A Year's Worth of Blog Posts

I've reached Post No. 52 for this blog. While this does not seem much compared to other blogs, it nonetheless represents a significant milestone for a weekly blog. It means that I have accumulated a year's worth of blog posts. Blogging is hard work for me; I spend about 2-3 hours on average writing and reviewing the posts, mostly in the middle of Saturday nights. When research on a particular topic is required, a lot more time is spent in gathering the data and analysing the results. Nevertheless, the outcome from blogging has been gratifying.

I first started the blog to record down investment ideas so that the knowledge will continue to stay on long after I've gone from this world, but blogging has not been solely a one-way traffic for me to communicate with the world. I've gained much from blogging and the constructive comments that readers leave on the blog.

Firstly, blogging strengthens the investment ideas. Previously, they were all conjured up and evaluated in the mind. Most of the time, the mind only hears what it wants to hear. But by putting down the ideas in writing and working out the numbers in Excel, it forces them to be re-examined in greater details. Some ideas that could not stand up to scrutiny were thrown away. Other ideas were strengthened and reinforced with the greater scrutiny. Examples of such ideas are Properties, the Population White Paper and the Land Use Plan and Housing Loan Servicing - Cash or CPF?

Secondly, blogging forces investment ideas to be investigated. This is usually in search of blog ideas to extend the longevity of this blog. Examples of investment ideas that are a result from such investigations include The Dogs and Puppies of STI and Do REITs Overpay for Their Acquisitions?

Thirdly, after I started blogging, I also began to read more investment blogs. Some of the blogs are very instructive. I've added the hyperlinks to these blogs so that other readers can benefit from their writings. In search of new blog ideas, I've also picked up from where I left off many years ago to read investment books found in the library. A couple of books were re-read, such as the Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor. The post on The Lost Art of Bond Investment is the application of an investment concept found in the books.

Fourthly, after searching for 28 years for the holy grail of investing, I seemed to have stumbled upon it. At the time of searching, I didn't know how the holy grail would look like nor what form would it take. All I knew was the idea that if Risk was my friend, I would have found the holy grail. Why? Because if Risk was my friend, I would not have to worry about risk, about market crashes. In fact, I would welcome Risk whenever he comes visiting, for that would mean an opportunity to gain more profits. For the last 28 years, Risk wasn't really my friend. Whenever the market crashes, I would book paper losses. Sometimes, the losses could be so severe that they were painful to look at. Sometimes, some losses never recovered and remained as losses for many years. Over the years, as we aged, our emotions and animosity for each other have reduced, but I still couldn't call him my friend. It was not until that I investigated further into passive investing that I found a way to make friend with Risk, that I could welcome him whenever he comes visiting. The results of this analysis can be found in the trilogy of blog posts on Portfolio Rebalancing - A Fine Balancing Act, Volatility is Your Friend and The Passive Portfolio.

Finally, looking back at the very first post of this blog, The Beginning of the End, I had originally wanted to share ideas that the financial world is really a "Matrix", and investors could defy the rules of the Stock Matrix with real-world common sense. It is with some regrets that I have not been able to expound on this theme more, only managing to touch on it with Shareholding Disclosure and The Stock Market is a Voting Machine. I hope to be able to expand on this theme with future posts.

It has been a long journey thus far. I am not sure how long this blog can last. I hope this blog has made a small difference to the investing community.

See related blog posts:

• The Beginning of the End
• About Blogging and Investing
• The Value of (The) Boring Investor Blog