It has been one and a half year since I last blogged. Was busy with my life, especially my study life. I have just completed my ACCA exams and am currently waiting for my results due to be out in August. Hopefully my effort will pay off.
It was tough studying ACCA. It was even tougher to manage a work-study-life balance. You know, having to go home everyday after work with a tired body but still have to think about preparing for your exams. When working, having difficulty to concentrate on your work cause you want to spend time to study for your exams. But glad that I'm able to pull through with the help and understanding of my colleagues.
I am so glad for fate to allow me to have a chance of taking up ACCA. It was something that gave me an aim in life. Allowing me to know what I really want to do in my life. For this, I have to thank 2 very important and respected person whom I met in my life.
I was then 21 years old, still serving my national service. I have obtained a Diploma in Electronics. But then i'm not very interested in it because my O levels results wasn't good enough for me to choose the course that I want to study. At that time I am thinking seriously of what I want to do in life? Even though I studied engineering, I don't want to go into engineering field because i'm have no interest in it. I like investing and I guess that was something that I picked up due to my interest in reading newspaper. I started reading newspaper when I was 14 years old and I got to absorb on some financial news. I realised that the only way to be financially free was to be financially literate, learning the art of investing to allow my money to grow at a faster rate. So I went to research on the degree course that I can study and finally decided on getting a degree in Economics and Finance. As my national service is only during the normal office hours (8am to 5pm), I decided to take the part-time course.
Next comes the consideration of the cost involve in obtaining the degree. It cost almost $40,000 in total. As a person who is still serving his nation, it is not enough to pay off the fees even if I save every single cents of my allowance every month. So I discussed it with my parents and my dad decided to borrow from his company to fund my studies. The directors of the company requested for a meet up with me to discuss about the loan. Then they advise that I should take up ACCA instead and they are happy to fund my studies fully with no string attached. That's how I ended up taking ACCA and I am really grateful for that. Well it cost much less for ACCA qualification compared with the degree, which I think is value for money.
I have so much interest in what I am studying. I studied Financial Management and learned how to value a company and interpret financial statements. I studied Performance Management and learned about managing cost in business. I studied Taxation and learned about the tax system in Singapore. I studied Financial Reporting and learned how to prepare financial statements. I studied Audit and Assurance and learned how the figures in financial statements are derived. All this are critical understanding for me as an investor. I have fun learning all these modules except that I hate the exams. It gives you so much anxiety, knowing that the worldwide passing rate is usually less than 50%, sometimes only 30%. How great is it if I can just study without taking the exams. However, due to the difficulty of the course, it makes you appreciate the qualification even more.
So now since i'm much more financial literate and have much more time, I will start to focus on my investment, applying what I have studied in my stock picking. So which company should I analyse first? I have some company which I am currently interested in like Capitaland, Old Chang Kee, ComfortDelGro etc. Will blog about it once i'm done with my research!
Just an update on my current holding. I am currently holding on to more cash than stocks. The recent stock markets have been breaking new high and thus I think the margin of safety is low. I will wait for a better time to enter the market. And waiting is also considered a strategy.
As written in my previous post, i have bought Apple shares one and a half year ago. Today I am still holding on to it and it has helped me generate a return of almost 50%! I will continue to hold on to it unless there is a severe change in market condition.
Cheers~
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