BEGINNING WITH FINANCE

New year, new blog!

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:58:00 +0000

I've started a new blog and it is fitness related. I hope in the midst of striving to achieve your financial goals. All of us do not forget our health. I totally agree with this image I found online.

Taken From Google Images

Money is important but it is not as important as your health! Here's the new blog link:

http://beginningwithfitness.blogspot.com

It focus primarily on fitness and eating right for the health conscious in today's busy working pace. Activities for couples. Picking up a new sport and various fitness and sports related news! Thanks!

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Why people invest and purchase insurance in my opinion.

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:47:00 +0000

I have a few friends that don't believe in insurance. A very good example is my roommate. He is in his early 20s, has a girlfriend and doesn't have any plans to get married or have kids. He feels that if his time is up, he will gladly resign to his fate.

The key thing is, don't you worry about your 'wife' or girlfriend? He claims she will take care of herself. That's his perspective and I can't judge if he is doing the right thing because it is his life.

I think it is poor planning or in some sense, he doesn't plan for the long term. I am pretty sure the reason why people invest or buy insurance is to safeguard and preserve their assets in the long run to enjoy the fruits of their labour and not let it go to waste on hospital bills and emergency usage.

How many people are willing to say that they work all their lives to pay their hospital bills? I am pretty sure I am not working for that purpose. I work for myself, myself to provide for my family to live better, healthier and enjoy the fruits of my labour.

Generally, people feel it is a waste of money or it is expensive. It is actually a good investment. For example, in case of a term insurance for Aviva. You pay $42.00 for a coverage of $300,000. The figure on that return is insanely ridiculous. Of course, it is at the expense of your death. Nevertheless, we are talking about the cost and the returns it could potentially have. Besides, $42.00 can buy you a peace of mind, knowing that your family will be stable financially for some time with the money in case anything happens to you.

I strongly feel that only mature people who think long term and have families would totally understand the need for insurance. If not, it would be tough for them to see the importance of it.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Investing in retail bonds

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:05:00 +0000

2012 is perhaps not a good year for investing as quoted by many financial institutions. Economic growth is low in Singapore and inflation has hit about 5%. Equities seem like it is not looking good for 2012. And it could force investors to look for other ways to diversify or strengthen their assets. As we know, prices of bonds will rise as price of equities drop, basically, it is due to the market interest rates. For more info about this on Investopedia, click here.

The concept of bonds, for example, government bonds, is that of the government borrowing money from you. It could be in denominations of S$1,000, S$10,000 etc. The government doesn't just borrow from one person. it collects a pool of money. (people subscribing to the bonds form the pool) And every year, the government pays interest to you (coupon payment). There are usually tenures of the loan just like your regular bank loan in 5 years, 10 years, depending on the structure of the bond.

A good way to place your money for long term investment is perhaps retail bonds. There are many popular retail bonds in Singapore. A few commonly seen on financial news is CapitaMalls Asia, Singapore Airlines.
As featured on Invest section of Straits Time on 08/01/2012, retail bonds are an alternative way to enhance your assets in the upcoming Dragon year. You do not need a huge sum upfront to invest, you can start as low as S$1,000 compared to forking out S$100,000 or S$250,000.

The risks of investing in retail bonds are default risk, liquidity risk and administrative costs.
For default risk, make sure the company has good fundamentals and wouldn't go bust during your bond tenure. A simple question to begin: "Do you think ABC company is going to grow in the next *insert bond tenure* years?" If it would be great to analyse the financial statements year on year.

For liquidity risk, retails bonds are not like shares where they can be buy and sell easily. Before buying a bond, you have to check your cash flow to determine if you are able to invest a sum of money in the bond without taking the money out before the bond tenure is up. If you really have to sell the bond, it would definitely be at a lower price and might result in a loss.

Lastly, administrative costs of buying and selling bonds. The commission of buying and selling bonds might result in erosion of gains if done too often. Many analysts suggest bond holders to hold their bonds till maturity where they get back their principal sum.

For beginners who just started investing, retails bonds could be a good avenue to start rather than stocks. With limited capital, bonds would be a better bet than stocks as your profits from stocks with a small outlay would seem very insignificant. With a small outlay, it is common to buy penny stocks which might not blossom in the upcoming year.

The pros and cons of retail bond are listed in the article. No financial instruments will be flawless and definitely have some form of risk. It's all part and parcel of investing. It's the start of a new year and I wish everybody good financial health!

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

For all bloggers out there!

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:24:00 +0000

Taken From smartpassiveincome.com

Hope this can help all fellow bloggers in the new year if they ever run out of content! All the best!
Cheers to the new year in 2012! Don't forget to come up with your new year resolution before 12am!

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Do you put all your monies in your savings account?

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Do you set aside a portion of your money and save it in your bank account? I am sure everybody does that!
Is this the most effective way to get returns that meets our financial goals? I am not that sure about it. In Singapore, one of the widely used bank account is the POSB/DBS savings account. Most people would have one account while the more 'savvy' saver would have multiple accounts. The average interest rate the bank is offering on your savings account is about 0.05% and currently, inflation just went up today, Yes as of Christmas Day!

So do you really think you are saving effectively?

NO!

I don't know who implanted this idea into our heads that placing your monies inside a savings account in the bank is beneficial for you. Yes, I used to do that when I was younger! However, I started to realize that the food prices kept rising, my Char Kway Teow used to be $2 and now it is almost $3 about 10 years ago.

I really think that your POSB/DBS savings account is your EMERGENCY FUND.

EMERGENCY.

A serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action

A good amount of your emergency fund would be 6 months! That's if you want to be very conservative. If not, 3 months is good enough. I feel that with all the adequate insurance and emergency fund, a person is well protected from any situation that would rob him of his stash of hard-earned money. After all, we all put in our sweat and effort to bring money home with perhaps the sole purpose of providing for our loved ones. We didn't go out day in day out to work to pay off our medical bills!

After building up the amount of emergency fund, the rest of the monies that you set aside can now go into investments. Now, I don't mean just pick a stock and throw all your money in. Take a step back from all the complicated theory of investing that you perhaps heard from your good friend/neighbour/friend's friend/broker/ah gou and ask yourself: "Am I a risk taker?". It is of utmost importance that you are clear of your ability to deal with risk when you invest. If you don't like risk at all, you could invest in bonds if you are savvy and knowledgeable enough or you could invest in an Investment-linked policy offered by the insurance companies which offers interest on your money ranging from 3% to 9%, again, depending on your risk profile.

However, if you ain't into investing at all, it is best you hire a financial consultant for him to come up with a financial plan to meet your goals. Yes, it isn't easy to find the best one, but it is not hard to find the right planner for yourself.

Everybody is different, we have different wants and needs. Ask yourself what you want to achieve financially in the long run and you would want to be really selfish on this. There goes a saying/quote:

"Listen to your heart, although it is on the left, it will always be right."

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Insurance: don't we all need it?

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:32:00 +0000

Insurance, it seems like a taboo thing in Singapore. People shun the moment they hear insurance. I am not even talking about their death. I don't understand why. It is such a need in their life yet they shun away from us who could educate them about financial planning! Yes, Some people buy insurance and they buy for the sake of buying. I do not think they know what they are buying because 1) they lack the knowledge, 2) they cannot be bothered to find out what they are buying, 3) they think financial consultants will help them settle everything and when things got difficult, just blame them.

Taken From Google Images

I feel that instead of approaching people and educating them, they should walk in and come to us for our expertise? I feel that all financial planners are competent enough to educate and advise the average Singaporean without any financial planning knowledge! Some of them have bad experience due to the recession financial meltdown. However, understanding what caused the problem is of utmost importance and not assuming it to be risky. If insurance was always risky, why do some people still buy it? Some people don't believe in insurance because they feel that they live for themselves and they do not need to provide for their parents.

Don't young people think a little long term nowadays? Wont they get married? Wont they have children? I am also young, I believed in insurance because it happened to one of my family members. I always believed that people only realize what's important after disaster strikes them, human nature much? There must be a way to reach out to educate these people. I am sure insurance companies overseas do not have to do much promotion or canvassing, This is because perhaps talking about death, disability isn't a taboo in their culture.

One bad experience doesn't mean it doesn't work.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Degree = Rich? Think again.

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:09:00 +0000

University.

The epitome of achievement and the so called pinnacle of education in Singapore. It was always the wish of a parent to see their children go to university. When their children graduate from university, it always held the family up high. Ever since I entered university, to be honest, I stopped reading up on finance and barely even have time for my job outside.

Studying in university takes away a lot of your time. Maybe perhaps only in engineering courses. I am not smart, I believe the only reason if I did well for an exam was hard work and time management. The work I put in each day was about 5 hours after normal school hours on revising or merely just trying to catch up on the concepts I do not understand. And the point is will you even apply the knowledge that you acquired in the near future? I don't think so. University seems to be more of an mental endurance test among students or a time management test whereby the students who can manage their time well.

Don't get me wrong, studying in university and getting a degree is always a good idea. (that's why your parents want you to get in there.) I am just trying to weigh the pros and cons. if university is really worth your time. After going through the first semester, I can pretty up sum things up. If you want to be rich, you don't have to go to a university. You need contacts, a good work ethnic and some luck. There are many people out there who earns a decent amount and yet they do not have a degree. If you think your degree with good grades is going to get you filthy rich. I think you need to think twice. At the end of the day, when you graduate and get on to the working world, you would start at square 1.

So is it worth it to go to a university? Definitely yes, depending on your objectives in life. Getting a degree with good grades would always be a safe bet because if you want to go into graduate school or going into law or medicine. Good grades matter

To be honest, thoughts of pulling out of the local university and going into a local private university is always lingering at the back of my head. Taking the easier Or perhaps I want to train professionally and become a pro MMA fighter. But is it feasible in Singapore? I don't know and I do not have the courage to do that. If you have the courage to do that, you could probably disappoint the people around you, especially your family.

Although the link is kind of old but nevertheless, it describes what all university students are going through.
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/12/04/twentysomething-why-i-regret-getting-straight-as-in-college/
This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Motivation

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:14:00 +0000

Motivation. It's something we all need in our lives. It is a driving force to move ahead in your life. Without motivation, many of us would not be able to accomplish tasks that we thought was not possible. And I feel that when you do anything, you need something to motivate yourself so that you would do it well. Without motivation is like not having a purpose or aim in mind. Without your end in mind, how do you even know how to get there?

Even with motivation, things are not guaranteed to be successful. You are bound to fail and it is the process of getting back and continue working hard though you know your results may not show. Working in sales and bodybuilding in some sense have some similarities. At the beginning, it is always tough. Sales are low and you can't lift as heavy as the grandmother who frequents the gym. Slowly, you put in the work, sales may not be high, however you are used to the system how getting sales should be done and it should be better than when you are starting out working. After working out for some time, you realized you can are fitter and working out is easier. That's just a simple analogy that I found out.

And I learnt 2 types of motivation. Intrinsic and extrinsic. Some people are easy to motivate than the rest, their motivation comes from within, usually due to interest. This is known as intrinsic motivation. Some people require external pressure to motivate them, for example, family. However, I believe there are some people who have both types of motivation and they are highly motivated. For example, a person can be motivated by improve their family condition, money and having pride issues. A very good example is a full time FOREX trader and his family could be the reason why he wakes up everything to trade and be disciplined in it.

Honestly, I can't wait to start working during the holidays and many people would say: "Slow down, young man, you have like 20 to 25 of your life working!" Yeah, that's true. I see more pros than cons in working than studying. It may sound insane but it is perfectly logical. You get more time when you work (okay, that's if you are doing engineering in university) because weekends are weekends, its not like you have to sacrifice every single weekend during your semester for projects or studying.

Second point, your income is higher and you would be able to plan your finances better and probably take your family out for a treat. Yes, working is tough, but we all have to face the music sooner or later. As a quote given by my professor.

"All things are difficult before they are easy"

Thomas Fuller

I hope I have time to blog more on finance related issues, especially insurance if possible. For now, I guess I just have to bury myself in my books.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Yes, I passed the HI!

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:22:00 +0000

Finally, passed the HI insurance test. Up next, the 5 days product training before I can start selling! I am hoping to hit 1k to 2k for the first year of sales. I hope that is achievable. It definitely feels good to come recurring income when you are a student.

Well, I talked to a number of people regarding what they felt about the profession. Many negative and very few positive comments. I guess it will take much more than talking to convince a client to buy insurance. Besides, insurance is more of a need depending on the individual. At some point in your life, insurance will come into your life, be it for yourself or your family. Especially if you are married, you definitely want to insure yourself, your other half, your kids or your parents in case of unforeseen circumstances. Tough job but I am sure I will get something out of it. Maybe not financially but definitely socially.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

US Debt!

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:40:00 +0000

As you all know, there is a lot of discussion on the US debt ceiling being raised. I think that many people are concerned with this issue because it affects the whole world. Investors are turning to invest in gold and it shows that probably a massive global economic depression is well on the way?

The coming economic crash caused by world debt

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

One step closer to getting licensed as a financial adviser.

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:51:00 +0000

I am almost getting my license as a financial adviser. I am expecting to start working as early as the end of this month. The last paper under MAS requirement that I have to take is Health Insurance, a 15 chapter textbook and 50 MCQs paper. Passing mark is 70%. It feels easy to pass but carelessness can cost you big time with so many answers being so similar. The next step would be product trainings and various workshops to help improve my "game". Looks like I am ready to start.

License. Almost Check.
Formal wear. Check.
Positive attitude. Check.

Some of my friends asked me why do I want to work as an insurance agent? Actually, I have no idea, I see it as a challenging job that remunerates well if you are good at it. I think it is also for me to gain exposure to the finance industry. Holding an engineering degree with no other indications in your resume of the finance industry might reduce the chances of getting my dream job as a trader. I feel that mid career switches are very bad and I definitely do not want to be in that position.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

To study or to mingle?

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:52:00 +0000

The first experience of my university life in NTU was NTU Sports Camp. This camp is very different from the ones I have been through, the camp is very physically challenging and mentally draining as well. I didn't expect a camp to be this tiring and shagged, after all, my motive was to meet more people in university!

So the camp ended but the seniors in camp would organize more events like supper and clubbing. I was thinking I used to do that in polytechnic but not anymore. I thought to myself, what was my priority when I go to university? It is also good to know that many people from all walks of life come into university with different objectives. Some just want to slack and enjoy their university life, some are very focused on their goals.

Being a 22 year old from polytechnic, I feel old and distant from the JC kids. I find them rather childish and very different from the people I met in poly. It is going to be a tough 3 years, judging from my course of study and my job outside. Nevertheless, I am willing to try and sacrifice friendships in university.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

A good way to save money: Online Coupons!

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:30:00 +0000

I recently bought a $0 ticket to a seminar from Groupon (I can't really say I bought it since it is $0). Many online coupon/deal providers have surfaced and helping the consumers save money! This was one of the deals that caught my eye.

$0 for 3 Day Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar by T. Harv Eker at Success Resources (Worth $67)

$0!??!? How could that be? So I decided to give it a try, besides, I got nothing to lose except being not able to go for the seminar. A few days later, I got the confirmation for my seat! Okay, back to the main point of this post. Online coupons can help you save money in the long run. No, it isn't troublesome at all. You just set up an account with the provider at their website and key in your credit card number. FYI: some providers do not require your credit card number. Eg, deal.com.sg.

Each deal will tell you how much savings you would have when your purchase the coupon. Usually it is above 30% - 40%. The deal will also have a brief description and location of the deal that is shown.
One disadvantage about these deals is that they all have a time limit, that means they will expire and you cannot purchase it when time expires. A way to prevent this is to sign up for newsletter to your email and you will be informed when a new deal is up. It gets irritating at times but not when you spot a good deal!

There are many deals ranging from DSLR cameras, travel deals that are dirt-cheap, facials and almost anything that you can shop for!

Here's some of the websites:
Groupon
Deal.com.sg
StreetDeal
Coupark

I'm sure there are many more websites similar to the ones above but these are my favourite. So hurry, sign up today and get notifications to your email!

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Forex trading!

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:18:00 +0000

Forex trading is something relative new to me. I have been trading using MetaTrader 4 Demo Account to trade for quite some time now. Before this, I was like many other dude, trying to learn how to trade for fast cash. Fast and easy cash was never the case after I starting learning how to trade through an online resource. No doubt the content is dry and what you see are like rectangles with an antenna pointing out, some with different colours. There are many times I fell asleep while trying to learn some of the basic chart patterns.

Image from Google Images

If you haven't seen how candlesticks look like, here you go. I prefer using bar charts like this one below.

Mr Bullish

Image From Google Images

The principle is basically the same for both.

'HIGH' - The highest price of the bar it occurred during the period of trading.
'LOW' - Stands for the lowest price of the bar it occurred during the period of trading.
'OPEN' - Markets' opening price
'CLOSE' - Markets' closing price

A bar chart that is 'BULLISH' - The price has gone up during the previous period where the CLOSE Price is higher than the OPEN Price. The bar chart above is a bullish bar chart

A bar chart that is 'BEARISH' - The price has gone down during the previous period. This is indicated where the Close price is lower than the Open price.

I am thinking to try trading using a small amount of cash. Opening a forex account is very easy nowadays. There are online application and upload the necessary documents to verify yourself would be done. Trading in forex is very unpredictable even though you have news, indicators and chart patterns to try to predict the next uptrend.

Like most text would go:

"Past Performance is not an indication of future profits"

For news update on forex, I am using the Forex Economic Calendar to track my news. I find it pretty useful because when you click on the news feed, it tells you in general how it will affect movement in the currency. There are other details like the time of the news release, the impact on the currency and previous, consensus and actual results of the news.

For the chart, I am using bar charts instead of the usual candlesticks. I know it is pretty much the same but I just don't feel comfortable with candlesticks just yet. I hope somebody can enlighten me on the candlesticks if there are any veterans around! I would look at different time frames to get a general direction of the currency pair. I would check as much as 5 to 6 time frames.

After doing that, I would get all my indicators up on the charts, I would use about 4 to 5 indicators. Example of a few indicators I use are Bollinger Bands, RSI and Parabolic SAR. For more information on learning about indicators and forex trading. There are always resources on the net. If you want a free and comprehensive online trading course, drop me an email and I would be gladly to share it with you.

Next, I would identify my ENTRY point and EXIT point, I would also establish my support and resistance on the chart, though I feel it is very subjective on the support and resistance levels established by other traders.

Images From Google Images

Usually I would let profits run because I do not know how to gauge proper EXIT point and I would take profit when I am satisfied with it. This method might not be good because greed would set in and you would end up with lesser profits than you could have.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Insurance agent or trader?

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:32:00 +0000

Well, other than worrying about my allowances in university, I decided to source for a part time job that I would be able to sustain due to my interest. The insurance industry would probably be the 2nd option in my mind because being a trader would be my ultimate goal in the future, if it ever happens.

It's going to be a busy month in July for me. Basically, it is because I am going to be a part-time financial consultant (which most people call them insurance agents). Not many people want to associate with insurance agents, they are known to be persistent people and sometimes irritating commuters with surveys. As for me, I have interest in the insurance industry but not as much as being a trader.

I feel that this job has good returns provided you have a good mentor and if you are lucky. After all, it's sales! A good thing about being a financial consultant other than monetary benefits could be the soft skills that one can acquire which will help in future endeavors. So if I fail doing this job, I am sure I would learn something valuable and besides, time is on my side for a few more years.

There are 3 papers that I have to take to become certified or licensed. Let's see, I got to pass M5, M9, Health Insurance and the company internal product tests. Sounds quite a lot of testing here and there. Fortunately for me, I did 2 modules from Financial Planning Association of Singapore and plus, I got an interest in it!

The first module that I had to take was Module 5 by Capital Markets & Financial Advisory Services. The module was about rules and regulations of financial advisory services. It is held at the Singapore College of Insurance at Suntec City Tower 2. I felt more like walking into an office rather than a school/institution. I came too early, arriving about 30 minutes earlier and without my notes. I enter the holding area which was about the size of a classroom, everybody had their M5 notes with them. Besides, I wasn't confident of passing after a few days of studying at odd places like a SAF range while they are conducting range. There are people of all ages taking the paper, I thought it wasn't unusual because they may be going for a mid career switch.

So I thought I would finish the test pretty quickly but I ended up taking up the full 2 hours to do 100 MCQs. Being the kiasu me, I cant help but check through my answers until time was up.

PASS!

Your Score: 75 or Above

I was glad that screen popped out. Well, as I talk to my manager, he told me M5 is really easy and to fail M5 requires effort to do so. On to the next module. Module 9!

Anybody taking the papers as well?

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Every university student's woes: Allowance

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:12:00 +0000

I am at the transition period between National Service and being a student once again. It feels great to be studying again, although the course doesn't interest me much. Nevertheless, a degree is important because it serves as a back up plan. Another reason for me is that my parents wants me to graduate with a degree, perhaps it gives them the peace of mind.

Other than entering school and studying hard, there are fees that are due. You can get a loan for almost anything when you are in school and it is interest free. For example, computer loan, study loan. The interest payment starts after you get a job or 6 months after you graduate, whichever is earlier.

One of the mind boggling issues I have is allowance. I intend to work part time and juggle my studies. I know it is going to be tough..

Here are some of the ways I tried to be self sufficient as much as possible:

Scholarships
Bursaries
Part time job

For point 1, I applied many times for various scholarship and came up short. I think it is due to a lack of cca records and my grades isn't really outstanding.

Point 2, You need to have a certain amount of income within the family to be eligible. Apparently, I am not eligible

Point 3: So I guess I just have to start working. The question is, what job should I get? Insurance? Retail?

In conclusion, working and studying is tough business, especially when you have to travel to your workplace etc. At this point in time, any effect on my grades in university could spell disaster to me.

Are you a university student reading this post? How do you get your monthly allowance while you are studying?
This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

USD/JPY downtrend for 23/05/2011

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:26:00 +0000

T/P: 1.0500
S/L: 1.0580
Support: 1.0442
Resistance: 1.0888
Time frames: M5, H1, D1

Kind of new to FOREX, testing whatever I have learned these few days on MT4. I still find it difficult to predict how long it would take to reach my profit target. Anybody with an insight? Thanks!

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Planned Obsolescence: The Basis Of Our Economy?

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Sun, 22 May 2011 04:12:00 +0000

Products are given a limited lifespan and fail thereafter. In this way, consumers have to keep buying new products. This ensures that there will always be a market available for exchange of goods and currency. A good example would be a printer with a count chip to make it fail after printing a certain number of times!

The video is a popular Youtube video "The Story Of Stuff", planned obsolescence is highlighted at 11:35 in the video. Overall, Annie Leonard.

Click here for an article about planned obsolescence by The Economist.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Silver Shortage This Decade, Silver Will Be Worth More Than Gold

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:37:00 +0000

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

A system of legalized greed in America?

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Perhaps a good illustration of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Described by Michael Moore that the modern capitalism model in America is like a pyramid scheme.

"It's called a pyramid scheme, because only a few people can sit on top of the pyramid. Their job is to convince everybody else in the pyramid to work really hard because 'maybe you, too, can be up there in the pyramid with me some day,' but of course we all know that's not gonna happen. ... This whole system is set up to make sure that the people at the very, very top get away like bandits. ... You're asking the foxes to mind their own henhouse ... That's essentially what I feel we have, when you have the Rubins' and the Summers' and these guys still around. ... I think there is something boiling beneath the surface out there -- there is an anger. You can't throw that many people out of their homes ..." -- Michael Moore on The Charlie Rose Show, Friday, October 9th, 2009

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Thoughts on General Elections 2011

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:23:00 +0000

As I grow older, I got into the world of economics, partly because of the chance of getting into SMU. This year, I also got a glimpse of politics and realize how these 2 topics could affect our lives. For the coming General Elections 2011, my constituency became an Single Member Constituency (SMC) and why is that so? I didn't know until I read this article on Straits Times Online dated in Feb 2011

Electoral boundaries drawn for next General Election

Below are some of the features of the SMCs, taken from the elections website here.

This is an electoral division that has a single Member of Parliament (MP) representing the interests of those residents in the constituency.
Thus, during a by-election in the SMC or a general election, the registered electors of the SMC will vote for a single individual to be their MP.
The Parliamentary Elections Act requires that there must be at least 12 SMCs at any time.
We currently have a total of 12 SMCs.
The list of SMCs today is set out below.

It is also good to note that Potong Pasir is the smallest GRC, managed by the SDP. The reason that would garner my vote would be the quality of the candidates contesting in my SMC. As shown in on the website of NSP:

"Yip Yew Weng, 60, is a businessman with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Nanyang University, as well as a Masters in Political Science from Hull University (UK). He is fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien.

Yip Yew Weng previously served as the President and Secretary-General of NSP, and has also served as the Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of SDA. He has previously been fielded as an NSP candidate in the Choa Chu Kang, Tampines, and Yio Chu Kang constituencies.

He has been active on the ground in the Redhill and Telok Blangah areas for many years."

I think on paper, his qualifications speak for themselves but how about after listening to him speak on a Youtube video after a house visit?

There's also an article that I found on the net by The New Paper in PDF.

What do Radin Mas residents care about?

Well, I still have some time to decide who I should vote, it is different because Radin Mas is now an SMC and not part of Tanjong Pagar GRC.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

So gold prices is going up but why is gold so valuable?

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:54:00 +0000

Gold prices are rising higher and higher these days. Gold is currently at 1563.18 USD according to goldprice.org.

So why is this shiny yellowish looking metal so valuable?

The reason why I think gold is valuable is because of the scarcity of gold around the globe, so naturally when supply is very low, prices would be high. As usual, I did my normal readings on the net via Wikipedia and some videos on Youtube.

Gold has physical properties that is "better" than other elements, in the sense that it doesn't rust, corrode or be degradable by other elements in the periodic table. Because of its physical properties, gold is used for jewelery and decorations. For example, It can be used to make jewelery because it can be repaired and admired for many decades. With technological advancement, gold has more uses, especially for electronics. Gold transfers electricity with less resistance.

Historically, people worked for gold/silver and trade with it as a form of purchasing power. Gold wasn't exactly very light and easy to carry around. So in turn, banks gave people notes (which is money) for a given weight of gold. So perhaps because of that, people got used tor trading gold.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:10:00 +0000

An insight into the financial crisis!

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

$700 richer in the month of May!

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Being an NSF in the army, $700 is a lot to me. Rising costs and the subtle effect of inflation quickly erode my monthly pay! Things felt more expensive and sometimes, I will realized that I don't have much money left in my account, weird huh?

So how would you use your $700? To some of my mates, it's extra pocket money to do more of their favorite activities like clubbing, renting football pitches to play more football or simply just spending it by shopping. I used to be like that. It is tough to be disciplined to save all these additional monies from the government or dividend monies from stocks. Perhaps saving it for the next big purchase or saving it to add to your investment account might be a better option. It may not be much but saving money on a consistency basis requires much needed discipline that is not easily cultivated.

So this is it, I am saving that $700, you can call it an exchange for further future opportunities cost, you may say it isn't significant. For me, small steps is the way to go.
This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

SMU Economics Interview

noreply@blogger.com (beginningwithf) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 10:10:00 +0000

It's been a while since I blogged because back in camp, there's preparation for new men and other than that, I am partying. (it's the best time to party because you don't worry about exams, etc.)

I got an interview from SMU recently and I was elated about it. I did my prep for it by reading the newspaper and hopefully SMU would accept me in its economics programme. The SMU interview is a group interview, I think it is made this way because their classroom culture is to engaged the students and the lecturers. So that, it doesn't seem like the lecturer is "spoon-feeding" the students with answers as quoted from one of the interviewee from my group.

This is my second time going for the same interview, I failed terribly last year. I didn't even say a word, basically because I felt that I didn't have economics background and whatever I said would be gibberish.
So being prepared this time round, I still felt nervous.

I went through the interview and they let every candidate have their turn to answer the questions. In my group, there were only 2 polytechnic students. One from TP Biomedical Science and Me, an Electronics & Computer Engineering graduate from NP. The rest are all JC students with H1 and H2 in Economics, which I don't really understand or rather care. After each individual introduced themselves, I thought to myself I am pretty much dead.

In the end, the 2 questions that the lecturers asked were:

How would you expect your SMU lecturer to be?
Provided you could vote in the General Elections, which party would you vote and what factors would determine your vote for that party?

Note: I think I am the only guy in the group that can vote, most of them are fresh 'A' Levels graduates.

The interview felt good for me, basically because I happened to read all these on newspaper. Although it felt good but I do not know my chances of getting into the course.

The acceptance is from now till late May and if I don't get a call or email from SMU, I may be pretty much headed to NTU for EEE.

I wonder which degree would take me further in the career that I want. The textbook answer would be SMU but I think with each route that we take, we might end up where we wanted with a different experience and perhaps longer time to get there. I hope time's still on my side, for now.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.