Interview With Derek Of The Finance (SG)

I am really excited to write about "Interview With Fellow Investors" series as I can always learn something (first hand) from the response of the interviewees. Everyone has a STORY to tell and it is my honor to have chance to share a small piece of their story here. 

Once again, I would like to thank Lionel Yeo (of Cheerful Egg blog), Christopher Ng (of Tree Of Prosperity blog) and Desmond Yee (of Passive Income Builder blog) for being the first few interviewees. For complete list of retail investors that I've interviewed, check out the page here.

My next interviewee, Derek, is a bit special, he doesn't own any investment blog (at least not to my knowledge) but he is the owner of the local financial blogs aggregator, The Finance (SG). In fact, I've written a post about this awesome aggregator (click here to view). At the moment, it is still the main source of traffics to my blog.

Without further ado, let's look at what he has to share in his investing venture:

Q1 : Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?

An engineer by day, I'm your typical heartlander who believe that knowledge is critical in making wise financial decisions. While working towards financial independence, I set up TheFinance.sg, a website dedicated to aggregating Finance and Investing blogs in Singapore. Through this site, I hope to make financial information more accessible and to reach out to a larger audience.

Q2 : Are you a full time or part-time investor at the moment?

Part-time. I spend about a day each month looking through my portfolio. I will spend more time if there are news relating to my portfolio.

Q3 : When (at what age) did you start investing in shares and who has influenced you the most?

My passion in finance started when I was 25 after picking up a book from Rich Dad Poor Dad. However, it wasn't Kiyosaki who influence me the most, rather it was my parents. Our family finances was not all smooth sailing and that inspired me to do something about it.

Q4 : Do you view yourself as long-term (holding shares in years), short-term investor (holding shares in days/months) or mixture?

Definitely long term but not indefinitely. If the stock is over-valued, it is time to sell and move on to other under value stocks. 

Q5 : What is your basis of selecting the shares to invest (e.g. basing on fundamental analysis, technical analysis or other methods/sources [share a little bit more details if it is the latter])?

Local finance blogs are the main source of information for my share investment. I will do my own research and also engage the blogging community for their views. 

Q6 : What is your targeted and achieved annual rate of returns (%) so far? 

My XIRR (Rate Of Returns) is currently at 5%. As my focus is on dividend stocks, I will be contended with a target rate of 6 to 10%.

Q7 : What is your most recommended online investing resource (site or blog) to share with our readers? 

The Finance (SG) - a one stop shop focusing on the best finance and investing blogs in Singapore.

Q8 : Besides shares, what other investment are you involved in (e.g. Real Estates, Bonds or REITs etc)?

REITs and currently looking at purchasing a property.

Q9 : What is your Portfolio Distribution like? 

30% cash 70% equities

Q10 : If the readers what to get in touch with you, how to get hold of you? (Sharing of your website/blog/social media profile etc..)

Drop me a note at The Finance (SG). I would love to hear from you.

Lastly, if you own financial related blog or website, you may want to consider getting in touch with Derek as he is more than happy to review and include your blog/website as part of the community. Also, if YOU like to be featured in this interview series, feel free to email me at investopenly@gmail.com

Cheers!