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Showing posts from August, 2006

What to do in Bangkok?

Planning a trip to Bangkok and was doing some research on what are the "essential" highlights. After scanning through various sources, it appears that the following top the list: Grand Palace Chatuchak market Floating market Spa/massage Patpong night market Suan Lumn (Lumpini) Chinatown? Have to plan properly and drop some of these in order to maximise the time that I will be there... Yippee! A trip to look forward to :-)

Fundsupermart

One of the better online Unit Trust plaforms that I have come across is Fundsupmart (FSM). FSM provides a compatively better online user experience that is intuitive and has useful features. Furthermore, Fundsupermart, as an online UT distributor, offered lower sales charges than making unit trust purchases directly from the banks. However, Fundsupermart is facing greater competition today as more and more people realise the lower unit trust sales charges offered online. While FSM usually offers 2.5% sales charges, its competitors like DollarDex , POEMS are offering sales charges as long as 1%, a whooping >50% savings! While FSM's stand has so far been that it does not wish to start a price war offering lower sales charges, my belief is that it may not have much choice eventually. While POEMS and Dollardex do not have good interfaces today, they are already capturing the market with lower sales charges. All they have to do is to put in some investments and enhance their sites

Portfolio Performance

I was reviewing my investments and realised that once again, my DBS Asset Managements (DBSAM) unit trusts have underperformed the rest of my holdings once again. Was at one time looking at Shenton Income but it underperformed, and now DBS Shenton Global Advantage. Luckily, I had dilligently followed the wisdom of diversification and DBS' underperformance is only dragging down my returns. At least my own overall portfolio is still turning in a positive 2.7% return to date, without Shenton Global Advantage, it will have been much much higher. I must note not to put my money with DBSAM again, UOB United International Growth is a much better option.

CPF Unit Trust Investments

The Straits Times today carried a report on the poor performance on CPF unit trusts in the last quarter. While the information may be helpful, it is actually better to ignore it if we understand what exactly are unit trusts meant for. Unit trusts are meant for medium to long term investments and a quarter is far too short for most unit trusts to meet their stated goals. Furthermore, most funds seek returns in the medium to long term. Publishing quarterly CPF unit trust information only serves to erroneously inform CPF members and affect their decisions. The weaker investors will be swayed by these reports and end up churning their investments and turn in poorer than expected returns eventually. It is important to discern the information from the noise in order to make investment decisions that are relevant to our financial situations.

I Must Be Crazy

Will studying or not make a big difference in my life? I guess not but my original justification for continually upgrading myself is self-actualisation. While it may had seemed nice and rosy when I signed up for the course, now that the course has started, I find my free time disappearing into thin air. Research, assignments and projects have already disappeared from my nightmares for many years but I have been crazy and opted to face them again. Although the course just started, I am tired. Spent the whole of Sunday doing up my assignment and still have not completed it. I must be crazy to give up my leisurely life of work and home and add in the element of study... SIAO!

Happy National Day!

Happy Birthday to Singapore! As we celebrate this National Day, let us take a moment to reflect on the 41 years of independence of our nation. A tiny nation in this great big world, let us keep in mind to maintain the multi-racial and multi-cultural society our nation has so painstakingly created and the constant truth that what we cannot defend does not truly belong to us.

Fireworks Festival 2006

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Made it to the Singapore Fireworks Festival 2006 last night at Marina Bay area. The crowd there was huge and because I was not there early enough, I only managed to find a viewing space somewhere at the Esplanade courtyard. While the view of the fireworks was not the best, it was still spectacular and I managed to get some pictures with my camera phone. The quality of the pictures is not that good though... For those who are keen on the rest of the Singapore Fireworks Festival 2006 at Marina Bay, the details are as follows: 5 August 2006, Saturday 2100 hours Team Italy 8 August 2006, Tuesday 2100 hours Team Singapore 11 August 2006, Friday 2100 hours Team New Caledonia 12 August 2006, Saturday 2100 hours Team France *Popular viewing areas include the Padang, Esplanade Park, Marina Promenade, Marina Centre, Marina South and Kallang Basin http://www.unusual.com.sg/sfw2006.html

爱情零度C

I really do not understand why Mediacorp got this Michelle Saram to act in this show. If the intention was to tap on her knack for acting as a blind girl, then I will understand. I find her acting (if we can call it acting) totally substandard. When her role has perfectly normal eyesight, she appears totally blind, conveying nothing with her eyes. However, she really shines as an actress when her role is supposedly blind. The blindness of the role suits her PERFECTLY since her acting is so dead. For the sake of her acting career, she should make it her trademark to take up only blind girl roles and let other actresses do justice to viewers.