Sort By:
While markets around the world plunge into their multi-year lows, employees here and abroad worry about job security, and their families cope with rising prices, our all-loving number one telco is raising its residential subscription rates by 10%.SingTel CEO Allen Lew justified the increase, saying:“Manpower costs in the last ten years alone have gone ...
Hong Kong’s largest electricity producer, CLP Power, is reducing electrical tariff by 3%, as reported by Hong Kong news media such as this article in The Standard.Yes, reducing, not increasing.However, people in HK are complaining. They were expecting a bigger cut.“The Democratic Party’s Fred Li Wah-ming said he was disappointed by the low rate ...
Property prices in Hong Kong nosedived 10% in the past 3 months, and are likely to drop a further 10% by year end.You heard it right - a 20% decline in HK housing prices. This is according to a report from HK China News Agency (see Zaobao.com article).A $1m house will now sell for ...
The world’s first F1 night race - the Singtel Singapore Grand Prix - just ended with Renault’s Fernando Alonso coming in first, followed by Williams’ Nico Rosberg, and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in third position.As usual, we’re concerned with the all-important question: How much do F1 drivers earn?According to a Times Online article, Hamilton …
The 3,758 companies in our Financial sector collectively earned $17.5 billion dollars in tax-assessable income last year, trumping the second-placed Wholesale & Retail Trade sector ($15.1b) which has more than three times the number of companies.In third place is the Manufacturing sector with $10.8b. There are 2,995 companies in this sector.Of course, the Financial ...
Some wise words from Richard Hartung, a former banker who wrote a piece for Weekend Today. The following is (apparently) only available in the printed edition of this weekend’s Today:“The market will reprice itself… A boom tends to over-reward everybody as young executives rush in to become investment bankers, private bankers, property agents, stockbrokers, ...
Just months ago, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch were considered to be among the top 5 investment banks. They were the so-called bulge bracket firms - the premiere league players, the Ferraris, the LVs…They are now all gone.Bear was acquired by JP Morgan Chase for just US$10 a share in May 2008.Merrill ...
It was 2,121 last year. This year, the number of people in this exclusive club is 2,751.Not an actual club where people exercise and socialise, this virtual club consists of people who made a million dollars or more last year.As you can see, the number of million-dollar earners has gone up quite a lot. ...
I remember reading somewhere that there are about 70,000 people making $100,000 or more last year. Well, that figure is wrong, at least according to the latest annual report from IRAS.As usual, I analysed the most important appendix in the IRAS report and found that 154,714 assessed taxpayers took home a 6-figure salary last ...
Shrewd businessmen are buying degrees from degree mills and passing themselves as “Dr” so-and-so.Straits Times journalist Sandra Davie even managed to buy a degree for her dog! (ST, August 29, 2008).Yes, Harry Doggy the cute beagle is now officially a “Doctor of Arts”. For just US$599.Other people spent years slogging to get a PhD ...
Just as we were debating whether engineering is a dead-end career in Singapore, I noticed a common trait among the 2008 batch of President’s Scholarship recipients.None of them is going to be an engineer.From what President Nathan said in his speech, these scholars will all be heading to foreign universities for their studies. (Hey, ...
While the Stratis Times chose the headline “Nearly half of PSC awards to heartlanders” (ST, July 26, 2008), I prefer highlight the still rather big and obvious gap when you compare the proportion of heartlander scholarship holders (47.0%) to the proportion of the general heartlander population (77.8%).As mentioned in a previous Salary.sg post, 77.8% ...
I have previously said that investment banking is a very lucrative career option for able students (see post).What if you are already working, but in the wrong line, and want a mid-career switch into i-bankng? Read on.Yes, there are some very smart and very capable people who think they got into the wrong industry. ...
Another generous reader shares his/her story at http://www.salary.sg/2008/engineering-and-technology-careers-are-not-valued-singapore-is-high-cost-low-tech/#comment-2257“I knew engineering was a dead end, so I immersed myself into sales… companies reward mostly the ones who bring in the cash”Are we now convinced that Singapore is high cost low tech, …
A good education is arguably a necessary condition for good employability and even a good salary, so:Good Education ≈ Good Salary.… which is why parents are so uptight about getting …
Dr Francis Oen, an eye surgeon, is featured in the Invest column in today’s Sunday Times.Having invested money (and lost some) in stocks, property, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and options, I believe it’s fair for me to call him a veteran in investments.So maybe we can learn a thing or two from this veteran.Dr ...
This is the 2008 edition of my annual list of the top 100 jobs in terms of pay (see last year’s edition).This list is compiled based on data from MOM Occupational Wages Survey, which is published as part of the Report on Wages in Singapore 2007.As with previous years, the MOM survey do not ...
The number of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) in Singapore has increased by 15.3%, according to The World Wealth Report 2008 (link) recently released by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.I note that our rate of increase has slowed. It was a record-breaking 21.2% last year. See my post last year.Nonetheless, at 15.3%, we’re placed at ...
In the Sunday Times cover story, it is mentioned that a credit card promoter made $20,000 to $30,000 a month.And that was in 2003, when the economy wasn’t so good and SARS (remember?) plagued the country. And she was only a 24-year-old business graduate at that time.“I thought making money was so easy,” she ...
Sunday Times just showcased 5 very successful and “most sought-after” tutors, a couple of whom are earning a 5-figure income every single month.Physics tuition teacher Phang Yu Hon, 41, reportedly makes $20,000 from 90 students. I believe he maintains the website www.physics.com.sg.Laura Oh, an NTU engineering graduate in her mid-twenties is getting a …
…