Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

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candy_chia
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Post by candy_chia »

Could be due to School holidays plus holidays seasons, most are enjoying their overseas holidays.

I am also busy bringing my kids for holidays classes and visits to shopping malls.
Dennis Ng wrote:
Recently, the forum is a little quiet, and I hope more seminar graduates can join the forum, ask questions, post comments, share news, share video, share articles...any form of participation is a form of contribution.

This forum is set up for the benefit of seminar graduates and it would defeat the purpose if seminar graduates do NOT fully utilise it.
Dennis Ng
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Post by Dennis Ng »

yes, that's a possibility, I was on holidays in Taiwan for 7 days too.

Cheers!

Dennis Ng
candy_chia wrote:Could be due to School holidays plus holidays seasons, most are enjoying their overseas holidays.

I am also busy bringing my kids for holidays classes and visits to shopping malls.
Dennis Ng wrote:
Recently, the forum is a little quiet, and I hope more seminar graduates can join the forum, ask questions, post comments, share news, share video, share articles...any form of participation is a form of contribution.

This forum is set up for the benefit of seminar graduates and it would defeat the purpose if seminar graduates do NOT fully utilise it.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
Ms Tan
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Post by Ms Tan »

Yup, I also just come back from a short holidays in Phuket.

The place is not as lively and eventful as before though Tsunami had happened 6 years ago.

I noticed many shops (cafe, hotel, travel agency, etc) are now run by foreigners (mostly from Europe) instead of by local people. Some foreigners have chosen to start small business with carefree life. The locals told me they have lost some of their workers and fortune in the last disaster so some of the prior bosses are now working freelance. Just an observation in Patong.

Hope the local can move on bravely and be joyful again.
Dennis Ng
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Post by Dennis Ng »

Ms Tan wrote:Thank you for the encouraging award, I didn't expect it!

I would like to give Dennis an award too - SSFA Award for being A Super Successful Forum Administrator. This forum has no nonsense, all good sharing with different opinions but a common goal. This is the result of a good controller, spending time not only sharing, but also guiding graduates to the right direction to be selfless millionaires.

I will email you when your award is ready for collection :D

Best regards,
Eileen
Hi Eileen and Wei Teck,
thanks for giving me an Award. Imagine my surprise and amazement when my wife passed me the Award yesterday (sorry, I was NOT in office to receive it personally when both you and Wei Teck came to our office).

If other seminar graduates are still wondering what we are talking about, well Eileen and her husband Wei Teck gave me a "Super Forum Administrator Award" for www.MasterYourFinance.com

Never would I ever imagine receiving award from my seminar graduates. This will go into one of the most memorable events of my life.

Click here to see a photo of the Beautiful Award I received:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

Once again, it proves the Universal Law that "Give and You Shall Receive". Of course, Giving means NOT having any expectation of any reward or returns.

Actually, I forgot to announce that based on Ms Tan (Eileen)'s sharing on property related matters, she is hereby promoted to Investing Mentor as well. I think forumers would certainly benefit from her knowledge/experience in Property related matters.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
Ms Tan
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Post by Ms Tan »

You are most welcome, Dennis, you certainly deserve the recognition!

I hope our little encouragement is part of the force to materialize your noble dream in S$100 million Charitable Foundation, which we are committed to participate.

Thank you for the promotion, I will continue to share whenever opportunity arisen. This is the least I could do in return for the many gains I have received from this Forum. I hope more Forumer will participate in the sharing with different perspective so we can all learn from each other.

Cheers,
Eileen
Never would I ever imagine receiving award from my seminar graduates. This will go into one of the most memorable events of my life.
Dennis Ng
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Post by Dennis Ng »

yes, over the past months, Straits Times have interviewed people with very average Financial Knowledge, who unknowingly spread misconceptions in their answers to the interview...

Finally, I read the interview of someone who is Financial Enlightened. I agree with most of what he said except that he has NOT learned the concept and difference between Good Debt and Bad Debt and seem to think that all debts are Bad and he has been renting a bungalow instead of buying one...If he had bought a bungalow 5 years ago on a 80% loan, he would have easily made 300% to 500% returns in last 5 years....this FACT might have escaped him becos of his views that ALL debts are bad.

Similarly, I also do NOT own a car and Singapore is probably the most expensive place to own a car and with our country's small geographical size and convenient Public Transport system, the FACT is many people can really make do without a car and be at least S$1 million richer by age 60 by not owning a car.

I really agree with him that Charity is the best investment. The reason is becos when I donate S$10,000 to a charity, it can benefit many people compared to me spending this sum of money on myself or family.

From my personal experience on Charity, I also experience, the More I give, the more I can give.

What I mean is that whenever I donate a bigger sum of money, more than whatever I have donated in the past, my income and wealth somehow also grows and that enable me to donate even more money. This is a Virtuous Cycle that I personally experience.

Even if you're NOT financially well off now, you can still donate. It's NOT the amount that counts, it is the Sincerity to Help others, to benefit others when you donate that really mattesr. If you're sincere in helping, even if you donate S$1, the "Virtue" you planted is worth more than a S$100 million donation to a hospital with the condition to have the right to name the hospital.

Becos True Giving means one should not expect anything in return, and if a person gives with a condition, it is called an exchange or a trade and is NOT giving at all.

Cheers!

Dennis Ng


The Straits Times
Jan 1, 2012
me & my money
Charity the most important investment
Former top investment banker flies economy and discount airlines for business and pleasure so that he can use the money saved to help others

By Joyce Teo

Former top investment banker Michael Dee will bust all your ideas of what a typical banker should be.

The man does not own a car in Singapore and he flies economy and discount airlines everywhere, whether it is for business or pleasure.

'I think of myself as a personal business and make the same decisions in my personal life as I do in my business life,' he says.

Money is to him, he tells me, just a transference of value. 'If I can transfer my money into an emotional connection, then it has a lot of value to me.'

Personal happiness has nothing to do with one's portfolio. 'Money can create dysfunction in families, conflict among nations, arrogance and a belief that monetary wealth means one's life is better than another's of less wealth.'

It should never control one's compassion for others nor cloud one's ability to do the right thing, says the 55-year-old.

Mr Dee flew economy more often at the peak of his earning power, which helped his company cut costs, 'by hundreds of thousands of dollars a year'.

It was money he could use to improve other people's lives. 'There is no greater feeling than flying to Brazil in economy knowing that I can provide $10,000 or more to a charity.'

And charity, he says, should be thought of as your most important investment.

Mr Dee has clocked 26 years at Morgan Stanley and 'while the economic advantages were good, it was never about the money, it was about loving what you do'. He was also with Temasek Holdings for 2 1/2 years.

A United States citizen, he has spent 18 of the past 30 years working overseas. Now based in Singapore, he is an investor, a job which he says he has come to believe is 'the world's hardest profession, because everything affects the market and every day is different'.

Mr Dee is married to Shelly, 52, a housewife and philanthropist. They have four children - Matthew and Christopher, both 17, David, 15 and Diana, 12.

Q: Are you a spender or saver?

An investor. What I spend on, I look at as an investment of money and/or time. Money as a commodity to be spent or saved is a vastly overrated concept.

Time is the most important commodity people can consider, because you can't save it and you don't even know how much you have. If you don't invest a given minute, it is a lost minute and they can add up.

What most affects people's lives is when they realise how little time they have. Their value of time begins to change and they become more focused and discriminating.

Society needs to realise that there is a much greater return to be made investing in our youth than in our elderly years due to the compounding effect. The challenge is to extend people's productive capacity as they age, so that the retirement burden does not fall heavily on youth as the population ages.

I spend on travel as my wife and family are inveterate travellers and love to see the world in all its glory to seek understanding and adventure. This summer, my three sons climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with two intellectually disabled Special Olympics athletes from Tanzania and Singapore, while my wife and daughter spent the week working with street children in Moshi, Tanzania.

Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?

I have two credit cards, one in Singdollars and one in US dollars. I charge everything and collect frequent flier miles. I have never in 30 years had a balance on my credit card and never will. I carry very little cash but my wife is my ATM when I'm short.

Q What financial planning have you done for yourself?

Mostly it's asset allocation, tax and estate planning, as there is global taxation for Americans. I get heartburn when I think of the taxes I have to pay while outside the US.

I am underweight fixed income and heavily weighted to high quality equities which are income generating. We have a few funds but generally the fees are too high to justify them. We also have a relatively high proportion of cash.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are increasingly our choice for diversification, because of their low fees and liquidity. I also like high yielding non-financial, non-telecom stocks with a record of growing payouts, high cash balances and solid credit ratings, which can pay dividends out of free cash flow.

My wife, a Harvard Business School graduate, enjoys stock picking more than I do. As most relationship problems revolve around money, I prefer to focus on making it, keeping it and thus the bigger picture is my zone of focus.

My wife and I have life insurance mostly in a second-to-die policy as it reduces the cost substantially. Life insurance is just disaster insurance. It's health insurance that has real value to me.

Q: What advice would you give to investors?

You should never let your money out of your sight or delegate your finances to a third party.

Do your homework, keep it simple with diversification, maintain liquidity and never trade on rumours. The rumours often come from insiders who are not trying to make you rich, or from complete idiots.

Smart money does not tell people specifically what they are doing.

Every child, teenager, young adult should be taught the value of compound interest in school. Saving as much as you can, as young as you can, is the hidden secret to wealth accumulation.

Other issues that are often overlooked are:

•fees drastically reduce returns over the long haul and should be minimised;

•taking less risk the older you get allows you to sleep better at night;

•asset allocation is more important than stock picking;

•growing and stable dividends are the most undervalued asset; and

•real estate returns are overrated because most people do not account for the very high leverage or believe that prices can go down (and they do).

Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?

I grew up in a small town outside Buffalo, New York. When I was young, my relationship with my dad was based on me working with him every weekend. He was an electrical contractor. He worked very hard, loved what he did and was a perfectionist. You could count on his work and in particular the bits you would never see. As I put on his tombstone, he was 'A Great Guy'.

My fiercely independent mother is 84 and she has been teaching figure skating for over 60 years. Till today, she puts on her skates and goes on the ice to teach. She embodies all that is great about excellent teachers.

In the 1950s, the idea of working women and, in particular, an entrepreneurial woman, was virtually unheard on.

My parents knew the value of education and even though neither ever went to college, they drove me crazy drilling college into me. We never had much money and most of what my parents had went to my education. I graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1981. They were both all about helping others and they taught me value and values. I hope I have lived up to their lessons.

I have one sister, Anne, who has Down syndrome, which is why I support the Special Olympics.

Q: How did you get interested in investing?

When I was young, I saved as much as I could in every tax deferred plan I could find. Because I started early, those plans are now worth many multiples of what I invested.

I learnt about the value of delayed gratification when I spent my summer savings as a 16-year-old on some fancy racing tyres for my car. They cost US$500 and were stolen a week after I had bought them.

Had I invested that money at a 10 per cent annual rate, I would have had US$22,000 today. My dad showed me the maths just to make the point about how I had wasted my money and it made a huge impression on me. Now, I keep it simple and look to invest in things I generally feel will have long-term value.

My very first stock was in a tin can packaging company called American Can. It later became Citibank. I sold it much later and made 30 times my investment.

Q: What property do you own?

We own very little real estate. I don't like the debt that goes with it. If people had to pay cash for a house, they would save and be more rational in their finances.

I have had zero debt almost my entire life and have no interest in owing any bank any money. I would rather rent and invest my money.

For what a good class bungalow costs here, we could buy hundreds if not thousands of acres of the world's most beautiful land in the US.

Q: What's the most extravagant thing you have bought?

I lost my mind when I bought a Porsche in Singapore. I had driven one when I was 16 and always wanted one to relive that drive of my youth.

But driving in Singapore is boring and analogous to the garage as people treat their cars with the greatest of care. The real value and action was in Malaysia at the F1 track on the weekends. Fortunately I'm over that phase of my life, although I still keep my American Muscle car in Texas.

I bought the used Porsche for about $300,000, at a 35 per cent discount to the new price after its first owner had had it for six weeks, and I sold it for about the same price four years later.

Q: What's your retirement plan?

Retirement is for the unimaginative or the lazy. No interest, thanks. (Former prime minister) Lee Kuan Yew is setting a fine example and raising the bar for everyone. At a minimum, as we get older we should give back to children of the disadvantaged, but never give up completely.

I am financially independent but still have the drive to develop businesses and people and to ensure the next generation has the opportunity to fund my efforts to help others.

The whole concept of old age has radically changed in the last 40 years and will continue to do so. Current retirement ages are far too low, given life expectancy and should be raised immediately.

At the same time, the concept of retaining older workers should change also. Companies could take out life insurance policies on workers to fund current health care costs, for example. Capital and labour are on a collision course as the population ages and pensions and government plans need to get in front of the curve.

Q: Home is now....

A rented five-bedroom house with a pool in the Bukit Timah area.

Q: I drive....

I take the taxi. I will not own a car in Singapore because it is the worst investment I can think of here (my wife has a used car for the kids). Singapore has one of the lowest tax regimes in the world until you buy a car, then it's in the middle.

Most people drive their cars for about two hours a day, or 700 hours a year. It's ridiculous when you consider the capital outlay and depreciating asset versus the annual cost and the opportunity cost of not investing it.

joyceteo@sph.com.sg

----------------------------------------

WORST AND BEST BETS

Q: What is your best investment to date?

It was the investment in the company I committed half my life to, Morgan Stanley. I joined when it was a private company with only 1,100 people.

I bought my first stock at a discount during the initial public offering, and sold a large portion of it in 2000 at $104 a share. I made more than 30 times my money.

Q: And your worst?

Without question, it was the energy giant Enron Corp. I love pipelines and it had been a great investment for decades.

My first shares were at about $5, and the stock rocketed, rising over 17 times. Enron collapsed in 2001, after a false accounting scandal erupted. Its stock price, which hit a high of US$90 per share in mid-2000, plunged to below $1 by the end of 2001.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
Dennis Ng
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by Dennis Ng »

zipink wrote:Thanks Alvin for writing the summary. As usual, superb summary. :)
Yup, once again, Alvin selflessly summarised what is being shared at such Investing Mentoring sessions.

I decide to give him another Active Forumer Award for such efforts and he's won himself my latest 2 books, "Why is Money Always Not Enough?" (100% Chinese book) and "What Your School Never Taught You About Money" (100% English Book) and a ticket to full-day "How to Save and Accumulate One Million Dollars" Seminar (price to be revised to S$398 from Apr 2012).
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
Dennis Ng
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by Dennis Ng »

Hi Alex Yeo and James Tai,

thanks alot for your selfless sharing and for both of you to also agreed to repeat doing another Investing Mentoring session on a date to be scheduled after Jame's business travel schedule is confirmed.

I decided to award both of you another Active Forumer Award for such efforts and you've won yourselves my latest 2 books, "Why is Money Always Not Enough?" (100% Chinese book) and "What Your School Never Taught You About Money" (100% English Book) and a ticket to full-day "How to Save and Accumulate One Million Dollars" Seminar (price to be revised to S$398 from Apr 2012).
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
Dennis Ng
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by Dennis Ng »

Hi Racoon12 and Candy_Chia,

Congratulations! Both of you just won yourself the Active Forumer Award, for your active contribution to the forum in the last few months.

You win my 2 books (2nd and 3rd book) and also 1 Ticket Special Price at S$298 to "How to Save and Accumulate One Million Dollars" Seminar. To claim your prize, just need to email to me at dennis@MasterYourFinance.com providing your name, mobile number and address for us to mail you the books.

So give and you shall truly receive.

To all the other seminar graduates, what are you waiting for? Start contributing more.

Note: Please note that even if you have won the Active Forum Contribution award before, it is possible that you win again, as the name implies, it is based on Active Contribution. So if you continue to contribute actively, you can win the Award again and again.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
racoon12
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by racoon12 »

Hi Dennis

Is this "1 Ticket Special Price at S$298 to "How to Save and Accumulate One Million Dollars" Seminar" a 1 day training session? If so may I pass to my friend which still can't afford to come for this course?

I'll stick by the rules if this is only mean for me.... :D Then I'll impart my knowledge to him instead.

Many thanks
Dennis Ng
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by Dennis Ng »

racoon12 wrote:Hi Dennis

Is this "1 Ticket Special Price at S$298 to "How to Save and Accumulate One Million Dollars" Seminar" a 1 day training session? If so may I pass to my friend which still can't afford to come for this course?

I'll stick by the rules if this is only mean for me.... :D Then I'll impart my knowledge to him instead.

Many thanks
Hi racoon12,

this ticket is a gift to you. So it is up to you what you want to do with it. If you have attended the seminar, you can choose to:

1. re-sell the ticket at S$298 to another person or friend.
2. ask your friend to pay a nominal sum eg. S$50 (this is to make sure the person is committed to learn).
3. give it as a gift to someone.

The choice is yours to make. As I said, it's a gift to you, including my 2nd and 3rd book.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
racoon12
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by racoon12 »

Understood :)
candy_chia
Investing Mentor
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by candy_chia »

Hi Dennis,

Thank you for your generosity.

Dennis Ng wrote:
You win my 2 books (2nd and 3rd book) and also 1 Ticket Special Price at S$298 to "How to Save and Accumulate One Million Dollars" Seminar. To claim your prize, just need to email to me at dennis@MasterYourFinance.com providing your name, mobile number and address for us to mail you the books.

So give and you shall truly receive.
Dennis Ng
Site Admin
Posts: 9781
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:16 am
Location: Singapore
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by Dennis Ng »

Hi dragonhart2 (Jason),

thanks for sharing.

I can see from your postings you've managed to learn and apply what is taught in the seminar, but also learned to "back test" and flexibly adapt to applying in investing. Thus, with immediate effect, you've been promoted to Investing Mentor status, and for your active contribution in the last few months, I also like to show our appreciation on behalf of all seminar graduates and you will get:

1. 1 Free ticket to How to Save and Accumulate One Million Dollars (priced at S$398, revised price from 1 Jun 2012 onwards)
2. 1 copy of my 2nd book (Chinese) and 3rd Book (English).

to claim your prize, just email to dennis@masteryourfinance.com your name, mobile number and address for us to mail the books to you.

You can sell them to your friends. I suggest that you do not give the seminar seat Free to your friends, as from my experience, people do not value what is given to them free. You can give the book free as a gift to friends though.

Once again, thanks for your active sharing in the forum. Please keep it up. Becos the more you share, the more you learn, the more you learn, the more you can share....it creates a Virtuous Cycle. If you share less, you learn less, and if you don't share, you stop learning actually.

Cheers!

Dennis Ng
dragonhart2 wrote:hi, just sharing wat i see.

price just cut 200 d MA($6.4, 5 years chart)...20 dMA about to cut 50 dMA.....peak recently is $7.18...so it is in early stage of decline....it has a lot to fall. if it cannot recover back up above 6.4, it will likely go down.....during 2011 correction(STI 2600), it didn't even touch the 50 dMA..March 2009 it went down to $1.8.

cheers,
jason.
Cheers!

Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny

Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
dragonhart2
Investing Mentor
Posts: 376
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Re: Give and You Shall Receive (Prizes for Active Forumers)

Post by dragonhart2 »

dear Dennis,

tks for acknowledging that what i share is correct...and correcting me when i am wrong.
i just hope that by sticking my neck out to post, will help other seminar graduates accelerate their progress in investing in stocks...i took 1 year to learn how to use what u took 5 min to teach about "moving averages". it is THE compass in the oceans of stock investing....by plotting the MA, the charts comes alive. Thanks!

cheers,
jason.
Dennis Ng wrote:Hi dragonhart2 (Jason),

thanks for sharing.

I can see from your postings you've managed to learn and apply what is taught in the seminar, but also learned to "back test" and flexibly adapt to applying in investing. Thus, with immediate effect, you've been promoted to Investing Mentor status, and for your active contribution in the last few months, I also like to show our appreciation on behalf of all seminar graduates and you will get:

1. 1 Free ticket to How to Save and Accumulate One Million Dollars (priced at S$398, revised price from 1 Jun 2012 onwards)
2. 1 copy of my 2nd book (Chinese) and 3rd Book (English).

to claim your prize, just email to dennis@masteryourfinance.com your name, mobile number and address for us to mail the books to you.

You can sell them to your friends. I suggest that you do not give the seminar seat Free to your friends, as from my experience, people do not value what is given to them free. You can give the book free as a gift to friends though.

Once again, thanks for your active sharing in the forum. Please keep it up. Becos the more you share, the more you learn, the more you learn, the more you can share....it creates a Virtuous Cycle. If you share less, you learn less, and if you don't share, you stop learning actually.

Cheers!

Dennis Ng
dragonhart2 wrote:hi, just sharing wat i see.

price just cut 200 d MA($6.4, 5 years chart)...20 dMA about to cut 50 dMA.....peak recently is $7.18...so it is in early stage of decline....it has a lot to fall. if it cannot recover back up above 6.4, it will likely go down.....during 2011 correction(STI 2600), it didn't even touch the 50 dMA..March 2009 it went down to $1.8.

cheers,
jason.
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