cervelo no more

I am looking to sell my cervelo bike soon. It is sad that I have to price it so low but 2^nd hand bikes don’t seem to have much value. In this affluent society, used items are not in demand. People can easily afford new bikes.

I feel sorry because the condition of the cervelo surely deserves a lot more. Yet, if I don’t depress the price, I won’t be able to sell. I do not use it at all and leaving it to hang there is such a waste.

I do not think I will ever find the discipline to be out biking at 4am. There just isn’t a need for me to do so.

Price not right, don’t sell? Or just price it cheaply and sell it off? I’m caught and torn.

investing?

I read about a one-eyed investor who shorted against sub-prime mortgages, profiteering millions upon its collapse. Shrewd I would say. He is like the less publicized Warren Buffet, who saw what others couldn’t see. He had an autism like disorder though and somehow attributed to his obsession with facts and justice. I liked what I read but wondered if I can one day become like him.

But to imagine going through prospectus of asset backed mortgages, each bearing a hundred pages with jargons. I am not sure how I could survive that. And his mantra for investing is in simple terms: when people go A, you will choose B. Easier said than done in reality. On books it makes total sense but not many can hold on this path.

Somehow it sums up to me that I have to learn to devour information around me. It is important to make sense out of news I read everyday. What does it signal about the market? What impacts are made? How can I profit from it? What are the tools available for me to do so?

On the flipside, I think we must realize that all’s but a zero-sum game. The investor may have profited, but there are others who have lost. When you buy, someone has to sell. Your gain is someone’s loss. What we can hope is our gain is from someone who could afford to lose.

dreamer

This is soon going to be a monthly routine – review of the month gone by. Today marks 2 months into the new job. Audit is soon coming to an end (finally!). I have sent in the draft accounts and hope the finalized copy can be out soon.

I am still clearing my February reports, consolidation reports and presentation for the stewardship meeting next Friday. With all that done, I should be more or less on time and close clearing the back log.

The load is easing out, most definitely, and I am slowly getting the hang of being chased for reports and multi-tasking. There are still issues along the way I am learning to handle and still processesI must get into the flow of. I am giving myself duration of 2 years, during which I will persevere in this company.

The graduation ceremony will be held this Saturday. Apart that it marks completion of a milestone, it also serves as a reminder I must “recoup” the money and time I have put into studying. I have dug deep into my savings to finance through my studies and committed 1.5 years of my "youth" into it. These are not done for fun but in hope to yield increased returns from this self investment. To me it is an extra oar in my hands to paddle myself against the tide. I cannot turn the tide but every skill and knowledge I pick up is that added strength against it.

i have been a dreamer all my life. During my last job, I dreamt of having a seat with a window.

My boss and supervisor back then had their own rooms and windows. My seat, along with the rest in my department, was within the building, window-less. I told myself then, "I want to have my own personal cubicle with window."

And now I have. I’m in this nice cosy backend cubicle, right next to the window. I like looking out and spending moments staring blankly at the expressway..into the greenery and thinking, "it’s good to be able to see so much from this level. I will be able to see more if I climbed higher."

Now I have started dreaming again. I relish in the thought of being in the position of this director in my office. He is in charge of investments. I noticed he has 2 laptops - one of which shows charts and graphs; I think he constantly monitors market changes. I wish one day I can be competent in investment management that part of job scope is to analyse market changes and make sound investment for the company and myself. At the same time I look at financials and consider what it is reflecting of the business and its environment. That’s the kind of portfolio I hope to gradually get into. Someone with a macro view of things. Someone who can make wise decisions in the benefit of the company. Someone who is sought out for sound advice to the management.

Sounds like a big dream, isn’t it? dreams are like stars.. we can’t reach them but we use them to chart our way.=)

new pursuit with UOL

After coming back from Japan, I tossed with the idea of learning the Japanese language. The whole experience of learning continues to intrigue me, even as I just close my maf chapter.

I searched for a new goal; perhaps you can say it’s something to fill my time. Training has ended with the marathon. Work has gained some momentum. There was still spaces of time I was wondering how I could effectively utilize.

Training for another race doesn’t seem like something I was excited to do. I couldn’t be too bothered about all the ironman photos friends have posted on fb, to think it was once what I hailed the sole goal of my life. maybe I lack discipline to train everyday, to fuss about what pace and how much mileage I am clocking.

I run now, because I want to. Not because I am going to have a race. I run because it makes me feel good.

Until yesterday, I found a new goal in life. I want to learn how I can make our money work harder.

There was an interesting business model dearie could have ventured into, only if we had that financial independence to. But we did not. I felt helpless because I wish I could tell him, if this is what you feel is right, then go and try. However, I couldn’t. because I know we still needed his steady stream of income to keep things going. I am not able to handle all alone.

Take up a part time job? Go back into tutoring?

It made me think about the knowledge I have gained from maf. What am I doing with those skills gained? How am I going to use those skills to work for us?

We have little to spare but we have to start somewhere. I have always shoved the idea of investing aside because I felt we needed that liquidity. However, to think about it, if I don’t start now, I will never start.

How much liquidity do I actually need to be comfortable? I keep saying liquidity but I never quantified how much. Is it not time to sit down and review where we have parked our money at. How and where do we want to park the future income? What is there around us which can help us grow our money?

Time to get out of procrastination and start work. I gathered from an ex-classmate that I will need to do a lot of groundwork and reading. With the little I have, I can start with penny stocks.

This is the new goal for me – learning how to make our money work harder. To read up to compute to analyze. To understand. To try. To start.

Now, that’s something a new pursue with UOL; they call it the university of life (quote from ‘an education’).

hello tokyo

I have not got the chance to pen down my thoughts about our Tokyo trip since I returned last sat. work has been hectic; which I had foreseen coming. I am stealing moments off working hours now to write down some thoughts, before I get all too lazy of doing so.

The trip to japan opened my eyes; widened my horizons. I see a league one par above us. Their culture, their attitude, their lifestyle.

Holidays for us is more than mere having fun. It’s a time to observe how other people work, how their lives are organized and how all of that is different from ours.

We are full of praise about japan and Japanese. The only thing we can perhaps rant about is the barrier of language. Japanese pride themselves of their language, which binds them to their identity.

Despite the language barrier, they still extended their hospitality to non Japanese speaking people like us. Vending machines with photos, which we could just press to order food in food outlets. Strangers who despite not knowing what we meant, still took time to help us locate where we wanted to go.

The marathon was fantastic; best I’ve been to so far. Organization was great. There were crowds of people cheering us on throughout the ENTIRE race. I mean entire race. It was 3.8deg celcius, raining and yet the public cheered us on. It is simply amazing.

The rain got the better of me and I didn’t perform as I have expected. Nevertheless, like dearie said, it was a good experience. And of course, I learnt a valuable lesson on race preparation.

We took long walks around lake kawaguchi. We shopped down ginza, shibuya, Shinjuku and harajuku. We learned to hop from train station to train station without getting too lost. It was one week of holiday I truly enjoyed.

Next stop for 2011, korea. Time to save up again!