Getting Serious About Investing and Business

Last year has been a difficult year for me. I lost most of my passive income because it was too risky. The income I get from them are good and big but with the cost and risk that any moment they could be gone. And that's what happened. Although not all.

From P50,000 per month in passive income, all hell broke lose last year, and it went down to P30,000 per month in passive income (net after tax). It hurts thinking that all your hard work was reversed back 4 years. P30k was my goal 4 years ago.

And I have come to realise that, Its better to have stable income than unstable high income.

And also with my 2 businesses failing. It just took a toll on me and I took a rest from it all.

What did I do with those months doing nothing?

Well, its not actually nothing... The thing is, what gives me joy is reading. So I read a lot of things during those times and I am perfectly happy and clear headed now. Spent time with loved ones and just taking things easy from then on.

I did start small businesses on the side that made income. From additional P1,000 per month all the way to P200,000 per month at one time And then poof! its gone. It was insane. But it taught me something that I realized for myself. And that is...

I love business and investing. Even with all the ups and downs. I really do like it.

And this time, for 2018. I think I have come to terms with that reality that business and investing can be fun and rewarding and challenging for people like me who enjoys learning. So this year, I'm going to be full time investing and going into business. But with the added caution to not repeat the same mistakes I made last year. Not to take it too seriously to the point of stressing myself out.

I will be starting my first business for 2018 soon and hope to increase my passive income this year doing that. And I will be documenting the journey here if some of you would like to learn from my experiences. Would that be a good idea?

So current passive income is P32,927 (net). I hope to increase it to P40,000.

Performance of Fund

On the bright side, even if I lost money from the businesses I put up to increase my passive income. I still made money overall because of my stock portfolio.

For 2017, my portfolio was up +26.33%. That +26.33% in terms of cash is already equal to 10 years worth of living expenses, so I am in a very good position to take risks in business, knowing that even if I don't work for 10 years, or fail in business 10 years in a row (I really hope not), I will be able to feed myself and my family.

I would not consider the performance of the fund as me being a great investor of stocks. I consider it luck because of the present administration (Pres. Duterte)'s "Build, Build, Build" program that the stock market experience such a gain.

Why go into business instead of stocks?

This blog has always been about stocks and investing in stocks for passive income and financial freedom. But recently, I have been having a hard time looking for good opportunities in the stock market to increase my passive income. In short, I see that the market is expensive and the money I could have invest might make more money if I just start a business. Stocks are businesses after all. They are the same.

...

I hope we have a good year.

Closing Down a Business

Today marks a new end and a new beginning for me. Today marks the 2nd business that I started and failed. The first one was acceptable. I closed it because I wanted to focus on this 2nd business. But this 2nd business has a lot of mistakes that I think I needed to write down to further reflect on.

This business was started by me and my sister. It was her idea to put up this kind of business (I will not disclose what kind of business it is). In collaborating with our skills. Me in tech and she on service. It was great from the start. We have a good manager, my youngest sister. Which seems to love her job as well.

The mistakes happen in chains. My younger sister got married. Had a child and quit the job. My business partner fill in for the job. But this is another mistake. She is not a good manager.

While I expand the business to other location. She, hides the fact that she don't open shop. Going on leave without a memo. Making the business suffer. Never tells me that some of the machines, critical part of the business, are failing to which I could repair because its my job. And she is rude to the customers.

I don't want to be pointing fingers why the business fail. I could have known better. But theres only a few things you can do to fix a broken business when all the little failings piled up.

I can only conclude that, do not go into business with family members. They tend to take advantage of the fact that you could never fire them.

I Stopped with the Dividends Received

I don't want to stop, because in a way, I keep track of the dividends I receive. But the broker suddenly stopped giving out notifications when I receive the dividends.

Also, I'm abandoning this experiment. I made complete overhaul of my portfolio and only maximizing the dividend yield and growth rather than trying to predict what company will be included next the index. I'm not playing that game anymore. I would like a more passive approach, like the original plan of this blog.

A year ago, I achieved my target goal of P50k a month passive. But due to some problems and some sources of income expiring, my passive is now back to P20k / month.

I realized that its more important to have a sustainable income that could last for a lifetime, rather than trying to chase high risk and high yielding investment. Because a more sustainable income is more predictable, reliable and helps to keep you sleep at night.

Dividend Received 14,000.00

Gross Amount (Php) : 14,000.00
Less Withholding Tax (Php) : 1,400.00
Net Amount (Php) : 12,600.00

How To Invest in COL FINANCIAL

Here are some of video tutorials about investing in COL Financial. If you decided to start investing, these videos might help. They are in Tagalog.

Dividend Received 5,873

Dividend Received 5,873 net after tax.

Result of Stock Picking Experiment

If you remember last year on the same month, I tried to put together a list of stocks that I think would perform well. As I have read in a book about investing, I tried to do the approach in the Philippine Stock Market. Well, for 1 year, here is the result now.

My Stock Holdings		Price	Shares	Ave	Gains	Equity	Yld
ANS : A. SORIANO CORPORATION		6	4,249	7.0600	-4,503.94	25,494.00	-15.01%
ATI : ASIAN TERMINALS, INC.		11.44	2,142	14.0000	-5,483.52	24,504.48	-18.29%
ATN : ATN HOLDINGS, INC. "A"	▲	0.37	96,246	0.3117	5,611.14	35,611.02	18.70%
COSCO : COSCO CAPITAL, INC.	▼	7.77	3,654	8.2100	-1,607.76	28,391.58	-5.36%
FDC : FILINVEST DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION	▼	6.2	6,741	4.4500	11,796.75	41,794.20	39.33%
FLI : FILINVEST LAND, INC.	▲	1.96	15,789	1.9000	947.34	30,946.44	3.16%
IMI : INTEGRATED MICRO-ELECTRONICS, INC.	▼	5.6	4,739	6.3300	-3,459.47	26,538.40	-11.53%
MEG : MEGAWORLD CORPORATION	▼	4.25	5,660	5.3000	-5,943.00	24,055.00	-19.81%
MPI : METRO PACIFIC INVESTMENTS CORPORATION	▼	6.12	6,622	4.5300	10,528.98	40,526.64	35.10%
MWIDE : MEGAWIDE CONSTRUCTION CORP.	▼	6.55	3,851	7.7900	-4,775.24	25,224.05	-15.92%
NIKL : NICKEL ASIA CORPORATION	▼	4.98	1,318	22.7500	-23,420.86	6,563.64	-78.11%
PF : SAN MIGUEL PURE FOODS COMPANY, INC.	▲	220	153	195.9000	3,687.30	33,660.00	12.30%
RCI : ROXAS AND COMPANY, INC.	▼	2.28	15,706	1.9100	5,811.22	35,809.68	19.37%
ROCK : ROCKWELL LAND CORPORATION		1.6	17,045	1.7600	-2,727.20	27,272.00	-9.09%
SHNG : SHANG PROPERTIES, INC.		3.13	9,230	3.2500	-1,107.60	28,889.90	-3.69%
VLL : VISTA LAND & LIFESCAPES, INC.	▼	5.1	4,000	7.5000	-9,600.00	20,400.00	-32.00%
VMC : VICTORIAS MILLING COMPANY, INC.		4.6	6,666	4.5000	666.60	30,663.60	2.22%
TOTAL:					-23,579.26	486,344.63	-4.62%

Some stocks performed well, some didn't. AS I realised from this experiment, I have much to learn in picking stocks. Or perhaps need another strategy? I will try to keep this portfolio for another year, because that is what is written in the book. Hold portfolio for 2 years and sell.

How are your stocking investing coming along?