Friday 21 December 2012

Year End Review 2012~!

Hi guys! It is that time of the year again!

A time where we reminiscent and reflect on the the things we regret doing or not doing, what we have achieved, and most importantly the lessons learnt for the past year.


This year was a year where I experienced the loss of a loved one, met and fell in love with a wonderful girl, spent time rekindling old friendships and quality family time, picked up a new language, travelled overseas to see wonderful sights of nature, "gave birth" to my blog, and read many wonderful books contributing to my personal and spiritual growth.
Looking at the myself now, I feel more accomplished, fulfilled intrinsically than I was one year ago.
No major regrets this year was an additional sweetener. :-)

Looking forward in 2013, I strive to grow to become a more balanced person, while embracing life during this process.
Like what the late Zig Ziglar said before: " Be grateful of what you have, while in pursuit of what you want."




Wishing everybody a Happy and Prosperous 2013! Cheers!


Now for my stock commentary--->



Portfolio Commentary

Portfolio @ start of the year:














Portfolio @ end of the year:













2012 saw the largest increase in my portfolio size in a single year since the year i started buying stocks.
The total market value of my stocks increased from $260k to $384k.
This represents a paper gain of  $124k. Very tempted to take profits!
Albeit being paper profits, the performance was way beyond my expectations and I am happy that the hours/hard work I spent doing my qualitative & quantitative analysis paid off, plus alot of help from Mr Market, of course!


The amazing thing was this gain was primarily due to price appreciation and the reinvestment of dividends, as no leverage was used, and only a little savings was deployed (I injected only $10k additional capital from my cash holdings this year).


Nonetheless, stock prices are not as important as the value of the business behind the stock. I will be reassessing each company in my portfolio again on their own merits and decide in due course if there is a need for taking of some profits to recycle capital. Like what Peter Lynch said in his classic One Up On Wall Street, "Check the story periodically".

An intangible improvement in the quality and sustainability my portfolio also occurred this year, as I reduced my exposure in Australian Hospitality and suburban malls to diversify into businesses that does Engineering, Singapore Hospitality, Commercial Ppty, Property Development, Retail. It can be quite thrilling to know that you have a stake in businesses you can visually see.

 

Miscellaneous thoughts --->

A key concept I came across this year was the analogy of approaching stock investment as a business analyst.

It is a very apt concept and analogy that helps us simplify our thoughts in this chaotic financial world of ours. I find it a very good way to approach my future investments, as a Business Analyst.

I stumbled upon this in articles written in a couple of blogs that I follow regularly, namely Drizzt of Investment Moats (http://www.investmentmoats.com/) and Mr B of 3Fs(http://foreverfinancialfreedom.blogspot.sg/).



Since I discovered the world of blogging, other blogs I follow regularly and gained immense knowledge and opinions from are ASSI for investment philosophies and thought processes (http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/),
Dividend Warrior, for his drive towards regular passive income  (http://dividendsrichwarrior.blogspot.sg/), Singapore Man of Leisure for his fantastic outlook on life (http://singaporemanofleisure.blogspot.sg/), just to name a few.

These are very good investment blogs with quality posts on Value Investing which I learnt alot from as well. Thanks guys for sharing snippets of your lives and well written articles! Keep it up!
Readers might like to follow these good blogs.

I aim to continue on Part 4 Investment Philosophies thread with a writeup to share my views on a company's management. Stay tuned!


:-)




  



15 comments:

  1. Thanks the kind words bro!

    I can't make money; but it's nice to know I make some people smile :)


    Congrats on your super investing performance for 2012!!!

    Hey! There's quite a few similarities between our investment styles:

    1) We both focus on a few core counters and don't "diversify" our portfolios up to 20 or 30 stock counters. We are like Ribena syrup. Concentrated!

    2) I'm a equities man-whore and you do dump your equities girl friends. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Naughty!

    3) We are both growth and income. Beauty is beauty. I don't care if it's ang moh or asian, jude, I chat them up!


    LOL!

    Have Merry Christmas!
    Jared aka SMOL




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jared bro! Thanks for Your sharing!

      You know how to live life, to enjoy the moment, and appreciate the finer things in life like poetry, motivational songs, etc. So many in our highly urbanized society lose their way and become mechanical robots in the vicious rat race cycle and forget that we can along the way, still learn to appreciate these. You are one of the rare 'enlightened' ones! Stay cool and all the best!

      Delete
  2. Bro (SI@SG)

    Big Congrats to your Christmas gift this year with a huge paper gains. I can't imagine what will I do if I have such gains sitting in my port.

    Anyway, here's wishing you an early Christmas and well wishes for you and your family in 2013.

    B

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks bro B!

      You have a great future ahead.
      Being younger than me, you have a bigger portfolio than me when I was your age, plus having a greater awareness than I had! Stay focused and true and u will do great! A Happy New Year to u!

      Delete
  3. Hi SI@SG,.

    Your nick is familiar. ;)

    Thank you for your vote of confidence.
    Er, it is ASSI, not ASSTI. ;)

    A paper gain of some 42% is fantastic!
    My portfolio's performance does not even come close.
    Congratulations! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oops! Sorry AK71! ASSI it is. Haha, typo.
      I like many of your articles as they are very educational with respect to financial planning and cost of living in SG.
      Keep your sharing going! Wishing u a Happy 2013!

      Delete
  4. Hi SI@SG,

    Wishing you a happy new year too! May you scale greater heights in 2013. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I always like your dividend investment analysis. Suddenly, you seems to stop writing.

    ReplyDelete
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