Interview with Stoical Keynes of "My 15 Hour Work Week" Blog

First, I would like to apologize to Stoical Keynes (owner of "My 15 Hour Work Week" blog) for being late in publishing this post, the turnaround time that I am giving to myself is to publish the interview post within 3 days (upon receipt of the interview answers), but he need to wait for more than a week. Reason being that his last email was sitting in my "Junk" mail since 11st June 2014. I only uncovered the gem today while trying to refresh/purge my "Junk" emails.

 

Anyway, as per the motto of my blog "late is better than never"! ;-)  

 

Secondly, not sure whether Stoical is his real name but one thing for sure to me is that I have difficulty in pronouncing the name. In any case, let's take a look at this young man on his investing journey so far.

Q1 : Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?
I am a young, married adult who is passionate about personal finance. Mainly how to cut expenses, increase returns and achieve financial independence earlier than most. My goal is for me and my wife to be able to have the option to semi-retire by 35.

Q2 : Are you a full-time or part-time investor at the moment?
Definitely a part-time investor. I have no intention of spending 40 hours a week on my investments. ;-)

Q3 : When (at what age) did you start investing in shares and who has influenced you the most?
It's 18 if you consider unit trusts/ILPs and 23 if we are talking about owning a stock through a personal CDP account. I came to know about Warren Buffett in JC and his story and achievements fascinated me.

Q4 : Do you view yourself as long-term (holding shares in years), short-term investor (holding shares in days/months) or mixture?
Definitely long-term as I haven't sold much shares for the past 4 years. But things could change in an instant and my track record is still pretty short.

Q5 : What is your basis of selecting the shares to invest (e.g. basing on fundamental analysis, technical analysis or other methods/sources [share a little bit more details if it is the latter])?
It's definitely not technical analysis so I am tempted to go with fundamental? However, I am not well-versed in the science of valuing a company (yet). For now, it's mostly about whether I believe in the story behind the stock. I also have a smaller portfolio that relies on periodic passive investment which is basically a Regular Savings Plan (RSP) that allows one to invest in the STI ETF.

Q6 : What is your targeted and achieved annual rate of returns (%) so far?
My targeted rate of returns : 10%
My achieved rate of returns : 16% onwards ( I have been lucky thus far)

Q7 : What is your most recommended online investing resource (site or blog) to share with our readers?
I think AK71 writes a good blog at http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/ that has benefited many readers.

Q8 : Besides shares, what other investment are you involved in (e.g. Real Estates, Bonds or REITs etc)?
My wife! =) On a more serious note, I am invested in bonds that will only mature in >30 years time. That's the outlook on my CPF funds.

Q9 : What is your current Shares Investment portfolio size?

I share to inspire. It's stated in my blog and it's slightly more than $200,000 at this point in time.

Q10 : If the readers what to get in touch with you, how to get hold of you? (Sharing of your website/blog/social media profile etc..)
Drop me an email at 15hourworkweek@gmail.com or leave a comment on one of my posts at www.my15hourworkweek.com

By the way, whether you are a lady or gentlemen (for that matter, boy or girl), as long as you are a retail investor and would like to be featured in my "Interview With The Fellow Investors" blog series, please feel free to email me at investopenly@gmail.com. 

For the complete list of my previous interviewees, do check it out here. 

Cheers!