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A reader called “whizzard” generously shares his experience in getting rich.“I was pretty careful in the way I spent money and diverted much of what I had left over into investments … My friends were having a ball, wining, dining and holidaying”Read his story here. Thank, whizzard!If you would like to share your experience, ...
It’s very easy to lose money in shares. Just buy high and sell low.In this lady’s case, she hasn’t sold her shares yet, but her shares are now worth $99k. She had bought them for $132k.A paper loss of $33k.The high-income earner makes $6k a month as a manager.Unfortunately, she’s caught up with the ...
So says a shocking Citi report on Singapore property.Citi expects our GDP to contract by 2.8% this year, “making it the most severe recession in Singapore history.”As for property prices, the report also says that a crash is imminent (see article: Property Must Crash). Condominiums in the mid-tier segment is expected to have a ...
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 ...
The STI stock market index has plunged about 20% from its peak, but the URA property index still seems to move up exponentially.How can this be?Let’s study the STI graph superimposed over the URA property index graph. Both graphs are scaled such that their time axes coincide, and their Asian financial crisis bottoms & ...
Channelnewsasia.com previously reported that “Singapore’s annual inflation rate hit a 25-year high of 6.6 percent in January (2008)…” and that was according to official data from Department of Statistics (DOS).I checked the recently released DOS figures for February 2008. The inflation rate was 6.5%. Contributing the most to the still very high figure …
Once in a while you get these great gems from reading the papers. In a Business Times interview, David Lawrence practically whacked the greedy banks and at the same time dished out an excellent investment advice. It’s never been so clear.In the words of the Wheelock Properties CEO,“A lot of this crap was sold ...
Time to file tax again. This is the Income Tax Calculator for Year of Assessment 2009.Just enter your chargeable income (i.e. assessable income minus all applicable reliefs):Like last year …
It’s not always so easy to make money, as the previous case studies suggested.Slightly more than 10 years ago, a young couple bought something that almost ruined their lives financially.It was the middle of 1996, a boom time for the stock market as well as the property market.The couple - working professionals - were ...
Some of the top lawyers in Singapore will get up to 9 months bonus payout this year.The Straits Times reported that Drew & Napier and Rajah & Tann are giving fat bonuses across the board.Harry Elias Partnership and KhatterWong are also giving big bonuses of 5.5 to 8 months to their staff.The payouts even ...
Much has been said about the benefits of term insurance.However, even though I’m a proponent of term insurance, I find it hard to buy term insurance.Why?I’ll explain in a momen …
How many times have you heard of the well intentioned but misguided advice: “Do what you love and the money will follow”?Had I taken the advice literally, I would have starved. Why? Well, I enjoyed (and still do) sleeping, idling, daydreaming, watching TV, snacking, and a host of other things that, erm, don’t generate ...
Straits Times Index peaked at 3,875.77 on 11 October 2007, exactly 364 days ago.Today, in the wake of an official technical recession, the STI index plunged to its new multi-year low, closing at 1,942.50.This is 50% from the peak.Will it go lower before it starts to creep up again? No one knows…
Some of best advice on investing (extracted from last Wednesday’s BT):The much touted “diversification” and “wealth preservation” strategies do not build wealth. The rich use them to maintain wealth. You need a better strategy to be rich.Buy when there’s weakness in the market. Buy when other people are panic-selling, or when there’s …
Are you considering a mid-career switch to the lucrative finance sector? Thinking of becoming a private banker, or work as a financial analyst crunching numbers in an investment bank? Hoping for more money and big bonuses coming your way? Are you an engineer thinking of doing some finance courses (CFA, MFE, CMFAS, IFPAS, etc.)?Think ...
Managers in their late thirties earn a median gross salary of $6,328/mth.Professionals in the same age group make $4,970/mth.Are you above the median? (In other words, are you in the top 50% of your cohort?)Or are you below the median?Based on the MOM Report on Wages in Singapore 2009, these are the median gross monthly ...
Accountants are always among the top earning professionals in Singapore, with the top 8 taking home a median pay of $4.0 million in YA2007 and $3.7 million the year before.Even our ministers and top civil servants have their remuneration benchmarked against accountants (along with 5 other groups of professionals).According to the Robert Half International ...
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, ...
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. ...
If you have the good fortune of remaining unscathed by the recession, perhaps you should turn aggressive and try to take advantage of it instead.First, make sure you have set aside enough money to cover 1 year’s worth of your family expenses, just in case.Then invest the rest. Take advantage of the recession.Now is ...
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