Crossed the 250,000 Page Views

Not too long ago, I shared that this blog has crossed the 210,000 pageview mark.  I am happy to say that this site has surprisingly and beyond my wildest expectations crossed the 250,000 page view milestone earlier this week.  Thank you readers for your support, advice, comfort, jokes that you have shared with me along this journey.  I cannot thank you enough for how you all have contribute to this site and to me personally in one way or another.

Hopefully, this site will remain relevant for all. It is challenging to generate content. Very difficult considering that I do not have much free time to sit down, think and write.  Many of the posts are either written in the wee hours of the night when I would really love to be sleeping rather than writing, and also when my brain really stops functioning normally.

Just a sampling of some of the posts of this blog to get the newcomer started.

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
What are REITs?
Buy Property or Invest in REITs?
Why Invest in REITs?
Singapore REITs - History and Regulations
Income Investing - REITs
REITs trading below Net Asset Value


Commodities/Gold/Silver
Buy Silver in Singapore
Is Gold and Silver Still a Buy?


Insurance
Cheapest Insurance in Singapore?
Can You Trust Your Financial Planner?


Popular Reads
How Much to Give for Chinese Weddings
How Much to Give for Church Weddings
A Brutally Honest Post

Dividends and Rights Issue

Being a very analytical sort of person, I cannot really understand why listed companies will have a rights issue while also declaring dividends at almost the same time.   My simple mind tells me that rights issue is to access capital while issuing dividends is almost akin to giving away money.  So why ask for more money when you are giving away money at the same time?

Anyone cares to explain?  Speaking about Pacific Andes here.

Don't Write When You Have Nothing To Write About

Well, that's the mentality I have been taking nowadays.  I haven't felt a strong urge to write about anything and that perhaps explains the irregularity in posting any new articles.  I don't feel like there is anything new in terms of knowledge that I can contribute at the moment, and so I stopped writing for a while.

In terms of investments, I haven't made any new investments just yet.  I have been toying around with the idea of investing in CitySpring Infrastructure Trust or one of the industrial REITs but couldn't decide between the both and so am just sitting still right now and not doing anything.  I know that is probably not a good thing to do since I tend to procrastinate for way too long and sometimes, it just seems so much better to act first and then analyse later.

Well, CitySpring Infrastructure Trust seems like a real safe and defensive bet considering that it owns infrastructure that are what I would call "recession proof".  However, I think there was just a rights issue not too long back and I do have some concerns over its ability to grow its distribution.  On the other hand, industrial REITs also provide an equivalent yield and might be likely to make yield accretive acquisitions.  Of course, considering that the economic situation is still not that stable, there might be a likelihood that rental rates might drop.  So that is another risk to consider.  Not too mention that industrial REITs tenant base are also not as diverse as compared to a retail REIT ,etc.

Salary of Fresh Graduates

Survey results are out on the starting salary for fresh grads:

SMU

Leads the charts.  Class of 2011 earns average of $3,388.  Top 20 per cent of the cohort earned gross monthly salary of $5,039.  Graduates from Information Systems Management earned an average of $3,637 per month.

Those with GPA 3.40 to 3.59 earned an average of $4,294 per month.

NUS
Law graduates earned average of $5,037.  Medicine earned an average of $4,016

NTU
Computer engineering earned average of $3,577 while engineering grads earned $3,489 per month.



What do you think of the latest survey results?

Losing Grip on Time

I feel like I am losing grip on time, and time is just literally, slipping me by.  Every week, I can't help but exclaim, that another week has passed.  It is simply way too amazing for me to fathom.  It seems like one moment I am brushing my teeth, getting ready to go to work.  And then the next moment, I am brushing my teeth, getting ready to go to sleep.  It is something like groundhog's day but totally different.  Rather than time repeating itself over and over, I am sort of losing grip on it and it seems to be slipping faster and faster and faster.  And I can't seem to hit the "Pause" button.  Before I know it, the week is over.  And it scares me..really.

Day by day passes by.  Week after week.  It is so scary sometimes I shiver when I think about the number of days or weeks that have passed since I last ate at a particular restaurant or met up with a friend.  And when I try to recall the last time I did something or visited some place, it scares me to realise that the last time I did that thing or visited the place was maybe one to two years back.  And it just seems like it happened yesterday.

I am not sure my words have really described the feelings that I feel inside.  But I truly feel like I am living in a movie that is on "fast forward" mode, hurtling right to the end.  And I know that there is no way I can hit the "rewind" button and that there is no way I can ever go back in time to smile at my loved ones, to hold them, and to tell them that I love them.  I seem to be trapped in this time tunnel where every thing is moving so fast.  And I am here begging, please slow it down a bit for me God.  Life is too beautiful and it is passing me by just too quickly.

Tarnish on Silver

Tarnish has appeared on some of my silver bullion.  I bought some candian silver maple leaf some time back and used my bare hands to handle them.  I thought that the oils on my finger ruining the coin was just superstition by those crazy coin collectors.  After all, we handle coins everyday and I don't see the normal 10 cent or 20 cent coins getting spoilt.

To my horror, I discovered some white stains on my silver coins which were very clearly in the pattern of my fingerprints.  Tried wiping them off with a cloth but to no avail.  They don't see to come off.  Now my shiny coins are "stained" by the white marks.

Anyone has any idea how to remove them without spoiling the silver?

Minimum Wage Move for Malaysia?

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister said that the government had reached an agreement with the private sector on the need for a minimum wage policy.  Based on a certain website, it was rumored that the Cabinet had agreed to set a minimum wage of below RM1,000 for the 3.2million workers in the private sector, with a RM100 difference between states in the peninsula and East Malaysia.

The opposition has however said that the minimum wage should be set higher at between RM1,000 and RM1,200.   The Democratic Action Party's (DAP) Charles Santiago said, "A higher increase in minimum wage will increase productivity and innovation."

I am not sure how a higher minimum wage increases productivity and innovation. Anyone has any idea?