Archive

Lau

When To Start Saving For Retirement?

January 31, 2012 by Lau
Retirement carries a different meaning at different ages. For the young adult starting to work in their 20s, retirement is something that probably does not carry much meaning. Something their parents are transiting into and has nothing to do with them. First and foremost on their minds will be landing that dream career, falling in [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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Roar Of The Dragon Babies!

January 27, 2012 by Lau
The Chinese zodiac dragon year is here once every 12 years. The birth rate this year has a significant impact to the whole country in the years to come. For example, primary school intake has to be expended to accommodate the larger intake, right up to secondary school, National Service and post secondary education. The [...]

in Categories: Market Review and Trends

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CapitaMalls Asia Bonds On Offer

January 4, 2012 by Lau
CapitaMalls Asia is offering up to S$400 million of 10-year callable step-up bonds. DBS is the sole bookrunner and lead manager. The issue has an initial offering of S$100 million for retail investors and S$100 million under a placement for institutional investors. Another S$200 million may be issued in event of excess demand. The bonds [...]

in Categories: Shares and Derivatives

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Happy New Year

December 29, 2011 by Lau
It is nearing the end of the year. December has always been my most favorite month of the year. It is the month people seem to be a lot happier, kinder, more generous and overall nicer. Even the taxi fare hikes, MRT train breakdowns and recurrence of flooding, are finding it hard to dampen the [...]

in Categories: Personal Development

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Retirement Woes

December 21, 2011 by Lau
According to a recent survey by Aviva, the Consumer Attitudes to Savings (CAS) study, it showed an increasing concern over prospects for retirement. About half felt that they will not have enough money when they retire to provide for an adequate standard of living and will have to work beyond the normal retirement age to [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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This Is Home, Singapore

December 9, 2011 by Lau
Back to Singapore after a 2 week break and it seems that a lot has changed in such a short time! Increase in Comfort taxi fares Comment: Not that I am blaming the fare increase, inflation is so high, I think it is only fair. However, the way it is implemented those not make sense. [...]

in Categories: Market Review and Trends

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Learning Through Reflecting

November 30, 2011 by Lau
Was reading a book one day and this statement took me completely off guard, “you do not learn by going through an experience, you learn from reflecting on the experience!” I felt that this was very meaningful as we can go through many experiences every day but we will learn little if we do not [...]

in Categories: Investing

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The Best Interest Rate This Xmas

November 25, 2011 by Lau
Walked past a HSBC roadshow recently, and they were offering 0.9% p.a. interest on a SGD 3 month time deposit. That is way higher than most banks for such a short duration fixed deposit (FD). In addition, they are giving a limited edition HSBC NETS CashCard pre-loaded with up to $500. Just a side track [...]

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Gambling Trust

November 18, 2011 by Lau
I read with amusement the recent news about the lady, who has a vegetarian hawker stall in Geylang, denied of her jackpot winnings at Marina Bay Sands (MBS). Two things aroused my interest. One, MBS as a renowned casino operator did not want to pay! In an industry based on gambling trust, that is going [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Best Card To Use

November 14, 2011 by Lau
I am a strong supporter of the Standchart XtraSaver account. I have been using it for years. - It gives cashback for NETs purchases - It gives the cashback in the form of cash every single month with no minimum spend requirement - It gives a high cashback on MasterCard rebate of 2% (if no [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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Trading Psychology

November 4, 2011 by Lau
This article may seem philosophical as I was listening to an interview with a successful trader recently and the topic was about trading the markets. Naturally, the first question was how did he get so successful trading the markets? In light humor fashion, he cheekily responded the question with a question, “Do you think it [...]

in Categories: Active Trading

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Watch Out For That Car Loan

October 31, 2011 by Lau
A recent article showed that the average car loan size has risen to $85,000. And I am pretty sure property loan sizes are also on the rise due to higher prices. Not surprising, loan tenures are also increasing to the maximum allowable length. This represents that affordability is being stretched to the maximum. Though some [...]

in Categories: Uncategorized

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Results And Beliefs

October 24, 2011 by Lau
Recently was speaking to a top sales consultant and his views completely blew me away. One main point that he explained was about results and belief. He said that too much emphasis is placed on past results. Our beliefs are often formed from results we have seen and experience. In sales, if we have been [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Hot New Product Launched

October 13, 2011 by Lau
Seems I am pretty backward when it comes to insurance products. I was recently introduced to a new ILP plan from Company X. Some hype about it includes: - 100% premium allocation (Most ILPs suffer allocation charge for first 3 years) - No Bid-Offer spread (Normally a 5% spread which is like a sales charge) [...]

in Categories: Insurance

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CCL Fully Opens

October 11, 2011 by Lau
8 Oct 2011 marks the day the Circle Line rail network reaches full operational status. It also the first day of higher fares on buses and trains, on the average it is an additional 2 cents more per ride. From a usual 71 cents ride to 73 cents, an increase of 2.8%. It also serves [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Drive Cautiously

October 7, 2011 by Lau
Recently, I had a couple of friends involved in chain collison on the expressway on separate occasions. Within minutes, tow trucks from repair workshops who “happen to be in the neighborhood” appeared to offer their services, assisted to collect driver details and assured all claims will be processed according with eye witnesses. This is not [...]

in Categories: Insurance

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Interest Rates

October 5, 2011 by Lau
The CPF Board has announced that the minimum floor rate of 4% in the Special, Medisave and Retirement Account (SMRA) will be extended by another year to Dec 2012. From 2008, the SMRA rate was announced to be pegged to the 12-month average yield of the 10-year Singapore Government Securities (10YSGS) plus 1%, subject to [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Overwhelming Demand For HDB Units

October 3, 2011 by Lau
I read reports about the overwhelming demand for sale of “leftover” HDB units with amusement. The statistics is 18,428 applied for 2847 units, which is 6.5 times over subscribed. And of course as with all statistics, the results may be bias. Some clean up of studio and 2-room flats need to be removed to better [...]

in Categories: Property

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