Monday, 30 March 2015

What's the best use of your salary in Wealth Building?

A salaried man earns a fixed income, every month and in doing do, would be able to correctly budget his lifestyle and investment. I posed a question to Colin, whats the best way to use a fixed income? and whats the fastest way to accumulate deposit for property investment.

In this blog, we are always talking about rentable, tenanted property for passive income generation. Capital gains is a by the way product, it will come, but its not meant to be the reason for purchasing any property.

So the discussion went on... 

A few options came out, Fixed Deposit, Savings, Shares, Speculation, TOTO etc... Which is not safe. 

A person starting with ZERO cash, with an nett income of $5000, do I save for 2 years to reach $120k? Thats just for a downpayment for a $500k property. What if the property price rise about 5% per annum - Thats 10%. How do you catch such a rise in the shortest time?

How many of you would be thinking? Hey, I should use that $5000 or part of it as interest payment and find a loaner that will give me that loan. Hmm... if $5000 goes into monthly instalment, how much can you raise? Pls work out and tell me if this is safe enough for you. 

May you fulfil your dreams soon... and not wait 2 years to save 120k. Do it in 3 months. 

Cheers! Thank you.

Sunday, 22 March 2015

Malacca Property Investment

I have 2 units in Melaka that are recently completed. Buying off-plan is not something that investors do normally, however, for cash poor investors that seems to be the best way, over paying - yes. However, the magic that these developers can do to get you on the ladder is amazing. This is contrary to buying BMV. Price may be higher, but as long as financing allows it, why not? We do need to start somehow right? I looked at a property as a business. high or low price does not matter to me as much as the cashflow generation from a business. 

This magic allows me to get 2 units of the Imperial Heritage Hotel. A prime locality in the heart of UNESCO Melaka (Malacca) right opposite Dataran Palawan. This colonial style building was soft launched on the 19th March and there are already walk-in customers taking up rooms in the hotel. 

The restaurants and other services are not even ready yet. 

What is the potential returns? The 4-5 star hotel rooms are mostly about RM 250 and above. The occupancy rate is at least 70% with all weekends fully booked. The tourism industry in Melaka is booming and this is a good project helmed by a young team ready to impress. Lets see how Imperial Heritage can move forward. 







Friday, 6 March 2015

Financial Literacy Games

I was wondering there are dummy practise account for stocks, why isn't there a training system for properties? 

There is indeed a need for something that people can practise with online. With the exception of the cashflow games by RK, monopoly, there isn't really much and the rules of the games are not tuned to local context until...

AK blogged about a Assets Finese, a game developed by local entrepreneur to hopefully address this gap.

http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/2015/03/have-fun-as-whole-family-improve-on.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ASingaporeanStockmarketInvestorassi+(A+Singaporean+Stockmarket+Investor+(ASSI))

there is even a competition for this. Good grief, go for it! 

Expectations

Recently, I read an article in Asian reporting that 1 in 5 young graduates expect a starting salary of $4000 and in this article, the writer wrote :This contrasts sharply with the average starting pay for a bachelor's degree (without honours) at $2,741, according to an earlier report last month. 

1 in 5 graduates expect $4,000 starting pay: STJobs - See more at: http://business.asiaone.com/career/news/1-5-graduates-expect-4000-starting-pay-stjobs#sthash.lHJnS7kY.dpuf

So, I had a discussion with Colin, he told me about his brother's girlfriend who had this mentality as well. I worked hard, therefore I deserve starting pay of $4000. Well done I say! Well this is technically not wrong as the Government has already set the bench mark as follows :

SPF Pay Scheme
Entry Rank
Graduate Pay-Scale[7]
Assistant Superintendent of Police
$3, 710 - $4,470
Inspector of Police
$3,180 - $4,010

But lets put everything in perspective, while I agree that it is not wrong to think you deserve $4000 and have no clue about the outside world and have no relevant experience, no passion about the job i.e., during your free time, you will be out catching the latest movie and debating whether #thatdress is white or blue and why? You spend your time yakking instead of reading up on the latest developments in the field of your choice, why then would someone not hire other instead of you? They worked hard too, have a personal investment portfolio, have a view of the current climate totally backed up with sound analysis to boot and hell, he even has a way with words that makes you want to part your money and put it with him for investment and he is asking for a chance to learn and serve the biggest client... not for $4000 but for a profit sharing programme. He don't make the cut, he will fire himself. Who will choose you over him?

Wait, why are graduates so keen to find employment and not keen to pursue their dreams? 

Wait, what are dreams? 

Wait, we have lost our dreams since kindergarten... what drives you to get up each morning? What issues drives you to not sleep each night and ponder? #thatdress?  Good luck to you!



Saturday, 7 February 2015

7 steps to financial freedom

This morning, I had a whatsapps conversation with E. She is one of those agents who believe in property price is forever increasing and each property is a savings plans. 

Well, we agree to disagree. I told her about my cashflow philosophy and to get her expenses in control and replace her expenses with passive income from business, property or other sources. Free up her salary for investment. Trading up is not a way to go, it merely increases the liability forever. 

As always, I shared my favourite OCBC 360 accounts with 3.05% and she was surprised she did not know about this account. I also disagree about putting her money into different accounts, eg savings in her children's account. I told her the prudent way is to consolidate to get better income as a bigger client for the bank is a better way of getting higher returns.

We discuss HDB as well. HDB loan is one of the biggest stumbling blocks today. It requires you to empty the CPF account to pay for the downpayment. Which leaves the average Joe dependent on each month's salary to meet the mortgage service requirement without a massive base to depend on in case of emergency. This, I feel is very sad. I took a bank loan to preserve my base so that I could quit at anytime of my life and I have a sizable base for monthly installment. This is prudence.

Lets recap and work out a system :

1.  Go through your expenses and work out the fixed income and decrease the variable income.
2.  Protection, get yourself protected with term insurance.
3.  Work on your credit ratings and leverage power.
4.  Invest in network of agents, bankers, investors and attend free workshops.
5.  Tap on their expertise.
6.  Invest in cashflow income stream.
7.  Create multiple income stream.

When passive income > expenses, work on capital growth investments. 

As always, build a solid base, only then can you use that base to leap high and far!

Why are there no or so few property investment blogs compared to shares investment blog?

Dear Readers, as a avid follower of the principal of cashflow principals, I've found there are little or no blogs on the steps towards financial success in property investment. Yet, there are tonnes of people writing about shares and shares investment and its exciting every day with share prices going up and down. If you are a follower of the cashflow principal, perhaps, shares is not a market you go into?

Lets say, if property blogs are written as share investment style, what would it be like?

It would probably be monotonous and without any excitement... 1 year of writing later and the market stays stagnant. Cashflow ~ same for the next few years, so whats so exciting about property investment vs shares?

Well, as far as I know, property investors are actively in the market researching, negotiating and raising funds and they have no time for market update by earnings, price changes etc. Price change, they take it in their stride. When Sqft research started analysing property by technical indicators, I got a good laugh. Yes it is possible to do so, and it gives a good base for the beginner investor, but really is every property same as another?

Do you have any good property investment blog to recommend?



Tuesday, 3 February 2015

11 Central Avenue Moorabin

This development by Stellar reminded me of Toa Payoh and the quaint little city in Delft. Its a nice city centre location near the train station. This photo below actually shows the location, it has nice shops along the strip and its quiet and near amenities.



Lets see the location. 

11 Central Avenue is about 200 m from the train station. 

What about population growth in the suburb and others? Lets say this is micro-analysis and the location is nice and next to transport, it should be easily rentable. The apartments are all 2 BR and 3 BR starting from AUD 440K for 2B 1B and 1Carpark with good layout.