Me & My Money Series (Sunday Times)

[brattzz]

good question, or maybe they don't else they should really verify what they are printing!!

[KopiKat]

Come to think of it, most of the interviewees may actually be regular customers of SPH, who'd advertised in one of their tabloids or other publications. They usually have something to sell (seminars, property/gold,..) or they have their own biz. Those outside of this category may be those who'd appeared in the news eg. winning some Stock/Trading Challenge organised by their customers eg. Banks.

Hmmm.. Now I'm beginning to understand why we seldom read about cases of successful stocks investors who had to juggle that with a full time job!

[tonylim]

I just know of this diamond company, this condo project in JB through this interview. I am a mountain tortoise.

[VIChris]

OMG, now then I know Warren Buffett is a experienced traders!
I should not learn about value investment, trading is the way to early XXXXX :p


The Me & My Money Series (Sunday Times) content is seriously nonsense article about investment.

[honeyclover]

warren buffett? a trader? LOL
luff until i buay tahan, they should interview her husband instead.

can't hardly wait for my berkshire hathaway annual report to arrive to my mailbox!

---

wait a min SPH & e interviewee is not wrong.
Warren Buffett is indeed a trader, he spend eight years working with technical analysis .....in 1950 before discarding it away as worthless when he found Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor while in Lincoln.

lol

[Mr Nobody]

WB is a trader <= he buys and he sells, but he trades slowly. : )

[cfa]

Was she awared what she was talking about in the first place ?

[Temperament]

WB is a trader? Of course, by simple English, everyone who buys and sells is a trader ma! Only what kind of trader are you?

[Musicwhiz]

Great interview I think! Although some may argue they are trying to sell their Lunch Actually business, but they don't talk that much about it. I also admire them for not owning a car - they stated that it is (rightfully) a liability and that they prefer spending money on assets.

The Straits Times
Mar 4, 2012
Power of two works for dating firm CEO
Joint account means no money arguments in her marriage, says Lunch Actually chief

By Joyce Teo

At 32, Ms Violet Lim, chief executive of dating company Lunch Actually, has attended numerous self-improvement courses and plans to keep doing so for the next 20 years or more.

When she was young, she says, 'I would read the newspaper and tell my mum I wanted to sign up for this course and that course. Sometimes, I would even make the enquiry and tell my mum to just take me there'.

Fortunately, she found in her husband the same passion for learning, which has served them well in developing their business and honing their investment skills.

Ms Lim has a master's degree from the London School of Economics and was brought up to climb the corporate ladder, she says. She started work as a management associate with Citigroup Singapore.

But she found the concept of lunch dating appealing and wanted to run a business that could help people.

So she started the business in 2004 with her husband Jamie Lee, 36, who is the chief financial officer of the company and their household. He was an IT analyst at a bank.

They have two children: son Corum, six, and daughter Cara, three.

Q: Are you a spender or saver?

My husband and I have joint finances. Our fund is broken up into five categories - maintenance, fun, investments, learning and giving.

When we started working, we put quite a lot of our money into learning. In time, our investment spending went up as we seeded new opportunities and started putting our money to work.

Our maintenance category has gone up a bit now that we have two young children, and we want to do our best for their early education and upbringing.

We still keep a good amount of our money in the investment category as we feel this is the age that we sow strong seeds for our future.

We have a small fun fund, which we use to keep us sane and remind us that it is also important to smell the roses.

Our giving fund is not as high as we would like it to be but we expect that, as we grow older, its proportion will rise.

We probably spend around half of our money on maintenance, 10per cent on fun, 10 per cent on learning, 25 per cent on investments and 5 per cent on giving. We spend the most on our children's education and upbringing.

Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?

My husband is in charge of our investment portfolio.

We invest in property, land banking, shares (we like long-term growth companies) and promising new business ventures.

We like property. I have seen my parents build their wealth through property while my in-laws are in the property business.

The first property we bought was a 1,000 sq ft apartment near Mont Kiara in Kuala Lumpur for RM128,000 in 2003. We sold it in 2009 for RM190,000 (S$79,000).

My husband and I have life, critical illness, accident and income protection insurance plans.

Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?

I am an only child and I grew up in Kuala Lumpur. My father owns a used car dealership and my mum is a tailor.

One of the biggest influences my parents have had on me with regard to money is the fact that they have joint finances.

I could see the advantages of that and knew that was what I wanted.

I am very blessed that Jamie was open-minded enough to try it out.

Thus, we never argue about money. We do not need to fuss about who paid more or who paid less, or whose turn is it to pay, or how much should each person put into the joint account.

Being in the relationship business, I know that money is one of the key areas that cause unhappiness in a marriage.

I understand that joint finances may not work for every couple or every marriage, but it has worked really well for us, just as it has for my parents.

Q: How did you get interested in investing?

Our families invested in properties and we just naturally gravitated towards the asset class.

When we started dabbling in shares in 2001, we traded and lost money within a few weeks.

Since then, we have learnt to be more patient. We also read investment books and like the Warren Buffett way of investing.

So we changed strategy and now buy when there is a crisis; we hold for at least six months and as long as two years.

We bought Singapore Petroleum at about $1 a share in 2008, based on fundamentals. PetroChina bought into the company and we were bought out at more than $6 a share in 2009 and made tens of thousands from it.

Over the years, we have accumulated business knowledge and that affects what we invest in.

Q: What properties do you own?

I was born in Malaysia and we do business there, so we are quite familiar with the property market in the country, especially Kuala Lumpur, where my parents are based.

It is important to go with a trustworthy developer in Malaysia as there are some projects that have never been completed.

We are renting out a small 500 sq ft shop lot near Bandar Utama in Petaling Jaya, which we bought in 2004 for RM150,000.

Two years ago, we bought a 500sq ft service apartment at Plaza Damas, which is next to the new palace grounds in Kuala Lumpur, for about RM580,000. It is being rented out at a 5 per cent yield.

We also own several plots of land in Canada and the US, which cost $14,000 each. We invest with Walton and A2A, and will get a return of 14 per cent to 20 per cent per annum in five to seven years' time.

We have done our research and talked to people who have invested and reaped the benefits. Walton was set up by business entrepreneurs. If there's no track record, it would be like gambling.

We believe property is one of the more effective and stable ways to grow our wealth. Hence, we are also considering the Singapore property market for good investment opportunities.

Q: What's the most unusual investment you have made?

My husband and I have not bought many extravagant things as we do not believe in huge purchases.

But we did invest in a life-time membership for training courses that cost us $40,000 in total as we believe in self-development and training.

Once a year, we fly to Melbourne, Australia to hone our business skills and sharpen our saws. As the training is based on experiential games, our children will be able to benefit from this investment as well, and they can join us when they turn eight.

When you play games, you not only learn business skills but also learn about yourself.

We had flown there twice for two courses, which cost about US$3,000 to US$4,000 (S$3,800 to S$5,000) each, before we signed up for life.

My husband found out about this through another course he attended. We go for a lot of self-improvement courses and know that they will sell you things. But we are okay with it. We think that if we can get one good idea that we can implement in the business, it's worth it.

Q: What's your retirement plan?

I plan to be financially independent by 40.

I do not believe in retirement. I have seen people who retired and started to go downhill in both their physical and mental capacities, and I do not want to end up with the same fate.

I love what I do right now and I will continue to contribute to our business to the best of my ability. I love to write, so I would like to write more books. (Ms Lim has written Lessons From 15,000 First Dates.)

I will also spend more time on charity work. My husband and I dream of starting our own charity foundation to help the less fortunate, especially under-privileged children and youth.

I would also like to give back to the business community through mentoring and guiding young entrepreneurs.

Q: Home is now...

We live together with my in-laws in their District 11 landed property. We have four generations living happily under one roof.

Q: Do you drive?

As my husband and I do not enjoy driving and we work and live in central locations, we are quite content with taking cabs and public transport around the island.

We believe in assets that bring us cash. We don't want to buy liabilities that drain our cash.

joyceteo@sph.com.sg

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WORST AND BEST BETS

Q: What is your worst investment to date?

We invested $37,500 in a business start-up in 2009. It was a property search website.

We were intrigued by the business concept. Considering its success in other countries, we felt that it would stand a good chance here.

But the concept was too early for the market, that is, the timing was off. We lost everything as the business ran out of money within a year and never took off.

Starting a business is a very high-risk move, so we were prepared to lose our money.

Q: What is your best investment to date?

Our business, Lunch Actually, which my husband and I started in 2004. We invested $80,000. The return on investment in terms of company valuation is well over 10 times our initial investment.

[KopiKat]

When we started dabbling in shares in 2001, we traded and lost money within a few weeks.

Since then, we have learnt to be more patient. We also read investment books and like the Warren Buffett way of investing.

So we changed strategy and now buy when there is a crisis; we hold for at least six months and as long as two years.

Need to read more Warren Buffett books to understand his methods better.