Chiong!

My company has had 4 nights out so far in the past 3 weeks.

it seems alot and i think some companies think we are very slack.

but i must say that our training is tough and we do not waste time.

after all, the time we waste is not the commanders, it is ours.

this week was mostly tests and range. shooting the m203 was cool and i enjoyed seeing the grenade being launched so far into the horizon.

watched wanted and hellboy: the golden army. wanted was nonsense and hellboy was so-so. nothing compared to transformers.

looking forward to The Dark Knight. The trailer for it was K-O-O-L.

read finish the book " warren buffett speaks"

it was nice and i learnt alot about the way that WB speaks and thinks.

dare say that i sort of idolize him.

so far been learning the various interpretation and meanings of some financial terms. like assets, credits, debits, liabilities and alot of economic terms. its kind of confusing but i hope that over time i will learn it well and be able to explain it off the back off my head. :)

im always updating it right before i book in.

so it is always rushed... sorry. i should put more time into it. oh well..

ooo. dinner with some of the cell members just now was nice. ate omelet's rice. nice:)









BB

Got to go

have to leave the house in fifteen minutes:(

and i forgot to blog.

haha. oh my.

eh.. som1 told me to tok more abt my life.

this week was pretty tiring and sian at the same time. it really passed by really slowly. mostly, we were doing endurance training and alot of weapon training. for the sar21, saw and m203.

i dont support war, so the weapon doesnt interest me very much. although i feel the sar21 is like some halo gun. pretty cool.

hmm.

hope to do more fitness training this week. pull ups are still pretty weak:( haha. oh well.

finance wise there is nothing much. only read up on stuff like bargain issues and what type of issues an aggressive investor should look out for, with the individual conditions for each corresponding issue. so its not easy.

haha.

initial public offering = it's probably overpriced.

haha. thats a easy way of remembering what it means or the way to remember the initials IPO.

spending my weekends pretty boring. am wanting to go out one day and just hang loose.
been spending alot on sports.
so perhaps a change is in need??

oh well.

sorri for the rush.. i have no time:( booked out late.

haha. till next week

1st week in sispec

Going to book in in a couple of hours. :( but at least i got plenty of rest and feel like i will be able to endure the upcoming one week. Furthermore i have guard duty this Wednesday:( Oh well, everyone has to go through it.

I'm posted to the company Hotel of SISPEC. First impression is what kind of name is hotel?? Well, compared to companies like Charlie, i think I'm kind of glad that I am in it. Because the training is much more worst there. :P

First week was pretty slack. Pretty much all just lectures with the occasional physical training.
Always feel sleepy in the lectures. :P Except for some, as 1 of the Warren Officers is seriously interesting and entertaining and can't help but pay attention.

Having to do pull ups before all my meals has pretty much screwed up my hands and its so rough.. peeling.. Sometimes is not because I'm shag from doing the pull up but that my hands just hurt like mad.

haha.

In camp now, theres not much time to read books because of the tests that they give u. Can't believe that i have to study in army for army stuff. Didn't know it worked that way. Haha. Plus they are all pretty boring stuff.


i need to find some1 man.

oh. about financial stuff.

hm.. i love this quote by warren buffett. " Rule 1: Do not lose money. Rule 2: Do not forget rule 1. "

haha. i think it applies more towards financial stuff. Like a business.

Nowadays i feel so guilty when i buy drinks or stuff because i feel like i shouldn't buy it as i probably can live without it.

To be more accurate, nowadays when i buy stuff i try to ask myself whats the long term benefit of buying stuff.

Which pretty much explains why i have not bought any music cds in months as i feel it does not benefit me much in the long term.

This week read the book on Warren Buffett and about his philosophy. Alot of quotes and how he view life and work. Its really interesting.

Read the interpretation of financial statements book. Only read a few pages. The chapter i read was about the balance sheet and on how to understand what it is talking abt. Like liabilities, assets and others. Feel that its alot towards accounts. So can't help but feel if i am reading the wrong stuff because i'm not studying accountancy. But i felt that the information should be helpful and will help me. Especially since i'm planning to major in investments.

ha. does anyone know Berkshire Hathaway inc?

well, WB is the CEO there and i been like reading alot on how the company started and its progress over the years. Hard to believe that it orginated from a texile company to now a conglomerate holding company. i find it damn cool. Makes me think i should buy over the nearest mama shop and start from scratch my own holding company. Which isn't impossible u know:)

ah. what else is there to write.

oh. army's sports day is this week. plan to take part in the basketball. just somehow like basketball alot. always spend 5 hours on the saturday of my book out period playing basketball:0
thats all.

By yours truly,
DOSB

SISPEC

So it turns out that i have been posted to SISPEC. Hmm. Not sure what to feel about it. Since i have heard both the pros and cons of it. Oh well. Take it one step at a time??

Whole week was just having fun and freeing myself from the grasps of the dreadful SAF hands. :)
Managed to go out, watch dvds and others.

Managed to spend time running to East Coast Park and back to home. Hopefully stamina is better than before.

Class gathering yesterday was pretty successful in the sense that people came. Was worried that the 13 seats i booked would be like only a quarter filled. Haha. Gathering was shorter than i hoped. So maybe next time I will organize it better and it would be more fun.

Haha. Heart throb.

Caught the Russia vs Netherlands game. My first EURO game for this year. It was not bad. Russia won deservingly. They were by far the better team.

Not much financial stuff to talk. Pretty disappointed in myself that i did not spend a lot of time during this leave to read up more. HECK, i read more during bmt.

Bought this book called " Warren Buffett SPEAKS". This book is more for leisure and just to relax. Because the book mostly talks about his philosophy and his views on different aspects of life. So just reading up and trying to understand how a man of his statue thinks.

Turns out he is a fond player of bridge. Haha.

Today is going to be short entry as I can't think of anything to write. Haha. Maybe because I'm not looking forward to going back into army again tomorrow.

Haha.

More next week

POP:)

Graduation parade was last Wednesday:) Finally graduated. Took quite a few photos. Some of them are already placed on friendster and facebook:0

Parade went on fine and there wasn't really any hiccups during the whole event. Although there was quite a lot of coughing by people when we were supposed to keep still during the parade. Hopefully no one from far could see the person coughing. Otherwise it kind of spoils the parade.

Went Zouk at night with my section guys. Felt that it was much more fun than doing it with my classmates which i did after prom last year. Ha. The feeling was just different. This time i could really hang loose man:) I saw people grinding like crazy and all i can say is yucks and that they are so obvious that it disturbs me that the girls did nothing. Crazy world man.

"I see you winding and grinding up on that pole ~~~~~~~"

Well not really a pole.

It should be :

"I see you winding and grinding down on the floor"

Ha. So true.

Been doing sports and exercising more often. Now have a few bruises from basketball:( But it will go away soon i hope. Ran from my place to east coast park. Only for 45 minutes. Pretty poor but hopefully it will get better over this week. HeE~~

Borrowed a couple of dvds. Watched Juno, Knocked up, Spiderman 3 and Dodge ball. Haha. I missed these movies so just catching up on them. Although was disappointed by the suckiness of Spiderman 3. Heck, I didn't pay money to see Peter Park dancing and jumping from table to table. Jeez. What was the director thinking?

In terms of business related stuff. Did not really spend much time catching up on it. Back in tekong there was not really much time because of rehearsals and stuff. Furthermore, when i came back I think spend too much time just having fun that i never catch up on it. :( That so sucks.

Going to spend time soon reading on some new annual reports. They are United Overseas Bank Limited Summary Financial Report 2007 and SIA Engineering Company. Not much idea what is it about. But hopefully i will get to learn more about it. Feel that it is important to expose myself and to understand different industries and businesses. :) Dad had a magazine called INVEST ( march issue). Going to read up on it too. Recently in Singapore there was so much oo ha over the failed buy over of jade technologies by Dr Anthony Soh. Till the extent he is sueing the broker and some investment company or something. Can't really remember. Ha. Not that sure about this topic.

Dad just told me that he doesn't buy bonds, only shares. Am sure he has a strategy. But i feel that it would be safer to have portfolio of both bonds and shares. For an example, bonds cannot be less than 25% of the entire portfolio and more than 75% for the entire portfolio. Vice versa for shares. This logic is based on the fact that you would prefer a portfolio that can endure different situations. Like when inflation rise, shares are more protected than bonds? I hope i remembered correctly. Haha.

Regarding the recent deaths of the two ns man. It's sad and is causing a lot of trouble for the SAF. For the initial death, which is of the obese recruit. I can only say it's either he did not drink up as instructed or he just has a weak heart or something. As for the guy at Brunei, Something must have really gone wrong. Possibly a heat stroke or something.

As if a death isn't enough, there had to be another one 2 days later.

I wonder if God is trying to send a message. Hmm..

Will never know i guess.

Update soon. My birthday is coming soon.

19th birthday.

Feeling old.

DARN IT!!!

I .. lost...my..army...phone...
darrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnnn iiiiiiitttttttttttt...

Well, at least i didn't lose my wallet or the ipod touch... so i guess thats comforting myself.. haha. Actually, it's not more about having to waste money to buy and replace a new one. But rather that it is wasting time and inconvenient.. CHICKEN BACKSIDE.

This week was rather long. There was the 24 km route march and I'm a sucker to it. My back always cock up during it. So it's hurting during the later parts of the march. But! I finished it:) Must say that I was happy at the end, like clenching my fist in some sort of victory that I achieved. Because, honestly earlier in the BMT I didn't think I would be able to complete the 24 km route march. So, in some ways it's an accomplishment to me. You can say that for some people it's easy and what's the big deal. I can only say that each indiviual's body and mentality is different. That's that.

Coming this wednesday is my passing out parade. Finally. Must say that although the 9 weeks passed by relatively quickly, i really just want to finish it and take a break during my block leave. Am looking forward to exercising and doing more sports during this peroid of time. Hopefully, a good ps3 game would come out.. Haven't really been getting any new games. Also, I want to spend more time reading the book i bought and some other stuff.

Didn't really get to read up much on the book " intelligent investor" this last one week. I spend the only free moments reading up on the annual reports that i asked my dad to pass me.. Because he has a fair share of shares and bonds, so he get annual reports from time to time. This time I was reading up on shares from Sembcorp Industries Ltd and Wee Hur Holdings Ltd. This two companies orginate from Singapore and are doing relatively well. Comparing the two, Sembcorp is the bigger company and is doing much better with a turnover of 8.6 billion in 2007, up 6% from 8.1 billion in 2006. Just to share what Sembcorp mainly do, they have four areas they 'specialise" in. That is Utilities, Marine & Offshore Engineering, Enviromental Management and Industrial Parks. Complicated right?? To be frank, I'm not a hundred percent sure about what each sector does. But i just have a rough idea. Must say that in 2007, sembcorp focused less on industrial parks and enviromental management.. and focused more on the other two.

When i asked my dad what was Sembcorp, he looked shocked and was like" how come you don't know". He even said that it was his favorite share.

This statement stuck with me for quite a while.

Was eating dinner with mother and him yesterday. Then i just felt like asking him why did he say that it was his favorite share. He said because the dividend was high and the earnings per share increased.

Overall, i think because the company is doing well and has a good chance of maintaining substainable growth in the future, that's why their dividend has increased from 12.0 cents in 200 to 15.00 cents in 2007, a 25% growth. Their share price also grew 59%. So actually I am quite impressed with their company and their shares.

However, I feel that just because a company or a share's dividend is high, it doesn't neccessary mean that it is a wise choice to buy it. There may be times when you do so, and you come to regret doing it as time pass by.

Why so? Basically, when a company or a coporation has/gain a net surplus/profit, they have two options. One is to pay out to the shareholders through dividend. The second is to re-invest in the business such as research and development and others. So, if the dividend is so high, it can actually be a cause for worry. Think it this way, if the company devotes so much money to paying out to the shareholders and not do something to improve the quality of business or whatsoever. It could indicate that the company is actually starting to lose their focus on their plan for the futures and could possiblely be unable to maintain a substainable growth afer awhile. When this occurs, you just find that the business is losing out to better competitors. They fare badly, the share prices would drop and you just find yourself losing money.

One thing i learn is that when you buy shares of a company/coporation. Don't think it as of just buying this lot and waiting for it to rise and quickly sell it away for the profit. It may work but thats more speculative rather then actually doing your homework. Rather, it's best to really think it like you are actually owning part of the business. So, when you actually want to own part of a business, it's important to research on things like whether the company core values are there, their business prospects, whether they are holding a strong position in the market they are in,etc. When the business does well, share prices would more often than not, rise. But thats not always the case that it will rise jsut because their business is doing well. I will explain next time when i really have confidence in this topic.

In conclusion, never buy shares just because the dividend is high. It's important to read between the lines. There may be many reasons why the dividend is so high, and some may not be positive..

I know I recently been talking so much about this sort of issues. Finance and business related issues. Actually, I'm doing so because i just to practice writing out such stuff from my head. :) Aim to maintain this blog till uni. So hopefully when i enter uni, this information would prove useful. But of course i still have to maintain reading up on the books i bought and the annual reports. One reason why i decided to read annual reports is because i just wanted to do something Warren Buffet does. He reads annual reports. Hundreds of them a year. I don't know if I can do that. But hopefully i can read up as much as possible. The only thing i can say is that every time i blog , i will talk about my life for abit then proceed on to the business related stuff. Pardon me if some of the stuff i write about the finance turns out wrong. Better still, tag me telling me about it. :):)

hmm. i so want to learn how to drive now.. i want to drive mom's bmw. and it's new. wah lao. Although it doesn't belong to me. :( one day one day:)

I asked one to think of something interesting to write... Apparently the words below are interesting.

I LOVE BARNY THE PURPLE DINOSAUR. AND MY GREATEST DREAM EVER IS TO TAKE A PHOTO WITH MICKEY AND MINNEY MOUSE IN DISNEYLAND

Lol..


I will update soon:)

New Blog!

It's been a while since i ever type a post in a blog. It feels weird. Typing my thoughts while hearing the blasting music. It feels weird.

Anyway, here I am. A new blog. The previous one was at www.osamastrikesback.blogspot.com
Decided to stop using it as i found it troublesome to maintain it. Preferred a simple template. Which You can obviously see in the background.

Guess I will update a bit of what has happened over the past few months. Firstly, A levels. H2s- AAB. H1s-CE. Didn't do that fantastic. I guess thats what happens when one does last minute work. Remembered entering Saint Andrew Junior College (SAJC) and telling myself to work hard and study consistenly. But alas, i guess things didn't turn out that way. Luckily i still did well enough to study business in Singapore Management University (SMU). I know this year was really competitive. So many people applied for business. However, i can't help but just feel that people want to do it because they believe that studying business will gurantee you a successful career and a quick path to riches.

Guess it's all due to the recent articles in the newspaper. Like how many percent are guranteed jobs and how many earn 5 thousand and above as a starting pay.

I decided to study it for a few reasons. Firstly, I can't deny that I was sort of affected by the fact that so many people were applying for it. Secondly, I thought business couldn't be that hard to study. Haha. Seriously. But I must say that over the past few months, I developed an interest in business related issues. Like the business matters stated in the newspaper. For an example, what happened at Stern Bears, rising oil prices and the reasons leading to it ( rising prices of crude oil and the lower supply of it ), Singapore's inflation rate expected to be 5-6 % this year. All this stuff somehow seem more interesting to me and adds as a boost as i recently been very interested in issues related to investment. Bonds, common stocks, preferred stocks, municipal bonds, dividends,dollar cost averaging and etc.

My only worry is that my new found interest in it is somewhat of a short flame. Whereby it's short lived. My interests always changes so randomly. So it's a bit scary..

Nonetheless, it interests me alot. Been reading a book called " The Intelligent Investor " by Benjamin Graham. Ironically, I was prompted to buy this book due to a marketing scheme. It said " By far the best book on Investing ever written - Warren. E. Buffett. " However! So far the book been great and i been learning alot. Read 5 chapters so far ( out of 20 ) and it has been mostly dealing with the correct mindset that a investor should have and the strategies a defensive investor should have, etc.

My only complaint is that its actually a old book as the writer Benjamin Graham died in 1976 so it's actually the 1973 edition with additional information from this person called Jason Zweig. Another point is that this book deals alot with America's Wall Street. So it mentions Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P ( Standard & Poor average) alot. It sounds alien right? Well, it's just like Singapore's Straits Times Index.

Alright, enough of all this. It's pretty boring to alot of people.

Anyway, i been in BMT (Basic Military Training) for 7 weeks and it's been tiring yet slightly interesting. my 2.4 timing improved too:0 i'm now running 10.23. Much better than my sch life of 12 minute plus. :0

My two aims during this 1 year and ten months in National Service(NS) is to learn more about the business related issues that i'm interested in and.... to get and maintain a good physique. Haha. It sounds vain but that's how it is for me.

Will update next week when i book out again. I would have finished my 24 km route march:)

See you then:)