Five Cents Ten Cents

Financial freedom, one realistic step at a time.

Category Archives: Investments

Starting on a New Slate for Investments 2012


The start of the calendar year brings with it the risks and opportunities as I seek to achieve a return beating inflation for 2012. In 2011, total inflation hovers around the 5.7% figure so if my investible net worth portfolio was to beat this 5.7% figure, I would have to rely on dividend income plus some tactical punts to achieve that returns.

2012-01-17-5c10c

My net realised returns for 2011 was about 4.7% which barely kept up with total inflation. However, it did beat my internal benchmark of 2 x fixed deposits (12 months banks FD rate) interest rate of 0.4%.

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Merry Christmas to One and All :-)


christmas tree pins

As the year draws to an end with Christmas around the corner, we are only two weeks away from the end of 2011 and the start of 2012.

How has the year been for you in terms of financial freedom?

It has been an interesting one for me and this post will give a short summary of how I’ve fared in livng the principles of financial freedom.

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Singapore Press Holdings Annual General Meeting on 1 Dec 2011


SPH Annual Report 2011

I attended my second annual general meeting (AGM) of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH) which constitutes 70% of my equity portfolio. It is the single largest shareholding in the basket of shares that I own. Attending a company’s AGM is one of the rare occasions where you as a shareholder can ask questions to board and management of its performance for the year as well as other related topics.

On a more practical level, attending SPH’s AGM allows you to get complimentary copies of the daily newspapers such as Straits Times, Lian He Zao Bao, New Paper and Business Times as well as have a free bento lunch after the AGM. :-)

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Doing Nothing Towards Financial Freedom


Empty spaces

Even as the calendar year 2011 draws inexorably towards a close with two months plus left before 31 December beckons, I realise that if I do nothing now, I will end the year with a realised returns of 4.5%.

In fact, I should not buy any more equities now and take bigger positions on the market because most of my returns will come from dividends — truly a form of passive income.  The more I trade or try speculative punts, the more I risk losses on capital due to market moves south in tandem with the general global negative outlook over European debt problems and possibility of US and world slowdown or even recession in 2012.

Is doing nothing a strategy?

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SGX Annual General Meeting held on 6 October 2011


SGX

As part of my strategy to learn more about how corporate annual general meetings are held to beef up my corporate governance experience, I have started making it a point to attend annual general meetings (AGMs) of the companies that I have invested.

So far, I have attended last year’s DBS and SPH annual general meetings and they were useful exercises in seeing how different blue-chip companies conducted their annual general meetings.

Also, one of my targets is to position myself to be experienced and qualified to become an independent director of a listed company when I am near to retirement age as this could potentially provide a second “career” of sorts when my career as an internal auditor may plateau at some stage near the official retirement age in 20+ years’ time.

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