SG Wealth Builder

Unconditional love

January 25, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 1713 Views 1 Comment

In my previous article, I chronicled the life of Dad and wrote about his demise two weeks ago. In this post, I would like to share with my readers on a few reflections of mine. No doubt many of us are busy making money, but I think it is important that sometimes we pause down and reflect on events in our lives.

Importance of protection
I am not an insurance agent and I don’t work in the finance industry. But you might be aware that in my previous articles, I have always encouraged my readers to insure themselves adequately. It is also important to educate yourselves on the type of insurance that best suit your needs. In my father’s case, when he was healthy, he ignored the importance of buying insurance. It was only after he suffered from stroke, then he regretted and realised his mistake. By then, no insurers would offer to protect him because he was considered a high-risk personnel to insure. Even Great Eastern rejected his Dependent Protection Scheme and returned his pro-rated premiums. So do make sure you are protected adequately and purchase insurance policies when you are healthy. My view is that term insurance policies offers the best protection value because for a low amount of premium, you can be insured for a large amount of money.

Money management; personal finance; relationship

Living with stroke for 20 years

January 21, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 1743 Views 3 Comments

On 5th Jan 2013, Dad passed away peacefully at home. He was only 58 years old. His demise ended 20 years of suffering from stroke. I am writing this article to pay tribute to a great man who had struggled and sacrificed so much for my family.

My father did not receive much education and worked as a lorry driver in his youth. He was a very hardworking man and worked every single day of the year, except for Chinese New Year. As he was the sole breadwinner, he was also very careful with his money but always ensure that my siblings and myself received good education. There were frequent quarrels with my mom over money issues but he always ensure that my mom has enough to spend for the household. In the eighties and early nineties, Singapore construction was booming with many projects in the pipeline. Dad’s small lorry business began to do well and we were not doing too bad either. There were frequent family outings and durian treats at home. In those days, under the old scheme, COE was even higher than today, but my dad managed to buy a second-hand Toyota family car. Things were looking pretty well for us.

Career management

7 in 10 Singaporeans plan to change jobs in 2013

January 16, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 1396 Views 2 Comments

According to a survey done by online recruitment firm Jobstreet.com, nearly 75% of Singaporean workers are considering changing jobs in 2013. This is despite the anticipated economy slowdown and forecasted sluggish job market in Singapore. Among the top pull factors for a job switch are salary and career progression.

Money still rules
The report confirmed my view that in order to draw a better salary and climb up the ladder, there is a need to switch job. Typical salary increments in Singapore average about 3-5%. With this kind of increment, normal salaried Singaporean can barely meet the inflation and maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

Even if job promotion is factored in, the increase in salary is probably $500 to $800. But if a better job offer comes along, the quantum increase is usually much higher. As a rule of thumb, job seekers should only consider switching job only if there is 20% hike in salary. There is no point switching companies for the sake of a few hundred dollars increment. You are better off staying in your current job and continue to build up your skills and networks.

When to jump ship
The report stated that the majority of the respondents singled out the first quarter as the best time to start a job hunt.

Property investment; Singapore market;

The Best Property Cooling Measure for Singapore

January 11, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 2125 Views 0 Comments

Today, the Singapore government announced a slew of measures to cool the residential property market. It also introduced a Seller’s Stamp Duty on industrial properties for the first time, to discourage speculative activity in the industrial market.

Measures Applicable to all Residential Property
The following measures will take effect on 12 January 2013:
a) Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates will be:
i) Raised between five and seven percentage points across the board.
ii) Imposed on Permanent Residents (PRs) purchasing their first residential property and on

Singaporeans purchasing their second residential property.
b) Loan-to-Value limits on housing loans granted by financial institutions will be tightened for individuals who already have at least one outstanding loan, as well as to non-individuals such as companies.
c) Besides tighter Loan-to-Value limits, the minimum cash down payment for individuals applying for a second or subsequent housing loan will also be raised from 10% to 25%.

Measures Specific to Public Housing
The following measures will take effect on 12 January 2013:
a)      Tighter eligibility for loans to buy HDB flats:
i)      MAS will cap the Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) for housing loans granted by financial institutions at 30% of a borrower’s gross monthly income.
ii)      For loans granted by HDB, the cap on the MSR will be lowered from 40% to 35%.

Money management; personal finance; relationship

Money & marriage

January 3, 2013 sgwealthbuilder 1703 Views 5 Comments

I saw an interesting article by fellow blogger AK71 on the topic of money and marriage. In his article, he illustrated a married person in his early 30s who keep borrowing money to support his family of four and pay monthly housing loans. The person’s gross income is $28k and he is the sole breadwinner and has two kids. AK71 wrote that the person “should not have gotten married” and that he should not have bought a 5 room flat, given his dire financial situation. I have different views from AK71.

Married for the wrong reason?
Firstly, I can understand what the person is going through. After all, I live in a 5 room flat, is a sole breadwinner, my wife is a full time housewife, have a baby girl, support my parents, support my in-law and own a car. So the burden on my shoulder is no less than the person in question, albeit I drew a much higher salary.

But in my opinion, his current financial plight is not caused by his decision to set up a family. In fact, it is a misconception among many Singaporeans that “if you don’t have money, you should not get married in the first place as marriage requires financial commitments”.

personal finance

Importance of Emergency and Opportunity Funds

December 31, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1847 Views 4 Comments

Today is the last day of year 2012. I am happy to note that I managed to build up my personal Emergency Fund that allows me and my family to survive without my income for six months.

It took me more than two years to save up this amount of money. This is because I had used up all my personal savings for my wedding last year. In addition, I am also the sole-breadwinner, had a baby girl and owns a car. Therefore, it took me quite some time to save up this amount of money. My partner and myself decided that we would only dip into fund when I lost my job or faced a personal finance crisis. Henceforth, we put the fund into a fixed deposit.

I always encourage young people who just entered the workforce to build up their Emergency Fund as soon as possible. Life is always unpredictable. You never know when you will lose your job or encounter personal finance crisis.

Having an emergency fund can help to provide short term security against market uncertainties. It allows you and your family to carry on life as per normal whilst you embark on the recovery journey.

Insurance coverage; medical shield; financial planning; personal finance

Importance of buying insurance when you are healthy

December 17, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 642537 Views 6 Comments

As 2012 is coming to an end, I am reviewing my financial health status. I got married last year and this year my baby girl was born. Therefore, one of the outcome of my review is to purchase the Aviva SAF Group Term Life Policy. I think it is one of the most value for money term policies in Singapore. For as little as S$4.21, applicants can be insured up to a maximum coverage of $1000,000. Of course, only NSFs, NSmen and personnel working for MINDEF are eligible for this policy.

The need to have adequate insurance cover really hit me hard twenty years ago when I was in secondary school. My dad, who was the sole breadwinner, suffered from stroke then and was unable to work. My family lost our sole income and to make things worse, my dad did not purchase any insurance covers. As a result, we went through a period of financial hardship. On hindsight, if my father had bought any life insurance policies when he was healthy, our family situation would definitely be better.

It is important that you insured yourself for the correct amount of protection. In addition, it is important that you buy the correct policies.

salaries

Year end bonuses

December 5, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 2220 Views 0 Comments

It is that time of the year when salaried workers collect their year end bonuses. A couple of weeks ago, the government had also declared 13th month and 0.70 month variable bonuses for all civil servants. With the world economy still in the doldrums, I believe most Singapore workers’ year end bonuses would be modest, in view of anticipated moderated growth for Singapore economy.

This year will be the 7th time I am collecting year-end bonuses. I will be receiving 2.5 months of bonuses, excluding 13th month. The amount is not big, but substantial enough for me to settle my renovation and insurance loans. I also intend to set aside some money for some investments and my baby’s endowment plan. I targeted to settle my car loan by next year-end, using next year’s bonuses. With that, I would only need to worry about my housing loan.

It is important for me to settle these loans as soon as possible as I am currently the house hold sole breadwinner. For those in the same situation as me, you would understand the pressure I am facing. On looking back, this period marks an important milestone for me as I embark on my wealth journey toward financial freedom.

Entrepreneurship

Earn your first million as an appreneur

November 20, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 2036 Views 1 Comment

Given the prevalent use of mobile phone, is it possible to earn your first million as an appreneur?

Nowadays, most people carry smart phones and download apps. This represent a good opportunity to make good money from making apps. In fact, with the advent of online technology, the entry barrier to develop an app has been lowered. Nowadays, you don’t need much programming skill to develop a simple app. All you need is a good solid idea that has not been developed as an app and is useful in our daily lives.

Every now and then, you would come across articles on wonder kids who became rich from developing apps. Some of these kids were not even 10 years old when they made their first million! So now everybody, whether you are old or young, has a chance to become rich through developing apps.

You stand a much higher chance earning your first million from developing an app than striking the toto or lotteries. And you don’t need to quit your job to become a full time appreneur either. You can develop apps after work and at your own sweet pace.

If you don’t like the process of developing an app but nevertheless would like to own an app, you can engage a developer for help.

Retirement

Retiring in Singapore

November 19, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1716 Views 1 Comment

Recently, on a flight to Japan for work, I watched Andy Lau and Deanie Ip’s A Simple Life. The heartwarming film is based on a true story of a producer and his servant. It is about a relationship between a young master called Roger (Lau) and the servant of the family who raised him, Sister Peach (Ip). I had a lot of mixed feelings after watching the film and decided to blog down my thoughts.

Just like Hong Kong, Singapore is also facing the ageing population issue. To tackle the “silver tsunami”, the government is currently building up the infrastructure, such as nursing homes, community hospitals, training more nurses, doctors and therapists. But I suppose there is so much our government can do, in terms of hardware.

In Singapore, we are still lacking in software to manage the ageing issue. For example, every now and then, we read in the news of elderly who passed away unknown in their homes. Their decomposed were only discovered after their neighbours reported foul stench to the police. I believe as more and more Singaporeans choose to be single, the issue of providing community support to lone seniors will be a problem in the next few decades.

Property investment; Singapore market;

Reckless HDB buyers

November 15, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 2019 Views 2 Comments

Lately, one of the fellow bloggers responded to one of my previous posting which criticized him for promoting unethical values in The Finance SG. I always believe in differences in views and accepted that different people can have different opinions and outlook in life.

But promoting unethical values that border on criminal act of false information declaration is another matter altogether (the culprit actually lied to the authority and gave fake information for delaying the signing of agreement so that he can use his girlfriend’s December CPF bonuses to pay for the downpayment).

The culprit got the cheek to claim he got the money to pay the downpayment. Fine then go ahead and pay in cold hard cash please. By delaying the payment, the blogger is actually depriving another deserving Singaporean couple of a chance to own a HDB flat. My sister-in-law is among those who are affected by such scumbags.

This fellow needs a reality check but obviously he is still a student and has not stepped into the working world.

And to top it off, his younger sister of 21 years old is also applying for a HDB flat after getting into a relationship of 7 months. No wonder the government is implementing measures to prevent young couples from abusing the system.

Stocks

My investment adventure with YHM (formerly known as China Enersave)

November 14, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 2323 Views 2 Comments

I invested in YHM, formerly known as China Enersave, since 2008. Recently, I noted that it is currently one of the top traded stock in Singapore stock market. I would like to share with my readers my investment experience on this stock.

Back in 2008, China Enersave was a company that specialized in building and operating biomass generation plants in China. The business model was good as it collected waste biomass from farmers in China and used the waste as feedstock to generate electricity.

However, instead of focussing on the renewable energy sector, the company made the terrible mistake of investing in one coal powerplant. The management team hope to generate revenue from the coal powerplant to fuel the expansion of its biomass plants. Apparently this strategy did not work out as the fluctuating coal prices hurt their revenue from the coal powerplant. Second mistake by the company was that it had diversified it’s business ventures too much and had lost focus. At one point, it had 7 to 10 business associates/subsidiaries, ranging from property investment, renewable energy and marine scaffolding.

Because of these factors, coupled with the financial crisis in 2008-2009, the company was on the brink of being liquidated in 2011.

personal finance

Lending money to friends

November 12, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1600 Views 5 Comments

Recently, one of my army acquaintances texted me to borrow money from me. He is one of my reservist army bunkmates and I got to know him only a few years back (both of us were from different units during active times).

When I received his message for help, I was a bit apprehensive to lend him the money. This is because my father was hospitalized recently and my wife is a full-time homemaker. And I have a baby daughter. So I thought to myself if I had any spare cash, my priority would go to my immediate family first.

After some thinking, I texted him back and explained my financial situation to him. I also suggested to lend him $50 instead. He understood my plight and politely turned down my suggestion.

I suppose most of us would face financial difficulties at certain points in our lives. Sometimes we really need a helping hand from close friends to tide us over obstacles. I believe in this case, my friend genuinely needed my help but unfortunately, I could not support his request due to my family circumstances. I wish him all the best and hope things would turn out well for him.

Property investment; Singapore market; housing prices

5 room HDB BTO flat

October 30, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1683 Views 15 Comments

I came across a blogger in The Finance SG and felt compelled to blog down my thoughts. Apparently this blogger and his girlfiriend had purchased a 5-room HDB BTO flat but had difficulty forking out $4000 cash for the balance downpayment. He is still a full-time student and has no income.

Lack of integrity
After reading his article, I can only said this blogger has no integrity at all. He bragged that he managed to fool the HDB into delaying the signing of the agreement lease for many times. This is because he don’t have the cash to pay the balance downpayment and has to depend on his girlfriend’s year end bonus and use her CPF savings to pay for it.

To me, this fellow don’t deserve the flat at all. Obviously he don’t have the financial capability to afford the flat, so HDB should have given the flat to more deserving applicants. In fact, I wondered aloud how in the bloody world did his Housing Loan Eligibility got approved? The couple’s monthly income is only $2400 and this guy is still studying. Either HDB is not doing their due diligence or this blogger is telling half truth.

Self-denial and overestimation of ability
One of the blogger’s readers pointed out that if he cannot even afford $4000, he has no business buying such a huge flat.

personal finance

Singapore government revamped Medishield

October 18, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1453 Views 0 Comments

On 10 Oct 2012, I wrote an article on “The state of healthcare in Singapore” and criticized the limitations of 3M (Medisave, Medishield and Medifund). Two days after my blog posting was published, the Singapore government immediately announced changes in the Medishield, our national healthcare insurance. Among the changes included the coverage and claim limits for policyholders.

Readers might call it pure coincidence. After all, the changes would take effect only in March next year, even though it was announced two days after my blog posting. I would like to think so but more importantly, the response validates my concerns of the state of healthcare in Singapore. In my previous posting, I had criticized Medishield’s fine print of “SGD50,000 maximum claim per policy year”. The government noted that and stated that they would increase the cap to SGD70,000 next year.

Some readers may argue that enhancement is incremental only but I feel that at least the government is moving in the right direction. In fact, the announced changes in the Medishield only served to reinforce my argument that it is time for our national insurance policy to be enhanced. Going forward, I feel that the next step should be to relax the ruling on the use of Medisave and also to review the eligibility requirements of Medifund.

Money management; personal finance; relationship

The state of healthcare in Singapore

October 10, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1818 Views 8 Comments

The past few weeks has been very distressing for my family. My dad was hopitalized and warded in the intensive care unit for pneumonia. During this period, we received a couple of calls from the hospital informing us that my dad was in very critical condition and that we should visit him immediately.

Thankfully, he pulled through and is now warded in the general ward. At the back of our mind, we were also very concerned about the costs incurred because we are all aware of the exorbitant hospitalization fees in Singapore.

Incidentally, my late father-in-law was also hospitalized in intensive care unit, albeit last year. His situation was more complicated as he needed a lot of blood transfusion, kidney dialysis and other life supporting equipment aids. Eventually, his body could not take it and he passed on after three months in the intensive care unit. His hospitalisation bills amounted to more than S$300,000 and after Medishield and subsidies, my wife’s family still owed the hospital ten of thousands dollars hospital bills. The hospital (which is different from my dad’s) hounded my wife’s family for payment and even issued them with lawyer’s letters.

The $8.00 operation
I recalled in 2010, one of our Singapore ministers had a heart bypass operation and he bragged to the whole world that he only paid S$8.00 for the hospital bills.

Self improvement

Investment mistakes

October 4, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 0 Views 5 Comments

In my previous post, one of my readers, “Jack”, wrote me a long comment. He blasted me for being callous and for gloating over Genneva victims’ plight.

Well, firstly I must apologize that his comment was inadvertently deleted today when I used my iphone to view his comment. As my policy is to publish all comments, I sincerely hope Jack can re-post his comment again in my blog for sharing purposes. With regard to his comment, I have a few issues which I think need some clarification.

Fools Never Learn
The objective of my previous blog is never to provoke anyone. If readers find my blog offensive, there is always a choice not to patronize my blog. Now, if you ask me again, I would still say those who lost their money in the Genneva fiasco deserved it. In fact, I hope they don’t get back a single cent at all. Why?

Because people never learn unless they are taught a painful lesson in life. In 2008, a lot of Singaporean lost their money investing in Minibonds. About 8,000 people in Singapore had sunk in S$376 million in Series 1 to 3 and 5 to 10 of the Minibond notes. They thought that they were investing in bonds and since they were sold by local financial institutes, they couldn’t go wrong.

Money management; personal finance; Investment

Gold scams

October 2, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1699 Views 0 Comments

A few days ago, I saw a Channel 8 news bulletin on Genneva Gold Trading Firm, which is a company that offers gold buyback scheme to investors. Apparently, it is being sued by its customers for not meeting its financial obligations. Quite a number of Singaporeans had actually invested with the company.

In the news, one customer even [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.]

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Stocks

Victory for k1 minority shareholders!

September 25, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1765 Views 0 Comments

Last month, I posted an article on GKB Holding’s proposed voluntary conditional cash offer for k1 Ventures Limited, the investment arm of Keppel Group. I am pleased to inform readers that the proposal did not go through and that the offer had lapsed on 14 September.

The company had received only 77.62% of the total number of issued shares, way below the required 90% for the proposal to go through.

Extension of offer closing date
I was quite annoyed with GKB Holdings for extending the offer closing date TWICE. I thought the management of GKB Holdings was quite disrespectful to the minority shareholders when they extended the offer closing date without even improving the offer.

In view of the APB and Heineken saga, they should have revised and enhance the offer to make it appealing to the shareholders. Instead, they stuck with their initial offer of $0.135 per share and expect more shareholders to take up the offer. Their stance is that the counter is thinly traded and the offer is made at a premium based on the last 6 months of trading.

Being a long-term investor and loyal supporter of the company, I am disappointed with this recent turn of events.

Property investment;

QE3 and opportunities for investors

September 19, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1773 Views 1 Comment

Last week, the US Fed announced another round of money printing programme known as QE3. It was reported that US$40 billion of new money will be issued every month until the US jobs situation improves. Does this latest move by US government means opportunities for investors?

Since 2008, the US government had purchased trillions worth of Treasury securities, hoping to revive the economy and stimulate job growth. However, the strategy doesn’t seem to work and US unemployment remains stubbornly high at about 8%.

Muddling through the years
I am not surprised that the US Fed announced this QE3. This stimulus measure comes at a time when the US citizen is voting for a new president. President Obama’s job is on the line, so he has to make a last-ditch attempt to win votes and placate the citizen’s rising unhappiness over the persistenet high unemployment rate.

But whether this third round of money printing will be effective is a big question mark. The previous two round of money printing had flooded world wide markets with “hot money” but ultimately those moves were widey regarded as flops, in terms of job creation for the US citizens.

Yes, its true that QE1 and QE2 had helped US to avert financial disaster in 2008 – 2009 but until now, the US economy still remain in a state of limbo.

Blog updates

The Finance SG is Singapore’s best personal finance blog

September 17, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 2722 Views 4 Comments

My blog has recently crossed the 100,000 page views milestone. Compared to other famous blogs in Singapore, I think this achievement is nothing fantastic. In fact, one well-known blogger announced that his blog garnered more than 20 million page views a couple of weeks ago.

Whilst I envy his achievement and hope to emulate his success one day, one thing I would like to register is that investment is a very niche topic. The pool of interested readers for investment or personal finance is much smaller compared to more popular themes like food and travels. Nevertheless, my mission is to carry on and share with my readers my investment insights, my investment mistakes, money-making opportunities and lesson learned.

Singapore Number 1 investment blog
I often analyze statistics for my blog readership and noted that up to 70% of my readers were derived from The Finance (www.thefinance.sg), a local blog articles directory on investment and personal finance topics. Normally I don’t write reviews on other blogs but I think I owed it to The Finance for my blog’s success so far.

I think I am not exaggerating when I claimed that The Finance is Singapore’s best personal finance blog.

Stocks

K1 Ventures Stocks

August 25, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1990 Views 0 Comments

I have been tracking K1 Ventures for more than 7 years and had invested in the stock over the years. K1 Ventures is an investment holding company invested in diverse sectors such as finance, transportation leasing, education and oil and gas.

Those who are vested in this counter would know that this is an excellent stock which had paid out huge dividends over the years. Since FY05, it had consistently paid out dividends amounting to a total of $0.2275 per share.

If you had bought the share 7 years ago at $0.33 and hold on to them till now, you would have an incredible yield of 68.9%. Now, how many stocks in SGX are capable of giving this sort of dividends nowadays?

Voluntary Offer

Henceforth, I was pretty upset that GKB recently made a voluntary offer for K1 Ventures at $0.135 per share. For the uninitiated, GKB is an investment vehicle owned by Keppel Corp, CEO of K1 and BV Singapore. The consortium currently owns a combined stake of 62% in K1 and will own 100% on successful takeover.

The offer was so low that I didn’t even bother to think twice on whether to accept it. After all, if I hold on to the stock, over the next few years, I could potentially receive dividends well in excess of the current stock price, bearing in mind that many of the investments of K1 Ventures are riped for divestment.

Investment; SGX stocks; Equities; Stock trading

IPO: My views on Far East Hospitality Trust

August 8, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 0 Views 0 Comments

Some time back ago, I received a query from a reader asking for my views on Far East Hospitality Trust IPO. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, normally I refrain from giving advice on IPO, especially business trusts or REITs.

I must admit that my knowledge in business trusts and REITs is lacking. But then again, investors need to understand that business trusts and REITs are very different from shares trading in the stock market.

The structure and nature of the business model can be quite complicated for the man in the street to comprehend. For example, investors need to know that REITs are actually managed by external managers and are backed by sponsors which are usually major property developers or shipping companies.

Sometimes, there may be non-transparency concerning party-related transactions, so there might be cases of poor disclosures to investors. In addition, the assets are financed not only by unit holders, but also through bank loans as well.

Borrowers have to top up their loan facilities, should underlying asset values fall below a certain point. So investors need to understand the leveraging risks of business trusts and REITs as well and not just be seduced by the compelling yield.

salaries

Higher Starting Salaries for Fresh Graduates

August 6, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1722 Views 0 Comments

A recent survey released by Hay Group last week revealed that fresh graduates are drawing higher starting salaries compared to 2011. Those without Honors drew S$2, 678 while those with second upper Honors and higher drew S$2, 766 and S$2, 882 respectively. It also revealed that those working in the engineering sector drew the highest average salaries of $2,777 without honors. Jobs in research & development and merchandise operations ranked second and third, with the graduates earning S$2, 764 and S$ 2, 742 a month, respectively.

I am actually quite surprised by the survey as I always assumed that those working in the finance sector are usually paid well and would be among earn highest earners. But the results of the survey showed otherwise.

Based on the results, I think engineers are still in demand and would still command respectable starting salaries. I am heartened by this as my degree is engineering and I hold an engineering job. I would like to think that my engineering career can still last for another 10 -15 years, unless I decided to do a career switch or switch to entrepreneurship.

Another interesting fact is that the starting salaries for non-honors engineering graduates are quite high (at $2,777).

personal finance

Personal Finance Expert, Dennis Ng, passed away

August 2, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1833 Views 1 Comment

I was shocked to learn that Dennis Ng has died suddenly of heart attack on 26th July. Dennis was well-known in Singapore to be a personal finance guru. He was the author of bestsellers, Mastering Your Personal Finance and What Your School Never Taught You About Money.

He was also the co-founder of HousingLoanSG.com, an independent mortgage consultancy portal. This article is dedicated specially to the man who have contributed greatly to personal finance literacy in Singapore.

I read from fellow bloggers in the investment community that he was someone who was willing to share his financial expertise and knowledge to novice investors. There are not many financial gurus, especially in Singapore’s context, who are willing to do so. Therefore, his demise is indeed a great loss to the investment community.

He is a role model of whom I aspire to be in the next 10 years. I don’t fancy myself as a guru, but it is my intention to share with my readers, my experience and lessons learned from investment mistakes. I hope that in the long run, I can reach the same level as Dennis Ng.

Thank you so much, Dennis Ng.Y

You shall be missed.

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personal finance

Special appeal to all Singaporeans to support Adelyn

July 31, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1766 Views 4 Comments

Many times, we took our health for granted. It is only when we lost our health, then we truly appreciate the beauty of life. I chanced upon this blog by a Singaporean girl called Adelyn Xinhui. She is born with cornea defect. I think many Singaporeans would recognise her face as she appeared in several Mediacorp charity shows before.

Xinhui has just released a music album, hoping to raise money for a cornea transplant operation. The operation cost more than $40k for each eye. Please read her story in (http://adelynxinhui.blogspot.sg/). In a gesture of support, my wife and me had bought one copy from her mom. Please help to spread the words around.

This operation may offer the girl a chance to lead a new lease of life and she genuinely needs help from fellow Singaporeans. I believe most of us can spare $20 to do a good cause.

Below is an extract from Adelyn’s blog:

My name is Adelyn. I am 10 years old. I was born with cornea defect called “Peter Anomaly”. I was sent for 4 times of cornea transplant when I was between 8 to 12 month old. However, all the cornea was rejected. Today, I can only visual lights, shadows and colors.

Self improvement

Robert Kiyosaki

July 23, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1947 Views 0 Comments

In recent months, I have been receiving requests from media and event organizers looking to promote their events on my blog, SG Wealth Builder. One of them was an event organizer who wished to promote Robert Kiyosaki’s event “The Power of Financial Education” held at Singapore Expo, June 2012.

I was approached a couple of weeks before the event was due to take place and was at first a bit skeptical. I mean my blog, SG Wealth Builder, is not even a popular investment blog in Singapore, so why would the event company chose to promote their event in it? I told my wife about it and she also found it puzzling.

Anyway, both the event company and me didn’t manage to work out a deal on time and so I missed the opportunity to promote Robert Kiyosaki’s event. On hindsight, I feel that it is a compliment that someone actually approached me to help them promote their events. Even though the deal didn’t go through, I feel honored that my blog, SG Wealth Builder, was considered by Robert Kiyosaki’s event company.

For the uninitiated, Robert Kiyoski is the famous author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, a motivational book on personal finance.

Blog updates

A new milestone for SG Wealth Builder

July 20, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 2248 Views 0 Comments

SG Wealth Builder stormed past 51,000 page views today. This is a new milestone for my blog and to be honest, I am very pleased that my blog’s readership has been rocketing over the last six months. Although I started this blog three years ago, I stopped blogging for quite a while in 2011 because of work commitments. At the end of 2011, page views for my blog was 8500 only.

The increasing popularity of SG Wealth Builder is a compliment and serves to reinforce in me that this blog is going in the right direction. I hope that by the end of this year, my blog can reach 100,000 page views. I believe this is achievable if I continue to blog frequently and share with my readers my investment thoughts.

Maybe its a form of job hazard but I have a habit of reviewing my blog’s performance. If you noticed, I have changed my blog’s template recently. This is to give my blog a refreshed look. Even with this fresh look, my focus will still be bringing quality content for my readers. In this regard, readers can look forward to more of my stock analysis and outlook on the stock market.

Stocks

My views on Ascendas Hospitality Trust

July 19, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1704 Views 1 Comment

I am no stock analyst but yesterday one of my readers emailed and asked about my views on the Ascendas Hospitality Trust impending IPO.

First of all, investors need to know that Ascendas Hospitality Trust is a business trust and not a typical real estate investment trust (Reit). In this case, about 80 percent of the assets will be in the business trust and 20 percent in the Reit.

To be honest, I am not sure how business trust works and normally if I don’t understand a business model, I would not invest in the company. This is not to say that Ascendas Hospitality Trust is not a good stock.

On the contrary, it can be a potentially good stock that delivers consistent yield for long term investors. However, I would not invest in such business trust because I will only invest in stocks with business models that I can understand. To me, investing should be kept simple and as a rule of thumb, you must be able to describe the business in one sentence.

Secondly, I usually do not invest in IPO. Most speculators or novice investors like to dabble in IPO. They might have made some money but I observed that many times, after the euphoria died down, investor’s interest in these IPO would also disappear, causing the prices to drop.

make money

How the rich make their money

July 13, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1980 Views 1 Comment

It is often said that the rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer. Globally, the issue of social gap is entrenching in many cosmopolitan cities. Even Singapore, which is home to one of the largest concentration of millionaires in the world, is no exception. One of the key questions is how did the rich make their money and preserve their wealth in times of crisis? In one of the financial workshops I attended recently, the consultant briefly shed some light on how the rich made their fortune.

Every now and then, you would have heard about investment themes like renewable energy, technology, currency, property, ETF, gold/silver, investment-linked insurances and what not. These are actually hypes made by the movers and shakers to create bubbles so that small time investors like you and me will buy-in.

What happened was that years before the bubbles occurred, the ultra rich gathered their analysts and made them formulate new investment themes. After determining areas where they can reap in big monies, the rich dudes then pump in their funds.

They would hold press conferences and churned out quantitative data and charts to convince retail investors that their investment themes are the next big things.