First purchase of 2018 - Singtel | January expense

Singtel

Made an opportunistic purchase at the start of the year when I saw the news report on Singtel being at its 52 week low of 3.57 and decided to take up a position in it.

It was a move made with less analysis than I would have liked as I thought the market was acting irrationally and I wanted to catch this low price while it was still available. I could not see any significant change that would have caused a drastic drop. Based on my general impression of Singtel, it is more than a local Telco, having partnerships and assets in various other regions, as well as its other technology based businesses. From daily observations, I also knew that Singtel has other business through NCS, and is also a distributor of microsoft products. This gave me confidence that they will be well placed to do well in the long term.

This has been a lesson to me to work harder to get a better sense of the market and prominent businesses regularly, so that I can take advantage of such opportunities in a more thoughtful manner. Unfortunately, despite trying to make an effort to read business news daily, I find it hard to synthesize and really understand all the information.

*on hindsight at this point, the purchase seems less optimal since Singtel's price has fallen even further. I intend to hold this stock in the long term so the difference is not big, but it does mean that the "opportunity" that I saw was not as urgent as it seemed.

Sticking to a monthly budget

I started off January 2018 exceeding my monthly expense budget of $2k by $100. This is better than my average from last year, and considering the number of family birthdays in January, I think I did a decent job. Hopefully I can keep this up next month.

It is definitely challenging to keep a strict count on all my spending, and to keep to my budget. However, there is some sense of accomplishment when I manage to go through a day with less expenses. It is about time I learn to be more thrifty, so I feel less beholden to my current level of income.