Personal Finance

Weights and cardiovascular exercise are doable to some. You work certain muscle groups or pump the heart, and over time, with consistent effort and showing up, you are certain to see a certain noticeable result for your efforts. To others, even repeated physical exercise is a pain and a difficulty. You need a certain willpower it seems to get yourself off your behind, to show up at the workout facilities, that may or may not be nearby. But, as they say, if you drag yourself

At pre-twenties age group, for example, you're probably more interested about girls and guys at the bar. You're just discovering your own identity and fashion particularly is another area where you want to explore, decking yourself out in the latest trends. More improtantly, life has only just begun for you and studies are your priority at the moment anyway. You've just discovered freedom from the secondary school teachers, you may or may not already have a car to get around

You never guess right. In 2025 you thought the world markets would have a bad year, perhaps still due to covid19. In 2026 you may think the markets remain overheated and is due for a correction if not a crash. You are left in doubt. And you ne ver get the guesses right anyway? How could you? You're relying on the advice of a financial advisor, and ultimately your own gut instinct is based on the stories you hear during the course of your work and daily career. You're r

Whilst there may or may not be a general appreciation for this blog, the question that comes out at the turn of the year is whether this writer will disclose his results. After all, we are judged by the extent of weight we can attribute to the writer and the authority by which he writes. That weight and authority gives us comfort that we are listening to the right voices. And that we are chasing the right information and sources towards the right goal. Summarily, please assu

The rich are judged by how clever they are. What car they drive. What credit cards they have. The richest people are in mansions as well. One book that made the classics all those years ago, is the Millionaire Next Door. If you thought to judge your neighbour by car, credit cards and mansion, you may wish to revisit your opinions of the same. At least, that is the findings following research by certain individuals in a land far, far away. It may not even be particularly how w

Do you really need insurances? Do you really need to draft a will at a young age? Considering (critical) illness, permanent disability and life can seem morbid and downright negative. It is even harder to talk about such things with loved ones. Even if you wanted to address the matter or talk about it, the insurance companies and wills companies price their products so that they profit. There is no way that getting into such things is an advantageous deal. But is it advanta

And your belief is money just comes and goes. Between finding the spare cash, spare time and the Herculean effort... You need all the money you can get, immediately. There isn’t any opportunity to save. Aging parents, family, children and your pet dog are more important to maintain over the long term in love and perhaps even for your own peace of mind. You can always make more money later. One of the world’s bestseller books is confident it can navigate all these concerns

X.com is filled with output from established entrepreneurs. You might as well learn from them for free. Why spend your precious Ringgit on materials that you can get online on the Internet, at no cost at all? You have just got to know where to look. And figure out the stories of the different individuals. Heck, why not just follow whoever is the most active and popular at the time! The entrepreneurs there are authoritative, well established and you can get information, upd

With apologies to any visitors from the land of the free. How is it that there is so much to say about business, investment, and personal finance when all that matters in the performance of a business is the sales, revenue and bottom line?? Why overcomplicate a simply process? One of the approaches we try to practice here is to keep things simple, if possible. And to recommend books from authors with results only, perhaps. Warren Buffett recently retired from the businesss o

A foreign friend just told me he attended a destination wedding with free flowing imported champagne, all paid for with cryptocurrency. Is cryptocurrency something that you understand? It's easy to see your friends make it big on the waves of a new cryptocurrency trend, and question your very existence - what you're doing with your life, what's wrong with your financial self, and why you didn't think of investing on the fad yourself. Especially when they just served you the a

At least based on recent experience, there may be a couple of types of people that exist when it comes to investing and personal finance. There are those who are risk averse. Then there are those who believe that you should be extraordinarily optimistic towards life and its possibilities. After all, what goes around comes around. Which might you be? Every person that comes through your life has a natural disposition. You're not wrong either way - you are who you are. This

Hi there! We already have requests to hold a physical meet-up. Give you an opportunity to meet like-minded people. If you are interested to meet at some point, you could leave a note in the comments section below. Watch this space! Yours, Mr Southpaw.

I had previously written about the difference between qualitative and quantative analysis, here. Put in another way, financial literacy is important – I just never appreciated how much so! Everybody has a different experience in trying to apply mathematics in real life. Some people take to it naturally, while others (like me) prefer to think in words, stories, and qualitative patterns. But over time, I learned that even a basic grasp of numbers can make all the difference in

Not everything in the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE) movement is as rosy as it seems. In recent years, many of us have felt the impact of rising inflation. This was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and trade tensions. (As a personal anecdote, relating to business generally, I witnessed at least two hawker stall owners in my city raise prices by 50% over a six-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic.  By the end of that 6 month period

To those unfamiliar with the concept, Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE)  can sound almost revolutionary. The first question people often ask is: “Why aren’t you working?”  or more directly, “What are you doing?” The better question, in my opinion, is this: What if it were possible for someone to generate more cashflow than they actually need?  If money is no longer the only goal, what else might you do with your life? After taking a long break from the traditional

Coming from a background more rooted in words than numbers, I naturally tended to dissect businesses qualitatively. Yet, from the beginning it was impressed upon me—and it continues to be reinforced—that in investing, numbers often speak louder than words. Due diligence is essential, but what exactly should an investor be looking for? Of course, factors like the business model, competitive “moats,” and corporate governance all carry weight. Both the qualitative and quantitati

One of the biggest mistakes I made early in my journey was dismissing financial statement analysis as something too complex for me to understand. Coming from little to no accounting background, I assumed the subject was rocket science. The whole presentation of a company’s financials felt like a blur. Even when a balanced financial statement was right in front of me, I felt as though I needed a secret key to unlock its meaning. What I hadn’t appreciated was that accounting is

Every red-blooded person has, at some point, a natural disposition toward gambling—whether it’s buying a lottery ticket, betting on sports, or jumping into a money-making scheme without fully understanding it. The thrill comes from risk and the possibility of a windfall. When the jackpot or the lucky Toto number is hit, the win is often attributed to fate, fortune, or sheer luck. And just as often, the risk of losing everything is dismissed as “something that didn’t happen to

In the 2010s, I left a high-paying job in a certain Asian city-state after nearly paying off all my debts. Around that time, local newspapers were abuzz with a new financial sub-movement: Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE).  The idea was simple—cut expenses, save aggressively, and invest wisely to retire early or at least gain more freedom. On paper, I had “made it.” I was financially independent, free from the 9-to-5, and suddenly rich in time—if not in cash. Yet b