Saturday, April 19, 2008

Adopting a cat

I finally caved to pressure from my children and adopted a three month old kitten from the local SPCA. OK, I was keen too.

In spite of being an adoption of a homeless animal, it was not cheap. The cost of inoculations, the adoption fee, the initial batches of food and kitty litter, a litter box, a few medications, a carry bag, scratching post, taxi fares to and from the adoption centre and the deposit to ensure that I bring the cat back for desexing at six months came to about HK$4,200 in total. I will get HK$1,000 back after the operation, but HK$3,200 does not make for a cheap pet.

It took about an hour for the kitten to go from hiding under the sofa to tearing up and down the living room, clawing the sofa (no interest in the scratching post), playing with pieces of paper my children were dangling in front of her and sitting on my keyboard while I was (trying to) type this post.

I'm already feeling like she was worth every cent.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somehow I bumped into this blog and found it so surprisingly attractive cuz I do share most of your views and hold a very similar portfolio to yours as well. As a very young investment professional, I was so upset that not many of my colleagues have the same passion when it comes to their individual portfolios and I can hardly find some one who have real insights. I will keep on following ur thoughts and see if we can have more communication.

traineeinvestor said...

Hi Theo

Thanks for stopping buy. Vistors and comments are always welcome.

Sometimes I wonder if I am slightly obsessive about my finances? That said, given the cost to both myself and my family of financial shortcommings, spending the time to at least adequately manage our funds is a high priority. I have to admit that I do find it interesting as well.

I do not claim any particular insight. Most of our portfolio returns over the last five years have been driven by leveraged investment in the HK property market and, to a lesser extent, a relatively early investment in silver. Getting through the downturn with relatively little net damage has been largely a result of positive cash flows on the properties (which are still holding their values in HK) and offshore investments which have benefitted from the decline of the US$/HK$. No real talent for investing there.

Cheers
traineeinvestor