Financial transactions and banking have forever been changed thanks to ecommerce. High speed internet connections have made banking more flexible and efficient. Only a few years ago, to apply for a credit card would have involved visiting a bank for a number of appointments and then waiting a few weeks for an approval to be given. Today the process is much faster; it now possible to have an almost instant credit card.

There are many advantages that come with applying for a credit card through the internet. Of course the speed at which an approval is made is usually the most important factor.

In most cases when we choose to apply for a card it is because we have seen a product that we want but it is only available on credit. If you can have an instant approval for a card online then you can plan and organise your expenditure better.

Also by applying for a card online you will do away with the need for an interview with the actual lender. In many situations such appointments would be scheduled for an inconvenient time. The convenience of using the internet to process an application far outweighs any positive aspects of using a High Street Bank.

When you search online you will discover that there is a wide array of lenders available that is far greater than could be found in any city or town. By choosing an online lender you may be able to get hold of a credit card with good conditions as internet businesses have lower costs and overheads that can be passed on to their customers as compared to a physical bank.

Be aware that just because you are applying online does not mean that there will be no credit check. If you have a poor credit score then search for a website that offers credit cards to people like you.

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As investors, they should not predict the economic cycle. Rather, they should focus on evaluating individual businesses, or buy index funds managed by reputable companies.

For smaller investors, they could buy specialized bonds that are being offered at a low rate, or small caps.

His company was still looking at buying entire private businesses in India and China. This showed that he still feel that these two Asian giants still had prospects. I would not jump at saying all the companies are doing well.

What does he exactly do for his fund?
He buys over businesses where they are turning in profits. The managers will still be working there. They are already capable and they have a passion for what they do. Warren Buffet does not need to micromanage these firms and can continue to ride on the profits.

What does this mean for normal investors who cannot afford to buy private firms?
They need to check the CEOs’ philosophies and management styles. Read up about them in publications such as Pulses, The Edge and The Business Times, especially when there are interviews about them. Go to the showrooms or offices, like what one of my trader friend does (thought an investor and a trader are different).

For more of Warren Buffet’s insights, take a look at Buffet Goes To Wharton.

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I think this is an important point. For a bank to be fully mobile, the ATMs should be up 99% of the time. I had met with an unpleasant experience with a bank which I had mentioned before with cute ATM messages. I needed to put in funds into my account so that my cheque would not bounce. As I had not set up an account on my Internet banking, I needed to put funds manually into the account. To my frustration, the ATM machine at location B was spoilt. The next nearest location I knew was in location A. The bank put a notice informing the customers to go over to location A. It was not that far away, but I would have to pay additional parking charges at the new location.

Since I needed to put the money in urgently, I drove over to location A. I was extremely frustrated when I saw that both ATMs were down there as well. The notice at location A told customers to go to location B. I flared up. There happened to be some bank officers on duty, but they were more of customer service staff than actual bank tellers, so I marched over to them and asked one of them how long it would take for the ATMs to be ready. She said it would be repaired in three hours, because it was a Sunday. When I told her that I had just come over from location B because of the notice, she apologised that she only just found out that the ATM at B was down. After I asked her where else I could go to to deposit my money, she said I had to go down to Orchard. I didn’t have so much time so I was very angry. I would not be able to deposit the money the next day before 3pm as I had to work. As a result, I had to call up the other party to ask the person to bank in the cheque after 3pm, just so that it would not bounce. This was an embarrassing situation.

The next day, I figured out that the machines should have been repaired by then, so despite driving past location A, I chose to go to location B as it was easier to park for short period of time. To my anger, the machine was still down. The banking hours were over, but the bank was still opened for other investment services. I decided to calm myself down and just went into the bank to try my luck and if not, to lodge a complaint. Thank goodness the bank teller accepted my deposit.

Imagine my disgust when I went to location B again, one week later, and found the ATM was down again. How can the largest bank in the world have such lousy ATMs? If customers cannot withdraw money easily or draw money easily, then what is the point? When I tried to deposit money at location A again, the machine was finally ready, but it was out of paper. Such a standard of service for a major bank was unacceptable to me. The final straw came when the high interest rates promised earlier fell by 0.8% to 1.2%. This amount is dependent on a few factors, such as increasing deposits each month, or a minimum of $20000 in the bank.

I am going to stick to an online bank, which promises a constant 1% for any amount at all times.

I definitely hope that the bank will do something about it. Reading about its woes in Fortune magazine makes me wonder whether the operations in Singapore would be affected.

Going back to the self-serve ATM, I hope it will raise the standards for other banks, though the cost should definitely not be passed on to the consumers.

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This benchmark shows that by the time I hit 30, I should have a net worth of 441k and an annual income of 147k. With not that many years to go, there is no way to reach this target if I continue as what I am doing now. I am not being a wealth accumulator yet.

To reach my goals, I need to brush up on my investment skills, which are currently languishing because I don’t have the time and proper tools to analyse properly.

Oh well, I know of many other people with less qualifications who are much richer than me. There are lots to learn from them. However, just because some of these people managed to make it in life, it does not mean that education is not important to them. They want their own children to make it to the top as well. They send their children to all sorts of enrichment classes. It all has to boil down to how pragmatic they are in our society.

While at the gym yesterday, I caught a rerun of Jack Neo’s talk show on whether students wanted to be the elite. A large majority of them wanted to be. When it came to interviewing parents, more than half did not want their children to be elite. How fake. Unfortunately I did not have my headphones with me, so I couldn’t catch the entire content. Well, one sobering thought is that people need to manage their expectations.

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I think I ought to embark on my own series of interviews for this blog. This is something that I have thought about before, but haven’t planned yet.

Here’s a snippet from the interview. Nicholas was the interviewer.
N: That’s powerful sharing! Thanks it made my day! OK… Tell me something REALLY interesting from your past!
S: Huh? Like…
N: Something that your readers dunno about?
S: Ok, I’ve slept on the field where Fandi Ahmad and Lim Tong Hai spat on before.
N: ROFLMAO *nearly had an accident* you almost got me into an accident there!
S: Haha! Look carefully. That was when people loved soccer. I was 15 then, and my school was putting up a mass dance display for Singapore Youth Festival opening ceremony…

Check out the interview here by Nicholas from Highway Of Life.

Sarah Tan – SingaporeProfit.com

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Zhang Chunchun has 40 houses and within her clique of 10 property buying friends, they have 103 houses among them. I am amazed at her skills in building up her property empire, and I believe she makes a lot of money from renting and selling.

She is somewhat of a mini celebrity in Taiwan, and I found about her interview on one of the Taiwanese variety shows “Is there any problem?”

At the age of 14, she ran away from home because she could not stand how strict and misery her father was. She used to be a spendthrift, and did not have much savings. She wrote a book, possibly about slimming through dancing, and it was a bestseller.

Next, she started a company, which was a call centre focusing on infomercials. Her successful debut broke many records and she made a lot of money. With this, she slowly built up her savings.

One day she decided that she wanted to increase her net worth in order to provide for her family. She made big changes to her life by selling her 3 cars which she felt were depreciating assets. She now gets around by taking cabs.

How did she get started in the property market? What tips did she give on the TV show? Look out for my next instalment to be published tomorrow at 8pm. This is the first instalment out of 5.

Sarah Tan – SingaporeProfit.com

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Sarah Tan – SingaporeProfit.com
 

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I also emailed Universal Assets Investments to find out more. I had read about how wine investors should focus on the top Bordeaux red wines and not ship them out of the country in order to prevent sub-standard handling and storing. When the sales rep called me, he told me that his company focused on new age wine from Australia, since the growth potential was even higher. They would bring in wines from Australia, and then let the customer inspect them before storing in a specialty warehouse in Singapore. The wines would be insured. Three years later, I could sell the wines for a profit.

Out of the many hundreds or thousands of wines they brought in, only a small number depreciated in value. It was thus very important to find out more about rating system by famous wine critics. 

One important aspect to me is the amount of money required for investment. The sales rep told me that small time investors usually invested 20-30k to have a good portfolio of wines. Other investors with deeper pockets started in the range of 100k and more. However, he said he could look into coming up a portfolio for 10k.

One of the investors interviewed in a newspaper was Irene Ang, a local businesswoman and celebrity. She started investing quite some time back and was already reaping the benefits.

The interesting thing about wine investment is if they ever fail to work out, the investor could just open up the wines and drink them up. When I’m free, I will go down to the office to try out some of the wines and seriously consider investing in wine.

Sarah Tan- SingaporeProfit.com

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