What happens when you get thrown into the deepest end of the pool?

.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

[Update 6] Evaluating Risk

This is possibly why majority of people 'invest' in the wrong stuff and lose money. They didn't evaluate the risk before jumping in, worse off, they don't know what to do. So what should you be looking out for?


1stly, Ask yourself the question: "Do I want to invest?" Because I meet many people who have not even figured this part out yet. So they spend their time being half-hearted, go around listening to bits and pieces of information here and there, procrastinating and looking in envy when they see other people make money.
More often than not, they end up committing to investments based on emotions and the strong salesmanship of the sales personnel.
So if and when you have decided that you want to invest, just like riding a bic or driving a car, LEARN.


2. Understand that in investments, it is not about what you want to do in the market, it is about what the market gives you. And when market gives, you gotta learn how and when to take. Unless you are big enough to manipulate markets, this applies to YOU. Every novice investors comes to the game with big dreams of what they want to earn in the market. "I want 10% returns, I want 20% returns....etc" Some have their journey cut short even before they begin, others go down a path of winning little and losing big...Very bitter experience. Talk to seasoned investors, what they are most bothered about is their downside. They are thinking "I want to do everything possible to ensure that I do not lose money."


3. Take care of the downside, let the upside take care of itself. Why restrict your earnings to 10-20% returns? The sky is the limit! Have a plan in place to protect yourself when things go south.


4. Take a step back and look at investments in smaller numbers. Investments usually involve quite a sum of money, as such it can get quite personal and people tend to get emotional. This is after all your hard-earned money. DON'T. By being emotional, you are doing yourself the biggest disadvantage in investments. Leave the heart for relationship matters. But huge sums of money, many zeros, can drive people CRAAZZY! So either look at it on the merits of the investments alone and block out the amount portion or to look at it in terms of small insignificant money. It will help you clear your mind.


5. Understanding Risk/Reward ratio.
a. Give an example: (Notice I always like to talk in very small numbers) 1sqft of Property A cost $1 and 1sqft of Property B cost $10. By looking at cost alone, everyone would prefer Property A.
But what if I were to tell you that the value of Property A decays at the rate of 10% per year every year and Property B appreciates at 10% per year every year, which would you then prefer?
So to understand investments, don't look at cost price alone. Look at the entire picture of the investment


b. Another example: Investment A offers 50% returns, Investment B offers 10%, again if by looking at returns alone, everyone would opt for Investment A.
But what is the time line? Investment A offers 50% (Capital gains) returns but with an indefinite timeline, Investment B offers 10% (Yield) pa. Now which one is the better investment?


6. As an investor, what you are really trying to do is lower your risk and maximize your returns. That's why for many people when they graduate, they look for a ...??
a. Investment
b. Job


Your intrinsic thought process (Your brain's protective function) already told you, risk none of your own money, derive as much as possible from that source. But, what the problem with JOB? (Next post.)


7. Get Financially Educated and learn proper Money Management. A lot of people get Technical and Professional Education, for them to get a job and earn loads of money. BUT they don't know how to manage money and squander it all away or even worse, rake up huge amounts of Credit card debts, leading to financial problems. I will talk about Financial Education and Money management in my next post.


8. Investment is about opportunity, rather than timing. It is actually a pretty boring thing to do. Put the money issues aside or look at it in insignificant amounts, get Financially Educated, LEARN, apply a fixed set of rules over and over again... & When you see Opportunity....Take It! Take Action...If you procrastinate, opportunity may fleet by you, when lost, it may never return. But don't worry or be envious, there will be other opportunities. Be concerned that you continue to sit on the fence and expect 'magic' to happen, only to find one day years have passed, opportunities have passed then it's really too late..


Until next time.


Your Fellow Investor,
Martin Sim


Previous Updates
5 Why is ‘Playing Safe’ the riskiest thing you can do with your money?
4 Inflation hits highest level since 2008
3 Why you MUST Invest!
2 Are you your parents' financial photocopy?
1 Taking retirement into your own hands




More technical reading you might like
http://www.axa-equitable.com/investments/evaluating-investment-risk.html
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/08/country-risk-for-international-investing.asp
http://www.taipanpublishinggroup.com/tpg/smart-investing-daily/smart-investing-091010.html
http://fc.standardandpoors.com/sites/client/tda/tdap/article.vm?siteContent=5189&topic=5034

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

[Update 5] Why is ‘Playing Safe’ the riskiest thing you can do with your money?

Here's what most people are like:
1. Risk adverse.       Or

2. They want to achieve something in investing...BUT it takes too much time and effort to learn, and with the job, life, family etc, they procrastinate to get financially educated.
I understand perfectly! Heck, I wanted to outsource my investments once too.
So they go for - Guaranteed Returns. I am sure you know the problem with organisations that offer that. The more guaranteed the returns are, usually means the lower the yield will be, yes?
(Anyone who disagrees with me, pls drop me an email. I am ALWAYS looking out for high-yielding, safe, guaranteed returns! ;D )
First let's understand what 'Guaranteed Returns' really means.
The bank/ insurance agency/ fund management firm/ company etc. that you have deposited your money with, effectively are 'borrowing' the money from you at the small returns they promised you, to put it to more speculative structures. Meaning: They are using your money to make HUGE gains and paying you a paltry sum. You are effectively taking the biggest risk (just that you are 'blind' to that) and getting the smallest returns. Does that sound fair to you?
Worse so are the principle guaranteed products. Principle guaranteed products means (to me. personal experience) the company can use that money and make all sorts of gains, at the end of the agreed time period, are bound to return you your principle sum. And usually they do so, with at most a very very very pathetic payout or just pay you back your principle. What's the point??
And in today's environment, where money can be printed faster than you can count them (devaluation of money ie. banana notes) and what this doesn't already rob away, inflation strips off. Guaranteed Returns products previously cannot cover inflation, currently geez...don't even talk about it!
By 'playing safe' and going for Guaranteed Returns plainly is the riskiest thing you can do with your money. In fact, let me put it this way, if your investments are not minimally returning you 8% nett pa, your money is still losing value.
So to protect and grow your money, in today's environment, you inevitably have to get financially educated (There are of course some shortcuts.) to 'open your eyes' to see what is truly worth investing in. You do so by evaluating risk, I will talk about this next time I post. 
Meanwhile, OPEN YOUR EYES and SEE what we have posted so far at 
Property Investors Club
Equities Investors Network
It is quite ridiculous to live an entire life being stuck under the thumb of money. Take care everyone!

Until next time.


Your Fellow Investor,

Martin Sim



Previous Updates

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

[Update 4] Inflation hits highest level since 2008

Way back in May 2010, I posted regarding demand/supply and inflation issues (this was when there wasn't any inflation issues and market was still bothered about recovery) in Are you your parents' financial photocopy? Lo and behold this is the article on The Straits Times Tuesday January 25th 2011 Page A6 "Inflation hits highest level since 2008". Anyone with two-bit knowledge on economy will conclude the same back then.

The key thing now is: Inflation is creeping up, which side of the coin are you on? I saw people complaining of cost and reports about helping the lower/middle class....


And its gonna get worse, oil hasn't even reach and broke the previous highs yet. (I am eagerly watching.) Just a simple understanding of financial education you are able to protect yourself and your wealth from all these macro-economic factors. 
See inflation can soar through the roof or drop to the ground or not move at all (in your dreams), I still would be happy because in every way I know how to make money off it.

Which is why, just 
like my previous post on Why you must invest! I keep repeating YOU MUST INVEST! YOU MUST! YOU MUST PUT YOUR MONEY TO WORK BECAUSE YOUR MONEY HAS QUIETLY HALF-VALUED. And as mentioned, property is a safe and lucrative way to hedge this erosion of monetary value, as with property you get both yields and capital gains. And given what we can see from our economies today, Asia and Singapore is poised for several more buoyant years at least. Key issue here is buying the right one.

If your response is "Oh but you know something, I don't." Sir/Mdm I wasn't born this way, 6yrs ago I knew absolute
NOTHING! 100% Financial idiot, all I know was to work as hard and much as possible, spent as little as possible and scrape every penny and save, save, save...coming from Singapore, this is what the system 'programmed' us to do. Duracell bunnies the whole lot of us.
In fact back then, for the amount of time and effort required to learn and understand, I initially wanted to outsource investing my small capital as this was a bit of a 'non-core business function'. How dangerous that would have been eh? Constantly, I bugged a buddy to approach his sister who was some hotshot in the bank to help me. Until today, I still thank him very much whenever I see him for brushing me off back then. If not, I wouldn't have bothered to learn myself and I won't know what I know today. Now I don't claim to be some 'Guru' or 'Expert', my point simply is:
YOU lose out being oblivious.

Now I can hear many people lamenting, "No time.." and I totally know where you are coming from with work and life. I am not gonna lied to you and tell you after some 3-day program you will be an expert. The amount of true time and effort it takes to learn, trial and error is A LOT. And not necessarily prefect-able as market is live and ever-changing. Like driving, practical differs from theory. You want to be successful at investing
FAST, here's my shortcut, wanna know? Scroll down.
























Just making sure you are awake ;D




























Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel/ or muck around trying to get the act right/ or hunting high and low and getting nowhere/ or taking huge risk on your own....(And I did all the above) 
spend some time and effort to learn about the product you are investing in, function as a TEAM, iron out all the trust issues via contract/s and let people who have better knowledge in their fields than yourself lead the way in that area. Simple right? Trust is never a simple thing. But if you don't work that out, you are not going to move forward much. (Even John Rambo grows old.)

Recently, we met a lot of people due to the expansion of Property Investors Club. W
ith meeting all of you and with Property Investors Club getting up and running on its own, (People said with a wordpress website and a yahoo email it is not possible. Incidentally, these people also did not register to learn more. We believe that our passion, our dedication and sincerity has helped us shine through and our message speaks clearer and louder with each passing day. Thank you All for giving us your attention!) 
I want to focus my personal site towards the Mindset and Psychology of an Investor as I come to realize most people unfortunately respond best to sales talks (That's why TOP units are selling like hotcakes, and developers and property agents are making merry, patting each other's backs, laughing all the way to the bank.), evoking their emotions and (hate to say it) greed...This is a very dangerous way to make decisions! Especially one as big as property investing. My inputs are both from my mentors and myself from facing investments daily for the last 6years of my life. Nothing fancy, just some factual accounting of events.

I will be posting more on this in my next post. Meanwhile, think about what I have said and read the report below. Inflation is gonna get even worse, it is inevitable. What are you doing to protect yourself and your wealth?



Thank you All for your time and for supporting Property Investors Club! Welcome On-board! We look forward to many successes in investing. 
Until next time.


Your Fellow Investor,





Previous Updates




Sunday, December 5, 2010

[Update 3] Why you MUST Invest!


I like this report. It is a clear assessment of why you MUST invest. And if you think this doesn't affect you....wake up this affects everyone regardless of where you are from.

As dollar forms the base of all trades and is pegged to virtually every currency, this translates to what affects your purchasing power.
A simplified example
in 2007 - Gold cost roughly US$650 while dollar/sing was roughly S$1.60 so it costs S$1040 to buy gold
fast forward to 2010 - Gold cost US$1400, dollar/sing S$1.30, cost of gold S$1820

Although Sing has strengthened against Dollar, after stimulus packages and quantitative easing (Basically central banks are just printing more money. So it isn't really the case of Sing appreciating against Dollar more so Dollar eroding in value.), it actually cost S$780 more to buy the same quantity of gold. Same goes for other materials. If you think that's bad, just imagine how much worse it is for another from a country who's currency value is depreciating or in tandem with Dollar value.

And if you are apathetic politically or financially "Oh I don't care, know, bother./ It's someone else's problem./ It's too confusing./ The government will take care of things." (As many people from where I am from are), thinking that it's a problem for someone else to solve....simply to put it, if your company (US) halved your pay (purchasing power) while gives you back 10% and gradually increase your wages by 4-7% annually, which inflation strips by 4-7% annually, and your supervisor (Your country) can do nothing about it, would you be very happy?
Yet this is exactly what is happening currently, right under your nose, with stimulus packages and quantitative easing, your money value is being robbed blind, even worse than what inflation strips off and what are you currently doing about that?

By the way, that WAS/IS the solution. Yes someone else solved the problem, which end of the stick are YOU at? Is being apathetic to your advantage or disadvantage? So while you haggle about the small prices you can see, and be ignorant about the BIG prices you can't see, are you being proverbially Penny wise and Pound foolish?

Previously in May'10 I posted that we are going to see serious demand/supply issues and great inflation problems, I am sorry to say, this is only the beginning, things are only going to get more expensive. God bless our next generations.

This is one of the reasons why property value will go up and why I advocate investing in property. (The right ones ;D)

Enjoy the report!

Until next time.

Your Fellow Investor,
--
It’s a lot of bull!!! by Ann Sieg



How To Buy $56,000-An-Ounce
Gold For $1,400 Prices.



$1,414.50.

That’s what the spot price of gold closed at yesterday.

A historic all time high after news hit the stands that the Chinese government imported nearly 210 metric tons of the precious metal this year in response to the Federal Reserve’s latest rounds of quantitative easing (up 500% from what they imported in 2009).

Yet at $1,400 an ounce, it’s still an unbelievable steal in many people’s opinion.

The subject line for this email has two meanings.


1) The fact that many people believe we’re about to witness the greatest bull (up) market in the history of the world when it comes to certain investments, followed inevitably by what will be the greatest bear (down) market. But more importantly, that it’s possible to make money during both.


2) The idea that making as much money as Mike Dillard is talking about in our presentation in such a short period of time is a lot of bull! ;-)

Now, I will agree with you, the thought of $56,000/oz gold does sound just plain stupid.

However, once you do the homework and understand all the economic principles and factors at work, you come to the startling realization that it’s not only possible...

But historically, extremely realistic.


You See, Despite What You Might Think,
This Is Not About Hording Shekels
Of Gold And Silver...


What it’s really about is understanding how markets work and taking an entrepreneurial (visionary) approach to everything you do in life.

It’s about understanding that nature (your business, Google, Facebook, your cost per lead, your traffic sources, governments, society, history, civilization, the seasons, our bodies, etc) all operate in cycles.

Nothing goes up forever and nothing goes down forever.

That’s not natural.

This particular economic cycle we’re in just so happens to be the biggest cycle the world has seen in 6,000 years.

And my goal is for you to be profitable and in good shape 10 years from now, not just today or this year.

This idea of cycles affects EVERYTHING you do – from your business plan to your investments – and once you understand the economic laws behind them, it becomes
very clear and easy to see how it’s possible for an “asset class” (could be gold, could be anything) to go up 10, 20, 30 even 40 times in value in a very short period of time.


How The Story Of A Little-Known Ship
Called The “Flying Cloud” Could Save Your
Business And Your Retirement


Some would say that things like quantitative easing, inflation, deflation and economic cycles cannot be explained without a lot of calculus.

I think it can be done a lot easier than that using history.

A story can be worth a thousand words (or charts).

This story takes a few minutes to tell but once told it will be cemented in your mind and much easier to use than hundreds of pages of diagrams and formulas...

It begins on June 2, 1851, when the sailing ship Flying Cloud left New York bound for San Francisco.

Making the maximum possible speed for three solid months, the ship’s journey was one of the most exciting and dangerous in history. It was a full speed dash around Cape Horn in the middle of the Antarctic winter.

Thanks in no small part to the skills of the ship’s navigator (who was the Captain’s wife) the Flying Cloud reached San Francisco in 89 days.

A record that would not be broken until 138 years later.

Why was the crew of the Flying Cloud in such a rush to reach San Francisco?

The answer is one of the most important lessons you may ever learn. It will help you achieve success and prosperity every day for the rest of your life.


It Starts With The Fact That In Bad
Times As Well As Good, Someone Is
Always Earning Lots Of Money

More Fortune 500 companies were started during recessions than at any other time and more people got rich during the great depression than at any other period in history.

How?

It begins with the construction of the Flying Cloud.

The Flying Cloud belonged to a special class of vessels called “clipper ships.”

Clippers were long, slender transport ships with a sharp, long prow. They were copied from the design of French warships and were built for one thing: Speed.

They had three masts slanting slightly backwards and rigged with every inch of sail the designers could cram into them.

For a cargo ship, clippers didn’t hold much. And being made of oak and other hardwoods, they were expensive to build.

In spite of this, clippers were one of the most profitable types of ships in operation and were constructed in large numbers. From 1848 to 1852, 160 were built in the United States alone.

Why?

What would cause ship owners and builders to go on a crash program to make ships that had such a high construction cost and yet limited cargo capacity?

Furthermore, why would they do so during the 1840s when the country was in a depression?

The answer is that...


Prices And Profits Were High On The
West Coast And Low On The East Coast

Money could be earned by quickly transporting cargo from east to west. Ask any of the ship owners and builders if they understood all the economics behind this and they probably didn’t have a clue. But they didn’t need to.

All they needed was to see the difference in prices and respond to this difference. They were following the signals of the market.

For us, this story does become extremely useful if we look into the economics behind the clipper ship industry, which starts with the California gold rush.

In 1848 gold was discovered in California and tens of thousands of people migrated west (kind of like former employees migrating online).


When They Arrived In The Goldfields They
Found Plenty Of Gold, But Little Else. There
Was An Extreme Shortage Of Almost Every Necessity Known To Man

In other words, in California huge amounts of money were chasing small amounts of goods. At the going rate of $16 an ounce for gold, a pair of boots cost $30 – almost two ounces of gold. In today’s terms this was more than $700.

An onion cost a dollar, which is equal to about $22 today. A pound of potatoes cost $1.50 or $33 today.

A month’s rent for a small hotel room was equal to the price of a new house on the east coast.

In a restaurant in the gold rush town of Mokelumne Hill, a single slice of bread with butter cost two dollars, or $44 today.

Yes, you read that right.

In fact, most goods were so scarce and difficult to haul into the goldfields that the nature of the goods themselves had almost nothing to do with the price.

In Sonora, everything sold at a uniform $3 per pound, regardless of what it was.

Of course, tools were in enormous demand.

Shovels and picks arriving in San Francisco were marked up 1,500%.

(Figure it out. Using today’s dollars, if a shovel cost $12.00 on the “deflated” east coast, and you bought a thousand of them, shipped them to the “inflated” west coast and sold them to people who were willing to pay 1,500% more for them than the east coast price, what would your profit be? I’ll give you the answer at the end of this newsletter)

And the miners had the money to pay these prices. It was common in some areas for a miner to dig out six ounces of gold a day.

That would be an income of more than $8,400 a day using current spot prices.

In other words, California was a huge pile of money in need of goods to buy, at a time when the east coast was a huge manufacturing center going through a depression, in need of buyers.

The two coasts of the United States were somewhat like two sealed tanks, one of them
highly pressurized and the other one a vacuum.


Shipping Crews Realized That If The Two
Could Be Linked, The Flow Of Money
Through The Pipeline Would Be Enormous

Some also realized that the difference in pressure between the two “tanks” would not last forever. Once the connection was made, they would begin to equalize. Whatever was done to tap into the flow of money needed to be done quickly.

So the race was on to build the fastest ships possible. No one paid much attention to cargo capacity since the mark-up in California was so great only a small amount of cargo was needed to reap huge profits.

The most important thing was speed. A merchant had to get his goods into the goldfields before the gold was depleted.

The first real clipper ship was built in 1833. The discovery of gold in California put so much attention on speed that ship builders came out with the so-called “extreme clipper.” They were the fastest wind-driven cargo ship ever built.

And the Flying Cloud was the most extreme of them all. Which is why it was able to make the trip from New York to San Francisco in a record 89 days.

It’s hard to believe, but true, that clipper ships did not reduce speed at night or in bad weather. For them, a storm was good news because the winds made them even faster.

Many times these ships would come into port with their sails and rigging in tatters from the pounding they took going full speed through high seas.


An Important Point In All Of This Is That
The Clippers Only Ran Their Mad Races To
The West Coast And Back For Three Years

By 1851 the easily accessible gold was gone and the “pressure” between the two tanks had begun to equalize.

It looked the era of the clipper ship was about to end, but here is where we come to the most instructive part of the story.

A California gold miner by the name of E. Hargraves had decided to go in search of a new gold field. He went to Australia and in February 1851, discovered gold.

The Australian gold rush was on and the clippers diverted from their San Francisco runs to the new gold mines in the Southern Hemisphere.

The story of the clippers dramatically illustrates the principles of business and investing success in their most simple form:

1. Find out where there is a pile of money.
2. Tap into that pile.
3. Don’t expect the pile to last forever.
4. Always be searching for new piles.

Today, these piles of money can be found in lots of places, but the biggest ones are the artificial piles of paper money created by governments and central banks.

In the example of the clipper ships, it’s very easy to see how there can be such enormous differences in price ranges (and therefore profits) when you’re dealing with
such extremes in supply and demand and you’re using a visual, geographical example like the east coast and the west coast.

These same imbalances, or “pressurized tanks” can be found all over today as well, where some “asset classes” are massively overvalued and others are massively
undervalued.

The key point is that nature (the free markets) always equals out these imbalances and whoever can form a link between the two can tap into immense sources of
profits.

Here’s the catch with the economy today.

Many people are afraid to get into business or investing because of the risk involved.

However, participation in this wealth cycle is not optional.

Everyone’s chips are on the table whether they realize it or not.

Most people don’t look at cash or currency as an investment vehicle the same way they do other assets.

When in fact...


Currencies Are Historically The
Riskiest Form Of Investment There Is!

If the Federal Reserve can print and print and print without sending the US dollar into hyperinflation they’ll have done what no government or bank has been able to do since the invention of currency. While they have become exceptionally skilled at manipulating the economy, they can’t beat gravity forever.

If you go back to the email I sent last week (you can find it posted on my facebook profile) comparing the prices of things from 1913 to today, you’ll see that a dollar today is worth about what $.04 was 95 years ago.

That’s a pretty poor ROI by anyone’s standards.

It’s very easy to see how one can actually go broke simply by doing nothing and keeping all your money in a savings account!

If you look at major corporations and wealthy individuals or families, they never hold the majority of their wealth in cash.

Of course, you need a reserve, an operating cashflow.

But they always dump as much as they can as fast as they can into assets that have REAL intrinsic value (not paper money that’s only worth what a bank says it’s worth).

In our current global economy, where the most common unit of exchange used to purchase things (the US dollar) is so massively overvalued, inflated and unstable, this creates wild fluctuations and imbalances in the prices of everything.

This is why the value of houses can now fluctuate like stocks.

We’re in a unique situation because this particular asset class (the dollar) sad to say, really forms the basis of society.

These imbalances, or pressurized tanks, will equal themselves out. But the longer governments and central banks try to patch over these imbalances and prevent
the free markets from correcting themselves (like repeated surgeries) the worse it gets and the more imbalanced it becomes.

Which means more profits for savvy investors and business owners in the know.

Remember the question I asked you earlier about the profits on a shipment of picks and shovels to the west coast during the gold rush?

If you did the math, a $12 shovel marked up 1,500% brings the price to $192. The profit was $180.


For A Thousand Shovels At A Cost Of
$12,000, The Gross Profit Was $180,000!

Now you can see why $56,000 an ounce gold is not only possible, but in some people’s opinion, conservative.

Again, it sounds absurd.

But it’s not when you realize that this exact pattern has repeated itself hundreds of times without exception all throughout history.

One of the best examples being the 1970s where you could have invested $20,633 into silver in 1971 and just 9 years later it would have been worth $770,796 (a 3,735% ROI).

And the only thing going on then to cause this was inflation – extremely MILD inflation at that compared to today.

Add on to that the other factors in the economy that Mike talks about in our “Great Wealth Transfer” presentation and you can get a pretty good picture of what’s going on (with more information coming soon).

It may sound hard to believe for someone coming across this information for the first time, but...


Right Now The US Dollar Is One Of The Most
OVERVALUED Assets In The World And Precious
Metals Are One Of The Most UNDERVALUED

Much like the two pressurized tanks of the east coast and west coast during the gold rush.

It’s not a question of IF they will equal out, it’s just a question of WHEN.

This is why I personally have been investing every spare dollar of mine and 80/20’s into precious metals for years.

This is serious stuff and I wouldn’t be telling you this if I didn’t strongly believe in it and practice it myself.

Sincerely,

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Undervalued Asset

Exceeding $$  50%+++ GAINS ON PURCHASE


Hi All,

This is Martin Sim here. Just a quick update from my last mass email.

Again, I am only emailing when I note something worthy, like the Private Banker giving tips and secrets to banking loopholes. Anyone looking to buy a good investment, we came across an excellent one. This is not some internet marketing "story". The last round we doubled our monies!

Kindly understand, I am working with mostly high net-worth individuals and asset managers for this project but want to give the floor to retail investors as well. So if you are looking to diversify your monies or know of anyone who is interested to do so, this is seriously a good opportunity to make some money here. (Investors/ Buyers, Agents or Referrals, all will make money from this project)

Contact me for more info ASAP. First-come-first-serve. This is like an early Christmas bonus for selected individuals. (Oh yes, you are invited to apply, not everyone will qualify. Only selected participants will be notified. Any inconvenience caused is regretted.)

Contact me for more details.

Your Fellow Investor,
Martin Sim


Join to gain more Insights from real investors
Property Investors Club

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Who am I? & What are you doing?


In a personal message


Wong Wee Fah 黄伟華 “Martin 你在新加坡是做房地产的吗?”

Martin Sim “Hi Wee Fah,

Firstly nice to speak with you. my apologies as my computer does not have chinese input.
I am an investor who is actively looking for like minded people to pool money with us for and/or source and recommend bigger and better investment opportunities that really is worth the investment. Property is just another stream to create residual income. Hence, we are opportunity driven less so by sector or country.
Cheers,
Martin”



THANK YOU for the question Wee Fah. Helps me clarify my position somewhat.
Furthermore, to anyone reading in. The knowledge is free (for now), while others are charging. Again, anyone ANYONE can make money from this, rich, poor, young, old, employed, unemployed, man, woman.…anyone.

I urge all to register by sending us through PM or email your name, contact and email.


And for those who did google me, (people did! small YA ^^)
I...
dont built custom guitars,
dont do personal coaching in UK,
dont stream free MP3 on the web,
dont know nuts about chinchillas and hamsters, or how they procreate,
do not stay in Philippines,
aint the bloke who is reportedly grumpy and and unsexy,
nor the 2SG relating on one of his "defining moments"
(unfortunately) am not the Martin Sim kissing his blushing bride
and lastly, wasnt the Ang Mo Kio resident who complain about unsightly rental ads at bus stops.

Try Martin Sim Investor, you will see me.....

I am having a Great Morning! Hellos to ALL!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

What Spielberg And Buffett Have In Common


by Mike Litman


Derek Jeter is the famous shortstop on the New York Yankees. Imagine if tomorrow they told him he had to become a pitcher, he most likely would be average or worse, right?

Stephen Spielberg is one of the world's greatest film directors. Imagine if tomorrow they told him he had to make his living as a chef, most likely he'd be average or worse, right?

Warren Buffett is the world's greatest investor. Imagine if tomorrow they told him he'd have to make his living as a golfer, most likely he'd be average or worse, right?

Remember this:
We were all born for a certain ASSIGNMENT.
A 'position' in life that our unique talents and skills can serve the greatest amount of people and reap us incredible prosperity.
The closer we are to this POSITION, the place where success is practically guaranteed, the greater our likelihood of massive success.

But, no, no, no.... I say, 'Hold on Mike.' Why do most people never aim to locate their ASSIGNMENT, the PLACE that their success can come naturally and in great abundance?

Here's my answer. INVESTMENT.

'Mike, what do you mean?' Let me explain.

Most people don't INVEST the time necessary to locate their position they were born for.
Most people don't INVEST enough in themselves to cultivate their natural strengths.
Most people don't INVEST enough in discovering how to create a cash windfall in turning what they enjoy doing into a business.

Imagine a snowstorm in Chicago in the middle of winter. You can have that same avalanche of 'cash flakes' flying into your bank account EVERY day, interested?

Or. Imagine this.

You're 91 years old. You're sitting on the front porch of your home. You start thinking about so many of the great things in your life, but then a regret finds its way into your mind. You get sad because you never turned something you enjoyed into an empire of profits. You rock back on your chair and you sigh. A tear could form, if you let it. You never jumped on the bus called the 'Financial Freedom Express'.

You were born with a gift, wrapped and all. A unique gift. Now it's your job to find it, build it, share it, or you can enjoy the regrets on your front porch.

Will you sit on the bench or step up to the plate and hit one out of the park? That decision is yours, not mine.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

[Update 2] Are you your parents' financial photocopy?

My folks, I think, did Ok for themselves. Not the best financial planners but boy did they have the lifestyle. I would attribute property investing as half the income that supported their lifestyle. So it has always been in my mind, investing is a MUST!

Over the course of the last 6years (that I seriously explore and use financial tools), I realized some differences that financially educated (For convenience, "FE") and uneducated ("FU" no pun intended) parents pass on to their kids. I'll bet that's where many of us got our first financial guidance from. If one's parents was financially educated, they would pass on sound knowledge. Vice versa. So, how financially smart are your parents? Should you be unlearning some of the wrong stuff and open to new ones?

Some real-life examples I came across:

FU teaches: "Don't trust other people with your money. Or trust only yourself with your money."
This is a half-truth statement and many people follow! May I ask,
How great a progress are you going to make alone? Heard of the phrase No man is an island?
FE:
Dare to trust. Be sharp about the company you keep and always use a contract to protect your interest.

FU teaches: "Want to be successful in life, learn how to depend on yourself."
It is great to instill independence and doing your best from a young age. But being strong alone is insufficient; against the weight of the world no one man has enough strength. Again, No man is an island.
FE: So yes, be independent and excel, and align with other successful people, who compliment and strengthens you, to function as a team. Leverage on/ and off each other to make greater progress.

FU teaches: "Don't let others steal your ideas. Keep it to yourself. Don't share freely."
What good is an idea not materialized? There are many brilliant people out there keeping their brilliance to themselves. How does keeping your idea to yourself make you rich?
FE:
Share your ideas, only then can you progress and improve. Get the right people on-board to help you materialize your ideas.

FU teaches: "Work hard, spend less and save your money."
Seriously doesn't that sound like something people who are tight for money would tell you?
FE:
Work smart, plan on what you can afford to spend and how you can spend more. Learn how to be creative and invest your money.

FU teaches: "Save your money for retirement. Enjoy life when retired."
Isn't that pretty sad? To enjoy life only nearing one's end?
The truth is most people succumb to temptation and enjoy as soon as possible anyway. Rake huge bills from their lifestyle expenses, which leads to them being caught in a vicious cycle. Yes?
FE:
While working, start investing. No capital, be creative & learn how to leverage. Attain financial freedom as young/soon as possible. Then enjoy life.



FU teaches: "Investing is risky. Best to leave your money alone."
Investments does carry risk. But given what is happening in the world today, down the road we are going to see serious demand/supply issues and great inflation problems. Dual middle income households alone might no longer be enough onwards. With the free and easy stimulus and inability to rein in stimulus, Currency itself is at risk. Not investing is a bad idea.
FE:
Investing carries risk but is necessary. Currency is overly diluted.


Lastly,
FU (And many financial institutions, FI aka Financial idiots) teaches: "High returns = High risks"
This is as far from the truth as it gets. Put an untrained driver at the wheel of a car, the vehicle is a danger to all. Change the driver to a skilled professional, he can drive on two wheels and still make you feel at ease.
FE:
Being financial uneducated = High risk

Added on 14 Jun 2010 (& I am shocked to have to add this!),
FU teaches: "Savings."
Until today, as in RIGHT NOW, people are STILL talking about how much they have saved. OMG! http://forums.salary.sg/investments-net-worth/817-whats-your-net-worth.html You work really hard, make your life all stressful and tiring, scrimp and save for your money to sit in your savings account (or under the pillow) to do... what??
FE:
Investments - Capital gains and Cashflow




Until next time.

Your Fellow Investor,





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