For Young Singaporeans, For Financial Freedom: Basic things to know about Insurance

Besides seeking to insure yourself before investing, young individuals (just starting out in their careers) may seek financial advisers to set up a retirement program. However, we will often be presented a few products which may seem complex and daunting due to the thick pages and jargon. Hence to help readers understand some of these common products, this article will seek to do a basic explanation and define how they work. As this article uses examples of death, I will like to warn of the post’s bluntness which may offend readers.

The Different Products

Term, whole and endowment are the most common products recommended by financial advisers for our retirement planning. So let me illustrate them with a simple matrix.

Product	Provides funds to dependents fordeath during coverage	Term of Coverage	Does it have an Investment component?	When are the investments paid?
Term	Yes	Typically 5 to 40 years	No	Not applicable
Whole	Yes	Entire Life	Yes	When you die
Endowment	Yes	Mature after a fixed period	Yes	At expiration of  policy

For term insurance, it is a plain insurance which covers you for the term of period opted. For example, if you purchase a term insurance to protect you until the age of 65, should you die on the day after your 65^th Birthday, you do not receive any pay-outs. However dying anytime from now till the age of 65, your dependents will get a “death pay-out”. In addition, it does not have an investment component.

In endowments, it is a combination of term insurance and an investment component. There is a maturity for endowment plans where you will receive a lump sum pay-out. For example, if I were to buy an endowment plan which matures in 20 years’ time; should I die within these 20 years, my dependents will receive a “death pay-out” and “cash bonus”. However should I live beyond the maturity; and because the investment component of my endowment will have accumulated a sum of money, I will only receive the amount of “cash bonus” at the end of maturity, and not the “death pay-out” amount.

Whole life is similar to endowment. The only difference is whole life does not have a maturity period and covers for your entire life. Hence once you die (you can’t live forever), your dependents will receive a “death pay-out” and “cash bonus”.

Lastly, I will like to highlight for both endowment and whole life, we may opt to surrender the policy anytime and receive a sum of cash bonus. However, this will result in us obtaining only a small sum, which is undesirable.

How does the investment component work?

Projected returns vs Actual returns

In our policy document, there is a benefit illustration table which informs us how much we will receive upon death. The death benefit is the sum of “death pay-out” plus “cash bonus”. In the benefit illustration page found in very policy, there is a guaranteed amount which is the death pay-out while the non-guaranteed portion is the “cash bonus” accumulated. You may wish to review these benefit illustration page in your policy.

In the benefit illustration table, the non-guaranteed amounts are projected to have returns of either 3.25% or 4.75%. Do note the 4.75% projection is not the actual annualised returns you will obtain. For whole life, the returns under a 4.75% projection will in fact yield you about 4.2% to 4.5%. This is because some of your premiums are used to pay for the product’s distribution cost etc.

In addition, Investment moats did a review of endowment plans in Singapore and found the actual annualised returns for endowments range from 2.7% to 4%, with one giving an exceptional 5.25% and another a negative 11.65% return. So one can safely assume endowment annualised returns are 2.7% to 4% which is below that of whole life. Investment moat's article can be found here.

Achieving the returns

So how are our premiums invested? The insurance company will have a fund who will seek to achieve the projected investment return stipulated in your policy while controlling the risks. The fund will do so through active management of a mix of asset classes. Below is a mocked up example of a fund’s asset allocation table.

These funds are in the wealth management industry and often have links to the insurance company. 

Which is the best?

The choice among these 3 financial products is hugely dependent on the financial circumstances of individual. And because this is unique across individuals, I am unable to give a broad stroke comment on what to choose. I can only say, due to my own financial circumstances, term insurance is my best option.

Insure yourself before Investing

Before investing, it is always important to insure yourself. This is because you are the most important asset with the ability to generate income. Therefore, it is vital we insure ourselves against unfortunate events which may render us unable to earn income, in turn deplete our savings.

Hence what are some of the insurances we should purchase at the various stages of our life cycle?

Studying Years (Infants to University Undergrads)

During this stage, the first thing to buy is a health insurance. This is because illnesses or accidents may strike us at any time and the medical cost to treat you can be costly. Should you be uninsured with a health insurance, the medical expenses may deplete your savings/investments and perhaps even your loved ones.

For Singaporeans, we will soon be covered under a health insurance scheme called the Medishield Life. It provides us a basic coverage for our medical expenses and should be sufficient. However, if we wish to have more coverage for hospital treatments due to illnesses/accidents or stay at a better ward, one may consider upgrading to the various health insurance policies provided by insurance companies. It will be good to get the best coverage for health insurance plans when one is young because the premiums are cheaper then. If it gets too costly when one is older, the coverage can be reduced to pay lesser premiums.

I will like to stress that health insurance is essential throughout all stages of our life.

As for life insurance, I will strongly advise against it at this stage of life. This is because the purpose of a life insurance is to bequeath a pay out to dependents that are reliant on your working income for their living expenses. Hence if you are a child, who is studying, it is unlikely you will have dependents and be without much earning power. To put it bluntly, there is no income loss should the child pass on and hence buying insurance to insure against such event is irrelevant.

Starting out at work

At this stage, a medical insurance will suffice. As for life insurance, you will have to assess if there are any dependents (e.g parent not working) that are now reliant on your working income. Often, there will be none during this stage of your life; hence life insurance is not needed yet.

Married Life /owning a home

At this stage, this is where other forms of insurance are needed. Upon owning a home, one should get insurance. This is because should you be permanently incapacitated or die prematurely before your housing loan is fully paid, your partner will be burdened with paying the outstanding housing loan amount alone. For HDB flat buyers, the government has a mortgage reducing insurance which protects against such events; it’s called the Home Protection Scheme (HPS) and can be funded by your CPF savings or cash.

In addition, with your spouse or child now part of your life, there are dependents reliant on your income for sustenance. Hence a life insurance policy is needed. Some common examples of life insurances are term, whole and endowment policies.

How much to cover?

There is no definite number because it depends on the expenses of your dependents. Generally, it will be good to be covered for 3 years of your working income, rounded up to the nearest $100,000. If your child is relatively young or you have many dependents, it may be wise to insure up to 7 years of working income. This is because the key purpose of having life insurance is to cover the living expenses of your dependent. Protection against liabilities such as housing loans should have been covered by the HPS or similar housing insurance.

Retirement Years

See “studying years” life stage. Furthermore, your child by then would be independent and have started working. No life insurance should be bought at this stage.

A Disclaimer when buying Insurance

While it is tempting to just sign on the dotted line to purchase insurance, one should read carefully the policy document that comes with it. This is because each policy may have different sets of exclusions and coverage. Some policies may not insure you for example, accidents arising from competitive racing or have conveyance limits. So please read these documents before signing.

Is China Fishery mispriced?

Due to ongoing investigations by regulatory authorities and declining profits, share prices of China Fishery has suffered a heavy beating. As at today’s price of $0.051, China Fishery's market valuation is s$187.8 million (US$134 million). 

Given that China Fishery holds one of the largest proportion of Peru's anchovy permits (approximately 17% of the country's quota) and that Peru is one of the largest exporter of such fish, the question is asked if Mr. market is pricing China Fishery correctly?

China Fishery business

In recent times, China Fishery has shifted from its contract supply business in the North Atlantic to that of processing Peruvian Fish meal. China Fishery’s main segment is now involved in the catching of anchovy in Peru, processing it and subsequently selling it off as fish meal to fishing farms worldwide. There it is commonly used as fish feed to rear other fishes which are farmed (e.g. Salmon).

China Fishery’s transformation has been achieved through its aggressive acquisition of fish meal processing plants and companies in Peru. The largest and of highest profile was the acquisition of Copeinca in 2013. Copeinca was one of the largest holders of fishing permits in Peru. As a result of these acquisitions, China Fishery‘s Peruvian fish meal business became its largest contributor to revenue. However, these acquisitions resulted in China Fishery being geared to a net debt to equity ratio of 57.8%.

The company now holds a large proportion of permit rights. And with Peru highlighting it is unlikely to issue more permits, one can safely assume China Fishery’s Peruvian fish meal business will not be eroded.

Balance sheet analysis

Given the low valuation awarded by Mr. Market, the signal seems to be that China Fishery’s business is in trouble and the ongoing investigations will destroy the company. However given that Copenica, now a subsidiary of China Fishery, holds an amount of Peru's fishing rights, it got me wondering what is the value of Copeinca’s business?

Valuation of Copenica

Before being acquired by China Fishery, Copeinca reported the book value for its fish meal business. This can be found in China Fishery’s FY 13 annual report:

From Copeinca’s own account books, its reported net book value of its business stood at USD $363,559,000. If we were to strip off the reported goodwill ($139,095,000) and property, plant and equipment adjustments of $29,140,000 which China Fishery wrote off, the carrying amount value of its business is USD $195,324,000. Furthermore, we have to account that China Fishery recently redeemed Copeinca's senior notes and hence this should be removed from our calculations. With that, the value of Copeinca is estimated to be in the region of USD $455,000,000 or s$638 million.

Consolidating this into the bigger picture, assuming the rest of China Fishery’s business has a zero book value and only Copeinca is of value, the group is worth about s$600 million or 16.22 Singapore cents per share (based on 3.684 Billion shares).              

China Fishery’s Earnings

Besides analyzing China Fishery through the balance sheet, another aspect is via the company's earnings prospect.

From its recently released third quarter report, China Fishery’s 9 months' earnings have declined 64.4% to USD $18 Million. This was mainly due to Peru’s decision not to allow Fishing activity during 2014 Season B (Oct 14- Jan 15). Furthermore, its profitability was weighed down by its ballooning debt interest, a result of high debts. Lastly, its earnings per share have been declining over the past 5 years.

A turnaround next year?

In a bid to reduce its debts, China Fishery recently did a right offering at $0.173 cents per share. The proceeds was used to redeem Copeinca’s US$250 million 9% notes. With the redemption of these notes, China Fishery will save an annual interest expense of US $22.5 million. In addition, assuming China Fishery is able to conduct its usual fishing activities for both Fishing Season A and B, one can reasonably expect it to deliver a USD $60 million profit for FY 2016, similar to profit levels in FY 2014.

A profit of USD $60 million will translate to 1.6 USD cents earnings per share or 2.2 Singapore cents. China Fishery will then be priced at a prospective P/E of 2.3 times.  Do note I made the assumption Peru opens both of its fishing seasons; 2014’s Fishing Season B was closed due to weather effects on fishing stocks.

So is Mr. Market right?

Benjamin Graham describes the stock market as a business partner who appears daily to either sell his interest or buy ours. This is how Mr. Graham describes “Mr Market”:

“Sometimes his idea of value appears plausible and justified by business developments and prospects as you know them. Often, on the other hand, Mr Market lets his enthusiasm or his fears run away with him, and the value he proposes seems to you a little short of silly.”

In short, the market is characterized by mood swings where prices quoted can be way depressed or over exuberant. As investors, it is important to us to discern that the prices quoted on the stock market are separate from the value of the underlying business behind each stock counter. This underlying value has to be appraised by us and not through the mood swings of Mr. Market.

Hence as individuals in the stock market, it is up to us to assess if a mis-pricing of China Fishery has occurred. This assessment can be based on the future prospects of its business and potential effects of ongoing regulatory investigations.

<Vested China Fishery at 0.048>

F&N's Love-Hate Relationship with Children

Mention F&N and what comes to mind are its name sake beverages & 100Plus. But did you know the publishing of school textbooks, the very terror of our schooling years, is part of F&N’s business empire?  

Overview of F&N

With the spinning off of its property arm in 2014, F&N is now left with three business segments - beverage, dairies and publishing

Its Beverage business involves the sale of its name sake beverages and 100 plus. Its business is not just constrained to Singapore but is in many ASEAN nations. It has 55.8% stakes in F&N Malaysia Berhad. Its dairies segment consists of a license with Nestle Group to manufacture and distribute Nestle's food brands in ASEAN until 2027. In addition, F&N sells its own diaries brands such as F&N Milk and F&N teapot.

The last segment is its publishing arm which has exposure to Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. Going by the name of "Marshall Cavendish", it is synonymous with the publishing of textbooks and workbooks used by most if not all schools in Singapore. It also publishes assessment books to "torment" students. As karma for “mentally torturing kids”, the publishing arm was recently in the red and is undergoing cost rationalisation to be profitable again.

Stability of F&N

Post demerger, the business F&N has been left with are generally “recession proof” because it involves selling drinks/dairies, textbooks and assessment books. Everyone needs to drink and study!

In addition, the demerger has left F&N with a stable business which generates free cash flow. In its latest 3Q report, F&N was able to generate a free cash flow of s$100 million over the past 9 months, which is enough to cover its full year dividends of 5 cents and payment to non-controlling interest. Furthermore, with a net cash position of $209 Million (meaning it has more cash than debts) and lowly geared balance sheet, one can reasonably expect dividends in the region of 5 cents.

Recently, F&N sold its stake in Myanmar Brewery for s$780 million. While no special dividend will be given, the company mentions they are seeking acquisitions with the proceeds.           

F&N’s future

Unfortunately for growth investors, F&N is unlikely to be a growth stock that will experience large earnings growth. F&N was forced to sell Myanmar Brewery, a star grower among its brands; hence the only growth is likely to come from the turnaround of its publishing arm and favourable exchange rates. However, F&N has announced it is eyeing acquisitions with the sales proceeds of Myanmar Brewery. Hopefully this will boost its earnings.

To me, I will classify F&N as a slow grower company where revenue/profit growth will be in its low single digits. We can reasonably expect F&N to continue paying dividends in the region of 5 cents due to i) its businesses’ ability to generate consistent free cash flow, ii) resilient business, iii) strong balance sheet and iv) s$780 million proceeds from Myanmar Brewery’s sale.

Conclusion

While investing in F&N will not be the talk of the party (but definitely in the classroom), its strong balance sheet, recession proof businesses and potential long term earning growth from acquisitions makes F&N a good consideration for income investors.

So next time when you see your child reads his textbook, think F&N!

<Neither vested nor suffered a traumatized childhood from textbooks>

Is Keppel Corp a buy now?

Shareholders of Keppel Corpation has suffered a torrid year. Year to date, Keppel’s share price has fallen from a lofty 11.00 to that of 6.80, marking a 38% decline. This is in line with the global stock market rout witnessed over the past two months.  As investors on the side line watching this carnage, it is tempting to start our nibbles into Keppel Corp; but first let us evaluate the situation.

Overview of Keppel

Keppel is a conglomerate whose business is spread across four segments: Offshore and Marine, Property, Infrastructure and Investments.

Keppel’s earnings come mainly from its offshore and marine as well as property. Keppel is the global leader in rig design and buildings as well as specialized shipbuilding. While it’s property arm consist of Keppel Land and Keppel Reit, hence giving it exposure to both Singapore and China’s property market.

Its infrastructure division has interests in Singapore’s power generation plants, NEWater plant and date centres. They are held by Keppel’s subsidiary of KIT and KC DC REIT. While its investments segment consists of stakes in M1, Keppel T&T, Kris Energy and K1 Investments.

Is the sell down justified?

Comparing its latest 1H reports against previous year’s 1H, Keppel reported an earnings growth of 2%. However, one should not be hasty to conclude Keppel is a “buy” as the sell down in share price does not mirror the fact that its earnings had grown. A deeper analysis of Keppel’s P&L is required. Upon closer examination, one will realize Keppel’s core profitability has declined year on year. What propped it up was Keppel’s reporting of a one time gain of $202 million for selling its co-gen plant. Striping this one time gain, Keppel’s 1H earnings will have fallen by 25%.

Trouble looming in its main divisions

As Keppel’s offshore & marine division specializes in oil rig design and building, its business is dependent on the Capital expenditures of oil production customers (such as Petrobras, Chevron etc.) However bad times have fallen for its customers as oil prices have fallen to record lows because of global oversupply. With that, its customers have deferred majority of their capital expenditure plan, in turn affecting Keppel offshore’s business. Revenue and profit contribution by Keppel’s offshore has decreased year on year.

With the oversupply of oil being severe, I do not think the crisis will be over in just a year. My prediction is a pro-longed crisis where we will see many small energy companies going bankrupt. We have seen how some local offshore support companies, Ezra and Swiber, raising money from shareholders to prop up their business during these hard times. This oil crisis will last for at least 2 more years, and will be a trying period for our oil related listed companies.

An Office Space market downturn?

Secondly, Keppel’s property segment is in a fix too. With the recent takeover of Keppel Land, Keppel Corp now has a greater exposure to Singapore and China’s property market. However with the slowdown in both countries, the property division is bound to be affected. Furthermore, Keppel‘s exposure to the office segment through its subsidiary of Keppel Reit will hurt it.

Keppel Reit is a highly leveraged company with a debt to assets ratio (Leverage Ratio) of 42.6% and whose portfolio exposure is mainly in the office space. With the large supply of office spaces in 2016 because of Guoco Towers and South Beach Towers, there will be a fall in office rentals due to this oversupply. This fall in rental rates and higher vacany rates due to an oversupply will cause Keppel reit's Singapore assets to be valued lower. This results in an increase of the reit's leverage ratio. With MAS’s rule that the leverage limit should not exceed 45%, Keppel reit is likely to seek money from shareholders to shore up its balance sheet.  And its majority shareholder happens to be Keppel Corp who holds a 45.39% stake.

Keppel’s Dividend

At a trailing dividend yield of 7%, Keppel appears to be a steal because one would naturally think a yield protection of 7% will be obtained for holding Keppel through this period. However, given the gloomy assessment, I do not think Keppel will sustain its 0.48 cents dividend over the next few years. A reduction of dividend is on the cards due to the poor business environment and tight cash flow.

As of end June 2015, Keppel has 2.37 Billion of cash. While it seems a lot, it is worth noting this figure has been further reduced because for this quarter, Keppel paid out its interim dividend ($215M) and cash was asked by one of its subsidiary, Kris energy ($105M). It is likely Keppel’s cash holdings is now much lower. In addition, Keppel is likely to have set aside $1.2 Billion as working capital for its offshore and property operations. Coupled with a high chance that Keppel Reit will require funding so as not to exceed MAS’s requirement on leverage ratio, it is unlikely Keppel will sustain a 48 cents dividend for next year. Such dividends will cost Keppel $870 million of cash every year. The only plausible way for Keppel to maintain dividends is to borrow more money.

Conclusion

While Keppel is likely to ride out the storm in the oil & gas and property industry in the long run, the question for us investors is if Keppel worth the purchase at $6.80 now? To me, given the outlook, I do not feel it is worth the price and is likely to decline further when it is likely to report lower earnings next year (due to lack of one-off gains) and a cut in dividend. Keppel may be worth a re look if it goes below $6. 

My Investment Method

Active investing in the stock market involves the process of picking and analyzing companies. While it may be more time consuming than the passive method of investing, to me, the lessons learnt and joy derived far outweighs my time spent. Furthermore, being a retail investor, there is a chance to outperform the benchmark annualized return of 7%, and hence I have adopted active investing (in particular value investing).

From my investment journey and mistakes, I have adopted a framework of investment analysis which consists of two components - quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative factors are straightforward and involves the use of financial ratios which are taught in finance classes taught by schools or Investopdia. Some criteria to seek out undervalued companies are:

i) Low P/E ratio companies with positive cash flow generated

ii) Low P/B ratio companies - Companies with a low price to book ratio indicates there is a sufficient margin of safety when investing. For example, a company with a P/B ratio of 0.5 means that if you will be investing $0.50 for $1 worth of its reported assets. In addition, another ratio we will use is the Net Tangible ratio which is similar to the P/B ratio but eliminates intangible assets such as goodwill.

iii) Companies with dividend yield - While it is not a necessary requirement, it is good to have 

iv) Companies which do not have high level of debts (Debt to Asset ratio must be less than 0.6) - Personally I do not like companies which employ a large amount of debt to finance their operations. However, one listed company called "Starhub" is the exception to this rule.

v) Avoid companies whose controlling shareholder owns more than 50% and contributes more than 50% revenue or expense

Computing this financial ratios is easy and the information can be obtained online and computed on Excel. However that is not all there is to value investing. Financial ratios are only part of the story and mostly gauges the past performance of a company. When we invest, we are making a bet on the future worth of our investment and that is where the qualitative component of investing comes in - to peer into the crystal ball to see what the future holds.

Qualitative factors

Besides analyzing purely from numbers, it is important to judge what the future holds. This is where we have to make our own judgement if there is indeed a mispricing of the company. Lets consider an example. 

Company A is an oil company that has reported an earning of $1 per share for this year. It trades at $10 per at a P/E of 10. The P/E of 10 is the historical average price of Company A. However due to a sudden turn of event  that adversely affects the company's profits, the negative sentiments results in the sell down of share price. The table below illustrate the financial situation.

With company A now selling at a much lower P/E and P/B ratio, it seems Company A is now cheaper and is a bargain. However, we will have to ask if there is any justification behind the sell down of the share price. We will have to ask:

i) Will the earnings of Company A fall as much as the share price (20% reduction for this case)?

ii) Is this event only a temporary dent to the company's earning and how long will it take to return to its pre earning level of $1? 

iii) Is the company able to weather this bad episode with its balance sheet?

The above list of questions are not exhaustive and will differ for different companies due to the industries and business model they are in. In addition, a fall in share price price can be attributed to factors beyond the company's control such as a shift in government policy or acts of god (e.g. tightening of foreign labour quota or the 2011 Thai Flooding which affected car and hard disk manufacturers)

To summarize, while quantitative analysis is simple, the qualitative aspect of investment analysis is not. It requires a measurable amount of analysis, knowledge and time (less than a day to understand one company). This is so that one is adequately proficient to understand the company's operations  and make the decision to invest. 

Given that much analysis and financial knowledge is required on one's part to invest, it is tempting to stay out of the stock market. However, with the passion and interest to make one's money work harder, investing on your own can be fun. Besides that, you may discover interesting facts. Did you know: Giant, Cold Storage, Guardian and the 7-11 stores in Singapore are in fact operated under the same company called Dairy Farm Group?

Leave it to the experts 

For those who still feel investing on your own will take up too much time or have no interest to pursue it, do not worry. Moving forward, I will share how we can leave it to the experts to help achieve decent returns on the stock market. 

My Road to Financial Freedom

Financial freedom is a goal many individuals strive to achieve. It is when we have little financial worries as our expected expenses are taken care of by our savings/investments. Many have been mislead to think that this goal of financial freedom can only be achieved by studying hard to obtain a good degree which will eventually lead to a well paid job. However, this is not entirely true. Even without a high paying job, it is possible for one to achieve the goal of financial freedom. For me I believe financial freedom is centered around these 3 steps:

1) Work Hard

2) Save Well

3) Invest Wisely

Work Hard

Work Hard involves increasing income one receives in life.This can be done by enhancing one's skill sets to be promoted / seek a higher paying job or the decision to seek opportunities supplement the income we receive from our main job such as dividends from stocks or teaching tuition.

Save Well

Saving Well involves the monitoring of one's spending patterns and making sure you spend within your means. An individual who earns $10,000 but spends $9,000 will never save more than an individual who earns $4,000 but spends only $2,000. Hence it is important for us to be conscious of our spending, seek good value for purchases and start saving for young.

Besides being conscious of our expenditure, basic financial knowledge will be important to help us save well. With this knowledge, we will be able to avoid financial mistakes which harms our saving patterns such as not chalking credit card debts to fuel consumption behavior. Lastly, the act of saving when young is important if one wishes to build up his savings. This is because of compound interest.

Albert Einstein called compound interest "the eight wonder of the world" and rightfully so. Lets consider an example to illustrate it. Two individuals, Ah Huat and John, enters the workforce at 25. Knowing the importance of saving when young, Ah Huat decides to set aside $7000 yearly from age 25 to 35 and does not save further from age 35 to 60; John on the other hand starts to set aside $7000 yearly from age 35 to 60. Both invests in the same investment which yields a 6% return per year. At the age of 60, Ah Huat has amassed $476,782; while John has $438,940. Hence, despite saving for only 10 years as compared to John (25 years), Ah Huat has saved up a larger amount of money thanks to compounding! From this example, it shows how important it is to start saving when young to enjoy this eighth wonder.

Invest Wisely 

Investing wisely is a key component towards building one's wealth for financial freedom. This is because it affects the rate of returns obtained for wealth accumulation. As a benchmark, it is good to set your investment target at 7%. Why 7%? One may ask. 7% is the long term average return of the Singapore Stock market (ok it is slightly higher and closer to 8%). This means should one invest wisely in the stock market, it is reasonable to expect a long term annualized return of 7%.

In addition, the return obtained affects how long it takes to accumulate wealth for retirement. To double one's investment from $50,000 to $100,000, it will require 30 years should our savings be placed in an account earning 2.4% interest. However, if one invests in the stock market and obtains the long term return of 7% with a careful risk management strategy, the doubling of money will only take 10 years. 

There are two paths of investing in the stock market- passive investing through ETFs and active investing. Both paths have their pros and cons in terms of time needed and potential returns. While individuals may be tempted to associate active investing with speculative bets/trading, this is not necessarily true. Active investing requires a significant effort in analyzing and understanding a company's  prospect and industry and not just solely relying on stock tips.

For me, I have decided to walk the path of active investing due to my interest and passion.

Purpose of this blog 

As mentioned, it is not entirely true with a good education will one achieve financial freedom. Gaining knowledge in the areas in the areas of "saving well" and investing wisely" can help us achieve financial freedom. So don't worry about being an ordinary person who had obtained a decent degree and had no scholarship. The road to financial freedom is still open.

This is why this blog was set up -  to share on the knowledge of how to "save well" and the skills to investing wisely in the stock market etc. The various entries written in this blog will consist of fundamental analysis of companies,  the knowledge I have learnt from others and lessons from mistakes I made (and will continue to make) as I progress on my investing and financial journey. I hope you will enjoy this blog and be motivated towards embarking on your financial journey!

Disclaimer:

The use of materials from this site is at your sole discretion and risk.

The publication of my posts is solely for informational purposes and is not to be construed as a solicitation or financial advice as I am not a certified financial adviser. My analysis on companies covered are not an offer to buy or sell any stocks and I encourage readers to do your own "due diligence" before investing.

References made to third parties are based on the information I have obtained. While I do attempt to verify these sources, they are not guaranteed as being accurate or reliable. Readers should not regard my postings as a substitute for the exercise of their own judgment.

Any opinions expressed in this blog are subject to change without notice and this blog is not under any obligation to update or keep current the information contained. The author of this blog accepts no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage of any kind arising out from the use of any or part of any posts.