ShopBack Visa Promotion for Cathay Cineplexes This Weekend - 50% Up to $10!

If you have not heard of ShopBack, you have been missing out lots of cashback opportunities! What is ShopBack? It is a website/mobile application which directs traffic to the relevant online shops such as Lazada, Expedia, etc. The merchants reward them with a commission for referring you to shop on their site and instead of keeping the rewards all to themselves, they share it with you! Once you have accumulated at least $10 in the account, you will be able to redeem it and transfer the cashback to your bank account!

ShopBack is having a Visa flash sale this weekend (Valid from 27 Apr 2018, 0:00 - 29 Apr 2018, 23:59)!

The most attractive offer is the one for Cathay Cineplexes where one can get 50% cashback up to $10! This is perfect timing because we can all catch the long-awaited Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War movie at a much cheaper rate! Not forgetting Cathay has the best sweet popcorn (genuinely our opinion, nothing is sponsored here) as compared to the rest. lol.

Terms and Conditions to take note:
- Valid for first 500 daily orders only. Once the limit is reached, a page banner will be displayed as fully redeemed.
- Valid only for purchases made via this campaign page and payments made with Visa card. (Afterall, this is a Visa flash sale right)

If you are already an existing ShopBack user, simply head over to https://www.shopback.sg/visa.

If you are new to ShopBack, you might want to consider using our referral link where we will each get $5 after you spent $25. Once again this is the perfect opportunity because purchasing 2 tickets ($13 x 2 + $1.50 = $27.50) will mean you will be eligible to withdraw $15 cashback almost immediately!

Our Referral Link: http://bit.ly/kposhopback (thank you in advance!)

Now you know what CZM and I will be doing tomorrow :)

Better catch it this weekend because there will be lots of friends/colleagues spoiling it on Monday. Hahahaha.

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
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3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right -->)

Ezion - Bleeding Stopped!

I blogged about Ezion a few months back - Bleeding Stocks - Ezion [Part 3] after it was suspended on 8th August 2017. It has resumed trading last week on 17th April 2018, opened at $0.245 and even reached a high of $0.255!

CZM was asking me what would be my plan when Ezion resumes trading. I told her confidently that day 1 will be a bloodshed as I foresee everyone will be dumping and selling their shares. My plan was to hold it, be hopeful and see how things go. Surprisingly, it was beyond my expectation and it actually traded higher! Without any hesitation, I submitted a sell order and sold all of it at $0.225.

Investing in stocks is never easy and one does not always make money. My total capital was $6,167.70 and I am pretty glad that I manage to get back $2,222.26 after ~ 4 years. I lost in total $3,939.30 including commisions which translate to a total loss of -63.9% and an annualized loss of -37.9%! It could have been much worst - the latest closing price is $0.152 on 25th April 2018.

Looking at their 2017 Annual Report, the shares are now worth a lot lesser than it was one year ago. The equity attributed to shareholders is just US$304,826,000 as compared to US$1,315,384,000 partly due to the ridiculously large impairment losses of US$697,322,000 in their Plant and Equipment among other things. Furthermore, the decrease in cash is not proportionate to the decrease in liabilities too!

NAV has decreased by 76.8% from US$0.6343 to US$0.1470 (~SG$0.1940 using an exchange rate of US$1:SG$1.32). Regardless, the US$1.6 billion debt is an exceptionally huge one that will probably stick around its balance sheet for a long time and I am not too optimistic about it with a gross profit of US$1,804,000. Even if Ezion successfully multiplies its gross profit by 10x or even 100x, it will never be the same again.

Screenshot from https://sginvestors.io/sgx/stock/5me-ezion/target-price

Do not make the same mistake as I did when I first started investing 4 years back - buying based on analyst's report recommendation. Look at what DBS has done again with a BUY recommendation and a price target of SG$0.29 where the valuation is done at 1.4x FY2018 PB?! It is just so wrong! After all the drama, why would anyone still value/price Ezion at a premium?

One can either continue to be hopeful or cut loss, take whatever there is now. Assets can be impaired but liabilities will definitely remain. Good luck to the remaining shareholders!

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right -->)

Expenses - March 2018

My expenses for March is extremely high and it is kinda depressing @_@" The bulk of it is either for Vacation or Wedding which is fine but I made a stupid mistake that cost us $200! [Update: I have successfully gotten a refund!]

Current Profile: 28 years old male planning to get married this year and is still living with his parents

Let me recompute the expenses (Vacation and Wedding) from our mutual fund (KPO Expense Fund), you can read more about how we manage our finances here. Technically, the expenses for March should be $6,058.76 - (($333.40 + $237.32 + $1070 + $139.9) / 2) = $5,168.45. [Update: I have successfully gotten a refund! $5,168.45 - $118.66 = $5,049.79]

Vacation
I blogged about how we use miles to redeem one-way SIA Suites air tickets to the United States, New York previously - Redeeming KrisFlyer Miles for Singapore Airlines Suites = 38.6% Cashback! We booked an Alaska Airlines flight from New York to San Fransico for US$246.62 (SG$333.40).

Singapore Citizens visiting the United States are eligible for the Visa Waiver Program but would still be required to apply for authorization through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) which cost US$14 if you apply through the legitimate site - https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/. I am always pretty careful but not sure what happened that day, I went to this site - http://www.esta.us/singapore.html and was eventually redirected to https://www.evisaonline.com/en/usa/esta.html which cost us US$88 instead (SG$237.32). I only came to realize it now while blogging about it. Zzz. [Update: I have successfully gotten a refund! Due to the difference in FX, the refunded amount is SG$240.54. lol.]

CZM and her family have this Travel Fund where they will contribute on a daily basis - working adult contributes $2 per day while the student contributes $1 per day. I thought this is a pretty interesting idea/way of managing money too. Long story short, they have been saving for 4/5 years with the goal of traveling to New Zealand. CZM asked me to tag along to enjoy the economy of scale as there will be no additional cost for things such as car rental and accommodation. A 2 weeks New Zealand vacation for $2,800 (all expenses included) seems like a pretty good deal?

Wedding
We paid the second deposit to the bridal shop, Rico-A-Mona after selecting the suits and gowns for both the prewedding and actual day and bought some random stuff/props for the pre-wedding photoshoot.

Parents
I previously blogged about my promotion and increment - Salary - You Are Your Best Investment and it was only effective from February so I gave my parents more allowance as well.

Food
My food expenses are exceptionally low because I stay with my parents! Most of it is incurred when I am out with CZM.

Health
Technically, this is not a real expense (100% covered by company's insurance/benefits) but I decided to include it to keep the expenses tracking more realistic. CZM and I go to the dental every 6 months for cleaning/scaling. During the last visit, the dentist asked if I have been brushing my teeth too hard because I have receding gum. After that, I went to google about it and 1 of the cause is aging. Hmm...

Insurance
This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - term life and hospitalization.

Me
The $69.97 is the installment for Surface Pro which I got about 2 years back. One of my hobbies is money/notes collection and I expense it off because I kept some nice notes which I received during CNY. The hobby started when my dad gave me his collection which included a $50 orchid series note!

Transportation
I would always pay for CZM's cab ride home during night time since I am too lazy to send her home. That was one of our agreement. lol.

Public transportation seems a lot lower because of 2 reasons:
1. I am no longer using EZ Link Auto-Reload. Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) is a much better choice as you pay what you use instead of triggering top up where the money is stored in the EZ Link card. The best part is miles can be earned too (using UOB PRVI Mastercard)!
2. $0.50 Discount for commuters who enter stations before 7.45am on weekdays.

Other
Went to a temple and donated.

Treat
Nothing worth mentioning.

Gambling
There was the $8 million ToTo draw. Shared $10 with CZM and the rest with colleagues. The fastest way to retire did not materialize. lol.

Entertainment
Watched Black Panther + popcorn.

Summary
January 2018 - $2,256.43
February 2018 - $1,759.01
March 2018 - $5,049.79

Total expenses for 2018: $9,065.23
Average expenses per month for 2018: $3,021.74

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right -->)