Monday 30 January 2012

For those who felt lost in life

There was a motivating poster of a cat talking to a kid. 

The kid says, "the meaning of life is eat, sleep and sex." and the cat said, "that's what i found out too.

(Its a pity that I did not manage to find the poster as mentioned above. I got the quote from someone.)

Investment Grading

Recently, many people would came across with the headliners in the news that state, S&P downgraded XXX country to AA grading or BB grading etc. I guess many people do not understand what it really mean.

I did a search and found the following:
‘AAA’—Extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments. Highest Rating.
‘AA’—Very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.
‘A’—Strong capacity to meet financial commitments, but somewhat susceptible to adverse economic conditions and changes in circumstances.
‘BBB’—Adequate capacity to meet financial commitments, but more subject to adverse economic conditions.
‘BBB-‘—Considered lowest investment grade by market participants.
‘BB+’—Considered highest speculative grade by market participants.
‘BB’—Less vulnerable in the near-term but faces major ongoing uncertainties to adverse business, financial and economic conditions.
‘B’—More vulnerable to adverse business, financial and economic conditions but currently has the capacity to meet financial commitments.
‘CCC’—Currently vulnerable and dependent on favorable business, financial and economic conditions to meet financial commitments.
‘CC’—Currently highly vulnerable.
‘C’—Currently highly vulnerable obligations and other defined circumstances.
‘D’—Payment default on financial commitments.

Hope that the information will be useful when you read financial news in future. 

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Property - HDB Loans

There are many schools of thoughts regarding paying up your loans for your housing. This post serve as a summary of what I heard about what people did with their HDB housing loans of 2.6% p.a.

(1) Should borrow as much as possible since it is only 2.6% p.a. It is the cheapest and safest loan around. If one has extra money, should not pay up, should use it to get investment return of greater than 2.6% p.a.

(2) Should pay up as soon as possible. Pay whenever you got lump sum so that you can be debt free as young as possible. A debt free person is a carefree person.

(3) Should pay up with anything in excess of 20k in your CPF OA account. Base on current CPF rules, you will earn 3.5% (2.5% + 1%) for the first 20k in your account, anything above it earn 2.5%. 3.5%-2.6%=1.9%. You are earning 1.9% p.a for keeping 20k in your account.

Which is your choice? Please feel free to suggest if you could think of other options!

Just to add, regardless of which option you take, please remember to keep at least few months of your installments money in your CPF just in case that you lose your job due to whatever reasons.  Example, if your monthly installments are 1000, please keep at least few times (6000, 12000) of it according to your comfort/risk level.

Thursday 12 January 2012

金玉良言(2) - correct?

multibagger follow cw, reits follow ak

Good news for cma? or expected news

Westgate – The new landmark in Jurong, Singapore’s largest regional centre
• Only development to be directly linked to both Jurong East MRT interchange
and Jurong East bus interchange
• Shopping mall to welcome shoppers by Christmas 2013 while office ready for
occupation in late 2014

Singapore, 12 January 2012 – CapitaMalls Asia; CapitaMall Trust Management Limited, the manager
of CapitaMall Trust; and CapitaLand1 are pleased to mark a key milestone by breaking ground for the
shopping mall and office tower at Jurong Gateway today.

The development will be a new landmark in Jurong Gateway, continuing the transformation of the Jurong
Lake District into a key regional business hub. The ground-breaking ceremony was graced by Minister
of State for Trade and Industry & National Development, Mr Lee Yi Shyan. The 400 guests at the
ground-breaking included prospective tenants at both the upcoming mall and office tower.
The name Westgate reflects the development’s location as the gateway to the Jurong Lake District and
its excellent transport links, which make it a gateway connecting people to and from Jurong Lake
District for both work and play. Westgate has direct connectivity to both the Jurong East MRT and bus
interchanges as well as neighbouring amenities such as the upcoming Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

金玉良言

In general: Blue first to crash in bear but first to chiong in bull!

But not all blues follow the above rule, becareful the blues which you choose!

Wednesday 4 January 2012

SIPS test

Those who are interested to take the test but scare that after you read you will forget the answers to the questions, you can refer to http://sgmarketwatch.com/sgx-online-education/ while taking the test.

Anyway I only took the test for fun, I guess at most I will only trade ETFs.

My result.