Tea with AK71: A day at MBLM.

What is MBLM? It stands for Marina Bay Link Mall. This is the underground mall at MBFC, the development which K-REIT and Suntec REIT would co-own with each having a 33% stake.

I was wondering where should I spend my vacation which starts today and I decided to stay in Singapore instead of going overseas. I would spend time going places here and help to stimulate the local economy. Singapore's domestic economy has been said to be tiny. So, I am doing my patriotic duty by spending my vacation money here instead of going away to a foreign land. Ahem.

So? I like the mall. Shops on both sides, it has a wide centre aisle with high ceiling. It is defnitely less claustrophobic compared to the Citylink Mall (which I somewhat dislike). In time, with the completion of the Downtown Line for the MRT, I am sure MBLM would be just as busy as Citylink Mall but the generous space allowance should be enough to cope with increased human traffic. MBLM also serves the residents of The Sail and Marina Bay Residences condominiums. In fact, half the shoppers at MBLM I saw today were foreigners, probably expatriates, with kids.

Go visit MBLM before it becomes crowded. Now till end of the year, spend $80 at MBLM and we will get $15 shopping voucher plus 4 hours of parking for free. There is also an instant lucky dip to win iPads and iPhones but that's for weekends only and I was so hoping to win an iPad. :(

So, I got my $15 voucher, free parking, wrapping paper for Christmas and 2 lucky draw chances. Hope that I would win 1st prize which is for $8,000 worth of shopping vouchers! Then, I would go to the Apple retailer in the mall and get my iPad, Macbook Air etc. Wah.... Day dreaming. Nice!

Anyway, with 4 hours of free parking, I had time to burn as MBLM is smallish with a floor plan shaped like the letter "L" and not many shops were ready for business. I walked to Marina Bay Sands (MBS) to explore the shopping mall.  It was my second time at MBS which has a much bigger shopping mall.  This time round, more shops were open and I didn't have to pay an exorbitant $10 per hour for parking my car! That makes me happy.

Apparently, MBS is now giving free parking for the first 3 hours but one would have to spend $200 at the mall to qualify. I won't qualify. Free parking at MBS costs more than MBLM, if you know what I mean. MBS is for the well heeled, obviously. I like MBLM more which might say something about me. ;)

These are some photos I took with my free Samsung mobile phone which comes with a 5.0 megapixel camera built in. Pretty good shots, aren't they? I still remember when digital cameras were 1.3 megapixel in resolution.

After spending almost 4 hours at Marina Bay, fully utilising my free parking privilege, I went back to Tiong Baru and had a bowl of freshly made bean curd (dou hua) for 60c. Where to find? Tiong Baru Market lor.

Now back in my bedroom, with the air-conditioning set at 25 deg celcius and blogging. Time for a nap! I am a happy man. :)

An email from another reader in his early 20s.

This email just came in this morning and is part of a string of email exchanges. It was a happy coincidence seeing how I just put up a blog post earlier regarding another email which I received from a reader in his early 20s too:

Hey AK, anyways i would like to take this opportunity to thank you for ur efforts to keep the blog updated. appreciate the time and i feel your posts are very enriching. Im only 21 this year :) been speculating in shares with my sibling's account.

Most of my friends are spending alot, sometimes i dont feel that im in the same league as them, im thinking stocks, investments, property and most of them are clubbing.. haha..

By the way, what do you do for a living?

Do you think 2011 will have as many investment opportunities than 2010?

My reply to the last question which I would like to share with all my readers was:

There will always be investment opportunities. Will there be more or less? I don't know but I think that is not important. Why? If there are more, could we take advantage of all of them? If I could identify a couple of opportunities and make money of those, it should be enough for me.

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.