TheFinance.sg

Increase in motor insurance premiums

Tan Kin Lian — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:35:36 +0000

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Many motorists have seen a large increase in motor insurance premiums in recent years. Some have their renewals rejected, due to bad luck or bad driving that have resulted in two or more claims. In some cases, the large claims were due to fraudulent claims lodged by third parties.

I have received e-mails of this nature from motorists over the past years, “Mr. Tan, I have been driving without any claims for more than 15 years. Last year, I had an accident. The other party lodged a large claim. The insurance company paid the claim, but did not check with me. This year, they want to increase my premium by 30%. What should I do?”

I usually advised them to find another insurance company and provided them this list of hotline numbers. However, they were unsuccessful in most cases, and most insurance companies would not want to take a motorist with a claim.

Some motorists have their renewals rejected due to two or more claims. They were not able to get another company to take over the insurance. Read more…

Hard to find financial planner in Singapore?

Wilfred Ling — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:00:08 +0000

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I was told by someone that it is extremely difficult to find financial planner in Singapore. This person studied in United States during undergraduate days and was familiar with concept of financial planning in US. She did her financial plan just after graduation. Many years later, she needed to redo the financial planning again but had great difficulty finding a financial planner in Singapore. So she and her husband had to DIY for a long time up to a point they couldn’t cope with DIY because of busy schedule and a expanding family. She also laments the fact that unlike in US, there is a lack of no-load unit trust and index funds. Here are my comments: Read more…

Protect Yourself Against Irrecoverable Loss

Alvin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:00:52 +0000

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Previously, I have written a post on how to minimize losses in trading through position sizing and stop loss limit. There is something that needs to be addressed further to ensure you can survive the unforgiving market. Stop loss limit is to prevent you from losing too much on a single trade and position sizing protects you from risking too much capital. The issue to be addressed is, “what if you have a string of losses?”

The most effective answer to the question is to stop trading. Yes, stop trading. It is harder to stop when you are losing. This is because you want to get “revenge” from the market. This is where the trader makes his/her deadly move as he/she is likely to lose even more. Worse, the trader may even resort to overtrading, taking large leverage to recover the previous string of losses. Instead of earning profits, the trader ended up losing all the capital and even land himself in debt.

The problem with most investors who started to get involved in the markets always have the “profits perspective”. They will be thinking like, “it is a place where my money can earn even more money”, or “If I can win consistently, I will be rich!” They participate in the market with excitement over the potential profits. This is natural as everyone wants to gain something out of it, if not, why invest in the first place? Read more…

Top-up of SRS Account

Ee Min — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:05:14 +0000

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November rings the bell spelling end of the year soon.

For those of us with the regular habit of topping-up our Supplementary Retirement Scheme accounts (or intending to open a new account), please remember the deadline is by 31^st December.

The Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) is basically a voluntary savings cum deferred tax scheme, which provides dollar-for-dollar tax relief for the chargeable income subject to following year of tax assessment. The objective is to assist Singaporeans to save more on their own for retirement. One can withdraw the accumulated monies after the statutory retirement age (set at point of account opening, currently at age 62), where 50% of the monies will be taxed. Staggered withdrawal is allowed over 10 years to reduce tax. Read more…

Personal Finance Part 14 – Scams, Trickery and Dodgy Behaviour

musicwhiz — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:00:36 +0000

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Recent news on the trial of the founders of the dodgy Sunshine Empire had highlighted to me the dangers of falling prey to scams and trickery, and also left me surprised as to how many people got caught in this web of deceit; with some experiencing an almost total wipe-out of their retirement savings. It is a sad fact but a reality that a lot of people out there are simply out to con your money, and hardly are interested in helping you to grow it (in fact, they are more concerned with growing their own pot of gold).

This mantra also applies to salespeople, brokers, remisiers and all those who seek to earn commissions through selling you financial advice. The term “caveat emptor” or “buyer beware” has never rung more true, and recent cases such as the Madoff and Satyam scandal only serve to highlight this problem which retail investors face. In the case of Sunshine Empire, it is my opinion that it was obvious that it was a scam, though the people who got swindled obviously could not see it as such.

One classic characteristic of scams is their ability to prey on one’s greed and desire for quick wealth. The Sunshine Empire office was beautifully decorated with expensive furnishings and the staff there were impeccably dressed and very polished in speaking (but obviously, not in delivering). The staff are trained to feed gullible investors with grandiose claims of spectacular returns and impressive-sounding projects (e.g. underwater hotel in Malaysia), in the name of conjuring up images of being vested in something lucrative and successful. Many of the victims had admitted that they were seduced by the Dark Side and gave in to greed, neglecting to do their due diligence and to check if the claims were for real.

It is strange that educated people can fall prey to scams which offer a return of more than 300% per annum consistently, but I have realized that when it comes to greed and the lure of quick money, almost anyone is inclined to believe anything! Read more…

Who Moves My Market? – Part 4

Createwealth8888 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:05:09 +0000

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I like the simplicity of support and resistance. It can work because it is based on simple crowd psychology; but, sophisticated traders don’t like to admit it that it can work. Many Gurus have developed so many technical indicators, and every Guru claims their indicators work best. Who should we believe?

If you could predict where the market is heading, you would be a millionaire many times. Unfortunately, no one has developed an indicator that will predict the future. Many indicators have been created that will give you a probable direction of the market. But, the concept of support and resistance have not been claimed to be developed by any Gurus and it can also be predictive and even allow you to queue to buy or sell your stocks well ahead of any other indicators. Read more…

GST is unnecessary for Singapore

Tan Kin Lian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00:26 +0000

Tan Kin Lian

I have always considered GST to be unnecessary and unsuitable for Singapore since its introduction many years ago. Here are my reasons:

a) GST is a wasteful and inefficient method of collecting tax. It requires every transactions to be counted. Each person handles many transactions every day. It cause a lot of work for consumers, business, and tax collectors.

b) It is better to collect adequate tax using the income tax system. Collecting tax by GST adds another layer of administration.

c) Singapore already had an efficient system of collecting tax from income, property, workers levy, vehicle taxes (ERP, COE) and land premiums. There is no need for GST as the government already collected sufficient tax for its needs.

d) Singapore does not spend much on social welfare. There is no need to collect GST to fund the government expenses, unlike other countries that have high welfare benefits. Read more…

Trading Report Card – Oct 09

Alvin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:22:37 +0000

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The market has been consolidating for a long time. The last good trend was in Aug 09. Even the STI was able to break the 2700 barrier, it could not propel itself to greater heights. This just goes to show the weakness of the bull. It was a month where I was very stringent with the rules. I only went in those trades that have the best signals. Unfortunately, I have to accept what the market decides to do. Compared to the past few months, I only opened 2 counters. The first 2 counters in the table were carried from last month.

I applied the stop loss a little differently for this time. This is because of the tight trading ranges of the stocks – the resistance and support are very close together. If I had put the stop loss just below the support, I would have been stopped out earlier. Hence, I drew the Fibonacci and selected the level that is immediately below the support, which gave me a bit more room for the price to fluctuate. However, I did not violate the rules because the stop loss is still less than the maximum 8% tolerance. This would give me a better chance to stay in the game and wait for the run. Read more…

4278 pips profit since August 2008

Brendan Lee — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:20:22 +0000

We had generated 4278 pips profit since August 2008. This is also a great achievement for our students and subscribers who have taken the commitment to learn forex trading from Tactical Trading Academy.

We do not have 100% success rate in our forex trading program. But we have more Profits than losses, this shows that we have a proven forex trading strategy. Read more…

What can happen to Sembawang Music Centre will happen to financial advisers

Wilfred Ling — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:00:21 +0000

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In the news is Sembawang Music Centre. It is going through liquidation and bankruptcy. The reasons as reported in the press were: rising cost of rental, general decline in the industry and the emergence of close substitutes such as online music and video downloads. The decline in the industry was evidenced by Tower Records closing in 2006 while HMV is currently downgrading to a smaller 12,000 square feet from its 17,000 square feet space.

I find the financial industry to be over saturated and is in for a major decline as well. These are the reasons: Read more…