Insomnia Problems II

I've been trying dozen of ways to combat insomnia. Unfortunately, they only work from time to time, and in the worst case I still have to resort to sleeping pills.

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1. Contract tightly, then relax your muscles starting from toes to head and back to toes.

2. Place tongue behind 2 front teeth. Breath in counts of 4, hold for 7 and breath out for 8. Do not assume regular breathing in between.

3. Use White Noise App (Slumber, Calm, Headspace)

4. Wearing socks

5. Glass of milk / Chamomile Tea / Banana

6. Lavender Oil Essence

7. Squeeze left first, release and repeat for right first, counting each as they were sheep.

8. Close your eyes and try your best to stay awake

9. Immerse your face in very cold water for 30 seconds

10. Practice left nostril breathing. Block off your right nostril with your right thumb and take long slow deep breaths through your left nostril only. This is said to have a soothing and relaxing effect on body mind in Yoga.

11.Yoga poses

12. Sleep delta wave music/sound

13. Take a warm bath or shower. Research show this can decrease body temperature and trigger sleepy feeling because your heart rate, digestion and other metabolic processes slow down.

14. Melatonin and other supplements

Letter To Shareholders (7) - Performance Review 2017Q2

Performance Highlights
Market continue its upward trajectory for the year and our portfolio went up by 5.2% for the quarter, compared to 3.8% of the STI, thanks to a couple of purchases we made. Our assessment is that Singapore Market is quite fairly valued now.

We paid out dividends of over $1000, slightly lesser than the same period less year due to the absence of ST Engineering & China Merchant Pacific. It is incredible that we have grown our passive income from less than $1K per year in 2014 to $1k every quarter in just 3 years.

Operating Highlights
Income for the quarter was about 10% higher than last year due to higher revenue and couple of mini items such as credit card cashback.

Earnings is expected to improve significantly in the 2nd half due to presence of bonus items.

Expenses were much lower (~40%) compared to same period last year, and just 5% higher compared to 2015. The only major expenses were as follow, which was really minimal:
- Father's A&E cost in April
- Niece's birthday, good quality replacement chair in May
- Friend's wedding in June

We do not forsee any major expense coming up except for our traditional gift to parents.

Acquisitions & Divestments
We went on the biggest acquisition spree ever (as guided) - firing 3 bullets which all were profitable as of now.

Singtel: We doubled down on this "bluest of blue chips" Telco when it went on sale due to fear from their Australia operations and 4th Telco entry. This is one investment where we have no fear piling on and it has now become our biggest holding (20%). A solid 4.8% dividend yield with Netlink IPO as a major catalyst.

Far East Hospitality Trust: We fired a medium-sized bullet for this and it went up despite the less than stellar results. This is a speculative bet we added mainly to gain exposure to the hospitality sector (which we do not have) which is pose for recovery. We can expect 7% yield or at least 6.5% in the very bad case.

Capitaland Mall Trust: The boat returns again for the trust and we were able to top up our partial fulfillment last quarter to turn this into a full solid position. We have confidence in their grade A malls, all conveniently located beside MRTs. While the fear of online shopping (Amazon, Alibaba) taking over is real, we think Plaza Singapura, Junction 8, Bugis Junction, Westgate, etc... will always have a place in our society. Retail will be transform to become more F&B and service oriented, and friends will still meetup for KTVs, movies, dinner at shopping malls. The ultimate catalyst for this is the transformation of Funan shopping Mall in 2019. For now, we expect a stable 5.8% yield.

For the first time in 3 years, our cash holdings actually went down for a quarter and our equities portfolio have crossed a major milestone.

Financial Strength
We are extremely comfortable with our level of warchest now, and will try to channel as much as possible all future income to investments. We expect to recover 2 bullets from our parent company in the next quarter, and a minor bonus in July, which will help refill our ammunition.

In May, we applied for SCB unlimited card with 2 year fee waiver until May 2019. Expected benefits: Spending $300 on OCBC365 would have gotten $1.0 cashback compared to SCB $4.50 now. We also got $100 vouchers on top of the $138 cashback!

We also just learnt that you can actually top up EZLink card using Credit Card. That's about $1.50 (enough for a free trip) every month, with even greater convenience. While people may laugh at this being negligible. remember that these are practically "free money" with almost no effort.

Outlook
The company will slowdown its expansion in the next quarter with at most 1 or 2 purchase. Currently, Netlink IPO, Comfort Delgro and SGX are on our watchlist.

August is another strong dividend month and Q3 will definitely be a great harvesting quarter.

BTS

I don't even know how I got into this "mess"... LOL.

I believe it started with me watching some "k-pop group dancing other group songs" on Weekly Idol...

And then coming across Pewdiepie's reaction to them, and the Blood Sweat & Tears video. Then clicking on some of the "recommended related videos".

Mistake man.

I clicked on Dope and that's the one that really got me hooked.

So much that I could not stop listening to the song and watching the MV

The choreography (that footwork) is absolutely captivating, the song (its bizarre and strangely addictive saxophone chorus), the ending, the MV, the lyrics (turn on the subtitles) everything is just so... dope.




"I reject rejection!"

Then it went to the dance practice videos, reaction videos and eventually to their other songs:

Fire, Not Today, Bapsae, Boys In Luv, War of Harmone, Danger...

It's freaking amazing how all their songs have such incredible choreography. I was never a fan of dancing, but they made it look like the coolest thing on the planet.

Perfectly sync, some godly moves (Fire climax is my favorite so far), executed extremely cleanly.

Then it went to joke/costume version of their dance, live performances to Bangtan bombs series.

I must have spent like 40 hours in the past week alone watching all these.

And I can't stop watching. I guess I'm part of the Army now.

LOL.

As far as I remember, this is the 3rd time I'm so obsessed with something from Korea.

The first was Yongseo Couple

Second was The Genius.

Insomnia Problems

This has been plaguing me for the longest time.

It's a problem that comes and go randomly.

I have no idea the cause - it's definitely not about feeling particularly stress.

In the past, it could be lying on bed until 3am. Or maybe waking up at 3am and being unable to sleep.

And somehow recently, it's getting worse. Absolute worst.

These days, I can simply toss and turn the entire night, straight until day break.

Doesn't matter weekday or weekends. It just strikes randomly.

I've tried sleep meditation videos and apps, the 4-7-8 breathing, the drinking milk/wearing socks, the blue screen filter, even as far as purchasing melatonin (natural sleeping chemical produced by our bodies), but yet the effects are minimal.

When it strikes, it strikes really hard and randomly. It's like I can never fell asleep once I past the golden hour (usually between 12 to 1am). Worst, this one last up to 2 or even 3 days.

ZZ Financial Education Series 2 - Assets VS Liabilities

“The rich buy assets, the poor buy liabilities”

This is the foundation and fundamental concept towards financial freedom.

Putting aside lottery and inheritance, there are only 2 ways you can make money:

1.     Exchanging Time/Energy for Money, or Human Capital
2.     Making Money From Money, or Financial Capital

Unfortunately, human capital is limited. We cannot work forever, and we only have 24 hours a day. Unless you are a super-high earner who can amass a fortune during your productive age on your job, you can never achieve financial freedom by the first method alone. This is because once you stop working, so does the cash inflow.

Most "commoners" are forever stuck with the first method. We were never taught other ways. If you do so, you will work until the day you die.

Take a moment to consider what would you rather have?

1.     20 Years of food in the warehouse
2.     A farmland of livestock and crops that can produce enough food to feed you every year

1.     $1 million dollars in the bank
2.     Assets that can generate $50K per year, every year, forever.

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The Chinese have a saying - "Even if you have a mountain of gold, it'll eventually dry up when you stop working." (做吃山空)

Hence, the way to financial freedom is not to accumulate a mountain of gold, but to collect things that can generate gold for you perpetually.

The ordinary man work for 40 years, save up loads of money and then hope it'll last him through his retirement until the day he leave Earth. The financial literate person accumulates assets until his assets generate enough cashflow to cover his expenses.

What's the difference?

The second method has some clear advantages: You are never afraid that you would “live too long”. There is no risk of you having to return to work when you are 80 years old cause your retirement fund run out. There is no risk of spending too much when you first cashout your retirement lump sum.

In other words: Grow apple trees, not collect apples. Buy cows, not milk. Buy chickens, not eggs.

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So, what are assets? Assets are essentially anything that produces money/value. An asset generate cash inflow for you.

A simpler definition: If this thing gives you money, it’s an asset. If this thing takes money from you, it’s either an expense or liability.

A good dividend stock? It’s an asset.
A coupon-paying bond? It’s an asset
A milk-producing cow? It’s an asset.
Food that you need to eat? Expense.
Movie and entertainment? Expense.
Student loan? Liability.

Some often misinterpreted ones:

Your insurance/healthcare plan? It’s a liability.
Monthly car installment? It’s a liability.
A house you’re paying mortgage for? It’s a liability.
A house you rented out and collecting money every month? It’s an asset.

Certain things (like house) can be both an asset and liability at the same time. It's a complicated topic with many views but that's beyond the scope of this article. In essence, anything that does not give you money is an expense or liability (food, gadgets, clothings, etc...)

Remember this: The rich buy assets, not liabilities.

Everything is summarize by this guy.

The path to financial freedom is to have your money work for you.

The easiest to do this, for a typical Singaporean, is to use the first method (your human capital) to accumulate your first pot of gold. Save a lot, then invest it into assets.

Let your assets generate income, and use the income to buy more assets. (i.e 钱生钱)

In this diagram below, Poor Dad refer to the financially illiterate and majority of the population. Rich Dad is the path towards financial freedom.

Summary: 
1) Work -> Income -> Buy Assets -> Repeat
2) Assets -> Generate Income -> Buy Assets -> Repeat

In your early years, most of your money will come from the first method. It can only be so for people who aren't born with a silver spoon, for commoners like us.

Thus, you need to make hay while the sun still shine. When you are young, your passive income will be pathetic compared to your active income. As you grow older, your human capital will eventually plateau and go into decline. You have less energy, are at greater risk of being fired, of becoming obsolete, of losing out to fresh graduates. That is the time when your financial capital should take over your human capital to generate money for you.

Eventually it will snowball to the point where income from the 2nd method covers your entire lifestyle expense.

And that, my friends, is financial independence.

A Side Note On Debt

Many young generation today live a "YOLO" lifestyle, thinking they should enjoy all they can, spending all their salary or worse, getting into debt.

Debt and liabilities are the greatest obstacle to financial independence. Debt is borrowing from your future self. Interests on debt are "reverse passive income" that will compound against you. Never get into debt.

Finally I leave you with this video from OnePercentBetter. This article covers Chapter 2.