Capital Gain vs Cash Flow

When it comes to making a decision on investing, would you choose one based on the criteria of capital gain or cash flow? It's a tough one, isn't it? Frankly, the answer varies from person to person. However, i would say that for most ordinary people, they would prefer capital gain.

Let's quote an example, suppose you purchase an asset for x amount of dollar and sold it for a nice 40% gain in 3 years, versus you purchase an asset for the same amount that gives you say 8% annual return in the form of dividend or rental for instance, and the asset only appreciates less than 5% a year. For most people, they would probably go for the first example, where higher capital gain is made. After all, it sounds more convincing and exciting when you tell your friends or business partners that you have pocketed handsomely in this deal!

Question is, what do you do with the money gained thereafter? Most commonly, there is always a lurking temptation to spend on luxury items when you have spare cash in hand, be it a luxury holiday, fancy car, watches, etc. After all, why wouldn't you want to pamper yourself a "little" for closing a wonderful deal! Nothing wrong with pampering yourself sometimes (good way to recharge the batteries!), but it's the quantum of spending unecessarily that you would want to take caution of. Bear in mind, spending unnecessarily means you are giving away an opportunity to make money work for you in the future!

On the other hand, can you find another opportunity that can give you similarly good financial returns after this? Chances are you may not. So you will end up with plenty of cash on hand and as time passes, the temptation to spend grows!

For me personally, although short term capital gain sounds sweet and exciting, there is no guarantee that a particular investment will yield the expected capital gain. Therefore the risk increases. On the other hand, human nature to spend unnecessarily is also a lurking danger. On the contrary, an investment that can generate a regular streams of income (cash flow) is perceived to be lower risk and helps to sustain your own personal financial position in the longer term. To take one step further, go for investments which generate positive cash flows.

Positive cash flow simply refers to the excess regular income generated by an asset after deducting all the relevant expenses in deriving the particular income. A good example is property rental income where the tenant will pay the property owner rental every month as long as the property remains tenanted.

A good point of comparison is between landed property and rental yield property such as high rise residential apartment. Landed property has bigger potential for capital gain (but not guaranteed) but poor rental yield. That means extra burden having to regularly service the commitment from your own pocket and opportunity cost! On the contrary, good high rise apartment may not generate as high capital gain but gives much better return when it comes to rental yield. In this case, the tenant will finance your property but the property is still owned by you!

A long lasting positive cash flow will help a person or a business to survive and sustain longer, without the need to continuously spend more money and therefore sacrificing other opportunities. As you build more businesses or acquire assets that generate positive cash flows over time, you will find that you have truly gained the ultimate goal of financial freedom!

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean you should ignore capital gain all together! Why not the best of both worlds? According to Robert Kiyosaki, the key to financial intelligence is how to use both cash flow and capital gains to grow wealthy. So many people are not successful, because they’re generally focusing on only one of the two.

Crude Oil...the Beauty and The Beast

Now that the price of crude oil has more or less double up from the lows of $30s per barrel at the beginning of the year to the current $70 range, everyone seems to be cheering, as reflected in the optimisms in the global stockmarket performances to-date, and many were making bold conclusions that the worst of the state of economy is over. However, questions remain as to the real cause of the price hike...could it be pure speculation at play or fundamentally driven? It could well be a combination of both, of course. The next fundamental question to be asked is that have the price run ahead of its fundamental too soon? What if the price of crude oil continue to rise above $80 for instance?

Not forgetting it was only not too long ago (last year in 2008) when crude oil price was driven up to $140 per barrel and there was massive problem in global inflationary pressures on all goods and services and subsequently caused havoc to global economies!

It is therefore important for the price of crude oil to maintain stability (around $50 to %70) and avoid catching the rocket (of over speculation)! If that happens, it will surely introduce another set of massive inflationary issues just when the global economy is barely trying to find its footing of recovery. More so, we are probably ahead of the fundamentals right now and nothing solid (such as corporate earnings and positive growth, increased demand, lower unemployment rate, etc) has come out of the whirlwind. Moreover, there is also the problem of potential US dollar devaluation and the possible hyperinflation the world has to tackle with, given the massive quantitative easing measures taken by the U.S!

So, beware of the beauty and the beast!