SG Wealth Builder

The importance of knowing your life purposes

May 17, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 630 Views 0 Comments

Are you going through the motions right now? Sometimes, we need to know our life purposes. After all, we only live once. Recently one of my colleagues attended a personal finance workshop arranged by my company. I was very interested to attend because the topics seemed very relevant to me but eventually I was unable to make it due to work commitments.

Over lunch, my colleagues updated me that the workshop indeed was very useful as it touched on various money issues in the local context, like CPF, hospitalization shields, life insurance and retirement plans. The instructor also gave tips on investments and the key concept of managing personal finances (budgeting, knowing the difference between “needs” and wants”).

OK, I thought to myself. These information and tips seemed rather useful but are actually quite fundamental stuff to me. Probably it could help a person become more financially astute but probably won’t enable him to become a rich person one day. But what set me thinking was a statement that my friend told me the coach wanted the participants to remember for life and that is: Always question yourself and know what are your purposes in life.

Knowing our life purposes is important.

Parenting

A tribute to my Mother and Father

May 13, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 545 Views 0 Comments

Today is Mother’s Day. Me and my siblings planned to give her a treat but she felt that the restaurants would be very crowded today. So we postponed our celebrations to next weekend.

My mother belongs to the generation of baby-boomers. She is someone who don’t express love on their lips and believes in tough love, hard work and sacrifice. Mother is a great person although I am not close to her since young. This is because I used to be a very mischievous brat who liked to talk back. Of course she wasn’t pleased with that and I was disciplined by her numerous times.

One of my mother’s qualities is her love for my family. When me and my siblings were still studying in secondary schools, my dad suffered from a major stroke and was unable to work till now. It was a very challenging chapter in my family’s journey and we struggled tremendously to get by.

Mother took on part-time jobs to supplement family income and also looked after my dad and my elderly grandmother. Those were dark days for my family as money was really tight at home. Before the stroke, Father used to be the sole bread-winner.

Insurance coverage; medical shield; financial planning; personal finance

Tan Kin Lian Blog

May 11, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 958 Views 0 Comments

Tan Kin Lian used to be my hero and I started this blog after being inspired by his blog. I like his online work helping to answer Singaporeans’ queries on matters regarding insurance policies.

Recently, I was reading Tan Kin Lian’s blog and came across his posting “Consumers who deserved to be ripped off”. I was quite angry when he made that comment because most people would find it difficult to understand the mechanism of the various insurance policies.

In the olden days, there was a lack of information available to the public for consumers to make informed choices. Thus, most of us would rely on our insurance agents to help us make the best financial decisions. In today’s Information Age, we can obtain information from online easily.

Make no mistake, I totally agreed with him that we should all buy term policies and hospitalization plan for protection purposes. The rest of the money can then be used for investing or consumption.

But what I am unhappy was that he made all these comments to the public after he stepped down as CEO from NTUC Income in 2008. I have been a loyal NTUC Income for 13 years and bought 3 life insurance policies during Mr Tan’s reign as CEO.

personal finance

Baby bonus

May 11, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 674 Views 1 Comment

In my previous post, “Sentiments of a Singaporean”, one of my readers pointed out whether it is fair to burden taxpayers who are single and do not have children with heavy costs of baby bonus.

It is human nature to feel sour grape seeing others who have babies receiving monies from the government while you are ineligible. Henceforth, it is perfectly natural that they might feel jealous having to give monies to citizen who are entitled to baby bonus. After all, they themselves don’t benefit from it, while should they support such proposal?

However, if we are able to cast aside our narrow-mindedness and place national interest before us, I feel that spending the extra $4-5 billions dollars is totally justifiable. At least from the perspective of a Singaporean. After all, if we don’t implement any drastic measures to increase birth rate soon, we are going to end up paying even much more 10 – 15 years down the road.

People are our only resources. If we are unable to produce enough babies, there could be implications on our economy and defense. This is because in future, there may not be enough young adults to support ageing Singaporeans. We may also lack enough young males for national defense.

Self improvement

Knowledge is key

May 9, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 929 Views 0 Comments

Through interactions with some of my friends, I came to realize that no investors become wealthy through herd investing. In order to become a successful investor, we need to equip ourselves with the right knowledge. We must have a curious mind and a thirst to acquire new knowledge. After all, knowledge is key.

It is very important that you start your investment or wealth-building journey early on in your life because that will give you a head-start. But before you start splashing out money on various investment schemes, always remember to build up your knowledge first.

If you plan to invest in property, options, gold, ETF, etc, attend courses and seminars to deepen your understanding on how these investments work. Read up topics on these subjects in the magazines, books and online articles on investment strategies. Talk to people, listen to their tips and learn from their investment mistakes.

You may also subscribe to my blog for free email notifications of new articles. Over the years, my followers and readership have been increasing. While this is flattering, I also feel the responsibility to write better content.

One of my motivations of starting this online project – SG Wealth Builder- is to raise my investment competency.

Blog updates

Reflections

May 9, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 706 Views 0 Comments

My blog’s page views will be hitting 25,000 soon! This is indeed a very heartening and encouraging milestone. I am writing this post to capture some reflections.

Although my blog’s readership is nowhere near the millions of hits enjoyed by popular Singaporean bloggers like Xiaxue and Tan Kin Lian, I am pleased that there are quite a few people who took time to read my blog and provided me feedback. It is always a nice feeling to know that people read my articles and appreciate my work. I am also glad that most of the comments had been constructive, which is encouraging as it spurs me to keep on blogging.

I would like to give thanks to you readers for your precious time and feedback. Although I am unable to blog as often as I used to be (due to work and family commitments), I would try my best to squeeze in time to document some of my investment reflections. The reflections captured in this blog is not only for sharing of knowledge, but also serve as a form of an online journal to me, reminding me to avoid some of the pitfalls I suffered during the early days of my investment journey.

Stocks

Investment Insight 2012: Thakral

May 4, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 0 Views 0 Comments

In 2010, I invested a fair bit of money in Thakral, one of the listed companies in Singapore. At that point of time, they declared their intention to change business focus and also proposed a significant dividend for the shareholders.

I did some research on the company and decided to invest, tempted by the declared dividend. Eventually, I did receive the dividends, but the stock prices fell in tandem. As the stock prices languished at that price, I sold my Thakral shares after a couple of months. Subsequently I did keep track of the stock price and company performance. For 2 years, the price remained at S$0.030.

Recently, due to the penny stock rally, I realized that Thakral had rocketed to S$0.040. I wondered if I had kept faith with Thakral, I would have made thousands of profits in one week. I don’t know if you ever had such investment experience but it sure pain like hell seeing the stock which you once owned rocketed by so much.

I sure am tempted to re-enter the stock market but still stand by my resolution to wait till the next stock market crash and then invest. Hopefully I can make a killing by then.

Career management; investments

Plight of a Singaporean male

April 30, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 489 Views 0 Comments

Recently, I was flattered to receive a long feedback from one of my readers, Hyom, to my previous post on a business idea to provide services to foreigners and PRs residing in Singapore. There was a lot of angry thinking in his response and I can also sense a tinge of injustice when he mentioned that he, as a Singaporean male, had to fork out much money for his tertiary education whilst foreigners of lesser talent received scholarship using our tax-payers monies.

I thank him for his honest feedback and can relate 100% with him as I am a fellow Singaporean.

Life as a Singaporean male in Singapore is not easy. My wife is a 100% Singaporean, so is my brother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, parents and grandparents.

I, too, went through the tough education system and paid for it myself. I, too, earned S$300 a month as a NSF for 2.5 years. I, too, compete with FTs for jobs in the market. Having contributed (and still do) to National Defense and economic growth for many years, I wish the country, in turn, can do something for me and fellow Singaporean.

If fellow Singaporeans do not even make the effort to look after our own countrymen in Singapore, how can Singapore continue to survive in this world?

Entrepreneurship

Business Idea

April 22, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 753 Views 0 Comments

Quite some time ago, a reader visited my blog and suggested that one niche business idea could be to provide a service to help foreigners or permanent residents to integrate into Singapore society.

I have mixed feelings when he suggested this to me. While this business idea is potentially niche and may have less competition, it is something which I find it difficult to make money. This is because to be a successful business man, one must have conviction that his product or service would be beneficial to his clients and thus create market demand.

As a born and bred Singaporean, I am not so sure whether this is something which I would want to explore, even if it could bring in tonnes of money. There are definitely much better ways to make money in Singapore.

Sometime I wonder what kind of nation we want to build. Do we want to be a rich nation but with the majority of the population consisting of foreigners? Or do we want to slow down and strengthen the core population? I guess there are always trade-offs in life but as a young nation, we probably need to start to define our identity in the global stage.

Entrepreneurship

Business idea: Confinement nanny agency

April 15, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 1021 Views 4 Comments

I have not been blogging for quite some time. This is because last month I became a first-time dad and I was really busy with my day-time job. To manage time, I engaged a confinement nanny to look after both my wife and my little bundle of joy during this challenging period. The experience also gave me the business idea of setting up a confinement nanny agency.

During our research on confinement nanny agencies in Singapore, me and wife realised that there are not many established ones around, notably only a few. Eventually we settled for PEM which claimed to be the largest confinement nanny agency in Singapore.

The first nanny lasted for one week and left because she claimed her grandmother passed away and she needed to go back to Malaysia. The replacement nanny who stayed throughout the confinement period was old and slow.

We were not satisfied with the services of PEM but held on to their services because we felt it was a hassle to keep changing nannies during this short period of one month. Somehow we also felt that the services rendered wasn’t value for money.

During the contractual discussion, we stated that the nanny was expected to perform basic household chores, cooked for me and my wife and also take care of the baby.

make money

Make money from financial crisis

March 20, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 741 Views 0 Comments

During the 2008 – 2009, stock market crashed throughout the world and triggered the collapse of several big US banks. It was a period of chaos and great uncertainties. Back then, even the Singapore government had to make the unprecedented move of guaranteeing all bank deposits till end 2010 to prevent bank runs. There were mayhem and carnage during the financial crisis.

There were also opportunities. There was one point I was very tempted to purchase Citi’s shares, which was trading at USD1.00 through my Philips Securities POEMS account. Citi’s shares was trading at rock bottom and anything below USD1.00, chances of it being nationalised by the US government would be very high. I did not proceed ahead to buy the shares as I thought the risk would be too much for me to take. Of course Citi survived the crisis and its stock subsequently recovered.

The “Great Financial Crisis” presented many good opportunities to make big bucks in the stock market but I was unable to fully utilize my Opportunity Fund back then as I was saving up for my wedding. What a shame! The 2008-2009 financial crisis was a rare window of opportunity for smart investors to make their fortunes.

Uncategorized

How to be rich in Singapore

March 17, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 586 Views 0 Comments

While we may not have investment acumen like Warren Buffett, we can still become rich through buying distressed assets in Singapore. There are always bargain around us and its only a matter of patience for the right opportunity to come. As I mentioned in my previous posts, the best time to “strike” is when the economy takes its periodical dips.

Some of you might remember that during the mid-1980s when Singapore economy went through a very sharp downturn, some condominiums in the posh Balmoral areas were selling at $170 per square foot. In two years, the prices doubled and then in 2008, some units could command around $2000 psf. As the world financial market became so globalized, the sudden need for fund managers to sell institution’s assets created good opportunity for those with financial means and knowledge to purchase assets at good bargain.

Many of us often hear stories of colleagues or friends who manage to pick up such good buys but if we make the conscientious effort to keep ourselves well informed and have the money to pump in when bargains present themselves, we can just be as successful. As the saying goes, the time to buy is when blood is on the streets!

Money management; personal finance

Importance of Emergency Fund

March 12, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 765 Views 1 Comment

In my previous posts, I have written about the need for Opportunity Fund, which is meant for investing purposes. In life, we should also consider building up an Emergency Fund, which is a reasonable amount of money set aside for rainy days.

Many people live their lives as if nothing bad will ever happen to them. It is as if buying a car and not buying an insurance, expecting no incidents or accidents. Such a thinking is so unrealistic as we know that life has its share of downturns. Without an emergency fund, any setback might potentially spiral into serious financial problem for you and your family.

An Emergency Fund is considered more important than Opportunity Fund as the former is a safety net and is deemed as the shock absorber of life. Without Emergency Fund as your cash cushion, you are taking a gamble. I believe we should build up an emergency fund as soon as possible because the fund gives us time to adjust without drastically altering our lifestyles.

Although many people are convinced that an emergency fund is necessary, many still procrastinate building up such fund. Common complaint is that the money would be sitting in the bank and not fully utilized.

make money

Every crisis is an investment opportunity

March 11, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 800 Views 0 Comments

Have you ever paused to wonder why Singapore has one of the highest concentration of millionaires in the world? There are so many cash-rich Singaporeans out there that even during the recent downturn. Many of them were seen snapping up private properties like hot cakes, despite the sky-high prices.

The reason is simple: many of them made big money from the stock market during previous financial crisis. It may sound odd, but every crisis is an opportunity for retail investors to make big money because that is the time when stock values dropped below their intrinsic values.

Most investors, especially the novice ones, tend to panic sell during stock market crashes because of the crisis in confidence. This is a typical “herd mentality” mistake that most investors tend to make and because of this, they tend to “buy high, sell low”, instead of “buy low, sell high”. The reason why most investors committed such mistake is because many of them are not fully aware of how the market works.

The stock market consist of three groups of players, namely Institutional Investors, Rich Investors and Retail Investors. Institutional Investors are players who invest on behalf of investment/insurance companies. They are the ones who usually flow huge amount of “hot money” in/out of the financial markets.

personal finance

Who will work for the rich?

March 9, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 541 Views 0 Comments

In my previous post, I advocated the teachings of financial, professional and general knowledge to our kids. One of my readers then questioned “who will work for the rich?”

I suppose there is a mistaken belief among Singaporeans that if we exposed our child to the financial world or encouraged them to be entrepreneurs when they are young, they will all become or aspire to become businessmen when they grew up. The truth is, not all of us have the attributes and aptitudes to be a successful entrepreneurs. Out of ten players, possibly only one will emerge as winner and went on to become successful entrepreneur. Its a cruel reality but then again this is the rule of the game. We have to accept the fact that entrepreneurship is a no-sure win venture and if you messed up royally, you could be financially defeated.

So the question now is whether is it right for us to instill financial, entrepreneurship and investment values in children when they are still kids. My answer is still yes. Why? Because financial ignorance is NOT bliss, it is a disaster. As Asian, when we were children, we were told we should not be involved in discussions about money and saving money is the most important thing you can do.

Money management; personal finance; relationship

The truth about money

March 5, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 886 Views 1 Comment

Last month, our Education Minister commented that employers believe Singapore students lack drive and the willingness to try new things to succeed. After reading the article, I have mixed feelings because I think he missed the point on the truth about money.

Look, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that our education system has been result-driven and highly competitive for the past three decades. Everyone in Singapore knows for a long time that the education system is all about ranking, examination results and streaming. Obviously, to excel academically in such merciless system, one has to put in tremendous amount of effort and study real hard (unless of course if you are a genius). Henceforth, there is a lack of drive among our students to explore new ideas and new things. Much less to think about how to create money.

So what is the point of telling Singaporean an obvious fact that has been happening for the past decades? What is the Ministry of Education going to do? Just like many Singaporean in their thirties, I went through the education system and was taught to get a job, buy a house and save money for my retirement fund. At the end of the day, I have been asking myself, has the Singapore education provided me adequate knowledge to succeed in life?

Self improvement

Learn how to sell

March 4, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 567 Views 0 Comments

In life, we must always learn how to sell in order to achieve success. When I just started working as a manufacturing engineer in the aerospace sector, I always thought that my department (operations) was the most important department in my company. This was because I felt that without engineers solving problems in the production lines, the company would not be able to function as per normal.

It was only years later that I realized that my thinking was flawed. The most important department in every private organization has to be the sales department. Every profit-driven company exists because of sales. Without sales, there will be no company.

The problem with sales is that most people view it in a derogatory context, like a pushy insurance salesman or a telemarketer who interrupts your meetings. Most of us do not want to appear like those people, so we either sell passively (inform family members and hope they spread the word) or skip the selling exercise entirely. The result is half-baked effort and wasted time and money put toward building a business concept that will not come to fruition.

It is extremely hard for an inventor or entrepreneur to succeed if you do not change this mind-set because every type of business requires sales.

personal finance

The one million dollar question

March 3, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 652 Views 0 Comments

If you were given a choice between having one million dollar and gaining the ability to make multi-millions, which one would you choose? I suppose most of us would dream of getting rich quick.

Many people, including me, would normally choose having one million dollar. After all, its human nature to dream of being rich, not having to work and to indulge ourselves. But look, how long can the million dollar lasts? Especially in Singapore, where the cost of living is so high. With a million dollar, you can probably pay off your car loan, housing loan and afford not to work for about 5 years. The million dollar probably would not be able to last you a lifetime. At least not in Singapore.

Many years ago, when I was studying in NUS, one of my school mate confided in me how much hated his father, who had struck the lottery big time TWICE. I wondered why and he told me that his father quitted his job, spent all his prize money within a couple of years and became a drunkard. His mother, who used to be a housewife, ironically has to look for a job to support the family. This lesson made me realized that even if you are blessed with a lot of money, if you don’t have the financial discipline and knowledge, you will still be financially defeated at the end of the day.

Uncategorized

Ten habits of highly effective entrepreneurs

February 25, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 597 Views 0 Comments

1. They note down their ideas (just like my Investment Notebook). If there is an ah-ha moment, they would quickly note it down and revisit the idea again.

2.They think through their ideas over and over again to see if they can be successful. Sometimes their ideas might have been implemented by others. But if they are able to develop a better and more cost effective way of doing it, then they stand a higher chance of winning.

3. They do their homework and spend tonnes of effort on researching. After all, no generals would like to fight a losing battle.

4. They can sell their ideas effectively. In business, if you cannot sell, you are finished. To make money, you must know sales tactics.

5. Passionate about their ideas. Conviction and belief are key to a successful business idea. A successful entrepreneur would always speak with a belly of fire whenever they touch on their projects.

6. They have no qualms in making revisions to their business strategies and adapting to changes if it means to making more money.

7. Great entrepreneurs are fiercely resilient and do not give up easily without a good fight. They are not affected by setbacks and would do anything to win.

Entrepreneurship

Five reasons you should not quit your job to start up your own business

February 14, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 617 Views 0 Comments

Starting up a business is not easy and very often, it can really take over a person’s life due to the huge efforts and financial commitments required. Therefore normally I would not advise anyone to quit their job and start a business because that could be a recipe for disaster. Do it right and your life changes drastically for the better. Do it wrong and your life goes spirally downhill. So always plot your move carefully and make sure you do your homework before making the big escape from the rat race. Below are five reasons why you must never quit your job and start up your business.

Starting up a business needs time
Starting a successful business takes time. Do not be fooled by media reports of young entrepreneurs achieving overnight success and becoming incredibly rich. Founders of Microsoft, Google and Facebook actually went through a lot of hardship, trial and errors before attaining wild success at international platform. They had made a lot of mistakes and setbacks before achieving business successes. Henceforth, learn from others mistake and avoid the potential pitfalls. It could be a long time before your business makes any profit, so make sure you hold a job while going through the phase of starting up a business.

Investments

Investment Notebook: Opportunity Fund Part II

February 5, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 625 Views 0 Comments

In my previous posting, “Investment Notebook: Opportunity Fund”, one of my readers posed this question to me “how many percentage of my net worth coming from the return of my stock investment, would I consider it has made me rich”.

This is a very interesting question and it has set me pondering hard for several days. One thing for sure is that I did not have a clear cut answer to that question but nevertheless, I shall try my best to reply.

Rate of returns VS net worth yield
When I invest in anything, normally I look at the potential rate of return on my investment capital. For example, if I rent out a HDB flat I would set a yield target of 10 -15%. Likewise, when I invest in stock, my target is value appreciation of 10-20%.

For example, when I activated my “Opportunity Fund” in 2008, I made a return of about 17% from my stock investments of S$20,000. Setting return target based on personal net worth is another matter altogether. It requires one to consider their personal income, fixed assets (housing, CPF,etc), insurance policies, investments (gold, shares, property,etc) at that point of time.

Furthermore, one’s net worth changes all the time, subjected to economic situation.

make money

Opportunity Fund

January 31, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 632 Views 0 Comments

To make explosive wealth, one must have opportunity fund to invest during times of crisis. In September 2008, the collapse of Lehman Brothers (an investment firm in the United States.) ignited the world financial crisis. Before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, fear of a “big bang” recession had been lingering around for months due to the festering subprime mortgages mess in United States.

But no one would have predicted the magnitude of the economic crisis. Back then, the President of the United States announcing no bail-out for Lehman Brothers as it was considered not “too big to fail” (unlike other mega banks like Citibank, Bank of America, etc).

The next day, there were blood-letting carnage in stock markets throughout the world. Dow Jones witnessed a jaw-dropping decline of more than 770 points overnight. Singapore’s stock exchange (SGX) was not spared either. In the six months following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, from September 2008 to March 2009, stock markets worldwide fell by almost 40%, wiping off about USD16 trillion in capitalization. Singapore’s stock exchange also fell by close to 35%.

On looking back, the 2007-2009 financial crisis was indeed a “once in a generation” defining event in the financial sector. Personally for me, it had been both an eye opener and rewarding experience for me.

Uncategorized

Three ways to become rich in Singapore Part II

January 30, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 663 Views 0 Comments

In my previous post “Three ways to become rich in Singapore”, I have some readers providing feedback and comments. I appreciate readers for taking precious time to read my blog postings and provide their valuable comments.

One of my readers commented that “dividend investing” can also make you rich. Whilst I agree that investing in fixed income, be it stocks or unit trusts, is considered a source of side income, it does not really make you “rich”.

In my personal context, being rich means to enhance one’s wealth substantially. Dividend investing may provide additional fixed income but it also have its risk – decreasing stock prices and liquidity problem.

I still believe that the best three ways to become rich in Singapore is to invest in property, do business and work in the sales line.

Join me in my investment journey and read my financial adventures for free! You can opt to subscribe email updates on my articles for free by entering your email address below.

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Magically yours,

SG Wealth Builder

Self improvement

Three ways to become rich in Singapore

January 27, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 715 Views 2 Comments

What are the three ways to become rich in Singapore?

Many of us will agree that the cost of living is very high in Singapore. This is especially so during the last few years when the rate of inflation increased rapidly. In spite of the global economic downturn, unemployment rate remains low in Singapore.

But most Singaporeans struggle with the rising costs, as their salaries remain stagnant. Henceforth, most of us are concerned whether we would make enough money to retire comfortably in our twilight years.

Recently, me and my good friend were lamenting the rising cost of living in Singapore and pointed out that the same bowl of $2.00 noodle sold in the hawker stall now costs $2.50 or more. That would represent a 20% increase in prices and we were left wondering how an average salaried Singaporean can cope with this sort of inflation.

We came to the conclusion that to beat the inflation and get out of the rat race, we need to be rich. And there are mainly three ways to get rich [This is a premium article. The rest of the content is blocked and can be accessible by SG Wealth Builder Members only.

personal finance

Investment Principles

January 23, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 749 Views 0 Comments

For the past few days I have been doing spring cleaning and happened to flip through my investment notebook. I went through some of the interesting lessons learnt during the period 2007-2009.

The collapse of the Lehman Brothers really change the investment world forever and the old strategy of holding stocks for the long-term for capital appreciation may no longer works.

In view of this, we need to equip ourselves with well-planned strategies to protect and grow our wealth. In 2009, I had made three guiding principles for investment.

Invest in myself
Many people, myself included, tends to chase the money and invest in everything under sun (stocks, ETF, property,gold, unit trust, etc). Everything, except themselves. We may not realize that our knowledge, ability and skills are the most precious assets that enable us to make critical judgement calls to generate income through jobs, sales, investment and business activities.

Henceforth, most of us tend to neglect investments on acquiring new knowledge or skills. I had told myself that I must acquire or gain new mastery of knowledge in niche areas like precious metals and real estate investment trusts.

Invest in health
As cliche as it might sound, health is really wealth, this is especially so in an expensive society like Singapore.

Entrepreneurship

ACE Startups

January 19, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 715 Views 0 Comments

For startups, resources is important. To this end, the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) announced on 19 Jan 2012 it will be providing funding, networks and mentorship to 500 startups in an effort to promote entrepreneurship in Singapore.

Under this new programme called Ace Startups, Singaporeans and permanent residents who are first time entrepreneurs can receive up to $50,000 in a one-off grant for their startups. One interesting aspect of Ace Startups is that applicants older than 26 years old are eligible for this funding.

The grant will be disbursed in a co-matching basis – 70% provided by ACE Startups and the remaining to be committed by the applicants. Approval process takes about 6 weeks and applications will be evaluated by a panel team of venture capitalists, angel investors and entrepreneurs.

The aim of this fund, estimated to be $25 million, is expected to help startups become sustainable businesses. While this support for startups is heartening, it is far more important to have a feasible business plan and workable idea. After all, the funding will not be sustainable if the startups consistently burn cash and have insufficient income.

Property investment; Singapore market;

My Investment Notebook

January 12, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 702 Views 0 Comments

I started my investment journey more than 10 years ago when I was serving my National Service. Back then, I had bought 2 lots of Unisteel using my brother’s account and I remember I had invested about SGD2000. It was a small amount of money by any measure but I found it memorable because this investment kick-started my wealth building journey and led me to create my first investment notebook.

Unisteel was a listed company that specialized in producing fasteners and screws for computer hard-disk drives. By and large, it was a successful investment as the stock price increased consistently throughout the years. I sold my shares in Unisteel before it was de-listed and had went on to invest several other shares in the SGX.

Although my experiences with Unisteel was a positive one, I had my ups and downs with other stocks. Nonetheless, these battles had provided me valuable investment experiences.

Throughout the years, I had kept a little blue notebook to capture down my various “victories” and “defeats”. To me, investing in stock is like being engaged in a war. You have to prepare and research well; devise strategies and tactics to win the battle. Of course, choosing the right generals (stocks) is crucial as well.

Uncategorized

Funding options

January 10, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 572 Views 0 Comments

I was doing some research on funding options for entrepreneurs in Singapore and decided to blog down some of my newly-acquired knowledge. We have often heard about angel investors, venture capitalists, seed funding and incubators. Many question and wonder the roles, involvement and motives of these various categories of investors with regards to the development of enterprises. Hope this article can bring some form of clarity.

Basically there are two ways an entrepreneur can obtain funding: either through debt financing or equity financing. Debt financing is usually secured against certain assets and the creditor has the power or rights to demand repayment of any money owed, should the company be forced to close down. On the other hand, an equity capital involves the exchange of shares in the company for funds. The equity investors bear the risk of losing their investment should the company failed or benefit through participation in profits. Below are some common form of equity financing:

Angel investors
Angel investors are private investors who are wealthy individuals looking to park their excess wealth into new ventures. They usually provide capital for commercial start-ups, in exchange for equity or convertible debt and they typically invest between $25,000 to $500,000.

Stocks

Wrap fee for CPF Investment Scheme

January 3, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 579 Views 0 Comments

From 1st July 2012, the CPF Board will subject wrap fee charged for CPF Investment Scheme to a maximum of 1% per annum.

A wrap fee is an ongoing fee charged by financial advisors for providing bundled services such as advisory, brokerage and administrative fees. It is typically levied monthly or quarterly by liquidating a small portion of the investment. Currently, CPF members who maintain wrap accounts for their CPF Investment accounts are charged up to 1.5% annually by their advisors.

Since 2006, CPF board has been progressively implementing new measures to lower the cost of investment and enhance the quality of funds under CPF Investment Scheme. This new measure should bring cheers to retail investors as high costs may potentially erode investment returns over the long term.

Such development is in the right direction and will go a long way to encourage more Singaporean to invest responsibly using their CPF funds.

Under the CPF Investment Scheme, you may invest in CPF-approved unit trusts, bonds, endowment policies and gold products, after setting aside $20,000 in your Ordinary Account. If you wished to invest using your CPF Special Account, you need to set aside $40,000.

But before you start to invest your CPF monies, it is important to examine your risk tolerance and your financial situation.

Entrepreneurship

Guidelines for Writing a Business Plan

January 1, 2012 sgwealthbuilder 789 Views 0 Comments

Before you take the leap into the path of entrepreneurship, it is essential that you done the homework and write a business plan. As cliché as it might sound, if you fail to plan, plan to fail.

Having a good business plan will provide you a clear business objective and an organized way of looking at all the important aspects of your business. Most importantly, it will provide you a crystallized view on whether your business idea can be successfully implemented.

A well written business plan will also come in handy, when you are looking for funding from potential investors (venture capitalists or angel investors). Key elements of it should focus on:

Stating/defining the problem
Your plan must define the problem which your business is addressing and not just stating your business idea. Nobody will be interested in a business idea if it is not solving a problem and is impractical. The plan has to be precise and easy to understand for layman (nobody likes to read a long-winded business plan filled with technical jargon, especially bankers and venture capitalists). Focus on how and why your business can deliver and solve the problem.

Market size and industry trend
Define the estimated market size and industry trends, dynamics and customer landscape.