Saturday, February 28, 2015

Interview With Jerry Of BfGf Money Blog

I am getting closer to reach a small milestone of 25 interviewees for the "Interview With Peer Investors" series. This being my 24th, one more to go! If you are interested to be my lucky 25th, please feel free to get in touch with me ;-)

My next peer investor is Jerry of BfGf Money Blog, he is also an entrepreneur with his own business (Tuition School). He has a sleek and coolly designed blog focusing on couple finance (hence the blog title, BgGf which stands for Boyfriend, Girlfriend, I assumed).

Without further ado, let's check out Jerry's investing journey thus far below. 

Enjoy!

Q1 : Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?
A1 : I am a business owner. I run Intellicat Tuition School, a humble neighbourhood tuition centre. I am also a founder of Tutornauts, an online learning platform, (launching in late March 2015…fingers crossed!) In my free time, I will be hitting punching bags (Muay Thai) and grappling with sweaty guys (MMA) to de-stress. I also read and write a lot. 

My Gf and I decided to start the BfGf Money Blog for fun like a kind of couple project. 

Q2 : Are you a full-time or part-time investor at the moment?
A2 : Part-time.

Q3 : When (at what age) did you start investing in shares and who has influenced you the most?
A3 : I started investing at 26 years old, when I was working at my first job. I was inspired by Peter Lynch. I knew I wanted to start businesses so I needed to find other ways to grow my capital other than just relying on a monthly salary. 

Q4 : Do you view yourself as long-term (holding shares in years), short-term investor (holding shares in days/months) or mixture?
A4 : Long term. When I started I am looking to hold 1-3 years. Now, I don’t have time to keep monitoring the companies I invest in. So I am restructuring my portfolio to stocks which I can hold for 10 years or more.

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])?
A5 : My first few years were a mash up of FA and TA. Of course, my portfolio looked like crap then. Now my selection falls into 2 groups. 

Dividend stocks – I look for resilient companies with sound finances that pay dividends every year. I look for dividends of >4%.

Growth/Value/’ Whatever you want to call it’ stocks – I look for businesses with strong finances, economic moats, and consistent earnings growth annually. I will read up on the management/founders to understand their business philosophy. I am looking for strong brands and dominant players in an industry where there is still plenty of room for growth and capturing of market share. Of course, if I could buy such business at a cheap price it would be better! If I don’t get a cheap price I will still buy it at a ‘fair’ price… and look to buy more of it later on if market presents opportunities. 

Q6 : What is your targeted and achieved annual rate of returns (%) so far? 
A6 : My targeted rate of returns : >17%! Dream Big! My achieved rate of returns : Fluctuating between 9-12% OUCH. Reality Hurts!

Q7 : What is your most recommended online investing resource (site or blog) to share with our readers? 
A7 : I have 3:

1. The Fifth Person - http://fifthperson.com. The guys behind this blog explain investing very simply. They also go into technicalities to show you how to analyse a company. They break investing down into 4 quadrants, making it very easy for you to make stock-picking decisions. 

2. The Motley Fool Sg and US sites: You get a wealth of information there. Reading these sites really helped to accelerate my learning curve!

3. Value Invest Asia - http://www.valueinvestasia.com/. Clean website, easy to read, and a wide coverage of Asian stocks

Q8 : Besides shares, what other investment are you involved in (e.g. Real Estates, Bonds or REITs etc)?
A8 : None

Q9 : What is your Portfolio Distribution like?
A9 : SGX (79%): Keppel Corp, Nam Cheong, Chip Eng Seng, Valuetronics
US Market (21%): Priceline, MasterCard 

I am in the process of restructuring my portfolio. I became over confident early last year and invested heavily in high-risk companies like Chip Eng Seng and Nam Cheong. This year, upon reflection, I have decided to reallocate my holdings. Spread out my bets to mitigate the risk. As an entrepreneur, my risk-appetite is extremely high, so I have to reign myself in constantly and not overstep on my investments.

If all goes well, I will probably will achieve a 50%/50% SGX to US stocks ratio by end of this year. 

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..)
A10 : Read my blog, http://bfgfmoneyblog.com/, and if you like it, leave a comment. If you hate it, leave a comment too! At least I will know people are reading! Haha!

If you want to share your couple finance story, Email me at the bfgfmoneyblog@gmail.com

I would love to hear how other couples manage their finances

Last but not least, if 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.

Also, for the complete list of my interviewees and their posts, check it out here.

Cheers!

10 comments:

  1. Great to see the interview series back!!!

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    Replies
    1. B : Thanks for the support, as usual... Have a great weekend...

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  2. Replies
    1. CW8888 : When can I have the honor to have you in my interview series? lol

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  3. Replies
    1. Investing wolf : thanks! Interested to join in the fun? Just email me ;-)

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  4. Huat ah , oh yah uncle rich , yr interviewee's tuition centre was one of my frnd's ;) small world , small world .

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    Replies
    1. Ken : indeed a small world, it also means that you know quite a lot of people in the tuition centre industry

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    2. Bo la , ah boy don't know so many hahahaha

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    3. You will get to know a lot more on this coming 23rd March ;-)

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