On Life And Investments.

Readers who follow me in my YouTube community tab would know that I have been busy with many things at home.

Some might remember this recent video,

Link to watch the YouTube video.

I said that in 2025, I might have nothing to do on the investment front.

Now, it is more accurate to say that I don't feel like doing anything on that front.😷

I seem to have lost interest in looking at investments at least for now.🙈

Depending on what happens at home, I could stop talking to myself for a few weeks or much longer.

I think my investment portfolio doesn't need much attention from me, thankfully.🤞

Keeping the status quo isn't a terrible thing for me.

Even with higher expenses expected in 2025, I should have some surplus passive income.

See Expenses in 2025.

The easiest thing for me to do is to park the surplus in T-bills and FDs while I am in this mode.

I will be back talking to myself at some point but I might not be talking about investments as much.

I must accept this move into another stage in my life. 🙊

Some people might feel disappointed but I have said many times before that blogging and YouTube are both hobbies.

I don't have paid memberships or subscriptions or paywalls like some content creators have.

I feel I have to say this because there are some people who have said I must take responsibility before and that I should not leave readers in a lurch.😱

I feel that this is an important post to publish to help manage expectations.💯

I am happiest whenever readers tell me that they are inspired to achieve financial freedom after eavesdropping on me.😊

If AK can do it, so can you.🎊

P.S. See you on 15 Jan if you are coming to the meet up. Don't worry. That is still on.

Quarterly updates, expenses and social media.

For those of you who follow me in my YouTube channel, you would know that something unfortunate happened recently to my father.

So, I expect to have less time for social media.

I have also been told that I would have to be prepared for another $20,000 or so in annual medical expenses for my father.

This revelation came after I had a talk with my mother regarding her medical insurance coverage.

I decided that she should not downgrade her medical insurance coverage as we really don't know if we might be hit by large hospitalization bills in future.

This covers her preference for Class A ward if she should be hospitalized.

I have calculated that if she should be blessed with a long life, her coverage, including a rider, would amount to $20,000 per year from age 99.

Now, it is about half of that but it will increase every 2 years till age 100.

I will be paying for her.

I did an update last year on my expenses about how I need at least $136,000 a year.

Now that I must set aside another $30,000 per year, increasing to $40,000 per year over time, I would need at least $166,000 to $176,000 a year in passive income to cover everything.

I won't have as much surplus money to invest with.

Well, I haven't been doing much investing in recent months apart from parking more money in T-bills.

So, no big deal, I guess.

Then, we also have the recent speech by Alvin Tan in Parliament on financial influencers in Singapore.

They must be licensed and regulated.

See: The Straits Times.

That got me thinking.

Together with all the things which have happened recently in my life, I really don't need more stuff to worry about.

Blogging and, now, YouTube video making, are hobbies to me.

Hobbies must be enjoyable and not make me worry.

I thought of giving up these hobbies but I still enjoy them.

I also like interacting with most of my readers and viewers as I think most of them are nice people and they also understand that I am not giving financial advice.

Unfortunately, doing what I do, it is too easy for my content to be misconstrued.

Like I have said many times before, I am not running a blog or YouTube channel as a business.

If I do them for a living, then, I would not mind the hassle of being licensed and regulated.

At this stage of my life, I just want to have more fun and have less to worry about.

So, what am I going to do?

For my own sanity, I have decided to have a compromise.

I will continue to blog and make YouTube videos but only on a quarterly basis.

This would be for the usual quarterly portfolio updates where I talk about what I have done to my investment portfolio and how it has performed.

This should be pretty safe from being misconstrued as financial advice.

Depending on how things go, this could morph into a bi-monthly or monthly update but that is up in the air for now.

Going to be rather unlikely, I feel.

Why?

With all the additional expenses I am saddling myself with, I doubt there would be much happening on the investment front as I have less surplus cash to invest with.

A bit overwhelming?

No one expected these developments but things happen.

I am sure there are many people who will continue blogging and making YouTube videos in this space.

Money is an important topic, after all.

So, with many more content creators in this space than there were when I started this blog 15 years ago, I am sure my leaving isn't a big deal.

I will end this blog by saying that we should always remember what Warren Buffett said before.

"Never ask barbers if we need a haircut."

Also remember that no one cares more about our money than we do.

If AK can do it, so can you!

Related post:

F.I.R.E. AK still needs $136K yearly.

Bad things happen.

One thing I have blogged about on and off over the years is how things could go wrong.

Bad things happen.

Very often, they happen without warning.

In my last YouTube video, I said that I was making trips to the hospital.

The month of July has turned out to be much busier than I had planned.

I have been so busy dealing with stuff that I have not had much time for gaming, which was the reason for a planned busier month of July initially.

It has affected me physically, mentally and emotionally.

So, apologies for the silence.

I don't intend to share the details of what has happened but I hope readers and viewers understand bad things do happen to us from time to time.

Some things are worse than others.

Anyway, just to touch base to say I am still around although not feeling 100%.

Just have to roll with the punches and deal with it.

In point form, here are things I am doing and thinking of, for those who might be interested.

1. Making multiple trips to the hospital.

4 to 5 days a week. 

This takes up several hours per visit including driving time.

I was caught in a jam one day which resulted in spending 1 hour in the car, driving one way.

I was exhausted.

Very uncomfortable but necessary.

In case readers are wondering, my dad is in a hospital that's close to my family home but far from my place.

2. Cost could mount.

Medishield Life covers a big chunk of expenses.

However, there would still be out of pocket expenses.

Some will be significant especially those involving long term care.

My mom has Incomeshield but my dad doesn't.

3. Buying another car.

I was thinking of not getting another car once my current car's COE expires.

Too expensive and I don't really need a car for my lifestyle.

However, this unfortunate event has made me reconsider.

Need a car to ferry my parents.

I could extend the COE of my car by 5 years.

Then, I decided I should get a car which is friendlier to old people.

Getting in and out of my current car has become challenging for my parents.

It is likely to become more challenging in time to come.

So, I must set aside $200K for this.

I know that is a lot of money.

Unfortunately, that's how much an average family car costs in Singapore these days.

I will wait and see how things go since my current car still has more than a year left to go.

4. Long term change to my lifestyle.

Depending on how thing go, the lifestyle I have been enjoying in the last 8 years could change.

It could change drastically.

My hobbies, including blogging and YouTube, would have to take a backseat.

5. Personal health.

My personal health has been going downhill.

That is to be expected with age.

I have been experiencing pain in my left arm.

Persistent pain.

I was given muscle relaxant but it didn't help.

Will be seeing the doctor before end of the month.

6. Not sleeping well.

I have always had trouble getting enough sleep.

Monkey brain.

Everything has resulted in worsening this problem.

This has made me very irritable.

7. Social interaction.

I have lost interest in interacting with people.

I mean I have always been reclusive and prefer my own company.

However, through blogging and making YouTube videos, I have been having a higher level of social interaction.

I am wary of this loss of interest because it is one of the signs of depression.

I am not there yet since I am OK enough to blog about my current situation.

To be honest, I didn't feel like blogging.

Then, why did I decide to do it?

Writing has always helped me to organize my thoughts and to make sense of my emotions.

Writing is therapeutic for me.

Since I was going to do some writing anyway, I might as well do it in my blog.

Fair warning.

I appreciate people showing concern.

However, please do not be offended if I do not reply to your comments.

Not immediately or in the near future, anyway.

Crossing fingers that things get better.

If they do, I will be back.

F.I.R.E. Always have a Plan B! Better and cheaper!

I always say try not to be married to our jobs.

This is because if we spend our lives working and doing nothing else, if we should one day be retrenched or if we must stop working for whatever reason, we would be lost.

This is why so many people say if they retire, they would die faster.

For me, I have always thought of work as a means to an end which is to achieve F.I.R.E.

Of course, back then, there was no such acronym.

I was just thinking about being able to retire earlier from work or being able to stop exchanging my time and energy for money.

Anyway, having been a retiree for about 8 years now, I have been spending a lot of time on something that I really enjoy and that's video gaming.

Now, I have to take my own advice but with a twist!

Don't be married to any one hobby!

Recently, my gaming laptop has been a bit wonky.

The video card is probably on its last leg.

To be fair, I work it very hard as I use it for 8 to 14 hours daily.

I have been thinking of getting a new gaming laptop for some time but I decided to wait for prices to come down.

During the pandemic, the prices of computers shot through the roof as people were buying them to work from home and also because they had more free time, online video gaming activity also sky-rocketed.

So, I kept waiting until now.

I took advantage of the 11.11 sale going on now and bought a new gaming laptop, also from ACER.

Still a Nitro 5 which is a value for money gaming laptop by ACER but this is an upgrade with 16G of RAM and a RTX2050 graphics card.

For sure, it isn't top of the line but it is already an upgrade to my current Nitro 5 with 8G of RAM and a GTX1050 graphics card.

Well, my current laptop is 6 years old.

Oh, the new NITRO 5 will also have a SSD that is 4x bigger than what I have now.

However, what is really amazing is how I am paying only $1,100 for my new Nitro 5!

When I paid $1,349 for my current laptop back in the day, people told me it was a good deal.

So, the new laptop is better and cheaper than my old one!

That makes me happy.

Of course, if you have been following my blog long enough, you would know that I am not just talking about my recent purchase.

This blog post is more allegorical.

Think about having contingency plans.

Think about delaying gratification.

Whether stocks or socks, we like to buy better products at lower prices.

Related post:
Spent money and will spend more time.

How to get $200K dividends yearly? Simpler than you think.

The sequel to the podcast I did with The Fifth Person last month is here.

I just watched it and I thought it would be good to tie up a few loose ends.

If viewers should spend some time ruminating on what I said in the follow-up podcast, they would not need to read this blog post.

So, this blog post is more for my benefit since I have a need to talk to myself all the time.

AK is mental.

1. My response to a viewer who said most regular folks would have to speculate in order to generate sufficient capital to get a $200K dividend annually from investments.

There is no need to speculate although we could certainly do it and in the podcast I shared my view on that.

There are other ways to make more money and regular readers know I did some trading and I also had side hustles to make more money.

I also blogged about how we should not wait until we have a larger amount of money before we start investing for income.

Dividends made in the early days, no matter how small, would grow our wealth, and could be used to invest for even more income.

2. Possible to make $200K dividends annually with $2M and how to get $2M in capital?

In the podcast, I said that my capital wasn't $10M, $5M, $4M or $3M.

It could have been closer to $2M.

And that is giving me $200K in yearly dividends now?

How is that possible?

Elementary, my dear Watson.

A lot of what I bought was bought during crises, when Mr. Market was suffering from severe depression.

By now, my experience with AIMS APAC REIT should be quite well-known.

It is one of my largest investments and probably my oldest one.

It generates a distribution yield of more than 10% on cost for me, year after year.

As I got into it in a big way during the Global Financial Crisis, it is a major contributor to my yearly passive income. 

Of course, my investment has been free of cost for many years too.

I have recovered my capital and I am still receiving income from my investment.

So, of the $200K in dividends received last year, a big chunk of it was actually free money.

It is money generated from nothing.

How did this happen?

Time happened.

It is possible to get higher dividend yields during crises if we invest in the right businesses that would survive the crises.

Of course, we could choose to sell these investments if their stock prices should recover later on.

I used the examples of Lippo Mall Trust and First REIT in the podcast.

Regular readers of my blog would know there were others like Saizen REIT, Croesus Retail Trust and Accordia Golf Trust as well.

Selling for significant capital gains grew my wealth.

It gave me more capital to invest with.

We could also choose to sell a portion of our investments like what I did with Old Chang Kee and Hock Lian Seng.

I sold half of my investments in them when their share prices doubled.

So, whatever I am still holding now is free of cost.

And they are still paying me dividends, year after year.

More free money.

This brings me back to the earlier point on speculation.

Why is there a need to speculate in order to grow wealth?

Simply wait for the next opportunity to make significant investments for income like what I did during the Global Financial Crisis.

Invest in good businesses which are able and willing to pay us.

That opportunity came in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic not too long ago.

Of course, regular readers would know that I emptied my war chest during the pandemic and got into UOB at $19 a share.

That is one of my largest investments today.

It is rewarding me with a dividend yield of almost 9% per annum now.

I also talked about how I started buying into DBS at $13 and $14 a share back in 2016.

At $13 a share, the dividend yield is almost 15% per annum today.

Now, coupled with free money I get from AIMS APAC REIT and some other stocks, do you see why I say the capital deployed isn't as much as what some people say it is?

What I have done over the years isn't simply putting some of my monthly salary in fixed income instruments unless we count the CPF.

If that was my method, then, yes, to generate $200K yearly in dividends now, I would need around $4 million in capital today.

I agree this would be insurmountable for most regular folks.

So, I remind myself of what I did over the years and how I made what seemed impossible happen.

This might be a lot for some people to take in.

There is also the fact that my skill as a wordsmith has regressed in recent years.

So, maybe, read this blog post a few times.

Ruminate on it.

I know I had to.

AK is talking to AK here, after all.

Please don't let people tell us what AK has achieved is not possible for regular folks because the capital required is enormous.

It is simply not true.

This blog post is the truth.

Go share this with people you care about and tell them this.

AK is a regular folk too.

If AK can do it, so can you!

$200K in dividends podcast. To inspire and encourage.

Everyone should probably know by now that I did a podcast with my friends at Fifth Person two weeks ago.

Apparently, it has turned out to be a blockbuster!

I so stunned like vegetable!

If you have not seen the podcast yet, here it is.

For readers who have been to "Evening with AK and friends" or who have been listening to me talking to myself for years, the stuff I said in the podcast wouldn't be anything new.

I have said many times before that I am not allowed to give financial advice.

I am just sharing my story and what has worked for me.

It is also important to remember that I have not always been right.

However, like Peter Lynch said, we cannot be right all the time.

In this business, if we are right 6 times out of 10, we are doing OK.

Not in those exact words but you get the idea.

It is OK to have a couple of investments in our portfolio which are not doing as well sometimes but as long as they are fundamentally sound investments, the day will come when they shine.

I remind myself from time to time that in the short run, the market is a voting machine.

There are many people who are more interested in prices and they make money trading in the market which gives rise to volatility.

Nothing wrong with that especially if they are good at it.

When we are investing, we are weighing machines as we are more interested in valuations.

We want to buy stocks of businesses when they are undervalued or at least fairly valued.

Depending on what kind of investor we are, we would look at different things.

However, in the end, it is all about searching for value.

As an investor for income, I am more concerned with whether my investments are able and willing to pay me as expected.

So, during market meltdowns, I am usually pretty calm because I am not using borrowed money to invest with.

There is no need for me to sell at depressed prices to meet obligations as I am not using money meant for something else in life.

What I have achieved as an investor for income took many, many years of time and effort.

Totally worthwhile as I mostly do nothing most of the time unlike the days when I was more active as a trader.

I always say "If AK can do it, so can you".

I really believe this.

As an average income earner, if we are prudent financially and patiently invest for income, we can become a millionaire too.

To invest, we need capital.

It is all going to come from our earned income in the early days, unless we have been lucky.

So, I talked to myself about how to save 100% of our take home pay.

It sounded funny but it wasn't a joke.

If you search my blog or my YouTube channel, which is still a baby, you would find the content.

My YouTube channel: AK71SG.

When the dividends we receive are able to pay for our lifestyle, we can save 100% of our take home pay.

Simple.

Of course, we shouldn't be saving for the sake of saving.

The money saved can be used to invest for more income when the time is right.

So, wealth creation continues.

When people see "$200K in annual dividends", some think maybe AK had a $4 million inheritance or maybe he struck TOTO or something.

A 5% dividend yield on a $4 million investment would give $200K in annual dividends, after all.

When I started my journey, I only had a few thousand dollars and my monthly salary was only $3,000 a month.

Those were hard times.

Long time readers might remember my blog on how I bought my first lot or 1000 shares of ST Engineering at $1.55 a share.

That was more than half of my monthly salary.

I still have those shares today.

What is my dividend yield on those shares today?

Of course, a more recent example would be my investment in AIMS APAC REIT which I bought mostly during the Global Financial Crisis.

At a post consolidation price of less than $1 per unit and a distribution yield of more than 10% per annum on cost, my investment has been free of cost for many years.

Even more recently in 2016, I started investing in DBS at $13 to $14 a share.

Some readers might remember this.

What is my dividend yield on those shares today?

Of course, it would be a mistake to think that it is all just buying and holding as long time readers of my blog would know that I have sold many of my investments over the years too.

Some like Old Chang Kee and Hock Lian Seng, I sold half when their stock prices doubled which means that what I have today is free of cost.

I kept 50% of my original investment as I continued to like them and the dividends they paid.

Who doesn't like free money?

Some of my investments like Lippo Mall Trust and First REIT, I reduced exposure significantly or sold completely for some hefty gains after some years of extraordinarily high distribution yields.

Why did I sell?

Bad vibes.

The same could be said for my investment in Sabana REIT many years ago and also Soilbuild REIT.

Then, there was a string of divestments after many years of receiving good income like Saizen REIT, Croesus Retail Trust, Accordia Golf Trust etc.

In all cases, I had good outcomes not only because of the dividends received but also because I invested in them when they were undervalued.

We cannot always count on a good selling price, after all.

Buying undervalued stocks gives us a better chance of having a good result.

Of course, the capital gains help to give me more ammo to fire when Mr. Market went into a depression again.

I bought about $200K worth of UOB's common stock during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Where did a retiree like AK who depended on passive income for a living get the money from?

AK is so very long winded and almost lost his train of thought.

This is why I prefer blogging to talking because I can see what I was talking to myself about and how to continue.

Very good especially when my brain power is not what it used to be.

Anyway, what I want to say is some of what I have achieved is from "buy and hold" but if I was just purely buying and holding, I would not have what I have today.

Not when I started with only a few thousand dollars and a monthly salary of $3,000 a month.

Yes, I had a couple of side hustles and I was also fortunate enough to make some money as a trader for a few years.

These helped to give me more capital to invest with.

However, they are not the main reasons why I have what I have today.

All of us have different circumstances but we can all have the same philosophy.

If we stay true to that philosophy, we can all achieve success although in varying degrees.

There will always be naysayers out there.

"Alamak! $200K dividend income needs a few million dollars in capital lah! Walao! Where to find that kind of money?"

Well, if they keep thinking like this, they will never find the money.

Don't let negative people tell us that we cannot achieve financial freedom.

We have to believe that we can and I believe that is half the battle won!

I truly believe it when I say if AK can do it, so can you!

Have a good weekend!

References:
1. Passive income as much as earned income.
2. Peace of mind as investors.

3. Three words starting with "P".

I am so sorry.

In my last blog, I said that I might not be blogging for a while but I would be checking the comments section daily like I would do usually.

However, I was too tired both physically and mentally to do it.

A thousand apologies.

I am very sorry that I have not been checking the comments section daily.

This might have made some of you worried.

Please forgive me.

This is just a quick blog to say sorry and to say I am OK.

I have been enjoying (virtual) life a lot in the last few years.

What happened was a reminder that real life can be brutal.

Things can go very wrong from time to time.

It could be a lot worse than just getting lemons.

It could take a while before things settle down.

Time will heal.

I must believe this.

Know that we are here for each other. 

Life will not be the same but life will go on.

I want to thank everybody for their kindness and encouragement.

I promise I will read and reply to all your comments soon.

Please don't worry. 

If AK can still talk to himself, he is OK!

Death in the family.

In a recent blog, I said that the COVID-19 pandemic changed my views on many things.

Life is so fragile and it could end quite unexpectedly.

Although I feel that everyone should try to achieve financial freedom, I understand that it isn't everybody's cup of tea.

So, live and let live.

This is something I have been saying for many years.

Nothing is more important to appreciate than this.

We have only one life to live.

We have a responsibility to ourselves to be happy.

We also have a responsibility to others, especially to those who matter to us, that even as we celebrate our right to happiness, we do not compromise theirs.

Of course, we cannot always be happy.

It is even harder to ensure that people around us are always happy.

There will be good days.

There will be bad days.

This is true for all of us.

We are only human and can be unkind to people when we are unhappy.

We lash out at people closest to us as they are the ones we are most likely to take for granted.

Of course, this is wrong.

Try to make amends later and try to be a better person in future.

Our wealth can grow if we do the right things.

However, our time on earth is limited.

We don't want to learn that we had a good thing in life only after we have lost it.

Of course, we get angry sometimes.

With people we care about, we might get even angrier.

Be angry but don't stay angry for too long.

Always think of the good that is in that person.

Think of past kindness received.

We are all unique individuals.

Even twins are not 100% alike.

Things are rarely perfect in life.

No one is perfect.

Everybody makes mistakes.

Be more forgiving.

We might not be selfless but we can try to be less selfish.

If you think that I am not feeling 100% now, you are right, but I am still OK.

I always like to say "all in good time".

It will take time for things to get better.

I remind myself that life has to go on.

However, there is a chance I might stop blogging or replying to comments for a while.

Of course, this wouldn't be the first time but it would be for a different reason.

So, it is important that I talk to myself about this.

Still, I will try to check the comments section daily.

If AK is still talking to himself, do not worry. :)

UPDATES. Time and money. Rights issues and parents.

First update is on the subject of "time".

In recent weeks, I settled into a routine of producing videos and then publishing the transcripts here. 

Both the video and the blog would be released within minutes of each other.

I kept doing that because I had an inkling that most people who "eavesdrop" on AK don't really enjoy eavesdropping.

They really enjoy reading AK's diaries.

Tsk, tsk.

Terrible.

Anyway, looking at the viewership and readership numbers, it is quite apparent.

As I am a hobbyist YouTuber just like I am a hobbyist blogger, this isn't a tragedy.

In fact, it could be a blessing in disguise.

Although I still enjoy making YouTube videos as a hobby and I have produced videos almost daily for more than a year, I might do it less often as it is more time consuming.

So, in future, there might be more blogs like this where there would not be a corresponding video.

I need more than 24 hours a day to do all the things I want to do in retirement! 

I really have quite a bit of catching up to do in the online games I am still playing, for example.

Second update is on the subject of "money".

Some readers might know that my retiree parents are invested in AIMS APAC REIT and IREIT Global too.

Apart from their CPF and SRS savings, the two old folks have rental income from a shoe box apartment and dividends from some stocks.

As I am paying the property tax and maintenance of their rental property, they are able to enjoy the rental income in full.

Being retirees, they are living off passive income as they should.

However, total passive income they get in a year is only about half of what their total yearly income was before they retired a few years ago.

I remind myself of the following.

If not for us children, for sure, they would have been able to save a lot more money for their retirement.

There is also the fact that their CPF and SRS savings would be depleted in their mid 80s which is only another few years from now.

For readers who have been following my blogs on the topic of providing financial support for my parents, this probably throws more light on why I have significantly increased the quantum in recent years.

Since I do not expect my own expenses to grow significantly in future, I am ready to provide even more financial support to my parents if required.

This is so that they would not have to make too many changes to their lifestyle in retirement or compromise on their standard of living in their old age.

Alamak!

This is supposed to be a quick update and I just went rambling off.

A thousand apologies!

Back to AIMS APAC REIT and IREIT Global.

I have decided to help my parents pay for their rights units.

Of course, consistent with what I have said before, I will keep an eye on the current unit prices as well.

Mr. Market seems to be feeling rather pessimistic and if I should be offered prices which are much lower, I would buy from the open market.

In such an instance, I would be leaving the sponsors of the REITs to pick up my rights entitlement in the form of excess rights for them instead.

In fact, I have overnight BUY orders to buy more units in AIMS APAC REIT at $1.16 a unit and IREIT Global at $0.42 a unit as, technically, these look like strong supports to me.

To be honest, it would be a pleasant surprise if my orders are filled but I know never to say never.

Of course, helping my parents to increase their investments in the REITs this way would mean that I would have less money to add to investments in my own portfolio. 

However, trying to make more money for myself really hasn't been a priority for me for quite a while now.

Why do I say this?

Is having more money no longer important to me?

Am I OK with growing poorer over time?

Hmm.

I really don't want this to be a long blog.

So, I might blog about this topic a bit more later in the week.

Let me end this update here for now.

If AK can talk to himself, so can you!

Related post:
Do we give our parents enough money?

Hope you enjoyed "Evening with AK and friends."

"Evening with AK and friends 2023" was successfully held and I want to put down my thoughts on paper while I still have them. 

I think it was evident at the event that my memory really wasn't very good. 

I feel that it isn't what it used to be. 

Used to be able to remember things easily and rattle off precise numbers too.

Not so anymore.

Hope dementia does not come too early for me.

Crossing fingers.

Here are a few things I want to say.

1. Thank you!

I want to register my heartfelt thanks to my friend, Kenji, for organizing the event.

It would not have happened if he did not offer to organize it because AK was too lazy.

Kenji is always very concerned that I don't go out enough and that I don't socialize enough.

I am blessed to have a handful of good friends like him who I must admit I don't make enough time for.

Don't need many friends.

Only need a few good friends.

2. Thank you again!

I also want to thank the two young men seated in the front row. 

They took on the role of photographers as readers asked for photos with AK.

Thank you plenty plenty.

3. If AK can do it, so can you!

To people who got the little souvenir from AK, I hope it helps you to remember that what AK has achieved is not impossible for regular folks.

If AK can do it, so can you!

4. No photo because I forgot.

I forgot to pass my camera to Kenji to take photos.

So, no photo of the event to share in this blog.

Sadness.

5. Epic chit chat Q&A!

"Evening with AK and friends" has always been an epic chit chat session driven by Q&A.

Hope that I have answered all your questions satisfactorily.

Please bear in mind the following.

For sure, I do not have all the answers and I am as fallible as any other person.

6. Technical Analysis.

Someone asked me about technical analysis.

Here are a few books I would recommend.

See:
Recommended books for FA and TA.

7. Remember the pyramid!

I shared this in many blogs and one was in a blog about Wilmar.

"S" at the tip of the pyramid stands for "speculative" position and we should always keep this small.

See:
Wilmar: Target reacquired.

8. Remember the Rule of 15.

It really shows who were the people swimming naked.

I mentioned Anita Yuen and her husband at the event and it's all in this blog.

See: 
Rule of 15 revisited.

9. Gold is for insurance.

Precious metals are not investments.

Why get them?

See:
Why investors for income buy gold?

10. Totally honest.

Many things I shared at the event, I would never publish here in my blog for various reasons.

I wasn't joking when I asked you not to do any video or audio recording.

Even if what I said or the answers I gave might be jarring at times, I held nothing back and gave my all.

11. REITs handout.

I think there were a few readers who wanted the handout on REITs but didn't get it.

I published the handout in a few blogs before and I found one published in 2022.

If you are interested, you should be able to save it in your phone.

Just a list of pointers and nothing mind blowing.

See: 
How to invest in REITs?

12. Very touched.

According to Kenji, 280 people turned up.

An overwhelming number stayed till the end.

If the PA system didn't tell us that it was time to go, we might have stayed longer.

To all who came, thank you for showing me that talking to myself for more than 10 years has been helpful not only to myself.

I hope you found that the evening with AK was time well spent.

Until the next time, remember not too be overly optimistic nor pessimistic.

Always stay pragmatic.

Nobody cares more about our money than we do.

Don't ask barbers if we need a haircut!

If AK can do it, so can you!

OCBC reports stellar Q1 2023 results! +1

Well, two big things happening today.

One bigger than the other.

The bigger one is OCBC reporting Q1 2023 results.

I just produced a video for this.

For readers who are not subscribed to my YouTube channel, here is the video.

Fantastic response from OCBC after getting downgraded by both JP Morgan and CIMB.

I also produced videos for these.

The smaller thing happening today is "Evening with AK and friends."

To everyone who has bought tickets, remember to have an early dinner.

If no time for early dinner, at least bring a snack like a Gardenia bun or Old Chang Kee curry puff which you can eat outside the lecture hall during breaks.

Why must be Gardenia or Old Chang Kee brands of snacks?

No other food allowed?

You know, I know.

If you still don't know, ask me this evening.

Anyway, I will try to remember to have a 10 mins break after every 50 mins of talking.

So, you can go to the washroom or have a snack.

Come prepared with questions and we will have an epic chit chat session as always.

Hard to believe but it has been almost 5 years since the last time we did this.

See:
Financial freedom and a long break from public appearances.

See you this evening!

Evening with AK and friends 2023. Ticketing!

This is a follow up blog on "Evening with AK and friends 2023."

As promised last Friday, for those who are interested, here is the ticketing link:

Buy your ticket for "Evening with AK and friends 2023" here.

AK is back!

14 March 2023, 2PM UPDATE.

Some of you might also be interested in the latest YouTube videos by AK Production House.

I was on steroids and produced many videos on the banking crisis in the U.S.A. and if DBS, OCBC and UOB could be affected.

I am now working on new videos regarding the SATS rights issue as well as the S.D.I.C. which insures up to $75,000 in banking deposit.

Remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to get free timely notifications.

DBS, OCBC and UOB crashed!

 

Interest income under pressure!!

 

Which bank is next to fail?

U.S. banking bailout!

To everyone who is coming to the event on 10 May 2023, please remember the reminders published in my previous blog on the event.

See you, if you are joining us, for an evening of fun and laughter (and some photo taking, of course!)

Related post with reminders:
Evening with AK 2023. Confirmed.
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