friends had done. Rejoice how I have changed. I am happier, less angry, and not depressed. Work on selfacceptance from my heart by rejoicing. If I am the best in the world, this will be dismal. I will not be able to learn anything new. There is no need for electricians, road builders, car makers, etc. Lots of people know things that I don’t know.

With self-acceptance, I can learn from these people.

Have contentment in our hearts. Appreciate the richness of life. Again this does not mean complacency. We were taught dissatisfactions but we forgot each one of us has unique qualities and abilities. We balance up and complement each other. We accept others and do not put expectations on top of other people.

This can only drive them crazy. Have mental space in your heart. Stop this kind of push. When you push, you cannot have a kind heart. You trample on other people’s happiness in order to look good. You may end up with no friends.

Instead cultivate kindness to help others.

In schools, there is no course on how to have a kind heart. We learn from Living Tips | 137

history. When people act selfishly and are easily offended they start wars. Wars destroy happiness. Be careful with jealousy, you may become one, having their problems. You can miss up on beauty of own life if we compare too much.

Self-acceptance of who we truly are is important. It is alright to set goals, but sometimes we may not have the conditions and causes to realise these goals and we cannot control them. Understand the situations and accept the situations. We had done our best under the circumstances. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s alright. There is no point in getting angry because my agitation is my responsibility!

The above was heard at a talk given by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, the Abbess of Sravasti Abbey in Washington State, USA. Date of talk: 4 December 2013 in Singapore

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29 December 2013

How to simplify your life?

We are often caught up with busyness with so much stress in this materialistic and fast-paced world.

One starts from a macro, broader perspective of life before we tackle the nittygritty aspects of living.

1. Ask yourself what is the purpose of life? Look deeply into yourself and ask that question. Find meaning in your life. It can be altruistic pursuit to benefit others or some other purpose like leading a wholesome life.

2. Set objectives based on what you truly think in your heart and not what external pressures expect of you. We tend to live by othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; expectations. This life is ours and we should be master of how it should end up.

3. Set your priorities based on these objectives. Do the ones with the highest priorities. We will not be able to do many activities or tasks. If we attempt too much, we suffer burn-out.

4. Leave time for yourself for quiet reflections and NOT what others demand of you. No one should take time off you. Some quiet time without worrying about work matters and social matters is essential to find calm and balance in your life.

5. Stay unplugged for a period of time from technological gadgets such as mobile phone, personal computer, game console, audio-video devices, etc.

Facebook and social network, e-mail, SMS and video games are time stealers.

Be in control rather than be controlled.

6. Do not rush into immediate respond mode to all SMS messages or e-mail.

These can wait.

7. Avoid looking at advertisements in newspapers, Internet web-pages. Without Living Tips | 139

knowledge of them, frees one from pursuing them or acquiring them. Greed and attachment to material items will be minimised. Not going out and window-shopping reduces temptation towards material items that one does not need.

8. Walk the spiritual path to nourish one spiritually. Sufferings and mental afflictions can be reduced.

The above was heard at a talk given by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, the Abbess of Sravasti Abbey in Washington State, USA. Date of talk: In year 2011 in Singapore

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10 June 2014

Live life and not sweat over money

What is money? Money is used for transactions, to pay for bills, pay for meals, pay for transport and other living expenses. The more you have the more you can exchange them for goods and services, e.g. travelling on a holiday. It is a means to an end. Accumulating money without using them is considered miserly. Spending all you have accumulated without thinking of the future is the other extreme to avoid.

At one stage, I was watching over how I spent my money. Frequent withdrawals from ATMs worried me. I imagined that I would burst my budget each month.

This is unnecessary worry. My record showed that my average spending per month actually declined over the years, including the latest quarter. What a waste of energy, worrying!

I told myself not to sweat over money. How to do that? Adopt a simple lifestyle.

Buy only when you need an item. Go for sufficiency and not accumulation. Treat yourself and your family once in a while. If you feel like travelling, travel within your means. The travel experience gained in exposing to a country is invaluable.

It can translate into revenue stream if the experience goes into products you are making and selling them.

Finally, be generous and charitable and do not feel regret later when donating. It is to be rejoiced. Someone needs the money more than us. Share out our good fortune and have the knowledge that the donation would be used well by the recipients.

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29 September 2014

Calming an over-active Mind

This happened all the time. My mind thinks a lot. Often time, I was not aware of thinking while I was on an activity.

Take the example of driving a car alone to a destination. Driving is almost autopilot and I arrive at a destination with so much thoughts in between. Thoughts can be planning thoughts, thoughts of the past, angry thoughts, revenge thoughts, worry thoughts, running commentaries in the head, etc. Not once, I was fully present with just driving the car and knowing the exact conditions on the road.

I can give more examples. Taking a shower always resulted in time to think about many other things but not with just bathing/showering. Eating a meal, ironing clothes, washing dishes, and waiting in a queue are other examples.

Mind wanders and I lack attention to details of activities I am at. That is the nature of minds and we shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t blame ourselves for thinking. Let it be but the least we can do is to be aware that thinking had taken place. It is also good practice to be fully with the activity. That is concentration practice. Just to illustrate, when I am reading a good novel, I can be fully immersed in the story and my mind did not run around. We can try this out with other activities, enjoying the activity on hand.

When mind concentration is good, the mind is sharp. One can enjoy the activity better. For example while walking in a park, one can pick up subtle fragrance of flowers, beautiful sounds from birds and insects, and beautiful sights at the park. One is then fully immersed in the activity. Enjoy the moment of just walking in the park!

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2 October 2014

Let it Go, Revisited

When Disney’s Frozen was released late 2013, its theme song “Let it go” was a hit. “Let it go” became a catchphrase.

Back in April 2011, I wrote a blog post of the same title. Even to this day, I am still telling myself to “let it go”. Life moments have their complexities and associated emotions. I feel a range of emotions from pleasant to unpleasant. In all these emotions, it is advisable to note them as they arise and then let them go. Hanging on to these serves no purpose. Hanging on to a pleasant emotion is egoistical and hanging on unpleasant emotion is depressing. Both stuck one in the past, a time stealer and prevent one to live in the present.

What are some emotions am I talking about?

1. Self-righteousness 2. Embarrassment 3. Anger, irritation, and displeasure 4. Worry, regret, and fear 5. Conceit 6. Sense of loss (of losing something) and sadness I have them all. Let it go when you are faced with one. It is not easy but we can try bit by bit.

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12 December 2014

Why do we say and do the meanest things to our closest ones?

We do not do that to acquaintances or strangers but yet we do that to our spouses, children, parents, brothers, sisters and our closest relations. Two words that cause this phenomenon: Attachment and Expectations.

When we are married, we are connected by marriage and attachment to our spouses become a way of life. We live under the same roof and see that my special someone is now mine. With that, we suddenly have a whole lot of expectations of our spouses. She/he must pamper me, must do this and that. If they do not meet our expectations, we start to nag, quarrel, say the meanest and hurtful words, slam doors or give a cold shoulder.

The same can be said of our blood relations, our parents, our children, our brothers and sisters, etc. In this case, we did not choose our parents, children, etc. They are just there. We hurt them without thinking of our actions.

Expectations play an important part in our relations. We expect our children to listen to us, to carry out our instructions and our quirks. We expect our parents to continue to pamper us as if we are still young. When hurting them, we cannot remove the fact that we are connected by blood. We cannot assume that they do not exist.

If we were able to remove attachment to our closest ones, treat them as cordially as we can, like meeting them for the first time as strangers, we could co-exist harmoniously. Treat our spouses as our first dates always, what wonderful feelings would that be! Set no expectations of them and there is a reduction of â&#x20AC;&#x153;not meeting expectations kind of feelingsâ&#x20AC;?.

This is work in progress and a constant reminder to me.

The above was heard at a talk given by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, the Abbess of Sravasti Abbey in Washington State, USA. Date of talk: 11 December 2014 in Singapore

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23 December 2014

Each of us is different

We are called individuals and you and I are different from each other. For one, we have a different start point. We were born from different parents. Even though we are siblings or twins, we are identified as separate individuals with personalities changing over time.

Some people were born into wealth. Some people were born into a nurturing family. Some people may not have that kind of advantage. As we grew up, we started to see differences among classmates. Some kids came to school in chauffeured cars. Some classmates had private tutors that coached them.

Majority of us took buses to schools. They coped with school curriculum as best as they could.

From a different start point, a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life takes a certain course. I remembered the movie, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Back to the Futureâ&#x20AC;? when Marty McFly went back into the past and changed some events in the past and came back to the present that was different.

Do we feel sorry for ourselves just because we were not fortunate enough to have a good start point? Jealousy and envy do not get us anywhere.

What is important is the present moment. Can we lead an honest life with persistent efforts to improve our conditions as we live each day? Can we be magnanimous and compassionate enough to benefit others? At the end of the day, acceptance of who we are without comparison would help us overcome the differences we see among people.

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31 December 2014

Wisdom in the Age of Information

I attended a talk given by Ajahn Brahm on 30 December 2014 at the Singapore Conference Hall of the same title of this post.

Real wisdom does not come from information. There is too much information out there and it is a real “jungle” - the information jungle. With modern devices such as smart phones, the Internet, TV, and the media, we are constantly connected with information.

For real wisdom, we need to “connect by disconnecting”. We disconnect from these modern devices and get connected again with ourselves, to feel things, to connect with life, and to connect with another human being.

The speaker was narrating a story when he was 18 years old. He went to Tikal in Guatemala in search of an ancient pyramid in the 1960s. This pyramid was in a dense rain-forest and for days he was shrouded from the sun. When he finally found the pyramid, he climbed it to reach the peak. From this top of the pyramid, he went above the tree-line. He could see vast distances and the horizon. It gives you perspective and an overview of the dense rain-forest. It gave him wisdom and meaning of life. We are connected with nature that is infinite and there is nothing between him and nature from this vantage point.

For the same reason, we should disconnect from the jungle of the city, the jungle we live in. We have to get out and get some perspectives in life. You cannot get wisdom from sage, professors, books and the media. You must rise out of the information jungle. Find a quiet place such as temples, churches, cathedrals, monasteries, some sanctuaries. From this solitude, quietness, and serenity you can be peaceful and from this environment gain wisdom and perspectives of lives.

Wisdom comes from silence and you need not get information to be wise.

From this silence, you get silence within. Listen to your life, listen to your body.

That is real, what it meant to be alive. This is self-realisation and not told to us 146 | Living Tips

from books, media and other people.

Have a retreat. Have nothing to do all day. Be in your own home for some peace. Stay where you are and wisdom comes to you.

There is so much information out there. We think too much and see too little.

Between you and the infinite, there is too much stuff and obscurations in between. You need to disconnect to connect. You need to connect with yourself and feel it. Talk to the person who is with you and leave modern devices aside.

Get out there, see and experience life. Find quiet moments and from this find meaning of life from this solitude.

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22 January 2015

Living with Imperfections

I walk a path every morning in order to get to a shop to buy the daily newspapers. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help but notice litters on grass verge besides the road.

There is this discarded shoebox, which has been there and was never removed by the cleaner who swept the area.

Nearer where I stay, someone flattened out a carton box and placed them on the grass verge presumably for sitting on it. I knew it had been there for a while since it was worn out by rains and sun.

I went to Ion Sky at 55th Level (of Ion Orchard) to have a birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye view of Singapore buildings. The view was spectacular from that height. But I was a bit disappointed by rain-stained marks on the glass panels. Photographs taken through them did not turn out perfect because of the stain marks.

These are just some examples that can irritate me. I wish for everything beautiful and perfect. Is this realistic?

The view from Ion Sky is still breathtaking if I see beyond the stains. The streets and pavements are generally clean every morning except for the discarded shoebox. As for the worn out carton box, I decided to take action and took it away and discarded it in a bin this week.

What is wrong with me is that I just focus on the blemishes or eye-sores and ignore those beautiful things beyond them. I let 1% of unsightly things to overwhelm the 99% of the whole experience!

I was in George Town, Penang last week. The place has all these heritage old buildings. The charm is to see them in their original state without renovations to spruce them up. So you see peeling plasters, fading paintwork, and boarded up entrances to some units. Some buildings are vacant and really are in need of repair or even rejuvenation. The Penangites are alright with how the place is like. They accept and live with this condition, not perfect in my eyes but 148 | Living Tips

itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s alright with them. At the end of the trip, I have good memories of the unique character of George Town. The street arts on some walls of buildings transformed these old buildings into sights to behold.

Imperfection is self-created and I am trying to learn to see beyond them! Life is the same and we can learn to see beyond our imperfections.

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30 January 2015

Caring for others increases compassionate joy

Self is so important in order to be happy. It seems logical since everyone wants to be happy. Therefore, we have to take care of ourselves first before we can be happy. Is this true?

This is true to some extent. We need some basic necessities in order to be comfortable, such as food, shelter and medicine, without which we can be miserable. If one focuses on oneself with the exclusion of others, selfcentredness can result. Some examples of self-centredness include: a) I am here to earn as much as the next person. b) I want to behave in any way I want. c) My interest is above all others.

Self-centredness excludes others in our relationships with people.

When we focus on ourselves, are we truly happy? Are there other ways for us to gain happiness?

Showing and acting out with compassion gives immense joy to oneself. Each time when I completed a volunteering session at Bright Vision Hospital, I came off with happiness in my heart. Being able to help out in the morning exercises for these patients allows me to show and act out with compassion. This is the joy of volunteering.

I read that volunteerism declined from 32.3% in 2012 to 17.8% in 2014. This is a pity since doing charity work lifts oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happiness and moving us from selfcentredness to compassionate action.

If one wants to help out in volunteering, he/she can access www.nvpc.org.sg to find out places/institutions where volunteers are required. Information is readily available. It therefore depends on individual to take the first step.

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14 March 2015

Throw-away Society

Future Shock written by Alvin Toffler and published in 1970 was a popular read in the 1970s. I remember reading it while I was in a junior college. The author projected into the future of mankind and the concepts of transience and accelerative thrust of living in the future. Pace of life quickens, and knowledge shelf life shortens. Technological advancement changes the way we live and communicate with each other. The Internet, downloadable music, cell phones, smart watches, and other technological items are ubiquitous in the 20th and 21st centuries.

We live in a transient society. Things owned are often replaced or thrown away once newer models come on to the market. The mobile phone is a clear example. Singapore replaces old buildings with new ones is another example of transience.

We are seen as a throw-away society. During my motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time (she is now 90+), bringing a rattan basket for marketing was common sight. Now we use plastic bags to carry things home. To buy porridge as take-away, she used aluminum tiffin carrier. Now it is disposable plastic container. Styro-foam cups and boxes are thrown away after they are used. Thrown away items are not eco-friendly to our environment we live in. It is also a waste of money and earthy resources to keep producing goods for our use. Consumers and industrialists/businessmen are all in this game. Instead of repairing equipment, we are more likely to replace it with a new one.

As a family, we are making a start to break this trend slowly. We now bring a self-made bread bag to carry breads home. We bring along a modern version of tiffin carrier to da-bao (pack) food home. We minimise the use of plastic bags by using cloth-based tote bags. This is a small effort and it pays huge dividend to save this earth. Join us to start a revolution?

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6 April 2015

Knowing yourself

Life is complex. I live with myself and interact with others at the same time. I have my views and habitual actions and emotions. Can I live well and be happy?

It is still a learning journey for me and below are five pointers I am sharing.

1. Sensitivity Can we be sensitive to feelings of others? Can we read the situation and diffuse a potentially negative situation? Even when we speak, we can ask ourselves three things: Is it beneficial to the listener? Is it the right time to speak about it? Did it accord to reality and the truth? We often shoot and then regret later what were spoken. What we can do is to delay a bit and mentally ask the three questions before we speak. Through practice, this can be second nature. Besides speech, actions can also hurt others and this too must be guarded.

2. Not truthful with yourself We can put up a front and outwardly we can become someone but not what we are inside us. The hardest part is that we cannot fool ourselves. If we have told a lie, we live with that knowledge and it would be hard to erase from our mind streams. There is no need to put on a show different from our innate personality. It can be tiring. This requires us to know ourselves and be sensitive.

3. Bothered by others I used to be bothered by what people think of me. I enjoy praise and fame like everyone else. In recent years, this has changed. I am more comfortable with who I am, what I wear, how I speak. I think less of how people may view me. It is far more important whether I can accept myself as who I am and my background.

4. Living in the present One of the most important aspects of living is living in the present. It is not dwelling in the past or moving ahead into the future. This is the hardest part of my practice. I am caught up with thinking about the past and planning the future as I live each day. What is most important is the present where good or 152 | Living Tips

bad outcome can result depending on how aware I am in the present.

5. Quiet moments of reflections and contemplations In this hectic and fast pace life, it can be a luxury to find time to reflect and contemplate. But it is precisely the need to reflect and contemplate that we can learn about life and living. We need a pause or have a retreat to re-connect with ourselves. When we are angry, we look at our emotion of anger and ask what happened. Do we know who we are and understand what push our buttons? This is one example.

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24 May 2015

Living a simple life

Two recent events set me thinking. One was the visit to the tranquil Tenryu-ji Temple with its Sogenchi Garden in Kyoto. The Zen garden has a breathtaking view of a large pond, carefully manicured garden with Mount Arashimaya as backdrop. The other was when someone commented yesterday that our home was simple, not like most he had seen. This person is a venerable whom I highly respected.

If only life can be simple and peaceful! That will be my dream and hope.

The life I know is complex and so caught up with material pursuits and competition. I always wish to get away from this and retreat into a sanctuary, a Zen like environment. Our home can be this sanctuary.

We can live with little possessions. Less is more. The less we have, the more we can live with spaciousness. This is what I know as a simple home. We need not accumulate more and more material things because enjoyment of these things is transient. Over past few years, our family had been giving up things that we deemed as not absolutely essential.

Besides material things, the psychological and spiritual aspects of living are truly important. The peace and contentment in our mental faculty surpasses happiness from having material things. With less, we are not caught up with emotions tied to having material possessions.

We can have the simplicity of this life just like entering Sogenchi Garden of Kyoto. The quietude of life is for everyone to enjoy, if only we put our mind to it.

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2 June 2015

It is good enough!

I kept saying this statement more often recently and I meant it.

It is good enough, a beautiful way to mitigate high expectations. It reduces stress level and increases contentment. Life cannot be perfect and things or events cannot go according to plans as always. You may argue that this is in a way a defeatist attitude. I rather say that we are made differently and circumstances are different.

Say, someone was able to do more than you. Making comparison would result in less satisfaction for you. Why not accept that I was able to do that much and this is sufficient under my condition. It is just good enough. There is no competition. If there is competition, it is competing within you.

Have that internal peace and live with what you are capable of doing. No comparison is needed. There will be always be someone doing more or better and there is no end to comparison.

Live with it and it is good enough!

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9 June 2015

Reduce and stop accumulating

I am attracted to things beautiful. When I was working, I used to buy watches with the rationale that a watch is the only visible item on my wrist. It is a show-off piece. Now that I am retired, there is less need to impress others.

Furthermore, with battery-operated watches, there is this constant need to replace these batteries.

My wife and I recently made a decision to give up some of our watches to charity. We bought new batteries and made sure that they are still running well.

We reduce our collections of watches to only a few favourite ones.

We will not be accumulating additional watches. It is a drain on our cash and really we just need one watch to tell the time. In fact, smart phone tells time too!

Next time when I start to accumulate things that I already have, I will ask myself whether I really need it. If I can give up things for charity, I would consider it. To reduce and stop accumulating is a way to simple living.

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23 June 2015

Staying with the present moment with mindfulness training

Our minds wander, jumping from one thought to another. That is the nature of our minds. We can be caught up with so much thinking that we cannot remember the immediately preceding thought. The thought can be so subtle and quick that we take no notice of it.

I accomplish more when I am focused on a single activity instead of multitasking. When I write a blog, I keep at it until it was completed. There is no distraction to that single task. I write best when I am alone at home. I stay in the present with the task.

Mindfulness training is now popular in corporate America. You pay to attend such courses. This kind of training is to help one concentrate and to improve oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s well being.

There is a cheaper option for me: knitting and reading a novel. I picked up knitting and for others it can be another hobby that you like. These are leisure activities and I am not pressured into doing something I do not like. I do not depend on these activities for earning a living. Both knitting and reading a novel require concentration to be fully immersed in the activities.

Of course, one can knit or read and his mind can be somewhere else. You may not be able to follow the story line when that happens! That is where we take notice of the wandering mind. Bring your mind back each time when it happens.

The same can be said about knitting (or your hobby). You can always ask yourself at periodic interval: Where are you now? Are you still with the task?

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3 July 2015

Lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ups and downs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Do not try to straighten things up

Life has its ups and downs. That is the way it is. We cannot be at peak performance and we cannot be happy all the times. There were times when we made mistakes or became upset. For example, I can get upset with some government politics and the unfairness of these policies. I can get annoyed by inconsiderate people littering. I can do a list of what affect me unfavourably.

Humans are affected by conditions surrounding them. Our bodies can fall sick and that is the nature of human bodies. Should we get upset and blame the conditions we were in? We live with shoulds and should-nots. I should not over-eat and therefore it caused a tummy upset. Wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it be better to deal with the present moment and take care of yourself now? It is much better to pay attention to the present moment. When emotion arises, we tend to dwell on them more than they deserve. Anger, resentment, joy last longer if we are not paying attention to our current emotional state.

When unpleasant things happen, a coping strategy is not to pass judgment. On the other hand if pleasant things happen, we need not be attached to it. There is no need to cling on to it because this will cease at some point.

Living is now and is not about the past and the future. We can train ourselves to be fully awake and attentive in the here and now, to be awake to the various feelings and emotions right now, right this moment. Keep your mind open and receptive and trust in the present moment and trust yourself to handle life as it comes. If you know you are furious, you can then do the right thing so as not to cause problem to yourself later. That is to catch the emotion first before we act out of ignorance.

Sometimes we ask why we have negative emotions, such as anger, anguish? Do we need to straighten this out? If we can just take it that emotion is just like that, we can better accept it as it is. There is no need to knock ourselves for having this emotion. This is just life. Just note it and let it pass.

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28 November 2015

Name and Reputation are just concepts

We were given names at birth. Our parents wanted to name us so and so and it is also required by law to state the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name on the birth certificate. We grew up with a particular name and we deal with authorities and live our lives using this name.

The name does not make a person. It is the person that matters. It does not matter who you are. More important is whether the person has a good heart of compassion.

The same can be said about fame and reputation. Most of us chase for fames and reputations. We are known by our titles and positions in the organisation charts. We have many qualifications and are members of several professional bodies. Once when we retire, all these became irrelevant. They are history. They are just concepts or symbols to say who we were before.

We are definitely more than names and reputations. What we do now is not dependent on these. Doing good is important despite who you are by names.

It should be out of innate quality to do good and not because we can add another feather to our caps, or another reputation to add on.

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7 December 2015

Viewing thing as it really is

We are coloured by our perceptions and past experiences. Can we not pass judgment each time we encounter an event or a person and almost everything we come into contact with every moment of our lives?

We can be suspicious with someone who is kind to us. There must be a motive with this guy! I came across friends or even adversaries who walked past by without a hint of noticing me. He/She must be trying to avoid me! We can easily spin a story in our head based on our perceptions and past experiences.

These are to do with human interactions.

My mind races ahead of the actual event and many thoughts pass through. This hit home recently as I was folding clothes after taking in the laundry. My bodily action was just folding clothes, but my mind was not with that activity. Instead, it was somewhere else. I was taught to be with the moment but it was not happening. The thought of writing this particular blog came about. (This might be a good thing, since this blog became a reality. But it is not the best approach.

There are times for thinking, planning, then do it mindfully, like now when I am composing on the word processor.)

Can we keep our mind with the moment? Seeing as in just seeing. Hearing as in just hearing. Must there be judgment or thoughts unrelated to the task on hand?

Our encounter with the guy, who is kind to us, is just that. He was kind to me, period. No need for a story in our heads. An acquaintance who â&#x20AC;&#x153;ignoredâ&#x20AC;? me as we passed each other, is just that. He was engrossed and not noticing me at that moment. Do not read too much into it.

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4 January 2016

Anxieties and Restlessness

Most of us have anxieties. I am big on anxieties even though I have stopped work. My mind is always restless, thinking too much about the future, planning this and that. I am just fortunate that this has not developed into an obsession.

But it is something I want to address in this New Year 2016.

I am not staying in the present and not fully immersed in the things I am currently doing. Even when I was talking to someone, my mind wandered and not truly present with the one in front of me. I might appear that I was listening.

But in reality, I may not be with you! This has been a challenge since so long ago.

This mind of mine is too active. I worry too much about the future. Why canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t I let things be? What if things did not go the way I wanted? Is this really disaster?

If so, I just have to react when the time comes. Staying present.

I am looking at ways to reduce anxieties and restlessness.

1. Think less.

2. Imagine less.

3. Be more mindful and take note that anxieties and restlessness occur. Then let them go. This requires proper trainings and practice.

4. Be more focused when talking with someone, especially with someone closest to you.

This is work-in-progress for a while now. Call it New Year Resolution. I will continue to work on it to reduce the level of anxieties and restlessness.

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7 January 2016

Dilemma of modern society

It is our tradition to do spring cleaning before ushering a New Year. It is a time when we reduce the clutter in our home, items that we do not need anymore.

In the past, we donated these items to some charitable organisations so that they could raise funds through jumble sales. Hopefully, somebody can have use of these donated items.

When we brought some items this morning to a thrift shop that collects and sells donated items, we were informed that it is not collecting any more items due to space constraints. It occurred to me that in a consumer society, we are buying more and more things. We chase for the next new things and replacing perfectly functioning items with latest models. We are sometimes forced to abandon a product just because it is outdated and no longer supported by the manufacturer. Repairing items does not make economic sense because a new one can be cheaper in a long run. Our modern society is a throw-away society and repair trade is nearly non-existent.

We find throwing away things is a waste of earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resources. Recycling has yet to become widespread in our society. We are in this dilemma and what can we do about it?

Reduce demand One idea is to work on the consumers. If the demand for items were reduced, the supply of these items by manufacturers would adjust to lower demand.

Borrow instead of owning We can borrow things instead of buying them. Some examples include borrowing books/DVDs from public libraries. In time to come, we can be a society where renting is acceptable norm.

Stop chasing fashion If we can be happy with what we have, be it fashion or gadgets, we can reduce demand for new items.

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Create a flourishing repair economy When we have people in repair industry, we can revive the repairing culture of the past. Things can be repaired for a fee and things need not be thrown away.

Downside to these ideas For those people in the creative and innovation fields, reduced consumer demands affects their existence. For the sake of this finite earth and for higher purpose, we need to adjust to this downside risk. We can look at a re-balancing of the two opposing forces. Creativity and innovation can be channeled to other areas instead of just purely creating consumer and disposable products.

It is really up to each of us as to where we stand. I stand on the side of less is good enough. It needs not be more and more consumer products.

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4 March 2016

Love yourself first before you love others

I am not talking about selfish love or egoistical love but love that wants others to be well and happy. Sometimes we forget we need to love ourselves as well, as much as others. It is only when we are kind to ourselves then we can spread our heartfelt love to others. In the process of offering compassionate love to others, we should not neglect our well-being in order to do that.

It is in our work culture to continue to work even when we are sick. We get to office even with a bad flu or feeling under the weather. Work takes priority and personal health is cast aside.

Some years back, I was nursing an influenza but I continued to go to the polytechnic. I was lecturing to a group of students and was coughing badly.

During the break, I walked out of the lecture theatre and panic attack gripped me. I felt faint and had to sit on the bench. Staff members and students were passing by, but I did not want them to know that I need assistance. (Too proud to ask for help or was it embarrassment?) Good thing, I came to my consciousness and calmed down sufficiently to get back to my second part of the lecture. My students were no wiser that I could have been sent to hospital during the break. I consider myself very lucky that no major harm came to me but I had this memory that was still etched in my mind.

We seem to have this notion that we should not trouble our colleagues to cover for us when we are sick. We thought that this is the acceptable “work ethic”. I saw too many of these in my jobs in the past. Some were not so fortunate and paid a price. By which time, it is too late to realise the folly of this “work ethic”. When we love ourselves, we can take the compassionate approach to treating ourselves. We need the same care like how we care for others.

Love yourself first before you love others. Spread this love and be kind to all including yourself and all other living beings that too wanted to be happy.

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This message hits home as I remember a friend.

I felt a deep sadness that a good friend had to bid us a final farewell. I will always remember him as a cheerful and courageous person. It was always someone else coming ahead of himself. He did not want his sickness to get in his way. He has my respect and was a wonderful individual.

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15 June 2016

Why are we so unkind to ourselves?

Picture this. A husband has a mistress and committed adultery. His wife knew about it. She felt the hurt and questioned herself whether she was the cause of her husband’s actions. Though she did not do anything to hurt the marriage, she continues to have sleepless nights and constantly thinking about her husband’s behaviour. Thinking: What had gone wrong in her marriage? Was it something she did or did not do?

The husband did wrong but his wife suffered with mental anguish. The one to feel guilty must be the husband, instead the wife suffered. This doesn’t make sense. The scenario can well be that the wife is the one committing adultery and her husband suffered.

Sometimes, we knock ourselves crazy; blame ourselves for events that are beyond our control or actions. Why must one suffer as a result of someone’s action? Would it make more sense that the blameless should be able to let it go and let the wrongful party be afflicted with guilt?

We may need to ask ourselves, “are we unkind to ourselves”? We can be kind to people and to cats and other living things. Do not forget that we are living beings too, why can’t we treat ourselves better and kinder? So next time when nasty things happen to us and we are not at fault, don’t kick ourselves.

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12 July 2016

Being Mortal - Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End

We all have limited lifespan. One day we have to face death. We may not want to talk about it as it is depressing. But this is important when we live long enough into retirement. It can be part of our retirement planning also. We make our choices while we are still healthy and make them known to our loved ones so that they do not have to agonise about making decisions for us when serious illness hit us.

“Being Mortal” a book written by Dr Atul Gawande is a book I would recommend.

Dr Atul Gawande is a medical doctor and also a Professor at Harvard Medical School. In most cases, people do not want to talk about serious illnesses, about end-of-life medical care and about dying. It is to be avoided as far as possible until we face it ourselves or our immediate family member was hit by a debilitating illness. Then we scramble to cope with many decisions. Should we cure at all costs even with miniscule success rate? What kind of medical care facilities to go for palliative care? Do we know what is best for the chronic sick?

“Being Mortal” is a very readable book. It is written from the perspective of a doctor caring for patients. Atul Gawande related several medical cases intimately in the book like mini stories. He also shared his father’s journey to the end.

What did I learn from reading this book?

Independence and dignity We have been independent for most of our lives. It may come a time we have to depend on carers and medical staff when we fall real sick. The choices for where the elderly sick should go to stay are on a continuum of complete independence to surrendering independence.

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The choices include: 1. Continue to stay at own home (independence in place) 2. Assisted living facility (stay in home-like environment with medical support) 3. Retirement community with common medical facility (subset of assisted living) 4. Nursing home (regimented facility, forgoing independence) 5. Hospice stay The choice entails costs of medical care. For example, assisted living facility is more expensive than nursing home. If one can afford the costs, independent living provides dignity and higher quality of living.

Hard conversations When faced with serious illness, such as cancer, most times patients surrender their choices of treatment to their specialist doctors. With the progress of the illness to the end-stage, patients are subjected to choices that may not accord to their wishes. Doctors are good at treating diseases and sometimes neglected what the patients want.

Do we really have hard conversations with our loved ones? Do doctors ask them these questions instead of just treating the disease?

1. What is your understanding of the situation and its potential outcomes?

2. What are your fears and what are your hopes?

3. What are the trade-offs you are willing to make or not willing to make?

4. What is the course of action that best serves this understanding?

It is very important to hold a conversation with your loved ones on end-of-life choices. You may then know whether they want to be kept alive with all the life sustaining machines when there is no hope of recovery.

At the end of the day, can the patient let go and also for the family members to let go of their loved ones when the time comes to say the final farewell?

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13 July 2016

Keep Aging and Illness at Bay

You will know that you are aging when your body is no longer the same as the one some 40 years ago. I could run up the steep Peng Kang Hill1 during my National Service days. Now walking up steep slopes and staircases can be painful at the knees.

Though our body is not a machine, our body is subjected to â&#x20AC;&#x153;wear-and-tearâ&#x20AC;? and has a finite life-span. Medical science and technology has not found a way to let us live forever. Our demise could be caused by our actions or could not be explained with our logical minds. Some examples of causes by our actions are drinking liquor excessively, and overdose on drugs. In the case of unexplained causes, some people simply fall apart when it is time to go. Some may have a longer life-span and while others have shorter ones.

Looking at the controllable aspects of aging and premature death, we can do something to give us more years. Let me start by saying that I am not a medical expert and the following are some of my ideas to keep us alive longer.

1. Reduce stress, stress causes havoc to body and mind.

2. Breathe fresh clean air and connect with nature.

3. Eat moderately and healthily.

4. Keep our body clean to keep infections at bay.

5. Have sufficient sleep every night. Repairs to body parts happen during sleep.

6. Reduce intake of intoxicants. In my case I abstain from liquor.

7. Appropriate exercise to tone muscles and strengthen bones.

8. Be mindful of each moment. This can reduce accidents and hurting oneself.

9. Have good mental health by cultivating wholesome thoughts.

10. Help the less fortunate with some charitable work. It gives us purpose.

11. Maintain cordial relationships with people.

12. Keep to your chosen spiritual path.

Finally, be happy.

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I am sure everyone has his own ideas of good living. I am just sharing mine.

Peng Kang Hill is a steep hill at Pasir Lebar SAFTI camp. Officers used to punish us for slacking by ordering us to run up the hill.

1

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26 August 2016

All things impermanent, staying in the moment

At the start of this week, former President S R Nathan passed away at age of 92. In mid-week, two earthquakes hit parts of Italy and Myanmar separately.

One devastated residential areas when people were still sleeping with many deaths. The one in Myanmar damaged many pagodas and temples in Bagan.

These were built in the 10th and 14th centuries. I remember visiting these historic buildings during my visit in 2014.

These episodes drive home a point that things cannot remain permanent forever, including human lives. Even mountains will one day disappear when subject to the elements of sun, rain and earthquakes. Human beings are limited in life span. The oldest persons could only live up to120+ years before they leave this earth. We cannot wish otherwise to live in perpetuity.

We cannot also wish that things remained the same. We may look good when we were young but age will leave us looking old and not as agile as before. Just look at your own photographs when you were young and compare them with the ones taken recently. You will know what I am saying.

Do we get upset or sad? If one does not cling to the past and live in the moment, it would be easier to accept impermanence. Impermanence is natural of things in this earthy realm. We cannot change it. Things may appear permanent but it is not so. If we see a river flowing, the river appears permanent because it is always there. If we look deeply, the river changes every moment. The water flowed on; the inhabitants moved on; things got moved along with the flow of the water. Over time things change. This is nature.

The sooner we can accept the concept of impermanence in our lives and things surrounding us, we can be at peace. Staying in the moment and aware of current emotions can help us to cope with daily living.

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9 August 2013

Being a Singaporean

I was born in Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital (now known as KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital). I grew up in a Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) housing at Ganges Avenue. So I am a Singaporean by birth. My clearest memory at 3+ years old was the Bukit Ho Swee big fire. This was the most impactful memory when all others faded. I remember fearing that the fire might spread from across the road to our flats. That was the Singapore I knew then.

Singapore moved from third world to first in one generation. We cannot stand foul smells from toilets today. The younger generation would not know that nightsoil bucket latrine system was in use since Singapore’s independence up to 1987. We have progressed.

Like all Singaporean males, I served National Service (NS) for two-and-half years and went on to complete the full cycle of reservist trainings. I was a skinny chap and not a sporty person when I enlisted for NS. NS toughened me up. I was combat fit despite my weight. When I started, I did not know how NS stint would end up for me, whether I could go through it. Yes, I made it. I did my part for Singapore’s defence.

For us as a family, we stayed home to watch the National Day Parades year in year out. We do not travel out of Singapore. We had pizzas with salads and eat dinner in front of the TV. It will be the same tonight.

I end this post with this message. We are all Singaporeans regardless of race, religion, language, locally born or new citizens, social status and political affiliation. Let us celebrate this special day, our National Day, in our own ways.

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11 August 2013

Lost Buildings and Lost Heritage

One core aspiration arising from Our Singapore Conversation is “lives are lived with purpose: Community preserves its shared spaces, memories and heritage.”

I reflected and traced my life journey from birth.

1. The very flat I lived in at Block 60 Ganges Avenue built by Singapore Improvement Trust (before HDB) was demolished.

2. The neighbourhood primary school, Delta West Integrated Primary School, where I studied for six years, was demolished.

3. The secondary school I studied in for four years, Gan Eng Seng School sited at Anson Road, was demolished.

4. Even the Junior College I attended for two years, National Junior College was demolished and in its place is the current Nanyang Girls’ High School.

5. The iconic National Library at Stamford Road, where I enjoyed going to and borrowed library books, was demolished.

I am sad to see these buildings demolished. I could only pass by these places and say to my daughter, there once was this building that was part of me.

We did not own a black-and-white film-based camera back then, not like now with widespread availability of digital cameras, and therefore did not capture these places on films. We can only go to public archives to get to see these places. I always felt nostalgic when seeing old Singapore on film.

What saddened me was when heritage was lost to economic developments. If you look at Europe, they are proud of their old buildings, the older the better.

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19 August 2013

Looking after Brownie with splay legs

We have our rabbit Brownie for seven years. She was already two years old when we had Brownie. A happy house rabbit has an average life expectancy of eight to twelve years. Ours, at nine years old, has lived beyond the average life expectancy.

Towards the end of last year, Brownie, developed splay legs of her two front legs. She was not able to hop around normally. Jumping into litter tray was not possible. Brownie requires constant care to clean her and to keep her play area clean. Other than that, she eats alright. I can see the many frustrations Brownie is facing.

There are more efforts on our part as Brownie copes with the condition. She cannot be left alone for too long and her welfare weighs on us as carers. Once we decided to own Brownie in May 2006, it is a responsibility till the end.

Brownie gave us good six years and we enjoyed her company over that time.

Now it is time for us to give back and look after her, catering to her special needs.

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4 September 2013

Teaching

Not anyone can be a good teacher/lecturer, who can engage his/her students in meaningful learning and touches hearts of students. On the other hand, I have seen many who chose this path excelling in teaching and connected well with their students. They have my admiration and respect. I can say this because I had been through it all and stayed in the profession for two decades.

In the beginning I still have a copy of my application letter to Temasek Polytechnic (TP) indicating my interest in teaching. This letter was dated 19 October 1991. I convinced the senior management team then that I could contribute to TP with my decade of industry experience, such as audit and information technology (IT).

I thought that with my additional experience in training clients on IT systems, I would be able to cope with teaching students fresh out of GCE â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oâ&#x20AC;? Level.

Let me be clear, they are not the same! Even with much exposure on teaching methods, pedagogy and classroom management, I was not able to hold students with rapt attention. Each teaching moment was not the same as the previous one. Some were good but some could not measure up to expectations.

Challenges facing teachers With changing societal behaviour and advancement of technology such as smart phones, video games, social media, entertainment on the web, teachers have to adapt to them in their teaching responsibilities.

This generation of students a) has access to more knowledge in this Internet-era that was not possible during my time; b) is exposed to so much entertainment from on-line games to videos on the web (e.g. YouTube); c) is much into social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter); d) is more self-assured and is open to criticising others (including teachers).

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Connection with students at their wavelength is the key to get students to appreciate your effort. I remember some three years ago when some students wanted to do a fist bump with me. I responded and that gesture meant so much to the students as it signified respect between them and me.

Being an introvert by nature, it took a lot of me to stand in front of one hundred over students and conduct a lecture. I had to work harder to prepare before delivery. Keeping studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; attention throughout nearly two hours of lesson of dry technical material was a challenge. I tried once to use YouTube to liven up and to my horror the video took forever to load and play. My biggest headache was chattering students who talked when you spoke and stopped when you stopped the delivery. Their discussions among themselves (unrelated to the study) were more interesting than your subject matter!

Why is teaching satisfying?

Despite the challenges, there were good times and good feelings about teaching. a. Ex-students became Facebook friends and occasionally â&#x20AC;&#x153;likedâ&#x20AC;? my posts. b. Even when I left TP, some students wanted me to be their referees for university applications and to write reference letters for them. c. Some continued to ask me accounting questions during their undergraduate studies. One communicated via Facebook chat quite recently to tackle some tutorial questions. d. Students remembered me when we met occasionally outside of campus, though I may not recall their names. e. Some students went on to universities to pursue their education, with some receiving scholarships.

A pity I enjoyed going to the Tourism Academy @ Sentosa (TAS) and taught students at this off-site campus of Temasek Polytechnic. The atmosphere was relaxed and the class size was smaller. I had great interactions with batches of students taking a semester at this campus.

TAS was a collaborative effort between The Sentosa Leisure Group and Temasek Polytechnic. The campus was in existence from 2005 to 2011 occupying five blocks of former barracks and a military parade square. This Life Journey | 179

heritage site is now put up for tender on 30 August 2013 for conversion into a hotel.

Teachers’ Day 6 September is designated as Teachers’ Day by MOE. Though it does not apply to lecturers of higher education institutions, I wish to dedicate this day too to my teaching colleagues in TP. They are busy with examination marking and examination processing during this week. Not exactly a pleasant task when you have to grade students (some would fail) and to adhere to tight deadlines in examination processing.

To be able to teach well with a heart is a calling and requires passion. Without teachers/lecturers, there won’t be progression of students in their academic pursuits. Teachers/Lecturers play an important role in the society and deserve our respect. Happy Teachers’ Day to all educators!

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16 September 2013

Resignation from job – a personal reflection

Organisations spend time and effort to recruit employees. Human Resource Departments have elaborate recruitment policies and procedures for new hire.

Recruiting someone for a vacant position is straightforward. However, retention and talent building part of organisational processes are less obvious.

I reflected on my resignations on two occasions, one in 1991 and another in 2006. I had only two employers over my lifetime of work. Both have strong brand names and I am proud to be associated with.

Pay not the reason Not all resignations are because of pay. I left Coopers & Lybrand (C&L) in 1991 and joined Temasek Polytechnic (TP) with a 20% pay cut. Pay is important no doubt but not the real reason for my resignation. To make my pay cut less painful to accept, I worked out my annual gross salary against total working hours in a year and compare two figures between C&L and TP before accepting the new job. TP at that time had 42 days of annual leave, significantly more than C&L’s. The pay cut was reduced to 12% from 20%. Some comfort there that I did not lose out as much.

Peter Principle In the 1990s, I was fascinated with a book titled “Peter Principle” by Laurence J Peter and Raymond Hull. I recall the principle is that employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence. Employees tend to be given increasing authority until they cannot continue to work competently.

As one gets higher up in an organisational hierarchy with increasing pay, there is less support from senior management to coach and guide you in your work.

You are expected to be independent and deliver results. Your peers would be less than willing to lend their support. You would be lucky if they did not sabotage your work.

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promotion and stagnation was feared. Peter Principle loomed large for me. This was my personal assessment though senior management did not say anything.

I wish that there could be more openness with regard to career progression, especially at the senior level. This is one aspect of retention policy to strengthen in most organisations.

Mismatch of skills to assignments One can be strong in some aspects and weak in others when come to harnessing potentials of employees. For example, we know that someone has the gift of the gap, strong in marketing, sales and public relations while another is strong in detailed work but may not be suitable to front the team with external party. If an assignment were given to a person without the prerequisite skills, the person can become miserable coping with the work.

It was so easy for a supervisor to assign an assignment to someone and the supervisor had thrown the ball into your court. This is a common problem. The trouble is that we cannot choose our work and rejecting it can be negative for our progression in the organisation. I was in that position before and obstacles faced in the assignment seemed insurmountable. The best effort put in was not good enough and someone else could have done the job better. So it is important to pick the best fit between talent of a person and the job. In this way, the person may not feel so hopeless.

Inundated with work When someone is capable and trusted to deliver results, that person is often given more and more work to complete. For a fixed time period, he may push to complete all works on deadlines. But this cannot go on forever and at some point a burn-out situation can happen.

At some point in my career, my health deteriorated and panic attacks at nights were common. More work was passed on to me without any reduction to my portfolio. There is so much a person can take. If this frustration is bottled up, it can blow up.

Concluding Remarks I know where I stand in terms of my capacity and capability. There will always be someone better than you. They deserve their promotion and to rejoice about. Moving from Coopers & Lybrand to Temasek Polytechnic was something 182 | Life Journey

I did not regret. At least, I got to try out teaching.

Mentoring of staff and talent building require a human touch and constant monitoring. Retention of staff is too important to ignore. It takes years to build up an employee to contribute effectively in an organisation. To lose someone to another organisation is a pity and loss of investment in that person.

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31 December 2013

Recollections of 2013

2013 was my first full year of retirement. It was a year when I was quite occupied despite not having to go to work. I published an e-book titled “Living Investment, Ideas on living, a collection of blog posts”. It was also a memorable year because my daughter Shu completed four years of study at NTU with a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Communication). We as parents look forward to this day and to see Shu steps out from the comfort zone of schools to the real working world.

Momshoo Shu continues with her passion of creating handmade gift items that are unique and personal, leveraging on her strength in design. Momshoo became a business registered with ACRA and Shu is the sole proprietor of her business.

Both my wife and I are her advisors and elves at the same time. Since it is now a business, there are regulatory requirements laid down by ACRA. Proper accounts and processes must be in place to run this business. Good thing is that most were already instituted before this registration.

Shu and her mom (Momshoo) participated in DesignBoom Mart 2013 held in Tokyo, October. This is an international design market for 80 international upand-coming designers to showcase their products. Momshoo was proud to be there.

Living Investment and Publication of Book I like to write for my blog – Living Investment. This kept me occupied when I had more free time after retirement. Readership rose significantly this year compared to 2012. The daily average view increased from 85 per day to 144 per day. I thank the many readers out there who are interested in what I write.

2013 is the year that I had written a book pulling in my favourite blog-posts since 2006. I got Shu to design the book for me from cover to illustrations.

This is to fulfill my dream of publishing something worthwhile for my family to remember me by.

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Travel of the year My wife and I travelled to Sri Lanka for 8 days from 9 to 16 November. The Sri Lanka trip took us to Colombo, Dambulla, Mihintale, Anuradhapura, Matale, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. Sri Lanka is home to eight UNESCOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s World Heritage sites and the trip covered three of them, namely Golden Temple of Dambulla, Ancient City of Anuradhapura and Ancient City of Kandy. These places have more than 2,000 years of history. I was charmed by the people's good-natured manners, ample patience and country's rich historical culture and architecture.

Volunteering at Bright Vision Hospital We added one more volunteer activity this year. We spent Thursday mornings at the hospital assisting therapists in conducting morning exercises for the patients. These exercises are to help these patients get back to normal daily routines when they are discharged from the hospital.

We helped out in some major events of Bright Vision Hospital during the year: Charity Bazaar 2013, outings for patients to Fort Canning Park, and President Tony Tanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first visit to the hospital.

Investments This year is a challenging year for investments.

The Singapore stock market was a non-performing one when compared with New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The Straits Times Index (STI) gained just 0.01% from the start of the year. Through the year, I received dividends, coupons and profits made on sale of stocks giving me 8.78% return on cost of investments. I added more to my equity holding in the year. On a total return basis, the annual rate of return was -0.3% (factoring price difference between cost and valuation of portfolio as at 27 December).

On a total portfolio basis, this year was worse than last year. Overall realised return on investments was 2.65% for the year (2.93% for 2012). This rate of return is slightly better than the interest paid on CPF Ordinary Account of 2.5% and just about beat inflation rate of 2.4% for period January to November 2013.

Market value of total investment portfolio covering various asset classes was 1.01% below costs. (as at 27 December). Over the year, we re-balanced Life Journey | 185

our investments to reduce risks. Investment classes include Singapore equity, retail bonds and preference shares traded on Singapore Exchange, unit trusts, currency linked investment, endowment funds, structured deposits and fixed deposits. I remained cautious this year and about 30% of total portfolio were in cash and fixed deposits.

Reflections Even when I am fully retired, I am still very occupied. I like reading and writing my thoughts. During the year, I read 15 books comprising 3,879 pages in total. My time was spent also in helping Momshoo. In addition, I spent time in managing my family investments.

Our rabbit, Brownie, requires someone to be at home to care for her needs, now that Brownie cannot look after herself. It has been a year since Brownie came down with osteoarthritis condition. We are adjusting to this and it is our responsibility since we took in Brownie as our pet in 2006.

On a final note, it was an eventful year for my family and me. I am thankful how 2013 had turned out the way it had. I could not ask for more.

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1 January 2014

Stop chasing and be rewarded

With the start of this New Year, I am in contemplative mood. I was asking myself what were things I was going to do more and what were things I was going to do less in 2014.

I recalled a dinner talk I heard on 30 December. Let me start with a story of a donkey and a carrot, a simile of sort to come to a point I am going to elaborate.

Donkey is normally a lazy animal and it can be difficult to get the donkey to do your bidding. Short of hitting the donkey for it to move forward, one can hang a carrot on a stick and secure the stick on its back such that the carrot is out of reach from his mouth. Donkey is attracted to the carrot and will move forward to reach the carrot. The more the donkey run after the carrot, it cannot bite the carrot.

In life, we are often caught up with chasing for the next item to buy, chasing for the next increment, next promotion, chasing for sense pleasures, chasing for contentment, chasing for happiness. This can be exhausting and emotionally draining. This is no different from the donkey chasing after the carrot. The more anxious and desperate we are in getting what we want, the more difficult it is to get it.

If the donkey after running for a while and decides to stop, the carrot will move further away from his mouth. It may seem a wrong move. But, being patient at this time, the donkey just needs to open its mouth and waits for the carrot to come to its mouth. This is wisdom.

What I am going to do differently So in this New Year, I strive to let things be, either good or bad occurrences and not to get upset. I attempt to stop chasing for things either tangible or intangible. Ego is a strong emotion that is almost impossible to eradicate completely. This will be my biggest challenge and I intend to remain mindful of Life Journey | 187

arising ego.

The game-plan is to remain less anxious and take time to read the situations in a calm manner. Hopefully, I can be less reactive and be more contemplative.

Lastly, I will try to be less grasping, whether it is a relationship or a material item or physical and emotional well-being.

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16 January 2014

If your child wanted to start a business

I taught in a polytechnic for many years. As far as I know, the proportion of polytechnic graduates starting a business on their own has always surpassed that of fresh university graduates.

In the university sphere, professional degree holders such as doctors, accountants, engineers, lawyers need to gain work experiences in their respective fields before they become partners or practice owners. So they seldom set up a business from day one after graduation. This is what I know since my times. In recent times, new degree courses were introduced in the publicly funded university sector. One example is the art, design and media courses of NTU. Finding a job in the art and design fields is not as easy if one wants certain job based on personal interest and with certain remuneration expectation.

So when my daughter decided to pursue her passion of designing and selling hand-made gift items (a passion that started in 2009 while she was in the first year of university), we said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;why notâ&#x20AC;?. As parents, we gave our blessings and were willing to support her all the way. Starting a business on graduation entails lower opportunity costs for Shu. She has not yet got accustomed to a high salary if she were to work for an employer over a number of years.

Shu became a business owner registered with ACRA. She hired her first employee from January this year. That is her partner in the venture since 2009, also known as her mom. So passion triumphed over salaried job. Being on your own has another benefit, that is independence and not reporting to a boss. You call the shots in business deals. You decide on business plans and executions.

You can try out new ideas without justifying why you are going into it. You rise and fall with your ideas and are answerable only to yourself.

We support her fully and provide the accounting and financial aspects of the business since both mom and dad are trained accountants. These cannot be neglected as business can fail with poor financial management.

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So when your child wanted to start a business, give it careful considerations and do not reject it outright.

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29 January 2014

Preoccupation of current generation

My parents’ generation had been through Japanese Occupation and the independence of Singapore in 1965. My generation is the baby boomers’ and is gradually retiring from the workforce. My daughter’s generation is starting to work. PM Lee Hsien Loong sees an exciting 50 years for young Singaporeans.

He wished he was born 50 years later.

Each generation had different challenges and world order. My parents had to worry about putting meals on our table and had to survive the war. If my father were still alive, he would be 104 years old now. He lived to 89, fortunately without serious financial consequences.

I am the product of independence of Singapore. Our fortune is tied to the rise of Singapore from Third World to First World in living standards. We saw the starting of National Service, building of HDB flats and foreign direct investments. It wasn’t as heavily built-up then and we could afford to buy property and financed it with CPF and bank loan over a shorter loan period.

Then came the smartphones and the many apps on the web. This current generation was exposed to iPhones/Samsungs when they were toddlers. The social media and video sharing sites capture eyeballs 24/7 and is the only source of news for some. The good, the bad and the ugly are there for all to see if they tune in to the web.

During MRT rides, bus rides, and meals with friends, the use of smartphones is ubiquitous. There is this urge to check emails, short messages, Facebook postings, personal blogs, etc constantly. I fell into this once in a while and it takes a lot to restrain me from whipping up my smartphone.

Because, we are in the habit of multi-tasking, attention span gets shorter.

Impatience and lack of focus become the end result. For those who cannot cope with this fast-paced world and when the disparity between the rich and the poor widens, psychological health of people suffers.

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Are students equipped with coping strategy to stay healthy in this kind of world? Smartphones are brought into class and some students even video-tape happenings in the classroom. Can students harnessed the Internet for their learning in class instead of checking things that are personal? What can the teacher do to help them? For that matter, how can parents help?

It can be an exciting world in the next 50 years. If the people cannot cope, what is the point? I hope that the current generation can prove me wrong and they can face up to these challenges much like earlier generations survived their own challenges.

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1 February 2014

Rejoicing and Remembering Brownie

Brownie had not been eating well for past few days. She got weaker on the eve of Chinese New Year (CNY). Yesterday was the first day of CNY and we did a whole day of visiting our relatives. We broke our journey mid-way and came home to see how she was before we proceeded on the second part of visiting.

Considerate Brownie Brownie was so considerate and lasted until this morning to bid us goodbye.

This is the day when we rested at home after a tiring first day and we had time to handle her departure in a calm manner. It was also fortunate that Mount Pleasant Vet Centre was opened to accept Brownie for cremation even on a public holiday.

Able to be at her side My wife, daughter and I were at her side to see her through this ordeal. We gave Brownie permission to go and leave her sickly body behind. She had suffered for about a year with splay legs and was on intensive nursing care for past weeks. During her last moment, she was making noise like a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cry. This was our first time hearing her this way.

Relief Now looking back at her empty space, it was with sadness. There is a void. I felt her presence somehow when my back was turned from her resting area.

Oddly, there is a sense of relief. For the past year, we could not travel together.

Someone had to be around to take care of her. While we were out of the house for a period of time, Brownie was at the top of our minds. We would be home in time to either provide her with food or to keep her clean and comfortable.

Learning to care In the seven plus years with her, Brownie was a constant companion. She gave us joy and taught us how to love and care for a living being. I have fond memories of her even as I realise that her departure was not a dream. It will be Life Journey | 193

a while before I lose these memories.

Remembering Brownie and at the same time rejoicing that she can move on.

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20 March 2014

International Day of Happiness

This Thursday is designated by UN as the International Day of Happiness. Even if it is for a day of observance, we should not end there and instead embrace happiness as much as we can.

What is happiness for me?

I like this statement: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is good enough.â&#x20AC;? Whatever we have, material or otherwise, it is good enough.

I like to drink tea black (or tea-o) and a meal accompanied with tea-o is happiness for me. It need not be Starbucks kind of tea, tea in hawker centre is good enough.

I enjoy looking at birds, cats, dogs, squirrels. If I can capture a photo of living creature, that is happiness for me.

When it rained on Sunday after 27 days of no rain, I was happy. Finally, trees and plants got their water source.

I like reading novels. Reading one and completing a book review is happiness for me.

I enjoy the company of my family members. If we can do things together, that is happiness for me.

If I can make someone happy, that is happiness too. Be considerate and think of how I can make a difference for others. That is a different level of happiness.

I appreciate that every person, every living being wants happiness. So am I. Live each day happily. It is a choice, happy or not. I choose happiness.

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18 June 2014

Suffering burnout on a job

Fifty-four per cent polled here are unhappy at work. Singapore is second most dissatisfied naiton in Asia-Pacific in this poll. (Source: Global recruitment firm, Randstad) Looking back eight years ago and on reflection, I have to admit that I experienced burn-out while on a job. Burn-out is a stress condition when your adaptation is diminished due to prolonged disillusionment, leading to collapse both psychologically and physically, i.e. the person gives up. (Credit: Dr Jeffrey G.T. Po, Counselling Psychotherapist) To say that you had burnout on a job is not a glorious thing to admit in our Asian culture. So we give less damaging reasons to quit a job, such as health reason, embarking on personal pursuits, etc. This is not entirely untrue as burnout leads to poor health and psychological agony.

Only recently, I had the courage to read my hand-written journal (March 2004 to March 2005). It was not a pretty read. Stress and anguish were written all over in the one-year period. I stopped writing after March 2005 when it became a chore to even record happenings each day.

When I rose through the corporate ladder, I became sandwiched between senior management and the colleagues I was managing. It was never easy to harmonise the goals of upper echelon and the aspirations of your subordinates.

I took on more assignments (including new initiatives) and roles than I could cope. I did not know how to say no without jeopardising my career path. More functions were added without any reduction of existing roles. When you pride yourself in being conscientious and to maintain quality output, you then push your limit. I was no super-human and this did impact my health in a significant way.

In that kind of an environment, it would be helpful for your immediate boss to able to read the situation correctly and understand how you were coping.

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We must also take initiative to talk about our work stress in an honest way.

Suffering in silence is not good for you and the organisation. The organisation fails to retain staff and you lose your job.

Was my decision to quit the corporate world a right one back then? Was it good or badâ&#x20AC;Ś who knows? Right this moment, it appears alright. It may appear that I am a quitter. But without the bold move, I would not be able to experience my current freedom to do what I wanted to do. Looking at the long road ahead (10, 20, 30 years depending on how long you live), I have to find activities to occupy me in a meaningful way. That is the future and I will take certain course of actions when it arrives and not now. Who knows what is going to happen next? Stay happy!

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19 June 2014

Fear

I thought I have gotten over fear, less frightened than before. But no, I had been staring at fear again this week. Intellectually, I know that fear is irrational and without basis because it is to do with the unknown and to do with the future which may or may not happen the way I think.

What sparked this episode? It started with water getting stuck inside my left ear canal and caused a buzzing and muffled noise. Hearing of my left ear was impaired. There is an imbalance as only one ear is good for hearing. My doctor prescribed ear drops to dissolve the ear wax that had built up inside the ear.

Instead of solving the problem immediately, the ear drops caused further stuck feeling.

Anxiety took over and I began to imagine life with hearing loss on top of my poor eye-sight due to Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) some years back. Both hearing and eye-sight are important to be a normal person. I can now appreciate when my mother was complaining about losing her eye-sight and hearing ability because of old age. I am not ready for this at my age!

This brought me to the subject of fear of death. For some time now, I meet up with patients in palliative wards. For these patients, it must be traumatic to count down the days till the end. The fear of the unknown is not fathomable by a healthy individual and I cannot feel the way these patients feel each day in their hospital beds. It must be agony beyond description. My current health condition is miniscule compared to these patients.

When I visited these patients, I was just present in person for them. I let them take the lead in wanting to see me or not. If they did not want to see me, I respected that and moved away from them. I waited for cues from the patients on what to talk at different times. I listened more than I talked. During the short visits, hopefully patients could temporarily move away from the physical pains and mental sufferings. I am hoping that we, despite the body being sick, should not subject our minds to additional sufferings.

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I know that this is easier said than done as the past week again highlighted that I have not mastered this. The fear is always lurking somewhere and I can succumb to it quite easily. At least, I know my fears and this is a consolation.

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5 August 2014

What I treasured most being a Singaporean?

Singapore will be celebrating 50 years of independence in 2015. I was born here and live my life as a Singapore citizen since 57 years ago, two years after self-government. Both my parents are Singapore citizens and I was born in Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital. I am undeniably a true blue Singaporean.

Am I proud to be a Singaporean? You bet and let me share my personal thoughts.

I did two-and-half years of National Service and completed thirteen years of reservist. We are fortunate that Singapore had no war with her neighbours during these years and I was not activated to defend my country. War is ugly and my wish is that Singapore can maintain peace for as long she can.

For a person who is willing to learn and has skills for earning a living, I was able to do that all the way to a post-graduate degree. I did not have to go overseas for a foreign degree. This education is sufficient for me to provide for my family and into retirement.

We may take clean water from a tap for granted. This is another bit about Singapore that I am proud of. As for the environment, we are able to breathe air that is in the healthier range for most parts of the year.

We live in a multi-racial and multi-religious environment. We are free to practise our own religions. Though religious harmony cannot be taken for granted, my wish is that we as Singaporeans should strive to uphold this harmony no matter what.

Every Singaporean has the right to vote during parliamentary elections.

That cannot be taken away from us and is the most important for being a Singaporean. We can get to choose the MPs we want to represent us. This way we ensure politics are for the benefits of Singaporeans.

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To summarise, these are five aspects that I am particularly proud of: full-time National Service, good class local education, clean water, multi-racial harmony and voting rights during parliamentary elections.

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12 August 2014

Reduce and Benefit

We used to buy paintings and had them framed up. Over the years, we collected a fair amount of paintings - Chinese brush paintings, oil paintings. Our home only has that many walls and we cannot put up all these paintings. So many were kept away in our storeroom and under the bed.

Yesterday, we decided to gather them and drove to the Salvation Army to donate them. We gave up eleven paintings. At this stage in our lives, we wanted to simplify our lives and keep fewer things. Less is more to life, without the burden of more material things. To keep paintings in good condition, one must keep them in a cool and humidity-controlled environment. This we did not have.

Instead of keeping paintings under wraps, we thought it better for someone else to enjoy them. At the same time, the Salvation Army can sell them for cash.

This act is Reduce and Benefit and it felt good.

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23 November 2014

Memory of Primary School or Lack of It

My primary school, Delta West Integrated Primary School, no longer existed.

This was the result of dwindling student enrolments for a primary school in the very old estates of Ganges Avenue, Indus Road, Beo Crescent, Havelock Road, Kim Seng Road, and Bukit Ho Swee.

I studied there for six years from 1964 to 1969. The school was opened in 1961. As a student then, I had no deep impression of the school and memory of what I had been through is fading. I tried to get information of the school through web-searches and even from National Archives of Singapore and it threw up very little.

Back in the sixties, cameras were uncommon unless if your family were rich, and no digital cameras like now! I could not recall whether the school had a yearbook during my final P6 year. What I had was my report book showing my academic results for all six years. I really wish I had something to remember the school by.

Next year, Singapore is celebrating 50th year of independence (1965 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2015).

SG50 Heart Map is collecting memories of places in Singapore. Memories of my primary school were reduced further when the school was closed down by MOE. There is no community of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s alumni in the web to share their experiences and photographs. What a loss!

My school years We lived in a rental flat of Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) along Ganges Avenue. Even these SIT flats were demolished for urban renewal. Talking about memories! Those days, my mum walked me to the school. She prepared homecooked meals and brought them to school during my recess. After class, I would come back home immediately unless there were extra-curricular activities.

I used textbooks and reference books handed down by my sister. I remember that I struggled with the English Language and I did get a red mark in my report Life Journey | 203

book for the subject in the final year. My family used dialect at home. My two older brothers were from the Chinese Language streams except for my older sister who went to English Language stream just like me. Practice in English Language was harder at home. There was no such thing as tuition. But I still do alright in life.

I was a very quiet person in class. “Children should be seen and not heard,” I was often told. I lacked confidence in myself and this was the environment I grew up in. I had to study hard, otherwise I would not be able to catch up.

Teachers back then drilled us in Grammar. But this was not good enough.

Proper pronunciation and essay writing were not the emphasis of the school systems. We would be lucky when we could cover the syllabi of competing subjects to English. We were not as fortunate as today’s kids. There were no enrichment classes to widen our interests in other areas.

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26 December 2014

Memories of 2014

Friends often asked how I spent my time since I had retired two years back.

They were just curious. I belong to the 30 percent of that age group (aged 55 to 64) who choose not to participate in the labour force. What memories have I got in 2014?

Waking up at 5 am everyday of the year My wife and I started a routine to wake up at 5 am everyday since the start of the year. We kept to it even on days when we were tired and waking up on time was difficult. We then sat quietly and practised full awareness of body and mind for one hour in the early morning (aka sitting meditation). This was then followed by Taiji on most mornings (when weather and schedules permit).

Meditation Retreats We went for two meditation retreats this year. One was in Taiwan and the other was in Pengerang, Johor. The first retreat was in April and the second was in September. These retreats lasted 7 to 9 days.

Remembering Brownie, our rabbit It was on 1 February that Brownie moved on. In the 7+ years with her, Brownie was a constant companion. She gave us joy and taught us how to love and care for a living being. I have fond memories of her, remembering Brownie and at the same time rejoicing that she can move on after a year of suffering.

Volunteering at Bright Vision Hospital My wife and I started going to BVH on Friday mornings to assist the therapists with conducting morning exercises for the patients. This is a new activity for us for this year and we found these simple exercises and games for wheelchairbound patients beneficial for them. These patients got to move out from their wards for fresh air and we got to do something meaningful for them.

Orchard Road Christmas Lights for BVH patients Volunteers, therapists and nurses brought patients out to see the Christmas Life Journey | 205

lights at Orchard Road. We helped to wheel the patients. The walk started from Tanglin Mall with the end point at Shaw House. The night started out fine but the rain came while we were into the walk. We had to wait out for the rain to stop in shopping centres. We managed to reach Shaw House alright. This was an outing with a difference, Christmas lights with the December rain!

Holiday Trips We went on three overseas trips this year - Bali, Taiwan and Myanmar.

Bali We spent 5 days in Ubud, Bali from 24 to 28 February 2014. The trip was decided on a spur of the moment when a window of opportunity opened up for three of us in the family to travel together. We took Tigerair Mandala on a budget with accommodation at about S$50 per room-night for three persons. We stayed at Puri Bayu Guesthouse and had the whole guesthouse to ourselves, as this period was low season for tourist travel.

Taiwan At $290 per person, three of us flew to Taiwan on TigerAir. With accommodation at $110 per night, we spent our time in Taipei and Taichung from 7 to 14 October 2014. Travel was limited to Taiwan Rail, Metro, local buses and coaches to and from airport. Our meals were mainly local fare, i.e. eat like the Taiwanese people. We had a budget stay in Taiwan. This trip was mainly to appreciate their cultural heritage, Taiwanese art & craft scenes.

Myanmar A week later, my wife and I flew to Myanmar and spent 8 days from 23 to 30 October 2014. We packed in tour of four cities to visit pagodas and sights of these places. a. Yangon is famous for its Shwedagon Pagoda and Bogyoke Aung San Market. b. Mandalay is rich in history with cultural and artistic heritage. It is home to Kuthodaw Pagoda that housed 729 white stupas. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. c. Sagaing is the place where we distributed stationery to students of schools and orphanages. A sum of $10,000 was raised for this purpose to buy exercise books, pens and pencils for some 2,600 students. d. Bagan has the most number of pagodas and temples (about 2,500) in the whole of Myanmar.

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Momshoo Momshoo is a business start-up set up by my daughter and my wife. They are a craft duo team who creates whimsical items that are individually hand-stitched and hand-knitted.

Yarn bombing The Substation was a project to celebrate 24th Anniversary of the Substation during SeptFest 2014. “In the Pipeline” as the project was called, came out of the blue to Momshoo at the start of this year. The result was that 2 huge pillars of the building, the main doors to the entrance and many pipe exhibits were covered with knitted yarn pieces. It was a huge undertaking for Momshoo and we involved the community to help knit these yarn pieces. I learned to knit in the process and helped out in the project.

Investment climate of 2014 It was another challenging year for investments. The least expected was when oil prices plunged about 40% since its peak in mid-June. Singapore economy is forecast to grow at around 3.0% this year. (Source: MTI, 25 November 2014) This is going to be lower than 3.9% growth seen in 2013. Singapore equity was volatile over the year.

Performance of investments as at 24 December 2014 My family investment portfolio was 1.17% below cost. Investment cash return was 3.8% p.a. This return was conservative and decent. During the year, I liquidated some investments and made gains that were 25% of total investment return. On paper, our Singapore equity lost 3%. The worst investment was Australian time deposit. This was 13.6% down.

Managing personal expenses I terminated memberships of Singapore Computer Society (SCS) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA UK) to reduce expenses. I am already a retired member of both Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ICSA) and CPA Australia. The membership fees are at reduced rates.

Living Investments – Personal Blog I continue to write in my personal blog throughout the year. I have become selective in what I am writing. The average number of readers per day was 167.

(For 2013, it was 145.)

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To write about something with ease requires inspiration. Picking a topic to write on has been a challenge. It is now eight years since I started this blog and therefore many items were written before. The choice of interesting things narrows.

Reading books I read 19 books for the year and wrote reviews for these books in Goodreads website. In all, I covered 6,314 pages. These statistics were better than 2013 (15 books and 3,879 pages). The books are mainly fictions/novels. To be able to read is an enriching experience and it helps in my writing. Reading and writing has been a preoccupation and I am fortunate to able to do so. Besides reading novels, I read several religious books also.

Accounting & Finance 20th Anniversary Celebration The Diploma in Accounting & Finance of Temasek Polytechnic celebrated 20th year this December. The Diploma started in 1994 and I was already in Temasek Business School since 1992. I was in the thick of action having developed 3 new modules for the course over the years. This anniversary celebration saw 5 Course Managers being recognised for their efforts in managing the course.

I was the Course Manager from 1999 to 2001 and was happy to be part of its 20-year history.

Reflection of the year 2014 was a busy year. My family was quite involved with Momshoo business started up by my daughter. I continue to provide accounting service for the registered business. The family was close as a result of Momshoo. My wife, daughter and I worked as a close-knitted team and I treasure the bonding as a result. The business may not make us a lot of money, but the freedom and joy were worth much more.

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9 March 2015

Money is tight

One day I was walking behind a man of about seventy plus years old and the frayed collar of his shirt caught my eyes. Since then, that image remained. For most of us, who are younger and have a job, we would dispose of frayed or slightly worn-out clothes. This is not so for most retirees or elderly. They keep wearing the same clothes and probably see no need to buy new ones. Money is an issue.

I see my older brothers wore shirts and tailored trousers that were bought during their working years. It is too wasteful to give them up to karang guni.

They would continue to wear them even when they became loose. Self-image no longer becomes important. But money is!

I recalled my late father, who came from China, had this one and well-tailored trousers which he hardly wore except for important occasions, such at wedding receptions and special occasions (like photo shoot at NUS ground on my graduation). He had put on weight round the waist and the trousers could not be zipped up all the way. He still wore them and had a shirt to cover the upper portion of the trousers. That was 1981. I saw the photographs taken on that day (my graduation) and this all came back.

Next time when we see someone with worn-out belt, shoes, shirts, etc., remember that there are reasons. Costs of living keep rising and income is dwindling or non-existent. Money can be tight.

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6 April 2015

Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

I did not know about age-related macular degeneration (AMD in short) until the disease hit me in 2002. I was not yet 50 years old and I had this medical condition. How can it be age-related when it suppose to affect mainly those over 50 years old and with higher probability as one is over 65 years old? Why did it I have this condition at my age?

It has been twelve years already and I am now able write about it.

This condition affects the macula part of the retina that impairs the central vision. Reading, writing and watching TV is not possible as the central part of the image is blur to the eye. For a person with a liking for reading can be a big blow. The peripheral vision is not impaired though and it is not total blindness or darkness. Once an eye is affected, the likelihood of the second eye getting the disease is higher.

History Back in November 2002, I suddenly realised that I had difficulty in seeing things clearly. There was no sign or symptom and AMD was alien to me. I made an urgent appointment to see a specialist at Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) on 26 November 2002 and Prof Ang Chong Lye got to see me. After all the tests, AMD was confirmed and he recommended operation as soon as possible on 29 November. This operation requires one-month of recuperation and there is no guarantee that the condition can be reversed.

I chose not to operate and wanted to live with the condition. At the same time, I worked to prevent the condition from developing to the good eye. I have been seeing a Senior Consultant at SNEC at regular intervals. These visits are for eye checks. This is preventive measure I am taking. There is no medicine to take.

I now rely on the good eye for reading, writing and all other everyday tasks.

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For people with a good pair of eyes, treasure them and do not inflict harm unknowingly. Straining the eyes is not a good idea. Wearing sunshades on bright days is a must. Healthy lifestyle and eating leafy vegetables and supplements such as lutein and bilberry can be considered. One can read more by turning to reputable medical book for a better understanding. There is no established cause for AMD, and therefore to prevent the disease becomes a challenge.

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24 April 2015

Letting go and living in the present

For ten days, I gave up my handphone and had no access to Internet, TV, radio and newspapers. I stayed in a secluded and serene place and did not venture out of it. I was cut off from the outside world. I observed my internal world mindfully: my physical body, my current feelings, the state of my mind, and my thoughts.

I was alone on this discovery journey without the distractions of family. I tried living in the present, and not dwelling in the past or planning for the future.

Do you think that this is easy? It was the hardest thing to do, this living in the present. The mind moves into the past habitually with flashbacks of past memories or jumping ahead into the future with planning what to do. The mind is so busy and yet what matters most is for a person to remain in the present, to be hundred percent with the task he is doing right now. This calls for concentration and mindfulness practice and to be very mindful of distractions.

During this mindfulness practice, I had to let go of many things: ego, anxieties and worries, angers and hatreds, and fear. All these are negative energies and they serve no purpose with the task on hand. Again, this was not easy. With practice, one may reduce these distractions and it is a good thing.

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3 May 2015

Lifestyle adjustment: Food and Drinks

We eat to live. Eating is an expense we cannot do without and it becomes a consideration in our retirement years. We cannot splurge like when we were younger with regular income. I have not earned a wage since September 2012, more than two years ago. I live off my CPF, past savings and investment incomes. These are finite money and they are to last till the end of life.

Watching expenditures becomes essential in our retirement planning.

We can slowly reduce non-essential expenditures over time but we still have to eat and it forms a major part of our expenses when money becomes scarce.

As a family of three, we eat out often. Home-cooked food is about 1-3 times a week since cooking for three persons and cleaning up after that is not efficient.

We eat around in our neighbourhood often in coffee shops, food courts, hawker centres and fast-food outlets. Eating at restaurants and cafes were not frequent. We stopped eating meats such as pork, chicken, duck for a while now.

Fish, seafood and vegetarian fares are what we eat. Our meals were about $5 7 per person (including a drink) on average. It could also be as cheap as $3.20 per head ($2.50 vegetarian meal + $0.70 Tea-o) at one particular coffee shop in Toa Payoh. You cannot get any cheaper at most places and it is a full meal for me.

My favourite drink to accompany my meal is Tea-o. We did not touch alcoholic drinks because we took a precept to abstain from alcoholic beverages in 2010.

This saves us money.

This does not mean that we are stingy. When time calls for a celebration, we would spend at pricier or posh eating-places. Yet we would not go overboard with eating beyond our means. A nice meal at either Starbucks, Ichiban Sushi, Waraku Restaurant, etc was memorable and affordable. You wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see us in a French restaurant for example because this is clearly beyond us.

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13 June 2015

One day, we will get old

When I was younger (20s to 30s), moving up the corporate ladder seemed a lot easier when compared with others much older. You climbed quickly because you were valued for your youth, dynamism and willingness to work flat out for the organisation. One day may come when your ex-supervisor reports to you and you have subordinates who are older than you. Sounds familiar?

How do you operate in this kind of environment? To tell the truth, it was no piece of cake. It was a mental struggle. I wished to be kind to these people who were once my mentors. And yet, our job scope required us to be tough as regards to their job performances vis-à-vis their salaries.

Now that I am in my late 50s, I looked back at those days and recalled some unpleasant actions I took, some due to corporate dictates.

Just because when someone gets older, it does not equate to he is less capable.

On the contrary, he encountered more life experiences than you. Just because they appeared less upbeat and mellow now, they were once young before and making a mark in their work lives. They’ve been through it all, just like us. So one generation passes on to the next. The older generation deserves our deference!

When you engage the seniors in our midst, you would know that they have so much to share with us. I have 4 older siblings and they fit in that mould. I know that they will be there for me, come what may, because we are family. So when we deal with older co-workers, please remember they could be our older siblings who had seen the world earlier and knowers of life’s ups and downs.

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21 June 2015

Talking about fathers on Fathers’ Day

Now we see fathers bond with their children and active parenting is the norm.

This generation of kids, the millennials, is better off than my generation, the baby boomers. My generation on the other hand is better off than my father’s generation with regard to education and wealth.

My father was from China. He moved to Malaysia and later took up Singapore citizenship in the 1940s. He survived the Japanese Occupation. He had no formal education and he worked hard to see us through life.

I am the youngest in the family. When I was born, my father was 48 years old. When I went to National Service, he was 66 years old and when I was independent of age, he was nearing 70 years old. That was a big gap between our ages, 48 years!

My father had always been quiet at home. There was no common area of interests where we could talk to each other. No reading during bedtimes (he had no formal education); no outings such as cinemas (he was busy with making ends meet); no heart-to-heart talk (age gap between us). My school report cards were signed by my eldest brother on behalf of my father.

Do I feel any less about my father? No! He was my father (my father passed away in 1999) and I did not get any beating from him. He gave me space to be independent and to grow up very quickly. I remember going to P.Tekong camp for my recruit training and he did not see me off. No one did, as I did not need that.

That was the special bond between us. No words were required. Just by being present with each other would do and this carried on till the last days of his life.

Enjoy the company of your fathers on this Happy Fathers’ Day!

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26 July 2015

Getting the flu

The weather is so hot and you perspire like a pig. To add to the discomfort, my nose leaks and with backflow, my throat feels so ticklish that it was hard to have a good night sleep. The more you perspire, the more you cough. Once in a while, I get this sickening medical condition. When I am healthy most of the time, I think nothing of this. I felt that I am immune to air-borne flu viruses. I can be strong while others around me are falling sick. No such thing! I am just like anyone else.

Getting sick brings up several emotions.

Fear 1. You do not want to pass the virus to your family. So you find many ways to get your cough under control, like coughing in the bathroom, and then keeping the house clear of germs, washing your hands many times. You sleep in a separate room so as not to disturb your family with your persistent cough.

2. You have an important appointment coming up in the week and you wish you could recover in time. This adds stress to your already miserable condition.

3. You fear that you are getting worse and not better. You have this irrational fear that, what if I cough so hard that my blood vessel burst? Why is my breathing so laboured? What if my lungs collapsed?

Bemoaning I asked myself why I got this flu. Where did I catch it? Why did someone cough at the back of me? This is surely not the way, trying to dwell in the past. Instead, I should do what is necessary now to get well. More honey, more almond drink, more water, more rest, etc.

Acceptance Well, as a human being, it is normal to fall sick. It is the coping that is important.

I believe that our body has the mechanism to recover. The body can feel 216 | Life Journey

lousy but our mind need not be. Keep a positive mindset and keep out all the negative feelings. This flu too will pass like all many flus we had in the past. So you will see me relaxing, relaxing, relaxing to let my mind and body rest.

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16 September 2015

Three Years On

It has been three years since I left my job permanently. I made that choice.

September month marks the anniversary. I have been thinking. How was it like during this intervening period?

I had three years of no salary and no employer/employee contributions to CPF. I took out a sum of my CPF money annually to cover my personal expenses.

As for family expenses, they were covered by my family investment portfolio. I manage this portfolio with my wife, who had also left the workforce.

It is whole new experience for me. I am comfortable with it. To get back to the job market frightens me. It may seem surprising. I am an introvert. Of course, there is nothing wrong being an introvert. I much prefer to keep to myself. I do not relish mingling with a group of people. To stand in front of a group of students to deliver a lesson was not easy. It required preparations and teaching aids. I remembered an incident when I was nervous representing a group to deliver the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deliberation to the whole class. I was not good at it. I need not be a spokesman or a PR person, but I am more than happy to follow or to work in the background.

The irony is that in all my work life, I had to lead as a senior member of a team. You had to as you gained experiences and your salary kept going up. The management put you up and paid you to lead. So I did my best and at some point I would hit the end of the road. I was best up to that point. To hope to cross that point was wishful thinking. It would affect my physical health and mental well-being.

I took a step back and was realistic with my expectations. There is no point in challenging my innate qualities to be someone I am not. I learn to be contented and adjust my lifestyle to suit my retired status. I think it is alright three years on.

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17 September 2015

Lifestyle changes since retirement

I live with my wife who is also retired and a daughter who has started work.

On retirement, we have times on our hands. How is it like?

First, we do not have regular incomes in the form of monthly pay cheques.

Therefore, we cannot spend freely. We watch the budget and reduce expenditure in every way possible.

1. I drive less. We take buses/MRTs to places to reduce transport costs. We avoid taxis.

2. We find cheaper food (and good ones) at hawker centres, HDB coffee shops, and food courts. But we treat ourselves when occasions call for.

3. I do not go shopping often or even window-shopping. I will buy things only when I need them.

4. We look out for bargains such as NTUC Fairprice advertisement every Thursday. Why pay more when items may be offered at a discount?

5. We borrow books and movie titles from public libraries.

6. In the past, I would see my GP quite often since medical was covered by the company. It is less often now and if it is a minor sickness such as cold and flu, we rest and rely on natural healing. We go to pharmacies/medical halls for offthe-shelf remedies.

7. My personal grooming is just a simple $13 haircut about once a month. No stylist required.

8. I do not drink or smoke and furthermore they are not healthy.

9. I do not tailor my pants and shirts. I pick up daily wear from bargains and only when there is a need to replace a well-worn one. Now I understand why my older brothers wore their office wears all these years. They did not throw them away after retirement.

10. My â&#x20AC;&#x153;gymâ&#x20AC;? is just an outdoor place where I do Taiji.

Secondly, we find meaningful activities to keep ourselves occupied.

1. We become volunteers at VWO and at Bright Vision Hospital.

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2. We spend more time in religious activities.

3. I read a lot, from fictions to serious stuffs. I write my blog.

4. I research on investment products such as stocks and shares. I invest our money and manage the family finances.

5. We assist our daughter in her start-up business (a daughter and mom business). I was her accountant.

Lastly, wealth is not just money, though important. Happiness and staying healthy physically and mentally is. If one has the wealth and is not happy, what is the point? We do things that can keep us happy.

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18 October 2015

Parenting requires plenty of love and care

Though my daughter is in her mid-20s, as parents we continue to look out for her that she is kept safe. Two weeks back, she had a serious case of food poisoning. We were totally helpless except to seek the help of our family GP. Regardless of her age, my daughter would still be our child whom we raise.

We will do our part to give warmth, love and care and to set her on the moral path together with independence. It took a lot of our time and energy not to mention emotional rides. At every stage of growing up, we quietly worry for her: PSLE, GCE “O” and “A”. Just like her falling sick, we cannot take the examinations for her, we cannot recover for her. She had to face them herself.

In 1994, about 12% of ever-married female (aged between 40 and 49) had only one child. 84% had 2 children or more. In 2004, the percentage was 16.6% having one child. My wife belongs to this group of 16.6%. We are the minority.

Some would understand why we took that choice. We were busy with our career and less time for family building and parenting.

Are we too hands-on in parenting? One day will come when that close bond between child and parents would be loosened. Can we say that we have done enough? It does not matter, about these questions, is it? We just move along and let things be. We do our best under the circumstances and release the attachment to each other in the longer term.

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13 November 2015

Inner Peace

I spent five days without my smartphone at a place without access to Internet and news. No Facebook, no Instagram, no Bloomberg, no e-mail, zilch. I spent the days in a meditation centre in Nantou county of Taiwan.

It was mindfulness meditation from 4.30 am to 9.30 pm each day. I slept about 6 hours each day, lights-off at 9.30 pm and woke up at 4.00 am. (Sleep was actually the easier part of the practice.) I had to maintain silence throughout without talking to anyone. If one were not used to being alone, this can be difficult. How can you not talk, you may ask?

We are exposed to mental stimulations every second in this fast-paced world.

Our emotions go up and down, one moment happy another moment annoyed depending on the conditions and situations we are in.

This period of meditation was to be mindful of our inner thoughts and feelings, noting the arising and disappearing of these. This is the hardest part.

The peace of this place, which is sited on agricultural farmland and mountains, was conducive for the practice. Despite a peaceful environment, continuous inner peace could be elusive. Because, I had been through it and I know!

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16 November 2015

Does it really matter?

The recent five days of silent retreat (without access to news) gave me a new perspective to life. In the past, I was consumed with keeping up to date with news. I must have the Straits Times daily and need to catch up with past news while I was away. I need to know how the financial markets were doing. The ups and downs affected my sentiments. Is this really what I want, being affected by news?

Now, I choose to let matters be. So what if I miss some news of the past? I am not about to be ruled by events that are beyond my control. Does it really matter if stock Indices moved against my wish?

I was reminded during my recent trip to live in the present and not to dwell in the past or worry about the future.

I like the sayings by Dharma Drum Mountain that is most apt for me: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maturity cares not about the past; wisdom does not doubt the present; an open-mind does not worry about the future.â&#x20AC;?

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21 November 2015

Chasing Grades and Titles

I belong to the old school having been through an education system where student names and their respective GCE “O” Level results were published in the Straits Times for all to see (Year 1973).

Having fantastic grades in national examinations was to be celebrated and broadcasted. Chasing grades as a student meant everything to us. In recent years, the situation turned. Now it is not encouraged to make public how you perform in examinations. It is as if a crime to do so. If we say it, it may be construed as a show-off if we do well. Now the catch-phrase is “better to have deep skills than to have great academic results”. (Having said this, great academic results are not incongruous to having deep skill sets. The other way round is more likely, ie good skills need not be a result of good academic results.)

In the past, it was essential for career progression to have a string of titles after your name. I was a member of several professional bodies (four in total). This added credentials to my standing in the job. The assumption is that we are recognised in our fields by being accepted in the professional bodies.

Next I want to say that performance on a job is critical for progression and not a string of academic qualifications and professional titles. At different levels of the hierarchy, relevant skills for specific job scope become important. Past grades are not. Working requires a repertoire of intelligence, from right attitude to rolling up your sleeves and get on with the tasks on hand. The organisation needs all employees to come together for a common purpose of delivering results from the lowest levels to the CEO. Each person has a role to play and it is not about how many scholars an organisation has on its payroll!

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30 November 2015

Language Education in the 1960s

Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kids are lucky. The Ministry of Education is constantly improving the school curriculum and teaching pedagogy. Teachers are better trained in the latest teaching methods to engage the students. Technology is brought in as teaching aid for our smart-phone savvy students. Their parents are properly educated and are able to help them with their studies. I need not have to mention that private tuitions are now more common than before.

What was it like in the 1960s when I went to a neighbourhood primary school?

The schools had syllabi to cover each year from mathematics to science to languages. We needed to learn the mother tongue language (Chinese in my case), English Language and some exposure in Malay Language since it is our National Language.

We would be lucky if we could complete the syllabi at each level all the way to PSLE. There were too much competing needs for our mastery of each subject.

Language learning became just like any other subject even when the teaching methods were clearly different.

Phonics with proper enunciations and pronunciations took a back seat in learning the English Language. Reading of storybooks was not common during my time. Speech and drama for kids was non-existent. As a result composition was not fresh and without creativity because of my lesser exposure to the language. (Back then going to the public library was a luxury and there was no Internet.)

As for the Chinese Language, it was even worse. We started with Traditional Chinese characters and then we switched to Simplified Chinese characters mid-way. So I was master of none. There was no Pinyin back then and I strained my ears to hear and then to recall how the Chinese teachers pronounced some words. There is a world of difference when we pronounce a word as NING or LING. A different meaning appears to the Chinese speaker if we misLife Journey | 225

pronounce it. Even the four levels of tones for a word like NING can also make a difference in communication and make us a laughing stock for native speakers.

Back then, we as students just rushed to cover the syllabi, just going for the bare minimum. There was no individual attention for the weaker students.

We would be just as happy if we passed the subject. My parents who had no schooling knew no better. They only knew what a red mark in student report book meant. They would not be worried if we had all black or blue marks in the report book.

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5 December 2015

Fading away from corporate world

Titles are no longer important now since I have left the corporate world for more than three years. I gave up three memberships, ie CPA Australia, Singapore Computer Society and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK). The most recent action taken was the cessation from CPA Australia.

I now held on to only one professional body: the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants as a Retired Member. This is more sentimental since I worked hard to attain the status of membership after graduation.

It was not easy to make that kind of decisions because of this attachment that is difficult to shake off. I am glad that I did so. I felt lighter and freer. I did not have to keep up with professional status of these bodies.

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17 December 2015

Being Alone

I went to a bakery two days ago. The counter staff asked, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Only one bun?â&#x20AC;? Then it struck me. I was alone.

I am so used to buying more bread for the family. But that day, it was just for me. My wife and daughter were away in Taiwan with their group of friends and I did not travel with them.

Being alone brought a new kind of experience. I realised that I had to be extra careful with my home keys. There is no back-up key if I were to lose the keys.

I just do not want to be locked out of my home and have to find alternative arrangement (besides asking a locksmith for help).

For those singles who live alone at home, I understand one of their fears. One fear is falling down and knocking out unconscious. So anything to do with heights like climbing a ladder to clean the ceiling fan can wait.

Being alone also means finding things to occupy me. In time to come we could be alone when we grow old. Are we prepared for this? Can we be alone?

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1 January 2016

Looking back at 2015

2015 was significant for Singapore. Singapore celebrated fiftieth year of independence. It was also the year when Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away. We had a worst case of haze caused by plantation and forest fires of Sumatra and Kalimantan. The El Nino made it bad.

2015 was the year when China economy faltered and oil prices plunged. The global economy (with the exception of the US) slowed. Those people who depended on income from investments (like me) had a harrowing experience throughout the year. It was a wild ride with fluctuating fortunes and it was difficult to be happy about.

Keeping sane I left my job some three years back. I am now into my fourth year of early retirement. It had been good and I have adjusted to this kind of life.

I continue to read and write to occupy my time. I travelled a bit on short trips and volunteered at Bright Vision Hospital.

I read twenty-two (22) novels during the year at the rate of one book in 2.3 weeks and 112 pages in one week. Reading broadens my views and was always a joy. It helps in my writing of my blog posts in Living Investments. Living Investments had an average view of 179 per day. I wrote whenever I had the inspirations to share my stories and experiences.

This year my travel took me to Georgetown in Penang, Kyoto, Nara and Tokyo in Japan and Taiwan. These trips were memorable.

“Craft the City”, a POPIN’s community art project invited anyone to contribute to building a miniature cityscape. The elements in the cityscape could be inspired by real places in our surroundings or from memories. I contributed three pieces towards this project. The whole miniature city is now on display at Library@Orchard. It was so fun.

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Reflections I found 2015 passed by quickly. When you had fun and occupied meaningfully, time was not a problem. I set no goals to achieve something during the year. I just let things happened. Things work out fine if you do not set expectations. Be at peace with yourself and understand that things happen because of causes and conditions. Let unpleasant emotions go and live in the moment.

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17 March 2016

Looking after mum

Looking after an elderly person requires a lot more patience, tolerance and acceptance. I found this out when my mumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s maid went back to her hometown yesterday after many years away. She made this trip on an urgent basis.

My mum, who is 92, stays alone with her domestic helper since 2010. For six years, we were lucky to have the maid look after her. As in all aging, the body deteriorates. Her eyesight is no good, her hearing is going and her knees are weak that require wheel chair to move her around in her home. She cannot cook herself a meal and even getting to the toilet and bathroom needs assistance. This means constant care and we did not fully appreciate the amount of care was put in by the maid until my wife and I spent 24 hours with my mum yesterday.

As much as my mum wanted to do things herself to preserve her dignity, she still needed our help to provide the basic care such as meals, a clean and rested body. So we were busy at her meal times, bedtime, toilet breaks (many times to the toilet) and morning shower.

My mum is set in her ways when it comes to routines and the positioning of her personal items. She has this compulsive behaviour. If we did not place her things in the way she wanted them, she would keep reminding us to do so. When we refused to do her biddings, she would be so disturbed. It was frustrating that she cannot do it herself. I realise that in these circumstances, we should just go along and carry out her orders (so long as they do not jeopardise her well-being). This provides a peace of mind for my mum. This is the kind of acceptance I talked about at the start, ie accepting her ways.

As my mumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hearing deteriorated, it becomes harder to tell her what she needs to know. I have my brothers and sister rostered to take care of her during this period. We knew when we would be in to help her and we had the benefit of the total plan. I could not communicate this to her and she was unduly worried that after I leave her this morning, there would be no one to Life Journey | 231

come by. She needed assurance to remove her fear. (When my second brother appeared at 8 am this morning, it dawned on her that she would not be left alone at home. What a relief it was for her.)

When I see my mum in this state, I see myself growing old and would become dependent on external help. When the time comes when we get old, I wish for understanding, patience, tolerance and acceptance from my caregivers, whether they are our children or others like my mumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s maid or nursing assistants.

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21 March 2016

Remaining calm

I was somewhat overwhelmed this week. I had not have this kind of feeling for some times until recently. I was perturbed by matters that I had no control over. There are external parties involved that I cannot impose my wishes at will. The question is always, â&#x20AC;&#x153;why canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t they do it the way I want it to happen?â&#x20AC;?

There is this expectation and negative feelings bottled inside me.

How do I cope? I took a step back from the issue on hand. Look at it from the whole experience with that person. This person had done more good than the unsatisfactory behaviour currently being manifested. Show gratitude in your heart that the person on the whole had done more good. Do not be blinded by the one incident on hand.

Take the example of your parent. At times, she may annoy you with her behavior. But we must not forget that she brought us up from a defenseless baby and taught us to walk and keep us safe in our growing up years. That is good enough reason to show gratitude towards your parent.

We can apply this approach to almost anybody (and even the government) and look at the goodness the person had done before. With gratitude, we would not get into a rage or to habour ill-feelings towards the person. You can become calmer despite a disturbing week that I had been through.

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1 April 2016

Growing old and a burden to others

One day when I get old and not able to look after myself, I wish that my family members do not have to suffer looking after me. I wish that I still have the mental faculty to know what I am subjecting my family to in worrying for me.

Old age can result in a person being unreasonable and demanding without him knowing it. He may not help it. This is a real scenario.

This is a dilemma and we are torn between filial piety and not being a burden to your loved ones. I have great respect for caregivers who look after old people. These are family members, domestic helpers and nurses. The work is made harder if the old people has mild form of dementia or has irrational compulsive behaviour.

Patience can wear very thin if we have to deal with someone, especially your aged parents, who happen to be that. If we do not pamper to their wishes, we would be branded as unfilial. There is this internal struggle and guilt we have to face with. We know that the aged person has needs to cater to and the caregivers have their lives to lead. Both needs will not meet.

How do we address this issue?

For a start, begin working on yourself before the fateful days come. We too will grow old. What can we do to reduce the burden on others? This is a big topic and it is not too late to ponder about it.

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4 April 2016

Tiring times

My mother has been living in a public rental flat since 1950s. She stays on her own even when all her five children left her to build their own families.

We brought in a maid to look after her when she was no longer able to live independently. That was about six years ago. The maid did not take home leave until recently when her grandpa had a stroke and was admitted to an ICU in Indonesia. This started the scramble to get family members to take care of my mother while the maid was away. For nineteen days, my brothers, my sister and I were rostered to do our parts.

It was with this situation that the siblings were able to get a taste of looking after mother 24 hours a day. My motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health deteriorated through normal aging process. At 92 years old, she cannot hear properly, she cannot walk on her own, she needs wheel chair to move to the toilet. She requires someone to cook for her, helps her with her bathing and toileting needs. Her short-term memory is going. She would repeat the same question several times. She has this compulsive behaviour that things must be in a certain way. I see what aging can do to us mentally and physically. We really need someone to care for us when we cannot do so.

This episode gave us the opportunity to look after our mother. I appreciate more the work done by the maid over these years. Through this, I realised that my brothers and sister (all above 60 years old) could be called upon to help at short notice. That was a good feeling. We found out that caregivers require our respect and support in carrying out their duties. They need breaks now and then from a mentally demanding work of looking after elderly persons in later years of their lives.

The maid came back last night and it was with relief that things were back to normal.

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26 May 2016

TOUCH Home Care - Meals-on-Wheels

For some elderly people, who are home-bound, less capable of supporting themselves because of medical conditions. They receive no family support during the day and getting a meal can prove to be difficult. TOUCH Home Care of TOUCH Community Services has this Meals-on-Wheels meal delivery programme to cater to these elderly people. TOUCH is in need of volunteers to be car drivers and delivery personnel at several distribution locations.

Since the start of this month, my wife and I volunteered to help deliver lunch packets every Wednesday from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm. We report to the TOUCH Home Care office in Toa Payoh to collect pre-packed food and off we go to deliver them to some 23 recipients staying at different HDB blocks in the route.

For the last three weeks, we moved from Shunfu, to Sin Ming, to Bishan Street 22, 23, 24, 13, 12 and 11. By the time we delivered the last food packet at 12.10 pm, we were physically exhausted.

Truth be told, we were quietly contented every time knowing that these elderly recipients had a meal settled for them. That is the joy of volunteering with a heart. This is meaningful and is something we can help.

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29 May 2016

Are you prepared to retire?

Most financial planners focus on the financial aspects of retirement. Have we got enough to retire? Where is the retirement income coming from? This is important. But what is equally important is how are we to spend the days afterwards. There is no office to go do. There is no work deadline to meet.

There is no client to entertain.

Before retirement, about 40% to 50% of our waking hours were spent on work.

When you are retired, you have so much more time on your hands.

For one who has gone through this experience, let me say that you must have a plan or some ideas on how to spend your time. There is only that much overseas travelling you can do and there is a limit on travelling.

Broadly speaking, the following activities are how I spend my time.

I decided to read more (books and others). I started my blog in 2006 and subsequently compiled my first book based on these entries. This blog is still very active after 10 years.

I spent more time in managing investments actively and I share the knowledge in my blog so that others can benefit.

I started spiritual studies and developments. This aspect of my life was neglected when I was chasing up the corporate ladder.

Together with my wife, we spent time assisting our daughter in her start-up business. I became the bookkeeper, the chauffer, the peon, and others.

We choose to volunteer our times at some charitable organisations or events.

This is one way to pay forward for the society we live in.

This pretty much kept me occupied.

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3 June 2016

Raise your child to love reading

Back in the 1990s when there were no smartphones and broadband access to the Internet, we read books and magazines that were printed on papers.

E-reading of such materials was non-existent.

When our daughter was growing up during the 1990s, we would go to BORDERS at Wheelock Place as early as 9am to be the first in line to get into the bookstore. We enjoy browsing the books from picture books to books for young readers. As parents we are not stingy when it comes to books. We would buy them.

We read to our daughter when she was still young to read on her own. When she was able to read, we would go to public libraries and borrow books.

Because as parents we read, that must have influenced her to read. Now she is an independent reader who continues to read with joy. We can hold on to a good book from cover to cover. We can get immersed in a story, the plot and derive great joy of reading. If we allocate time for reading a book, we can be better than before we started.

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19 June 2016

Dad

There is no me without a father The time I know the world he is there I watch him ride away each morning Sun shining or raining To pick up passengers or transport goods The only way he could Through his sweat and labour In order to put food on table He returned late afternoon daily Cooking dinner quietly With ingredients he bought cheaply He was there and yet not there Heart to heart talk with him was rare We grew more distant as I grew older Not for lack of love for each other But lack of topics to talk together Final days he grew old and frail He was quieter as ever Confined to bed and wheel chair Once independent he relied on us to care I was not good at it with chores left to maid What is left is just thoughts of past Of my father I had The one who I called Ah Pa.

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7 July 2016

Time to be less intrusive

Parents tend to be ‘kan cheong”1 when come to bringing up kids. After all, they wanted their offsprings to be successful in lives. There is nothing wrong with this aspiration. In this competitive environment, the best in class have a head start. Their kids cannot lose out. Furthermore, married couples are having fewer kids than my parents’ time. Their sons and daughters are really precious.

A recent NUS study on intrusive parenting style could lead to children having depression and anxiety (21 June 2016).

During my time when I was growing up in a household of five siblings, my parents could not afford to pamper to our every needs. We were not treated like ‘little emperor” or “little princess”. Firstly, we were not rich and secondly our parents did not go to schools. We were left very much on our own to cope with growing up. There was no Internet for us to google our questions considering lives.

Being the youngest in the family, I think I was better off than my older brothers and sister. I had them to turn to for advice (except for intimate questions). I grew up making critical decisions and taking responsibilities for my choices: 1. choice of secondary school after PSLE 2. choice of Junior College or Pre-U centre to attend 3. choice of course of study in the local university 4. choice of audit firm after graduation I was independent and my parents did not intervene. Looking back, I am thankful that I was brought up that way. I may not achieve the pinnacle of success but it was good enough for me.

I remember going to Pulau Tekong for my BMT2 alone without my parents seeing me off. I went to Brunei for nine months on work attachment with the Auditor-General’s Department of the Brunei government. I was the only consultant on site and it felt really lonely. This required courage and 240 | Life Journey

independence of mind. If I were pampered from young, I think I might not be able to cope.

Parenting is about balance. My mum used to say, â&#x20AC;&#x153;if you have a bird in your hand, when you close your hand too tightly the bird can die. When you release your hand, the bird will fly away.â&#x20AC;? Being too intrusive could do more harm to your kid (as the NUS study shows). However, there is a need to provide support to your kid so that he/she may grow up to be independent, morally upright and compassionate. That will require wisdom.

1 2

Nervous and tense Basic Military Training

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9 July 2016

Aging concerns

When one grows old, the personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body went through transformations. Unless you have contact with an elderly, you may not know what he (or she) is going through. He loses hearing and sight gradually. His balance may be affected causing him to fall easily. His memory is fading. He has arthritic joints that physical movement can be a pain. His teeth are no longer strong and enjoying food is affected. Recovery from illnesses would take longer. The elderly may be alone when his partner left him earlier. He can be depressed for various reasons.

Aging can be pretty depressing if one is not prepared for it. Aging in society is a concern. Are we prepared for it?

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s look at some statistics.

The number of citizens aged 65 and above is increasing rapidly. The size of this group doubled from 220,000 in 2000 to 440,000 in 2015, and is expected to double again to 900,000 by 2030 another 15 years later1.

Based on projection, the number of citizens aged 20 to 64 (working-age citizens) to the number aged 65 and above would shrink from 5:1 in 2015 to 2:1 in 2030. That is to say 2 working-age persons supporting 1 older person in 20301.

The reality is that we are seeing more elderly persons living well into 80+ years because of better health care and living conditions in Singapore. This is a good thing. What is more important is whether the elderly has the quality of life in later years when sickness and fall-risk become common?

When elderly person starts to lose the vitality of life with poor eye-sight, hearing loss, loss of balance and multiple medical problems with his body, how is he going to live through it? The psychological pain that follows can hit him harder than the physical pains.

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I know these concerns because I have a 92 years old mother and I am moving into 65+ category in a few years time. The elderly in their later years will need assisted help in the basic tasks such as bathing, toileting, eating and moving around. I had visited a nursing home to experience and to talk to some residents. I had also volunteered at a palliative care hospital and saw first hand patients undergoing treatments in these wards. Aging can result in lost of quality of life, dignity and freedom to make personal choices.

Medical care of sick elderly often treats the problem areas that can be treatable, such as heart weakening, high blood pressure. Sometimes, active listening and allowing the elderly their freedom of choices may be all it takes to keep them happy (even against medical advice). Do we actually want our aged parents to be happy or do we just want to do things that ease our effort in looking after them? We can be selfish since we have our other commitments, such as a career and looking after our own young kids. These are conflicting emotions and it agonizes us.

Have we got a solution before the aging concerns overwhelm us in the future?

Source: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Singapore feeling impact of rapidly ageing populationâ&#x20AC;?, Today newspaper, 1 July 2015 1

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26 July 2016

Parenting: Have we done enough?

We are seeing our daughter growing up before our eyes, all twenty six years of it from the time we first held her in our arms and now travelling with her younger cousin without our presence. They are now in Estonia having spent time in Helsinki in the past week. We play no part in the planning of this trip.

I sometimes asked myself, have we done enough as parents? Have we been too hands-on? Have we taught her well?

Whatever we do in parenting boils down to one thing: Your child can be independent and live her own life uprightly with a good sense of moral values.

To live life independently, one must have the training and skills to earn a living. It needs not be big bucks but a career that she can be happy to be in. Managing money is also an important skillset. I advocate that young ones be exposed to financial planning as early as possible and not to wait until nearing retirement.

When one is self-reliant, you can live independently without the worries.

Another aspect of living happily is to have a sense of empathy and generosity.

Lending a helping hand, however small, brings joy to the hearts. It can change a mundane life to one of great purpose.

Have we done enough? Parenting is to set examples. A child follows our examples. If we say one thing and do the exact opposite, she can see though it.

And finally, let go at the right time for her to lead her own life. We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be with her forever.

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31 August 2016

Raising kids to excel in academic pursuits

I long suspected that parents’ academic background and home environment had a link with how their kids would perform in schools. This is not based on research-based proof but more of anecdotal evidence.

I taught in Temasek Polytechnic (1992-2012) and I noticed that children of some of my teaching colleagues were achieving successes in their education.

One was even awarded the President’s Scholarship. My hunch was validated when I read a TIME’s article titled “The Secrets of Super Siblings” by Charlotte Alter (5 September 2016). In it the writer studied nine families who raised children who all went on to extraordinary success. Of the six common traits of these families, one includes family having an educator parent. Seven out of nine families had a parent who was a teacher. The second trait was that the children had a free-range childhood (freedom than strict family rules).

As an educator, I know the importance of a good education. I also know the importance of continuous interest in learning after formal education. We did well in schools and in our careers before taking up teaching positions so that we can equip ourselves to teach and to impart our love for learning to our charges. These same attributes were applied in our home environment.

Children follow by examples and parents are the greatest influence on their behaviour.

The second aspect of free-range childhood is also important. No kid would like to be forced to do something she absolutely hates. I remembered that my daughter took no pleasure in piano lessons. We went to the extent of renting a piano and took her for lessons. After a few lessons, we stopped and returned the piano. We let her choose her pace and did not subject her to tuitions.

(Though we tried a few Chinese tuition lessons and that was stopped too.) So my daughter coped without tuitions and still did well.

I talked about this with my daughter and she said that another aspect of doing well in examinations is mastery of examination techniques. Allocating sufficient Life Journey | 245

time for each question is one example. Before talking about examination techniques, one must be well prepared for each paper. Time management of revision of subjects is also important. One last point is personal effort and love to study must be in place. Good results do not drop from the sky.

As educator and parent, we try not to stress our kids. I think this is critical. Too much stress can be counter-productive and can be a turn-off.

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22 September 2016

Get used to getting old

How do we define being old? At what age when one gets to be old? Do we call ourselves elderly, or senior or just uncle and auntie? Are we over the hill when we reach a certain age? Are we old-fashioned when we age?

The other day at Sheng Siong Supermarket, I was holding 2 guavas in a plastic bag. The least expected thing happened. A shop assistant asked to help me weigh and price the item for me. When I moved quickly towards her, she said to me, “Uncle, please do not rush” fearing that I might trip and fall. She was genuinely caring. Why do I deserve such treatment? I am not obviously old or frail!

When I first reached 50, I hated to be called uncle. But now I have accepted it. I readily took up seat on MRT train when someone gave it up for me. Just accept the kindness and do not cause embarrassment all round.

I quite like being older now. For one, I need not be conscious with what I wear.

There isn’t a need to project a professional image. This is for the work places and I have stopped work for a number of years now. Maybe, that was why people had been calling me uncle!

When you want to stretch your retirement fund for longer, spending on image can be draining on your pocket. It is better to spend on necessities. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and mental well-being beats packaging oneself with branded items.

Back to the questions at the start of this post, the answer is, “It does not matter”. I am not concerned with how people view me. I only care with how I feel inside. I am happy as who I am. Aging is a process that everyone must face one day. I get to it now. My older siblings went through it earlier. This is life journey and I am living it.

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Glossary

Financial Management - Main aim of financial management is to maximise oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wealth through financial and economic principles. Finance looks at sources and uses of funds to achieve the main aim. Financial principles would include concepts such as time value of money, risk returns tradeoff, cost of capital, etc. Economic principles cover scarcity of resources and how best to allocate limited resources to investments to maximise returns on investments.

Investments - Investments offer returns and cover many investment instruments such as equity, bonds, currencies, commodities, properties, derivatives, etc. One decides on what to invest in for maximum return. It covers valuation and application of various investment instruments with regard to risk and expected return.

Retirement Planning - It is financial planning applied towards retirement from job market. How much to save and invest in assets in order to continue to receive sums of money in future for spending? It also covers Central Provident Fund, annuity, insurance, medical insurance.

Living Tips - Ideas on good and healthy living for both body and mind.

Life Journey â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Description of writerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life journey and milestones in life.

References

Books: Mark Daniell & Karin Sixl-Daniell. (2006). Wealth Wisdom for Everyone.

Singapore. World Scientific.

George S. Clason. (1988). The Richest Man in Babylon. New York. Penguin Books.

Robert G. Hagstrom, Jr. (1994). The Warren Buffett Way. USA. John Wiley & Sons.

Janet Lowe. (1995). Benjamin Graham on Value Investing. London. Pitman Publishing Benjamin Graham. (2003). The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. HarperBusiness.

Peter Lynch with John Rothchild. (2000) One Up On Wall Street. Simon & Schuster.

Philip A. Fisher. (2003). Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits. John Wiley & Sons.

Elaine St. James. (1994). Simplify Your Life. New York. Hyperion.

Michael Phillips & Catherine Campbell. (1984). Simple Living Investments. San Francisco. Clear Glass Publishing.

A.A. Groppelli & Ehsan Nikbakht. (2000). Finance. New York: Barronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

Lewis J. Altfest. (2007). Personal Financial Planning. New York. McGraw-Hill.

Koh Seng Kee & Fong Wai Mun. (1999). Personal Financial Planning. Singapore.

Prentice Hall.

Michael Parkin. Ninth Edition. (2010). Economics. USA. Pearson Education.

Websites: Monetary Authority of Singapore. http://www.mas.gov.sg Central Provident Fund Board. http://www.cpf.gov.sg Supplementary Retirement Scheme. http://app.mof.gov.sg/supplementary_ retirement_scheme.aspx Singapore Exchange. http://www.sgx.com Ministry of Manpower. http://www.mom.gov.sg Ministry of Trade and Industry. http://www.mti.gov.sg Singapore Department of Statistics. http://www.singstat.gov.sg/ Singapore Economic Development Board. http://www.edb.gov.sg International Enterprise Singapore. http://www.iesingapore.gov.sg/ Life Insurance Association Singapore. http://www.lia.org.sg/ Singapore Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management. http://www.sipmm.org.sg/

The Companies Act, Chapter 50. http://statutes.agc.gov.sg Yahoo! Finance. http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/ International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/ Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/asia Morningstar. http://sg.morningstar.com/ap/main/default.aspx DBS Vickers http://www.dbsvonline.com/ DBS http://www.dbs.com.sg House Rabbit Society of Singapore. http://www.hrss.net Bright Vision Hospital. http://www.bvh.org.sg/ National Volunteer & Philanthrophy Centre http://www.nvpc.org.sg/ On-line News and Newspapers: The Straits Times The Business Times Reuters News

About the author

Back in July 2006, I formally tendered my resignation as Deputy Director of School of Business, Temasek Polytechnic (TP). I was then forty-nine years old and had been working for twenty-five years, last fourteen years in TP. The first eleven years after graduation was with the public accounting firm, Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers). I rose through the ranks to become Senior Manager when I decided to switch career. So I had two employers in all twenty-five years, a rare phenomenon in current job environment. While in TP, I completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) on a TP scholarship where I came up top in class in the specialisation of Banking & Finance.

I felt that all these trainings and experiences would go to waste if I retired and not do anything. I have the credential and because I could afford to retire at an early age, I wanted to write meaningful blog posts to share my life experiences.

Hence, I started my blog Living Investment with my first post on 9 October 2006. www.limkimtong.wordpress.com The intention of setting up this blog is to share some of my experiences in Living Well with Peace, hence I adopted the name Living Investment for my blog. Most of it covers financial management, investments and retirement planning matters. Some good practices came about because they yielded results and because some did not and hence valuable lessons were learned not to repeat them.

I am married for twenty-nine years now and have a daughter who had started her own business after university. Raising a family is every parentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responsibility and to do it well can be challenging at times. My attempt at writing living tips and life journey covers my experiences of living out this precious life. It is also my way of documenting them to serve as memories of my past. When one gets older, memories fade so it is important to write them down as they happened.

I count myself very fortunate. I began to take a keen interest in spiritual development when I went into retirement. When I was working, stress level was tremendous. Health was an issue. I had this condition known as Irritable

Bowel Syndrome for many years. In 2002, my left eye failed me. I was inflicted with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). I continue to live with this condition and fortunately my right eye is still functioning well.

After retirement, I volunteered at Bright Vision Hospital. In recent months, my wife and I help out with Meals-on-Wheels programme of Touch Community Services.

This book is a compilation of some of my favourite and meaningful blog posts.

I got my daughter who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree to help me provide art-work and illustrations to liven this book.