The Year Ahead - Review/Reflections for 2008 and Investment Strategy for 2009

I have done some review and reflections during the last two weeks of 2008 as I prepare for my investment journey in 2009. Basically, 2008 had been a bad year for investors out there and I do have my fair share of critics as can be seen from some of the postings here in the "comments" section of this blog. However, I believe in long term consistent investment approach and I will not be affected by short term market movements. I believe consistency in investment approach is very important. And an investment approach one adopts must suit his character, time-constraint and experience.

For me, it is very simple long term diversification (i.e. stock and time diversification) approach to investing. I am not trained in finance or accountancy and therefore I do not claim that I am an expert in analyzing companies. So, my apologies if readers felt that I did not do any in-depth analysis on any company in my portfolio. However, readers can still refer to some of those excellent links that I have put out here on the left of my blog for some of those sites/blogs out there with some good analysis on companies.

Though I like some companies more than the others, I still choose to diversify across most companies listed on SGX, with an overweight in some companies which I feel that will do better than the others. But that doesn't mean that I will not buy companies that I do not like, as valuations might be cheap for me to take the plunge. Granted, some companies in my portfolio might fail if I adopt this approach, but the probabilities are higher this way as I won't miss out multi-baggers as well.

So much for the review, so what's next in 2009? Firstly, I won't change my investment approach as stated above. As I am a working professional, I do not have much time to devote to investment as my day job is not related to investment, accountancy or finance. Secondly, no matter how the market does in 2009, I will still follow through my investment plan and stay almost 100% invested at all times. Thirdly, I will try to attend more AGMs to find out more about the companies that I have invested in, especially those in my top holdings. Lastly, I will try to keep some spare cash for more rights issue in 2009, as companies began to raise funds through equity as debt is no longer cheap. But that doesn't mean that I will subscribe to every rights issue as they come along, as I will review each of them on their own merits on a case by case basis.