Why Such a Portfolio (Part 1)

In my previous blog post, I mentioned some of the stocks I currently have: Cebu Air Inc. (PSE: CEB), Energy Development Corp. (PSE: EDC), Jollibee Foods Corp. (PSE: JFC), PAL Holdings Inc. (PSE: PAL), San Miguel Corp. (PSE: SMC), Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. (PSE: VLL), and SM Development Corp. (PSE: SMDC). They comprise my portfolio, but frankly, I didn’t really strategize on building my portfolio. Others build their portfolio in such a way that when a particular sector goes down, they will surely benefit on the other sectors they are holding. Something like that; sort of like playing it safe.

I bought stocks from these companies because I believe in their value. Even though I do not have that hard-core business acumen, I chose these companies because I like them. Of course, I did my own research, but that is not as in-depth as any business guy would do. But I still chose them because they are a part of my life. For me, considering their value and their part in my life is a key factor that made me decide that they are among the stocks I will keep for a very long time.

Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t like the other companies. In fact I want all companies in our country to become as big and as successful as they could possibly be. That way, they could provide more jobs for our fellow Filipinos. That way, more and more lives would improve. That way, our country will become much better, much progressive, much richer, and much stronger than it is right now.

Here’s a kicker. I just didn’t buy them because I just don’t have enough funds yet.

Moving on, below are some of my reasons why I chose to buy stocks from the said companies. (I also do have my so-called analysis before I bought them, really. But I will save those for another post.)

JFC

Here is the reason why I picked up Jollibee. I mentioned in my post that eating at Jollibee is listed in my itinerary every time I go home for a vacation. I still do that; most especially now that I’ve acquired a stock at the company.

But not only do I visit Jollibee, we also often go to Chowking, wherein a favorite of both my kids – a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter and six-and-a-half-year-old son – is the Chicharap. Technically, it’s not really good for them. But, just to keep them quiet and busy, especially the little one, Chicharap does the trick.

I have also tried Mang Inasal, whose barbecued chicken and rice-all-you-can offering is a sure hit among Pinoys. But, I honestly prefer Jollibee more.

For cakes, we now always go to Red Ribbon. Not that Goldilocks isn’t any good. Mind you, I always buy Polvoron as pasalubong to my Singaporean colleagues. I also grew up with Goldilocks. Whenever there are birthdays, it’s always Goldilocks. But the Black Forest opened up a new choice. And it’s been Red Ribbon since then for us. But of course, we still patronize Goldilocks. They are the only ones who can build huge, huge cakes for birthdays and special occasions. It’s kind of turned into a tradition, actually.

Apart from Jollibee, I also always make it a point to have an order of Greenwhich Lasagna every time I go home. I’ve been patronizing Greenwhich as well since time immemorial. During college, we always take with us a rectangular pizza whenever we go to the movies. When eating out at the store (how my friends refer to Greenwhich when they worked there part-time during university days), it’s lasagna. Greenwhich sort of projects that “barkadahan” feeling. I’ve always seen it in their TV commercials a year or two ago. But now that I come to think about it, the more I agree with it.

CEB

One of the questions I always get asked is how I can handle the fact that I am far away from my family. Among my default answers are Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger. But the most important thing that really makes everything bearable, at least for us OFWs around Asia, is the availability of low-budget carriers. In my more than five years of experience working here in Singapore, I’ve noticed how the number of Pinoys working here has increased. And almost everyone is taking Cebu Pacific. Of course some do take Tiger and Jetstar, especially when they got promos, but most, including me actually, still take CEB. And in fairness to CEB, they also have a lot of promos and better low-fare deals.

I’ve started to follow CEB after it did its IPO late in 2010. When I started PHStocks in 2011, CEB is among the many I consider newsmakers for the site. Considering that more Pinoys will still go abroad to work or visit countries all around Asia, and in fact even going to different provinces in our country, I realized that CEB, the pioneering low-cost carrier in the Philippines, will continue to be here leading the industry for a very long time.

I am trying to keep my posts as short as possible. So, I will write about my other chosen companies in my next posts.

– Richard

Email me at richard@phstocks.com.

P.S. Well, for someone novice in investing, do you think that the companies above are good choices?