Three Big Brand Names in Singapore

In investment, it is critically important to stay with winners. Big winners often and should have big brands. I can recognize three such brand names:

• The Singapore Government: whether it is about foreign investment or infrastructure or city planning, the Singapore government is almost always way ahead of others in recognizing its importance. As manager of Singapore Inc., it has admirable track record of more than 40 years. So next time things look terrible (like Asian financial crisis or SARs crisis in the past), have faith in them. Singapore Inc. will bounce back.

• The Singapore Airline (SIA): those who have travelled SIA would like to stick with it; those who have not would like to try it in the future. Travel being so much part of the globalized world, demand for travel can only go up. SIA will be a key beneficiary of this big trend.

• The Tiger beer: it has a great name and a very desirable image (of having a good time). With a solid regional presence, it will go from strength to strength.

Three ways to benefit from the coming inflation

The world has been experiencing a lot of inflation in financial assets, in the form of higher price of shares and real estate. In normal circumstances, the price of other things in life would also have gone up sharply. This is clearly not as noticeable, mainly due to fact that the whole of China has been working pretty hard. Remember this is a huge country, and it takes a long time for overall costs to go up a notch, which is happening and only recently. From now on, you should expect other forms of inflation to show up, in more and more corners.
Fortunately there are things you can do to mitigate the effect, and even to benefit from it. Here are some of my thoughts.

• In inflationary times, interest rates will trend up. Those who lend money to others with fixed interest (like bonds) will suffer. Note that banks in Singapore lend out money with adjustable rates. So they are more or less protected from inflation, and it is ok to own their shares during times of inflation.

• Inflation will have different impact to different industries. Those which cater to essential needs of people will be able to pass price increases to the customers. Others which are unable to do so will be squeezed and will fall. So you should consider owning market leaders of those industries, which really matter to people.

• Everyone knows that the price of real estate in Singapore is already quite high. But since housing is such an essential item, the price may go even higher, hand in hand with inflation. So if you own real estate, it is a good idea to hold on to it.

Three secrets of investment success

The market has been going through some turmoil recently, due to the problem of sub-prime loans in the US. The first thing to recognize is that this is normal and in fact it is to be expected. After a long period of steady climb, many in the financial market are now engaged in speculative activities which they normally would not do, say a year ago. In order to stay healthy, the market needs a cleansing.

In order to answer the question “what should I do now”, I shall state three crucial ingredients for investment success: To make money,

• You need to have money;
• You need to have guts;
• You need to have patience.

If you do not have money now, you should immediately start to save money, somehow. Otherwise you are way behind most people in terms of financial discipline.

If you have money to invest, and next time you see panic selling like last Friday (Aug 17, 2007), you need not hesitate. Just buy some of the best companies in Singapore. People were scrambling to sell to you, for example, UOB shares at 18.80 or City Development at 12.40. If you bought them, you are already ahead of the majority of investors who habitually buy high and sell low. Of course you would have done a similar thing during all kinds of market setback previously.

After you have bought some great companies at a good price (you are assured of this during every market turmoil), you should congratulate yourself and reward yourself by being relaxed. All you have to do is to be patient: majority of the money is actually made in the sitting. For sure there will be a time when people will scramble to buy your valuable shares at a much higher price. It could even be from the same groups of people who did panic selling in the last round.

A star does not shine temporarily

Osim is a big star in Singapore. It has very high publicity and you can spot its products everywhere.

One of my friends told me that she bought the Symphony massage chair and actually cured her long time neck problem.

I was very impressed by their products. I bought one of its products and also bought some shares. But I sold them when the share shoots up too quickly.

Recently, it came as a shock that it swings into loss. The main problem is in the China market. The copy cats in China made false and exaggerate claims that triggers Chinese government to take some action on them. That affects Osim as well.

But I believe Osim will get over this eventually. Its marketing savvy management and superior products will once again put the company in the good position it once holds.

Economy is very rosy

SIA has net profit increased about 50% and DBS has better than expected profit increasing of 32%.

However SIA has one time gain from selling one of its buildings, otherwise, the profit is decreased actually for the Q2. The oil price has just came down recently from as high as 78 to about 60 now per barrel. If you want to own an airline company, this is the one.

DBS is a good banchmark of Singapore economy. Thus, the economy is very rosy. From yesterday's news, the industrial output is up about 7%.

The rental and central part properties is up about 2.5%.

It is very interesting how the market will perform this time. There is no exciting factor such as the Dot Com that made everyone's blood hot.

I just feel, that this bull is really based on the market fundametal at the moment. Does it mean that the market stil has a long way to go to its top?

Investment Basics

Investment is one of the very important tasks in your life. No matter how much you earn, if you don't manage your wealth well, you may end up being poor in the end.

I prefer investing in stocks because it allows me to own many businesses without going through the hassle to run the business. The only thing you need to do is to choose the right business and own it by buying its stock. Isn't it such a great way of running your own business?

Some of you may find that my method and the stocks picked here do not sound exciting. Many of you want to get instant gratification of high return. My philosophy is to invest for long run. It is similar to open your own business, you may not break even after starting it for a year or so. Thus, you must be patient as long as you believe that the business is right.

Which stock to buy? It is easy. Looking into those businesses that everyone needs them and no one can live without them. Choose the ones that are doing the best and that other people find difficult to copy it or replace it.

But of course, you have to buy it at the right time and when the stock is under valued. That's the most difficult part. Educate yourself on this aspect by reading a lot of investment books. I am sure you will be very successful if you put your time in it.

Another important thing: Never borrow money to invest. Always invest using your own saved money. Never play with stock !!!

About technology stocks, unless you are sure that you are holding something like google or microsoft at their early stage, try to avoid it. Too many people loose their money on technology stocks. I'll definitely avoid Creative.

For recommendation of stocks to buy, visit http://lifeandart.googlepages.com/index.html