If you are craving for some cheap Vietnamese street eats, head over to Comnam (sister branch of NamNam Noodle Bar) at the basement of Raffles City.
Better known for its aromatic broken rice dish (Cơm tấm), each grain packs more flavour in it – to ensure you enjoy a fragrant bowl of goodness.
For those who prefer noodles, you can enjoy 1-for-1 Viet Noodles from 3pm to 9.30pm. It’s pretty affordable considering each bowl of noodles only cost between $9.90 – $10.90.
We frequently hear of the word “economics” in papers or conversations, but how useful or applicable is this course of study to the real world?
Understanding economics is in reality fundamental to understanding the price movements of every single good and service in our economy. It is the aggregation of the demand and supply forces. Indeed, when we see the airfare skyrockets after the end of school term, it is economics at work. Huge travel demand outweighing limited supply of passenger seats leads to propped up prices. As such, appreciating and capitalising on economic knowledge could end you up in deeper pockets.
While it may be too time consuming and superfluous to master all the economic theories, knowing a few essential concepts may come in handy in guiding our financial and behavioral decisions.
Thanks to the prudent policies administered by MAS, Singapore enjoys a low inflation rate of 2.8% on average since 1962. However, a simple comparison between the interest rates offered by various banks indicates a mere 1.3% as the most competitive rate for 1-year fixed deposits.
What this means: The fund sitting in your bank is losing 1.5% of its value to be exchanged into goods and services annually. Given that you have $100 in your bank today, you can afford to buy 50 McChicken burgers. But one year down the road, you can only afford to purchase 49.25 of them.
Course of actions to be taken: Since the saving rate is not commensurate with the inflation rate, we may be better off investing in alternative assets that provide higher yields. However, if every rational and irrational soul is doing that, risks abound as illustrated below.
Stock investment
(Image credit: thenest.com)
Investing in stocks can yield 2 kinds of returns, namely dividend yield and capital gains yield. The former tends to be more predictable than the latter, especially if the company holds a long term track record of constant or growing dividend stream.
How to value stocks: Dividend yield is an objective measure in guiding investment decisions since they are realised returns and a better indicator of future returns. On the other hand, be extra cautious during stock encounters with historically impressive capital appreciation. Gullible investors may be tempted to buy these shares as they often fail to realise the high variability of capital gains yield could be complicated by the problem of information asymmetry where insiders possess and exploit private information to the disadvantage of outsiders.
Course of actions to be taken: Both insiders and outsiders have to keep abreast of news and developments in the macroeconomy and international economies as they affect stock returns systemically.
Specifically for outsiders, it is crucial to have a good grasp of the economic fundamentals (such as the consistency of dividend payouts and growth potential) of the company that helps to steer towards a proper valuation. A long term investment horizon is more favourable as it puts them on a more level ground with the insiders. If the outsiders were to invest in the short term, speculation is usually involved since by definition, the fact that they do not possess the superior private knowledge is prejudicial to them.
For more well-heeled investors looking to diversify their portfolio, real estate investment seems the way to go. Similarly, real estate assets provide 2 types of returns, specifically rental yield and capital gains yield. Best of all, a residential property provides its owner(s) a physical shelter to live in. Despite these benefits though, investors should be wary of overpaying for homes.
How to value property: Rental yield is an objective measure in guiding investment decisions since it measures the payback period of the hefty mortgage loan that homebuyers commit to. The URA Masterplan and a concise understanding of demographics are vital tools in predicting the capital gains yield.
Course of actions to be taken: Beware of one-off anomalous sale transactions that are not reflective of the true market forces. Stay out of homes in which the overinflated prices are not underpinned by strong economic fundamentals (such as location, amenities and size). Buy during a recessionary period instead of an inflationary period. Timing the market makes an enormous difference in your bank account.
Investments aside, most of us contribute to the economy through our employment. But to maximise the return on our faculties and time, insights have to be drawn from the demand and supply forces.
Some simple mathematics to gauge how financially rewarding is a particular industry: If the staff turnover is high (due to long working hours, poor welfare, unchallenging job roles etc.), companies should offer higher wages to attract or retain workers.
However, this is not happening. Reason being a ready supply of potential (local and foreign) employees provides virtually no impetus for corporations to raise salaries. Does this plight sound familiar?
Course of actions to be taken: Instead of complaining about meagre wages, pursue a career in an alternative industry with market dynamics (i.e. less competition) working in your favour. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, you actually build greater wealth bucking the norm and doing what others don’t do. Better still, venture into a new industry and gain the first mover advantage.
Now you see, having a good understanding of economics is useful in our day-to-day living as it forms an integral basis for making financially sound decisions.
Head over to 3023 Ubi Ave 2 from 6 – 9 May 2015 and look forward to score some deal with up to 60% off branded watches like Emporio Armani, Fossil, Adidas, Casio, Seiko, Skagen and many more.
Door opens at 11am to 8pm, with stocks selling fast.
It’s a boring topic, but when money is involved, is it still boring? I hope not! Investing is more than just buying and selling, it’s the art of handling risk and emotions. Having read through many blogs and seen many portfolios, there’s one similarity among all of them. They all have Portfolio Management. If the rich are doing it, there must be a compelling reason why they are doing it right? Having a good portfolio management can help enhance returns and reduce risk. Not everyone wants to have a portfolio that moves together all in the same direction, and not everyone realise that they may be having it. A good portfolio should comprise of several forms of assets and preferably in different industries because that way your risk will not be concentrated in a single industry. Yes, you may have a chance of making it big when the sector goes into a boom, just like the technology stocks prior to the .com bust. It is one thing to be overweight on an industry, but it is foolish to allow yourself to take on a risk that you may not be able to afford. The last thing you want to do when investing is to be wiped out completely. In this article, I wish to share using a top-down approach and gradually zoom in on how one can have a good Portfolio Management and avoid undertaking too much risk.
Portfolio Management
As mentioned, a good Portfolio would be one that can withstand years of market movements and still stand strong. The word ‘Diversification’ may come to your mind when Portfolio Management is mentioned. There tend to be a misconception about diversification, especially towards investors. To most investors, diversification simply means diversifying your money into different sectors of the market. This isn’t entirely wrong, and there are indeed benefits to diversifying into different sectors. However, may I present to you a broader view of what diversification means. Diversify into different asset classes. A truly good portfolio should be one that is invested into different asset classes – Stocks, Bonds, Commodities, Forex, Properties, etc.
Having a portfolio that is diversified into different asset classes will save you from having your hard-earned money from being wiped out in a black swan event. You can be sure that even if the stock market crashes, you still have other streams of income from your different asset classes like bonds or rental income from your residential properties (Note that REITs is still classified as stocks). Imagine if all your money were in just the stock market alone, perhaps even diversified into a few sectors. Your portfolio would have experienced a hard pounding and it served as a wake-up call for many who did not diversify across the different asset classes. That’s not to say that being diversified into different asset class will make you immune to any big worldwide crisis like this, but at least it mitigates the damage dealt.
Risk Management
In theory, everything sounds perfect. However, not everyone of us can afford the luxury to be invested in all the 5 asset classes mentioned. It would be nice to try to be as diversified as possible, but even if it’s just stocks, there’s another way to manage your risk. A part of portfolio management is Position Sizing. Always consider how much risk you are willing to take in a trade, preferably in dollar amount rather than in %.
Step 1: Consider the maximum loss(in $ amount) you’re willing to accept.
Step 2: Set a stop-loss level
Step 3: Calculate the capital exposure per unit (Entry price – Stop loss price)
Step 4: Maximum position size = Step 1 / Step 3
This formula can be found in Robert C Miner’s High Probability Trading Strategies book. If you’re interested, do head down to NLB to borrow because that’s where I got the book from! Although not everyone has the luxury to take up the maximum position size for every trade, it will still serve as a good gauge as to how much the maximum should be. This prevents you from over trading beyond your risk tolerance level. There are many strategies available and this is one of the strategies that I have found to have served me useful because I know exactly how many shares should I limit myself to. Hopefully you would re-look at your investment strategies and identify if you are carrying too much unnecessary risk.
Long before you give birth to your child, the desire to buy adorable child’s clothes kicks in. But, quickly growing children, changing of fashion trends, and huge deals may put a hole on your pocket. Giving your child fashionable clothes does not have to be expensive. Here are 5 Ways to Save Huge Bucks On Your Kid’s Clothing…
1. OUT WITH THE NEW
Since your toddler grows increasingly in the first few years then buying new clothes every year will surely break the bank. Try buying stylish clothes that are very cheap in thrift stores, garage sales, or online (e.g., Carousell or Gumtree).
There are a couple of neat thrift stores in Singapore namely: Praisehaven Thrift Store, New2U Thrift Shop, Oakham Market, and O-Mighty. Most of these thrift stores are donating its proceeds to charity. Visit Yelp.com.sg to read the reviews of these stores. The best part, of course, is that you’re contributing to a great cause while shopping.
2. HAND-ME-DOWNS
Hand-me-downs are totally free! Ask your family and friends (whose kids are older and bigger than yours) if you can have their children’s outgrown clothes. You will not only help your family or friends to de-clutter their space but you will also save more.
3. USE CLOTHES FOR MULTIPLE PURPOSES
Get your child leggings that she could wear during the cold weather then keep wearing them as capris the next summer. Same thing goes for dresses, you can use them as a dress or a shirt once its outgrown.
4. BORROW OR SEW YOUR OWN
For occasions that require special outfits such as Halloween, weddings or other formal parties that you only wear once a year, you can just borrow costumes to save loads of space and money. If you are good in sewing, use your creativity to sew your own “princess or prince” costume for Halloween.
5. KEEP IT SIMPLE
Avoid buying a matching set because it is more costly and it limits your options. Instead, buy solid colored pants and simple patterned skirts that you can mix and match with funky shirts. You will save more buy these items during clearance sales.
