I’ve nearly sat through an entire financial year at work, and going through the various processes, have a better understanding of how businesses operate. Heh, I knew deep down there was a bit of a bean counter in me when I was looking at share prices and saw the underlying financial statements on assets and liabilities of a company. For the first time, those numbers had more meaning to me than in my entire undergrad course at University.

Speaking of share prices, the index shares I’ve bought a month ago have so far have been of good value. It’s a basket of shares in different weights, so it takes care of the diversification part of investing and as I’m buying only one stock, there is only a one time transaction cost. It pays dividends, so on top of any capital gains, I do get a stream of income semi annually. It’s not a superstar stock, that tumbles 50% and surges 50%. Sure you can make bucket loads of money from that if you time it right, but I’m of the risk adverse kind and prefer to be the turtle and do it slow and steady. It’s time and effort to constantly watch the market and outsmart it. I have better things to do with my time.

It makes sense to plan for one’s financial future. I would prefer not to be working when I’m 60 (unless it’s something I really enjoy, which looking at the current trend of jobs, is just bordering on interesting enough) so I’m thinking that after finding a place to stay, to start looking for investment properties to supplement my current salary with a stream of side income.

I have a vague set of goals at the moment, heh, but better to have vague goals than no goals at all. It’s easier to plan if you have a clear idea on what you want to achieve by when, but I’ve never been good at planning things for the longer term. I’m not terribly good at scoping and anticipating future needs, as I prefer to fix things on the fly. It’s only when I start doing the same things a little more that I can pick up on potential problems more easily as I go along.

* * *

It’s good to have the weekends come. I’m trying to cram more activities into it, but it does eat into my sleeping time. Heh, have other ideas on how to get the most productivity out of a day, and I think the Spanish have the right idea with siestas. Time to turn in anyway.