Tea with AK71: Be kind to ourselves.

I just read an article by Wilfred Ling titled "Silent pain from an insurance agent".  You can read the article here. It is a rare peek into the life of a rookie insurance agent and his angst.

Rare indeed is it for a person to find a job he is actually interested in, grows to love and makes a comfortable living out of it. I believe that many muddle through their careers and endure hardships and even disillusionment, just like this insurance agent.

Personally, I have a simple philosophy in life: "Be happy.  As long as you are not hurting anyone while being happy, you're doing fine."  Of course, sometimes, life throws us into a hole and prevents us from being happy.  What do we do? Climb out of the hole and start afresh.

There may be some truly compassionate and altruistic beings in this world but, generally, no one will take care of us. We have to take care of ourselves. Nobody owes us a living.

If others are cruel to us, we have to love ourselves more. Do not hurt ourselves further by staying on and allowing that cruelty to continue unless there is a REALLY good reason to do so.

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When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going:
Maria Bartiromo on the Keys to Success
Posted Apr 23, 2010 05:01pm EDT by Tech Ticker

Revisiting High Yield Portfolio.

On 17 April, I mentioned that I checked Google Analytics to see how my blog was doing and was surprised to find that one of my earliest posts made last Christmas Eve was the most viewed post of my blog.  It was a post that I made about six counters I am vested in and would recommend to anyone who is interested in building up a high yield portfolio.

Out of curiosity rather than necessity, I decided to take a look at the portfolio to see how it has performed since:

Saizen REIT:  This was 15c at the time. The last done price was 17c. Gained 13.3%.  Income distribution to resume in mid 2010.

AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT (MI-REIT):  This was 20.5c at the time. The last done price was 22c.  Gained 7.3%. XD 12 Feb: 0.1868c which is a yield of 0.91%.

LMIR: This was 51.5c at the time. The last done price was 50c.  Lost 3%. XD 17 Feb: 1.6c which is a yield of 3.1%.

First REIT: This was 80c at the time. The last done price was 87c.  Gained 8.75%. XD 28 Jan: 1.91c which is a yield of 2.39%.

Suntec REIT: This was $1.34 at the time. The last done price was $1.38.  Gained 2.99%.  XD 29 Jan: 0.318c which is a yield of 0.2%.

SPH: This was $3.60 at the time. The last done price was $4.15.  Gained 15.3%.

Assuming that an investor had put in an equal amount of money in each of these six counters on 28 Dec 2009, he would have gained 7.44%.  He would also have an average yield of 1.1%.  Total returns of 8.54%. Not bad for a 4 months period (28 Dec to 23 Apr). Since inflation is expected to be about 3% this year, this portfolio has beaten inflation by now.

The allure of such a portfolio is that very little time is required to maintain it. Buy in at fair prices as indicated by the charts and simply hold until a time when the technicals turn negative. Regular streams of passive income happening in the meantime would make an average person quite happy. Such a portfolio is perfect for anyone who does not have the time, savvy or inclination to trade the market.

It would be interesting to see how this portfolio would do after a 12 months period. I expect that it would look even better with all the income distributions from the REITs and the dividends from SPH streaming in over the next few months.  Let's check in again on 24 Dec 2010, shall we?

Related posts:
Tea with AK71: Top 5 posts.
High yield portfolio.

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I don't usually watch football but this is entertaining:
A match in Argentina produces a bizarre goal, with two players scoring the same overhead kick.

Gimnasia Vs. Boca @ Yahoo! Video