Traffic accident with a Malaysian vehicle.

On Saturday night, while driving home on the PIE, there was an accident on the lane I was in. As I always make it a point not to follow too closely the vehicle in front of me when I drive, I was able to stop my car in time although the wet road surface from an earlier downpour made braking more hazardous.

I was really pleased that my safe driving style paid off. However, that happiness lasted for only 3 or 4 seconds. There was a loud bang and I felt the impact as a motorcycle crashed into the back of my car. Sigh. I got out of my car and took a look. Argh! It was a motorcycle from Johor! Nooooo!

From being pleased, I became upset in a flash.

The motorcyclist was dazed and he probably cut his lips in the fall as he had blood on his teeth. His bike had a "P" sticker. A newly licensed rider. He looked frightened too and I later found out that the bike was borrowed from a friend.

I think I must have felt sorry for him and he must have have felt relieved that I did not scold him. He said he had tried to change lanes instead of braking but because traffic was heavy, he couldn't do it and ended up crashing into the rear of my car. He should have stopped his bike instead of trying to change lanes.

Anyway, I made a police report later that night at the advice of a friend. In any traffic accident involving a foreign vehicle in Singapore, a police report must be made within 24 hours of the accident.

Today, I brought my car to the approved workshop and my worst fear was realised. I would have to claim against my own insurance policy first because the other party is a foreign vehicle. It has to be so if I want to get my car repaired soon. There is no guarantee that the cost of repair could be recovered from the other party!

I would also have to pay an excess of $600 claiming against my own insurance policy. I bought an NCD protector. Otherwise, I would also lose my NCD.

Whenever I hear of accidents like this, I would always wonder why it is so difficult to claim against insurance policies of Malaysian vehicles involved in accidents here. In fact, I was told that it is almost impossible.

Singapore vehicles are not allowed on the roads unless they have valid insurance policies. The same should apply to foreign vehicles but if it is almost impossible to claim against their insurance policies, then, it is as good as being uninsured when they are in Singapore, isn't it? Then, they should not be allowed on our roads.

This reminds me of an accident here which I read in the papers some time ago involving a local female reporter. Her vehicle was the second last vehicle in a chain collision and the last vehicle was a van from Malaysia. She really suffered in the entire claim process which lasted months. I cannot remember clearly now but I think she had to bear all the cost in the chain collision as they could not track down the van from Malaysia.

These days, I always try to look on the brighter side of things. If I had not been able to brake in time, I would have been the second last vehicle in the chain collision and things would be more complicated now. I would have been in same situation as the female reporter mentioned earlier. So, I should count my blessings.

However, I am only human and cannot help but feel rather sad now...

To be richer, be comfortable with being invested.

I met someone recently who told me he is swearing off the stock market for good. I asked him why. He told me that he lost a lot of money in the global financial crisis but he managed to recover all his losses in the ensuing recovery. That is good news, isn't it? Well, apparently, Mr. Market took back some of the gains in the last one year. So, he is still in a nett loss position.

I asked if his investments paid any dividends and he said yes but very little. He said that with the amount of time and effort he put into the stock market, he might as well just leave the money in a fixed deposit and save himself some headache (and heartache).

This person was not a very close friend but for some reason when I meet people, the conversation would steer towards investments and personal finance matters. Anyway, as I did not know the person very well, I did not want to volunteer too much information because it could come back to haunt me one day.

However, I could not resist asking if he had thought of REITs. He looked at me with frown and said he vaguely remembered reading in the newspapers that REITs were a waste of time. He asked why did I ask. I told him I have some investments in REITs and they have been very good to me. He was curious and asked me for more information. I was in a slight fix.

I believe that for any investor, the most important knowledge is not TA or FA, it is self-knowledge. Know ourselves and we will know if a product is suitable for us. Know ourselves and we will know if a certain something is what we have been looking for. We could have all the financial knowledge in the world but not knowing ourselves, we could end up having sleepless nights as investors.

Why are investors in the stock market? To make money. Why do drivers go on the road? To get from point A to point B. Well, that would be a logical assumption. There are many types of investors in the stock market just like there are many types of drivers on the road. Each type would have a distinct behaviour but they all share one primary reason for doing what they do.

Some drivers are speed demons and they also like weaving in and out of traffic. On more than one occasion, a speeding car which had overtaken my slower Mazda 2 a few minutes before would be waiting for me at the next traffic light a few minutes later. Of course, if the driver had not been stopped by the traffic light, he could have reached his destination a few minutes earlier. Just for a few minutes, why increase the risk of getting into an accident?

Some spend much of their time in the stock market looking for the next big thing. The theme is multi-baggers. Is this wrong? No, of course not. I do it too. If we could find a multi-bagger, we would be rewarded many times over. However, once invested, the waiting is the hardest. What if something were to go wrong? Luck plays a big part in success.

These days, I still do a spot of potential multi-bagger spotting but I am able to do it now with a greater level of comfort. Why? I have a thick cushion of capital gains and dividends received. On top of this, I have a predictable flow of passive income from my investments in selected S-REITs and some high yield stocks. So, it helps to reduce any feeling of anxiety if my spotting becomes spotty. Being comfortable, therefore, would contribute to our success rate and if we are honest with ourselves, we would agree that this rings true.

We have probably heard from gurus that we must be emotionless in the stock market. I am only human. So, try as I may, I am not totally without emotions. I know that we should be greedy when others are fearful but if I do not have a greater level of comfort, I find it hard not to be at least somewhat fearful. It is like a person on a flying trapeze. He would feel less fearful if he had a safety net, wouldn't he?

I am a creature of comfort in more ways than one. I must feel comfortable in anything I do. I believe every human being is the same. Now, when financial advisors ask us what is our risk appetite, they could very well be asking us what is the level of comfort we need before we might want to take the plunge. Why do they not ask it differently? I wonder.

Finally, after such a long winded discourse, I am back to where I started. I asked this person to closely examine what he needs in order to feel comfortable in being invested in the stock market. That answer lies within him and he has to be honest with himself. Once he has the answer, things would fall into place and he would know what to do. Ideally, anyway.

Related posts:
1. Of primates and their diet.
2. Trading to put food on the table.
3. A common piece of advice on saving.
4. To protect our wealth, we have to take risk.
5. Why do I not panic?