Balancing risk and reward (Sunday Times 24 Jan)
Jan 24, 2010
Balancing risk and reward
When investing money, consider your need and ability to take risk
The other side of the coin is when investors get so caught up chasing high returns that they ignore the risk element.
So it’s worth trying to understand what your personal risk profile is before investing your money.
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Strategies of a financial advisor (Sunday Times 24 Jan)
Jan 24, 2010
Strategies of a financial adviser
Options and CPF may offer better returns than stocks and fixed deposits
What do financial advisers do with their own money that most individuals don’t do? I can’t speak for advisers as a group, but I can give you a selection of insights into my own strategies. But bear in mind that these approaches may not be suitable for everyone.
I don’t use fixed deposits
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Financial lessons from the decade (Sunday Times 3 Jan)
Jan 3, 2010
Financial lessons from the decade
Scandals and dubious practices from the past can help investors avoid pitfalls
But my timing couldn’t have been better because, fortunately for me, the party began after I joined the paper.
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Dont fall for the lure: churning of CPF funds (Sunday Times 27 Dec)
Dec 27, 2009
Don’t fall for the lure
Some people are letting financial advisers ‘churn’ their CPF savings to pocket cash rebates – a risky and illegal practice
The lure of getting their hands on some quick cash from their Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings is leading Singaporeans into a minefield of legal and financial risks.
And if you are found guilty of violating CPF rules, you may find yourself poorer by as much as $10,000 or more.
The experience of Mr George Low (not his real name) illustrates the dangers.
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The Singapore Solution (National Geographic Magazine)
If you want to get a Singaporean to look up from a beloved dish of fish-head curry—or make a harried cabdriver slam on his brakes—say you are going to interview the country’s “minister mentor,” Lee Kuan Yew, and would like an opinion about what to ask him. “The MM?Wah lau! You’re going to see the MM? Real?” You might as well have told a resident of the Emerald City that you’re late for an appointment with the Wizard of Oz. After all, LKY, as he is known in acronym-mad Singapore, is more than the “father of the country.” He is its inventor, as surely as if he had scientifically formulated the place with precise portions of Plato’s Republic, Anglophile elitism, unwavering economic pragmatism, and old-fashioned strong-arm repression.
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Out of work, and loving it (ST 21 Dec)
Dec 21, 2009
Out of work, and loving it
Some laid-off Wall St workers find it liberating to get out of the rat race
JUST PART OF THE BUSINESS
‘To get laid off may just be integrated into a narrative of profit and loss that they have dealt with day in and day out on Wall Street.’
Dr Caitlin Zaloom, a professor at New York University
NEW YORK: -Twelve months without a job. Fourteen months.
Eighteen.
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“All I need is a second chance” (Today 18 Dec)
I AM recently divorced, and my matrimonial flat has been sold as my ex-husband refused to transfer it to me.
I have joint custody of my two daughters, aged 10 and 12. They live with their father, since I have no one to help me look after them as my parents are dead and I have no other family support.
My girls stay with me on alternate weekends and sometimes during the week when I can arrange my time. During school holidays, they spend more time with me as I will take time off from work.
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Graduates dealt harder jobs blow (ST 16 Dec)
DESPITE signs of a turnaround in the job market, university graduates are no better off.
In fact, more of them are without jobs and taking longer to land a job, according to revised official figures released yesterday.
Part of the reason is that they often tend to seek jobs that pay close to what they used to earn, said MP Josephine Teo, who is also assistant secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.
However, economists interviewed foresee their lot improving in the new year, when growth is expected to hit 5.5 per cent, according to a recent poll of 20 private-sector economists by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
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Inequality is bad news for everyone (ST 2 Dec)
Economist Robert Frank says when the rich get richer, and the poor stay poor, life gets tougher for everyone. He advocates a progressive consumption tax which discourages wasteful spending, reduces inequality and pressure on the less well-off to keep up with others. — ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
WE MIGHT know it as the rat race; academia call it the ‘expenditure cascade’, but it amounts to the same treadmill.
In short: When the rich get richer, but the poor stay poor, life becomes tougher for everyone else.
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Savouring the taste of success (ST 26 Nov)
A CLOSE bond formed by a group of students while studying overseas has blossomed into one of the most successful restaurant chains in Singapore.
Mr Andrew Chan, 35, Ms Anna Lim, 34, and Mr Benedict Leow, 36, met while studying in Perth at Australia’s Murdoch University some 15 years ago for their bachelor’s degrees.
The trio returned to Singapore after graduation – Ms Lim in 1996, followed by Mr Chan and Mr Leow in 1997 – with plans to settle into regular nine-to-five jobs.
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Email from a jobless reader (17 Nov)
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Ice cream shops are hot (Sunday Times 25 Oct)
Ice cream shops are hot
Fans of the frozen dessert are in for a treat, with at least five new shops and plenty of unusual flavours
By Huang Lijie
Mr Richard Ang and his wife, Janelle Kam, invested about $30,000 of their savings to set up the six-seat Taste Matters ice cream dessert shop in Bukit Timah. –ST PHOTOS: SHAHRIYA YAHAYA
Anyone who has eaten ice cream on a hot day will tell you that when it comes to enjoying the sweet treat, quick licks are everything.
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Foreclosures Force Ex-Homeowners To Turn To Shelters (New York Times 18 Oct)
Sheri West operated a shelter for homeless people, but last year she lost her home in Cleveland and had to sleep in her car.
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: October 18, 2009
CLEVELAND — The first night after she surrendered her house to foreclosure, Sheri West endured the darkness in her Hyundai sedan. She parked in her old driveway, with her flower-print dresses and hats piled in boxes on the back seat, and three cherished houseplants on the floor. She used her backyard as a restroom.
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Merit in a small loan programme in S’pore (ST 13 Oct)
Merit in a small loan programme in S’pore
By Lee Yoong Yoong, For The Straits Times
HOW do you live on an income of less than US$2 (S$2.80) a day? More than a quarter of the world’s population struggle with this question every day. According to the World Bank, of the 1.6 billion people who fell into this category last year, 1.4 billion survived on less than US$1.25 a day.
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S’pore investors more risk averse (ST 10 Oct)
S’pore investors more risk-averse
They also trust financial institutions less: Survey
By Gabriel Chen
The financial crisis has not shaken the confidence of Singaporeans in the Government and media, according to the Aviva survey. It also found that Singaporeans worry most about poor health and job security. — ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
A NEW survey has laid bare the sobering effects that the global financial crisis has had on retail investors here.
Singapore investors are now a lot more risk-averse and less trusting of financial institutions. In fact, they regard life in general as a riskier proposition.
