Recently, I have come across a very interesting book with profound insight – “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” – released in 1949, by Joseph Campbell. Since then, it became the "Bible" of movie script writers. And, the stages of the hero's journey outlined in the book had influenced a number flimmakers... Such as George Lucas's Star Wars, Disney's The Lion King, etc...
The. There are many articles on the internet wrote about the details on each step on the template, and I found an excellent short video clip in Youtube that illustrate the points clearly: Here is the link if you cannot see it below: -> LINK
Now, I AM curious... Is there any metaphor that we can learn something from this?
Of course. Since the Hollywood script writers can use it so successfully over and over, again and again to create movies that can resonate with the audience, meaning that there is something within the viewers even the viewers themselves may not consciously aware of it...
See, I believe that the Author, Joseph Campbell did not write this book to with the intention to inspire filmmakers or story writers. He wrote this to inspire all his readers and gave them many examples of how Hero in the past had acheive their success and what stages (challenges) they had been through.
There is a Chinese saying,"人生如戏 戏如人生" - "A Life is just like a Movie, a Movie is just like a Life." So true! Then, isn't it a good idea to use the template to recognize what stage are we in the journey of life right now, and then continue to write the scripts for our own magnificent journey?
Paid the downpayment (5% of purchase price) and stamp fees for my HDB BTO flat. Depleted my CPF Ordinary Account and used up about $1000 of cash.
Starting from this month, I will be including the equity value of my HDB BTO flat (to be built in 2016/2017) in the net worth calculation. However, this value will not be realized until I fulfill the Minimum Occupation Period in 2021/2022. So for this reason, we should focus on 'Investible Net Worth' which excludes the home equity.
Imagine that every one has a personal financial bucket as a preparation for their retirement. And, they would go out to work as hard as the bee in order to fill them up.But, what happen in reality is that there is a Big Leaking Hole at the bottom of their bucket that most might not be aware of or did not take it seriously yet…
For this, I AM refering to the Global Public Debt, and here is the link:
Now, there are few projects that can be done with these data.
Example one: What's the Growth Rate of the Global Public Debt?
Here are some other Inconvenient Questions for individual who has the interest to Ponder and Find out:
* What is the Public Growth Rate of your own country? (One can take down the data on the right hand corner year by year to workout the chart.)
* On the right column of the Global Public Debt Clock, there is a item "Public Debt vs GDP" by country. What does it mean when it is approaching 100% or some even go over the 100% mark? Think in terms of a public company, what would happen if it keep lossing money year over year?
* On the "Public Debt per Person"... That is the Leaking Hole in individual financial bucket... Even you don't spend it, it is the load you have to carry, which include newly born babies and 90 years old senior citizens. Why is it continue to grow, and some even with exponetial rate?
* With the current debt rate, there are already so much trouble with the economy. What would the economy outlook with a higher debt rate future (as predicted by the trend of the chart.)? Would there be more financial crisis such as the fiscal cliff event?
Of course, as the exact data would not be easily available to the public, these data are good for reference and benchmark purposes,
One may be FEAR to find out the answer by himself... And, when one facing FEAR, he has two choices: 1. Forget Everything And Run. 2. Face Evidence And Rise!
(YouTube Link) This 59 second video explains the concept & situation clearly!
Social Media used to be the future of advertising. Together with the boom of social media as a marketing tool, it opened opportunities, not only for the business-minded individuals, but also to people using such social mediums, to earn a hefty amount of money.
One of the services offering such opportunity is Churp Churp.
ChurpChurp is your ultimate integrated social media solution that rewards you as ‘Influencer’ for sharing and promoting some ads to your social networking account such as Facebook and twitter etc. There will be a campaigns notifications provided to you from time to time. Basically there are three main types of Churps available which are:
A. SOCIAL SHARING
There will be campaign briefs in your account for you to participate from time to time. Pick campaigns you’d like to share to your friends and followers and get rewarded from your clicks.
B. SCHEDULED (USER-GENERATED) TWEETS
If you are selected for a campaign, you will be notified via e-mail of new assignments and given a brief to compose your posts in any way you want with a few required keywords. Your tweets will go out on a schedule and after it does, earnings will be credited into your account.
C. SOCIAL SEEDING
If you are selected for a campaign, you will be notified via e-mail of new assignments and given a brief to compose your posts in selected platforms. The brief will describe the angles you should work on.
What are you waiting for? Try this service and make your social network activities productive and worthwhile. Sign up here now!!!
If you put your money in a bank savings account, it grew by 1%. Actually, if you really want to be specific about it, it grew by 0.75% MINUS 20% withholding tax.
TrulyRichClub
So you earned something next to…uh…air.
Okay, with some dust particles.
But not my 5000+ TrulyRichClub Members. I taught them how to invest in the Stock Market. And this year, they grew their money by 20%, 30%, 40%....(The differences largely depended on what specific Stock they bought in my list of recommended Stocks.)
They’re extremely happy. How happy? When they see me in the mall or on the road, they rush to me and hug me tight. But when they say, “Bo, I’m a TrulyRichClub Member…” I know why they’re hugging me.
Because I just made them richer in 2012.
I can’t make promises that the same thing will happen next year. Because anything can happen—a comet hitting planet earth, or World War III breaks out, or, shucks, we get an alien invasion from the next galaxy.
But this is what I will promise: I’ll be committed and strive my very best to make them richer again in 2013. Today, I’m not writing to everybody. I’m specifically writing to people who want to grow their financial life—and who want my guidance in investing in the Stock Market.
Are you tired of being stuck in a rut in your finances?
Are you tired of your lingering debts?
Are you tired of feeling the pain of wanting to help people you love, but can’t, because you don’t have the resources?
Are you tired of your big fears and uncertainty?
Are you tired of working very hard everyday, only to realize that you don’t really have any savings for your future?
Just in case you’re that person, let me help you.
To know more about my TrulyRichClub, click the link below:
PS. By the way, the TrulyRichClub isn’t just about Stock Market investing. That’s only one part. In the TrulyRichClub, aside from teaching people how to grow in their financial life, I also teach people how to grow in their spiritual life. For what’s the use of growing in your finances if you lose your soul?
To know more about the TrulyRichClub, click the link below:
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013!
I thought it is a good idea to write an Early Season Greeting message this year... At least a few days before 21 Dec 2012.
See...
There are so many versions of 21 Dec 2012 prediction with hundred (if not in thousand) of books around. These stories are from thousand years Mayan Calander, hundread years Nostradamus Prophecy, modern Channels, Scientists, NASA and even Hollywood...
And, what's more exiting than we are going to test them in two days time! :-)
Anyway, here is version with more positive outcome... It says that the mass public is going to have higher consciousness spiritually after the 3 days event.
(click here if you don't see the following video clip)
And...
What if NOTHING strange happen AT ALL?
Can we learn anything from it?
I think so.
"Work expands so as to fill the time available
for its completion."
- Parkinson's law
“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives,
that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit,
every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever
you want to do, do it now! There are only so
many tomorrows.”
- a spiritual teacher
At least we can use it as a metaphor and learn to think better in how to spend our time more effectively, and doing it according to our highest joys.There used to have dinosaurs and Atlantis Civilization on this same earth and they were all disappeared long ago...
Perhaps some of you, saw this video already but I think it worth to share. It’s a story of a mutual fund investor who was able to grew his money from Php 300,000 to almost Php 2.9 Million in 10+ years time.
He is Alfonso Gonzales– who invested his Php 300,000 in mutual funds. Why mutual funds? Please watch the video below, he revealed why.
Moral lesson of the story – If you don’t watch & protect your money, it will disappear quickly unnoticed.
The innate human tendency to be greedy makes selling stocks difficult. For example, an investor purchases shares of a stock at $10 a share and tells himself that when the stock price hits $20, he will sell it all. When the share price finally reaches $20, the investor becomes greedy and decides to hold out for more gains. When the stock price continues rising to $22, greed overcomes rationality again and the investor holds out for more. The stock price suddenly takes a downward turn and is back at $18. The investor then tells himself that once the stock price hits $20 again, he will sell it all.
This is exactly how I felt when I tried to sell my STI ETF for the past few days. My initial selling price was $3.15. When it reaches $3.15, I became greedy and decided to hold out for more gains. When it continued rising to $3.17, I placed my sell order at $3.18 and the stock price dropped back to $3.16. Fortunately, the share price rose back to $3.18 today and I finally managed to sell all my 2000 shares of STI ETF.
My decision to sell the STI ETF was part of the strategy to liquidate my stock holdings and sit on more cash while waiting for the next market correction/downturn. I initiated a position in STI ETF last year September at $2.72 and total return for the past 15 months is approximately 20% including dividends. In addition, the share price is at its 52 week high and I feel that the recent rally might not be sustainable as uncertainties are still looming over the US fiscal cliff, Europe crisis, China slowdown and Middle East tensions.
A week ago, I attended a Trading Seminar on CFD (a kind of leveraged derivative product). And, I was surprised to notice something interesting, there is some kind of a pattern, that worth the while to write it down.
Just like the products in the market, everything that lives has a pattern of cycle in their life, and it goes through the phases of birth, growth, fruitage, and decline.
Isn't it true that when a baby is born, he will have to go through some patterns that designed for him.
Such as go through the kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, college and university, then start to work, .... , retire and then die.
So, back to the subject that I want to write about, and here is the "Pattern" that I noticed in the seminar:
It was held in a big lecture theatre. There are three columns of seats and each column has about 30 rows of seats. Though it was not full-house, I figured out that there was about 350 participants. I paid attention on the age of the participants in the recess time. I can divide them into three age group of participants.
1) The age group of 30-45 (25%)
2) The age group of 45-55 (50%)
3) The age group of 55-60 (25%)
And, when the seminar start, the speaker asked: "How many of you are the first time to attend such seminar?" I saw about 50% of the people in the room put up their hands.
Do you noticed that most of the people, at least in this place, wait until they are retired or about to retire, then they start to learn about the stock market.
It was quite a "happy" seminar, because the speaker flipped through a couple of historical charts and showed the audience that how money can be easily made with some very simple strategies. Also, with the leverage, a few ten of thousands dollars is all you need to make more than the averaged pay worker in the country.
A few rounds of applause had gone round the theatre when the speakers shown some strategies to handle the historical charts and emphasis that it can be easily done with very little training - where to buy and when to sell.
Since, the speaker had mentioned that no one can take any audio recording nor video, or he will sue the person...
Then... I saw many hard working participants taking tons of notes while the speaker delivering the presentation.
And, me too... make my own note after the seminar. Just a few words with a picture, and it is attached below.
Well, this is NOT to make joke of the beginner participants for believing that there is easy money out there for them to pick, for I'd been there, done that ten over years ago... RATHER, the intention is to alert all to take time to know about this stuffs...
Personally, I view this as a failure of the public education system (worldwide) that there is no syllabus in educating students on the area of personal finance and stock market in their early stage of life.
See. If we can know some kind of challenges (pattern of cycles) that we will have to face years down the road. Wouldn't it be good to spend time in learning more about it and be prepared first before we need to handle it face-to-face? As sooner or later, most likely one will come to a point where he need to handle his personal finance as saving in the banks is not getting any yield, and fund managers are not reliable nowadays.
"Most people tip-toe through life, hoping
they’ll make it safely to death."
– Bob Proctor
-----------------------Add on 13 Dec 12----------------------
This is a typical chart from advertisement.
Unfortunately, they do not supply with a time machine to take full advantage of it.
Exams are finally over and the December holidays have just started. I am officially a "Man Of Leisure" till 7 January 2013. This will be my last school holiday and I will be graduating middle of next year.
The reason why I am feeling so carefree now is because the problems that I have been worrying about for the past few months are all cleared :
ICT deferment approved
All bursaries granted. Total amount = $5500
Invited to final interview for full time job in 2013
Request for higher HDB Additional Housing Grant approved. Signed my Agreement For Lease.
CFA Scholarship awarded
Besides growing my net worth, there is nothing left for me to anticipate or work towards. With so much time on my hands, I shall reread some of my books on investments, research on some SGX listed companies and prepare for my final interview in January.
Also, I will be liquidating my SingPost and STI ETF shares so that I will have enough cash to take advantage of the next market correction.
I just want to share some article I've read from TrulyRichCLub. Hope it help to inspire you.
During “All Saints’ Day,” I had a long conversation with Sis. Manang (I had my senior moments remembering her real name — LOL) who is the current supplier of religious items sold inside our parish church. Aside from delivering religious items, she also makes her ’branded’ candles (her hobby) for the longest time that she can remember. It was our Irish parish priest then who allowed Sis.Manang’s branded candles to be sold during the ‘Undas’ weekend.
She has seen me on TV involved with GoNegosyo teaching business techniques to start or grow a business venture. Upfront, she asked if I could spare some moments with her regarding her business. “Dean Pax, I’m happy with the religious supplies to the parish but how else can I grow this candle hobby?” I just asked Sis. Manang if she had other products beyond the simple 4-inch long white and brown variety that you place near the ‘puntod’ or crypt. She blurted “Of course. I also have the white and brown flat ones that goes inside the fixed candle holders in front of the adoration chapel for vigils!”
I smiled at her with respect knowing that there was nothing special about her branded candles but I also knew that she wanted to have additional business beyond the brisk ‘Undas’ holidays and the small volume vigil candles. I told her that “If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always gotten.” This statement literally spooked her! However, this principle is quite true for any endeavour!
Sis. Manang could only think of candles being used in church. I shared with her about the probing process using my six honest probing men (Remember: who what why how where and when in the last newsletter) to give her a better understanding of what really compels the customer to buy any product at any particular occasion. She liked the poem and inspired her to do a probing exercise towards making her candle hobby a hit.
THE RISE to SUCCESS
I ‘walked her thru’ the ACTUAL worksheet that I used to develop and to bring the candle idea into reality. This was the second time I have used it.
I know for a fact that the very first worksheet helped my Entrep student in selling his candles with the export line of his parents. Kumita na ito.
1st Step = Where can candles be used?
Answer: At home, during vacations, at theme restaurants, worship places, concerts and outdoors.
2nd Step (probe further within same location) = Where in the home do you use candles? Or Where in the outdoors do you use candles?
Answer: At home to be more specific- in the dining room, in the sala, in the bedroom, in the garden, in the bathroom and in the kitchen. Outdoor specifics – campsite, picnic area, fiesta (procession), fireworks event
3rd Step (probe further with persons involved) = With whom do you use candles in the home (dining area) or with whom do you use candle outdoors while having a picnic?
Answer: While dining with family, friends (barkada), business associates, steady date, Couples household/ Caring group. While having picnic with family, rotary members or charity events with Knights of Columbus.
4th Step (probe further under a specific occasion) = When do you use candles (specific occasion or event) not always a particular calendar month?
Answer: Dining with family for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays like Christmas or Easter, graduations or even reconciliation (Sorry Na honey- I love you still) Dining with friends/date for a 1st dinner to impress, or a subsequent dinner (to propose), Valentine’s day (to cherish the romantic anniversary of your hearts)
By now, Sis Manang smiled and got the hint that a candle is not only used for lighting but more importantly to satisfy or express a certain emotion/ambience.
Remember: a product /service can be differentiated not only by its basic features but also by the emotions it can convey. I always share that people will always buy two things – solution to their problem or need + a good/happy feeling.
Candles can do a lot of things other than just ordinary light/ illumination
Holidays (Pang-saya) – festive atmosphere (Christmas candles with striped red/white with a scent of mint). I especially like the ones with a tinge of green.
Date (Pang-Lambing) – a romantic ambience (Love candles that are floating with scent of rose)
Family Gathering (Pang-bonding) – a relaxed environment (Bonding candles coloured brown/orange with scents of cinnamon)
Outdoor picnic (Pang-bugaw) - shoo away insects (Camping candles that are large and windproof with scents of citronella)
I hope that I have given you a practical way of expanding your ideas into reality. Now it’s your turn to ACT.
God gave us the gift of talent to EARN; God has also given us the gift to ENJOY them. May God bless you always.
After weeks of waiting, I finally received an email invitation to the final interview for an institutional sales/trading position. Having passed the online tests, telephone interview and assessment centre, this final interview will be the last hurdle in securing a full time job before graduation. From what I gathered, the remuneration package includes an annual base salary of at least $50,000 and a profit sharing scheme. I feel that the offer is quite attractive for a fresh graduate and the exposure that I will be getting from this job is immense. .
What is a Market Breadth Indicator? In short, a Market Breadth Indicator is a kind of Technical Analysis(TA) that design with the intention to gauge the direction of the overall market.
Unlike most indicators in TA, which use only the information from a single stock to workout the indicator, Market Breadth Indicators are generated by analyzing the total number of companies in a given market.
In general, it compares the advancing and declining issues in the market and uses specific formula to generate the ratio, such as TRIN (Arms Index), and some use other filtering technique to smooth it out like various kind of McClellan Oscillators and Summation Index.
Actually, think about it, the price chart of SPY(S&P 500) and many other indices can also be viewed as a kind of Market Breadth Indicator too.
If those who want to know more about Market Breadth Indicators, there is an excellent book with good coverage and detail formula on this area: The Complete Guide to Market Breadth Indictors: How to Analyze and Evaluate market Direction and Strength by Gregory L. Morris (Sep 21,2005)
Why using Market Breadth Indicator? For all classical Technical Analysis text books, they emphasis on buying the strongest stocks in the strongest sectors when the overall market is bullish, and selling the weakest stocks in the weakest sectors when the overall market is bearish.
So, the very first step is to have a reliable indicator to know how is the overall market is performing. And, the best tool would be the market breath indicators - because they are calculated based on all components in the market.
The following picture using the school of fish as an analogy to illustrate the importance of Market Breadth Indicator... It would be interesting to note that when the market is bullish, on various time from minute, day, week, to month... most of the stocks would be up and vice versa in bearish market. Of course, the market is formed by individual stock anyway.
So, here are the two key important point for using Market Breadth Indicators: 1)using the Market Breadth Indicators is the very first step that can help traders/investors operations to be in sync with the market movement/ direction and have higher probability in winning!
2) Market Breadth Indicators are less subected to noise and market manipulation. In a previous blog entry on BACK TESTING... The results have CLEARLY shown that Market Breadth Iindicators can withstand the test of time.
Why introducing the BBC Breadth Indicator? Of all the Market Breadth Indicators in the public domain, all are calculated based on the one period advance and decline issues of the market.
Whereas the BBC (Bullish-Bearish-Consolidation) Breadth Indicator can used more advanced formulas and provide even simpler presentation for the user to understand the states of the market.
Take for examples, it can workout a Multiple-Time-Frames BBC indicators and display in the daily chart (or basically any time frame).
Charting Examples of BBC Indicator:(Note: click on each chart to ZOOM IN)
The following charts show various examples for the BBC Breadth Indicator. In the following chart:
1) the top pane shows a tri-states (Bull, Bear & Consolidation) momentum indicator of SPY.
2) the second pane shows a tri-states Trend Indicator.(These Tri-states indicators were introduced in the previous blog entries).
3) the third pane shows the price chart of SPY.
4) the forth pane shows the Momentum BBC Breadth Indicator of SPY. It was workout according the the above attached formula. It calculates the total number of of Bullish, Bearish and Consolidation ticker, in Momentum wise, for the SPY (in this case, a total of 500). Then it groups the number into Percentage of BULL (Green Line), BEAR (Red Line) and Consolidation (Blue Line).
5) the last pane in the bottom shows the Trending BBC Breadth Indicator of SPY. It calculates the total number of of Bullish, Bearish and Consolidation ticker, in Tredning wise, for the SPY (in this case, a total of 500). Then it groups the number into Percentage of BULL (Green Line), BEAR (Red Line) and Consolidation (Blue Line).
This can provide the user to have the winning probability in mind. The best opportunities are when both Momentum and Trending Windows are opened and in Sync on one direction!
SPY Chart with BBC Indicators:
^STI Chart with BBC Indicators:
Sector Chart (XHB) with BBC Indicators:
China SSE 380 index (000009.SS) with BBC Indicator
QQQ Chart: Using BBC indicators as the Galaxy Chart's Companion: One way to use the BBC indicators is to put them in work together with the Galaxy Chart. For example, the BBC chart can show the overall strength of the market (in this case, the QQQ), while the Galaxy Chart can pinpoint down to which particular stock within the QQQ is leading or lagging the overall ETF perfromance. This works in ANY TIME FRAME in run-time.
Other Points to Considers: * Most market breadth indicator are equal-weighted. BUT, most index are Capital Weigthed. Some are Dollar Weighted, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nikkei 225. And, most ETF are Portfolio Weighted with component changing in quarters. These are the factors that need to take into consideration when working with Breadth Indicators. By the way, here is a link for the Typical Market Breadth Indicator and it covers most ETFs that are having USA companies too.
Wish that it has inspired you and good luck. KH Tang
And, if it doesn't, never mind... the follow quote from "Edgar Cayce Handbook for creating your future" may....
"Are we to live only for ourselves, using others to our advantage, or are we to care
about someone or something beyond ourselves? The first choice may lead to
greater comfort and convenience, at least temporarily. The secand calls
for the definite inconvenience of taking on the burdens of others.
According to an article published on Yahoo News, "People who earn S$4,000-S$7,000 are considered middle and upper middle classes." I could not find the household income range for a middle class family and thus, I will take the $7,000 (highest salary range for a middle class individual) as the combined income of a typical middle class family. This makes more sense as the combined income of 2 upper middle class individuals would amount to $14,000, which is considered quite well to do.
Hypothetical scenario:
Newly wed couple in their mid thirties making a combined $7,000 a month. Combined savings of $50,000 left after wedding, renovation and honeymoon.
CPF contribution (20%) is $1,400 per month or $1,000 if only one person is working. (Salary ceiling for CPF contribution is $5,000).
Parents allowance of $500 per month
Bought a second hand car with monthly expenditure of $1300 (including monthly installment, yearly insurance, road tax, petrol, hdb parking, ERP + coupons, maintenance)
Bought a resale flat and take up a loan of $300,000 at 2% per annum interest for 20 years -Monthly installment is $1,518 in this case. For an income of $7,000, monthly contribution to ordinary account is $1,610 or $1,150 if only one person is working (cash top up of $368 monthly)
Electricity bills = $150 per month
Internet + cable tv + handphone bills = $200 per month
Familly insurance = $300 per month
Monthly food expenditure = $900 - $5 for each meal per person. Assuming 30 days a month and 3 meals per day.
Has a new born baby - assume monthly child expenses to be $500 per month at this stage. Note that this expense will increase over time due to enrichment courses, school fees, etc as the baby grows older.
If the couple wants to sponsor child's future university fees in 20 years, saving $300 per month for 20 years would amount to $72,000. (current university tuition fees is around $30,000 to $40,000 excluding other miscellaneous fees such as textbooks, hostel fees, etc)
I did not include caregiving expenses or additional allowance for parents should they take care of the couple's child. So to simplify things, let's just assume the husband is the sole breadwinner and his wife is a full time housewife. By assuming one person is working, CPF contribution will reduce by $400 while cash payment for mortgage will increase by $386 and so, there is essentially not much of a difference.
Tabulating the raw data above:
Assuming income and expenses remain stagnant, the family will be able to save $1,482 every month. Also, assuming that they started out with $50,000 and are able to generate a 3% return consistently on their savings, they will be able to accumulate $578,064 by the end of 20 years. Personally, I feel that this amount is far from enough for a comfortable retirement in Singapore.
As mentioned, this is only a hypothetical scenario for a middle class family. The family might have more than 1 kid or not give birth at all. There might be unforeseen circumstances such as illnesses, retrenchment, etc. There could also be positive events such as salary increment, job promotion or even striking lottery. So just take this with a pinch of salt.
