Starting Pay for Singapore Graduates

Well the news about the starting pay for fresh graduates is out. Based on a July 2011 survey by Hay Group, fresh graduates can expect to command a higher starting pay compared to their 2010 cohort.

Engineering jobs command the highest starting pay at S$2,745 per month for degree holders. This was followed by S$2,738 and S$2,728 for jobs in the legal profession and production respectively. The average starting pay for other jobs was around S$2,500. In 2010, the "hot" jobs were pretty similar and could be found in legal, engineering as well as R&D. The average starting pay for diploma holders was close to S$1,800.

And in a separate survey by JobsCentral, National University of Singapore (NUS) was the government employer of choice, beating Singapore Tourism Board to the top spot. STB had held the top spot for the past 3 years. The ratings were as follows:

1. NUS

2. DSTA

3. EDB

4. STB

5. A*STAR

For private companies, Apple retained the top spot. The survey results were based on 3000 over respondents from NUS, NTU and SMU.

When queried about the expected starting salary, most respondents actually picked a range of S$2,500 to S$3000. 33% expected a starting salary above $3,500 and 21.9% expected a starting salary of above $3,500.

I also remember reading the  Straits Times recently and was surprised to realise that there are NTU 2011 fresh grads out there that are earning $20K per month. I don't know what line they are in but $20K for a fresh grad sure sounds like a high figure to most people. I am assuming that they are probably in sales or perhaps working in some investment bank. It is good to know that local grads actually stand a chance of earning such a high salary. One would think that such high salaries were only possible if you study in a good university overseas.

Just the other day, I also wrote about Singapore's 40 Richest. Apparently, the richest people in Singapore have increased their networth again over the past one year as reported by Forbes Asia. I was trying to find out the common points they had and realised that property is perhaps it.

Have started my own little survey regarding starting pay. Feel free to take part in the survey. All submissions will remain anonymous.

Manchester United IPO in Singapore

I know this is old news but apparently, Manchester United has gotten approval from the Singapore Stock Exchange to be listed. This was after news that SGX managed to grab this IPO when it was originally headed for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (?).

Apparently, the Manchester United fan base in the region is one reason why the stock is being listed here. But I truly wonder how much that will really translate into actual fans investing into the club. They are fans alright. They might stay up to watch Manchester United play. They might buy Manchester United jerseys. Some might even travel all the way to Old Trafford to catch a game. But will they really invest in Manchester United as part of their investments?

Passion about a football and support for a club however might not necessarily translate into a investment decision / action. While investors like Peter Lim once tried to buy Liverpool, I wonder whether the interest for Man Utd IPO will really exist among the retail investor. Sure. There is a certain novelty factor of owning part of the club that you love. But will true Man Utd fans really invest in their club?

This I really wonder..

Wells Fargo & Company

The stock market has been really volatile the past couple of weeks. Have been trying to follow the news about the potential QE3 which most people are expecting though Bernake wasn't really clear in his speech that there was going to be a QE3. But with the unemployment rate still hovering around 9%, it is pretty certain that there are possibly rough times ahead for the market. But then again, the market is really forward looking so I could be wrong about that too.

Nevertheless, it seems that the market is really going down south right now and most people are taking a really bearish attitude. Warren Buffet has however added Wells Fargo and Company (WFC) to his portfolio over the past 1-2 months. Thought that it was a pretty interesting that Warren Buffet still seems to have quite a lot of confidence in the US economy considering that he has also pumped in billions of dollars into Bank of America (BAC). But of course, his investment in BAC is not available to the normal retail investors and he will most probably be paid off quite nicely at the end of the day.

If WFC continues to drop, I might just be tempted to take a little stake in it since one of the investment gurus of our time is quite heavily invested in it. WFC was last trading tat $24.20 and I might consider entering if the price drops some more.

Mood: Defensive; Bearish

Added Alpine Global Dynamic Fund to Portfolio

During the recent market crash, I managed to buy into Alpine Global Dynamic Fund (AGD listed on the NYSE) for a price of US$5.64. This is one of those monthly dividend stocks and the dividends for the next few months is at US$0.06 per share. Not a bad yield considering my purchase price. This should add to my passive income stream quite a fair bit over the next few months.

I am Powerful Beyond Measure

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure"

How powerful am I? Beyond measure? The sense of inadequacy tends to set in especially when I am day-dreaming. Or sometimes, it hits when I am reflecting on life as a whole and I see where my peers are at and where I am compared to them. It is then that I feel entirely inadequate.

But I know deep down inside that I am powerful beyond measure. I know that I can change the world , one word at a time, one action at a time and one step at a time. And that is my deepest fear. That I am actually powerful enough to move the world and make it a different and perhaps a better place.

But how can this be? I am a nobody. If you saw me walking down the street, you will not recognise me. Even though you read this blog day in and out, you do not even know me. I am a nobody and yet I am a somebody. How amazing and ironical is that?

Today, I decided that there are areas in my life that I want to do more. And I know that I can do and contribute in so many ways. Here is my list of things that I hope to accomplish or contribute:

Giving to NUS

If you have found this blog useful in one way or another, you could donate to a few organisations of my choice. (Of course, you can donate it to me too) Ha..ha..

Well, the first organisation that you can make a contribution to is the National University of Singapore. Visit the website for more information. Any donation no matter how big or small will help in ways that you cannot imagine. Remember, our actions can change the world. One bit at a time. So do donate.

http://giving.nus.edu.sg/

Club Rainbow and Straits Times Pocket Money

Well, if donating to NUS is not something that you had in mind. Then may I recommend you another 2 options. They are Club Rainbow and the Straits Times Pocket Money Fund. I learnt about Club Rainbow when I ran a $10 donation contest to ask people to pick their favorite charity. That was when I heard about the charity Club Rainbow. Club Rainbow basically helps children who suffers from various chronic diseases.

You can learn more about this 2 organisations/funds in the links below:

http://www.clubrainbow.org/Web/main.aspx?ID=,ff5b5272-18ab-4937-87ca-2acf8e72b0a6

http://www.straitstimes.com/spmf/School+Pocket+Money+Fund.html

So do visit those sites and make a donation today. No matter how small the amount, it is the thought that counts.

Thanks.

Tiredness Sets In and US Dancing with Debt

Phew... it has been a busy week. I have been doing some of my own research on REITs in Singapore but was too frightened to enter into the market during the recent weeks due the US "debt crisis". On hindsight, I guess we should have all figured that the Republicans and Democrats would have struck a deal in the end. But hindsight is always 20/20 and I guess at that point in time, no one could really tell.

Regardless of the "good" news that the debt default is no longer a worry, the next concern will be the potential downgrade of US credit rating by the various rating agencies from AAA to something probably lower.

Somehow deep inside me, I know that the US debt crisis is actually a time bomb waiting to occur. There must be seriously a lot of wastage in terms of public spending when a government starts to rely on debt to finance its spending.

I wonder what will the impact and how the markets will look like in the near future with the less than optimistic forecasts ahead. Dark clouds perhaps?

US Likely to Avoid Debt Default

It seems that the US will avoid a potential debt default. After weeks of following this issue on and off, I was quite amazed at the amount of politics at play here. It seems that congressional leaders will most likely approve a deal to raise America's debt ceiling. And somehow I don't think the deal was what President Barack Obama wanted as he was initially calling for one, broad debt agreement that included cuts, entitlements and also taxes.

The final deal that will go before Congress this week seems to be a compromise which includes cuts of about $1 trillion and also relying on a bipartisan congressional committee (I will take that to mean comprising both Democrats and Republicans) to propose by November another $1.5 trillion in other deficit reductions that could range from cuts, entitlements or tax increase. This new dealwill pave the way for US to avoid the Aug 2 default.

With this good news, gold prices decline from their record prices while oil prices continue to climb. Will the Singapore stock market also respond positively to the news once the final agreement is reached? It is scary to think that one day away from the deadline, the most powerful nation in the world is leaving it really till the last minute to finalise something as important as this.