the gentlemen

What does it mean to be a gentlemen? I understand that being dapper (whatever the hell that word means) is in trend right now, but please do not think that you dress like one means you are one.

You may recognise these people in the streets by these characteristics:
- Funky handlebar that looks like a facial hair wig
- Slicking back their hair with undercuts and a lot of product
- Shirts with jeans and leather shoes on weekends
- Suspenders (why isn't this obsolete yet? You mean there are still loose pants when everything looks like pastered on pants?)
- they wear hats indoors
- cheap quartz gold plated watches made in china last year and they call it vintage
- I love whisky (especially macallan and yamazaki, you tried before right, the japanese whisky)

To the last point, I love whisky, I have tried a few although not alot, but I can honestly say I find Yamazaki whisky not to my liking. Simple once like Johnny Walker gold label does the trick, but scottish whisky is the one you should be tasting as much as you can.

There's more to life than what the pop culture, trending twitter, instagram and facebook. Here's a fictional gentlemen dropping some swanologues.

Changing jobs

It is a good time to change jobs because...
- the job market is good?
- you are tired of your current job?
- you want to change working environment?
- you need more cash?

Taking Stock: Luxury brands and happiness

This guy is a clinical professor for marketing in NYU Stern School of Business. I was watching a talk by him where he said the following:

“Rich people are the most boring people in the world. They smell, look, and feel alike. They all fly British Airways, wear Hermès, and party in St. Barths… Luxury brands are able to go global faster because rich people aspire to the same things.”

Its such a simple yet true concept that most people do not realise. Everyday we work and use hours of our lives, cells of our brains and energy from our body to pay for a _____________. (insert name of the brand followed by its item. e.g.: LV bag, Gucci wallet)

Where to strike a balance?
Frugality is a lifestyle, it can be taught, it can be demonstrated but it can never be practised efficiently unless the practitioner is inbuilt or strongly believes in the concept. It is frugal to eat $2.50 chicken rice from Ananas cafe everyday, never put on anything branded and not watch movies in cinema. But do you believe in it? (Personally, I enjoy watching movies in cinema because I am a firm believer in the entire experience of watching the 'talkies' in the cinema.)

I myself admit, frugality is a discipline I will never fully understand or realise. Everyone who is investing like Warren Buffett wants to follow his level of frugality, his thriftiness. But in doing so, it affects themselves and everyone around them. Lets be honest. We cannot never be Warren Buffett in anyway.

I say again: We cannot never be Warren Buffett in anyway!

You can replicate his portfolio, buy whatever shares he buys, drink coke all day long. But you will never be like him. Because for the simplest reason, you are not him. He felt that he started investing at 11 years old and wasted the first 11 years of his live not doing so. Without being a parrot, do you deep down feel the same?

Wasted or Earned
In a recent debate with my girlfriend, I told her money is never saved. It is either wasted or earned.

When we purchase any packages for any service or jewelry, one thing I notice the sales people like to repeat:

"You see this _________(extra service/product) costs so much and I throw it in, save you the money already."

Regardless whether we require said extra services/product or not, the fact that this is said, this is a sign of a complete polished piece of turd thrown at your face and you are suppose to like it. I get that if you are going to buy it, it is indeed a saving. But if something can be transacted at a price so much below its value, it is not worth much anyways.

Remember, not wasted or earned. If it is that crucial to get the extra service/product, why isn't it included into the original package? Hence, despite being cynical, generally for these added services or products given for free, we can assume 2 things:
1) the cost of these services/products have already been factored into the price of the item they are selling for.
2) since it is not required in the original purchase, it is, more often than not, useless.

Invest in Yourself

You are not the centre of the universe. But you ARE your universe.

I'm reading a book called the Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. He is the grand-daddy of value investing.

His most famous disciple is Warren Buffet. Anyways, inside the books covered a few basic things that many self-proclaimed investors do not follow when it is so easy and fundamental.

#1 - Always invest with a Margin of Safety
#2 - Expect volatility and profit from it
#3 - Know what kind of investor you are

Many investors should read up this book and you will find that things he wrote more than 50 years ago still applies today only changed due to difference in some policy changes over the years.

One of the most interesting aspect is the character, MR MARKET. In your co-op with him, his role daily is to offer daily, a price quote which you can either buy or sell to him of that business. You as an owner of business, determine if you are going to listen to him.

Not sure how many investors spend time watching The Big Bang Theory. I find that Howard Wolowitz is the definitive Mr Market. Hence, I'll picture him daily doing what Mr Market does best.

As per the title and first words of this post, invest in yourself. 24 hours a day, take an hour out to learn stuff about investing, read up happenings in the world. The next Microsoft is out there but if all you do is spend time looking for the next Microsoft, plenty of good companies will be missed out.

Below is a few websites to read up for investing particularly in the Singapore market.
The happenings/analysis:
Yahoo! Finance
Motley Fool
Dividend Warrior *always look out to find his latest postings, he has a few blogs under dividend warrior
Turtle Investor *always pool some cash into index funds, for myself, I put some money into STI ETF and Singapore Bonds Index
Hardwarezone Moneymind
Hardwarezone Stocks, Shares and Indices
The SmartLocal *interesting place with plenty of money saving tactics which is not 100% investing related

There are many more out there, especially in HWZ, there are some really insightful and educational postings from various individuals.

For doing homework:
SGX Stockfacts
Muddy Waters Research
Individual company's webpage

Reading books in encouraged, but always take into consideration the writer and his thinking. No doubt Robert Kiyosaki's book is a good read and provides excellent concepts that you can take up into your investing. But upon research, you'll find that he is always in the news linking with bankruptcy. His books to me, are more of a motivation or a side track like the "Life" section in The Straits Times. When reading books, try to always weigh the ideas in the book against your own knowledge and understanding. Do not accept it 100% and build reasons for following it. Instead, pit it against your current fundamentals and see if it is suitable to be used/adapted/rejected.

In a nutshell, whatever you are doing, always always always look up the facts. People can offer you advise and analysis, but end of the day:

You are responsible for your investments. 

fin

My affair confession

- Yesterday, I started a love affair that my girlfriend can never know about.

- We've been seen together in public this morning.

- This is not my first time.

My reader's if there is any, I hereby confess to you. I just bought a new watch without telling my girlfriend about it.

This is very irrational of me, doing my budgeting, this purchase is not a very wise one to make. Not that it's overpriced (some think it's overpriced, I think for the niche, its actually ok for under $1,200.00). I've seen people buy lousier watches for more money because they fall victim to marketing. 

Mainly because my own quota is too high, dammit, now I have to cull a few pieces. Just that my holding right now is some what over, and I have to clear out two watches to recover back.

- End of the most nonsensical post to date (here's a piece of knowledge):

This is the Mariana Trench

This is the deepest point of the ocean. In metric, it's about 2,550 km deep. Thats about thelong-end-to-end length of 51 Singapores (singapore is about 50km east to west)

Till date, there has been lesser people who have been to the bottom of Mariana Trench than into space.

Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond?

This title is ripped of an article by Edward Jay Epstein in 1982. Its lengthy, good read but I didn't find time for it. It many held an experiment where he tried to sell a diamond into the secondary market. This article proved that diamonds is not good as investment unless you belong to the cartels setting the price or it's limited edition stuff. Store bought diamonds are typically overpriced for markups and profit margins of the retailers and many more up the chain.

This article's title alone, if self-wondered, already answer the big question should you buy diamonds as investment. This title alone thought me to always remember my position in all my investments.

By 'Position', I meant: what are you? And, who are you?

In this instance, before even thinking about investing in diamonds (if you even call it investing), think first. Are you part of the cartel that sells diamonds?

More often than not, you aren't. Simply think of it this way: generic items have a price limit. You cannot sell generic Toyota at a Mercedes price. That's it. And every single Toyota you buy from the showroom, is already priced at a point where maximum profit is included inside (no way Toyota will say, lets price it a little cheaper so that the owner can sell the car for a profit later.)

Its the same thing with diamonds, why would Jewelry shops price the diamond for you to make a profit when you sell it? Are they in the charity business?

The same goes for gold that you find in shops, there is no way it will be worth your while unless you intend to hold them for decades and sell it as old gold. Then again, the gains in these prices may just well be eaten away by other things such as inflation, currency and so on.

Always remember your position. 9 out of 10 times, we are just a regular person, living regular lives. We are not in the know, we are within and without. Remember the limit of pricing I mentioned earlier? For any single diamond you purchase, it was already priced to its limit and maybe more. There is no way, you can own a single diamond and sell it at a profit unless you dig it up yourself, cut the faucets and polish it to bling shine. With the exception of it being a collector's grade gemstone.

A Diamonds is Forever overpriced.

There you have it, the article seems to offer more insight, but its lengthy, but good nonetheless. Anything you think you are investing in, never be impulsive (courage and impulsiveness is just a fine line divided by intellect and homework done by investors). Unless you are in the inner circle, these hot stocks are merely just a thin sheet of paper holding alot of hot air.

For myself, I'm just a guy behind a computer, I am not in the position to get hot insider news.

Looking at Keppel Land
Without being too technical, Jan to Feb, the prices was surging like crazy driven by news of  Keppel Corp privatising it. Announced somewhere on the 21st Jan morning times. At which point do you think you are able to cash in on this event?

There is always a limit to price. The inner circles would have already taken out such a huge chunk and cashed out even before you got in, you might even be disappointed in the end of it all and those unfortunate ones might even be not making any money after brokerage and what have you.

Unless you own Keppel Land's share before 21st Jan, most likely, you will not be able to make any sizable profit out of this.

A good read is Tulip mania, funny though Gardens by the Bay decide to use this name to name one of their events, I hope they know the story behind this name.