A letter from a reader in his early 20s.

I received an email from a reader in his early-20s.  I was very pleased to read it as this is one of the things my blog hopes to do and that is to be a positive influence in the lives of ordinary people, encouraging them to save and invest for a more secure financial future. I am sharing the email here and I hope it would encourage younger readers to plan early and be financially prudent:

:) Read your posts, about financial planning. I realised that in recent months, i have pay for focus on the need to grow my money, even though it may be just 3000/year. I used to spend a lot, sales mean must buy. Now, i focus only on spending for trips to get the experience, and less shopping. Other than that, i did not spend much, and even find reckless spending, and credit buying quite disgusting.
travel means saving on accomodation through hostel or couchsurfing.

Aiming to save 50% of my salary, ex-CPF. 2600 salary, save 1k/month, 500 monthly expenses, 300 to parents, and 200 for whatever bills/medical expenses.

i think the current generations, not a lot of people focus on saving.... with my friends spending on branded stuff. haiz.

AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT and Singapore's 5.8% growth in October exports.

Singapore's economy is humming along nicely.  Manufacturing is doing well.

Strong Singapore exports signal inflation - StanChart 
Tuesday, 16 November 2010

© 2010 - The Edge Singapore

A REIT which I like very much is an industrial properties S-REIT, AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT.  With the economy chugging along and exports doing well, this REIT is likely to benefit.

At 10.43AM, there was a single transaction buying up 8,652 lots at 22.5c. That's big money.  At the end of the day, 19,221 lots changed hands making AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT the top volume REIT today. 15,090 lots were BUY UPs of which 752 lots were BUY UPs at 23c which is the upper limit of the current trading range and the resistance to watch.

My immediate target for this counter is 26c. How did I arrive at this value? Fundamentally, this would mean a yield of 8% with an annualised DPU of 2.08c for 2011. This, I feel, is fair for a smallish REIT with leasehold industrial real estate in Singapore. Technically, 26c would be the upper limit of the next trading band of 23c to 26c, if we believe that the current trading band is 20c to 23c which has been the case since the counter's CR days.

"Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) surged a better-than-expected 34.5 per cent from a year earlier, in line with a rebound in shipments out of Asia in October."  Read article here.