Bigscribe's localized Crowdfunding guide

Bigscribe recently released a guide on crowdfunding which I thought was a very good introduction to this new fintech phenomenon. I don't think there's any guide out there that caters to the local context and introduces crowdfunding to Singapore's retail investors or lenders. You know how the internet disrupted existing framework when Uber started connecting passengers and drivers and bypassed the traditional method of getting a taxi. Well, in a...

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New perennial 4.55% 4 yrs bond - Goodbye or good buy?

Looks like yet another bond offering in the local retail bond market. It's always the same few players offering bonds, and this time it's by Perennial Real Estate Holding (PREH). They just offered a 3 yrs 4.65% bond in Oct 2015 that I blogged about it here and now they are back at it again. This time round, it's a 4 yrs 4.55% bond. Let's see how it compares with the currently traded 3yr4.65% bond. Last close price of 3yr4.65% bond: $1.012 Par...

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Post-rights price recovery period for reits

If you get into reits, make sure that you have some spare warchest to prepare for rights issue. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. In the past, if you do not have any reits yet, I will recommend buying the mother shares during rights issue so that you have the ability to hack your way to capitalise on the excess rights application process. I blogged various articles in this blog but let's just put down the two most important ones: 1....

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Ticking one box every week

I watched a ted talk recently regarding procrastination. We all do it in various degrees all the time. There are two kinds of situation where procrastination can be seen as a boon or a bane. The first kind is when there is a deadline, and when it's drawing nearer and nearer, the panic monster in us suddenly awakens and make us do the necessary things to get things done. Then there's another kind where there's no obvious dateline. This is where the...

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China - the origin of the next crisis?

Financial times had a very good video that I thought will be good to share here. It's about 15 mins long and it talks abut the end of the China's miraculous growth which is fueled by the influx of migrant workers streaming into the factories and offering their labour for a low wage. This video shows the plight of the migrant workers as the economy slows down and what they intend to do when they go back to their rural villages. As I watch this video, I was quite taken aback by some of the things in it - things that you don't expect to happen...

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Salted fish resurrected!

I blogged 2 years ago here that my salted fish have resurrected (咸鱼翻身). But shortly after that, it went limp and died again. It's only recently in 2016 1st quarter that I saw signs of life in the salted fish. By now, the salted fish is extremely fragrant because it had been salted for 6 long years! Here's a chart to show you what's happening in the last 6 yrs. They had a consolidation exercise of 1:5, so the price is multiplied by...

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My top 5 biggest expenses in 2015

Just out of curiosity, I wanted to find out what's the top 5 biggest expenses I had last year in 2015. I had been tracking my personal expenses for a number of years. Initially I was using excel spreadsheet but it progressed to YNAB (Why you need a budget), so exporting the data out to analyse didn't take long. Before I embarked on this exercise, I tried to think of my top 3 biggest expenses. I knew that mortgage is definitely the biggest expenses....

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Hedonic treadmill

I read this wonderful article here that talks about how we derive pleasure when we first upgrade our standards of living but eventually getting so used to the the experience through repeated use that it offers no more pleasure. In other words, you get back to the same pleasure level before you started this hedonic treadmill, and you have to go look for better and better pleasures, and yet getting nowhere. After reading the article, I learnt the...

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