HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

The time of the year has arrived. The yearly gatherings and gambling has arrived. I had a short conversation with my classmates the other day. One of them was a Malaysian and the other a Singaporean. We were talking about how we were going to spend our CNY this year. My Malaysian classmate told us that first she would go to JB where her house is at and celebrate reunion dinner with her extended family members and then on CNY afternoon, they would go to Ipoh where her mum's family is located at and spend one day over there before making their way back to JB.

My other Singaporean friend was kinda shocked by the itinerary a lot of time is spent on traveling as my Malaysian friend mentioned that she has once waited 4 hours to cross over from Singapore to Malaysia. My Singaporean friend then mentioned that she will just visit her relative's place and answer the usual questions before like having nothing to do at her relative's place. My Malaysian friend then proceeded to say that CNY in Malaysia was pretty big and they would also light fireworks like every household and they would stay up almost every night with events going on.

 

 My Singaporean friend then said: " I think next time when we are adults, no one will celebrate CNY, everyone will go overseas. " Woah, that sentence hit me hard! That'll be so sad. But for now, let's enjoy the time we have with our family during this period. My grandma is getting older and she now has a maid to help her in food preparation. We have also been losing chances of trying her homemade skills like bak zhang during dumpling festival and ngoh hiang during new year as they have proved to be too taxing for her. Wishing everyone a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR AND MAY YOU PROSPER IN THE YEAR OF THE DOG! AND ALSO GOOD HEALTH!

K1 Ventures - Loss of $6760!?!?!?!

Recently, I saw my mum's CPFIS (CPF investment scheme) where she used her CPF ordinary account money to purchase shares. She had placed her money in 2 shares, namely K1 Ventures and Singtel. Needless to say she has benefited and profited from her money invested in Singtel. However, her K1 Ventures shares were bought at a high of .... and now the shares have even stopped trading in SGX as seen from this article.

What I have really learned from this is that dividends do matter and it matters a lot. My mum told me that it was my dad who used her account to purchased the stock. She couldn't remember when was the stock purchased but it was pretty long time ago at about early 2000s or late 1990s.

She purchased 4000 units of K1 ventures at a price of $1.69 so it translates to a total amount of $6760. I was shocked when I discovered the amount and that the stock has been suspended. So I decided to help her calculate the amount of dividends (obtain from dividends.sg) she has received over the years and hopefully it has covered her principal amount and if lucky, has provided her some profit. Since I would not know when she purchased it and would only know if I checked with the bank, I will use a rough estimate that she had purchased the stock on year 2000. Below is a tabulation of dividends she would have received thus far:  

So as we can see above, my mum has received dividends of $5540.40 over the last 17-18 years with K1 ventures. This means that she has a loss of $1219.60 not inclusive of the bank service charges she has incurred over the years as it is a CPFIS with UOB. This has made me to think that firstly, buying into a business always carries some form of risk and doing your due diligence before buying in is very important. Secondly, without the dividends provided, my mum would have made a complete loss of $6760. Overall, my mum generally do not invest and this is one of the rare few that my father used her money to invest. As of now, the K1 ventures have been suspended and the statement sent to my mum shows suspended. Does anyone know what it means? With a SUSP in its valuation, does it mean that there is a chance for it to trade one day?