Mind Your Money: Budgeting.

I have the pleasure of watching "Mind Your Money" on XIN MSN this evening. The first episode is on budgeting. It is basically about managing personal cash flow.

If people were to ask me how I grew my money, I would say that I spend as little as possible and save and invest the rest. So, it all starts with budgeting.

I wrote a piece on wage slaves before which attracted quite a few comments. Obviously, people who spend as much as they make are not about to grow their money since there is nothing left to grow.

If you find that you have been working for a few years with reasonably good income but you are not saving much money, if any, this program could be for you. I think it is quite good for anyone who has never done any budgeting before.

Watch "Mind Your Money": http://video.xin.msn.com/watch/video/episode-1/1gqq74i6l?cpkey=6b6b1cb2-3c96-4fcc-9001-271abc9c19fa%7c%7c%7c%7c&src=v5:share:sharepermalink:&from=sharepermalink


Related posts:
1. Wage slaves should be fearful.
2. Money Management: Needs and wants.

Further credit tightening is almost a given.

I was talking to a friend whose family controls a public listed company in Singapore and he is very optimistic about Singapore, very confident that we will not suffer a recession. Although I reminded him that in the last global financial crisis, only China, India and Indonesia escaped a recession, he remains very optimistic. Is this optimism the norm?

Many think that the housing prices in Singapore are being driven up by foreigners. Numbers released not too long ago shows that foreigners accounted for some 16% of condos sold so far this year. The rest were sold to Singaporeans and PRs. If I remember correctly, PRs accounted for 5% or less of total HDB flats transactions. So, the vast majority of transactions in residential real estate here belong to Singaporeans. Logically, a great number of Singaporeans are doing well.

Indeed, if the recent astronomical COE prices are anything to go by, I would say that people and companies here are doing extremely well. Therefore, a pervasive sense of optimism and even invincibility is not difficult to understand.

Personally, I have a blog post not too long ago which questioned whether there would be a double dip recession or whether we would simply see very slow growth. Do I have the answer? If I were to say I do, would you believe me?

Do I know anything for sure? I know that if there should be a prolonged slowdown in the world economy, Singapore will not be spared. I know that if there should be a credit tightening in the world banking system, Singapore will not be spared. Singapore has a very open economy and to think that we will be spared any negative ramifications is simply naive.

In order to stay optimistic about Singapore's economy, we have to be optimistic about the world economy and we have to stay optimistic that there will not be any significant credit tightening in the world banking system. Do you think it is easy to be optimistic about these?

"In July, banks and insurers agreed to contribute to reducing Greece's debt via a 21-percent writedown on their holdings of Greek bonds... But recently there has been growing speculation that Athens needs to reduce the value of its debt by 50 percent -- or perhaps even more -- to make its finances sustainable." Read article here.

This speculation is likely going to be a reality.

"Diplomatic sources said Europe and the IMF would only proceed with a second planned Greek bailout of 109 billion euros if banks accepted losses of "at least 50 percent" on their debt holdings." Read article here.

This is going to be disastrous for European lenders holding Greek debt. How would this affect us in Asia?

In a discussion I had with my father a few weeks ago, I told him that we could see European lenders tightening on credit and recalling funds from Asia where they have a significant presence.  Although this could be a welcome development as Asia is sloshing in funds in search of higher returns, resulting in strong inflationary pressure, people and companies who have thus far done well by leveraging on cheap money could suffer.

I am not an economist but some form of credit tightening with the proposed Greek "debt haircut" of 50% is more likely to take place than not. I can only hope that the negative effects will not be as fearsome as some have made them out to be.

For any who recently borrowed to the max buying a dream private property or a dream car at record high prices here on our tiny island, I can only hope that the dreams will not become nightmares.

First REIT: Bumper distribution 3Q 2011.

Ex-rights, with a pro forma DPU of 6.4c for 2011, I estimated First REIT's fair value to be at 80c per unit many moons ago. This was based on an expectation that 8% distribution yield was fair for the REIT. With the latest announcement of a DPU of 1.92c for 3Q 2011, is the estimated fair value of 80c outdated and probably too low?

I still hold the units I bought during the last bear market at 42c per unit as well as the rights units at 50c per unit. I also bought quite a number of nil-paid rights at 16c per unit and the final cost on those units is 66c per unit. In the recent market weakness, I bought more units at 73c, 74.5c and 76c. These, I partially divested as price tested resistance. On cost, the distribution yields on my current positions in the REIT are between 8.8% to 16%.

First REIT's unit price ended the last session at 79.5c. NAV/unit stands at 77.88c. So, the REIT is trading above NAV now. This could change in future even if the REIT's unit price stays at the current level as the management is in the early stages of talks with its sponsor for more acquisitions. With gearing level at 16.4%, the REIT has a very comfortable debt headroom. Another round of equity fund raising is, of course, possible but there is less necessity for one in the near future.

With news of higher DPU for 3Q 2011, could we see unit price testing and probably even breaking the psychological resistance at 80c in the new trading week? We could, of course.

Am I going to increase my investment in the REIT at current prices? I won't. Why?

The DPU of 1.92c for 3Q2011 includes 0.34c which is a special non-recurring distribution. This is from divestment gains of the REIT's Adam Road property. If we remove 0.34c, the DPU is 1.58c which is more in line with expectations. 0.34c is just a bonus.

So, although some want to increase their investment in the REIT tomorrow, I won't.

XD: 28 October.
Payable on 29 Nov.

Maintaining my current investment in the REIT, I am very pleased with the bumper distribution and look forward to its payment on 29 Nov.

Read announcement here.

Related post:
First REIT: XR and fair value.

Tea with AK71: Breakfast at Long John Silver's.

I think breakfast at Long John Silver's compared to McDonald's offers better value for money.

Thick slices of toast with turkey bacon, eggs and cheese. Yummy! I am not crazy about the hash brown though.

Iced Milo! Slurp!

Price: $5.10 with tea or coffee. Add 50c to upgrade to an iced Milo. :)

From their website:

Caution: Waiting time can be quite long if they are busy. I would usually avoid if I see long queues or many tables with a number standee which means diners are waiting for their meals to be sent to them. In terms of efficiency, McDonald's still takes the top spot.