(This article is from my new book Behind The Scenes of The Property Market: Finding The Truths and Exposing The Lies of A Not-So-Transparent Industry. Pre-order of the book ends on November 6, Friday.) Do you believe in the infallibility of the mass media? Or do you think the press can be wrong? According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report, Singapore … [Read more...]
Busting six property myths of the Ghost Month
2020 is a double spring leap year (双春闰年) in the Chinese lunar calendar. With a double fourth month (闰四月), this year we have 13 months and a total of 384 days instead of the normal 354 days in a lunar year. For the same reason, the start of the 7th month in the Chinese calendar has shifted from July to August. This year the Ghost Month falls on much later dates from August 19 to … [Read more...]
How to save air travel, retail and Reit
How much bad news can we take in one week? Singapore’s unemployment rate hit 2.9 percent in the second quarter. Under the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, we still manage to maintain low unemployment. Thanks to the government’s more than $15 billion payout under the Job Support Scheme. It is also because our unemployment rate excludes the unemployed non-residents, the … [Read more...]
Learning from the Chief Investment Officer
In last week's The Sunday Times, there is an article titled "Me & My Money: Investing for long term to build retirement nest egg". Me & My Money hasn't had a good article for very long. This time it featured the Chief Investment Officer from AIA talking about her personal investment strategies. Her honest sharing and down-to-earth advice have struck a chord with me. I … [Read more...]
What Covid-19 has taught me about life and investment
As I was writing this blog post, Covid-19 has 6.6 million cases worldwide and over 383,000 people were killed. To distract myself from the chaotic world outside, I re-read Robin Sharma's best-selling book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. As the author told us, everything happens for a lesson: There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative … [Read more...]