~~Towards Barista FIRE~~

Before I begin this post, I would like to highlight everything I share in this post is my personal opinion and perspective, and it may not be applicable to everyone, nor agreeable by everyone.  Thank you for reading. "Dying with Zero" is a book that challenges conventional wisdom about financial planning and retirement.  Written by Bill Perkins, a hedge fund manager and entrepreneur, the book presents a radical approach to money management and living life to the fullest. The central premise of "Dying with Zero" is that traditional retirement planning, which focuses on accumulating wealth throughout one's working life and then gradually spending it during retirement, is flawed.  Perkins argues that this approach often leads to a life of scrimping and saving, deferring dreams and experiences until old age when health and vitality may no longer be guaranteed.  Instead, Perkins advocates for a "Zero-ness" approach, where individuals consciously spend down

On the 3rd April 2024, Hualien, Taiwan experienced the worst earthquake in 25 years, with a magnitude of 7.2 in Richter Scale.  It is precedented by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake that hit Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan earlier this year on 1st January 2024.  Two days later on 5th April 2024, New York City, US, experienced a rare 4.8 magnitude earthquake as well.  Besides natural disasters, there are also a couple of wars happening around the globe.  In Europe, Russia-Ukraine war had started on 24th February 2022, and it is still ongoing to date.  In the Middle East, Israel-Hamas war, which had started on 7th October 2023, is also ongoing currently.  In fact, the wars are intensifying everyday with no end in sight, and making things worse, with threats of escalation between Israel and Iran. With so many natural disasters and wars happening around the globe now, the first thing I am very grateful for, is that I am safely living in Malaysia and Singapore where such severe natural disasters do no

Having invested for more than a decade (but only with a plan since late 2017), I have only attended one Annual General Meeting (AGM)/ Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), which is prior the merger of Frasers Commercial Trust and Frasers Logistics and Industrial Trust in late 2019/ early 2020 to form the currently listed Frasers Logistics and Commercial Trust (FLCT). This year, I decided to attend some AGMs if I my schedule allows, and hopefully get to enjoy some free food and drinks, or even some door gifts if available.  After looking through all the dates and time, and my work schedule, I can only attend two, for Hong Leong Finance (HLF) on 25th April 2024 and ParkwayLife REIT (PWLR) on 30th April 2024.  Currently, PWLR is my largest holding based on capital and third largest holding based on market value, and HLF is my fifth largest holding based on capital and fourth largest holding based on market value. *Note that the following sharing is based on personal perspectives and unders