Introducing my Father-in-law & my Wife. They're "models" in Personal Money magazine October 2005 Issue

Yes, my father-in-law and my wife were in the front cover of Personal Money magazine. That time, she was my girl friend, and her father, well.... let's just say that I used to live in their house most of the time.

Isn't she pretty? She's getting prettier day by day. Take a look at her blog here.

Why are they in the front cover of Personal Money magazine holding money?. Well, they joined the Investment Game organised by the magazine (sponsored by Hwang DBS) together with me.

The contest lasted for 1 year, and the winner was decided based on the investor's return after deduction of all charges and transaction fees. My father-in-law was the Champion, and my wife was 4th. How about me? I got 6th position.



The top 25 is as below:

Special mention: The No. 14 winner, Tan Seok Luan is my good friend, and my 1st agent who joined me in Public Mutual. I informed her about the contest, and suggested her to join as soon as possible, and invest in a low cost Bond Fund with good past performance.
She took my advice, and she kept the winnings. :-)

A few things the 3 portfolios (my Father-in-law, my wife and mine) had in common:
1) We all lived in the same house at that time.
2) We used the same computer.
3) We ate dinner together most of the time... hehehe..
4) All the 3 portfolios were being "advised" by the same person. :-)

The position, total return, and the prize winnings of the 3 portfolios are as below:
1st - 15.26%, winning RM 80,000
4th - 10.40%, winning RM 20,000
6th - 9.23%, winning RM 3,000

Total Prize money won = RM 103,000.
Average return from the 3 portfolios : 11.63%

They interviewed the top 5 winners, and each has their own page story. I missed the Top 5 mark by 0.09%.

My Father-in-law's full page interview

My Wife's full page interview

The Winner's Circle. My name was mentioned, though i wasn't "promoted" as husband, yet.

What's interesting, is this small side article:

There were 2,326 unique participants, with 3,153 portfolios (some joined 2 or more entries). Since each person had an initial RM 100,000 virtual fund to start with, they as a group, managed RM 315 Million.

Average Losses for the 3,153 portfolio is -1.41% !!

Meaning, these 3,153 participants ended up with less than RM 315 Million after the contest ended. Mind you, that period, the KLCI went from 827.49 points on August 2nd 2004 (dropping to a low 804.89 points on August 24th 2004) to close at 937.39 on July 29th 2005, one of the highest KLCI points of the contest!

The results show:

1. These contestants will better off just by putting their money in FD. At least they won't get a -ve return.
2. In fact, they will be better off by not doing anything with the money (rather than simply buying unit trust funds). This way, the overall portfolio would be 0%, which is better than -1.41%!
3. Or it could simply mean that they took this contest for "fun", and thought that they could not possibly be among the top 25 (6th position to 25th will get RM 3,000 worth of Unit Trust by Hwang-DBS).

I know i did not take this contest for fun as there is real money at stake! Infact, all my money (then, now, and future) are serious money. I think carefully before I put my money anywhere. I always compare what I pay with what I get.

Being frugal is totally a different meaning compared to being a miser.

In one my future entries, maybe I would explain more about the 4th position portfolio 'Dynamic Asset Allocation' which I believe is supposed to shine out among the 3 portfolios.

My Personal Money interview in 2008.

In January 2008’s issue of Personal Money, I was asked about my investing sentiment for 2008, and my answers below might be of interest for review for the entire year of 2008.

Question 1: What is your investing sentiment for 2008. Are you optimism or more guarded? What are the main reasons for your sentiment?
My Answer : Frankly speaking, i don't have any investing sentiment for 2008. I make no attempt to predict how security markets will behave. Successfully forecasting short term price movements is something I think neither me or anyone else can do. However, it is clear that stocks cannot forever outperform their underlying businesses, as they have so dramatically done for some time.

Question 2: What will you be investing in 2008. For example, if staying in equities - will you be looking to acquire more defensive type stocks or buying property or investing outside the country?
My Answer : More than 99% of my assets are invested in these 3 categories (currently, and into the forseeable future) :
a) Bond Funds - For emergency needs, and temporary "parking" for my funds until i can deploy into equities at good price.
b) Equity Unit Trust - For long term capital growth, with minimum time needed to supervise.
c) Direct equity through shares - I consistently search for businesses that are sold below it's intrinsic value. Though it might not happen everytime, but when it does, I might invest up to 40% of my assets in a single security under conditions coupling an extremely high probability that my facts and reasoning are correct with a very low probability that anything could drastically change the underlying value of the investment. Personally, i am willing to trade the pains of substantial short term price variance in exchange for maximisation of long term performance. However, i am not willing to incur risk of substantial permanent capital loss in seeking to better long term performance.

My only foreign equity (excluding Equity Funds) is Berkshire Hathaway, a company which its' CEO and biggest shareholder is Warren Buffett.

Question 3: What other plans would you have for your investing portfolio (e.g. long term objectives or diversifications strategies)
My Answer : Besides what i shared above, i've also does a few things which helps me to achieve financial independence better, safer and faster:
a) Our family does not own any Fixed Deposits. Also, we keep our cash in Savings/ Current Account to a very minimum level. This is because every dollar there, would lose it's value after inflation.
b) At the low rate and the right terms, i'm willing to borrow to invest. But i clear off my credit card balance every month, as i know my investment limitations.
c) We don't focus on how much we earn but on how much we save every month.