March 2016 Portfolio Update

Stock Name	No of Shares	Current Price	Current Value
Keppel Corp	1000	$5.890	$5,890
Accordia Golf Trust	9000	$0.610	$5,490
NeraTel	5000	$0.540	$2,700
Cash			$4,400
Total Value			$18,480

The month of March portfolio had recovered another 6%. Together with last month portfolio recovery of 8.43%. A total of close to 15% had been recovered in my portfolio. But my portfolio is still down 7.2% due to the poor performance by NeraTel. Although there is indication of sign showing we are already out of the bear, but investors are still not optimistic based on the current market sentiments.

There is no movement in my portfolio this month as I am still on the sidelined to wait for the right timing to go in. I have my cash ready to deploy when the moment has come. Meanwhile I will still be actively monitor the market to see if there is any gems to be found next month. If not I will just continue to wait for the right moments. Remember, it is not necessary to always be vested all the time when you have spare cash. It is always good to have a warchest ready when you know it is time to went in when everybody is trying to get out.

Income received from blogging is taxable now

Yesterday, some fellow bloggers have revealed that they received a letter from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), requiring them to clarify their income sources, which include products or services received via their websites. Payments in exchange for services performed by social media are required to file for income and be taxable.

There are some FAQs posted in IRAS which you can find here to answer some of your queries or concerns. Some bloggers use their own money to host their website to publish their ideas or thoughts as a personal blog and in return make some income from advertising to cover their expenses. Do you think they should be liable to file for income and be tax? Will this piece of news impact you as a blogger and you stop blogging?

My personal thought on this is, I will still continue to publish my ideas or thoughts through my personal blog. But will probably remove those advertisement that will allow me to earn some income from it. How about you as a blogger? Does this piece of news impact you?

Singapore telcos to continue exploration for innovations

Technologies advances over the past few decades had a great impact on telecommunication industry. Today the telecommunication companies are no longer just the "phone companies" but an IT companies offering wide range of services ranging from Internet access, managed services, cloud computing platforms and online security. Traditionally the telcos revenue comes from voice calls and Short Messaging Service (SMS).

With the transformation of technology, messaging services like WhatApp, WeChat and Skype had overtaken SMS and phone calls as the major means of communication. Revenue was affected and they must come out with innovative ideas and applications to maintain their earnings in order to answer to their shareholders and benefits the consumers.

Singtel is not greatly affected by the transformation of technology as they had a very diversified business operation globally such as phone services, TV services, internet fibre/broadband services, managed services and data centre services etc.

Starhub has a slight impact on their earning as they had lost the English Barclays Premier League (BPL) broadcast to Singtel few years ago and for the next 3 years the broadcasting rights still belong to Singtel. They also shared the network infrastructure with Singtel for their internet fibre/broadband services which limit their capabilities in this service aspect. In general, they only provide phone services, TV services and internet fibre/broadband services. They also had a small market share on managed services.

M1 will be the worst hit as compare to Singtel and Starhub. They only had phone services and internet fibre/broadband services. With such a limited services or applications available, how to entice the consumers to engage their services.

With the introduction of the 4th telco, the 3 telcos will certainly lose some of their market shares. They had to continue to innovate with new ideas or create new applications to benefit the consumers to retain their services with them.

Are we experiencing the bull run now?

STI has recovered from the recent low of 2531.79 points on 12 Feb 2016 to the closing price of today at 2823.51 points. A good 11.5% recovery for a period of one month. So what has triggered this bull run? I treat the current rise as a strong counter-trend rally rather than the start of a new bull market. Given the sharp rise over the past 1-2 weeks, we should be expecting a pullback from the 2840 level. Traditionally, March to April period is a benign period for Singapore market as blue chips tend to be well supported ahead of their XD period.

Technically, we are experiencing a slight recovery in the short term. Whether it will continue to rise to STI 3000 points and above, I am not too sure whether we will see it after the XD period. One thing for sure is, I will slowly take some profit of the table along the way and stay on the sidelined to see what the market is moving to. If the market starts to pull back now, I will just sit on it and collect the dividend once the XD period.

Why I want to invest?

It is a common question one will ask why you want to invest. Investment can be profitable or can be destructive if one did not manage it properly. Investor must do their due diligence before they embark into this investment journey. So what are the things that investor should do before they invest?

1. Get educated
Read more on investment related finance books to equip yourself with the knowledge on investment. By doing so, you will be more prepared than those who know nothing about investment and blindly follow analyst report when they give a buy call rating.

2. Ask yourself why you invest
First of all, you have to ask yourself this question. What is the rationale behind this investment? Is it because you want to make your money work harder for you or you work hard to make more money? Don't simply make an investment because the people around you are investing and you follow suit. There is a reason why you invest.

3. Invest on money you can lose
When it comes to investment, always bear in mind that you will lose money. No one can always make money when it comes into investment. It take times to unlock the value of your investment in order to make money. So bear in mind, do not invest on money that you need it in the next 6 months or 1 year.

4. Track your investment transaction
Once you started your investment, keep track on every single transactions you made. Reflect on why this investment make or lose money. If this investment lose money due to certain decision you had made, make sure you do not repeat this mistake again. If this investment make money for you, do not be too happy over it.

Back to the question why I want to invest. Firstly, I do not wish to see my savings in my bank account earning miserable interest from the bank. Due to inflation, the money in your bank will not be the same value few years or decade down the road. You need to invest to beat the inflation. Secondly, by investing I will be able to generate another stream of income to supplement my expenses or to build a bigger nest for my savings. Lastly, by investing for income, I will be able to get out of the rat race if my investment is able to support my yearly expenses. With that I will be able to choose the lifestyles I want to lead before my retirement. If I will to continue to work in order to support my expenses, it will not be a scene I want to see. So start early with your investment, let the time unlock the true value of your investment. The earlier you start, the earlier you can get out of the rat race.