My CEO Journey

These two are very popular people who have achieved financial independence at an age where most of us are still working, not by building a multi dollar business, but through their executive jobs, frugality and smart investment. But apart from this, they also have supportive spouse who believe in their notion, and are working on their side to achieve this goal. If aiming for financial independence early is your goal, it's important to get your spouse on your side (or at least someone who will be consequence natural to your goal). And in Asian context, your parents and the in- laws are important as well. So, before you set your financial goals, perhaps it's good to get your family on your side. Cheers.

It's just a week before we usher into 2018. Having done a year of review for the finance sector , it's time for me to review about my accomplishments in the current business (essentially my day job) and to plan for 2018. 2017 hasn't been so so for me. Career wise, this is the year where I feel that I have been left to "rot", and it's a year where I see the future of my career stagnating. There is no signs of promotion for me, in the near future, nor is there any signs of a change in the role (for the better) for a long time to come. It seems that I have been forgotten, or overlooked for most things. I attribute this to a lack of networking within my own organization. In terms of pay, my pay increment has been in line with the organization's overall pay increment. With no promotion, it's a normal increment to adjust for inflation and so on. I have come to realise that significant pay increase only comes with either a change of job or promoti

We are now in December of 2017. How time flies. With all the dividends and coupons in at this time of the year, it would be nice to make a wrap- up of my finances for the year. 1. Stock Investing This is the year where I started to be more active in stocks, and be more vested in them. Some sales and purchases were made, and Genting which I have been holding and staying in the red for a period of time, was sold once it was profitable.  These transaction exercises simply highlighted my "kiasuism", being so afriad to lose. Realize that I have been selling the counters once they are profitable, but on the contrary, and then holding on to those that are in the red. Well, for now, though I still have no urge to sell those counters that are in red (Kingsmen Creative, PEC and M1).  Nonetheless, in terms of performance, dividends is at $1843.10 (as compared to $310 in 2016, of course this is mainly due to more money in the stocks market this year), with a curr

Have you heard or yourself made such comments before: "How could the company be retrenching people when they are making profits?" "Why can't the company provide us with more benefits, they are so rich, it's just peanuts to them."  "Why does the company only ask me to work, but never send me for any training?" "I sacrificed so much family time for the company, why am I not promoted?"  Whenever I read or hear such comments, it just make me wonder why do people not realize the truth about the relationship between employees and companies? As a corporate warrior for  nine years  and counting , each year only reminds me more firmly about this hard truth.  Companies exist to accomplish the vision of the owners. It could be to leave a legacy, fulfill their dreams, make money or whatever. It's never, I repeat, NEVER for the employees. To a company, employing an employee is a transaction. A transaction for a service the empl

I was recently awarded an Advanced Diploma after working on it for two years. I was looking through the past certificates that I have. Guess what! I have also an Advanced Diploma in Mass Media. I did it when I was back in University (more than 10 years ago), thinking of exposure and diversification (just in case). Similarly, I have a Certificate in General Insurance. If it were ten years back, I would be so proud of all these academic achievements. Not today. In fact, I just wonder why on earth did I spend the money on these stuff. So what if you have some many designations, so many degrees, so many certificates under your belt? What difference does it make if you don't make use of it, intend to make use of it, or have plans for what to do with it? It will just be a waste of time, effort and money, which could be invested in other areas isn't it? For people who are still young, getting multiple certificates, degrees, designations are good exposure. Also, when you

I bought a sold- out event ticket at double its retail price on Carousell , and was trying (hard) to sell it at what I buy at. It was tough. It's still on sale. After being a corporate warrior for nine years, there is a skill that is totally lacking in me --- selling. You see, my corporate job mainly requires me to share technical know-how. My selling point is my technical know- how, which my clients have already purchased from my company. I do not sell anything that requires people to fork out their money. My company has a marketing and business development group to oversee this. Direct selling is definitely not what I get to do at work. In my life, there are occasions where I need to be involved in these, but the chances are rare. I spend most of my time as a consumer.  When I try to sell some items, I realize that I tend to be on the receiving end. On reflection, there are a number of skills that I lack, and these are ones I identify: 1. Be street smart I te

I have been a corporate warrior for nine years, and in these nine years, I have worked for three different companies, in three very different roles. These nine years also shaped what I want from a job. Just recently, I received my five year award from my current company. This is my first long service award.  Just after graduation, I started my first job. Back then, my aim was to earn as much as possible. Thus, I took the job that offer the largest pay package. My first job was a great company, but the role I was in did not suit me at all then. The first job requires that I interact with a huge number of people -- from management for approval of project and budget, to different department engineers for coordination of jobs, to contractors and technicians to request them to do a job and how to do them, and so on and so forth. When I just graduated, I was shy. Talking to so many people was a pain to me. I didn't last long in that job, and changed to another one within a ye

I spent the past few months doing stock trading.  To be exact from November till today, I have only done 3 trades. The trading technique I used is actually no technique honestly. I totally ignored the typical technical indicators such as moving average convergence divergence (MACD), relative strength index (RSI) or stochastic oscillator which you would see in any technical analysis guidebook. The trading technique I used was instead simply observation within my knowledge limited scope of course.  Nonetheless, before I apply this technique, I did a general check on the balance sheet of the stock. This counter has more cash than total liabilities. However, its profit margin is low, and it's profits are definitely not as high as many others in the same industry as it is. To me, this company is like a mom- and- pop store that earns enough to feed everyone, while making sure they don't go bust. So if my trading hypothesis is wrong, very likely the amount I will lo

I used to own 34,000 units of CMA3.8% bonds , until they were redeemed it in January this year. This bond has a coupon of 3.8% for the first 5 years, and 4.5% after that. They have an option to redeem the bonds from Jan 2017 onwards, and they did. It seems reasonable since if they weren't redeemed, the interest to be paid out would be 4.5%, which is not justifiable since they are able to get loans with lower interest rate. With this redemption, I am looking at other avenues to maintain or even better my interest income. One of the bond that I was looking at is the retail perpetual bond issued by Genting at a coupon of 5.125% per year. If this bond is not redeemed in 2022 (10 years after being issued), the coupon goes to 6.125%. But there's a catch. This security may be redeemed in whole on the first call date or any distribution payment date thereafter. The first call date for the retail bond is October 2017. This is a  nice article by fundsupermart  on their opinion

We Asians love to associate your success with work.  Recently, I met up with my friends to celebrate the Chinese New Year before it starts. Due to the extremely hectic schedule of many of them, we finally managed to squeeze a day out to meet. This makes me feel so lazy, as I seem to be the one who is able to make it most of the time! Many of my friends are so busy that they clocked numerous hours on weekday evenings, and even on weekends for their company. For me, I have been arriving at 9 am and leaving at 6 pm sharp daily. Most of the time, not turning on my office laptop after working hours (unless really required). Sharks, I seem too free, and it seems quite unusual. In fact, from the meeting, I get the feeling from many that busy is good, and the reverse sounds trouble. Being not busy means you are not important to the company.  There are generally a number of works that we are busy with.  Since I am an engineer, let me share with you the type of works we ar

I have this hobby of googling random words or names that come to my mind. Sometimes, there's nothing much from the search results. Sometimes, otherwise. Today, I googled minimialist: Since the search, I have been reading on this topic for the past few hours. Minimalism The main idea revolving around the concept of minimalism, is basically having less possessions so that one can focus on more important things in your life and lead richer lives, or in short less for more. Joshua Millburn describes it best with this Minimalists don’t focus on having less, less, less; rather, we focus on making room for more: more time, more passion, more experiences, more growth, more contribution, more contentment. More freedom. Clearing the clutter from life’s path helps us make that room. Look at the photos and simple captions here  to have an insight of how ZEN minimalism can be. It seems that minimalism has become increasingly fashionable, particularly in Japan. How I

My partner and I have almost separate finances. The only item that is many under both our names, is the present home that we are living in. Our mortgage repayment is done 50- 50 and deducted directly from CPF. We have no joint bank accounts (except the one that the bank made us open for the mortgage for cash top- ups, if required. The value in it is $0 for now), no credit cards under both's names, or whatsoever. And we are living very well under such arrangement. Both of us are working, and are able to support ourselves prior to the marriage. And both of us  intend to continue working after marriage. Hence, why should marriage change how we manage our finances? In addition, we understand and respect one another's differences. As such, the decision for separate finances. One Ground Rule We have only one ground rule regarding each others' finances -- Whatever we do, we must spend within our means (no debt, except for housing which we can be in debt for).