Expense Tracking

In my opinion, one of the most fundamental things to do in the area of finance is MYOB (Minding your own business). In order to do this, one would definitely have to do expense tracking. This is needed so that one can know how much is spent every month and how much is saved every month.

I have been doing this religiously every day and it helps a lot when I know where my money goes. Armed with this knowledge, I can then act to reduce or increase the amount spent/earned based on the categories that I have defined. You can do this tracking for free by using google documents, openoffice or downloading a free app into your hand-phone. I prefer doing this via google documents, so that I can access it as long as I have an internet connection.

Some of the columns that I have been using are as follows: (You can customize this to your own liking)

• Year
• Month
• Day
• Type (Example: Meals, Transport, Income)
• Category (Example: Lunch, MRT Top Up, Salary)
• Description (Example: Chicken Rice)
• Amount

How do you do your expense tracking?

Tune your wealth file today!

I was reading up on this book in the bookshop today by T. Harv Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth. His theory is pretty simple. Change your attitudes and mindsets about wealth and wealth will manifest in your life. Some key points from his book are shown below.

1. Rich people believe "I create my life." Poor people believe "Life happens to me."
2. Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose.
3. Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
4. Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
5. Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
6. Rich people admire other rich and successful people. Poor people resent rich and successful people.
7. Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.
8. Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion.
9. Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.
10. Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers.
11. Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.
12. Rich people think "both". Poor people think "either/or".
13. Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people focus on their working income.
14. Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.
15. Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.
16. Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
17. Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.” 

Reference: http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/771090-secrets-of-the-millionaire-mind-mastering-the-inner-game-of-wealth

Habits of the wealthiest people

Keen to find out more? Check out the link below!
http://www.business-management-degree.net/features/wealthiest-people/

They seem like very good habits to have!

They Have a Routine:

• Maintain a to-do list
• Wake up 3 hours before work
• Listen to audio books during commute
• Network 5 hours or more each month
• Read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons
• Love to read

They are Healthy:

• Exercise aerobically 4 days a week
• Eat less than 300 junk food calories per day

Raising Their Children:

• Teach good daily success habits to their children
• Make their children volunteer 10 hours or more a month
• Make their children read 2 or more non-fiction books a month

Television Habits:

• Watch 1 hour or less of TV everyday

They Set Goals:

• Write down their goals
• Focused on accomplishing some single goal
• Believe in lifelong educational self-improvement
• Believe good habits create opportunity luck
• Believe bad habits create detrimental luck

OUE Hospitality Trust - DPU 1.68 cents from 1 Jan to 31 Mar 2014

OUE Hospitality Trust delivered a distribution rate of 1.68 cents for the period of 1 Jan to 31 Mar 2014. This exceeded expectations by 4.3% based on the forecast of 1.61 cents. Based on this rate and on the current share price is $0.88, this works out to a yield of about 7.63%, which seems to be fairly decent.

But one must note that they only have 2 centrally located properties in their portfolio and they are situated next to one another. If the hotel occupancy rates fall, it is natural for the adjoining Mandarin Gallery to fall as well. However, having said that, I do like their numbers this quarter and one can see that they trying hard to improve their property portfolio by doing AEI on hotel rooms to improve their profits.

The following are the summarized points of the press release.

• Ongoing AEI to renovate 430 guest rooms to be completed in phases in 2014 and 2015.
• Out of these 430 rooms, 64 rooms have completed renovation.
• Gross revenue for 1Q2014 was 1.4% higher than the forecast for the same period
• RevPar at $248 was lower than forecast of $257 due to Indonesia elections
• NPI was $25.6 mil, 2.7% higher than the forecast.
• Created more options for financing through the establishment of a US$1 billion Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme

OUE H Reit's portfolio is the 1,077-room Mandarin Orchard Singapore and the adjoining Mandarin Gallery, which has a portfolio value of S$1.76 billion as at 31 December 2013. You can view their press release here.