Musings about Life and Investments

Major pandemics come in three waves. It happened in the Spanish flu between 1918 - 1919. https://theconversation.com/compare-the-flu-pandemic-of-1918-and-covid-19-with-caution-the-past-is-not-a-prediction-138895 The Spanish flu started in June 1918. By the winter of 1918, deaths and virrulance spiked up. By the Jan of 1919, it fell to almost nil death rates. But in Mar 1919, it spiked up again, this time lower than the winter of 1918 / 19, but higher than the first wave. Thereafter, it promptly disappeared. The Spanish flu adapted quickly to become more infectious, but less lethal. The aim of the virus is not to kill the hosts, but to infect quickly and co-exist with the hosts.  https://www.cnet.com/health/covid-19-vaccine-will-very-likely-work-on-uk-mutation-fauci-says-as-california-reports-case/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/12/30/national/science-health/new-coronavirus-strains-normality/ The report shows that the vaccine very likely works on the new mutations. The link ...

Growing up in Singapore, I've been taught, like any other middle or lower middle class families, that we should study hard, get good results, go to the top local university, study accountancy, medicine or law, get a good job, climb the corporate ladder. I can tell you that the path to success is riddled with lots of people following this downtrodden paths. They can be very unhappey because they cannot be their true self. They have to wear the corporate hat at all times, and half the time they may need to mask their feelings.  I've also met entrepreneurs who followed their own paths. For better or worse, they are happier. Lots of entrepreneurs who are very determined in life, with average intelligence, make much more money than corporate people. Hence, I have concluded that we are brought up with values that limit capabilities. We limit our ownselves, stop ourselves from achieving happiness because we have the beliefs that we should walk that well trodden paths. The language we ...

 I followed quite a bit of Arsenal news. I've been an Arsenal fan since 1989, when they beat Liverpool 2-0 to win the league. I'm always a supporter of underdogs and Liverpool back then was the best team of the 70s and 80s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_0%E2%80%932_Arsenal_(26_May_1989) Arsene Wenger took over in 1996 and they played attractive football for eight seasons, winning the Premier League three times. I thought that when we shifted to a new stadium, we will have increased gate receipts and go on to dominate the Premiership from 2007 onwards. Little did I know that the billionaires will take over clubs like Man City and Chelsea. The Premiership will be dominated by clubs that are fueled by petrodollars.  Arsenal was also financially constrained by debt to build the stadium. My passion was so deep that I almost wanted to buy an Arsenal share. One share cost around GBP8000 back in 2009, and it was eventually fully bought over by Stan Kroenke in 2018 for a pric...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3jhP-WXFnU Many people close to me feel that I'm obsessed about investing. Obsessed about money. Am I really obsessed? I've listened to the video above. One part of Kobe Bryant's interview impressed upon me, "many players do it for the money and as soon as they have some, they drop off. I'm just obsessed with being the best". It was something along the likes. I realised I was obsessed to be the best in what I do, whether in real estate or stocks or options. Whatever I do, I want to be the best. If I want to be a trainer, I wanna be among the best in the business. I'll study great speakers and mirror them. If I wanna be the best stock investor, I mirror the best, learn from them. But there's another saying, "much money has been spent to feel good. Why don't we cut out the middle man and go straight to the source, which is to feel good?" To be joyful, I meditate, practice mindfulness for calmness and happin...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUIzPA0XXho&t=46s

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYdnywmctFI&t=4s My latest update on YouTube.

  I invest in stocks and options. My stock portfolio achieved 9.5% per year for 6 years. But in the last 1 year, I've achieved 20%. I started to invest in options. I mentioned "invest" because I buy don't trade that often. I buy call options on good companies when they are at support levels like the 150 days moving averages. I just bought a Dec 2023 call on Adobe and BABA. Sold a 1 month put on BABA at 250 strike. My options portfolio is up 3% in 1 month. Another part of my quest for financial freedom is property investments. I used to believe 80% in property investment, 20% in stocks. But i realise that having too much into property may have one major problem; lack of liquidity. Nowadays, about 40% of my portfolio is in stocks and options, achieving 20 - 30% per year. The rest is in properties, achieving 30 - 40% per year.  I split my property portfolio into two. First part is to flip for 6 to 1 year cycles. Second is buy House of Multiple Occupants or HMOs, add valu...