Financial Freedom

Warren Buffett and others on Gold

I know that there are many people who are positive on gold and silver right now. So it is good to take a look at the other side of the story so that we do not get too much group-think.

In this video, Warren Buffett says he would rather own a productive asset than gold.

Some time back, Wells Fargo also gave its outlook on the gold "bubble" and warned investors on being over invested in it.

Must Watch! Crazy Fishing Methods

It is the weekend so thought I will break the monotony of it all and show some entertaining videos of people fishing.

This shows a homeless man fishing with stones:

Russian man ice-fishing with bare hands:

Catching wild salmon with bare hands:

Jeffrey Gundach's Picks and Outlook

Jeffrey Gundlach is co-founder of DoubleLine Capital LP and also its chief executive. He correctly predicted the subprime mortgage disaster and is one of the world's leading bond fund manager. In fact, he is sitting on cash because he sees bleak times ahead. He is favoring protection over growth in the next 1-2 years. He believes the opportunity for sitting on cash is much larger than if you were to be invested for growth now.

Regarding the European Union, he sees a possible break-up and does not think that the Euro is going to work. The question boils down to Germany being able to forgo the gains that it had obtained from the single currency.

He recommends buying hard assets like gemstones, art, commercial real estate. DoubleLine has also been buying the stocks of Chinese companies, U.S. natural gas producers and gold-mining firms. It is funny that he is now into equities given that he operates bond funds.

Liquidated Ascott REIT, Sabana REIT and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust

Liquidated my entire holdings in Ascott REIT, Sabana REIT and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust since they have all appreciated. Most of them were sold for a profit though I have held on to some for a few years while others were just bought recently.

Ascott REIT sold 15 lots at $1.415
Sabana REIT sold 2 lots at $1.18
Cross TImbers Royalty Trust sold 100 shares at US$30.789

My sense is that the REIT market in Singapore is already fairly valued and there are perhaps little opportunities for further increase. I could be wrong but thought it will be better to sit on some cash and await further opportunities.

How Much Does Youtube Pay?

So how much does youtube pay its partners for videos that are uploaded and monetised? For those interested in earning some additional cash, youtube offers a partner program which pays you cash. You can check out the partner program here (http://www.youtube.com/yt/partners/).

Youtube is basically owned by Google so its partner program is really like Adsense. It is linked to adsense and one basically earns revenue from the advertisements that are shown. The amount one can earns depends on the type of ads and the pricing of the ads that appear with your videos.

Based on feedback, it seems like the normal rate paid is 1/3 cent to 1 cent per view. What this means is that for a video with 1,000,000 views, you can earn $3300 (1,000,000 x 0.033 cents). Other users claim a rate of between $1 to $5 for every 1000 views. So that places it around $1000 to $5000 for a million views. The rate does not seem to far off from the normal adsense program where one is paid both for clicks and for views. At this stage, one can only wonder how much Psy earned from his Gangnam style music video.

Of course, your videos have to be original content, suitable for all users, etc. And if you do the math, you will realise that it isn't that easy. You basically need to have a large audience before it is possible to make money from youtube.

Time to work my butt off

How to Check if I Have Medishield

To check if you are covered under Medishield, it is really quite simple. There are basically 3 ways:

Look at your yearly CPF Statement of Account (the yearly statement will also tell you whether you are paying for a dependent)
Log in to my cpf online services and go to My Messages (this is located at the menu on the left hand bar). Under Insurance, you should be able to see your medishield coverage
Call CPF Board at 1800-227-1188 to check.

The CPF FAQ also states it quite clearly as follows:

Your yearly CPF Statement of Account and “My Messages” (under "my cpf Online Services ", which you have to log in to with your CPF Account Number and SingPass) will indicate the status of your/your dependant(s)’ coverage. Alternatively, you can also call CPF Board at 1800-227 1188 to check.