Old age catching up...

Attended a full-day course on "Introduction to Global Market" today.

Conclusion is:- Mind boggling, age catching up, low attention span equivalent to that of a primary school kid ==> 45 mins, information overload and heavy headache after the course.

It is a useful and informative course and it comes in handy to the current ACCA module - Financial Management, I am taking.

However, it is not helpful when it is on a Monday where we have to deal with all the financial terms (Arrghh......) and given that I have to go for my lesson at night. Terribly torturing...horrendous....I am starting to catch butterflies and see stars towards the last few hours...@_@

Now I can understand why I never want to go in futures, options, forward rate agreements, derivatives, blah blah blah...but the easiest of all finanical instruments (at least to me) -- unit trusts. It is driving me nuts.

But what can I do, when I am currently in a job where I need to deal with derivatives?

How I wish someone can explain to me in the most idiot proof terms of what are all these instruments and their differences.

A-Q Spirit

I like this colleague of mine. She is a humble and down-to-earth lady. One thing that I really admire about her is - she never seems to give up, instead she keeps on trying and trying. No matter how harsh her line manager is to her, she will grit her teeth, shed a few tears and continue on with life. Though once in a while, she will grumble about life, but that's all. It is all about venting frustration. You can feel a new lease of life whenever you are with her - the never give up attitude. No matter how tough the environment is, how harsh the people are towards her, she continues to strive. Striving to prove herself, striving to find solutions. No looking back, just moving forward. I have seen her grow since I joined and am glad to see that. The best part is, she is younger than me.

Thus, sometimes it makes me feel ashamed of myself. Sometimes because of little little things that crops up in life or at work, we will start to complain and blame everyone but reflect upon our own actions.

Every cause has its effects. Everything happens for a reason. Why can't we be like the young girl? Just do it and stop complaining. One day, our hard work will be paid off.

This is the A-Q spirit.

Game Addicts

We are game addicts. We can fight over a PSP, play station and even a computer game. We can get ourselves hooked on a game for hours, sacrificing our sleep for the sake of completing the game or competing with each other for high scores. This is something which my mama will never understand, "How can her children sit in front of a computer or play PSP for hours?" We used to get nags and nags because of this. hahaha

Both of us are equally stubborn - as stubborn as an ox. And the funny thing is, neither of us will admit it and will criticise each other for being more stubborn than the other. So ironic. Denial.

Both of us love to sleep. We are just bunch of sleepy heads. We like to procastinate, but the closer we are to the deadlines, the faster we work and the better is our results. We love numbers more than words. We love photography and can spend hours and hours together capturing shots, without uttering a single word to each other. We just go "click, click, click" all the way.

At times, we are just mirror reflection of each other. But other times, we are just 2 sides of the opposite poles of a magnet. For e.g., I love to eat; eating is my past-time, while eating is a waste of time to him. I love to talk; talk about anything under the sun while he hates to talk. Well, maybe that is how couples are meant to be. If we are too similiar, we will get bored of each other very easily. It's the little differences that add spices to our life.

But most importantly is, he does shopping with me! And he doesn't stand there like a wood block. He will help me run through the racks and give me suggestions on the clothes - its materials, colours, cuts and designs. Don't underestimate him, he has the stamina to do shopping with me for one whole day!

Yeah!

Financial Planning

Usually, I am very "anti" towards financial planning talks. The word is "anti", "dislikes", "hates" and "a total put-off" by sales talks. Because being a financial planner before, I know very well that this is a gimmick to get people to buy insurances. These are the usual taglines and tricks we use to get more clients. However, today I decided to take a risk and attend this financial planning talk organised by JNP IPP with my girlfriend. The objective is just purely to accompany her.

This is a risk worth taking. I was not put-off neither was I aghasted. Instead I was delighted and thankful that I had attended the talk. It provided me with insights and assurance that the financial strategies which I have been adopting is feasible and is actually well-recommended.

Brought back a few insights which I will like to share.

1) 危机 Bull Run

In layman terms, when there is a bull run, stocks are performing and stock prices are trending upward. This is when we have to start to be wary, which is why 危 which means danger. Because this is the point where the prices may start to fall. The higher the prices go, the more likely it may fall and the more wary we should be about investing in it.

危机Bear Rally
In layman terms, when there is a bear market rally, stocks are not performing well and stock prices are trending downward. People tend to be sceptical about spending their money and/or investing in stocks for fear of losing their money. However, the word 机 which means opportunities, suggests otherwise. This is the period where opportunities come and investors should start to get themselves really for the bull run starting to invest.

"We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful." - Warren Buffett

2) Dollar-cost averaging

By Wikipedia definition, Dollar cost averaging is a timing strategy of investing equal dollar amounts regularly and periodically over specific time periods (such as $100 monthly) in a particular investment or portfolio. By doing so, more shares are purchased when prices are low and fewer shares are purchased when prices are high. The point of this is to lower the total average cost per share of the investment, giving the investor a lower overall cost for the shares purchased over time.

I am a firm believer of this concept. Because of this concept, I managed to reap more than 100% profit from my investment and pump in $50,000 to buy my house at the age of 25. How else do you think a poor social worker at that time, earning a meagre income of less than $2,000 a month, working for only less than 2 years, is able to get so much $$$? Is all thanks to dollar-cost averaging.

3) n-power ==> TIME

FV = PV (1 + R)n

where:-
i) FV = future value is the amount of $$$ which will be "worth" in future assuming certain interest rate or rate of return;
ii) PV = present value --> dollars today;
iii) R = rate of return;
iv) n = time

Value of time is important to financial planning. At its core, financial planning is really about time. The goal is to use dollars today (PV) in such a way as to maximize their future effect (FV). 1) Knowing where we are now, 2) Where do we want to go and 3) How to get there.

"Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre." - Warren Buffett


I will always keep in mind Warren Buffett and his Company - Berkshire Hathaway Inc. It showed Warren Buffett's belief in his company, despite the company's early days of financial difficulties. He did not give up and continue to believe in his baby and that time will make it turn around, which finally it did.

In a nutshell,

Financial Planning = Patience + Belief + Long-term

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was his birthday and was also our 588 days together. On this day, we have also rekindled our flame, the kind of feelings we have back in our courtship days.

It was meant to be a surprise birthday for him. Coincidentally,it was a weekday, both of us had to work and attend a wedding dinner at night, thus celebrating his birthday will have to be postponed to another day. So I decided to take an afternoon off to give him a surprise birthday. Hoping that this special day could bring him some joy and take him off the pressure that he has been facing.

All thanks to his cousin and friends who made this surprise birthday possible. Popped into his office with a birthday cake and song which made him so shy so shy that he has to immediately blow off the candle flame ^_^. Bought a chocolate truffle at Swiss Bake, one of their hot favourite --> Chocolate biscuit sandwich with truffle cream and with a touch of rum soaked raisins. Initially wanted to get their signature cake - Paradiso Di Nocciola, a hazelnut rocher sandwich with rum soaked vanilla biscuit, but the shop run out of it.

Chocolate Truffle (His birthday cake)

Paradiso Di Nocciola

And thanks to Zambuca at Pan Pacific Hotel's staff, who willingly extended their lunch hours to accomodate this birthday and presented him with a complimentary tiramisu birthday cake. I appreciated their efforts n professionalism. Everything was pre-arranged on the phone, the types of orders and requests I wanted. Everything was carried out according to the plan. A 2nd surprise for him. Though he didn't talk about it, you could feel that he appreciated the effort.

A snapshot of our lunch @Zambuca

He was exceptionally chirpy yesterday with all smiles on his face. This was the day when he talked a lot more than usual and a lot of sharings. Once again, I have gone another 2 levels up to his inner thoughts. Knowing his inner thoughts is important to me, because I can then better manage our expectations without being a mind-reader and improve on our relationship. Another thing that really made his day is his LCD tv. He has waited 2 years for his tv and finally we settled on a 32" Sharp at only $599 after all the searches and price comparisons. I was reluctant to get a new tv at first,but seeing his enthusiasm, I gave in eventually.

I learnt something. The phrases 'marriage is a tombstone' or 'a relationship has become stagnant' - these are all excuses. All it takes is a little effort from one party and a little appreciation from the other to rekindle the flame. Man, like woman, equally needs lots of love and care and attention. I learnt it the hard way. No matter who we are, we should learn to appreciate each other, for every small little things that the partner does for us. A little appreciation a day goes a long way. Something which I always remind myself - never ever take the other party for granted.

Mattress

Finally we got our mattress, after 2 weeks of intensive research.

When we started on our search, we felt so overwhelmed with the different varieties and different coil systems used by the mattress companies that we were totally lost @_@ Where do we start? How much should we invest on mattress? How important is a good mattress? Totally no idea.

Luckily, we started our journey with a very open mind, without any consideration on the price in the beginning, just focusing on the different types of mattresses available in the market and the advantages and disadvantages of the different coil system used. We moved in and out of departmental stores, talking to salespersons and conducted our own online research and reading forums. These really helped a lot, especially for laymen like us who have totally no experience on how to buy a good mattress.

Thus, being believers that a good mattress is important for good sleep and promotes good well-being, this is definitely not a play play issue for us. We were just determined to find the one and only one mattress that suits us; one that can last us for a very long time.

My dear was very sweet. Throughout the journey, he kept asking me "Do you like this mattress? Is this mattress too hard or too soft for you? Do you want this?" blah blah blah. I greatly appreciate it. He has been sleeping on firm mattress for years, but he is willing to compromise and choose a medium firm one, knowing that I am used to sleeping a plush one and am a side sleeper where too firm a mattress can cause shoulder problem for me. Of course, given such liberty, I wouldn't want to abuse it. At any time, I take careful consideration to his pockets. This is how we work, giving in and compromising to each other =D

Basically, we realised that there are generally 3 main coil system in the market - the pocketed coil, the hourglass coil and the continuous coil system.

Generally, most mattresses use the pocketed coil system, also known as Marshall coils, each are individually wrapped in a fabric pocket. While the pockets might be connected together, the springs are each independent of one another and can move separately. Pocketed coils provide more motion separation than other innerspring coil types, meaning that when your sweetie starts tossing and turning, you are less likely to be disrupted from your zzz's. This can really come in handy if your bed-mate is a restless sleeper. On the flip side, pocketed coils endure greater strain over time, since each coil absorbs weight without distributing it to other nearby coils. Simmons uses pocketed coils in most of their innerspring mattresses.

The hourglass coils which is the most commonly used design, come in two varieties — Bonnell coils and Offset coils. Based on 19th century buggy seat springs, the Bonnell coil has an hourglass shape with a knot at each end, and is known as the original mattress coil which is currently the most pervalent coils used in the mattress industry. The Offset design, found in more expensive mattresses, is similarly hourglass shaped, but the circles at the top and bottom of each coil are flattened to create a hinging action within the mattress core. This design allows the mattress to better conform to your body, and tends to make Offset coils less noisy than their Bonnell predecessors. It also allows Offset coils to be connected to each other via helicals (corkscrew-shaped wires that run over the tops and bottoms of the coils), which prevents them from moving from side to side when compressed. Sealy Posturepedic mattress uses the Offset design.

For those who prefers more durability will usually consider the continuous coil springs which are made from a single length of wire shaped into a series of loose S-shaped ringlets. The concept behind this design is that by attaching each coil to its neighbors, the mattress core will be stronger, more stable, and more durable. Serta is one brand that uses this kind of system in some of its mattress.

Though the type of coils play an important part in the durability of the mattress and support for the body and healthy spine, we cannot dismiss the fact that the type and thickness of the foam also contributes to the comfort level.

Thus, after weighing all the pros and cons, the prices and of course the comfort level of the mattress, we decided to settle on Sealy. Phew! Another item off the load. A pat on our shoulder for our hard work. Yippees!!!

Curiosity kills the cat, but being curious is not a bad thing afterall...

Phew! Today I risked my life 3 times to get my boss to explain a concept to me. Luckily and thankfully, she didn't slaughter me for my pig brain. Thus, I was in high spirits today because I managed to solve a mystery which I have been scratching my head for hours for an answer.

To me, you ask also die, don't ask also die. So might as well, be a little thickskinned and admit that you are slow and sincerely seek for an answer. At least, now I feel a sense of satisfaction =p. You can't imagine how happy I was when I managed to find that missing piece in the puzzle - practically grinning to myself for the rest of the day.

No wonder, I am often being labelled as a question kid *_*

But really, no joke, day in day out, all the accounting concepts are driving me nuts. Now I know that actually preparing Company's financial statements is just not as easy as ABC, somemore it is not only one that I am managing. Sigh... Luckily thanks to my ACCA.

Even my immediate supervisor is unable to answer my queries at times, so no choice the next person that I can approach will be my supervisor's boss - for answers. She is really someone whom I take my hat off and look upon, she knows all her accounting concepts at her finger tips. To me, she is like an encyclopedia of accountings =D. Salute! But needless to say, she used to be an auditor. I am glad that she is so patient with me and Phew! once again.