Revitalisation Of JBank?

Holy crap! I broke even !!!!

Wohoo! I made 0.74% gain on my China equities. Whee...

That may not seem like much, but I had to pay off the 2% sales charge remember? Hoho.

I'm rich! I can buy a Macs Extra Value Meal, upsize and still have enough money to buy a $0.60 ice-cream cone!

Now that's what I call rich. Haha.

But seriously, this are all paltry paper gains, like I said, earlier, fuelled by the rise in crude prices and the impending Fed cut.

But when the hell is my China correction coming? Aiyoh. By the time it comes, the prices may have risen so much, it won't be much of a correction anymore, then I might as well buy now.

So many options.. Aiyoh.

And yes, I need to do something to improve my standard of health. Its getting out of hand.

Bring It On : All or Nothing Part 2

va-va-voom : informal
n. the quality of being exciting, vigorous, or attractive.
adj: her va-va-voom figure.
— origin 1950s (orig. US): representing the sound of a car engine being revved.

If anyone could be guilty of epitomising and personifying that phrase, one can look no further than this place.

No I'm not talking about me, you dimwit. I'm just gorgeously dashing.

Go look for this person. She's been mentioned here before.

Note to self: Should have made more audio recordings.

The Talented Mr Ripples

Well hello. My P5 student msg me today out of the blue. HoHo...

I called her immediately. And yes, it was good news. She passed English AND Maths! Woohoo.

Science is a definite pass for her, cos I've screwed and hammered a lot into her crummy brain.

But Maths!?! Wah leow. I should start a tuition centre if I can make her pass.

At this rate, she won't go to EM3. YES!! I'm so glad I've made such a difference in her life. She's not on the EM3-Normal Stream- ITE trail, because I was there to save the perpetual F student.

Tooting my own horn you say? But of course. No one's going to toot it for me when I ask her dad to increase my fees.

You see, with the amount of hours I'm putting in, I earning a measly $17+ an hour.

The gay idiot in my office who flunked his A levels and who's retaking again this year (without studying he says he can pass, because there's no pressure)is getting $25 an hour. Sure, he has to take a bus, and I only need to walk across, but the disparity between our pay is so great.

He goes there not because he wants to show results, but to pass the time to get cash. I actually care for the airheads I teach. I often get neck, chest and back pain coming home from tuition cos I'm so tense I could snap my neck with my neck muscles if the student fails another practise paper.

AND I've shown results. So yes, I'm going to ask for a raise that is more congruent with my performance and qualifications.

On another note, I've finally learnt how to use the UT account: all the timings, the processing lags and what not.

And I'm so eagerly awaiting the China market correction that will temporarily cause the stock prices to drop for a day.

Then again, I have to weigh how much the China correction will bring the stock down for that day, against the overall gain that rising crude prices and falling US Fed rates have between now and the impending correction.

BUT, I have a more or less demarcated time when the correction will occur, that is before the Nov 5 IPO of Petrochina. (if analysts are correct)

Regardless of whether I use the correction to take advantage of dollar cost averaging, or buy now to take advantage of rising crude, in the long run, it will still gain cos China's economy is set to grow 10.8% in 2008. This is excluding any unforeseen booms due to the Olympics.

Yep, I've been listening to the news, and yes, I barely understand 1% of it, but its getting more or less clearer by the day. The problem is, as with the news bits I gave you above, is that having a long term strategy is fine, but there are so many opportunities to take advantage of to make more gains than the average investor. Problem is, I don't know what to do. Haha.

Care to give me some advice? I'm as Lost as Jack when he got off the island, and wanted to go back in the season finale of Season 3. Haha. I still can't believe that they got off the island in the end. Season 4 is going to be so cool. There's going to be flashbacks and flashforwards. Hohoo.

What a difference a day makes...

That's a nice Jamie Cullum song. And so true. A difference of a day can mean a lot to many different people.

Haha. And to those readers who think I opened JBank, I haven't ok. All this while some people have been thinking that all my entries were related to JBank and its clients.

Well, to clear the air, JBank remains closed.

Anyways, why the more merry mood today, you ask?

Well, firstly I had audit today at 2nd Div. Wah, the place is so airy and nice.

And I got to wake up at 8am today to go to camp, reached there at 9.30, and had breakfast till about 11. Then at 1pm, my colleague drove us to Century square, where I ate my favourite chicken chop fried rice.

Then to boot it off, the audit ended at 4pm. And I got to spot lots of major mistakes in the audit. I just love to sabo CD people.

What's more, today is the last lesson of tuition before the school hols. Plus I get my fees tonight. Finally a break from tuition almost every day. I can watch my shows, learn more stuff, and play XBox.

To top it all off, my 6.04% loss in my UTs has been reduced to 2.43%. (all figures include the 2% initial sales charge)

Topped up some more into the UT, which has finally finished processing, now I can rest easier.

The audit continues tmw. I hope that means prices rise further. I feel like watching a movie tmw. Rendition sounds like a good movie.

Slow and Steady does not win the race

You know, I still don't get how the system works at fundsupermart.com.

My first purchase for my HSBC Chinese equity has been priced but is still processing, but my more recent Cash fund purchase has been completed.

My Cash fund has already accrued some interest, and I can use the fund to buy more unit trusts without the time lag from internet banking payments. Its like letting them hold your money, so you can buy more UTs faster, but with a higher interest rate of 2.121% p.a. which is 9 times better than a bank.

So no problem there. Money has grown, albeit a little.

BUT my HSBC UT is still processing. F%^& YOU!

They gave me Thursday's pricing, which has NAV of $186.54.
Today's NAV value has dropped to $178.991.

Fine. Its ok that I lost 4.05% of my money (excluding the 2% preliminary sales charge).
They aren't responsible for markets going up or down.

BUT! They are responsible for ensuring that the UT is mine, and that I'm able to do anything I wish with it. I cant buy more of the same fund, cos the previous pruchase hasn't finished processing. Good god. Its almost a week. I can't sell it yet also, cos the processing isn't done.

Crap man. I wanted to top up more of the same fund so that I could average out the cost by buying it lower now. But I guess its fated that I don't buy it now. Maybe its so that I'll buy more tmw when the price plunges further.

But I seriously hope that this stupid US sub-prime thingy won't derail the olympics boom. Cos if it does, I'm not going to afford a laptop for uni. haha.

This whole thing is starting to lose its humour actually.

Who stole my cheese?

You know, this particular unit trust I’ve been eyeing has been having 23% gains on average every month.

God damn, sitting on my ass every day, I could more than double my money in 4 months.

Then, my sister takes forever in setting up my account, the internet banking lag time is 2 days, the online fund house lag time is 2 days, so by the time my purchase gets through, I lose out on the gains in that few days.

But now I’m the proud owner of the HGIF Chinese Equity fund.

Yes, the proud owner of shit.

On the bus today, they were talking about the spillover of the US sub-prime markets, that the US will be in near recession by next year.

Who cares about the US? China and HK stocks weren’t very much shaken in August when the whole sub-prime thing blew up. They recovered, and have resumed their pre-August values.

BUT, then they went to talk about a whole slew of other shit that predicts that Asian stocks will tumble.

And tumble it did. The Hang Seng tumbled by 3.5% today.

And my value of my trust was Friday’s value (pre-Monday tumble).

Shit man. In the first place, I don’t even understand what the hell sub-prime is, and I can barely comprehend a single thing they say on channel news asia.

I watched the news for 15 mins on the bus, and all I understood was the stuff in bold above.

Haha. I am so going to lose my money.

On the other hand, the tumble is alright. I can always buy more, and hope that when you average it out its ok. Anyways the only reason why I’m buying China UTs is because of the ching-chang-chong Olympics in 2008. Hope that that spillover effect will benefit me, and not some speculative US loans crap which requires a PHD in economical bullshit to understand, that will cause me to lose my university reward money.

So I guess I shouldn't even bother with all this stuff, cos I'll end up losing my money. But if no one loses money, how are others supposed to gain? Anyways, all in all there will be gains, it just depends on whether my gains will be in peanuts or Singapore dollars.

Speaking of money, my Hari Raya yield is getting lower and lower. Sure, my mum gives more, along with my sisters and brother in law. But relatives are giving peanuts or none at all.

And they’re starting to ask about whether I’m getting married soon or not. Get a life man. Marriage. That’s the only thing on a Mat or Minah’s mind. And apparently my Chinese and Indian colleagues’ minds also.
They get married in NS, then a baby, or heck, sometimes the babies come first.

Hoho.

But they don’t think, planning is key. Money, stability is key to survival. You can’t have a wife when you’re raking in peanuts. You can’t have a child in NS.

And as to answer the questions of my relatives as to whether I have anyone in mind, I tell you nicely to Foff. I’m still young ok.

Lots of money to earn. Lots of food to buy with that money. To me a relationship is only worth it once you’ve put yourself first. Then only can you think of another person. And hey, I have too little experience putting myself first. (I’m not narcissistic. I’m handsome.)

Anyways on the matter of investing in myself, I just blew a wad of my remaining cash on driving. WTF. Comfort is trying to kill me man. I booked my FTT, and like 10 lessons in Dec. FTT is in Jan. Hope I can drive before I turn 20 in March (AHEM. Birthday. In. March.). Then at least I can say I’ve added value to myself this year.

Anyways, the year is coming to an end. What are your new year’s resolutions?

Mine are:
To lose the lard I’ve gained since I POPed.
To achieve at least 17% returns on my UTs.
To save 90% of my 2008 tuition income. (Pending me not getting fired cos my student ends up in EM3. Which is 50-50)

I think that the second and third goals are achievable, pending my employer’s approval, and a good Olympics.

But the first one. Now that’s a gargantuan resolution. One which in all probability, you shouldn’t even bet monopoly money on. Haha.

Well, toodles everyone. I’ll be back here next week. Feel free to drop me a mail. Don’t bother sending me MSN things when I’m offline. Cos I go onto MSN bi-monthly. So if you see me online, and I don’t reply, that’s not me.

Haiqal said I got hacked. He chatted with me several times, but I dint reply even though I was online for hours. I’m never online for hours eh. I fall asleep whenever I touch technology that’s got nothing to do with an Xbox.

Win a date with Zul Hammyton

Wah, nanapok. Once the festive season hits, my wallet dies. My mum gave me a larger than usual budget this year, seeing as how I didn't buy many clothes last year, as it was the A levels then, so I didn't have time to shop.

She calls it love. I call it love AND dollar cost averaging.

So this year, faced with the numbness and regularity of my job, I took 3 half days of leave and went shopping like a crazy rabid moronic girl.

Let's review my shopping disasters:

Baju Kurung: $78.00
Head gear: $10.00

I had to please my benefactor, so I got those purchases out of the way. I buy festive clothes once every 3 years, cos I don't see why I should buy one every year. I wear it for like 2 days max and it gets chucked in my cupboard for a year.

Unless Vishnu is playing the part of some racial harmony thing and then it may get out of my cupboard again.

Then I went shopping for real clothes, the ones that I'll be using for going out, and perhaps uni, seeing as how its only a year away. (God, I'm old.)

And there went my budget, and my tuition earnings.

Zara Shirt: $99.90
Tangs shirt: $129.90
Aldo Shoes: $157.50
Dockers Pants: $97.50
Socks: $12.90

So yes, people. I've taken your advice and imparted on a sartorial journey to dress better.
As you can see, Mr You-know-who, I replaced the cowboy shoes.
I also added 2 more shirts to the few I have.
And I bought pants that are not brown.

Happy? Haha. Now its going to be more difficult predicting which shirt and pants I'm going to wear aye?

I was thinking on whether I spend too much, or too exorbitantly. But, I was raised to appreciate quality, not quantity. ( Somehow the teaching dint apply to food. Hoho.)

So yes, I may have fewer clothes than a normal person, so much so that you can predict which shirt I'm going to wear, but the quality is there all the time. 1.5 years on, and my shirts still look as though I bought them a week ago.

So in the end, I spend the same as someone who changes his/her wardrobe every 3-6 months.

Speaking of quality, I recently cut my losses on a venture. I invested too much time, thought and resources into this venture. YET, it didn't give me the returns that I wanted. Certain friends told me to just hold onto the stocks, so I kept investing and checking up onto it from time to time. There were flashes of potential now and again, but in the end, till today, returns were zip. So i decided to pull out. Yes, Hafiz said I'm stupid, but I think he's overestimating the potential of this venture.

As my wise friend Mamat Muhd put it, 'If you have to ask whether this venture is worth it, then its definitely not.' Ok la, he dint say that, but I construed his advice to be as such.

And now, I feel so much better. I feel free.

And to end this whole pointless entry, for which I'm surprised you didn't skip to the end, (you did didn't you? that's why you're reading this, you bastard.) on a meaningful note, let's take Muhd's advice and apply it to all our lives.

If you have to ask whether something is worth it, then its not worth it in the first place.

For that Muhd, you won a date with me to watch Resident Evil.

Invasion Of Private-sy

WTF?!?! I ain't no fan of the net, but when it wrongly accuses me of doing stuff I don't do, its the last straw.

I hate technology ok. Finally logged onto friendster properly after 4 months and did something cos my colleague added me, so I needed to spruce things up.

Then I went blog surfing, and wanted to drop a comment and voila! Wrongly accused of a serious crime.

Aiyoh.

Got to clear my cookies and cache then. Haha.

A Portfolio Change: From Xbox to Lard, returns hit record mass!

Hello folks.

So I logged on to my friendster! After nearly 60 days of inactivity. Still no friends there. They should put a disclamer: Does not help you to find friends, you moron. Neither does it help you to remember people's names if you don't give a shit, you forgetful prick.

Anyways, I've been blog hopping and once again, I've noticed a dramatic change in everyone I know, in just a span of 2 months.

Take Audrey for example: She's a cheerleader now! Lots of brains, now she's super-hot cos she's a cheerleader. oooo. Not that she wasn't hot in the first place. AHEM. I'm speaking objectively ok!?

A lot more people, guys and girls included, have moved on, for the very much better.
Though Sing is not in OCS now, he's at least in SISPEC. A few others are doing so well in their schools, both in terms of a vibrant social and academic lives.

I too have tried to improve myself, by doing several things, including research on certain stuff. Alas, none of the things I'm doing now have anything to do with me getting off my fat ass.

Things change. People change.

But some things don't. Take my hotness for example. Every night without fail, I get a msg wishing me good night from my student. And in the afternoon, I get a report on whether my homework is done. "If i get 50, will you like me?"

WTF. I was joking la, when I unwittingly phrased my questions in a dirty ah-pek tone, the last time I asked her for lessons.

But WTF, she's a small kid. Aiyoh, hotness knows no boundaries, it ensnares all prey, babies and all. And apparently, I'm too hot for myself.

But on a side note, at least she's more into me than most other people. At least she doesn't play impossible-to-get. (though the ACJC gay in my office is impossible-to-get-him-to-fuck-off).

Ah well, back to sleeping, eating and Xboxing. Finished Halo 3. Master Cheif died in the end, FUCK.

Going to buy Bioshock and a 2nd hand edition of Shadowrun, then I can play all these online when tuition is on a hiatus for the school holidays.

And hopefully my sister makes good on her suggestion to teach me fund investing. Cos after fasting for a month, I realise how much money I waste. I spend hundreds of dollars a month on food, and movies. Hot damn. I'm a bonafide lardy ass.

Hoho. Take that Planet Fitness recruiter!