meek-investor

Memories of those days, goes the title of this post in Tamil. Alumni reunions are an American tradition. It was not very common in India, until recent years. You passed out of school and college - and that was that. You went your own way , kept in touch with a  few, lost touch with most and lived your own life.  Rarely did you return. But that trend is changing. A week ago, the 1961 batch from Madras Medical College held their 50th year reunion. Everybody was 70 plus in age, obviously. Some 60 odd batchmates attended, it is reported. They came from far and wide. They went back to their old classrooms . They went back to their labs. They sang the songs of their days. Including this one (sorry its in Tamil) which was actually released in their year in college.  They ribbed their mates as they used to do so long ago. In short, they had a whale of a time. What is it that attracts people to reunions. After all they have gone so far a distance that they may not even be able to...

It was a long time coming. In retrospect its actually surprising that the backlash is starting only now. The backlash against email, I mean. A few days ago Atos Origin, a French IT company, started the ball rolling by announcing that it would ban email in the company by 2014. Now Volkswagen unions have struck a deal with the company that emails to their unionised employees would be switched off after office hours. This had to happen. E Mail addiction is an extremely serious epidemic as this blogger observed here . It is a global pandemic of epic proportions. Walk into any office or meeting - you would see rows and rows of people peering into their screens or thumbing away at their Blackberries. Eerie scenes more suited for George Orwell's 1984. Its well known that more than half the emails you get are completely useless. And you get a LOT of emails. For some reason your genes are so programmed that you have to see each and every one of them 15 nanoseconds after they arrive. The ...

Throughout my life, I never like reading book of any kind. The only type of book that I read was text book so that I can get through Singapore education system. However, there are two books that caught my attention. Who Moved My Cheese? When I started the 'new' family business, my brother and I were the executive directors and my father was the 'adviser'. As our business grew each year, I had to deal with more employees and managed everybody problems, needs and expectations. I was stressed out minding everyone business and making sure that the business ran smoothly. Through one of my friend's recommendation, I bought the book 'Who Moved My Cheese?'. You may ask why this book as I am the one moving the cheeses around in the company. To make a business successful, we need to understand that the most important asset is the people. Without happy and committed employees, the company will not be successful. This book actually provided me some insights on the chang...

Rahul Dravid, India's elder statesman of cricket, delivered the Bradman Oration at Canberra last week. If you want to hear a classy, graceful, charming, stylish speech, look no further. Class, grace, charm and style define the man and perhaps it is but natural, that his speech was all of that.  It is about cricket, of course, but even if you are not a cricket fan, listen to it if you have the time - this is how a speech should be made. Its 40 mts long, but I really wished it wouldn't end. Rahul's speech follows in the lines of another classic speech - from Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka, when  he delivered the Cowdrey lecture in July. Another gem, you can listen to here . English oration is alive and well in the colonies, atleast in the sporting world !

Another year flew past and I am glad that the company I am managing grew its sales by another 15% again in 2009. Fulfilling our profit obligation to the business buyer, I was paid in full the second installment from the escrow account in Jan 2010. With the second payout, my target for 20K passive income seem to be in my sight. Feeling comfortable with my bonds investment, I decided to load up a few more bonds issues. The following are the bonds that I had chosen for 2010: Temasek Bond (10yrs, 4.3%) DBS Preference Share (perpetual, 4.7%) Olam Bond (3yrs, 4.1%) Olam USD Bond (10yrs, 7.5%) Hyflux Bond (5yrs, 5%) Sembcorp Ind Bonds (5yrs, 3.73%) Arief (3yrs, 4.75%) I started experimenting with equity linked notes (ELN) and I was sold the following benefits: get interest yield of about 7% to 10% if equity price on redemption day is above strike price.  get the underlining equity at a price that I am comfortable with if the price is below strike price + interest I was quite comfortable w...

This Wednesday, we welcome back one of our most beloved and most frequent visitors, Nato Green, along with two brand-new guests! Nato Green is the creator of Iron Comic, the co-founder of Laughter Against the Machine, a prolific HuffPo blogger, and a Jew who cures his own bacon. He's such a regular friend to the show that he's earned the coveted moniker of "The Fifth Businessman," a title previously shared by Stu Sutcliffe and Brian Epstein. We also welcome Sammy Obeid, a UC Berkeley graduate and nationally-touring comedian who was the first comedian to ever appear on the Food Network telling jokes. He placed third in the SF International Comedy Competition and won Best of the Fest at both the Arab-American Comedy Festival and the Out Of Bounds Festival in Austin. Though Sammy does five sets a night, every night, this is somehow his first visit to The Business. It's long overdue, but we are glad to have him.   Finally, all the way from the City of ...