FISCA course - Investing for the Long Term

www.fisca.sg

FISCA will be organising a course, "Investing for the Long Term" from August (tentative). It will cover the following topics:

• Principles of long term investing, compounding and dollar cost averaging
• Earn a better yield by investing in equities
• Reduce risk by investing for the long term in a low cost, diversified fund
• How to access information from the SGX website
• How to get information about ETFs, REITS and  blue chip shares (with high dividend yield)
• How to open an account with a stockbroker (using a remisier or an online account)
• Expenses of investing

There will be practical exercises and a question & answer session.

More details will be available soon in the FISCA website. If you are interested, please register your particulars in this survey now.

No retirement age

Mr. Lee Kuan Yew said that old people should continue to work. He quoted himself as an example.

My view
If old people in Singapore can earn $3 million a year, they would not mind working until they are 100 years old!

Here is another person's view.

Discharge of Personal Guarantee

Read this story about the trouble given to a consumer to get a discharge of a personal guarantee given to a bank.

My view
Many financial institutions are so engrossed in making profits that they forget about the hassle faced by their customers when they neglect to take steps to relief the customers of the liability under a personal guarantee.

Pyramid scheme

Read this story.

My view
The authority in Malaysia is more active in taking early action to prevent investment fraud and scams. In Singapore, we face shortage of manpower in the law enforcement agencies - and some people say that they are focusing on the wrong priorities.

A bloated financial sector

I heard a discussion over CNBC. A guest commentator remarked that 25% of the US economy is in the financial sector that does not produce anything. This explains why the economic situation is so bad in the USA.

My view
Actually, the situation is bad in many countries, including Singapore. The finance sector is too big, and is distorting the rest of the economy. Who wants to do the real work, when it is easy to make money by inflating the price of shares and properties? This is similar to operating a bad casino - easy to make money by pandering to the greed and gambling habits of the people. The biggest winners are the operators of the casino - i.e. the big tycoons in the financial sector.

Theft of motor vehicles

The situation is quite bad in Malaysia with almost 9,000 vehicles stolen in 2009. Read this report.

Slow response to an accident

Read this letter. The ambulance took 30 minutes and the police took 45 minutes to arrive at the scene of the accident.

My view
There is a shortage of manpower in the Police and the emergency services. Too many people want to join the banking and financial sector (for the high pay) and too few wants to do the ground work. The traffic congestion in Singapore adds to this situation.

Singapore is now heading in the wrong direction and things will get worse, unless the top people wake up and listen to the people on the ground.