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The reason why the fund managed to recover was that I have been doing a RSP a.k.a Regular Savings Plan. Using RSP, a fixed amount is deducted from my account every month to buy into the fund, regardless of market conditions. This way, it brings down the average cost per unit for the investment over the long term.

Eg. $200 per mth investment

1st mth, per unit price is $1, therefore purchased 200 units

2nd mth, per unit price drops to $0.70, therefore purchased 285.71 units

3rd mth, per unit price goes up to $1.20, therefore purchased 166.66 units

Over 3 mths, I invested $600, but managed to buy 652.37 units meaning my average price per unit is about $1.08. So it fact, the lower the prices go, the more units you are getting and when the market recovers, you recover faster.

During the peak of the financial crisis, my gf thinks that I’m crazy, throwing in what she calls good money after bad month after month. But I was really thinking of the long term (not temasek kinda ‘long term’), in that if I treat this as a retirement fund, with 20 yrs time frame, will China not be better off 20yrs later compared to today?

As the great sage said, the best holding period is forever.

Conversation probably goes something like this “I lend you 10 cents today, tmr you better return me 20 cents or I beat you up!”

Victim complains, and cases goes to police who classify it as loanshark? hahahaha

One in five arrested for loanshark activities aged between 7 and 19
By Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 05 August 2009 1522 hrs

SINGAPORE: According to mid-year crime statistics, one in five persons arrested for loanshark activities for the first half of the year were aged between seven and 19.

In the period between January and June, police nabbed 417 persons for loanshark and harassment activities. Among them, 81 were youths.

Police said Wednesday youths are involved in unlicensed money lending activities to make a quick buck and many of them were referred to work for loansharks by friends.

Police said it will continue to work with schools to prevent youths from being lured and recruited by loanshark syndicates.

Petty crime cases were up by 2.5 per cent to 10,280 cases between January and June, and Police said this could be due to the current economic downturn.

The overall crime rate in Singapore went down by 1.3 per cent in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year.

Latest figures show that violent property crimes, which comprise mainly robbery cases, went down by 23.7 per cent on year to 379 cases, while commercial crimes fell by 5.8 per cent to 1,684 cases.

- CNA/yb

Wouldn’t dwell too much as to which straw it was that finally  broke the camel’s back, but it has been hanging for some time. Will probably still get back into banking in the very near future, but nothing is confirmed yet at the moment. Friends has been calling me crazy, for giving up a ‘cushy’ job that is paying well above the current market standards, but I guessed I’ve learnt that not everything can be measured in dollars and cents. I might be earning more than alot of my peers, but I do not have the satisfaction they have, the family time, the own free time. My time is my company’s, my customers, not my own. I need to regain that.

Waking up on a Sunday afternoon, heading out to a late brunch, may be what most of you regard as a normal activity.

To me, its a luxury that I haven’t been able to enjoy for the last 2 years or so.

Enjoying this while it lasts, before I go back head fast into this cut throat industry once again.

=)

Watching the outpour of tributes to him, you cannot deny this man his greatness, but at the same time I was pretty turned off by the hyprocrisy that is so apparent around the world. Fellow artists, ‘fans’ etc starting coming out on tv crying… blogs around the world starting tribute posts.. facebook, twitter etc outpouring sympathy.. from the very same persons that didn’t give a damn a month ago. I’m probably one of them too.

Its always easier to see only the good points of someone… when they’re gone.

I’m never a great fan of MJ, I loved watching him dance, but I hardly ever played any of his songs at all. People like me, see him as a wreck, a freak, a has-been. I’m not afraid to say it. I’m no hypocrite. But I’m still sad that he’s gone.

But in a perverse kinda way, it might be the best for him. I hate to see people, especially those that was once great, try so hard to regain their former glory, but ultimately doomed to failure, degrade and lose their dignity, becoming a shadow of what they used to be. Its always best to get down when you’re on top. Like Eric Cantona. He’s a prick, but you gotta admit, he’s a great, and will always be remembered as one.

Goodbye MJ. Thanks for the memories..

For the first time today, I finally lost it. It was really a rush of blood to the head and if I had not controlled myself further, I would have given the fucker one tight slap across his stupid fucking smug face. I’m not gng into the details as just thinking abt it while writing this makes my blood boils.

I guess I’m just disappointed at myself. At how I actually lost control of my emotions. I’m someone that is always in control, if not of the situation, at least of myself.

I apologised to boss after that. It was immature, it was unbecoming of me. Its not something that you would expect from me. Boss was understanding.. which made me feel bad… sigh..

What have I become?

SMRT’s train frequency to be reduced if flu alert hits red
By Kheng Siong & Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 04 May 2009 2123 hrs

SINGAPORE: SMRT said train frequency will be reduced by 30 per cent once Singapore’s pandemic alert level hits red. This is because its service staff are divided into two teams to prevent the potential spread of the H1N1 virus.

SMRT has increased its cleanliness vigilance level in trains and buses by more than three times ever since the Health Ministry raised the flu alert to orange.

Public areas are cleaned once every two hours and temperatures of SMRT officers are checked twice daily. There is also a quarantine room for passengers who display flu symptoms.

Ventilation within the trains has been increased, while windows and doors of buses parked at interchanges will remain open.

Temperature of bus captains are also being checked at bus interchanges.
– CNA/so

The article didnt really state in detail what the ‘divide into 2 team’ means. I would assume a team would be stationed outside the station to take temperature of commuters before they are allowed on the train. Correct me if I am wrong, but I also thought that the train staff is already divided between service/station staff and drivers? If that is the case, how would that decrease the frequency of trains if the same drivers are still going to be the one to drive them? Are they going to get the drivers to take temperature? Doesnt seem to make sense to me??

I mean, if the flu alert really turns red, shouldn’t the train frequency be increased instead so that the chance of passing on to more people is lowered? Imagine during rush hour now where maybe a hundred is packed at the station waiting to get on the train, if the frequency is reduced, there will be a few hundred people more waiting at the station because they cant squeeze themselves onto the train when it finally arrives. The people will be packed more closely together and thus making chances of spreading the virus even higher??

I cant understand the logic behind this. Am I understanding things wrong or am I living in a warpped world that warp logic makes perfect sense? Can someone please enlighten me?

Mirco-blogging looks interesting though, might explore more

Interested pls follow me on twitter @tattooedbanker

Think about it, how Madoff scheme works. Basically, the money is just sitting somewhere, probably his own account. With new investors money coming in, he simply pays some dividends to the existing investors. As long as there is new funds coming in and no exceptional large number of withdrawal, it will remain undetected.

Compare this to our CPF. Govt MAY be paying us interest based on new contributions from young people joining the workforce. In any case, there are no withdrawals to the CPF account and interest is accured inside so technically there are no outflow of funds. As long as the withdrawals (those that reach retirement age) remains stable and new monies keep coming in, this could go on forever.

Why Madoff got caught? Cos no new funds coming in and alot of his investors started withdrawing money. Not enough to go around, and the shit hits the fan.

IF the CPF is a ponzi scheme, how will it be exposed? If there is not enough new blood joining the workforce and contributing to the CPF while the existing ‘investors’ withdraw their monies come their retirement age.

One more point about Madoff scheme and CPF is in terms of reporting.  Madoff might have falsified records to show investment gains but for some reason, probably due to his standing in the society, no one really examined it in detail. Just like the Singapore govt, who would really study and questions their reports? In any case, our GLC like Temasek doesn’t even publish detailed annual reports. What if your money has never been invested? Everything that you had believed in is just one big lie? Scary thought isn’t it.

Disclaimer: This was written after a heavy night of drinking and I was too lazy to refine some of the stuff written so it might look disjointed. Just a basic idea I had that I would like to share and maybe others can expand it further. IN NO WAY AM I ACTUALLY IMPLYING THAT YOUR CPF MONEY IS UNSAFE!!

I’m tired too. So tired that I don’t have the energy to blog regularly. This is not the best time to be a banker I suppose.

Unlike Mr Wong, I don’t work in an investment bank, I’m not a lawyer, so maybe he got it tougher.

Or maybe not. At least I bet he doesn’t get people shouting in his face calling him a cheat.

I work in a retail bank but we face similar problems that he mentioned in his post

• People will really go all out to extricate themselves from a deal gone bad
• That includes employing tactics which are dishonest and unethical, and sometimes frivolous to the point of being baffling.

Let me highlight an issue I handled recently. This lady came in and handed a letter addressed to the branch manager. A complaint letter against an ex-colleague of mine to be exact. I can’t reproduce the letter in full here due to disclosure issues but the gist of it was,

1. The letter was drafted in english by a 3rd party, in the first paragraph, this third party explained that this person is illiterate and cannot read or write english or chinese so he/she is writing the letter on the behalf. With no fees charged. (personally, it struck me as odd that someone would actually mentioned he/she is not being paid a fee to write a letter. I would have thought not but the fact that the statement was included made me think otherwise instead.)
2. Customer had bought into a unit trust for X amount of money, which is about 60% of the what she had with our bank.(At point of investment) Claims she is unemployed, have no other sources of income, no other sources of funds and struggling to survive
3. Thought she invested in a fixed deposit with higher return and principal protection.
4. Claims she was told that she can get back the principal + interest after max of 2 years.
5. Wanted the bank to pay her back her principal + interest if she had placed the money in fixed deposits claiming mis-selling
6. Signed off with a thumbprint (as customer claims to be illiterate)

Now after reading the letter, most people would start to scream CHEATS! and things like BANKS ARE UNSCRUPULOUS! etc I don’t blame them. Its been played out too much by the media, and out of the fact that if you had lost or knew someone that lost money too, you end to blame or hear people blaming the banks, their RMs, their insurance agents, their friends who recommend them to investments etc… everyone, but themselves. I have honestly yet to hear anyone lamenting that “yes, it was my fault.. I was too greedy, I have learnt a valuable lesson” Personally, I have lost a huge chunk of my money in Unit trusts, stocks and shares, currency etc but I think of it as a learning lesson. I learnt now the importance of profit taking, cut loss mechanism, value investing, dollar cost average and many other valuable lessons. Yes, I paid dearly for these lessons, but it would put me in good stead for maybe the next 20-30 years, so its worth it in a perverse sort of way.

Anyway, I digress…

What I wanted to highlight was that, after this letter, the bank did its own investigation. As we all know by now, all investments have to be done in conjunction with a needs analysis. Based on the banks investigation, the following was found

1. Customer was listed as self employed in the documents, and a bizfile search listed her as sole director of a private limited company with X amount of paid up capital that is still in business.
2. Needs analysis showed that she declared having more than 5x her investment amount with other banks.
3. Was clearly written in both english and chinese that product is not capital protected
4. The best part – all her accounts, including her company’s account which happened to be with the bank as well, was operated by an english signature. There was even a handwritten letter from her few years back in ENGLISH, requesting for higher credit limit for her personal credit card.

Clearly, customer is aware of what she was getting into, but trying to wriggle out of it in whatever way she can, riding on the wave of ‘justice’.

I wondered if the bank can sue her for fraud…

Who exactly are the true victims or true villains??

The lines are blurred.