meek-investor

Now is turbulent time in the stock market and the risk averse persons should stay by the sideline during this uncertain time, with the coming QE tapering, Syria conflict, etc. For example, China Minzhong unexpectedly plunged more than 50% in just a couple hours and afterwhich trading of the stock was halted.  I have mentioned in my earlier post that the money invested into stocks should be the  extra cash that you can afford to hold aside or to lose.  And preferably on those blue chips that are able to ride through these turbulent "waves".  Even in the event that the whole stock portfolio is badly hit, there is no immediate impact on you or your family's livelihood and commitments. My stock portfolio is still staying afloat at the moment.  However, it is supported mainly by SGX and Starhub, which I have gotten at a relatively low cost. When there is danger, there is also opportunity...

Get your Trapper Keepers and your troll doll pen toppers, The Business is back in session. We’ve picked a few teacher’s pets to celebrate with, like Kevin O’Shea! Established in 1984 following the mergers of Steven and Cathy O’Shea, Kevin O’Shea has been one of San Francisco’s leading manufactures of mirth, laughter, hilarity and all around good times! Kevin has been commonly described as clever, absurd, awkward but in a funny way and too smart for his own good. He has been seen on the Independent Film Ch anel and ComedyCentral.com. He is a favorite of comedy festivals such as: The SF Sketch Fest and the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Go see him now as his 4th quarter productivity has never been higher! From the Far East, Joe Alfano! Based in New York City and proud native New Yorker, Joe produces “Thunderbird”, a monthly comedy show. He performs at The Broadway Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club, and Laughing Devil Comedy Club. In 2012, Joe was featured on James Holeva...

This week’s show promises to be magical. Seattle is full of wonderous creatures, Emmett Montgomery is a prize among them. Utah born, Seattle based comedian Emmett Montgomery found the comedy stage in late 2004 and has been failing beautifully ever since. Emmett has been involved in a lot of things including critically acclaimed comedy collectives, post apocalyptic variety shows, underground wrestling leagues and family friendly comedy nights in pizza restaurants. Mr. Montgomery has been featured the film “Seattle Komedy Documentary”, the coffee table book “Seattle 100: a portrait of a city” and the Bumbershoot, Bridgetown Comedy and Sasquatch festivals. In addition to wandering the country telling jokes he currently curates and hosts a love letter to Seattle in the form of variety show/sharing party entitled “Weird and Awesome with Emmett Montgomery” at the beloved Annex Theatre and is a member of the Seattle chapter of the Bushwick Book Club, a collection of musicians ...

SURE this week won’t feel like a never-ending yawn of time stretching through the ages into the infinite as we wait for more Hank and Walt, but just in case, we put together an excellent mid-week distraction. We are delighted that our guest for this whole month will be back, the delightful Anna Seregina. She will be joined by the HIGHLY ADDICTIVE Kate Willett. Kate Willett is a San Francisco based comedian and actress. She recently appeared as a performer in SF Sketchfest, and regularly performs at clubs and theaters all over CA. As an actress, she has performed throughout the United States with companies such as Shakespeare and Company, Word for Word, Woman’s Will and the Samuel Beckett Theater in Dublin, Ireland. She is the host of a weekly radio show, called The Mission Position on radiovalencia.fm. She’s also the co-producer of the weekly Mission Position show in Lost Weekend Video’s famous Cine Cave, Comikaze Lounge, and Comedy at Deluxe. We’ll also get a litt...

JUST ADDED: Special guest Sheng Wang! You know Sheng from his half-hour special on Comedy Central, and from generally being the funniest dude in the world. We're glad to have him back at the Biz. This week, and every week in August, we welcome friend of The Business and super cool lady, Anna Seregina. Anna Seregina is a San Francisco-based stand-up comic and performer. She was born in Moscow, Russia, which could explain her deep-rooted cynicism. It could also explain nothing. After being involved in theat er and improv for nearly a decade and being funny for nearly a lifetime, she decided to take the plunge into stand-up comedy. Her style can nearly be defined as vocal and un-lady-like, drawing heavily on what little life experience she has. She has been described as having the "worst aura." She has performed in the 2013 & 2012 SF Sketchfest, the inaugural SF Comedy & Burrito Festival, the 2012 SF Comedy Day Festival, and the Bruise Cruise Festival....

Come join us for hot fun in the Summertime before its not summer anymore and we have to have fall time fun. What I’m really saying is, let’s kill some time together before the return of Pumpkin Spice lattes!! YOU KNOW WE GOT GUESTS. George Chen has finally found a proper outlet for his brand of sarcasm and self-deprecation. These traits were ill-suited to the other worlds he has occupied as a musician, writer, and filler of 1099 forms. As a promoter he has organized comedy shows on a moving bus, at a sti ll-life drawing session, and inside a comic book store. Of these attempts to put on comedy in unlikely locations, the best thus far has been the weekly showcase Cynic Cave at Lost Weekend Video (organized with Kevin O’Shea). He also co-produces the monthly multimedia show Talkies. As a performer he has appeared at Holy Fuck, Venice Underground Comedy, The Business, and the Porchlight Storytelling Series. Bart Freebairn is a stand up comedy comedian. He has been doing ...

This week The Business welcomes a home town hero and co-host of one of our favorite shows, Hand to Mouth, the indomitable James Fluty! James Fluty is a San Francisco comic and co-creator of Hand to Mouth a monthly, topic-based comedy show. He was described by tonegazer.com as “funny and intellectually stimulating” and described by the New York Times as part of a “shockingly high percentage of adults without health insurance”. He has performed at major clubs including the San Francisco Punchline, the Purple Onion and Rooster T. Feathers. He’s appeared on Current Television and KOFY TV and in the award-winning short film Tiger Cop which can be seen at Funnyordie.com. He also co-wrote and starred in the mockumentary Awareness of the Outer World which became a You-tube featured video. Plus we are making new friends! We have two guests this week in town from New York ON BUSINESS. Amaya Perea writes for Cracked, Hahajk, Hello Giggles, Funny or Die and her own bio. She’s ...

This eminent and good friend has often remarked that I have turned into a socialist (even a communist) in my old age. He claims my writing in this blog is veering constantly to the left. Other readers of my blog ,might wonder, if this is left leaning then what will the true loony left be called. But I know I am going to get a mouthful from him for this post, which is admittedly leftwards tilting. On matters relating to labour and worker law, I have often argued that countries have brought excessive legislation defending the existing worker and making it expensive to employ any more.Who in his right mind will employ a worker in France, for example. All this misguided legislation only keeps out a large portion of the young out of the workforce. Companies need some flexibility to ramp their worforce up or down based on conditions of their business and marketplace. Minus this flexibility, no modern company is going to hire. But companies have gone to the other extreme and misused the flex...

UOB's Structured Deposit 2013 Series was eye-catching as 9.3% looked quite interesting: Other promotional information: 1 . Total Guaranteed Fixed Interest of 9.3% of the Principal Amount over 5 years and 11 months (equivalent to an effective interest rate of 1.5687% per annum) 2. 100% Principal Amount guaranteed when held to maturity.  This structure product has a bonus interest component linked to 5 Singapore companies' shares price performance: Potential Bonus Interest of up to 10% linked to 5 Singapore Company Shares Shares in Underlying Basket DBS Group Holdings Limited ("DBS") Keppel Corporation Limited ("KEP") Sembcorp Marine Limited ("SMM") Singapore Airlines Limited ("SIA") Singapore Press Holdings Limited ("SPH")   The potential bonus will be given out if all the above 5 stocks are above 105%, compared with the initial stock prices when the structure product begins. Assuming an investment amount of S$10,000, ...

The match between Starhub and SingTel has kicked off.  This is the first year that EPL is available on both SingTel mioTV and its rival Starhub. SingTel announced that the EPL, which kicks off on Aug 17, will cost $59.90 a month by itself (stand-alone fee).  This will be available to both SingTel's mioTV and Starhub subscribers. MioTV customers will also be able to buy a bundle of football programmes, including the EPL, the Champions League and Spanish La Liga, plus entertainment programming, for $64.90.  Last year, SingTel sold a sports bundle which included EPL for $34.90.  Therefore, the cost almost double for SingTel mioTV subscribers for the new season. Starhub subsequently announced their prices for the new cross-carriage Barclays Premier League on cable TV. Customers who sign up for the EPL will now receive up to $30 off their bills per month up to a maximum total of $600 over the next two seasons. This applies to...

TOPICS: The podcast is put on hold. All good things come to an end. Or at least have the Pause button pushed. So it is with this podcast as well. Producing a podcast takes time and energy. We knew that going in. However, our schedules have conspired against us and we find ourselves needing to focus our attentions elsewhere. For the moment, any road. Will the podcast return? We can't say it won't, but we don't want to give false hope either. For now, we'd just like to say "Thank you" to you for taking the time to listen to the podcast. We truly appreciate that you did. It means more to us than you can ever imagine. You star. Jane, Mark, Paul and Roger

The sales of the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos and the Boston Globe to John Henry raise the question why people would want to own newspapers if they aren’t doing so for obvious financial gain.   There are clearly people who want to own papers for political purposes so they can directly influence debate and policy.   This is certainly the case for the ultra-conservative Koch brothers, who have been trying to buy the Los Angeles Times  this past year. But Bezos and Henry don't seem to fit that mold.   Bezos’ purposes for buying the Post are not the pursuit of profit. He certainly would produce better returns putting more effort into Amazon or another commercial firm. John Henry can expect far more returns from effort in his investment firm or his sports empire than the Globe . So why are they buying legacy media?    The answers lie in human traits.   All of us need diversions. We need toys to play with; things to spark our interest and ...

My main objective of visiting this Shareinvestor Fair at Suntec City was to see how Suntec City look like after the Asset Enhancement Program.  Couples of month ago, when I passed by Suntec City Convention Center, it was still all blocked up under the AEP development.  After the visit, I am quite impressed on how Suntec City has transformed itself.  I am seriously considering adding more units of Suntec Reit to my portfolio, especially if the stock price goes below my average cost for Suntec Reit. Secondary mission is to check out what type of investment options are available there. At the fair, there are the usual Stock Broking Houses - OCBC Securities, CIMB Securities, Lim & Tan Securities, Phillip Securities, Thinkorswim Singapore and E*Trade. The Contracts For Difference (CFD) and Forex providers  - CMC Market, City Index, IG and Onada. The Financial Educators : - Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group , students can achieve...

First some clarifications: Fixed Deposit is not for real investment.  My review on Singapore's FD is limited to S$50,ooo and below; and tenure term not exceeding 12 months.  Fixed Deposit is for parking the emergency fund and allowing immediate access to the fund when needed.  These are also based on the following considerations: 1. Singapore's Deposit Insurance Scheme maximum coverage up to S$50,ooo only. 2. Long tenure term will potentially affect your cash-out value for your emergency fund, as you may suffer a penalty fee for early withdrawal. Back to the update: According to its website, Bank of China's Fixed Deposit promotion is still on.  The 12-month FD rates of 1.18% p.a. is still highest in Singapore currently.  The minimum deposit amount for BOC FD is S$50,000. This promotion is valid for customers with fresh funds only, meaning it is not applicable for money transferred from existing BOC accounts. There are few branches of BOC...

TOPICS: How be genuinely attractive by not being online Do you need to be online? Really? After all, we managed to survive without the internet for centuries. People were contented. Businesses succeeded. In this episode, Jane and Roger talk about how we still need to be active offline to make our online work. The video Here is the video of the Google+ hangout recorded during the recording of the podcast episode: First go: Second go: New rallying point You are a big part of the story of this podcast. We'd like you to be an even bigger part of it. To help with that, and to help us have discussions about being genuinely attractive in business, we've established a LinkedIn group . Please knock on the door and we'll let you in. Country tally We're hoping to get a listener in every country in the world. The amazing, super, fantastic, wonderful Phil Sorrell has produced an interactive map for us. If you have a Twitter account, you'll be able to add yourself to the map. H...

No. Stock Name Lots Portfolio% Avg Cost$ Breakeven$ Market$ 1 Starhub 5 20.74 3.22 2.92 4.40 2 SPH 4 16.56 3.98 3.68 4.39 3 SGX 2 14.39 2.68 0.97 7.63 4 CapitaLand 2 6.09 3.91 3.69 3.23 5 CapitaMall Trust 3 5.74 1.71 1.24 2.03 6 CDL HTrust 3 4.71 1.66 1.22 1.665 7 Starhill Global 6 4.64 0.71 0.58 0.82 8 Suntec Reit 3 4.50 1.52 1.21 1.59 9 SingTel 1.2 4.41 3.21 3.05 3.93 10 Hyflux 2.5 3.08 1.70 1.58 1.305 11 AIMS AMPI Reit 2 3.00 1.635 1.66 1.59 12 HPH Trust 3 2.60 0.90 0.88 0.74 13 FE Orchard 1 1.91 1.18 0.88 2.03 14 CapitaMalls Asia 1 1.88 2.12 2.06 1.995 15 CitySpring 3 1.39 0.65 0.49 0.49 16 Boustead 1 1.32 1.44 1.50 1.40 17 Sing Post 1 1.24 0.875 0.71 1.315 18 SPH Reit 1 0.92 0.90 0.93 0.98 19 FE HTrust 1 0.88 0.93 0.93 0.935 Movement in my portfolio in July:- Sold:- SP Ausnet Bought:- Boustead, SPH Reit. Dividends collected in July: $25 2013 avg dividends/month: $298.94 Bad month for dividends.  Thanks to SPH's special dividend payout, August will be another divi...