Now I was genuinely surprised when PM Lee announced a 4 week extension to the circuit breaker.
I knew an extension was coming, but I expected a 2 week extension to “wait and see”, so the 4 weeks definitely caught me by surprise.
That said – I think a 4 week decision is the correct one from the country’s perspective. But from our perspective, it means another 4 weeks stuck at home everyday.
Quite a few readers have reached out to ask whether we can run another promo for the FH Course and REITs MasterClass during this lockdown period.
It makes a lot of sense, so we’ll do our part during this extended circuit breaker.
We’ll run a special Labour Day / Extended Circuit Breaker Promo for both the FH Course and the REITs MasterClass.
So if you’re stuck at home for the next month with nothing to do – take the chance to improve yourself. Learn about investing. Learn how to manage your wealth and finances, without having to depend on others. Emerge from this circuit breaker a changed person; one who can take charge of your own investment journey.
What are the Promo details?
The FH Course price will drop for
As an added bonus, we’ll also throw in a 3 months subscription to Patron if you sign up now.
If you sign up to the FH Course you’ll get 3 months access to Financial Tiger, which gives you access to the premium articles and the FH Stock Watch.
If you sign up to the REITs MasterClass you’ll get 3 months access to Financial Unicorn, which gives you access to the premium articles, FH Stock Watch, FH Personal Portfolio, and Ask Me Anything service.
The Promo will run from now until Sunday, 10 May 2020.
Full instructions to get Patron access are in Appendix A after you sign up.
What is the difference between the FH Course and REITs MasterClass?
In one sentence:
The FH Course is for beginner investors who want to learn the basics and fundamentals of investing
The REITs MasterClass is for intermediate/advanced investors who already know the basics, and want to take their REIT and real estate investing to the next level.
What is covered in each course?
In the FH Course, you learn about Asset Allocation, Understanding the Market Cycle, REITs, Property Investing, Shares, ETFs, Bonds & Fixed Income, CPF & Tax Planning, and how to put an entire portfolio together.
Take a look here for the full course syllabus.
In the REITs MasterClass, you learn about how to invest in REITs v Dividend Stocks v Growth Stocks, Statistics & Probabilities & Randomness, how to pick good real estate, how to read the global macro climate, how to pick REITs and know which to avoid, how to build a real estate portfolio, how to decide on the price to buy REITs, and more.
Take a look here for the full course syllabus.
Which Course should I go for?
My simple answer: ask yourself how much you know about investing, and how confident are you in investing.
If you’re brand new to investing, or you want to focus on building your fundamentals, and constructing balanced portfolios, go with the FH Course. It’s probably the quickest way to get you up to speed on everything you need to know.
Sure, you can read books and learn it yourself in the financial markets, but that’s the hard way, and it takes time, effort, and a lot of investment money down the drain. I know because that was me when I first started, so don’t make the same mistake.
If you already understand the fundamentals of investing, and you want to improve your real estate and REIT investing skills, go with the REITs MasterClass. I continue to think that Commercial Real Estate around the world will have a tough year in 2020, and as this year plays out we’ll see opportunity to accumulate REITs on the cheap.
But this is a scenario that calls for active investing. I cannot predict with exact certainty how the second half of 2020 plays out, but I think that it will be turbulent, and it will be an uneven recovery across the world. If you’re able to identify pockets of value in this market (and there will be), there’s lots of money to be made.
Is the amount worth it?
Think about it this way – the first stock I bought I invested 2000 USD, and I lost 80% of that money. That’s 1600 USD.
As a beginner investor, you’re bound to make mistakes. If this course can help you avoid a 80% loss on a 2000 USD investment, it’s paid for itself more than 3 times over. Think about how much you’re investing in the markets over a lifetime, and how much you can improve with a strong foundation.
If you invest S$20,000 a year from 25 to 65, The difference between 5% a year and 7% a year over a 40 year investing period (25 to 65) is $2.5 million vs $4.2 million. That’s a whopping 68% difference, or S$1.7 million.
So don’t be penny wise pound foolish here.
We have 1 month more of circuit breaker to go. It sucks I know, but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
If you’re stuck at home during this period, take the opportunity to improve yourself. Learn about investing the right way. Learn about investing from the ground up.
Take full control of your finances, and your net worth, so that you’re not beholden to anyone once this circuit breaker is over.
Still not convinced? Read on more for a further description of the FH Course and REITs MasterClass
FH Course – Complete Guide to Investing for Singapore Investors
The most common question I get on this site is: “I am x years old. I have y dollars in the bank. How do I invest my money?”
After answering countless reader questions and Ask FH questions, it started becoming obvious to me that the response to all these questions were all broadly similar. There was an underlying set of considerations and framework that applied to investing for Singaporeans, that could be used to address all these queries. And I knew that I had to share this framework with readers in a way that was more efficient than replying to them individually.
But this framework was more than could be imparted in a simple paragraph, or even a 2000 word article.
I’ve taken everything I know about investing and condensed this information into a set of videos, articles, exercises, and materials. It is the Complete Guide to Investing for Singapore Investors. And it’s all available to you today.
What is the FH Course?
Unlike other courses which only touch on one or two topics, the Complete Guide to Investing for Singaporeans gives you everything you need to know as an Investor in Singapore – from asset allocation, understanding the market cycle, Stocks, REITs, bonds, ETFs, Property, CPF and tax planning.
Asset allocation will make or break your returns
I’m a huge believer in asset allocation. To build this course, I re-thought my entire approach towards asset allocation for Singaporean investors. I built a complete framework from the ground up to think about your net worth as a Singaporean, inclusive of CPF, property (residential + investment), bonds, stocks, REITs. This is the same approach I adopt towards conceptualising my own net worth. In fact, I would even go so far to say that the Asset Allocation module itself is probably worth the entire course fee.
What is the course structure?
The course consists of 11 modules as follows:
Module 1: Objectives and Goal Setting
Module 2: The Importance of Asset Allocation
Module 3: Understanding the Market Cycle
Module 4: REITs
Module 5: Property Investing for Individuals
Module 6: Shares
Module 7: ETFs
Module 8: Bonds & Fixed Income
Module 9: CPF & Tax Planning
Module 10: Putting it all together: Sample Portfolios
Module 11: Advanced Reading
Each module consists of a series of video lectures, exercises and reading materials that you can go through at your own pace. Detailed course outline here.
Think of this as a shortcut, to jumpstart your learning and start from a much higher base than your peers
Can you learn everything in this course by yourself? Absolutely, most of this can be learned through books, classes, and painful trial and error. But ask yourself, how long would it take for you to build up such knowledge?
In this course, I’ve taken everything I know about investing, what I learnt from books, courses, academic journals, interviews, speaking to people, and all my experience in the financial markets over the past 10 years, and condensed it into this course. Think of this as a way to shortcut years of your learning, and immediately start on a much higher base than your peers.
It took me 10 years to build up the knowledge I have today. Even if you can do it in a quarter of the time I took, that’s still 2.5 years. And in investing, 2.5 years can translate into a lot of money lost, and lost opportunities.
If I had been offered such a course 10 years ago when I began my investing journey, I absolutely would have jumped at the chance.
Who should take the course?
(1) New to investing: Get your investing fundamentals right and build an effective investment portfolio.
(2) Established Investors: Finetune your portfolio and reframe your asset allocation to maximize returns.
(3) Investors thinking of Retirement: Protect your nest egg and stay confidently on track for retirement.
This is nothing compared to the amounts you’re investing over a lifetime
Think about it this way – the first stock I bought I invested 2000 USD, and I lost 80% of that money. That’s 1600 USD.
As a beginner investor, you’re bound to make mistakes. If this 308 USD can help you avoid a 80% loss on a 2000 USD investment, it’s paid for itself more than 3 times over. Think about how much you’re investing in the markets over a lifetime, and how much you can improve with a strong foundation.
If you invest S$20,000 a year from 25 to 65, The difference between 5% a year and 7% a year over a 40 year investing period (25 to 65) is $2.5 million vs $4.2 million. That’s a whopping 68% difference, or S$1.7 million.
Lifetime Membership
Signing up to the course gets you lifetime membership. The course will be continually updated with new content to keep up with market conditions. You can review the course year after year to refresh your fundamentals as well as keep up with the latest developments.
Don’t wait, take action to jumpstart your investment journey today!
If you have any queries on the course, feel free to contact us at admin@financialhorse.com
What is the FH REITs Investing Masterclass?
Regular readers of Financial Horse know that I love REITs. REITs are my first love, and I pride myself on being a REITs investor first, and a stock investor second. I’ve been investing in them since I started as an investor, and I’ve made lots of money from REITs.
When I first launched Financial Horse, I wrote about the 5 things to look out for when investing in REITs. Stuff like P/NAV, Yield, Interest rates etc.
In recent years, I’ve seen articles from mainstream sites (eg. Straits Times and Seedly), that go into similar details. They talk about looking at Price to Book, Gearing Ratios, DPU growth etc.
I knew that once mainstream media was looking at the same things I was, retail investors’ interest in REITs would start to grow and indeed, many readers email me every day asking for me to do more in-depth articles on Singapore REITs.
To this end, I thought it would be really helpful to create a REITs Investing Masterclass. More than what my articles could convey, I wanted to go above and beyond to deliver high-quality content. I pored over countless real estate, practitioner level texts. I pored over valuations textbooks. I pored over capital markets, modern portfolio theory, statistics, probabilities textbooks.
In this process, I broke down a REIT into what it really is. Real Estate, with leverage, with capital markets characteristics.
And I came up with a completely new framework to invest in REITs.
And I plan to deploy this framework to invest into the coming crisis.Sign up here!
What do you think about the coming crisis?
I say coming crisis, because I think we haven’t seen anything yet. I think what we’ve seen so far is but the tip of the iceberg, of what is to come.
An era of easy money and central bank liquidity has created bubbles in every asset class out there.
The problem before this, was that I didn’t know what, or when the bubble would burst. But increasingly, it looks like COVID19 will be the catalyst that sets everything off.
But in crisis, comes opportunity.
I think for those who have been patiently biding their time, who have a large warchest ready, now will be the opportunity of a lifetime.
This is shaping up to be an opportunity to accumulate high quality commercial real estate on the cheap.
Someone who is able to invest patiently and meticulously into the coming crisis, to pick the right REITs, and get the timing right – will come out an absolute winner.
Why do you need to learn about REITs investing?
It blows my mind that there are courses and degrees out there for everything we do, but when it comes to investing, we’re supposed to just pick it up ourselves.
I’ve seen many investors get blown up in the market because they simply didn’t have the knowledge or skills to understand what was going on.
They were going up against money managers with PHDs from Harvard, 20 years’ experience at Blackstone, people who read and breathe finance.
And that’s in the good times.
These are not good times.
These are wild times, where market moves of 8% a day are normal.
In times like this, trying to invest against top money managers without some semblance of training and knowledge is a recipe for disaster.
And in this Masterclass, I’m trying to equip you with the intermediate to advanced level skills necessary to invest properly in a wild market like this.
Who is the REITs Investing Masterclass for?
Let me tell you who the REITs Investing Masterclass is not for.
This course is NOT for:
New investors who have never bought a stock / REIT – For these investors, the FH Course is a better place to start. Your emphasis should be on learning how to use stocks, bonds, ETFs, REITs, gold etc to build a balanced portfolio. You should be learning about tax planning, CPF and asset allocation. Your goal should be maximizing earnings from your day job, while getting your asset allocation and investing fundamentals right, and the FH Complete Guide to Investing will deliver that.
Investors who want to dollar cost average into the S&P500/STI ETF for the rest of your lives – If your idea of investing is to dollar cost average into the S&P500, $1000 a month for the rest of your life, this course is not for you. Your plan doesn’t call for active management – so just stick with it, and execute accordingly.
We’ve covered who the course is NOT for.
Now who is this course for?
Serious Investors who want to build a long-term REIT income portfolio – If you’ve been investing in financial markets for some time, if you already know the difference between P/E and P/NAV, if you know how to evaluate a REIT or a stock – but you want to take your investing to the next level. Then this Masterclass is for you. This Masterclass imparts a framework to understand REITs, in the macro environment in which they operate in, in order to build a long-term REIT income portfolio.
Investors who are not satisfied with average returns– If you’re not satisfied with just buying a REIT ETF or a Syfe REIT+ Portfolio and getting average returns. If you want to have full control over your investing destiny and returns, and you want to achieve above average returns. Then this Masterclass is right for you.
Investors who plan to deploy your warchest into markets over the next 12 months – If this is you, then you’ve come to the perfect place. I myself plan to deploy big sums into REITs in the next 12 to 24 months. And the framework that I use to pick REITs, and analyse global macro conditions? It’s all in this Masterclass, and more.
So for those of you who are lost and unsure about what to do over the next 12 months.
For those who want to deploy big money into financial markets but are not sure how to do it given the insane volatility.
For those of you who want to take your investing skills and knowledge to the next level, and put that to use in the coming crisis.
For those of you who want to invest into this market, to build up a long-term income portfolio with great underlying cash flows – but don’t know which REITs to buy.
Then you’ve come to the perfect place.
How much experience do I need to make use of the REITs Investing Masterclass?
We’ve had some queries from readers asking how much experience do they need to make use of the REITs Investing Masterclass.
I would say as long as you have about one year experience in the markets, and you’ve bought stocks / REITs in the past, you are good.
The way we’ve set up the course, Part II and III are a complete, self contained course on REITs and Dividend/Growth Stocks. I would go so far as to say that Parts II and III go into the same level of detail for those 2 asset classes as we do in the FH Course. So for newer investors, Parts II and III will help you to recap everything you know about REITs and Stocks, and bring you up to the level of knowledge required to understand the rest of the course.
For seasoned investors, if you think Parts II and III are too straightforward, feel free to skip them. But these are volatile times, and I highly encourage you to sit through them as a way of going back to basics. You may just pick up new insights you didn’t the first time around.
From Part IV onwards, we then go in depth into real estate, real estate as an asset class, how to pick real estate, how to analyse macro conditions for REITs, how to analyse REITs etc.
In any case, I’ve made 2 lessons available completely for free as a preview. So even if you don’t plan to buy, just create an account to get yourself some free REITs e-learning!
What is covered in the REITs Investing Masterclass?
The full course outline is set out below. But very simply, what you will learn is:
- When is the best time to invest in REITs? And when is the time you should be selling REITs?
- How to make money from real estate? How to identify the best properties to own for a lifetime?
- How does real estate and REIT fit into your portfolio? What is the best percentage of REITs to have in your asset allocation?
- What can we learn from REITs from the US? What does this mean for S-REITs in the next 5 years?
- Unique risks you must look out for before buying REITs
- Growth drivers a REIT must have so you can earn increasing distribution and capital gains every year
- The best type of sponsors and managers a REIT must have to protect your capital and make you money
- The financial and operational metrics a REIT must pass
- How to value a REIT accurately using practitioner level valuation techniques
AND
- Exclusive access to my thinking on how the coming crisis will play out
And more…
Full Course Outline:
Part 0: Start with WHY
- Ask yourself WHY
Part I: REITs vs Dividend Stocks vs Growth Stocks
- Investing in REITs
- Investing in Dividend Stocks and Growth Stocks
Part II: Statistics, Probabilities and Randomness – Giving you an Edge in Financial Markets
- Statistics, Probabilities and Randomness – Giving you an Edge in Financial Markets
- Learn what fools the human mind – and override it
Part III: How to make money from Real Estate
- Understanding how the Real Estate market really works
- How to identify good real estate? What to look out for?
- How to Value Real Estate?
- How does Real Estate fit in your portfolio – A course in Modern Portfolio Theory
- Choosing between Public and Private Real Estate
- Why invest in Foreign Real Estate?
Part IV: Macro View – When is a good time to buy REITs? Or to sell?
- Studying the evolution of the Global REIT Industry – Where will S-REITs be in 10 years?
- Macro Factors and their impact on REITs as an asset class – What macro factors are good for REITs? (Part I and II)
- Reading the economic cycle – how to get ahead of the curve
- Reading the real estate cycle – how to get ahead of the curve
Part V: Micro View – How to Pick Good REITs? Which REITs to avoid?
- How to screen/identify S-REITs
- Why is NPI the most important metric to look at?
- Sponsor – What is the best kind of sponsor? What is the worst kind to absolutely avoid?
- Risks that can tank a REIT’s price/distribution
- Growth drivers a REIT must have for you to make money
- Operational and Financial Metrics a REIT should pass
- Valuations – How to Value a REIT
Part VIII: Building a portfolio
- Portfolio construction – Advanced Guide
- Using leverage for REITs
Part VI: Deciding the right price to buy or sell REITs
- What is a good price to buy REITs?
- When to sell a REIT?
Part VII: Case Study
- Mapletree Commercial Trust – Case Study
- More Case Studies to be added – Students can vote for case studies to be added.
Part X: Conclusion
- Conclusion
Think about the Opportunity Cost
I’ve taken everything I know on REITs, on modern portfolio theory, on macro-economics, on real estate, on statistics, and I’ve condensed it into this REITs Investing Masterclass.
How much would you pay to save months and years of your time?
Don’t forget the opportunity cost.
I believe the coming months will see a once in a generational opportunity to accumulate commercial real estate (via REITs) on the cheap.
BUT – you will need to be careful to pick the good ones, at the right prices, and at the right times.
I think we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift in investing, and the coming years will see active investing vastly outperform passive indexing.
Miss this chance, and you may need to wait a decade for the next.
How is the REITs Investing Masterclass taught?
The class is taught via online lessons. You can leave comments via discussion forums that we’ll respond to promptly.
The actual teaching method, is the same, succinct and to the point talk that you get on Financial Horse. No beating around the bush.
Because your time is precious.
There’s over 20 hours of content in this Masterclass, which gives you an idea of how much content there is. Sign up here!
What else do I get with the course?
3-month subscription to the highest tier of Patron (worth $150)
The way I see it, the REITs Investing Masterclass equips you with the skills and knowledge to understand what is going on. It gives you the skills and knowledge to differentiate good REITs from the bad, and to understand what’s happening in the global macro climate.
And the Patron subscription? It gives you my commentary of what is going on in financial markets, as this crisis plays out in real time.
I cannot think of a better pairing, for any investor looking to invest in REITs over the coming period.
And what exactly do you get with the highest Patron Tier? The list of benefits is set out below:
- Premium Articles on Market Commentary (1 to 2 articles a week)
- FH Stock Watch (Stocks and REITs on my personal watchlist – covers Singapore, US and China/HK)
- FH Personal Portfolio (% basis)
- Ask Me Anything
Lifetime updates
And on top of that, buying the REITs Investing Masterclass gives you access to a lifetime worth of updates.
Everyone who bought the FH Course will know what I’m talking about. Ever since the FH Course was launched, I’ve been religiously updating it with new materials and new premium content including stock watches.
Students that bought in early managed to get the course at a great price, and enjoyed the full benefit of new content that was added over time.
Expect the same with the REITs Investing Masterclass.
Is the course fee worth it?
Let’s put it this way. Assume that over the next 12 months you invest $200,000 into REITs.
Let’s say you invest based on what you already know about REITs. In these volatile circumstances, perhaps you get the timing wrong, or you pick the wrong REITs, resulting in a small 10% loss to your portfolio.
Seasoned investors all know that a 10% loss in this market is nothing. We’ve seen blue chip REITs drop in excess of 20% in a SINGLE WEEK this month.
That 10% loss on a $200,000 portfolio? It’s $20,000.
If this course can help you avoid a loss like that, it’s paid for itself many many times over.
And don’t forget that you’ll continue investing over your lifetime.
The course fee you spend to safeguard, guide and inform your investment decisions for the rest of your life?
It could just be the best investment you ever made.
And… focus on the bigger picture!
In investing, as in life, it’s important not to be penny wise, pound foolish.
I’m reminded of the investors who obsess over picking DBS at $18.5 vs $18.4.
Don’t ever lose sight of the bigger picture here. Don’t lose sight of the forest, for the trees.
The REITs Investing Masterclass is designed for investors looking to seriously invest into the coming crisis.
And if you belong to this group of serious investors, this course will speak for itself.
If you are such an investor, you already know from your own experience how big the losses can get if you’re unprepared, or if you make a single mistake with one REIT.
You know through your own investing experience, how important opportunity cost is.
You don’t want to be scrambling to figure out which operational metric to look at, which Sponsor to focus on, when REITs are at fire sale prices.
You want to be able to get up to speed immediately, to supercharge your knowledge to the level of advanced investors.
You want to have the same knowledge as the big boys, right now. So that you can invest into the coming crisis, and walk away with big gains, instead of nursing big losses.
Get this right, and you’re setting up your finances for the rest of your life.
Invest in yourself. Don’t rely on others. It could just be the best decision you ever made.