Happy 1st Birthday to the Singapore Dividend Collector!

Aha! It's 05:50 in the morning here in 'X' and I'm typing like a man possessed. I don't now what it is about early mornings, maybe it's a combination of a clear head and the cool air, but whatever it is my finger don't half go tippity tap.

I just noticed it has been a year now since I first started this blog as an experiment. So happy birthday to me!

What kind of experiment is this blog and why did I start it?

This is a good question. The reason is I need something to force me to read about finance.

You see, not only am I a lazy man at heart, my natural reading inclinations, if left to their own devices, drift towards fiction. Fiction, in fact, is my first love, and if I'm honest, reading about stocks etc. comes way down the list. Thus, I thought it would be a good idea to write a blog from the prospective of an investor who doesn't enjoy investing. From the perspective of a person who needs coaxing to pick up the finance section of the newspaper. In the past, the finance section was what I used to clean the windows and to wrap fragile objects. The thought of reading it sent numbing chills through my entire being.

This is my position.

This may shock some of you out there who are new to my blog, but for those of you who read it every week, this will come as no surprise.

I force myself every Sunday to blast out a post whether I've got sometime to say or not as I find writing to be a meditative exercise, one which after a few minutes of grappling my thoughts, I usually follow through on.

Getting into the flow like this feels good and calms me down. Now, this is not to say that the words themselves are worth reading - far from it. I once heard the late, great Christopher Hitchens talking about his latest book at the time 'God is not Great'. In the interview the journalist said 'Everyone has a book inside them, don't they?' Hitchens, in his own smooth and wry way replied, 'Yes, perhaps they do. But for most this is where it should stay.' This is true of this blog for sure, but fuck it. Blogging is a self-indulgent practice, so if you think it's crap, that's okay by me. If, on the other hand, it makes you giggle or - God forbid - you get something from it - then that's okay, too.

The words I see on the screen in front of me are not really for anyone else. This could, in fact, be a personal diary, for I act anonymously and have no purpose to achieve recognition or fame. My motives are pure. I type because I like to type. I need a reason to read financial articles, otherwise my dosing rods will point me in the direction of Charles Dickens or David Foster Wallace (I joke you not) So without this blog I would have little or no interest in investing, and actually I need to keep one eye on finance. My portfolio is worth about $1,000,000 Singaporean, so it's safe to say - like the Yanks do - that I've got some skin in the game.

I wonder if I'm the only blogger in the http://www.sginvestbloggers.com/ community who writes for this reason? Probably... Anyway, who cares? I write because I write and what more is there to say?

Since this is my blog's birthday, I thought I'd get back on track and talk a little about the stocks on my radar etc. because otherwise I'll have no readers at all. In fact, if you have read this far already, hats off to you. You're an avid reader, one with patience outstripping your peers in this frantic world of skimming and scanning we inhabit.

I'm currently looking at Wilmar, ITV (UK), Tracker Fund of Hong Kong and Accordia Golf Trust.

Why?

Wilmar is defensive and solid. Is a growth and dividend play in the long run.

ITV (UK) this stock pays a good dividend and would diversify my portfolio. Also, I think market sentiment is overly pessimistic on it considering the good things it's currently doing.

Tracker fund of Hing Kong as I would quite like to get some exposure to China over the next 5 to 10 years.

Accordia Golf Trust because of it's dividend and I think it's a good long term play.

Okay, now that's all from me this week. I want to once again say happy birthday to me and this strange blog.

All the best, party people.