The recent correction on Bursa are making some stocks look really attractive compared to a year ago. I asked my self this basic question - what is more important to me at this stage ( as I believe to different people at different stage, it varies) - my own balance sheet, profit & loss or Cashflow? Once that objective is clear, it would be easier for me to pick the right stocks in my portfolio.
Let me put this into better perspective.
Balance Sheet:
+Non liquid assets (property)
+Liquid assets ( stocks, cash, unit trusts)
-Liabilities (Loan)
= net worth
To increase my net worth, the value of my non liquid and liquid assets must go up or my liabilities must go down. At the moment, liquid assets have been my focus to achieve this.
Profit and Loss:
The dividend income, interest income, gain/(loss) on disposal of stocks, unrealised income/(loss) on stocks/unit trusts/ revaluation gain/(loss) of property, interest expense.
Cashflow:
Inflow : Dividend received, Interest received, proceeds from sale of stocks/unit trust,
Outflow: Purchase of stocks/unit trusts, loan repayment, living expenses, tax if any.
As these 3 statements are inter-related, the same items may appear in more than one statement. But which is the most important to you now as the investment strategy may be slightly different.
For example, if the focus is growing net worth, then unrealised gain could also help to achieve that by investing in assets which may not be liquid but provide good capital growth or stocks. It may not give much dividend but potential capital growth is there(of course one can always sell it to realise the gain, and hence provide cashflow too).
If the focus is getting sustainable cashflow to support living expenses, then dividend and interest are more important, and of course we can sell some assets to provide the cashflow required (but may not be sustainable).
Hence, Profit & Loss appears to be the end results based on the above strategy. Did I put my focus wrongly by looking at my own monthly or yearly profit and loss performance? (Are we also doing the same when evaluating a company's performance??)
If you do have the same dilemma, please have a thought and ask yourself what is your focus now. Besides looking for undervalued stocks, our objective will also help us to decide which stocks fit into the strategy of either growing net worth, showing good profit and loss or providing sustainable cashflow to us or a mixture of all.
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