Stocks vs Real Estate

Just got back from the real estate business seminar. I must admit that real estate industry is not what I thought it was. More than anything, its all hard work. And for me to start a new business for part time in real estate is something that will not be possible. This kind of business needs and deserves your full attention because of the underlying processes that needs to be accomplished.

When I got back home, I started to compare Stocks vs Real Estate. The main points and probably the decision maker for me is the capitalization. In stocks, your capital can be any amount of money that you are willing to invest. In real estate, you need almost always around P1M to risk the money in this venture. And P1M is not little in our country. Stocks win.

Second point, that I probably like in favor of stocks is that, stocks don't need a lot of people to do business. You just need a broker and you can transact easily. In real estate, there are a lot of people involved. Engineers, contractors, lawyers, accountants, brokers and most especially, the government, bribes for government employees are there to take part in your profits. I don't want to talk to a lot of people when doing business. And don't have much patience in managing tenants for rental properties as well. So I think that stocks win (for me) in this category for a lot less hassle in doing business.

Third, Stocks are liquid. Real estates are not. It takes you an instant to sell a stock of a company and takes your 3 - 6 months to sell a real estate. Stocks win.

Fourth, stocks are almost always valued at the right price. There are some companies that are under valued and will adjust accordingly overtime. But since it is public, there not that many opportunities to spot undervalued stocks to gain more than 200% in profit for a particular stock. But this depends entirely on the investor's skill to spot these opportunities.. Most of the time, prices will adjust accordingly. In real estate, pricing can be lucrative. In a way, it is a good thing because you can get away even with a 200% profit, but this is also less frequent. Real estate's gain can be lucrative and depends entirely on its marketing. Both win.

I think there is an obvious winner here for me. In starting a new business part time, I think real estate won't be that viable. And in terms of investing. I think stocks wins over real estate in my personal objective. But! I still think I will use the things that I learned in the seminar. To invest in real estate. Its just that, the capitalization is too much for the returns that is comparable to stock. And I believe that I'll be buying lots only real estate until I know more about building and developing the land.

Real Estate Business Seminar Tomorrow

Ahh... Real estate, people say its one of the pillars of wealth. Every time I think of a new business to start, I will need a place to put up my business and then I realized, why not learn how to invest in real estate since my problem is acquiring properties to put my business into.

When I think of putting up a fast food chain, I thought that I don't have real estate. So I'm back to square one. Before I learn to put up any new businesses, I need to learn how to acquire perfect spot properties.

I'll be attending a real estate business seminar tomorrow as part of my goal to start a new business this year to put in more funds to my freedom fund. I don't know what to expect but I'm open to learning something new and I have been keen in entering the real estate industry since almost all wealthy people seems to know how to invest in real estate.

It should be a different feeling owning a portfolio of real estate than stocks since real estate, you can see and touch.

Not much has happen in the stock market today. I added some more money into our funds because I liquidated some of my mutual funds to invest in the stock market. I added positions to strong stocks with high dividend growth rather than the yield.

There are rumors floating around that the financial sector and the construction sector will boom this year. But like I say, its rumors.

Annual Cash Flow: 106,523.63
Freedom Fund: +3.42%

It Goes Up, It Goes Down - Investing for Income

Well, our freedom fund went down today. It made me kind of sad for letting the profits go. But I'm already decided that I'll be making this a long term goal... To have a passive income from the stocks thru dividends. I added more funds into my account and bought some stocks that I researched yesterday with yields ranging from 6 to 10. They were great finds but not that liquid and its hard to find any sellers and also, price were wacko as one transaction can immediately affect your position in the trade. Some of these picks were already -4% just after 2 transactions.

I just keep reminding myself that I'm here for the dividends.

Annual Cash Flow: 100,587.43
Freedom Fund: +2.71%

Stock Investing Means Putting Money Regularly

Investing in the Stock Market means putting away money from your day job to invest in the stock market. And I see many stock investing blogs nowadays that teaches fundamental analysis and value investing but  fail to teach the value of investing regular amounts to their fund.

And today, I failed to do that as well. Because I don't have enough money yet to set aside. Probably the end of the month. But! On the other hand, our Freedom Fund performed quite good. And, I did some research on my free time and made a list of companies that fits our criteria for dividends and growth for our Freedom Fund. Once I got the money from my job, I'll try to invest more in these new stocks.

Annual Cash Flow: P87,876.43
Freedom Fund: +5.40%

PLDT & DGTL Acquisition - Stock Investing Philippines

Being a fan of TEL for dividends, its kind of fun to see our Freedom Fund go wacko as traders trade our stock. This acquisition news made the stock a hot pick for traders as well as its competition Globe. I am just fearing now that there might be an incoming profit taking and sell offs and our stock will decline once again.

Today, I added new funds to up our cash flow. Our annual cash flow is now at P87,876.43 or P7,323.04 per month. The new funds went to new "unhot" stocks while we wait the usually boring stock to subside so we can up our position. Freedom Fund made an increase capital gains and now at 4.02% from previous 2.05%.

Annual Cash Flow: P87,876.43
Freedom Fund: +4.02%

Lucky Strike in Dividend Investing?

Are we lucky or is it sound investing eye? Yesterday has been a good day, not because we received a dividend from our investments, but because our stocks has been in play. Our stocks particularly in the business of cement manufacturing gained 7% and our gains in our over all portfolio boosted. I am not sure if we should be happy or worried. Because traders trading in our stock can only mean 1 thing, volatility.

Our stock can either be overvalued or undervalued when traders trade our stock. But the one thing that puzzles me is that, we have been in this stock earlier and its stock is as silent as a ghost town. Is it purely luck that we picked a stock that is now a hot favorite of traders? Or is it sound investment strategy that allows us to be in a very good position for a possible lucrative capital gains?

I want to test my strategy even more so I bought a couple of new stocks that are not in the eye of the traders. Let's see if we are truly good investor or just damn lucky (beginner's luck).

THE FREEDOM FUND
I'll also post the current standing of my portfolio in which I'll rightfully call "Freedom Fund". Because Freedom Fund is our main ticket to being financially free. Freedom Fund's performance will be posted here and we'll see if we can beat the benchmark in capital gains while still earning for passive income. That fat check at the end of the month.

Annual Cash Flow: P81,576.43
Freedom Fund: +2.05%

Philippines Stock Exchange Longer Trading Hours Effective Today

The new trading hour is effective today for the first Monday of 2012. Today we built up our cash flow to P73,935.43. Which is P6,161.29 per month in passive income.

At this point, we need only a few addition to our fund and we'll be able to reach our target P9,000 as my first salary in my first job.

I think I'm starting to think differently now. I'm starting to think in terms of cash flow and not in terms of capital gains. So, I tend to look for real strong companies will lesser risk than thinking about if this company will revolutionize the world. I want to build my cash flow at this point, get enough cash flow so I can re-invest it to buy more shares of more income producing stocks. If I have excess money to that point, I shall risk in capital gains. But for now, lets focus on income.

I also start to think in terms of "How can I earn more money so I can invest in stocks and produce more money?". Because of that, I've been looking on some seminars that may improve my capabilities to earn more. And thinking about it all day makes me hungry. But fun though. The thought of not working and earning and the journey of building wealth is really fun.

My Foreign Stock Brokerage Account

My foreign stock will be postponed for now. Because the broker has a security feature where they will send you a card that you will use to login to their system, they secured my account of only allowing people with this card. And this card is currently flying around on the other parts of the world to be delivered to my doorstep. Until I receive this card, I won't be able to invest in foreign markets, so all funds for now will be Philippine stocks.

Annual Cash Flow: P73,935.43