Many people had put forward that investors who invest in mutual funds should seek out those that are low cost so that they are not unnecessarily paying for the services of poor performing fund managers. With such an argument, these same people are touting that investing into index funds will be one of the best option available since they are typically low cost.
Is such an investment style justified? After reviewing through the various options, I see that there is no point to deny competent fund managers an equitable renumeration if they are able to deliver value to my investments.
The aim of investing via mutual funds is that risks are diversified and the services of professionals are engaged to manage the funds. Many people expressed dissatisfaction with management fees charged because the funds had not performed up to expectations. This is a justified complaint since no one is willing to be shortchanged when they are paying good money in anticipation of proper returns.
But the truth is that there are mutual funds out there that are very consistently delivering above average returns. Investors just have to do their homework to sieve out these investment gems and invest into them. What harm is there to pay a portion of the returns obtained as renumeration when these returns are not achievable on our own when we have no time to monitor and diversify investments?
NETS Fee Hike
Network for Electronic Transfers, NETS, is owned by DBS, OCBC and UOB and it has just recently announced that transaction levies are going to be upped by between 0.75 and 2 percentage points over 3 months from 1 Jul 2007. This is going to be pegged at between 1.5 and 1.8 per cent of purchases bringing the levy close to credit-card transaction fees which stand at about 2 per cent for Visa transactions and around 3 per cent for American Express.
While around 83 per cent of Singaporean residents currently use NETS for purchases in a strong embrace of cashless transactions, many retailers are starting to advise customers to pay cash or pay more for purchases.
The levy increase appears to be against the original purpose of NETS, to offer alternative system for cashless payment.
While NETS tries to justify that it is facing increasing competition from international card schemes and the increase is necessary to maintain its viability, insisting that NETS transaction fees are still the lowest in the market, it fails to deliver good logic.
Which business raises prices when consumers are not using its products? With the advent of debit cards, cashcards and other more innovative products, NETS is under intense competition and it appears to have made the wrong strategic move in trying to maintain revenues.
More worrying is the fact that NETS is owned by DBS, OCBC and UOB. While these banks had been paying minimal interest rates for savings deposits and lending it out at high rates, pocketing handsome profits, they had opted to squeeze more profits out of retailers with this NETS levy increase. When the backlash against this increase materialises and consumers start abandoning NETS and paying in cash instead, banks are likely to start considering charging consumers for the use of the automated teller machines and cornering the consumer even more.
Consumers are on the way to the guillotine, to be placed at the mercy! Woe!
While around 83 per cent of Singaporean residents currently use NETS for purchases in a strong embrace of cashless transactions, many retailers are starting to advise customers to pay cash or pay more for purchases.
The levy increase appears to be against the original purpose of NETS, to offer alternative system for cashless payment.
While NETS tries to justify that it is facing increasing competition from international card schemes and the increase is necessary to maintain its viability, insisting that NETS transaction fees are still the lowest in the market, it fails to deliver good logic.
Which business raises prices when consumers are not using its products? With the advent of debit cards, cashcards and other more innovative products, NETS is under intense competition and it appears to have made the wrong strategic move in trying to maintain revenues.
More worrying is the fact that NETS is owned by DBS, OCBC and UOB. While these banks had been paying minimal interest rates for savings deposits and lending it out at high rates, pocketing handsome profits, they had opted to squeeze more profits out of retailers with this NETS levy increase. When the backlash against this increase materialises and consumers start abandoning NETS and paying in cash instead, banks are likely to start considering charging consumers for the use of the automated teller machines and cornering the consumer even more.
Consumers are on the way to the guillotine, to be placed at the mercy! Woe!
Fairprice Plus Savings Account and Credit Card
FairPrice Plus is a collaboration between NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Limited (NTUC FairPrice) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC Bank) with all banking products and services being provided by OCBC Bank unless stated.
This collaboration seeks to offers simple banking solutions at all FairPrice supermarkets islandwide.
This is a very new player on the banking market but it is worth taking a good look because of various interesting features...
The Fairprice Plus Savings Account provides an interest rate of 1% p.a., much higher than that offered by most banks. Futhermore, there is no minimum opening balance, monthly balance requirements and monthly service charge and with this account, there is access to over 770 OCBC and UOB ATMs islandwide!! Being able to earn 1% interest from the first dollar deposited is something that had not been available to many in a long long time.
Sounds good so far? There is more to come! The Fairprice Plus credit card offers free membership into LinkPoints loyalty program and gives 2 LinkPoints per $1 spent at FairPrice Plus Stores... It even offers 1 LinkPoint per $2 spent for VISA transactions!
FairPrice Plus hopes to stay steadfast to the values of Value, Simplicity and Transparency and I do think that this offer is a very good start. With the entry of such a competitive offering, hopefully it can help shake up the banking sector and get incumbent banks to start revising up their interest rates for basic saving accounts.
This collaboration seeks to offers simple banking solutions at all FairPrice supermarkets islandwide.
This is a very new player on the banking market but it is worth taking a good look because of various interesting features...
The Fairprice Plus Savings Account provides an interest rate of 1% p.a., much higher than that offered by most banks. Futhermore, there is no minimum opening balance, monthly balance requirements and monthly service charge and with this account, there is access to over 770 OCBC and UOB ATMs islandwide!! Being able to earn 1% interest from the first dollar deposited is something that had not been available to many in a long long time.
Sounds good so far? There is more to come! The Fairprice Plus credit card offers free membership into LinkPoints loyalty program and gives 2 LinkPoints per $1 spent at FairPrice Plus Stores... It even offers 1 LinkPoint per $2 spent for VISA transactions!
FairPrice Plus hopes to stay steadfast to the values of Value, Simplicity and Transparency and I do think that this offer is a very good start. With the entry of such a competitive offering, hopefully it can help shake up the banking sector and get incumbent banks to start revising up their interest rates for basic saving accounts.
Interview With Ewen Chia
There are lots of ways to make money via the Internet and making money online is an easy task which many people have had succeess. From the amatuerish ventures to those who have gained from affiliate marketing/adsense/adbrite/etc in a big way, there is a growing interest in how to harness the internet to generate the multiple streams of income automatically.
Getting another income via the Internet is very attractive because it will function 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Even when sleeping, the online business/programme will still be operating and bringing in money. By diversifying and having multiple streams of incomes, a great buffer is created and ensures continued income. Holding a mundane job is not longer necessary as long as sufficient success via website traffic/referrals/sales/etc is achieved and brings in the money automatically.
Because of the recent request from some friends to join them under this Emailcashpro affiliate programme, I am starting to seriously look into how easy it is to make money online.
While doing my research on creating this sort of autopilot income generation, I came across this interview with Ewen Chia who is supposedly highly successful with affiliate marketing and thought that making it available here will benefit others. He had came up with well received publications such as Secret Affiliate Weapon. This interview video is huge and lasts almost 50 minutes. A suggestion is for your to have the video continue downloading while you go about your other tasks and come back to view it later as the streaming does get quite jerky if it is not downloaded first. While waiting for the video to download, you can take a look at the Secret Affiliate Weapon material that is made publicly and freely available here.
A search on Google for Ewen Chia seems to indicate that this guy really does have some sort of presence in the affiliate marketing arena and his Secret Affiliate Weapon is quite well received. While these "affiliate marketers" are selling the idea that making money on the Internet is easy, the truth is that it is not that simple to really gain the sort of success they enjoy as much hard work and strategising does go into their marketing plans.
The best way to understand how to make money online is to purchase and check out the materials offering to share the knowledge and evaluate critically if internet marketing technique such as Secret Affiliate Weapon, Ultimate Wealth Package, Affiliate Commandments, etc are really any good. I am just starting on trying to generate a stream of internet income and please do share with me if there are suggestions on how I can do better and faster.
Getting another income via the Internet is very attractive because it will function 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Even when sleeping, the online business/programme will still be operating and bringing in money. By diversifying and having multiple streams of incomes, a great buffer is created and ensures continued income. Holding a mundane job is not longer necessary as long as sufficient success via website traffic/referrals/sales/etc is achieved and brings in the money automatically.
Because of the recent request from some friends to join them under this Emailcashpro affiliate programme, I am starting to seriously look into how easy it is to make money online.
While doing my research on creating this sort of autopilot income generation, I came across this interview with Ewen Chia who is supposedly highly successful with affiliate marketing and thought that making it available here will benefit others. He had came up with well received publications such as Secret Affiliate Weapon. This interview video is huge and lasts almost 50 minutes. A suggestion is for your to have the video continue downloading while you go about your other tasks and come back to view it later as the streaming does get quite jerky if it is not downloaded first. While waiting for the video to download, you can take a look at the Secret Affiliate Weapon material that is made publicly and freely available here.
A search on Google for Ewen Chia seems to indicate that this guy really does have some sort of presence in the affiliate marketing arena and his Secret Affiliate Weapon is quite well received. While these "affiliate marketers" are selling the idea that making money on the Internet is easy, the truth is that it is not that simple to really gain the sort of success they enjoy as much hard work and strategising does go into their marketing plans.
The best way to understand how to make money online is to purchase and check out the materials offering to share the knowledge and evaluate critically if internet marketing technique such as Secret Affiliate Weapon, Ultimate Wealth Package, Affiliate Commandments, etc are really any good. I am just starting on trying to generate a stream of internet income and please do share with me if there are suggestions on how I can do better and faster.
Reliability of Online Trading
It is important to get a reliable online trading platform when doing online trading of shares. As delays in trades performed can potentially lose/gain us a lot of money, always have 1 or 2 backups from which trading can still be performed. Just today, DMG's site went down with the following message...
Network Error (tcp_error)
A communication error occurred: ""
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.
For assistance, contact your network support team.
The problem is not with my network connection since I can access other sites such as yahoo, google, POEMS, Fundsupermart, DBS Vickers Securities and iOCBC perfectly well. Always cater for contingencies when trading to avoid being unnecessarily penalised for delays in accessing the online trading platform. Be warned, be careful.
Extended Warranty - Worth it?
Extended warranty is offered on many products these days and while some people found value in them, these plans are rarely a good deal.
Retailers are pushing extended warranties because it generates almost pure profit. It is a triple bet that that the product will breakdown, that the damage will be covered by the extended warranty and that the repair costs will be more than the extended warranty's cost. Considering that the value of electronic products depreciate exponentially these days, purchasing extended warranties will more frequently be money down the drain.
Where possible, charge your purchase to a credit card that extends the manufacturer's warranty and save the premium of the extended warranty. With the quality of products these days, by the time the gadget breaks down, enough will have been saved to replace the faulty product.
If an extended service plan is really percieved to be essential, read the fine print carefully and not rely on the salesperson's assurances. Extended warranty is being paid for to make your life easier, not harder. The terms will definitely be in the store's favour but you have to analyse if it truly benefits you too. When something does go wrong, the worst thing to find out is that you have paid for something that is utterly useless.
Retailers are pushing extended warranties because it generates almost pure profit. It is a triple bet that that the product will breakdown, that the damage will be covered by the extended warranty and that the repair costs will be more than the extended warranty's cost. Considering that the value of electronic products depreciate exponentially these days, purchasing extended warranties will more frequently be money down the drain.
Where possible, charge your purchase to a credit card that extends the manufacturer's warranty and save the premium of the extended warranty. With the quality of products these days, by the time the gadget breaks down, enough will have been saved to replace the faulty product.
If an extended service plan is really percieved to be essential, read the fine print carefully and not rely on the salesperson's assurances. Extended warranty is being paid for to make your life easier, not harder. The terms will definitely be in the store's favour but you have to analyse if it truly benefits you too. When something does go wrong, the worst thing to find out is that you have paid for something that is utterly useless.
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