A Beginner’s guide to The Income Statement – A simple analogy

I decided to start a beginner guide to the basics of Fundamental Analysis starting with The Income Statement. I want to record my knowledge somewhere and what better way than to blog about it? It is also in fact beneficial to me whenever I pen down my thoughts because I’m sort of materializing whatever that is going through my mind, which in turn challenges my understanding towards the topic. Plus, I get a chance to receive some constructive feedback from my readers. Win-win! 🙂

I refer to a quote from Einstein:

The Ultimate Shopping Contract – How to stop yourself from spending unnecessarily

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Date: ____________

The Ultimate Shopping Contract

I, ____(insert name here)____, promise that I will not buy anything without thinking twice. I will ask myself if the product I’m holding in my hand is something that is a “want” or a need”. If it is a “want”, then I will promptly put the product back on its shelf. If it is a “need”, I will ask if there are alternatives. Then, I will choose the one that brings the most value in terms of price and quality.

A value stock – Keong Hong Holdings Ltd

If you’re a regular reader of Miss Niao, then you probably know that I know nuts about buying stocks. Wait a minute… On second thought, “nuts” could be an overrated word to use. I contemplated for some time on publishing this blog entry because it is my first time performing an analysis of a stock, and I don’t wanna screw up by saying something silly.

Now that I’ve finally decided to do it, my only hope is that I would be able to gain more insight through any comments on this article.

It’s okay to say “No”

2016 was pretty rough for me. I was unmotivated in my life. Both my career and personal life wasn’t going as ideal as I’ve wanted it to. There were many days where I would just drag myself to work, because I needed to work, and not because I enjoyed doing what I was doing.

I’m sure you’ve been there before, especially if you’re working for someone else.

Happy Monthsary, Miss Niao!!!!

Hey guys!

Miss Niao turns 1 month old today! *throws confetti*

It just so happens that it coincides with a public holiday. I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be a celebratory sign. :p

I’m truly amazed at the progress of this blog. I’ve never imagined that I could attract so many views in just one month. I initially thought that I had to blog for at least 6 months to get decent viewership. It makes me wonder why I didn’t do this earlier. There are so many people to thank, especially all of my readers. ^_^

Here are some stats of the mini achievements that we have so far:

1. Total hits of 8414 as of 25th June 2017 (can go buy 4D liao)
2. Got indexed on StockCafe by Dr Evan Koh and SG Investment Bloggers by Royston Tan
3. Gained 14 followers and linked up with other bloggers on the same scene (check out my blogroll for these amazing people!)

It may not be that much, but it means a whole lot to me.

I’m still trying to get hold of Derek from TheFinance.sg. Does anyone know him personally? I would love to work with him and get indexed on his site! Is anyone here able to help~? 😦

I still have a lot of content coming up and I hope that I’ll stay interesting still. If there are any topics that you would like me to blog about, just leave a comment or your contact! I get a lot of inspiration from my reader’s comments, other than stuff that happens in my daily life.

Miss Niao wouldn’t be possible without you guys! 🙂

And before I go,  Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to any Muslim readers out there!

P.S: I have recently faced some new job commitments so the daily posts wouldn’t be “daily” anymore, but I’ll still blog as often as I can throughout the week. Click the “Follow” button on the sidebar to get an email notification whenever a new post is published. Or you could just come by whenever possible! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Miss Niao xoxo.

The ratio of millionaires in Singapore is 1 out of 50?!

I’ve always wondered how it would be like to be a millionaire. Watching Leonardo DiCaprio fanning his money away in The Wolf of Wall Street always seemed to be a tantalizing thought. If I did really have that kind of money though, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t wanna do that and would continue to keep it in my bank account to accumulate more interest :p

Is being a millionaire all that great? Maybe. It would probably be the first milestone for my journey to financial freedom. But could I retire with a million dollars at Age 40? Nah, I must be dreaming. It would only signify the beginning of my journey, and maybe indicate to me as a form of assurance that I have been on the right track.

There is this article from The Business Times that stated that the percentage of millionaires in Singapore is close to 2%. So by definition, if you have 500 friends in Facebook, you already know 10 millionaires! You could even be one of the 10, I wouldn’t be surprised. I would probably have way more to learn from you than whatever information you can get out of this blog.

Would I want to be one of your 10 friends one day? You bet.

But like the wise words from The Hollies, it’s going to be a long, long road~~~

May not quite be the perfect song to describe the situation, but I’m feeling nostalgic today. :p

Thanks for reading!

Miss Niao xoxo

It’s hard to save money as a girl

Guys are so lucky.

Guys don’t get periods. They don’t get creeping insecurities within their guts to want to look better. They age like wine. Parts of their body sag but it somehow becomes attractive to certain younger women.

Sigh. 😦

When I say it’s hard to save money as a girl, I don’t see a reason for you to doubt me. The constant need of having to compare yourself to your peers, and to look your best at all times. It’s emotionally and mentally draining. When you see the advertisements of models with killer hot bodies, you always aspire to be like them and think to yourself if you’ll ever get there one day.

So you go get more make up to cover up your flaws. And maybe even thought about spending a few thousand dollars on that slimming package that would help you to look awesome and gain that kind of confidence that you once had before.

Well, I’m no exception. Trust me, I’ve been there before.

But I found a way to cope with it. I found ways to look good with minimal cost. It took me a few years to get to where I am, but I’ve managed to do it. The best part? It doesn’t cost me a bomb. In fact, I spend less than $500 a year on make up and clothes every year. All you really need are just a few simple tips.

I have opened up a new category called “Cheap and Good“. If you want to gain more insight on how I save money, look good and pick out bargains, check out my blog for future posts!

Thanks for reading!

Miss Niao xoxo

You should only Dollar-Cost-Average for 12 months?

I was Googling one day about how effective dollar-cost averaging is on a general basis and I came across this very interesting article. Although written in 1997, I find it still relevant to today’s context. It talks about the amount of risk that DCA can mitigate as compared to a lump-sum investment and a study was conducted on how different DCA periods can have very different returns for the investor. The numbers show that DCA best protects your capital (in beating lump sum investments) with an investment period of 6 to 12 months.

How BF and I save more than $3000 per month – Top 5 saving tips for couples

Many of my male friends have made comments about them spending more money after getting a girlfriend. It seems like love and money has an inverse relationship. It is not uncommon to see more and more people choosing to be single, and it may not necessarily be a bad thing, if your main focus is to accumulate as much wealth as you can. Being a couple means having to go out dating, dining at nicer restaurants, buying gifts for one another on monthsaries and anniversaries. It may impede you in reaching your financial goals earlier if your partner does not want the same eventually.

Well, I’m here to tell you that not all relationships are like that. Not for BF and I, at least.

Should you invest in gold? Warren Buffett says “No”!

Last week, my driving instructor (yes, I’m learning driving!) asked me if I knew anything about buying gold. He said that he had some spare savings now and wanted to buy some gold since the prices for gold seem to be pretty low now.

Is it? I don’t know. He told me to try and find out more information for him. And so I did.

It brought me back to a few months ago when I saw one of my girlfriends posting on her Facebook wall with a few new gold bracelets that she bought. The description included was that since gold generally appreciates over time, buying now would be a good investment.

Upon more research, I’ve even found out that there are gold ETFs! So interesting. So technically speaking, you don’t have to own physical gold to own gold.

Wah, sounds good! Don’t even need to think of where to store your gold anymore. Use other people’s vaults lah! Hahaha…

Jokes aside, I did more “serious” research and found this on Youtube:

Looks like I won’t be buying and fondling gold anytime soon. Hehe. It also wouldn’t be able to help me build up the “income” part of my portfolio as commodity stocks do not provide any dividends (like duh).

Thanks for reading!

Miss Niao xoxo