The 5th "An Evening With AK & Friends" (1 August 2015)

Yes I went for the 5^th Session of “An Evening with AK & Friends”.

Unlike some of you, this is my first time going for this session and I really appreciate the knowledge that was discussed during the 3 hours session.

Basically it was a session talking about CPF, Insurance (By Christopher Tan from Providend Ltd) and “AK talking to himself” as usual.

(Note: I am not a very good writer and never really take any notes. So I will just write from my memory and in point forms.)

Firstly we talk about CPF, Medisave, CPF Life and Minimum Sum as follows:

CPF SA has a guaranteed 4% return (as of now) – 1 of the best risk free return out in the market. 

Medisave Life – It is a better form of Medisave that do not discriminate between illnesses and will cover your whole life.

Minimum Sum - This is the most interesting part of the discussion. It is stated that the minimum sum, currently at $161k, will increase 3% every year so that everyone can have at least 650/mth to spend when they retire.

Top Up on Minimum Sum – We can top up our SA to build up for our Minimum Sum for our RA in future. HOWEVER, whatever money we voluntary top up in our SA for the Minimum Sum, we are unable to take out at age 55. It must be for retirement age. At age 55, we are only able to take out the sum of money from OA+SA that is on and above the minimum sum, and that is contributed by Salary.

CPF as Bond – Basically as investor, we can take CPF as a bond for diversification as it is risk free and has a guaranteed 4% return currently.

Next we discuss slightly on Insurance. AK explained that everyone should not save on insurance premiums and everyone should have a Life, H&S and Critical illness insurance. As for Investment-Linked Insurance, we should just do it on our own.

After the break, AK started to talk to himself.

We also talk about the investing mindset. AK explained that everyone should have their own view and not just blindly follow anyone.

He also explain how MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) works and how this might help investors.

We also talk about various stocks, such as Wilmar, SPH, Saizen Reit, Croeus Retail REIT, Sabana REIT, Accordia Golf Trust, OUE, ST Eng, Noble, Starhub, M1, Keppel Corp and Sembcorp. (Disclaimer: these discussion were not just on buys but also sells.)

 What amazed me is the depth and information AK is able to dig out before investing on a particular share. He doesn't only look solely on FA or TA. He basically also look at the business model, the company, the marco factors and also its managers (esp on REITs).

Conclusion

In short, this was a great talk for me as it was fun and wasn't boring in any ways. I also learned that I am still not as good as I thought. There are still many ways that I can improve on my analysis such as the way I look at business model and companies. In addition, I also met AK in person, as well as many other financial bloggers. Looking forward to the next session (if there is any).