Anyone can negatively criticize, but ...

I quote from Chuck Jones:

Anyone can negatively criticize - it is the cheapest of all comment because it requires not a modicum of the effort that suggestion requires. 

Criticize all you want but if you have nothing to suggest, you might as well keep quiet because your words will not be of any aid to the perform who is trying to resolve this issue.

Either give constructive suggestions, or keep quiet.

Facebook is not for bonding

I was seriously surprised when I read that someone treated Facebook as bonding with your friends and family. Come on... Facebook is not meant for that.

Facebook to me is for me to keep connected to some of my circle of friends whom I'm not able to meet due to geological reasons, or due to my time constraint. However, it cannot replace the bonding that takes place between people when they meet.

Like it or not, some people do put up a different "front/face" in the virtual cyberspace. However, its less easy to do that if you meet face to face. That's why most bonding takes place in person.

For the life of me, I cannot imagine how someone can bond with someone through some words typed in cyberspace. You may be able to comment on some recent event/happenings but bond due to those words? Highly unlikely.

You want search and yet want privacy?

Sometimes I think the class action suits raised by some people do not really make sense. One immediate example I can think of is the one over Gmail "reading" your emails.

Seriously, when you sign up for Gmail, you already know that Gmail is able to let you find your emails easily by searching through the content of the email. This is one of the features of Gmail and obviously, Gmail can only let you search the contents of your email if they analyse the content of your emails.

If you want the search feature of Gmail, then you have to allow Gmail to analyse the content of your email. It's just logic. For example, no one is going to give an accurate quotation if you're moving house if you do not let the person in to see what are they going to move.

If you do not want any company to look through your emails, then invest in your own email servers or get one that does not offer a web-based email, only a pop3 email account.

Happier if we ...

I quote from John Wooden:

If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier. 

I think that humans are born pessimistic as we always magnify disappointments but discount blessings. To be happier, we need to celebrate every blessing, no matter how small how significant, the same as we treat every disappointment.

Exit from stimulus shoud be a no brainer

Recently the Feds have been discussing on how to exit the stimulus that has been in place since the Great Recession. Seriously, I believe that the method of exit should have been determined a long time ago and the only reason why the method is not conveyed explicitly is because of politics.

As far as I understand, whenever contingency plans are activated for emergency, 99.9% there is already an exit plan in place. This exit plan will be reviewed regularly throughout the whole contingency period.

In fact, if you listen carefully to what the Feds have been saying, they have already been dropping hints on how the stimulus will be withdrawn, such as not selling the assets in their balance sheets and selective purchases of financial assets (e.g. mortgage bonds).

The stimulus exit will most probably not be immediate, and like any contingency planning, it will be gradually phased out. I think that everyone seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill.

Medishield Life will be good for everyone, regardless of premium increase

Recent news on the inclusion of all Singaporeans for Medishield life is good news for all Singaporeans as it will ensure all Singaporeans are covered by some form of medical insurance.

The fact is that some Singaporeans do not want to hear or have anything to do with medical insurance, no matter who initiates it. However, medical insurance is important as you will never know when you need to be hospitalised. It could be under your control, or totally not under your control.

Having it as compulsory will ensure that everyone is covered and everyone is protected if something happens to you that requires you to be hospitalised. Medical bills may come up to a sum that will seriously cause a serious draw down of your funds. This is the case where the benefits of having the insurance outweighs the premiums that you will have to pay. Yes, there is co-payment on our end but this is a classic demand and supply kind of model. If it is free and everyone starts going into hospitals for no particular reason, this will cause a serious drain in resources and deprive the truly needy from getting the help that they need.

Furthermore, it will be for life, which means that you will not need to worry unnecessary if you live longer than estimated. The hospitals will still be open to you.

However, devil is in the details. Let's wait for more information from the government.

If only I ...

I quote from Salma Hayek:

In my world, you have to be so beautiful, so skinny, so rich, so famous and I don't believe you really have to be any of those things. You simply have to be who you are. I do have thighs and a butt. I have cellulite. Don't be too impressed with me. Don't try to dress like me or wear your hair like mine. Find your own style. Don't spend your savings trying to be someone else. You're not more important, smarter, or prettier because you wear a designer dress. I get them free and I'm too lazy to go out and look for my own. I, a rich girl from Mexico, came here with designer clothes. And one day, when I was starving in an apartment in Los Angeles, I looked at my Chanel blouses and said, 'if only i could pay the rent with one of these.

Do not agree on reducing the board lot

Recently SGX has announced that they are intending to reduce the board lot (1000 shares) to 100 shares per lot. I disagree with reducing the board lot to 100 lots because the number one problem now is the expense ratio.

Currently not many brokerages charge per lot with no minimum charge. Just imagine paying $25 brokerage charge when you're getting 100 shares that cost $1. Your expense ratio is 25% excluding all the other charges. Not only that, brokerage may not be able to fully fill your order, which will further jack up your expense ratio.

However, if they are only providing this only as an additional option to the 1000 shares per lot, that would be great because it will allow those who wish to accumulate shares to have an option with lower expense ratio, and a higher possibility of accumulating the number of shares that they hope to get, while letting others to get into the game, albeit with a possibility of higher expense ratio.

If they really want to reduce the board lot, then they have to enforce that expense ratio so that it makes sense for the retail investors. Otherwise, you will see a fall of liquidity for all those illiquid shares because the expense will be just too high.

Inflation is up 1.9%

These are the Singapore inflation rates for 2013:
January: 3.6%
February: 4.9%
March: 3.5%
April: 1.5%
May: 1.6%
June: 1.8%
July: 1.9%

Healthcare is once again leading the pack, rising by 4.0%, while Education & Stationery rose 2.9% respectively year on year.

Transport has reversed its downward trend, rising by 1.7% year on year, most probably because of the rise in COE premiums recently. As mentioned in the previous post, July's inflation's uptrend is more pronounced than June, with Transport and Clothing & Footwear jumping by the most.

This uptrend most probably will continue this month looking at the current trend. Looks like the inflation may tick up throughout the second half of this year.

Be truthful

I quote from  Marcus Valerius Martial:

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.

This quote reminds me that every day of my life, I should always be truthful in whatever I do because if you start to conceal from your friends, colleagues or loved ones and they found out, they will think of all the wrong reasons why you're doing it and may not know your true intention, not to forget that you will also have to watch yourself from "giving away" the game.

Bottom line, be truthful.