Today, the STI market is sickening. After 4 days of down fall, there is no sign of recovering from the fall. In fact, there is likely to be a major correction coming up. The infamous October crash that was observed in the last economic downturn in the 2003-2004 was not likely to be avoided. Since the STI market reaches its low in March 2009, there has been bullish run of almost 40-50% of the market index. The market is recovering too fast.
I've decided to cut-loss on half of my current investment and stayed out of the market. I will be away to Japan. So, hopefully the market will recover by then. I regret not setting cut-loss in the intial stage and would like to stress that profit and loss margin must be set before entering position. A good market practice is 3% for profit and 2% for loss. However, if you have confident that the price will surge further, you might want to ride the upward wave, but you MUST cut-loss. To date, I've written off four digit losses.
Investors these days are spoilt for choice. There's literally a wealth of products to choose from. But sometimes, that can be a problem. That's because with so much choice, investors get confused, especially with products becoming increasingly complicated and sophisticated.If you are one of those feeling bewildered by all the variety, take heart. Here's a helpful list of common mistakes to avoid.
1. DO NOT KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT
MANY people invest without knowing what they want or what they are investing towards. Not having a clear picture of your goals means that you could be buying investment products that may not meet your objectives.You should start by asking yourself some basic questions.What am I investing towards - university education for my child, or maybe a retirement fund?How long do I have to achieve my goals - 10 years or 20 years?How much can I afford to set aside as savings and investments?
2 NOT HAVING A PLAN
INVESTING without a plan is like driving in a foreign land without a road map - you may know where you want to go, but have no idea how to get there. With a plan, you can get back on course when you go astray. Without one, you would not even know if you are off course.If you do not have a plan already, this should be your top priority before you do anything else. Talk to a financial adviser if you do not know where to start.
3 TAKING RISK TOO LIGHTLY
SOME people take too much risk, others take none at all - both are mistakes. The amount of risk taken correlates to the level of returns - the higher the risk, the higher the returns.People who take too much risk end up as speculators rather than investors. Remember that you should speculate only what you can afford to lose.It is necessary to take some risk to see returns - the challenge comes in taking the right amount of calculated risk in order to obtain the results you desire.
4 PLACING ALL EGGS IN ONE BASKET
YOU need to diversify and spread your investments over assets that move in opposite directions during an economic cycle, (for example, shares versus bonds) so that you can limit your exposure to any single source of risk.Establish an asset allocation for your portfolio to help you decide how much you should put into various instruments such as bonds, equities and property.
5 CAVING IN TO PANIC
DO NOT start panicking when there are short-term fluctuations. For your long-term investments, you should not be overly alarmed when movements are experienced in the short term.In the face of market volatility, fear causes many to bail out of carefully planned investments. This results in mass selling - driving prices down and escalating losses. Look at the big picture when tracking investments.
6 RELYING ONLY ON THE PAST
PAST performance is often the basis for making many decisions, especially when choosing which unit trust to invest in. However, past performance is not always indicative of future performance and is not the only basis by which a fund can be evaluated.Ratings services such as Mercer Retail Funds Rating present a forward-looking view on a fund's future performance prospects based on qualitative assessments of fund managers, their experience and the investment process, among other things.
7 LISTENING TO HEARSAY
DO NOT fall prey to herd instinct. Avoid making big financial decisions based on hearsay.If you have an illness, you would consult a doctor. In the same way, treat your life savings and financial future as you would your health. Make informed decisions by speaking to financial advisers or professionals.
8 RELYING BLINDLY ON DATA
DO NOT treat financial articles or advertisements as a prescription of what you should do with your money. The right way to read articles that tout specific unit trusts or stocks is to treat them as useful information.Always read between the lines, look at the terms and conditions of sale and do your own research.
9 NOT FINDING OUT ENOUGH
THIS is one of the biggest mistakes anyone can make. Far too many people get their fingers burnt by failing to find out more about what they are investing in.Do not be afraid to ask your financial adviser more questions if you do not understand any feature or risk elements of a product. Get all the facts, especially about any potential pitfalls and risks, before committing your hard-earned money.
10 GOING ON AUTO-PILOT MODE
DO NOT assume that once you have your plans and portfolio in place, you do not have to review or re-balance it. You need to monitor your investments regularly to capitalise on market changes and movements.Similarly, your plan may need some tweaking when you face major changes or challenges in your life that could have an impact on your finances.
Article contributed by: Lim Wyson
Vice-president
Wealth managementOCBC Bank
I am moving tomorrow. Although I still havent really packed everything but i am too tired today. Tuition and birthday dinner until now. Unfortunately, I can't join some of my friend for second round, which I will if I am free tmr.
Tomorrow, I will have my masterbed room with aircon, Queen size bed and private WC all to myself. Think about it, nowadays Singapore weather is freaking hot. I could hardly sleep without going for a quick cooling shower before sleeping. Global warming is deteriorating. Can we still stay in this world for another 100 years? Thinking back 10 years ago, weather was still not that bad. Haizz.. Please save the planet! (Although i will still on the aircon cos it's freaking hot, but i wil control the usage for the planet and my pocket money =>)
Better continue to pack my stuff and tear down my furniture. Not much time left.
Cheer for better life!
Today, it seem like a lucky day to me. This morning I received email eply from Training Partners that the 1 to 1 free exam promotion is still valid till 25 July so I don't need to fork out $300+ for the exam fees. Great news, I saved $300!
I received another "great" news that I won three prizes from a telemarketer from a company called Unique 10 or something. How they get the number remains unknown. They claimed they got it from lucky draw coupons that you entered. The prizes offered by them were:
1) 7days/6nights trip to Bangkok - real boh?
2) $1000 shopping voucher - chun boh?
3) 2days/1nights cruise
So, I asked alot of questions and they try to explain that "it's sponsored by NATAS fair promo" that really made me think that it's a real prizes. Okay, I told myself why not go down and listen what they got to say. Anyway, I am going down for a meeting at Somerset and their office is just at Orchard road.
So, here I reached their office slightly later than the appointment time around 15 mins. But on the way there, I already received 3 calls from the telemarketer that his staff was waiting for me to receive the gift. She seemed to be impatient in her conversation. I could sense that something must be wrong.
So, I finally stepped my foot into their office at Tong Plaza, #18-2, Orchard Road and their company name is called Discovery VIII.
It claims to be a exclusive club for people who travel frequently. They offer exclusive rates for 4 stars Hotel and major airlines. Their plans are
1) DHA - Discovery Hotel Adv
2) DAA - Discovery Airlines Ad
They will tell you, as a VIP, you get to enjoy discount rates between USD$30 - 50 at 300 different hotels around the world, which I jumped at that offer. You can pay hostel price to stay in 4-5 stars hotels all over the world. They will offer free gifts if you make an appt wif them to attend their presentation for 90 minutes. They even asked you to sign on paper that you need to attend for full 90 minutes.
Throughout the presentation, they will show you what their VIP get to enjoy....the hotels that you can get discount from. On top of that, they will carry out a "survey" to understand your financial background. Like the no. of CC you have, ur credit limit, hw many saving acc u have and how much saving u hav currently. This i think is for them to identify potential customer victim.
Blah blah blah....
In their presentation, they printed a VERY BIG, member subscription is only SGD$350 per year and in fine prints, a one time membership fee...
Guess the member ship fee after 1hrs plus of BIG story telling.
SGD19k for 25 years membership
At that point of time, I am thinking okay, it might be another interesting business scam model. I am thinking how do people trust their company and sign on for such an expensive membership package. In my heart, I only think of one phrase: "You all better go fly kites la"
So, like I always do when I lost trust on something, I asked load of questions, just like an investigator trying to interogate them to explain how the company sustain, what is the company turnover rate, what is the revenue to expense ratio, what is their company cash flow and etc. The presenter was not able to answer my question, maybe they never thought of ppl asking these questions. So, the manager attended to me and answered in a super unprofessional way by giving figure out of nowhere, sort of like they have estimated 2000 customers contributed to around 1mil dollar. I insisted on seeing their financial statement, he answered it's confidential. It prompted to ask my next question, are their company listed. He answered no, and claimed that they are cash rich company, and do not require IPO to gain capital.
I said to them I am not able to fork out such a great amount to pay. I tried to pretend that I am interested but really can't afford cos I want to see what will be their next move. They suddenly became my financial planner by helping me to breakdown my payment into two lump sum, first capital of 9.5k, and if I paid by Diners, it'll be monthly payment of around $400 for 24 months. My second capital will pay two years from now. They kept insisting that by paying monthly payment of $400 you can enjoy alot of their membership benefits and discounts. But god know that I am paying lump sum of 9.5k to them that night itself, the monthly payment is between me and the bank. I can't run away from the bank right?
So I say NO. The girl was already quite pissed off. I could sense that, but it's really true la when you thought of you can close a deal anytime, suddenly ppl asked you to "fly kites", you will likely to have this impression. The manager was still very calm (he's quite a well trained scammer). Out the air, he came out with 10 years plan now and for the membership fees of 10K. But still you need to pay $9k in lump sum with another crap calculation that my monthly payment is so few. When you can pluck figure out the air, you must be the boss of the company or big time scammer. I said NO with a scarstic smile. The girl was super pissed off that time. So, the manager told me okay since you chose not to take the membership, we'll proceed with the gift.
Okay, third attempts. Another guy that seem like a nice guy came out with a gift voucher worth $588 from Snapz Image consulation. Really boh. He told me nevermind since you are not happy with the two offers that previously presented to you, maybe he can offer another offer for trial. You still have to pay bloody 1.8k. He really want to squeeze until your final juice before calling it a fail attempts to scam.
Anyway, all their prizes e.g. Snapz Image Consultation, shoppingspreeforyou.com (voucher), cruisesavingsforyou.com (cruise) are all scammer. Discovery VIII definitely a big time scammer.
In conclusion, the moral of the story is that if a deal is too good to be true, it's likely to be a scam. Luckily I am scam-trained after surviving in europe for 6years. Still remember the incident happening in Hamburg. =.=
Civil servant wasted $34,000 on timeshare deals
Discovery VIII
Just google above name and append "Scam" to find out more.
Just think off something to share.. An excellent customized made Manchester United Champion of EPL 09 wallpaper.
It has been almost 1 year since I start working. Time passes by so fast that I can't even have time to think off. Every day is so packed with workload, preparing for implementation, learning different OS, different databases, routing and switching, seriously there are so many technical knowledge for me to acquire before I can comfortable manage my current job scope. Handling a system is definitely not as easy as I thought. Especially in production system, there is no margin for error. So, it prompt us to be extra caution in term of making changes on the servers/routers. Anyway, as long as there is still something new for you to learn, you should feel excited on your job, cos it's not routine! Luckily, I still fall under that section, where I find my work interesting.
Keep learning as it's just the beginning of our 2nd chapter of life!
Today, i received few comments on my blogs from anonymous and a guy called santos which prompt me to revisit my web-cobbed blog. Checking back to the last post that i made, it has been nearly half year since i last updated my blog.
Basically, working life is just to boring to blog about. Because 5 out of 7 days, you are working from 8am-8pm. If not for you, it applies to me the past few months until recently when I am sick of it. So, when you finally take your much anticipated hot bath, you will be extremely lazy to get your ass out to go elsewhere unless you're meeting some hotties. :P
Weekend is the only time for you to breeze some fresh air outside your house/office. Last few weeks when I visited Japan, my mum posted a money saving solution for my never-accumulated acct balance. She said you stay home more often lo, including weekend. No way! although i am not saying it in front of her.
Most of the weekend, i am outside wondering somewhere, be it cycling, roller blading, playing squash, tennis, badminton, friends-house-visiting, playing PES, travelling, shopping, riding around Singapore, la kopi with old friends from sg, sec classmates, primary classmates, and etc etc... I just don't want to sit at my home doing nothing. Although sometimes, i need to stay back due to some system problem. That's okay! at least, i am not wasting my time. Before forgetting, some of the weekend, i am earning extra income hoo.. to get extra money so that i can spend, not save. lol.
Ya. Last weekend, i just participated a 10km run. The marathon is totally different from what i used to run back in penang. This marathon is considered world class where atheletes from everywhere run, including those Kenyan runners who already near the finishing line when we are about to start running. My friends are asking me to run for adidas sundown. I was thinking, should i tried the 42km. Maybe i should. If you never set goal, you will never acheive. Let's see how my mood next few days.
Another learning still pending is my diving course. I intended to enrol for a 5-days beginner open water course last month. But, because of the sudden switch of schedule, i brought forward my japan family visit one week ahead. Thus, crashing with the diving course schedule. And Dec is just too fking busy for me. Maybe I should try to plan on January.
Haizz. my 18-days annual leave is just too few for me. I got too many things on mind to do. Yet, i still have to part 10-days to be in Japan to renew my Residence permit. Hope I really optimize it after i complete my 3years bond in sg.
Today, my colleague said he wanna drop at his parent's house to have dinner with them although it takes longer travelling time and more troublesome. Another colleague quickly said, aiya.. dinner anytime also can have with parent la. I was thinking in my mind, how i wish i can have dinner everyday with my parent and siblings. The HAVE vs the DON'T HAVE. The HAVE will never treasure what they HAVE.
okay. it's time to go off for my night job. Chio~
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