Dividends Update - May 2015

Nothing much to blog about this month... but typically the month of May is quite a good month for dividends collection, as most Singapore companies have a December year end.

Security			Net Amt
KEPPEL CORP			SGD 360.00
SGX			SGD 40.00
SPH			SGD 70.00
MFG INTEGRATION			SGD 50.00
FRASERS COM TR			SGD 0.27
BOARDROOM			SGD 53.77

Total of $574.04

Frankly, given that it's a good months for dividends, my passive income from equities is really not a lot.

Aiming to get it higher!

Savings bond details released!

Here's more details on the Singapore Savings Bond: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/business/banking/story/singapore-savings-bonds-8-things-you-should-know-20150512

My take:
(1) Returns are 2 - 3%: Currently there are certain bank accounts which give around the same returns (eg: OCBC 360, UOB One account and DBS accumulator), and this is fairly liquid (although the SSB are not significantly illiquid)

(2) Cap is 100k: The drawback of those bank accounts are that the cap for interest are limited to the first 50k. If you have excess cash above 50k that is used as emergency cash and not for investment purposes, this could be a good place to dump to. [honestly though, i don't know who has 150k spare cash lying around - but there are many cash rich people that i don't know of]

(3) Capital guaranteed: Well almost. But backed by the government, that is as good as it can get. Relatively safe haven for your money.

Conclusion: Will i bite? I will potentially, if i have a lot of cash sitting around.

Financial Scams....

Was introduced previously to a 'deposit' scheme operated by this company called 'Miracle of Power ("MOP")' with a linkage for FX capabilities with an Australian securities company 'Easy Capital' sometime back in August 2014.

You can place money with Easy Capital to trade in FX, otherwise, the money you placed with them will generate a whooping 4% per month. Let me repeat. 4% per month. A whooping 48% SIMPLE interest per year.

They also harped a lot on how Easy Capital is registered with ASIC and hence very safe.

Fast forward 9 months, the current news i have now is that MOP has folded, owner no where to be found, Easy Capital's website is now no longer functioning... leaving lots of 'investors' in the cold and in the red.

There is an oft-repeated mantra - if something is too good to be true, it probably is.

I wonder why do people very often fall for such scams? I think it boils down to a few main reasons:

(1) Greed - honestly, if a scheme offers me 48% return a year.... that is absolutely astounding. I have never generated that much return on my portfolio before.

(2) Scarcity - The story was that the 4% is a marketing and promotional interest rate, and they will be removing such good returns for subsequent investors, so it will be much better to get it while it lasts.

(3) Reasonably plausible set-up - there was a good story. Nice website, a financial institution regulated by a first world country. Nothing of that Nigeria scam now... scams have progressed a lot.

I think if one does enough due diligence on that company, and went to ASIC/ASX website, one might probably be able to prevent falling for such scams. I didn't even bother to check out the company as i did not believe that the returns could ever be so good, promotional interest rate or otherwise.

True, i possibly could miss out on a good deal here and there, but i rather my money sitting nicely underneath my mattress rather than suffering a total capital loss. Yea, i am risk averse in that sense.