SG Wealth Builder

Retrenchments in Singapore

April 24, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 789 Views 0 Comments

According to the latest Ministry of Manpower (MOM)’s data on the employment landscape in Singapore, more workers were retrenched in 2015. A total number of 13,440 workers were laid off, the highest since 2008-09, which of course was the Great Financial Crisis period. The spike in retrenchments in Singapore reflected the gloomy economic outlook and challenging times ahead.

As a wealth builder, my mantra is to work hard for money and also ensure that my money works hard for me. Being gainfully employed and having a good income is important in order for me to lay down a strong financial foundation for the family. Henceforth, the data on retrenchment is useful because they provide useful information on the impact of economic downturn and allow Singaporeans to identify which industry sectors are ailing.

The latest data from MOM is indeed worrying and I am thankful that I have a job. Sometimes, in the midst of our busy schedules, we tend to take things for granted and expect every day is Sunday in office. What we don’t realize that Singapore is rapidly losing its competitive edge because of high business costs. Many MNCs realize that the so-called talents in Singapore are not so highly skilled or possess niche knowledge that cannot be found in cheaper locations.

Stocks

OCBC share price skyrocketed

April 19, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1067 Views 0 Comments

On 7 April 2016, local bank OCBC announced the acquisition of Barclays Asia wealth management business in Singapore and Hong Kong through its private banking arm, Bank of Singapore for $430 million. The transaction is still subject to approval by Singapore’s High Court but is expected to be completed by end of this year. Nevertheless, investors have given their nod of approvals and pushed OCBC share price up by $0.60 within the past week.

Since last year, OCBC share price performance had not been doing well partly because of its loan exposure to the oil and gas industry. The non-performing loan (NPL) has increased to $1.97 billion in FY15 from $1.28 billion the previous year, due to the “classification of a few large corporate accounts associated with the oil and gas services sector”. As a result, the share price had tumbled from $10.89 in 2015 to a low of $7.46 in February 2016. So the recent share performance must have given OCBC investors something to cheer about.

Smart traders who bought OCBC shares at $7.46 this year would be sitting on massive paper gains by now. Personally, I knew a wealth builder who invested $70,000 at that price range. I guess he must be laughing all the way to the bank now, if he decided to cash in.

Gold; currency

Will Singaporeans pay the banks to deposit their savings?

April 16, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 892 Views 1 Comment

When the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced the shock move to implement Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) in January 2016, it took the market by storm. The aggressive step reflected the extent of Japan’s economy difficulties and the scary prospect of deflation. Just what is NIRP all about and why should Singaporeans take note of this development? Will Singaporeans pay the banks to deposit their savings?

NIRP is used by countries to devalue their currencies so that their exports can be cheaper and thus spurring economic growth. Previously, during the era of the Great Financial Crisis in 2008, major economies like USA, Europe, Japan and China all resorted to Quantitative Easing (QE) to encourage spending in the hope of achieving growth in the long-term. However, after a long period of sluggish global growth, policy makers started to panic because they have run out of idea to stimulate growth. In Europe, countries like Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland had already embarked on NIRP. Japan followed suit early this year.

Together, Europe and Japan produce 20% of the global GDP. Thus, they are major players in terms of global trade. By adopting NIRP, they are essentially triggering a global currency war and issuing a subtle challenge to United States.

Gold; currency

Buy gold to protect your wealth against negative interest rates

April 15, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 853 Views 0 Comments

In the aftermath of Great Financial Crisis in 2008, policy makers had resorted to financial engineering to restore global economy. Some notable policies were Zero Interest Rates and Quantitative Easing (QE) which aimed to encouraging spending and lending. However, after so many years, these policies were deemed ineffective and so several European countries and Japan had devised the Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) in a bid to revive their ailing economies. What does this mean to you as a wealth builder and how can you protect your wealth against negative interest rates?

Very simply put, for those who live in countries with NIRP, the banks will charge depositors for putting their monies in the bank. Yes, that’s right. Instead of receiving money on your saving deposits, you have to pay the bank money. This may sound strange but the intent of this policy is to prevent wealth builders from hoarding money and also to encourage banks to lend money. The objective of central banks implementing this policy is basically to prevent deflation from eroding the demand side of the market.

It is still early days of NIRP and the long-term effects are unclear. Nevertheless, by resorting to negative interest rates, policy makers had inadvertently revealed that they have run out of ideas to salvage the affected economies.

Stocks

Is ISOTeam an undervalued stock?

April 12, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 0 Views 2 Comments

ISOTeam is a Catalist listed stock which I have been wanting to cover for a long time but had not done so because I was under the impression that the company is in small player in the building and construction industry. However, I found out recently that I was wrong.

Company background

The company is actually an established player in the building maintenance and estate upgrading industry in Singapore. ISOTeam has over 15 years of Repairs & Redecoration (R&R) and Addition & Alteration (A&A) experience, and has successfully undertaken more than 300 public and private sector R&R and A&A projects involving close to 3,000 buildings. ISOTeam is also the exclusive applicator of paint works for both SKK and Nippon Paint in the public housing sector in Singapore.

I like ISOTeam for its competitive strengths in its strong track record of project completions, early mover in eco-conscious solutions and diversified capabilities in servicing residential, commercial, industrial and institutional segments. All these strengths enabled ISOTeam to repeatedly winning tenders for public sector projects even when they are not the lowest in price.

Share price performance

ISOTeam launched IPO in July 2013 with 32.2 million shares at 22 cents each. For the past three years, the share prices increased steadily from $0.22 to $0.30 based on the strength of increasing revenue and profits.

Gold; silver

Diversify Your Wealth with Investment Precious Metals

April 11, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 792 Views 0 Comments

When it comes to precious metals like gold and silver, many Singaporean investors are still trying to figure out its status within the world of asset management.

As an emerging asset class, gold is often regarded as money and a form of long term safe-haven during times of financial crises. On the other hand, silver is deemed more as an investment instrument for investors to make money because of its short term price volatility. Whatever the case it may be, it is important for investors to diversify wealth across several asset classes, such as investment precious metals, so that during financial crises, the impact to wealth is mitigated.

In 2012, Singapore government announced that precious metals which qualify as Investment Precious Metals (IPM) will be exempt from GST. The change is to recognize gold and silver bullion as financial assets, and also to grow Singapore into a regional precious metal trading hub. Nonetheless, it is important to note that not all gold and silver bullion are granted the status of IPM. There are basically four criteria to meet:

It is gold of at least 99.5% purity, silver of at least 99.9% purity or platinum of at least 99% purity.

Stocks

OSIM increases buy-out offer price from $1.39 to $1.41

April 9, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 781 Views 0 Comments

And so the saga continues. On 8 April 2016, OSIM increased the buy-out offer price from $1.39 to $1.41. The revised offer price is basically on a cum-dividend basis and will be the final offer price.

To be frank, the revised price is nothing to shout about and is unlikely to sway those dissent shareholders who refused to accept Ron Sim’s offers. Whether maverick entrepreneur Ron Sim can successfully de-list OSIM remains to be seen but it would be interesting to analyse what exactly prompted this shocking corporate move of the year.

Bad times ahead?

One possible reason for Ron Sim to de-list OSIM might be because of a possible global economic downturn. After all, China is slowing down now and OSIM had previously banked on rich Chinese’s spending power. A look at its global network of outlets revealed that the number of outlets in North Asia has been reduced from 365 to 360. Overall, the company is also reducing its GNC and TWG Tea outlets.

As OSIM’s core business is still in selling luxury massage armchair, a global economic crisis will definitely impact its share price negatively. Drawing from the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008, its share price tumbled to a record low of $0.04.

Trading

5 Things That Investors Must Know About Contract for Differences (CFDs)

April 8, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 829 Views 0 Comments

Contract for Differences (CFD), basically allows you to trade in leveraged products without forking out huge capitals upfront. This approach essentially manifests both your potential profits and losses, but with proper risk management, you can ensure asymmetric returns as a trader. To be an all-rounded wealth builder, it is important to have knowledge in different investment instruments and their associated risks. So let’s delve into the 5 most important things that investors must know about CFDs.

(1) What are CFDs?

CFDs are derivatives because they derive their values from underlying assets like gold, shares or currency. This means that investors are not trading the assets. Instead they are actually trading the contracts with the service providers. This is important because investors are not owning or taking physical delivery of the underlying assets. Money is made or lost when the value of the asset moves either in your direction or against you. Thus, with CFDs, investors have the full option of going “long” or “short” the asset.

(2) The power of leveraging

Another attractive feature of CFDs is that it allows you to put down a small investment capital for a much larger market exposure. As leveraged financial products, they are traded on margin.

Gold

Why SGX Gold Kilobar Contract is a Major Flop

April 7, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1125 Views 0 Comments

I was reading an article written by BullionStar on SGX Kilobar and could not help but agreed with all the points. The blogger has correctly pointed out the major flaws in the product offering from SGX and also compared it to BullionStar’s products.

From a Singapore Inc perspective, of course I hope SGX’s project will be a success as it could have played a major role in fulfilling Singapore’s desire to become a gold trading hub, thus boosting our economy and creating more high-value jobs for fellow Singaporeans. Unfortunately, SGX messed up royally and thus, I foresee that Singapore may miss the golden opportunity to become a trading hub if the situation is not addressed adequately.

Firstly, by setting a 25 x 1 kilo bar of gold contract, SGX has inadvertently made this product exclusive for the big players. Not many retail players can afford to fork out $1.35 million and there are not many gold buyers who are interested in buying 25 kilobars of gold, especially in a small market like Singapore. In this regard, I am quite convinced that SGX has not done much market study on the gold demand before launching this product. If SGX is working with government bodies like IE Singapore to enhance the liquidity of precious metals in Singapore, then the physical quantum for the gold contract should be lowered.

Stocks

Is it worth buying Tat Hong shares now?

April 5, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1130 Views 0 Comments

Founded in the 1970s in Singapore, Tat Hong is a listed company that provides crane rental services in the construction and offshore marine industry. It now operates 1,500 cranes across the region. By tonnage, it is the seventh largest crane rental company worldwide. Is it worth buying Tat Hong shares now? In this article, I will share my insights on Tat Hong’s investment value.

On 15 March 2016, the company announced in the SGX website that “it has been approached in connection with a potential transaction which may or may not lead to an acquisition of the issued share capital of the Company. Discussions are preliminary and there is no certainty or assurance whatsoever that these discussions will result in any transaction”. The announcement on potential takeover offer led to a massive surge in Tat Hong’s share price the next day. The stock rocketed from 41.5 cents to 63.5 cents.

Is this a value trap or value buy? Before jumping the gun, investors or traders must put things into perspective and evaluate whether Tat Hong’s shares are worth buying or trading. Since 2007, Tat Hong’s share price has tumbled from a high of $3.36 and is now languishing at a 6 year low of $0.58.

Stocks

The Explosive Surge of The Hour Glass

April 4, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1165 Views 0 Comments

The Hour Glass is a listed luxury watch retail group in Asia with headquarter in Singapore. Founded in 1979 by the husband and wife team, Dr. Henry Tay and Dato’ Jannie Tay, the company started operation in Lucky Plaza through a partnership with Metro Holdings. In recent years, the company’s share price has surged from $0.30 in 2009 to almost $2.00 in 2014. Post stock-split of a one-into-three exercise in 2014, the current share price is now trading at $0.74.

What sets apart The Hour Glass from other luxury watch competitors is that it also has a substantial property portfolio. According to its 3Q2016 financial report, the group is holding on to $64 million worth of investment properties. In 2015, it acquired two Australian properties, namely an 11,000 square feet heritage listed retail and commercial property in Sydney and an 8,000 square feet retail property in Brisbane’s prime luxury retail precinct for $6.3 million. Such property investments reflect the listed company’s strategy for growth in the future.

Besides laying the groundwork for future growth, it is also making the effort to grow its core business. Amid the global economy uncertainties, The Hour Glass acquired the Watches of Switzerland in 2015 for $13.3 million.

Trading

What Are The Advantages Of Trading Online

March 29, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 891 Views 0 Comments

It won’t be wrong to say that Internet has completely changed the way many things are done these days. Today, you can buy almost everything online. You can search for information on all kinds of products and services. You can also ask for recommendations from your friends and family on social networks regarding certain products or other things.

The Possibility Of Trading Online

Thanks to the easy availability of Internet, you can also trade online. You just need a computer and an Internet connection to trade online at one of the several brokers that offer the facility of trading online. Online trading has grown a lot over the past few years. There are a number of advantages of this type of trading and here is a list of some of the major advantages.

One of the biggest advantages is that it is extremely easy and simple for individuals to conduct trades. You can buy various instruments such as stocks, currencies, commodities, CFDs and various other such financial instruments over the Internet. You do not need to give a call to the broker or do anything else to buy a financial instrument. You simply need to log onto the website of the broker and place orders.

personal finance Self improvement

Are you a motivated wealth builder?

March 27, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1072 Views 0 Comments

One of the worst nightmares of a salaried employee is being retrenched. This is especially so for mature workers in their forties and fifties. The prospect of losing your job at such career stage can not only be frightening, but also damaging to your financial health. In this regard, are you a motivated wealth builder?

Recently, a Singaporean called Mr Chua is still looking for work 6 months after losing his job. His experience is not unique in Singapore and can happen to anyone of us, given the competitive job market. To mitigate the damages arising from job retrenchment, we must always strive to be a motivated wealth builder.

One of the most common perceptions is that you must be good at managing your personal finances in order to be considered an effective wealth builder. To this end, I feel that ensuring employability and job longevity play an important role in our wealth journey as well. Most of us tend to place too much focus in our job and overlook the importance of enhancing new skills or knowledge with the aim of developing a second career in the later stage of our working lives. We are always too pre-occupied with our office work and tend to give less priority in upgrading our “individual software”.

Stocks

Raffles Medical Group’s Proposed Stock Split

March 22, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1333 Views 0 Comments

Raffles Medical Group (RMG) recently announced share split of each company share into three ordinary shares. It is not a done deal yet and the proposed move is still subject to approval of shareholders at a general meeting and the approval of SGX.

The rationale given is that the proposed share split will make the company shares more accessible to retail investors because of the reduction of each board lot. In addition, the move will also expand the shareholder base from the current approximate 7,780 shareholders.

I am not invested in this counter but have been tracking the company’s performance. Given that SGX has reduced the board lot trading size from 1000 to 100, RMG’s rationale for the stock split is not exactly convincing. This is because most retail investors can afford investing in RMG at current price, albeit at lower board lot size. On the flipside, existing shareholders may face risks of a decline in their share value after the implementation of the proposed share split. There is no assurance that the subdivided shares will be $1.39 after the implementation of the stock split.

On its financial health, RMG is doing reasonably well. Profit after tax is $69.3 million in 2015, a growth of 2.4% increase from $67.6 million in 2014.

Property investment; Singapore market; housing prices

7 Money-Wise Tips When You Buy a Home

March 21, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1117 Views 0 Comments

With property prices rising, there’s a need to be more financially savvy when it comes to shopping for a home. Not so much as cutting corners but finding better and more efficient ways to shop for a house. Considering how much you’re going to need to shell out for one, being money-wise is a good, practical approach to take.

Money-Wise Tips

Use property listings. In a world where everything happens online, checking online property listings is certainly one way to save customers the time and money it takes to find available properties for sale. With sites like Property Guru, homes in OUG Parklane for sale can be found in a matter of minutes instead of the hours or days it used to take. You won’t have to pay a visit to the properties for a first look. You can do that online and generate a better list of prospective homes that meet your requirements. In the past, home shoppers could only explore a few homes so coming up with a prospective list of properties took time. Now, you can achieve the same results at your desk. You save on time, effort and travel, all with handy tools like property finders.

make money

Three ways of making more money

March 18, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 721 Views 0 Comments

I suppose at some point in your life, the thoughts of making more money must have crossed your mind. Otherwise, you will not be visiting my blog! When I started my financial journey, I did not know that I would follow my late father’s footstep and become a sole breadwinner one day. Being young, I could not appreciate what Dad has done for us. On hindsight, if you have been receiving all the time and not giving, you may tend to take things for granted.

To feed us, Dad had toiled and worked hard all his life, much to the detriment to his health. At the age of 38, he suffered from a crippling stroke that would make him disabled for 20 long years. As a result, his income abilities got impaired and our family suffered for many years. Now that I am approaching 40 and am taking on the same responsibility as a sole breadwinner, I am determined to work hard for money and also to make my money work hard at the same time in order to mitigate the financial damages arising from permanent disabilities.

Work hard for money

The conventional way to make more money is to moon-light or take on part-time jobs.

Gold

Make explosive wealth with gold

March 15, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1400 Views 1 Comment

Recently, my wife and I liquidated our UOB Gold Saving Accounts (GSA) again. We are consolidating our funds with the aim of purchasing a new Executive Condominium.

Overall, including the profits made on 25 February 2016, we made a total profits of $800 from gold. Not a huge amount of profits but considering the fact that we held the investments for only three weeks, it was quite a good investment in my opinion. But is it possible to make explosive wealth with gold?

Basically there are two main ways to invest in gold. One is to buy physical gold, that is gold bullion which comes in the form of gold bar and coins. In Singapore, you can purchase gold bullion from BullionStar, one of the largest dealers with more than 300 types of precious metals. The most attractive aspect about buying investment-grade bullion in Singapore is that there is no need to pay tax. Thus, foreigners can take advantage of this and make online purchases from BullionStar and then store their gold in BullionStar’s Vault Storage.

However, the thing about buying bullion is that you should not expect to make quick profits out of it. You buy physical gold as a form of wealth preservation and store of value to protect against market crises.

Property investment;

Managing your CPF proceeds from the sale of HDB flat to build your wealth

March 14, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 998 Views 0 Comments

My wife and I have been house-hunting for the past few years and recently just decided to purchase an Executive Condominium (EC). The desire to upgrade to an EC is because of the new addition to our family. With the arrival of my boy, we need a bigger space. But the key motivation behind this move is basically I want my children to grow up in a better environment. I always feel that people living in HDB three room flats come from “challenging” backgrounds – drug addicts, ex-convicts, etc. I know it is too sweeping to make this sort of statement as I have been living in HDB three-room flat for more than 30 years. But as parents we all want the best for our kids. So in today’s article, I shall note down how to manage CPF proceeds from the sale of HDB flat to build your wealth.

Selling your existing HDB and buying another resale HDB

Firstly, if you are buying EC, you can only apply for bank loans. HDB don’t offer loans to EC owners. Nevertheless, before I touch on the financial aspects for buying EC, I will like to touch on the finances for buying a second resale HDB flat.

Stocks

OSIM founder may not succeed in privatising the company?

March 11, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1063 Views 0 Comments

OSIM founder may not succeed in privatising the company? When the market is bullish, news of merger and acquisitions are usually met with positivity because generally, valuations will be higher and thus, the take-over offers would often be attractive to shareholders. However, the case is usually reverse during bear markets because of the possibility of hostile take-overs by competitors.

Sometimes, the management may even attempt to privatise the company on the cheap with the eventual aim of sharing the profits and dividends among the major shareholders. This is probably the case for OSIM, which recently announced a shocking voluntary cash offer by the founder, Ron Sim. However, whether Ron can succeed in privatising OSIM remains a big question mark. In this article, similar experience can be drawn from K1 Ventures, which made similar approach back in 2012.

Firstly, under the SGX Listing Rule, in order for the privatisation offer to be successful, OSIM founder must acquire at least 90% of the total number of issued shares (excluding treasury shares). Thereafter, OSIM founder is required to buy over the remaining shares of those “dissenting shareholders” who refused to accept his initial cash offer of $1.32 per share. Currently, the founder holds 69.25% of the total shares and thus requires only an additional of 20.75% to delist OSIM.

Stocks

OSIM founder finally revealed true color

March 8, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1105 Views 0 Comments

For many years, OSIM has been buying back its shares from the open market. As an investor, I had always been curious why the company was so aggressive. Nevertheless, purchasing shares from the open market is a good sign because it means the management has a lot of confidence in its growth prospect.

On 7 March 2016, legendary entrepreneur Ron Sim finally decided to show-hand. The founder of famous local luxury massage arm-chair maker announced a voluntary unconditional cash offer of S$1.32 for all the issued ordinary shares in the Company. The offer was made through Vision Three Pte. Ltd.

The last shares buy back announcement by OSIM was on 3 November 2015 and the company has already amassed 31,089,400.

The offer price represents a premium of approximately 31.8% and 33.5% to the volume-weighted average price (“VWAP”) per share for the corresponding one-month and three-month periods up to and including 29 February 2016, respectively.

I am a big fan of OSIM and has been tracking the stock for several years. In one of my previous posts on OSIM, I pointed out that the OSIM was trading at $0.04 per share during the Great Financial Crisis. Yes, that’s right, $0.04.

personal finance

10 Easy Ways To Make Extra Money

March 4, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1594 Views 0 Comments

Although money makes the world go round, you may find yourself in a spin by not having sufficient funds in your bank account. But if you struggle to make ends meet, feel as though your pay cheque doesn’t go far enough or simply want some extra cash to spend on life’s luxuries, then consider giving one or more of the following 10 easy money-making tips a try:

1. Forex trading

Short for foreign exchange, forex is the largest financial market in the world and allows anyone to take advantage of currency fluctuations caused by interest rates, inflation, government policy, and a wide range of other factors. It has fewer barriers than other forms of trading and is simple to get going.

2. Online surveys

Research companies are always on the look out for members of the public to answer online surveys and test new products. This can be done while watching TV or before you go to bed at night and will result in either cold hard cash or another type of reward.

3. Sell your holiday snaps

You don’t have to be a professional to sell photographs, as stock image agencies constantly need new and novel images of far-flung foreign destinations for their databases.

Stocks

Is it worth investing in Keppel Corporation now?

February 26, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1071 Views 0 Comments

Many financial advisors like to say that investor should not attempt to time the market. I do not disagree on this point but then again, there are times investor should really avoid investing in the stock market, especially during bull-runs. Then, there are times investors should enter the stock market because of the abundance of bargains. Entering the stock market at the wrong time and choosing the wrong stock to invest in without circle of competence can potentially damage your financial portfolio. It can even ruin your wealth. Let’s take a look at Keppel Corporation and review whether it is worth investing in it now.

Investors who bought Keppel Corporation shares in 2007 and hold them till now will be staring at massive paper losses. This is because they would have bought at a high of $12.00 to $13.00 per share and now the share price is [This is a premium article. The rest of the content is blocked and can be accessible by SG Wealth Builder Members only. To read the full content, please sign up as member.]

Not a member yet? You may sign up to become a member of SG Wealth Builder.

Gold; portfolio management

$500 profits from UOB Gold Savings Account

February 25, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 2012 Views 1 Comment

Yesterday, my wife liquidated our UOB Gold Savings Account (GSA) and made a profit of $500. It wasn’t a big amount of course but considering the fact that we held the account for only one week, it was really easy money. Opening the UOB Gold Savings Account account was really hassle-free as you may do so at any UOB bank branch located near your home.

The best part about UOB Gold Savings Account is that you can use UOB Personal Internet Banking to carry out transaction via the internet platform or UOB Mobile from Mondays to Fridays 8am to 11pm excluding Singapore public holidays. This is a new feature introduced by UOB bank a couple of years ago.

Before you open an account, please check out the various fees for UOB Gold Savings Account in UOB’s website. There are several charges that you need to factor in because they would affect your yield.

This is not the first time that I touched on UOB’s GSA. A few years ago, I had also made some money from UOB GSA and shared with readers the merits and pitfalls of investing in gold. When it comes to building wealth, you should always focus on investing what you know best.

Stocks

Is it worth investing in SingTel now?

February 24, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1038 Views 2 Comments

The nightmare continues. Just when investors think that the stock market storm is over, the correction resumes lately. The reality is that business fundamentals don’t change overnight and so does the stock market. China’s slow down began a couple of years ago and not weeks before. The build up to the oil supply glut began a few years ago and not recently. So investors need to be clear that this down-turn is going to be a painfully long winter and it’s not going to go away soon. But amid the bearish market sentiment, there are certainly companies that are worth investing but currently facing price corrections. Among them is SingTel.

The first thing that investors should note is that SingTel is a regional giant that serves more than 550 million mobile customers in Asia, Australia and Africa. This investment moat sets them apart from the other two smaller local rivals, M1 and Starhub. Having this investment moat gives SingTel the economies of scale for procurement and marketing. Most importantly, being the market leader, they are able to influence market trends and set data and mobile plan prices to their advantages.

Over the past one year, the announcement of a fourth telco in Singapore has brought a lot of buzz to the market.

Money management; personal finance; relationship

In memory of a Singapore’s investment legend

February 22, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 970 Views 0 Comments

This is my 500th blog article! For a long while, I thought hard about what to post for this milestone article. It has to be meaningful of course and should resonate with readers on the topic of building wealth. Eventually, I decided to dedicate this article to the late Dr Michael Leong, founder of financial portal, Shareinvestor.com. There are many battles that a wealth builder must fight on a daily basis but there is only battle that everyone cannot afford to lose and that is losing our health. On 12th February 2016, Dr Michael Leong lost his battle with colon cancer.

To be honest, I do not know Dr Michael Leong at all but I heard about Shareinvestor.com a few years ago from one of the business associates. He told me that if I aspired to grow my blog, then I must benchmark against the standard of Shareinvestor.com. I was curious about what he said and then decided to check out the website.

True enough, I realized that Shareinvestor.com is a powerful data-driven investment website that allows retail investors to make informed investment decisions on stocks. Apparently, Dr Michael had founded the website in 1999 and then sold it to SPH in 2008 for $12 million.

Property investment; Singapore market; private housing prices

Staggering $238 million extension charges for property developers

February 19, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1113 Views 0 Comments

As a wealth builder, I will always try to avoid investing in property stocks because this sector is prone to many restrictive government policies due to the scarcity of land in Singapore. For many property developers, among the most unpopular policies should be the Qualifying Certificate Rules under the Residential Property Act.

Under the Qualifying Certificate Rules, listed property companies are technically considered as “foreign companies” as they would have some foreign shareholders. Thus, they are obliged to sell all their units within 5 years from the date of the Qualifying Certificate or collective sale deal. Failing to do so would incur hefty penalty.

According to property consultancy firm Cushman and Wakefield (C&W), property developers may incur about $238 million of extension charges in 2016. This is certainly not a small amount to be scoffed at and it is also important to note that the extension charges are not one-off penalties. Developers would face annual charges as per the following:

8% per annum on the purchase price of the residential property for
the first year of extension;
16% per annum on the purchase price of the residential property for
the second year of extension; and
24% per annum on the purchase price of the residential property for
the third and subsequent years of extension.

Self improvement

Opportunity is when knowledge meets preparation

February 14, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 927 Views 0 Comments

From time to time, I like to review my previous blog posts. In an enlightening interview I done with Gerald Tay of Conspiracy of Real Estate Investments (CREi) Academy Group, I realized how accurate his predictions were in 2013. Check out my old article here.

As a wealth builder, I have deep respect for Gerald Tay because he was born to a rich family but subsequently had to start from square one because of some unforeseen family financial difficulties. As a result, his perspective is unique as he knows what it is like to be rich and poor. Below is an eerily accurate predictions made by Gerald in 2013 from my interview with him:

1) The world economy might be headed for a major financial crisis, making the 2008 financial crisis look like a chicken in a coup. Major economies (China, USA, Europe, Japan) are supported by a large quantity of ‘phony’ money printed endlessly by their governments. Instead of turning the economy around, massive debts are sending these nations towards default, and there’s no escape from a market crash in the future when you have such enormous debts.

2) Even if there’s no such catastrophic event mentioned above to happen anytime in the next 5 years, there might be some ‘black swan’ event that might just tip the balance and burst the asset bubble, especially in Asia.

Gold; portfolio management

Gold’s explosive start in 2016

February 13, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1059 Views 0 Comments

With fear firmly in grip on the global stock markets, gold price has seen an explosive start to 2016. The precious metal has surged an impressive 17 percent after bottoming in December 2015. Investors are fleeing the stock market and pouring massive funds in safe haven like gold and silver. Currently, gold is trading at spot price of USD 1238.40 per ounce. While it is still premature to claim that gold is in bull market, one thing that is certain is that globally, gold is still regarded as the safe haven in the midst of stock market chaos.

According to World Gold Council, the global demand for gold in 2015 remained flat as compared to 2014 at 4,212 tonnes. In spite of a weak start to the year 2015, gold demand rebounded in the 2nd half of 2015 due to huge buying from central banks and China. In fact, for China, the overall gold demand rose by 21% with investment in gold bullion being particularly strong as investors flocked to precious metal amid weaker currency and slowing economy.

Gold Trends in 2016

Alistair Hewitt, Head of Market Intelligence at the World Gold Council, said: “In a year that saw global economic and stock market turmoil, the first US interest rate rise in nine years and falling oil prices, demand for gold remained resilient, coming in at 4,212 tonnes for the full year.

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Chinese New Year 2016: Cherish The Tradition

February 12, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 785 Views 0 Comments

The first day of the Chinese New Year 2016 fell on 8 February, which is a special date for my wife and I. Seven years ago, we met on this day and fell in love with each other. We were amazed that time really flies and it seemed like yesterday we first met each other.

Our relationship has evolved over the years and as a result, our love has taken a slightly different dimension as compared to seven years ago. We don’t really need little gifts or expensive meals to strengthen the bond between us. In the past, we would fret over how to celebrate this special day together as a couple. Now, with two kids, it is definitely not easy to plan for a date, especially during this festive season.

We had our reunion dinner with my mum and brother’s family on 6 February (Saturday) instead of Sunday because my sister and my brother-in-law wanted to go to Krabi for holiday this week. This is the second time that my sister is travelling during the Chinese New Year and frankly speaking, I had some misgivings about it because my family hardly got any opportunities to get together due to our busy schedules.

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Fearless Investing

February 9, 2016 sgwealthbuilder 1022 Views 0 Comments

For many investors out there, it must have been a nightmarish experience for the past few months given the massive stock market decline. During this Chinese New Year long weekend, many Singapore investors and bloggers took this opportunity to take a break and recharge their batteries. Many choose to stay away from the stock market because they cannot bear to face the reality that a huge portion of their wealth just vanished into thin air.

Panic. Fear. Self doubts. Depression. Anger. These are the common emotions that have been displayed over and over again in many investors during the many stock market corrections. Unless you are a robot, you would have experienced some of these emotions if you have been vested in the stock market in the past few years. To be successful in investing, you must take the emotions out of investing. Not many people, including me, are able to achieve this. To achieve fearless investing, you must really be a disciplined investor and set entry and exit levels for every stocks that you purchased.

To be a fearless investor, you must have knowledge of the market and be precise in your execution. To do so, you need data for decision making.

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