Millionaire or not, plan for retirement.

Being a millionaire today is different from being a millionaire 30 or even 20 years ago. This is simply because a million dollars is worth less now due to inflation in the cost of goods and services. These days, even a HDB flat could cost a million dollars!

So, someone with total liquid assets worth a million dollars does not impress me. What might impress me is how he got it and what he is

Young working Singaporeans, you are OK. Really?

This was just in the news:

Young Singaporeans in the workforce today will have adequate savings in their
Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts by the time they retire, according to an
independent study by the Ministry of Manpower.

A recent study using the Income Replacement Rate or IRR indicates that
Singaporeans are adequately covered. Pension economists measure
retirement adequacy by

Tea with AK71: Inflation hits fried bee hoon.

Today, I went to the "economic fried bee hoon" store near my office to buy breakfast. I like fried bee hoon a lot. It is inexpensive and tasty. However, I would try to restrict it to once a week or fortnight. It is still less expensive to bring my own food to work (e.g. oatmeal).

I would usually order fried bee hoon with a piece of tofu to make it a more nutritious meal. Price? $1.50. If I am

Voices, noises and choices.

The amount of information out there is enough to make one feel somewhat overwhelmed or even faint. I have not been reading blogs as much in the last one week and kept my reading primarily to Channel NewsAsia, The Business Times and Yahoo!Finance. Even so, it probably is enough to make heads spin.

Some proclaimed that the U.S. housing market has bottomed and is picking up! Conventional wisdom

Low interest rates' a double whammy for some.

Central banks in many large economies around the world are keeping interest rates really low, near zero in countries like the USA and Japan, in fact. Low interest rates are seen as the way to encourage economic growth by making borrowings cheaper.



To revive their sickly economies, the relevant countries' low interest rates could be instrumental. However, as money would go to where it is

Perpetual bonds: Good or bad?

With interest rates so low these days, one would not be wrong to wonder why are companies and even a REIT issuing perpetual bonds to raise funds with coupons of up to 7%. To a layman like me with very rudimentary understanding of economics, it could be one of two reasons:

1. The business or REIT concerned is not able to get loans because its business is too risky.

2. The amount of liquidity

Buying a private property as an owner-occupier? Think like an investor!

This blog post is in response to a comment by a reader, Jaime. See it here.



Hi Jaime,

How to buy a private property for self stay? I am most probably considered an amateur when it comes to buying private properties but I am happy to share my thoughts with you.

Just keep visiting showflats if you want to buy new. Or keep viewing apartments (look through the classifieds in the papers or search

Double dip recession or just very slow growth?

Stock markets around the world had a very bad week. Everyone it seems is expecting a global recession and the accompanying deflation.

In a truly deflationary environment, all assets will suffer and see their prices fall. Equities and precious metals were all sold down across the board, therefore.

However, reading an article in Bloomberg, it is interesting to note that in the USA, "railroads

Money continues to flow into Singapore.

Singapore continues to attract inflows of money. I have friends from USA and Europe who are parking their money in savings accounts in Singapore although they get only 0.1% interest. Why? The Singapore Dollar has been appreciating against their home currencies and is likely to get stronger.


Singapore also has a AAA rating when it comes to sovereign bonds. This has been attracting much attention

Should we be staying invested or in cash?

All of us know how pathetic interest rates on savings are for quite some time now and with the U.S. Fed pledging to keep interest rates low for another two years or so, it does seem as if low interest rates are here to stay, even in Singapore.

We also know that the ultra low interest rate environment is pushing up prices of almost everything. Inflation? You bet. Is this going to persist? It