Shop For Free at Guardian Using ShopBackGo

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You are losing out if you have not heard of ShopBack. Basically, if you browse and buy something from an online store in ShopBack, you earn cashback from your purchases. You can withdraw the cash to your Bank account once you accumulated the minimum withdrawal amount of $10.

ShopBack now has an added feature called ShopBackGo which is a cashback for restaurants and eateries. All you need to do is to link the ShopBackGo with any credit card, activate the cashback before you use your credit card to pay and the cashback will be credited to your ShopBack account. I have been using ShopBackGo whenever I dine out.

From 15th to 21st July, ShopBackGo has a promotion where you can earn yourself a free item costing less than $10 at Guardian stores. All you need to do is to link any credit card to ShopBackGo and use the newly linked credit card to pay for the purchases amounting up to $10. The S$10 will be credit to your ShopBack account which means you are getting the item for free!

Sign up for ShopBack now using my referral link!

(Note: You and I get $5 if you sign up using my referral link above.)

My Sweet Retirement Donates to Hair For Hope 2019

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Half of the year 2019 has gone by. One of the goals I have set for myself for 2019 is to contribute back to the society and this is something I have not forgotten. I was inspired by The Fifth Person when I attended their Alpha Summit earlier this year.

I have made a donation of S$200 to the Children’s Cancer Foundation. The amount may not seem a lot but I hope it does make a difference. In fact, the contribution comes from my Adsense earnings from My Sweet Retirement website. The purpose of starting this website is not to earn extra pocket money from it but to improve my stock analysis and picking skills, learn from other financial bloggers through sharing and hopefully to achieve My Sweet Retirement.

In the pursue of financial freedom, we must also not forget how lucky we are as compared to some who are unfortunate!

The Hour Glass Increases Dividend For The First Time

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The Hour Glass Store

The Hour Glass is one deep value stock that has been paying investors consistent dividends over the past decades. Currently, The Hour Glass makes up 3% of my stock portfolio. Despite the company holding lots of cash, The Hour Glass has been paying investors a consistent pay out of 2 cents over the past few years. With the recent runup in stock price from S$0.65 to S$0.82, I thought I share some updates that I read about on The Hour Glass.

The Hour Glass which deals with luxury watches has been suffering from the economy downturn over the past few years (2015 to 2018). Recently, The Hour Glass has announced a decent set of latest financial results and for the first time, proposed to increase its first and final dividend pay out from the usual 2 cents to 3 cents.

The group’s revenue climbed 4% to $720.9 million in FY2019 and profit after taxation rose 41% to $71.4 million. As you can see below, the financial results for FY2019 is excellent with debt being its lowest level at $15.0 million and a free cash flow of $47.0 million.

After experiencing sluggish demand for some years, the trend for luxury watches in Asia picked up and stabilised during the course of FY2019.

Financial Results FY2019 ($’000) FY2018 ($’000) FY2017 ($’000) FY2016 ($’000) FY2015 ($’000)
Revenue 720,925 691,645 696,056 707,525 734,938
Net Asset Value 560,244 507,140 478,477 439,872 408,730
Cash and cash equivalents 180,971 180,496 124,849 93,898 98,332
Loans and Borrowings 14,972 49,655 51,160 63,422 61,187
Free Cash Flow 46,931 74,181 57,113 10,453 (13,026)

The Hour Glass is currently trading at S$0.82 which is 3.8% above premium to the Net Asset Value of S$0.79 per share.

Financial Ratios FY2019 FY2018 FY2017 FY2016 FY2015
Gross margin (%) 27.0 24.2 22.7 23.7 22.6
Inventory turnover ratio 1.8 1.9 1.8 1.7 1.9
Debt/Equity Ratio (%) 2.7 9.8 10.7 14.4 15.0
Earnings per share (cents) 9.99 7.07 6.91 7.42 8.22
Net asset value per ordinary share ($) 0.79 0.72 0.68 0.62 0.58

I like the following quote from Henry Tay in the FY19 Annual Report.

“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patient to wait. Be still and allow the mud to settle. – Lao Tzu”

What Henry Tay meant was the with the rise of e-Commerce, The Hour Glass  thought they will be threatened by it. However, as time goes by, they realise e-Commerce only cater to the general crowd. What The Hour Glass stands out is that they cater to premium customers.