TheFinance.sg » Derek Lim

Understanding Dividends Announcement

Derek Lim — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:08:51 +0000

A reader contacted me with the following question and it struck me that I have been happily collecting dividends without really understanding how dividends are given out. All I know is to add up all the dividends announced and that will be my total dividends. Are there any positive/negative implications on having a single dividend announcement versus multiple announcements?

I will love to hear your views on this.

Some of my purchases like Cache and Plife recently announced the dividends but i dont understand why there is so many dividends announced on one date.

Example for cache

24 Apr 2012 CACHE Ex-Dividend

DIVIDEND : 300312 – 310312 SGD 0.00001
Record Date: 26 Apr 2012
Payable Date: 30 May 2012 24 Apr 2012

24 Apr 2012 CACHE Ex-Dividend

DIVIDEND : 300312 – 310312 SGD 0.00041 LESS TAX
Record Date: 26 Apr 2012
Payable Date: 30 May 2012

So what is the total dividend for Cache and why so many different dividends announced?

Another is Plife

09 May 2012 PLife REIT Ex-Dividend

DIVIDEND : 010112 – 310312 SGD 0.0022 TAX EXEMPT
Record Date: 11 May 2012
Payable Date: 05 Jun 2012

09 May 2012 PLife REIT Ex-Dividend

DIVIDEND : 010112 – 310312 SGD 0.0034
Record Date: 11 May 2012
Payable Date: 05 Jun 2012

09 May 2012 PLife REIT Ex-Dividend

DIVIDEND : 010112 – 310312 SGD 0.02 LESS TAX
Record Date: 11 May 2012
Payable Date: 05 Jun 2012

The same question go for plife reit; So what is the total dividend for plife and why so many different dividends announced?

Securities borrowing and Lending program

Derek Lim — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:42:16 +0000

A reader contacted me with questions on the above program. While I remember enrolling into the program, I hardly read up about it because there is almost no demand. I will try to answer the questions to the best of my ability. Feel free to share your inputs and correct my mistakes (if any).

1. May I know will I still received dividends if my script Hv been lend out?
Yes.

2. What happen if the borrower default n will my script be protected?
I will believe your shares are protected but I’m not sure how.

3. Realised from the list of eligible securities , REITS are hardly in the list. May I know why as most of holding are reits.
I believe it has to do with trading volume and price movement. People usually hold REITS for the long term and for dividends. Prices are usually flat and if dividends are kept by the owner, there is no point for someone to borrow REITS. I believe there will be hardly any bonds eligible too.

Can SGX help to include REITS in the list to benefit more people who Hv reits n would like to participate In SBL.
If only SGX is convinced that there is money to be made.

4 I Hv DBS group in my holding but indicative pool is zero, what does not means?
Means no one is queuing to borrow your shares?

5. Can those stock purchased using CPF take parts in this program also?
Unlikely.

6. Will be stock be definitely borrowed when I participated in this program n what is the take up rate like?
No guarantee. As mention, I have yet to see anyone borrowing my stocks.

Why you should choose a $10,000 health screening package.

Derek Lim — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:44:45 +0000

Photo by Truthout.org

Because you are worth it!

Just kidding on why we should choose such an expensive package. I will not go for a $10K health screening package and neither will I advocate my friends to do the same, unless you have lots of cash to burn.

Health is indeed important and I am a believer of regular health screening, especially when one gets older. After all, prevention is better than cure. However, with so many packages available, it is very difficult to choose. To make it worse, the names of the tests are very alien to me e.g. Complete Haematological Parameters, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate, HbA1c etc. I also don’t buy the idea that the most expensive is the best. Best service probably, but in terms of detection, I would say that they are all about the same. In fact, I’m thinking some may over exaggerate their tests to justify their hefty price tag.

The Health Promotion Board is a good place to start in figuring out what tests are essential. They have classified health screening into three types:

Type 1: Beneficial for everyone.

(This will be the minimum requirements that I will look for in a health screening package)

Type 2: Beneficial for some but not others: Decision to be made on an ‘individual’ level, based on your individual risk factors e.g. self or family history of hereditary or chronic diseases, exposure to factors that can lead to disease e.g. smoking.

(Good to have. I will like to see HPB develop it further where you can enter your age, gender and ask some questions to determine the recommended tests – similar to CPF calculators)

Type 3: Not recommended for screening: Currently, there is not enough information to support the use of these tests.

(Unless I have cash to burn, I won’t want to waste my time looking at it.)

I have printed all the information I require from these two links:

Health screening is important to you.

Type 2 Screening Tests for ‘Individual Decision’

With the information in hand, it will make my job in choosing the right health screening package easier.

To conclude, more tests is not necessary better. It may cause unnecessary distress, time and discomfort especially for young children and the older folks. I’m not kidding when I say you are worth it. Health is wealth!

Money, Time, Freedom, Health

A business proposal?

Derek Lim — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 04:33:45 +0000

I recently recieved a comment which I intially dismissed as spam. Since I have not come across anything like it, I’ll like to share with fellow readers. I’ll leave it to your judgement whether it is authentic.

I am from the Maldives, looking for investment partner from Singapore for develop and operate a small scale hotel in the International airport city of Maldives. Currently there are very high demands for hotels in this city as the China tourists are increasing day by day. I have recently purchased a land for this purpose and planning to erect the building before end of this year. So if anyone interests for real estate business and operate hotel in the Maldives please feel free to let me know.

Kind regards XXX

Do you want the doctor to choose you or do you want to choose the doctor?

Derek Lim — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:09:40 +0000

I had an enjoyable gathering with my ex-classmates last night. It has been eight years since we last met and we had a lot to talk about.

We were talking about the major incidents that happened during the past eight years and that’s when the topic shifted to our health. While our physical appearance has not changed much, our body has. One of my classmates shared with us on his experience during a routine tonsil and sinus surgery. The surgery was a success but after a few days, he developed an infection and was literally coughing out blood. Fortunately after another op, he recovered. The total cost of the operation is about 20k. The cost is on the high side and we were wondering why he chose a private hospital over a government one. That’s when he shared his many bad experiences dealing with doctors in government hospitals. He asked us “When you fall ill, do you want the doctor to choose you or do you want to choose the doctor?”

He goes on to share about his mother’s health – she woke up one day and can only walk with a near ninety degree bend. He has no hesitation in sending her to the hospital immediately. He got me thinking further by asking “Do you want to have to have an additional worry on the cost of the hospital bills?” In case you are wondering, the cost eventually add up to $100K due to other surgical procedures.

My friend is no agent but his experience would have been an ideal example for insurance companies. I do already have a private shield plan but after my friend’s experience, I begin to ponder if it’s enough.

It is a balance between wanting the best against affordability. I’m calculating if I can afford to upgrade my AIA and partner’s Aviva plan, and also include riders to cover the deductible and co-insurance. As for my parents, I will like to upgrade their AIA shield plans but leave out the riders as it would be too expensive.

In addition to cost, my other concern is underwriting. All of us are currently covered without any exclusion and although we have no major illness, I’m still worried that the upgraded plan may exclude certain conditions – especially since I was warded due to an accident and my mom went for a womb test. A few years ago, I planned to upgrade my parents AIA shield plan to NUTC but gave up due to NTUC ‘s extremely strict underwriting. If I remember, they wanted my parents to go for a checkup and an interview.

My AIA agent assured me that if there are any exclusions, that condition(s) will still be covered under the old plan. Is this true and is this applicable to all Shield Plans or only if you are upgrading within the same insurer? I cannot see how I can be covered by both NTUC and AIA shield plan at the same time.

I would also like to hear from those who have upgraded their Shield Plans.

A Failed Attempt at Shield Plan Twisting

My Decision On My Dad’s Whole Life Insurance And Policy Loan

Derek Lim — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:54:20 +0000

A brief history on my Dad’s Whole Life (WL) policy with GE:-
He bought a Whole Life with CRB from GE with a coverage of S$50K in January 1987. Current premium is $315.05 per quarter or S$105.02 a month. I believe his premium used to be slightly higher because of a “Comprehensive ACC ben rider with RCC” which I have since cancelled and replaced with a stand-alone accident plan in 2007. After paying for over two decades, here are the numbers:

Except for the guarantee surrender value (SV), the above numbers are an estimate. The numbers are nothing fantastic. Even if I include the non guarantee SV, the CAGR is still only 1.52% but at least the policy is in the black. For good measure, I decided to use the projected non guarantee SV after 56 years to calculate the CAGR and I got a whopping 1.80%!

There are naturally some flaws. This is after all a Whole Life Insurance and not a savings plan. Hence, I should be looking at the angle of coverage. WL plans only break even after 10years or more, hence using CAGR may not be wise. The biggest flaw however is a policy loan which my Dad took many years ago. He can’t recall when and the amount borrowed – I will estimate a loan of about S$10K about 12-15years ago. The amount has snowballed to over $22K when I reviewed his policy in 2007. I have three options then: cancel the policy, leave it or service the loan. I opted to service the loan, hopping that the policy can be used as my Dad’s emergency fund.

Fast forward to 2012 and I began to question my earlier decision.

I have been making monthly payments of S$400 on top of the quarterly premiums for the past 3+yrs. I have about 32 months remaining, which means I would have spent 6yrs paying for the entire loan.

I am now faced with more questions:

1) Terminate the policy.

My insurance agent advised against it because WL bonus will increase substantially during the later years. It will be a waste to cancel it after 25years. I tend to agree because I am not I am not looking at growing this money as much as possible but as a emergency fund in case my Dad require expensive medical treatment. As much as I would like to use it as his retirement fund, I think it is not possible. Even if I were to terminate the policy, I see no product that I can put in to earn about 3% p.a (based on projected SV).

2) Stop paying the loan.

No one in the right mind will do this. The amount will only snowball and I would have wasted my money for the last 2.5years.

3) Stop paying the premium.

There seem to be a clause that my insurance can still be inforce even if I stop paying the premiums. Of course, the benefit will be based at that point of time when my premiums ceased. Of course, the loan will still have to be serviced.

4) Pay up the loan in full.

The loan amount is now a manageable S$11K. Although I can pay the amount in full, I will have to use it from my “war chest”.

The main opportunity cost I am weighing now is whether there will be an investment opportunity in the next 32 months? To put it simply, will there be a recession where stocks plunge?

5) Pay up the loan and terminate the policy.

This is a whacky idea that just pop up. I don’t think further thought into this is warranted.

I notice an interesting result. After the 28^th year, the returns start to drop and in the 67^th year, the returns is just 0.4%. I can’t seem to figure out why but I can only assume that no issuer will be foolish enough to maintain the same rate of returns as your policy value compound annually.

I think I will remain status quo for now (until the loan amount is fully paid up) because:

I. It forces my Dad to put aside a sum of money $100 every month for his premium which he would otherwise have spent. Also, I don’t know of any product now that can match the same returns as the policy.

II. I am anticipating a buying opportunity within this 2.5years and an interest of $1.3K isn’t that much as compared to the over $4.5K interest I paid over the almost similar period.

Any thoughts on my decision?

I have NO savings!

Derek Lim — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:51:21 +0000

Photo by Nieve44/La Lu

There have been several articles on savings recently which got me thinking.

First thought – why 20%? Who defines this standard and why is it recommended?UScitizens have always been known to be big spenders rather than savers. It is their money that kept the world going at least during the end of the 20th century. If local advisors are advocating 20% savings, what about advisors over there? 5%, 10% or spend what you earn?

Wiki defines savings as income not spent, or deferred consumption. Does saving money to buy a Hermes bag constitutes as savings? After all, it is delayed consumption isn’t it? In that case, I can say I am saving 50% of my salary monthly so that I can buy a Hermes bag. The same can be said for saving for a car, house, travel, children education, retirement, investment etc.

It makes me realize that it doesn’t matter how much you save but what you do with your spare cash. You can save it (deferred gratification) or spend it immediately (instant gratification). Either way, I see no wrong in it. What’s important is to have a sound financial plan in place to achieve your financial goals.

I am going to stop categorizing savings in my income portfolio and use terms like retirement fund, emergency fund, marriage fund etc. which are more meaningful.

Using XIRR to calculate stock performance

Derek Lim — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:52:48 +0000

Expected Result

Maintaining my stock portfolio has always been a challenge for me. I use a simple method of calculating my current stock value plus dividends against my original investment amount. However, I have a nudging feel that this is flawed because I did not account for the various transactions throughout the life of holding on to the stock e.g. subscribing to rights or selling part of it. I have tried using CAGR but it still does not address the above problem. It is only until recently when I read about XIRR in Bro8888 article that I may have found the answer.

I’m going to use the steps as described in this article but instead of calculating base on my entire portfolio, I will try it out on just one stock first. Luckily I still have entire statement records from SGX detailing my transactions.

My major headache is how to classify dividends. If you do not reinvest your dividends back into your stock, it is considered as an outflow (negative) but if the dividends are parked as cash as part of your entire portfolio, it can be considered as inflow. However what if the stock price doesn’t move but provide you with a constant yield of 5% p.a., won’t my XIRR be negative?

I decided to do a hypothetical test. Assuming I buy one lot of Stock A at $1 a share in Jan 2007 and received a 5% dividend each year. The price at 1 Jan 2012 remains at $1.

I am losing money??

Is this correct? If I were to reinvest all my dividends back to the stock, my XIRR will still only be 0%. It’s back to the drawing block again. Any advice is deeply appreciated.

I believe I have found out the error. The initial invesment into your stock is inflow and should be positive and the vaule of the stock when you sell outflow which is negative.

These articles will better expain what I meant:
How to use XIRR in Excel to calculate annualized returns
XIRR

After making the necessary changes, my XIRR now looks like this.

Expected Result

5% is the logical result. Time to get my hands dirty. First stop, First REIT.

CapitaMalls Asia 10 year bonds – a quick FAQ

Derek Lim — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:00:30 +0000

I normally don’t look at retail bonds due to its large initial investment, usually $5,000 and up, I would rather put the same amount in REITs to enjoy a potential higher yield. However this time round, CapitaMall is offering bonds at $2,000. I must admit it is a smart move to get smaller investors like myself to hop in on the bond wagon.

Since I am new to retail bonds, I decided to create a FAQ. The answers are based on my research and understanding. Hence, if any reader pick up any mistakes or have further information to add, kindly point them out by leaving me a comment here or via my contact page.

Where can I find the Offer Information Statement?
OPERA – MAS

What is a bond?
A bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest (the coupon) to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity.

Source: Wikipedia

If you want to read up more, Investopedia offers a very good article.

What are the key dates?

Lodgment of the Offer Information Statement	3 January 2012
Opening date and time for applications for the Bonds under thePlacement	3 January 2012 at 2.00 p.m.
Opening date and time for applications for the Bonds under thePublic Offer	4 January 2012 at 9.00 a.m.
Last date and time for applications for the Bonds under thePlacement	9 January 2012 at 2.00 p.m.
Last date and time for applications for the Bonds under thePlacement	9 January 2012 at 2.00 p.m.
Balloting of applications for the Bonds under the Public Offer, ifnecessary (in the event of an oversubscription of the Bonds under the Public Offer). Commence returning or refunding application moneys to unsuccessful or partially successful applicants	11 January 2012
Expected Issue Date of the Bonds	12 January 2012
Expected date of commencement of trading of the Bonds on theMain Board of the SGX-ST	13 January 2012

What is the interest rate?
Year 1 to 5: 3.8% p.a.
Year 6 to 10: 4.5% p.a. (if bonds are not redeemed)
This explains why the term Step-Up retail bonds are sometimes used.

Is the interest cumulative?
No.

Can I sell before maturity date?
Yes. The bonds are listed on the Main Board of the SGX-ST

Should I subscribe to the bond?
No right or wrong here. It will depend on your portfolio, risk appetite and cash flow. If cash flow is tight, the minimum sum of $2,000 is really appealing. The interest rate is nothing to wow about. Most of the past offerings offer a higher interest rate but a high minimum investment amount too.

For more blog posts regarding this bond, please refer to the related posts below.

I believe these questions that I ask myself would be similar to what most people will ask. If you have a question not found here, feel free to drop a comment here. I believe some season bond investors will be glad to help out.

For myself, I will probably set aside $2K to $5K for it as I foresee a very stagnant market for the year ahead. Anything more than $5K, I would rather put it in higher yield preference shares or REITs.

There’s still one question that I am still trying to figure out – what governs the price of bonds in the market? If the issue price is $1, why would anyone want to sell it below that price? Is it because the company is going bankrupt or because they need the money?

The Bear Has Hit TheFinance.sg

Derek Lim — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:15:18 +0000

Dear Readers, Don’t worry, the balance sheet of TheFinance.sg is still healthy. The site was inaccessible for a couple of days due to excessive resource usage and I will be migrating to a higher capacity web-host. Intermittent downtime is still expected. I regret for the inconvenience caused. Related posts: 665 appoint guardians: Mental Capacity Act
Related posts:

665 appoint guardians: Mental Capacity Act

Most Popular Posts in June

Derek Lim — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 12:30:25 +0000

The top five articles in June are:

Standard Chartered Bank Singapore- NO MINIMUM BROKERAGE FEES!
Standand Chartered Online Trading Account
8 Singapore Stocks to watch during a bear market
Sometimes it’s better to be “stupid” and “wrong”
To Pay Or Not To Pay

SCB no minimum brokerage fees has been the top news this month and I know of several people who has already make the switch. I just receive news from POEMS that my brokerage team has been reorganized to serve me better and I even got a call from a broker in OCBC asking me to open an account with them. It seems like rival brokerage firms are feeling the heat!

I’m still in no hurry to switch because:

Once you buy shares from SCB, your shares will be kept by them and you must use SCB trading platform for all your trades. (I think you can transfer your shares out from SCB to your CDP account but may require a fee)
No options trading (thanks to reader Gary). I would believe this also means no short selling or warrants too because you will need to have cash prior to any trade.
No plans to to buy any shares unless the market plunge 20-30%.

Congratulations to Jared Seah (my guest blogger) for making it to the list. His article talk about doing something against the norm and benefiting from it.

Till July…

Will you use your emergency fund to invest?

Derek Lim — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:00:18 +0000

Update 11 April 2011

40% will not use their emergency fund to invest while 60% will have no problems using it for investment. What’s surprising is that 30% or half of those who will use their funds to invest are willing to use at least half if not all of it. I am not sure if age plays a part. Surely, if you are a retiree, you won’t use all your emergency funds to invest ya? Another possibility which I can think of is the definition of a emergency fund. To me, a emergency fund is to tide me over for a sudden critical expenditure e.g. accident, operation or a sudden loss of income etc. Maybe others few it differently? I also wonder who is the other person beside La Papillion to vote other?

I don’t think there is no right or wrong here. Maybe a expert here could enlighten us on what really is an Emergency Fund and what should it be use for?

I had a short but interesting discussion on this topic in La Papillion cbox last night.

Almost all financially planning talk about having an emergency fund of X no. of months to tide you over a rainy day e.g. accident, out of job etc. While most agree on the importance of such a fund, there are a few who have no qualms in using the emergency fund for investing when the opportunity arises. I have a hunch that in a super bearish market, the same people will not hesitate to utilize all their emergency fund!

It will be interesting to see if readers here share their same views. As for me, I hold a more conservative view. I will not use more than half my emergency fund for investing.

Feel free to cast the vote for your friends too; the end results might come as a surprise.

Thank you to all who has participated in the poll. To have over a hundred of you is encouraging and I hope that the numbers will increase further in future polls.

If you have a poll/survey relating to Finance or Investment and you would like to use this site to reach out to a greater audience, feel free to contact me and we can discuss further.

Most Popular Posts in April

Derek Lim — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:52:23 +0000

I have been tracking the most popular articles in each month since the beginning of the year but this is my first write up on it. Just a short commentary which I find rather interesting.

The top five articles based on Google Analytics are:

Hyflux preference shares Part 1 2,463 page views
Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) IPO 1,310 page views
Hyflux: 6% perpetual Class A preference shares. 1,131page views
Hyflux preference shares Part 2 851 page views
Hyflux Preference Shares 731 page views

Not surprising Hyflux dominated. The traffic in my site surged and so did the authors who blogged about it. Although demand for the preference shares was really strong, I also know of a few that would not touch it. There was also a IPO launched in the same month and it came in as the second most popular article in April. If you are a blogger who is thinking how to generate more traffic to your blog, it is not hard to guess what to focus on ya.

Lessons from the Japan Quake

Derek Lim — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:06:01 +0000

Two weeks have passed since the Japan quake and there are conflicting reports to the nuclear situation. In one day, we can have 1,000 times the normal amount of radiation before being told it was a mistake in the calculation. We hear about optimism in getting the situation under control followed by news that the situation is grave.

We are assured that even though higher than normal radiation is found in some food sources, we will have to take in X amount of times before there are serious effects. This is like telling me that this is poisonous but don’t worry, you won’t get poisoned until you take in X number of times. Yet, to be safe, these food sources were destroyed.

I’m puzzled how miniscule levels of radiation from Japan can be detected in US and yet none of the countries in Asia Pacific found any. I only read about passengers from Japan with higher the amount of radiation.

With such conflicting information, couldn’t the same be said about the stock market?

I believe that the Market is driven by human emotions and these emotions are swayed by the conflicting information that we receive. Shares in Saizen and GLP have plummeted and steps have been taken to assure us that the affected properties are safe and they represent only a small portion of their portfolio. Yet the overall impact is still anybody guess.

I still have my one lot of GLP from the IPO and a couple of friends who owned Saizen. While all of us are not selling yet, could there be better opportunities else where? Should we stick to them or should we take the opportunity to buy more? I believe many are in the same predicament as us. On the bright side, at least we have the opportunity to make these difficult decisions.

I recently received a phone call from my insurance agent advising me to do a free fund switch (CPF OA) to the money market fund and check how things pan out. Although I don’t hold any Japan funds, I took her advice because my current strategy is to consolidate cash. I wonder how many policy owners are aware that they could have funds vested in Japan. My guess is not a lot. Although they will be caught in the same predicament as to the next step to take, but at least they are aware and will not be caught by surprise when they receive their next annual statement.

For the opportunist, my advice is to do your research well. There can be pitfalls where you least expect. Take my case for example, the near double digit falls in the Nikki and Topix epresents a very attractive proposition. After some research, it led me to Lyxor Japan 10US$ listed in SGX. The last thing in my mind is for the pricing mechanism to fail. I only realize this after reading Wilfred’s blog. Personally, this feels the same when a stock is suspended. As luck would have it, procrastination led me to miss this ‘opportunity’ and the index has since recovered.

I believe that I am not the only one who has learned something from this episode and I will like to encourage you to share yours as well.

No related posts.

Secrets of Singapore Property Gurus by Mr Propwise – Read Chapter 1 for free and enjoy a S$5 discount

Derek Lim — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 06:53:33 +0000

Subscribe to TheFinance.sg via email and read Chapter 1 for free!

Get S$5 off!

Enter discount code “fin5” in the shopping cart and click “Update cart”.

I don’t read many books on property but I enjoyed this book. Although I don’t invest in property, I am still able to relate to it; probably because the topics and advice are practical and the strategy is also very much similar to investing in stocks. While not everyone may invest in property, almost everyone will own one someday and I believed that the knowledge gained in this book will be beneficial especially when purchasing my first flat.

Mr. Propwise from www.Propwise.sg has gone out and interviewed the TOP property gurus on every aspect of property investing, and distilled that down into a 188 page book that is packed with their expert knowledge and wisdom.

It is titled Secrets of Singapore Property Gurus, and the e-book version (instant PDF download) is available now.

The book is divided into five sections:

1) Profitable investment strategies for today’s market

Rayney Wong, Lawyer, Property Investor and Bestseller Author (Secrets of Property Millionaires) and Getty Goh, Director of Ascendant Assets (author of Buy Bye Property and Buy Right Property) share with you:

How to time your entry in the property market
Whether new or resale properties are better investments
Are leasehold or freehold properties better investments?

2) Finding your ideal investment property

Mohamed Ismail, CEO of PropNex Realty, Steve Melhuish, CEO of Allproperty Media (owner of Propertyguru.com.sg), and Kelvin Fong, Team Leader of Powerful Negotiators (leading over 1,000 agents with a 12% share of the private resale market in 2009) will share:

Impact of the fourth round of measures and forecast for 2011
The biggest mistakes property investors and novices make
The most promising areas and projects for property investors

3) Smart property financing

Dennis Ng, Director of Leverage Holdings (author of Mastering Your Personal Finance and Why is Money Always Not Enough?) and Alfred Chia, CEO of SingCapital share with you:

Are banks still willing to do property lending?
Their top property financing (and refinancing) tips
The worst and greatest property investment

4) Avoiding legal pitfalls and other mistakes

Top lawyers Amolat Singh, Partner at Amolat & Partners, and Mark Chua, Partner and Head of Property Law at Tito Isaac & Co LLP share with you:

Potential pitfalls of entering into a property sharing agreement
What a landlord should do to protect his interests before renting to a tenant
What an investor should check before committing to a property purchase

5) How to make millions from en bloc sales

Karamjit Singh, Managing Director of Credo Real Estate (31% market share of collective sales in 2010 and concluded over 60 en bloc sales including the largest, Farrer Court, for $1.3388 billion) and Dillon Loi, Master Trainer at Real Estate Academy (and author of Singapore Real Estate Sale and Investment Handbook) share with you:

How to find properties with en bloc potential
Top reasons why most en bloc deals fail
Where the next wave of en bloc is likely to happen

Remember to enter “fin5” to enjoy an additional S$5 discount

No related posts.

Poll: Singapore Budget 2011 (Closed)

Derek Lim — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:30:27 +0000

Thanks to those who has voted. Although there were only 29 votes (probably due to many similar polls), the results were a little different to that conducted by Straits Times (ST).

50% in ST felt that the budget definitely did not meet their expectations but only 34% readers here share the same sentiments. The next largest group here felt that the budget could have been better contrary to ST where their next largest group felt that it did not really meet their expectations.

I’m not surprised by the results – I expected most people to be reasonably satisfied with budget but I can’t explain why the results vary from that conducted in ST. The only explanation that I can come out now is readers here are probably more financially savvy and understand economics more.

On an interesting note, the number of votes in “definitely did not meet expectation” went up when the parliament started debating on the budget.

Poll Singapore Budget 2011

19 Feb 2011

Straits Times conducted a similar poll and almost 50% of the readers felt that the budget did not meet their expectations at all. This is a huge surprise for me considering that this budget is so much better than last year. I wonder if readers here share the same sentiments. Hence, I created a almost similar poll.

I am thinking that most votes will fall in “Could have been better” but I may be wrong. What do you think?

Poll: Market Outlook for 2011 – Full Time

Derek Lim — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:30:48 +0000

Many thanks to all the readers who participated in the poll. There were a total of 129 votes and not surprisingly the optimism has somewhat faded. I will think the main cause is due to the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.

I am however surprised that there are about 20% of readers who are bearish. I expect this number to be much less – probably >10%. Although I a cautious, I am not expecting any major downside this year. It proves to show that even in a very bullish market, there are always be a pessimistic bunch around.

Daily Comment on the US and SG market (29/12/2011)