Alpha Lab Investment Mastermind Group and Revelation

What do you do after work and during your free time determines how successful you will become in life. A few friends who are interested in investing came together on a Saturday afternoon to discuss individual investment approach, circle of competence and various stocks we are interested in. It has been very insightful and always refreshing to meet like-minded friends.

Going forward, we are going to share our individual research so that we can gain access to more good stocks. This can help us expand our warchest of ideas. Then when the opportunity presents itself, we can utilise our warchest of money to respective stocks.

After the event, I had dinner with my friend to catch up on his latest business endeavors. I shared with him our family project which is for my wife to retire in 4 years time. He pointed out that this should not be the goal post but I should look into the definition of financial freedom. 

Financial Freedom is when your passive income exceeds your expenses. 

I explained that my active income from Options Trading has reached about USD 2,500 and I hope to replace my work income so that I can stop working for someone. He reminded me of the original definition of Financial Freedom, I should work on getting the Options Trading income to exceed my total expenses instead.

I came home and reworked my household Cashflow Statement.

Total Monthly Cash Outflow S$6,207

Rental Income S$400
Dividend Income S$3,333 (Assume I deploy S$1m and just 4% yield)
Option Income S$3,712
Total Monthly Alternative Income Inflow S$7,445.83 

Damnit! We are already FINANCIALLY FREE! What a revelation!

Then I should be asking myself what I should be pursuing next - my passion. Recently, I am reading Ray Dalio - Principles and his definition of Work is to do something that you enjoy and be paid for it. Also, who you choose to work with and spend time together at work will determine your happiness.  

*Disclaimer - Option Income needs to be stable at this level. Losses will disturb this equilibrium. At the end, it is still active income. You can consider this as money you put in your Opportunistic Fund.

After thinking through, I will not just throw in my resignation letter on Monday, I will wait at least a few more months to make sure my Options Income can be stable and need to test a crisis model on JC Options Fund.

20/10/2017
Last night, I met up with my trusted financial planner friend. He felt that my definition of Financial Freedom has some room for errors. He thinks that as a family man, my expense is still fluctuating and there is a strong likelihood that it will increase in the near future. This depends on whether I will send my children to enrichment classes and tuition.  His advise is Financial Freedom is not the end goal but the journey matters more. 

His advise is continue to work hard, we are too young to retire, do what you believe in and increase your income level to cater for unexpected situations. 

He showed me his trade of 200 contracts of MOS SP 22. That is USD 440,000! He has many multi-baggers. Wow, the session humbled me. Stay humble, stay foolish, stay hungry!