Archive for the ‘Site Update’ Category

Posted on May 3, 2010 - by Derek Lim

Website Revamp

Dear Readers and Authors,

When I first started this site two and a half years ago, there weren’t many local Financial blogs but I’m glad to say now that this is not the case now. It’s really heartening to see more people willing to share their thoughts and experiences online. Unfortunately my current site is no longer capable of handling the large influx of new blogs. As some of you have known, I have been talking about revamping my site for some time and I have finally found a designer at a reasonable price. Although I hope to earn some pocket money from my site, my main focus is still on you – the readers and authors. I will not clutter my site with ads.  Content and readability is still my top priority.

The design of my new site will be pretty similar to http://tipd.com However, I will still like to hear your views and comments on what you will like to see in the new site so that I can discuss with the designer. Although I can’t promise that I will deliver all of them due to budget constraint, I can promise to look into every single one of them seriously and try my best to accommodate them.

I’m also looking for ideas on a new tag line. The current one “A Collection of Personal Finance and Investing Blogs” is more of a statement rather than a tagline. No prizes for coming out with a tagline but I will credit you for it in my about page.

Let’s hear your views ya.

PS: I have thought of a tagline: “New at your doorstep” but was told it is too general.

Posted on October 19, 2009 - by Derek Lim

Test @4.20pm

Test @4.20pm

Posted on July 6, 2009 - by Derek Lim

New Blog Aggregator – www.TheFinanceRSS.com

As the number of blogs that I aggregate grow, it is becoming more and more time consuming to update them into my site. It will soon come to a point where I can no longer accommodate all of them. Hence, in my quest to become a more efficient finance and investing blog aggregator, where both readers and bloggers can benefit, I have created a new site – www.TheFinanceRSS.com.

TheFinanceRSS is similar to most aggregators out there like AllTop and Popurls but the major difference is that I will focus  on Finance and Investing Blogs only. Hence, you won’t see feeds from the major newspapers or financial magazines.

This site is still in the pilot phase or Phase 1 as I call it – plain layout, some blogs have not been added in yet and a little messy (just simple feeds with no categorizing whatsoever).  I will like to measure the response first before I proceed to the next phase.

Feedback and suggestions are warmly welcome.
Feel free to drop me a comment or email me at admin@thefinance.sg

Posted on January 3, 2009 - by Derek Lim

The dawn of a new year…

2008 was an eye opener for me especially for one who experiences his first recession first hand. While I took into consideration a slowing economy, I did not expect it will become this bad.  Hence, I made a couple of bad decisions to invest in construction and shipping counters. The construction and shipping boom is well and truly over and I estimate it will take at least 5-10 years for them to recover.

With news of retrenchment everywhere, I’m fortunate that my job is safe (for now). Our CIO only mentioned that there will be a head count freeze and there are no plans for a reshuffle but as we all know, top management is always fickle, hence we should always listen to such news with a pinch of salt. My current finances aren’t exactly in a mess but the  plan was drafted at the end of 2007 and is no longer viable in the current economic conditions. In addition, I will have more commitments in the coming year such as planning for my marriage, starting a joint account and making a contribution towards my grandfather’s living expenses.

Faced with so much uncertainty and increased commitments, I will adopt a conservative approach to my 2009 financial plan. (more…)

Posted on November 2, 2008 - by Derek Lim

Taking a break…

By: Derek Lim

This will be my last post before I go on a short holiday to Taiwan. I’m expecting a pretty hectic end to the year in work, investing and blogging.

The Beast
It has been a pretty tiring month or so wrestling with this beast. My portfolio has dropped by 32% (including dividends) and I’m worried about getting lost in the madness that is engulfing our financial markets. I’m extremely fearful that I will succumb to the beast (Greed) and start buying on impulse thinking that bargains are everywhere, without taking into consideration my own risk tolerance, current situation and future plans, and eventually losing my sanity. The frightening part is that this beast grows ever stronger as the market declines.

Do I slay the beast within me, tame it or work with it? To slay it is to stop investing altogether, taming it is to invest in low risk instruments like bonds and FDs (not minibonds) and to work with it is to stay vested and look out for potential bargains. Of the three, I’m more inclined to choose the last and this also requires the most effort.

Before I start to invest
In such a volatile market now, it is especially important to do a proper asset allocation and not use all my cash on bargain hunting because there is a high possibility that I will lose the entire sum of money or suffer a heavy loss if I were to sell it prematurely.

My conditions before I can start bargain hunting are:

1. Emergency Cash Fund.
2. Insurance coverage for my parents, girlfriend and self
3. Near term spending – 2yrs
4. Retirement Fund for my parents

After setting aside all of the above, I realized that I don’t have much money left. It doesn’t help that my supervisor painted a bleak picture of no bonus and wage freeze due to the gloomy economic outlook. My challenge is how to make the most out of my limited amount of funds left to invest in the market.

Where will Mr. Market go?

Even the experts have problems forecasting the future market so instead of joining them, I have decided to think of the possible outcomes that will happen in the next 3yrs (though most experts believe that we will recover in yr 2010) and plan my move from there. (more…)

Posted on October 15, 2008 - by Derek Lim

New Blog Inclusion

By: Derek Lim

A new blog The Simplified Resource For Investing – Get money while staying invested has been added to my site. As the tag line suggests, the blog is heavily focus on investing especially on stocks. Though relatively new, I like the author’s view in rebuffing analyst calls.

Read about the author’s profile here.

Posted on October 13, 2008 - by Derek Lim

New blog for investors of Credit Linked Securities

Mr. Tan Kin Lian has created a new blog to allow investors to get in touch with each other. Separate sections have been created according to distributor and products.

http://creditlinkedsecurities.blogspot.com/

I believe this will be extremely helpful because now the affected parties can have a consolidated channel to voice their views.

Posted on February 20, 2008 - by Derek Lim

Health and Wealth

By: Derek Lim

If not for the Adrian’s comments, I would have miss out his blog – Health and Wealth and also the chance to share his views with my readers. Here are his latest views on retirement.

By: Adrian Khiat
Can we really retire comfortably? (1)
Let me first analyse this Retirement Issue from the CPF perspective in this posting.

Many Singaporeans thought that they can depend on CPF savings for retirement. It is true if the money was not used for anything else, like a single who never purchase a property. However for most, a lot of CPF funds are used before the retirement fund really start accumulating. Read more…

Can we really retire comfortably? (2)
The 2nd posting on this topic is with regards to policies that typical Singaporeans have.
I normally do 4 basic financial planning groundwork for a prospect. Read more…

Can we really retire comfortably? (3)
The 3rd barrier Singaporeans faced is the misconception of Financial Planning and the Execution of a wrong Financial Plan which they DIY themselves. Read more…

Can we really retire comfortably? (4)
The last barrier I like to share about is the “Inadequacy of Financial Planners in Singapore”.

Insurance and Investment products are distributed mainly by 3 channels: Tied Agencies, Bancassurance and Independent Financial Advisers with Tied agencies and Bancassurance as the current major players. Read more…

Posted on February 13, 2008 - by Derek Lim

Inclusion of Two New Blogs

By: Derek Lim

Two new blogs have been added into TheFinance.sg.

The first is a blog set up by Christopher that focus solely on Gold and Silver. Prior to this, Chris has another blog to talk about his Internet Marketing exploits and investments before he finally decided to create a separate blog on Gold Investing. Though there are already several such blogs around, I believe that it is the first Singapore blog that focus on Gold.
Click here to visit Chris’s blog on Everything About Gold Investing.


The second blog is by Helmi Hakim, a Financial Associate. Though he is with NTUC income, he offers an objective views on his work and financial matters. I admire his openness on putting his resume in his blog. I don’t see many FAs doing that and for a good reason too but by doing so, it also offers a little edge.
Click here to visit Helmi’s blog on Daily Financial, Motivational and Spiritual Tips.

Posted on February 7, 2008 - by Derek Lim

Happy Chinese New Year!

By: Derek Lim

It’s going to be a busy few days, visiting relatives and friends. I will also be planning a time-table so that I can better manage all my tasks. Let’s hope the market will recover by Friday else expect to see another huge sell off on Monday. Maybe with the CNY Toto draw, we will see more millionaires who can then pump it into the market. Just kidding. ;)

Wishing all readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Huat Ah!!