Reflecting on the year of the DOG

Come next week, we will send away the Dog and welcome the Pig ... Chinese New year is right at the door step already! What a season for joy and celebration! (Too bad tomorrow need to work OT ... haha! No mood to work liao leh!)

Looking back, the year of the Dog has been a kinda "too good to be true" year for me at times. Ya, there were bad patches, having to tolerate weird temperament of the woman at home etc ... but to list it down, I find that I remember more happy moments.

Health was fair- not too many big issues but rather frequent cold and flu, I attribute this to my house that's getting dustier, better do some spring cleaning. Generally, family health was peaceful except for my mum who got very sick last month, ironically, my mum-in-law too.

Career was a big event for me in dog year, big switch from the civil service to private sector. This was one of the too good to be true event, was rather worried about what will happen until I land in my present company. Even got a small pay rise in Jan07, so happy! :)

Money aspect was rather interesting. I was made to incur another 60k debt for my beloved Honda City, the second biggest debt I've incurred in my life!(First is the house!) Burden increased with an addition to my family ... Mr Edan Lee! But interestingly, my bank account reflect otherwise. Perhaps thanks to my gratuity and some positive returns from my investments; ...

Investments, another topic of too good to be true. Meddled with internet autosuft ... lost money. Took risk with internet off-shore investment, reaping good returns so far, all capitals recovered plus some profits and yet still have much funds rolling profits in it. I'm glad I took the plunge ... who would have believe it ... 200% profit in about 1 year? .... Possible but reproducibility is not guaranteed, why ... I've done it myself: Thanks to the STI which has reached crazy level, my current porfolio has also contributed to the smile on my face! haha! Yes, lost big money in the past, 7-8 years back ... yes, still have some old stocks losing money trapped. But looking forward and writting off those bad investments, my recent 2-3 years of investment has been rather positive! Here's a few reason why:

- Union steel: bought over a period of Aug05- Mar06, sold 90% this week, total investment returns: 65% - 206% profit in about 1 year.

- Lian beng: bought may06, still holding to a 100% profit as of now!

- other small holding like Ascott reti, suntec reit etc(only 1 lot each ... too bad) are also making 80% - 150% profit! In fact, in general, most of the other holdings are mostly making a 20-30% profits now ... except for some stupid stock that never seems to recover! Nb!

Interestingly, even unit trust are making money, most incredible is the manulife golden china fund(I think this name lah), also making a 170% returns as of now! EMF has also gained 100% in 3 months! Now ... what's too good to be true!?

Prring, back to reality, what goes down will come up ... and vice versa. And having paid tens of thousands for lessons years back ... better put to good use. Logical sense will be to realise all possible profits now. In fact I've started doing so by selling off my single biggest holding Union steel this week! Although I still feel bullish about singapore economy for the year of PIG, with the bullish property market and construction boom that will follow ... with IR investment ... but I rather have what's too good to be true to become a truth than leave it hanging ... haha. Fellow STI investors out there ... pls trade cautiously! A balloon so big needs only something so small like a needle to burst it!(I hope my wife hear this too, sigh ... tho she probably never read my blog.)

Finally, let's all pray for a peaceful year of Pig and may our health and wealth grow to another too good to be true level!