31-03-2013, 08:00 AM
My view is that this "young and financially savvy" section represents one potential sign that market valuations are getting a little high. Otherwise, why highlight undergrads' investing habits?
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Mar 31, 2013
Young and financially savvy
Make money 'without actual work'
They're not yet out of school but already have impressive portfolios. Joyce Tan finds out what drives these young investors and susses out their different investing styles
Some people avoid checking the stock market every day to save themselves from minor heart attacks while others, like student Yeo Sui Chuan, monitor it closely.
"People check Facebook; I check the stock market. It's one of the things you do every day... It's enjoyable," says the first-year business administration student at the National University of Singapore.
Mr Yeo, 22, monitors the market two to three times a day but that's an improvement on his early days: When Mr Yeo made his first trade, he called up stock prices "obsessively".
"I checked it a few times in an hour and that lasted for a few weeks."
He had spent a year studying the market and learning about investing before finally taking the plunge in 2010 and buying four lots of ComfortDelGro.
It involved nearly $6,000 of his savings so he was eager to know whether he had made the right choice.
"I have friends who are into technical analysis so they have to pay close attention to the market. I don't fancy that kind of lifestyle... Mine is more 'chill'.
"If I don't have time, I don't check the market. During the school holidays, I can go for a few days without checking it. It doesn't bother me."
If Mr Yeo makes it sound easy, it is because he is not your typical college student.
He already boasts a portfolio of five stocks - one he has built up on his own, acquiring enough knowledge and interest to speak at length about his investing style in the process.
It is rather impressive for someone who started investing around two years ago.
Overhearing his father talk about the stock market with his friends and how much money he made piqued his curiosity.
"I found it quite amazing that you can make money by just buying and selling shares, and not doing actual work. I am interested in the idea of earning money this way," says Mr Yeo.
"So, I read up on investing and Warren Buffett in Wikipedia, and went to the books that he recommended."
It helped that he had worked part-time during school holidays and hates shopping. By 19, he had accumulated about $20,000 in his kitty, which came in handy when he entered the market.
Before making his first trade, he had made a sell call and found that he was right.
His father, a project manager, had helped him buy seven lots of Genting shares at about 70 cents a share when he was 15.
But it was Mr Yeo who decided to sell them in mid-2010 at about $2 after doing his own research.
When it came time to part with his own savings, he decided that he wanted to keep about 25 per cent of his money in cash, leaving him $15,000 to play with.
As he did not want to put all his eggs in one basket, he initially bought four lots of ComfortDelGro and then five of Mapletree Industrial Trust.
"I saw that Comfort's valuation was cheaper than SMRT's and was comforted by that," he says.
"Transport is very personal. I felt that I know it as I take public transport. It also tends to be more stable. Plus it is a blue chip."
Mr Yeo is still holding his ComfortDelGro shares as the fundamentals of the company are unchanged. "I follow Warren Buffett and do not look at the market."
As a member of the NUS investment society, he meets like-minded peers each week to discuss trading strategies and their purchases and to swop ideas.
Mr Yeo reviews his portfolio quarterly and reads books on investing, his favourite being Security Analysis.
When picking stocks, he looks for companies with large asset holdings and strong cash flow. He also watches out for their interest expense to see if they can continue paying their debts.
His best stock has been Elite KSB Holdings, which he sold for a profit of close to 50 per cent after holding it for a few months. He picked it after finding out that it was selling its core meat-processing business. He then checked its annual report and worked out a value that was substantially higher than its price then.
That did not call for a celebration, though. "To me, money is like a game. I don't have an emotional attachment to it. It's just a medium. It's like doing well in a test."
Still, he does have plans for it.
"Sometimes, I think about the money that I make, about what I am going to do with the money. Otherwise, it feels a bit pointless making the money."
"My dream is to own a good-class bungalow. I have a relative who lives in a bungalow with a pool, and I think it would be nice to have that kind of lifestyle," says Mr Yeo, who lives with his parents in a semi-detached house.
"If I achieve that, I would look at other things. I want to run a charity foundation and not just donate money.
"It helps to have different goals. If not, you will keep chasing money and never be happy."
joyceteo@sph.com.sg
----------------
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Mar 31, 2013
Young and financially savvy
After tuition centre foray, investment banking is next
They're not yet out of school but already have impressive portfolios. Joyce Tan finds out what drives these young investors and susses out their different investing styles
Nanyang Technological University student Goh Chye Seng has already experienced the thrill of selling a profitable business and he is just 24.
Mr Goh, who set his sights on becoming a millionaire as far back as primary school, set up Amery Tuition Centre with his friend Gordon Li, right after serving national service.
They built up the client base and sold the company for a low five-figure sum around a year later after Mr Li left to study in Britain.
Sounds easy and in a sense it was - at least at first.
Mr Goh was reading an online story about parents being up in arms over how difficult the Primary School Leaving Examination maths questions were.
"I thought that would be a good opportunity to do a workshop for Primary 6 pupils," says Mr Goh, now in his second year studying accountancy, with a minor in entrepreneurship.
"We went to MRT stations to distribute fliers and got my partner's former tutor, who was a primary school teacher, to run the workshop. I was the salesman."
They offered an early bird special of $88 for one full-day session and signed up 100 pupils, with classes held at the four-room flat where Mr Goh and his family live.
Their success spurred the duo to open a tuition centre on the second floor of an HDB shophouse in Hougang.
They started with $5,000 - Mr Goh's share came from his tuition jobs - to rent and renovate the space, hire tutors and print brochures.
The initial months were tough - "I worked around 12 to 16 hours a day to get it running," says Mr Goh.
"My parents were telling me there was a high chance Amery was going to die.
"So we put in more effort, threw in more discounts, thought of creative ways to promote it, such as providing after-school homework care. We distributed fliers overnight for a period of time to ensure parents saw them first thing in the morning."
Fortunately, during the shaky initial days of the tuition centre, Mr Goh had another business that provided a small but steady stream of passive income.
He also runs Jellybean Party, which organises children's parties, with Mr Li, who was freelancing as a magician.
Their hard work eventually paid off. The tuition centre business broke even after three months and they made a profit of about $10,000 each, before it was sold for another sum in late 2010.
They even got the Singapore Indian Development Association to appoint them as a workshop provider. They provided 15 workshops and threw in free exam papers and phone support with just Mr Goh helming the line.
Mr Goh's next venture was share trading but a poor performing stock convinced Mr Goh that he would be better off investing in his own business rather than in equities.
He had ploughed his $10,000 into the initial public offer of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust without much thought, believing it would help increase his wealth.
"When the stock price plunged, my interest plunged," he says.
"I realised investing takes a lot of skill and you have to spend a lot of time analysing stocks. It's not so easy."
HPH Trust still trades below its IPO price of US$1.01 a share.
"I feel that when we are in a business, we have more control over it. There are alternatives to consider if things go wrong.
"But when you invest in stock and shares, you are putting money into other people's hands and there are external factors that are beyond your control."
For now, investment banking is where Mr Goh clearly wants to be. To gain exposure to the industry, he took a gap year to do two internships - at Citibank and boutique corporate finance firm Gereje, where he has secured an advance job offer.
He says: "I've wanted to be a millionaire since I was in primary school."
Mr Goh, whose father is a factory supervisor, was also inspired by his uncles, who run a trading business in Indonesia.
During his NS days, the platoon sergeant would read books on investing and business. "I am a frugal person and don't really spend unnecessarily, like on high-end dining and clubbing," he says.
"I believe I can become relatively rich if I manage my finances well. I've always been a saver and I believe in delayed gratification."
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Mar 31, 2013
Young and financially savvy
Make money 'without actual work'
They're not yet out of school but already have impressive portfolios. Joyce Tan finds out what drives these young investors and susses out their different investing styles
Some people avoid checking the stock market every day to save themselves from minor heart attacks while others, like student Yeo Sui Chuan, monitor it closely.
"People check Facebook; I check the stock market. It's one of the things you do every day... It's enjoyable," says the first-year business administration student at the National University of Singapore.
Mr Yeo, 22, monitors the market two to three times a day but that's an improvement on his early days: When Mr Yeo made his first trade, he called up stock prices "obsessively".
"I checked it a few times in an hour and that lasted for a few weeks."
He had spent a year studying the market and learning about investing before finally taking the plunge in 2010 and buying four lots of ComfortDelGro.
It involved nearly $6,000 of his savings so he was eager to know whether he had made the right choice.
"I have friends who are into technical analysis so they have to pay close attention to the market. I don't fancy that kind of lifestyle... Mine is more 'chill'.
"If I don't have time, I don't check the market. During the school holidays, I can go for a few days without checking it. It doesn't bother me."
If Mr Yeo makes it sound easy, it is because he is not your typical college student.
He already boasts a portfolio of five stocks - one he has built up on his own, acquiring enough knowledge and interest to speak at length about his investing style in the process.
It is rather impressive for someone who started investing around two years ago.
Overhearing his father talk about the stock market with his friends and how much money he made piqued his curiosity.
"I found it quite amazing that you can make money by just buying and selling shares, and not doing actual work. I am interested in the idea of earning money this way," says Mr Yeo.
"So, I read up on investing and Warren Buffett in Wikipedia, and went to the books that he recommended."
It helped that he had worked part-time during school holidays and hates shopping. By 19, he had accumulated about $20,000 in his kitty, which came in handy when he entered the market.
Before making his first trade, he had made a sell call and found that he was right.
His father, a project manager, had helped him buy seven lots of Genting shares at about 70 cents a share when he was 15.
But it was Mr Yeo who decided to sell them in mid-2010 at about $2 after doing his own research.
When it came time to part with his own savings, he decided that he wanted to keep about 25 per cent of his money in cash, leaving him $15,000 to play with.
As he did not want to put all his eggs in one basket, he initially bought four lots of ComfortDelGro and then five of Mapletree Industrial Trust.
"I saw that Comfort's valuation was cheaper than SMRT's and was comforted by that," he says.
"Transport is very personal. I felt that I know it as I take public transport. It also tends to be more stable. Plus it is a blue chip."
Mr Yeo is still holding his ComfortDelGro shares as the fundamentals of the company are unchanged. "I follow Warren Buffett and do not look at the market."
As a member of the NUS investment society, he meets like-minded peers each week to discuss trading strategies and their purchases and to swop ideas.
Mr Yeo reviews his portfolio quarterly and reads books on investing, his favourite being Security Analysis.
When picking stocks, he looks for companies with large asset holdings and strong cash flow. He also watches out for their interest expense to see if they can continue paying their debts.
His best stock has been Elite KSB Holdings, which he sold for a profit of close to 50 per cent after holding it for a few months. He picked it after finding out that it was selling its core meat-processing business. He then checked its annual report and worked out a value that was substantially higher than its price then.
That did not call for a celebration, though. "To me, money is like a game. I don't have an emotional attachment to it. It's just a medium. It's like doing well in a test."
Still, he does have plans for it.
"Sometimes, I think about the money that I make, about what I am going to do with the money. Otherwise, it feels a bit pointless making the money."
"My dream is to own a good-class bungalow. I have a relative who lives in a bungalow with a pool, and I think it would be nice to have that kind of lifestyle," says Mr Yeo, who lives with his parents in a semi-detached house.
"If I achieve that, I would look at other things. I want to run a charity foundation and not just donate money.
"It helps to have different goals. If not, you will keep chasing money and never be happy."
joyceteo@sph.com.sg
----------------
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Mar 31, 2013
Young and financially savvy
After tuition centre foray, investment banking is next
They're not yet out of school but already have impressive portfolios. Joyce Tan finds out what drives these young investors and susses out their different investing styles
Nanyang Technological University student Goh Chye Seng has already experienced the thrill of selling a profitable business and he is just 24.
Mr Goh, who set his sights on becoming a millionaire as far back as primary school, set up Amery Tuition Centre with his friend Gordon Li, right after serving national service.
They built up the client base and sold the company for a low five-figure sum around a year later after Mr Li left to study in Britain.
Sounds easy and in a sense it was - at least at first.
Mr Goh was reading an online story about parents being up in arms over how difficult the Primary School Leaving Examination maths questions were.
"I thought that would be a good opportunity to do a workshop for Primary 6 pupils," says Mr Goh, now in his second year studying accountancy, with a minor in entrepreneurship.
"We went to MRT stations to distribute fliers and got my partner's former tutor, who was a primary school teacher, to run the workshop. I was the salesman."
They offered an early bird special of $88 for one full-day session and signed up 100 pupils, with classes held at the four-room flat where Mr Goh and his family live.
Their success spurred the duo to open a tuition centre on the second floor of an HDB shophouse in Hougang.
They started with $5,000 - Mr Goh's share came from his tuition jobs - to rent and renovate the space, hire tutors and print brochures.
The initial months were tough - "I worked around 12 to 16 hours a day to get it running," says Mr Goh.
"My parents were telling me there was a high chance Amery was going to die.
"So we put in more effort, threw in more discounts, thought of creative ways to promote it, such as providing after-school homework care. We distributed fliers overnight for a period of time to ensure parents saw them first thing in the morning."
Fortunately, during the shaky initial days of the tuition centre, Mr Goh had another business that provided a small but steady stream of passive income.
He also runs Jellybean Party, which organises children's parties, with Mr Li, who was freelancing as a magician.
Their hard work eventually paid off. The tuition centre business broke even after three months and they made a profit of about $10,000 each, before it was sold for another sum in late 2010.
They even got the Singapore Indian Development Association to appoint them as a workshop provider. They provided 15 workshops and threw in free exam papers and phone support with just Mr Goh helming the line.
Mr Goh's next venture was share trading but a poor performing stock convinced Mr Goh that he would be better off investing in his own business rather than in equities.
He had ploughed his $10,000 into the initial public offer of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust without much thought, believing it would help increase his wealth.
"When the stock price plunged, my interest plunged," he says.
"I realised investing takes a lot of skill and you have to spend a lot of time analysing stocks. It's not so easy."
HPH Trust still trades below its IPO price of US$1.01 a share.
"I feel that when we are in a business, we have more control over it. There are alternatives to consider if things go wrong.
"But when you invest in stock and shares, you are putting money into other people's hands and there are external factors that are beyond your control."
For now, investment banking is where Mr Goh clearly wants to be. To gain exposure to the industry, he took a gap year to do two internships - at Citibank and boutique corporate finance firm Gereje, where he has secured an advance job offer.
He says: "I've wanted to be a millionaire since I was in primary school."
Mr Goh, whose father is a factory supervisor, was also inspired by his uncles, who run a trading business in Indonesia.
During his NS days, the platoon sergeant would read books on investing and business. "I am a frugal person and don't really spend unnecessarily, like on high-end dining and clubbing," he says.
"I believe I can become relatively rich if I manage my finances well. I've always been a saver and I believe in delayed gratification."
