Everyday, Mr. Tan went to work in a local SME in an industrial estate on a sunny little island called Singapore.
Mr. Tan was a model employee and was always on time.
Mr. Tan was also rather frugal.
He would prepare his own food to bring to work and saved a big portion of his earned income.
Mr. Tan's biggest fear was to be destitute in his old age.
Mr. Tan always remembered what a famous man called Warren Buffett said:
"We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow's obligations."
Mr. Tan was a regular guy and didn't have any dreams of greatness.
Sometimes, after a trying day at work, Mr. Tan would wonder if he could stop going to work and still receive an income?
Being rather practical, he dismissed it as wishful thinking.
Then, one day, he had a conversation with the accountant in the company he worked for.
In the conversation, the accountant said that the company had to pay rent and salaries every month but the difference was that the landlord didn't have to work for the money while they had to.
Hey!
Get paid every month?
Didn't have to work for the money?
Idea!
A few years later, Mr. Tan still worked in the same local SME in the same industrial estate on the same sunny little island called Singapore.
A big difference was that some of the rent paid by the company every month to the landlord ended up in Mr. Tan's bank account regularly, enough for Mr. Tan to stop working for a living if he had wanted to.
Now, how did that happen?
Let me ask my bowling ball.
Is this an easier way to be a landlord?
Related posts:
1. Building and preserving our wealth.
2. 2015 full year income from S-REITs.
16 comments:
haha, AK, are you talking about yourself?
Very nice story telling session.
You should consider writing and publishing short stories when you are retired maybe in about 1-2 years time lol.
Now, i have to ask you, which Industrial REITS did "you", yikes, i mean Mr Tan Purchase?
LOL
Looks like that the SME he works for rents a space in an industrial building that is managed by a REIT...
Don't let ur boss see this post...or else...heehee
Oh wait...AK is anonymous. Ahhh, the freedom of not revealing urself :D
Aiyoh, you people hor... Don't anyhow guess hor...
I suddenly felt like doing a Tan Ah Teck, that's all. ;p
Wait, I share something I posted on my FB wall recently.
"A decade ago, JTC divested most of its industrial property, saying at the time that the move would create a more open and vibrant market by giving the private sector more freedom to operate flexibly to accommodate industry needs.
"On Tuesday, however, Member of Parliament Inderjit Singh (Ang Mo Kio) called the divestment "a mistaken policy" during the Budget debate. "The government lost the ability to influence rental prices resulting in developers and investors (including Reits) making the money - this is passive income and not productive income benefiting the investors," he said."
Passive income benefiting the investors, indeed! Why else would we, as investors, invest? Am I missing something here?
As the debate goes on, ask what matters to us as investors for income. Everything else is noise. If we can draw benefits from REITs as investors, why not?
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/top-stories/economists-divided-over-reit-impact-business-20140306
Hi AK,
Very inspiring story! But I thought AK works as an accountant? Sorry if I got it wrong, only started to follow your blog recently :p
Hi aceirus,
An accountant? Oh dear, no. AK is not trained in finance or accounting at all. -.-"
everyone look at the rent but no one is complaining that we are getting good quality malls and offices management by the reit. as end user we usually prefer those managed by reit. although a bit more pricey, we know we are getting value for money. a good yard stick is suntec convention centre. the devt is partly owned by reit. the part owned by reit fetched higher rental. if market forces dictate, end users will gravitate to the other non-reit office but it didnt happen. there must be something right done by the reit. or am i missing something?
Hi seefei,
The matter certainly is not as simple as it seems, I agree.
If a REIT manager does a bad job of managing the REIT's portfolio of properties, then, it is natural to expect the tenants to leave once their leases expire unless, of course, the tenants MUST be in that property for some reason.
Personally, I believe in the dynamics of supply and demand. If the demand is strong, then, landlords can ask for higher rents. If I were the landlord, I would try to get as high a rent as possible. Why not?
To blame REITs for the higher rents we see today is narrow minded. The people who do this are just looking for a punching bag. -.-"
Govt should not forget along the way, they make lots of money selling the land to the REITs, now that there is no way turning back the clock, they should see what they can do to help the needy by building for hawker centres or other programs to help to lift the poor from the vicious cycles.
Hi Garfield,
I believe in helping people to help themselves but there will always be people who are unable to help themselves and need a lift. I agree that more should be done to help these people.
Hogan Yeo:
Be like AK, work for a company that pays rental to employee(AK). Thats weird... hahahahahahahaha
AK:
I must go dig out that blog. LOL :p
Hi AK,
Mr Tan could have gone for more job interviews with the hope of securing a new job which will likely result in remuneration increment. This will give him more fund to channel in the dividend-generated reits.
WTK
Hi WTK,
We are all wired differently. ;)
See:
Why did AK want an early retirement?
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