お元気ですか。

今週は大変忙しいですけど、新しい上司が始めて働くから。それに、OM部は新しい同僚も始めて働きます。シンガポールのオフィスの様に国際会社です！

自分について、日本語能力試験を続けて勉強します。試験が着くので、毎晩は二時間に復習をして、漢字を書いて、文法を覚えてします。しかし、進歩がないのようです。

このごろ、僕は愁いですけど、原因が知らない。「どの様に幸せになる」と思います。

面白い生活が向かう。だから、一生懸命、頑張っていく！

Desert Rose

I was rummaging through some old stuff when I chanced upon these pictures taken many moons ago. I still cannot believe it has been so many years ago that I once lived in the US of A. I reminisce the fond memories which I believe will grow old with me. Enjoy…

想不到时间过得真快，一瞬间已隔了许多年。

好怀念在美国的日子。虽然已经物逝人非，美好回忆依旧。

久々アメリカに住んだ。経験が楽しんだ。将来機会だたら、も一回を帰ろう。

綺麗写真を見て下さい。どうぞ。

Harrahs

Inside Harrahs … where the cherubic angels will watch over you as you gamble.

The Mirage … where if you lose at the tables …

… you will be fed to the White Tiger enclosed within the hotel.

The Venetian … where you can cruise on a gondola and get serenaded by a singing Italian (yeah … I know they are not really Italians but a girl can dream).

Caesars Palace … home of Julius Caesar, the Great who sometimes invite Jerry Seinfeld & Celine Dion over for post-dinner entertainment.

Excalibur … where you can hold court alongside King Arthur.

New York New York … Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, & the evil Wall Street.

Monte Carlo … where you can use the Monte Carlo simulation model to predict your winning odds.

Fremont Street … bright lights galore.

More glitter and glamour along Main Street.

Finally, just for the boys …

Las Vegas is not called “Sin City” for nothing. Plenty of girly bars all over the place.

First-timers to LV will almost certainly be dazzled by the enigmatic bright lights, the constant ringing of money and the relaxed-party-till-you-drop mood. These are disguised to induce/charm/hypnotise one to spend more money at the gambling tables.

As for me, I really enjoyed the simple and cheap thrill of visiting and being mesmerised by the regal and opulence of the various themed hotels. Its a shame I did not get a good shot of the famed Bellagio fountains.

Hope you have enjoyed LV as much as I did. In my opinion, you should visit LV at least once in your lifetime.

Remember the saying … what happens in Vegas stay in Vegas.  : )

Third of Staff at RBS Coutts Singapore quit

Timing of this article couldn’t be any better and is close to my heart.

By Sundeep Tucker in Hong Kong Published: October 12 2009 23:21 | Last updated: October 12 2009 23:21

RBS Coutts, the international arm of the UK private bank, is scrambling to rebuild its flagship Singapore office after the mass resignation of one-third of its staff in the city-state. The surprise departures include about 20 key managers, as well as 50 or so support staff, some of whom built up lucrative private banking business with rich Indians and Indonesians.

A lack of annual bonus prospects is believed to be a factor behind some of the resignations at the division, owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, which was rescued by the UK government last year. Senior moves in the private banking industry are sensitive, due to the possibility of colleagues following departing employees to other institutions and taking clients with them. The destinations of the 70-odd staff remain unknown. The Singapore and Hong Kong offices employ the bulk of the group’s 510 staff in Asia, a region which accounts for about SFr17bn ($16.6bn) – or a quarter – of RBS Coutts’ funds under management.

RBS Coutts, which confirmed the resignations, said they represented less than 15 per cent of regional headcount. “Staff volatility in the private banking industry is not unusual, especially in Asia,” it said. While large private banking teams routinely change employers, especially in Asia, industry participants said it was rare for a bank to lose so many staff at the same time.

RBS Coutts said that, although it was ultimately owned by the UK government, it could offer sufficiently attractive pay packages to attract staff. “We expect our compensation packages to be market competitive,” it said. Rivals are aggressively hiring established private bankers with track records in Asia to expand operations, keen to manage a slice of the wealth being created in the region. Singapore is the centre of the group’s offshore private banking activity in fast-growing areas such as south-east Asia and India.

The Financial Times reported last week that industry veteran Hanspeter Brunner had quit as head of RBS Coutts to join BSI, a Swiss private bank owned by Generali, the Italian insurance group. One of Mr Brunner’s senior colleagues, Raj Sriram, who led a close-knit team that built up RBS Coutts’ business with wealthy non-resident Indians, is among the departures. Mr Brunner was replaced by Nick Pollard, a long-serving executive of Coutts.

RBS Coutts insisted the departures would not have an impact on clients “who have continued to support us by remaining with us”. The bank added: “Clients know that we have a large team of highly experienced and committed senior bankers who continue to provide the same personalised attention.” The spokesman said RBS remained in “growth mode” in Asia and planned to replace those who have left and add a further 200 staff to regional headcount by 2015.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/46db8d28-b74f-11de-9812-00144feab49a.html

Invest in Cash-Generating & Inflation-proof assets I

Hi Folks, I am attaching 2 thought-provoking articles on how you can plan your investments. Happy Investing!

Taking Steps to Prepare for the Worst

In Sunday school I was taught the parable of the pharaoh of Egypt and his dream of seven fat cows being eaten by seven skinny cows. Deeply disturbed, the pharaoh sought the interpretation of his dream. A young slave boy interpreted the dream to mean Egypt would have seven years of plenty to be followed by seven years of famine. The message: Prepare for the lean years during the years of plenty. The pharaoh prepared Egypt for the lean years and led it into an era of prosperity.

My rich dad used the story of the three little pigs to make a similar point. As you know, one pig built his house out of straw, the other of sticks. Once the first two pigs finished their houses they began to party, taunting and laughing at the third pig who was taking longer, building his house of bricks. After the house of bricks was finished, a big bad wolf appeared and blew down the houses of straw and sticks. If not for the shelter of the house of bricks, the first two pigs would have been pork dinner.

In 2007 a big bad wolf known as the ‘subprime crisis’ blew down financial houses made of straw and sticks, houses known as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, Fannie Mae, and Countrywide — as well as the homes and businesses of people who built their lives on straw and sticks.

Lessons of the Pharaoh

Last month’s column was about reasons why people should prepare for the worst. This article is about how to prepare for the worst. Preparation begins with understanding the lessons of the pharaoh and the three little pigs: Prepare for the worst even when times are good.

For me, it was not easy to follow these lessons, especially during the boom years. It was tough preparing for bad times while my friends were enjoying the good times. It was tough not to climb the corporate ladder seeking higher pay and job security or chasing financial fads such as flipping real estate, day trading stocks, gambling on dotcom companies, investing in mutual funds, or using my home as an ATM to pay off my credit cards. Today, many of my fellow baby boomers who enjoyed the boom years are concerned about survival in the lean years.

In 1973, returning from the Vietnam War, I found my dad, in his fifties and in the prime of his life, unemployed. Although a highly educated, honest, hard-working man — and former superintendent of education for the state of Hawaii and Republican Party candidate for Lt. governor of the state – he was sitting at home, looking for work. My dad’s situation, combined with my experience of the war, was my wake-up call. I knew something was wrong, but I did not know what was wrong.

The stories of the pharaoh and the three little pigs danced in my head. I knew I had to prepare, but for what I did not know. I just knew I could not follow my dad’s advice, which was to fly for the airlines or go back to school and get my PhD. My instincts, sharpened by the war, knew his advice was not right for me. I decided to follow in my rich dad’s footsteps, not my poor dad’s.

One Path to Take

The following are some of the steps I took to prepare for the worst. I do not recommend my path; I will simply state why I did what I did and what benefits were gained.

1. I became an entrepreneur, not an employee. This was a tough choice. I did not have the skills, experience, or financial backing to support me through the lean years and my mistakes…and there were many lean years and mistakes. Many of the businesses I started failed.

Thirty-six years later, I own a number of businesses and employ hundreds of people all over the world. Some of the benefits: A) I make more money and pay less in taxes because I provide jobs, and that is what this economy needs — more jobs. When President Obama speaks about raising taxes on the rich, he speaks about high-income employees and small business owners, not entrepreneurs who build big businesses. As you know today, many big businesses are doing better as small businesses crumble. B) I can start new businesses as the economy changes and new opportunities appear. C) I can start businesses in different countries when new opportunities appear. D) I am not afraid of losing my job. E) My income goes up as my business grows.

The good news is that it is easier to be an entrepreneur today. The Web and new technology offer more opportunities to reach a world market at a lower price. Today a person can start a business at home and reach the world market.

2. I invest for cash flow, not capital gains. Most people invest for capital gains. These are the people who have lost a lot of money or are afraid of losing more money. When a person says, “My house has appreciated in value” or “The stock market is going up,” they are investing for capital gains. Investing for capital gains is like building a house of straw or sticks.

In 1973 I took a real estate course to learn how to invest for cash flow. Even though the real estate market crashed in 2007, my rental properties continue to produce cash flow. Even though banks are not lending money to many homeowners, the government continues to loan millions, via the FHA, to investors who provide housing. This means we receive tax breaks and use debt — other people’s money — to increase income.

The good news is, when prices crash, cash flow investments become more affordable. For example, stocks such as Johnson & Johnson, a company that pays a steady dividend (cash flow), become more affordable. If you want to start your real estate career, now is the time to invest for cash flow.

3. I invest for inflation. In 1971 President Nixon took the world off the gold standard, which means the world’s central banks can print as much money as they want. I was in Vietnam in 1972 and saw what happens when people do not trust paper money. Rather than try to live below my means and save money, I invest in gold, silver, and oil — commodities that go up in price as the government prints more money.

When investing for inflation, I am not investing for cash flow. In this case, I am investing to protect my wealth from the predatory practices of the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. Treasury, and the ultra rich manipulating the world economy.
China does not trust the U.S. dollar. Today China is using U.S. dollars to buy commodities such as oil, copper, gold, and silver. The good news is silver is still inexpensive. In 2007 gold was approximately 50 times more expensive than silver. In 2009 the gap is 70 times — which means silver is a bargain.

Silver is used in the electronics industry and is consumed daily; stock piles of silver are dwindling. On top of that, for the first time in modern history, there is more gold in the world than silver. In other words, silver is more valuable than gold. The good news is, at less than $20 an ounce, almost anyone can afford to start preparing for the worst and building their own house of silver.

In conclusion: My mom and dad lived through the last depression. They knew lean years. The baby boom generation is about to have their fat cows eaten by skinny cows. The good news is, if you can thrive when times are bad, these are the best of times.

http://finance.yahoo.com/print/expert/article/richricher/192575

Invest in Cash-Generating & Inflation-proof assets II

Is Volatile Income the New Normal?

Susanna Donato, a 37-year-old Denver-based writer and editor, has been working for herself for a decade.

She’s enjoyed flush times, when her income soared 60 percent year over year, and lean years — like this one, when it’s fallen 35 percent. Her husband Mark, a sculptor, went back to school part-time three years ago and recently became a fifth-grade teacher. They thought that would mean more income stability, but that didn’t quite happen.

“He is on a pay-for-performance system where he gets a bonus periodically if he meets certain objectives,” explains Donato, who has an 8-year-old daughter. “We know what his baseline is, but don’t understand when (bonuses) are going to come through. We were surprised at how much (his paycheck) varies even though it’s a steady job.”

Is income volatility the new normal? And if it is, how do you adapt your household budget to stay whole?

Clearly the recession has taken a brutal toll on household income. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, 7.6 million people have lost their jobs, and the unemployment rate has doubled, to 9.8 percent. Another 2.2 million workers who are out of work were not counted as unemployed in the latest Labor Department report because they didn’t search for a job in the last four weeks.

Moreover, some 9 million workers were classified as “involuntary part-time” in September, meaning they want a full-time position but can’t find one. The average workweek continued to decline, edging down to 33 hours.

A More Common Problem?

Even those who are fully employed face uncertainty: Two-thirds of employers are using variable pay bonuses or performance-based rewards that have to be earned each year, according to a study by the consulting firm Hewitt Associates.

Economists disagree over how severe and widespread income volatility has become. In his book “The Great Risk Shift,” Yale sociologist Jacob Hacker suggests volatility has roughly doubled since the 1970s. By contrast, studies by Wharton’s Shane Jensen and Stephen Shore argue that volatility has increased sharply only for about 5 percent of the population, largely the self-employed.

Nonetheless, when even the most secure paychecks — those of government workers — are reduced by mandatory furloughs, it’s a sign that income volatility is a growing problem. 

Freelancers like Donato are well-versed in the rules of volatile income. Number one: Create a huge reserve fund. “Paying yourself first is so much more important when your income is fluctuating,” she says. “You have to put safeguards in place so you have money for lean times. I’ve been in that panicky place where the income tax bill is higher than I expected, lying awake thinking how I’m going to come up with money.”

Lori Nixon, a coach with the online budgeting firm Mvelopes.com (a site where I have worked as a contributing editor), has her clients create a baseline budget using an average of past income as a guide, and save the excess in a virtual “reserve” envelope during the boom times.

Add up a year of income and divide by 12 (or better yet, two years and divide by 24). Set your monthly expenses at that level, and in good months, save the excess so you can maintain your lifestyle in the bad months (versus alternating between filet mignon and Ramen noodles).

“The person either has to take the worst-case scenario and budget conservatively based on that, or an average of spending over some period of time and set middle ground,” Nixon says. “There will be months when you earn way over that. Most people get into trouble because they don’t take the overage and set it aside to take care of months that can’t be funded.”

Susan Lannis, an Oregon business consultant who works on productivity issues, follows a percentage-based formula: She lives on 70 percent of her income (which includes retirement savings); saves 20 percent as a buffer; and budgets 10 percent for charity. “In this economy it’s a little tougher. I’m not putting away as much in savings because there’s not as much left over when I’ve paid the bills,” she says. “But when the model works, everything feels in balance.”

Steps to Take

Logistically and psychologically, it helps to create a “buffer” account where your income goes, which is separate from the account you use to pay the bills, says Matt Wallaert, lead scientist at the online money management site Thrive.

“You have to have someplace where the money sits and is paid out to you at a steady rate,” says Wallaert, a behavioral psychologist. “The classic analogy is the reservoir — very early on humans realized it doesn’t rain in a predictable way — so you dig a big hole and collect water and let it out at a constant rate throughout the year.”

Having income and monthly expenses flowing in and out of the same place creates “a huge mental accounting issue,” Wallaert says. “You look and see $5,000 in there, and that’s a big temptation, when it really represents money you are supposed to set aside for a lean month. Psychologists are not immune by the way. I find myself saying, ‘hey I have a lot of money in checking’ and then buying a TV or something.”

Charles Farrell, a Denver-based investment adviser, agrees that “the hard part is the good years, because the good years can run for a period of time that makes them look a lot more stable or permanent than they really are. And if you have ramped up your lifestyle and have lots of monthly cash-flow commitments, it can really be a problem if your income drops.”

Households with large income swings get in trouble if they adopt the prevailing “monthly mentality” — taking on fixed payments that are too high. Extracting oneself from those fixed expenses is no easy matter.

“People also think they can just trade down in their lifestyle if times get tough,” Farrell writes in an email. “But they fail to recognize that if times are tough for them, they are probably tough for a lot of people. And that means it will be hard to unload your big house, or your vacation home, or your Cadillac Escalade. So the things you don’t want to own anymore because they are a big drag on your finances are also the things that not many other people are going to want to own either in a recession.”

Households with low fixed expenses have the flexibility to adjust their lifestyles if cash-flow evaporates. Paul Glen, a Los Angeles IT consultant who has worked for himself for a decade, started using Quicken software to track his spending after college so he could quickly pay off his graduate school loans. That made it easy to determine his baseline expenses when he went on his own.

“Instead of a fancy car, I’d rather have an old car and a year of cash in the bank,” says Glen, who is married with a 6-year-old son. “I try to keep my lifestyle fairly consistent. I think that’s especially important if you have kids, to give them a sense of security.”

Finally, in a household with fluctuating income, there’s no room for revolving debt. “The only debt I carry is a mortgage and when I need something I save up and buy it,” says Glen. “There are always the feel-good stories of people who financed a movie on a credit card — but the vast majority who finance businesses on credit cards probably end up bankrupt.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/194647

Bargain of the Day

Where can you enjoy …

Seaview (you can see the casino construction work-in-progress)

A cruise ship

& Cheap Beer while basking in the glory of our future resort casinos.

The next pic really sums it up.

6 month result

Hi all, this is the final result after tracking for 6 months.

A 7.8% gain driven mainly by AUD & NZD. CNY was disappointing but I would DCA into CNY should it depreciate to 5 CNY to 1 SGD.

From now on, I will only post results whenever I have a spare 15 mins. By the way, this is the url link used over the last 6 months for consistency’s sake.

Happy Investing!

Survey shows civil servants happier compared to those working in private sector – Yeah … Big Surprise!

SINGAPORE : Employees working for the government are happier than those in the private sector.

This is according to an online survey conducted by JobsCentral, one of Singapore’s largest job portals. Civil servants scored 58.5 on the JobsCentral Work Happiness Indicator, higher than the average score of 55.9 for employees in the private sector. A score of 50 indicates that an employee feels neutral about his work happiness, and a full score of 100 will mean that he is very happy.

Chief Executive Officer of JobsCentral, Lim Der Shing, said the result was not surprising. He said the civil service in Singapore is well-run and has rather progressive human resource policies in place. Employees in education/training have emerge as the happiest followed by those in public relations and consulting. As for industry, employees in the arts, entertainment and recreation industry are the happiest. – CNA/ms

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1008605/1/.html

Gold Diggers

Not those gems buried inside your nostrils of course.

Someone asked me about the relationship between Gold and USD. In order to explain this relationship, we need to refer back to history.

Historically, the USD has been pegged to the price of Gold and backed by the amount of gold bars one owns in the vault. However, with the introduction of the Bretton Woods International Monetary System in 1971, which resulted in abolishment of  the fixed regime, this no longer holds true. What this means is, any country can print dollar bills without these money being backed by gold bars. “Funny money”, some experts call it. The implication is, if the Fed’s printers print money too liberally, it might lead to runaway inflation, since the money can be pump-primed into the economy and raise general prices. In reality, this is what the Fed is doing now … using funny money to ease credit and resuscitate an otherwide flagging economy.

The USD is regarded as the international currency of exchange as many countries are trading and making payments via the greenback. Hence, the world has placed much faith in this currency. In times of economic crises, banks/financial institutions/corporations prefer to hoard USD and this drives up the price of USD. However, when the economy normalises and risk-taking resumes, there would be less demand for the greenback and more demand for other physical assets such as real estate. This will simultaneously cause a drop in USD and lead to inflation since prices of real estate (and almost everything else) are being jacked up. Commodities such as precious metals and oil will also be priced higher to compensate for the relative drop in USD as these commodities are priced in USD. Hence, commodities are set to rise further, barring a deep and unforeseen economic recession. 

Now that Gold has gone beyond a whooping 1 grand per ounce, does this symbolise that risk aversion has normalised and that the economy has stablised? Only time will tell…

The Accidental Photographer

The Accidental Photographer goes on the prowl again. Here, Mr. Lens Man attempts to capture snapshots of the dynamic Singapore skyline. What a difference 5 years have made? Singapore certainly did not look like this 5 years ago. I wonder how the skyline will look like in another 5 years.

First off, our PRIDE & JOY… Marina Bay Sands (综合愉乐中心) … our integrated resort a la casino. Here you can cometh in and maketh ye fortune. Or lose your pants.

Next, the Esplanade, our Arts Centre (艺术中心). It has other names too like Durian or Bug’s Eyes.

This is the Singapore Flyer (观景轮), modelled after the London Eye. You can see the barricades set up for next week’s F1 Grand Prix.

The Central Business District, Raffles Place (莱佛士坊).  Here, big $$$ is made or lost.

The barricades are erected and all systems go for next week’s F1 (一级方程式) GP race. Its going to be a Night Race unlike the usual day races other countries are hosting.

My favourite brand introduced a new line of clothing … MARTHUR FARKER by Marc Defang/Marc Jacobs.

Saw this yesterday in a retail shop selling kiddy stuff … Majong & Casino/Roulette sets going for 50% discount (打五折). What an absolutely great place to learn! All in time for the grand opening of the casino.