01 Jul 2007, ST
I want to be a millionaire, too, but the odds are stacked against me. Still, hope springs eternal in the bosom
By Chua Mui Hoong
DO YOU feel it, this frenzy in the air, this mad rush to wealth?
I do and I also want.
I want a share of the $1.3 billion record-breaking collective sale proceeds for Farrer Court.
I want to make a bundle in stock investments so I can afford one of those properties costing $5,000 per sq ft in Orchard Road.
I want to be one of the 66,660 millionaires in Singapore. After all, Singapore saw the highest increase in the number of millionaires last year, at about 11,000, or 21 per cent.
As a journalist who feels the pulse of the land (aka being susceptible to herd mentalities) I find myself increasingly caught in this frenzy.
Hope springs eternal in the female breast.
I begin to tote up my bank balances. Alas, it will be many years, if ever, before I can aspire to be one of the 66,660 people with US$1 million (S$1.53 million), over and above their primary home.
By that time, maybe US$1 million will just about buy you a five-room HDB flat to retire in.
I look at my modest investment portfolio. It isn't making record profits. Maybe I should find another financial adviser.
Or maybe I can get a piece of the action by getting a mortgage to buy a property. Isn't this a sure-win market?
First, try to spot potential en bloc developments, the way students try to spot questions for exams. But then, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan says plot ratios aren't going to head north just because the master plan is being revised next year.
Okay, stick to good old Districts 9, 10 and 11.
I wouldn't mind living in one of those chic apartments facing the river (just wipe away memories of the smelly waters from days of yore and remember the river has been cleaned up). More to the point, rental yields are not bad.
Or maybe get a nice landed house in a suburban area. After all, everyone is saying it's just a matter of time before the Government liberalises rules allowing foreigners to purchase landed homes.
Indeed, a Goldman Sachs report argued for it last week - but the Government was quick to say there were no such plans.
But market watchers figure, if not now, perhaps next year, or the next, or the next decade.
In the meantime, prices are still soaring. Quick, buy before prices go up, as many classified advertisements now exhort buyers.
But I would have to take up a big fat mortgage.
Players in the market tell me not to be daunted by debt. Debt is good, they say.
Say you get a $1 million loan at 4 per cent. Rent out your property at $4,000 a month or $48,000 a year and that's a yield of 4.8 per cent.
You sit pretty and end up with rental income - and when prices go up next year, as surely they will, you get the capital gains, too.
There's an expectation of prices heading north for at least the next 18 months. Just make sure you're out of the market before things sour, is the advice.
But then other voices urge caution. Remember the property bust days of falling asset prices, negative equity and fire sales from those caught in the cycle?
Some people point out: A rising market is a good time to sell your property, not buy. Let the suckers buy in at such prices. Let others take the risk, not you.
Some savvy financial people are cashing out to take advantage of rising asset prices and holding cash, ready to swoop in on undervalued assets at the first sign of a shift in market sentiment.
With conflicting advice, what's a poor girl to do? Maybe it's not so easy to become a millionaire. Maybe you need to just plunge in, not think too much.
The book Retire Young, Retire Rich by Rich Dad Poor Dad best-selling writer Robert T. Kiyosaki deals with the importance of changing one's sense of reality if one wants to become rich.
Think poor, say 'I can't afford it', think 'Humans can never fly' and your life is limited accordingly.
Think rich, say 'I can afford it', think 'Humans - and pigs - can fly' and your mind, expectations and actions will find a way to bring those axioms into reality.
So try changing my reality. Mmm. Think: 'I can afford it.'
Except I want to afford the wrong kinds of things. Not investment items but consumption ones. Things that make me poorer, not richer.
I step into a branded handbag or watch boutique or a Tiffany store. I like bling, the brighter the better. 'You can afford it,' the temptress whispers. The interest-free instalment credit cards yell: Use me, use me!
Not being a fan of Oscar Wilde, I decide the best way to deal with temptation is to flee it.
I think that maybe trying to get rich by thinking too much isn't the way to go.
Maybe I'm not cut out to be one of those millionaires.
I open the papers and there it is, confirmation of that thesis that you don't have to work hard to get rich.
6904 was the first and second prizes in the 4-D draw last Wednesday. Having the same number come up is very rare: a chance of one in 100 million. That's a figure which has eight zeroes.
When the God of Fortune is distributing such largesse against the odds, why work so hard to try to make money?
Let the God of Fortune sprinkle some of that gold dust on me.
Put $666 on 6666, and maybe there'll be 66,660 + 1 millionaires next year.
Remember, you read that hot tip here first. And if you make a bundle, at least do the decent thing and send me some kopi money.
I want to be a millionaire, too, but the odds are stacked against me. Still, hope springs eternal in the bosom
By Chua Mui Hoong
DO YOU feel it, this frenzy in the air, this mad rush to wealth?
I do and I also want.
I want a share of the $1.3 billion record-breaking collective sale proceeds for Farrer Court.
I want to make a bundle in stock investments so I can afford one of those properties costing $5,000 per sq ft in Orchard Road.
I want to be one of the 66,660 millionaires in Singapore. After all, Singapore saw the highest increase in the number of millionaires last year, at about 11,000, or 21 per cent.
As a journalist who feels the pulse of the land (aka being susceptible to herd mentalities) I find myself increasingly caught in this frenzy.
Hope springs eternal in the female breast.
I begin to tote up my bank balances. Alas, it will be many years, if ever, before I can aspire to be one of the 66,660 people with US$1 million (S$1.53 million), over and above their primary home.
By that time, maybe US$1 million will just about buy you a five-room HDB flat to retire in.
I look at my modest investment portfolio. It isn't making record profits. Maybe I should find another financial adviser.
Or maybe I can get a piece of the action by getting a mortgage to buy a property. Isn't this a sure-win market?
First, try to spot potential en bloc developments, the way students try to spot questions for exams. But then, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan says plot ratios aren't going to head north just because the master plan is being revised next year.
Okay, stick to good old Districts 9, 10 and 11.
I wouldn't mind living in one of those chic apartments facing the river (just wipe away memories of the smelly waters from days of yore and remember the river has been cleaned up). More to the point, rental yields are not bad.
Or maybe get a nice landed house in a suburban area. After all, everyone is saying it's just a matter of time before the Government liberalises rules allowing foreigners to purchase landed homes.
Indeed, a Goldman Sachs report argued for it last week - but the Government was quick to say there were no such plans.
But market watchers figure, if not now, perhaps next year, or the next, or the next decade.
In the meantime, prices are still soaring. Quick, buy before prices go up, as many classified advertisements now exhort buyers.
But I would have to take up a big fat mortgage.
Players in the market tell me not to be daunted by debt. Debt is good, they say.
Say you get a $1 million loan at 4 per cent. Rent out your property at $4,000 a month or $48,000 a year and that's a yield of 4.8 per cent.
You sit pretty and end up with rental income - and when prices go up next year, as surely they will, you get the capital gains, too.
There's an expectation of prices heading north for at least the next 18 months. Just make sure you're out of the market before things sour, is the advice.
But then other voices urge caution. Remember the property bust days of falling asset prices, negative equity and fire sales from those caught in the cycle?
Some people point out: A rising market is a good time to sell your property, not buy. Let the suckers buy in at such prices. Let others take the risk, not you.
Some savvy financial people are cashing out to take advantage of rising asset prices and holding cash, ready to swoop in on undervalued assets at the first sign of a shift in market sentiment.
With conflicting advice, what's a poor girl to do? Maybe it's not so easy to become a millionaire. Maybe you need to just plunge in, not think too much.
The book Retire Young, Retire Rich by Rich Dad Poor Dad best-selling writer Robert T. Kiyosaki deals with the importance of changing one's sense of reality if one wants to become rich.
Think poor, say 'I can't afford it', think 'Humans can never fly' and your life is limited accordingly.
Think rich, say 'I can afford it', think 'Humans - and pigs - can fly' and your mind, expectations and actions will find a way to bring those axioms into reality.
So try changing my reality. Mmm. Think: 'I can afford it.'
Except I want to afford the wrong kinds of things. Not investment items but consumption ones. Things that make me poorer, not richer.
I step into a branded handbag or watch boutique or a Tiffany store. I like bling, the brighter the better. 'You can afford it,' the temptress whispers. The interest-free instalment credit cards yell: Use me, use me!
Not being a fan of Oscar Wilde, I decide the best way to deal with temptation is to flee it.
I think that maybe trying to get rich by thinking too much isn't the way to go.
Maybe I'm not cut out to be one of those millionaires.
I open the papers and there it is, confirmation of that thesis that you don't have to work hard to get rich.
6904 was the first and second prizes in the 4-D draw last Wednesday. Having the same number come up is very rare: a chance of one in 100 million. That's a figure which has eight zeroes.
When the God of Fortune is distributing such largesse against the odds, why work so hard to try to make money?
Let the God of Fortune sprinkle some of that gold dust on me.
Put $666 on 6666, and maybe there'll be 66,660 + 1 millionaires next year.
Remember, you read that hot tip here first. And if you make a bundle, at least do the decent thing and send me some kopi money.
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