My Groupon Experience

Groupon, the group purchase company, has been present in Singapore for quite a while.  I was quite happy to see all those wonderful deals when I first 'discovered' them.  I got my first golf experience, although on simulation, was brought to me by Groupon.  Then my first experience in pawn fishing, was also a Groupon experience.  I was pretty happy with my Groupon experience, until recently.

After my pleasant experiences with Groupon, I further purchased a deal at S$78 for a Japanese language course.  I checked their class schedule, plenty of classes available for you to choose.  I had the perception that maybe I could just join one of their classes.  However, later I found out that they group all those Groupon students in a separate class, and they only have one class available, and it is on a week day night, which I can't attend, due to my long hours of work.  The manager from the school advised me to get back to Groupon to get a refund, which I did.  I first sent them an email.  No reply in 7 days.  I gave them a call, they said they could direct my request to their refund department.  Now 5 days had passed, no news from them at all.

No upset by this first unpleasant experience, I went on to purchase a S$180 golf course for beginners.  This time I also checked their schedule.  Looks like easy to find a time slot for myself.  I bought it, and registered myself.  The school came back to say not confirm that one I choose will start.  I asked them for any alternative, they then went silent.  I hope this golf course will come out to be fine, if not, I think I will think thrice before I will make any further purchases from Groupon any more.  I don't want to make a fun event into a dragful, time and money wasting event.

The Lost Symbol

Title: The Lost Symbol
Author: Dan Brown

The Lost Symbol is Dan Brown's latest installation of his Robert Langdon series of novels.  If you can remember, his previous two novels, Demons & Angels, The Da Vinci Code, are now motion pictures on the big screen.

In The Lost Symbol, Robert Langdon went from Europe to Washington D. C. in the United States, and started his adventure in the Capitol building.  Continuing his usual style of writing, Robert Langdon is again equiped with tons of knowledge of history, myths, and symbology.  The story is exciting, and there are quite a number of turns and twists.

However, this book is thicker than the previous, and the story sometimes drags a bit too long and bores the reader.

This book is a pretty good read at leisure.

How to Get Rid of Ants, Naturally?

I left some food in the kitchen this morning, and it attracted an army of ants buzzing around the food item.  I didn't want to kill all the ants, as they are also living beings, nor did I want to leave the ants going around my kitchen like spoiled children.  What should I do?

It happened that I like garlic a lot and always have some garlic at home.  Just to try out my luck, I peeled a clove of garlic, then cut it into two halves to let the garlic smell to come out, then I dropped the garlic clove to the army of ants.  Guess what?  It was like throwing tear gas into a crowd, the ants dispersed and disappeared in a minute!

I was still wondering whether it was because of the smell of the garlic, or just because they were alerted by the disturbance.  I left the garlic clove in the kitchen for the rest of the day, and when I checked again in the evening, still there wasn't even a single ant in sight.

Next time, if you want to get rid of the ants in your house without killing them, try this trick!  :)

AEI - The IN Word

AEI, Asset Enhancement Initiative(?), seems to be the IN word these days.  Causeway point has been asset enhancement mode for more than a year, and it is still work in progress.  Suntec will start its AEI work soon, which is supposed to increase its attractiveness and asset value.

AEI is not only in Singapore shopping malls, but in Malaysia too.  Johor Bahru's City Square Mall, the most frequent shopping mall by Singaporeans, is also undergoing some AEI.

New malls are popping up everywhere, guess the competition is really fierce, and everybody needs to add some unique features, or contemporary elements to their existing assets.

Let's hope we will have a whole new breed of 'old' malls soon :)

Singapore - World's 3rd Richest Country

According to this report, Singapore now is ranked the 3rd richest country in the world, based on a per capita GDP of US$56,649, just behind Qatar and Luxembourg, ahead of Norway, Brunei, UAE, USA, Hong Kong, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Ireland, Canada and Kuwait.  France, UK, Italy, Germany, Japan, & South Korea are not even in the top 10 list.

Mind Your Land Banking Investment

It is reported in today's news that Edgeworth Properties, a Canadian land banking company, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Edgeworth came to the InvestFair at Suntec around 2009/10, and they were marketing their land banking investment to Singapore investors at that time.  Each plot of land went for around US$10,000.  Their land is in the province of Alberta, a province thriving with activities of oil sands.  I was quite tempted to make that investment at the time, but then based on the principle that don't put all your eggs in the same basket, and considering I already have one land banking investment and still yet to see any good outcome, I decided not to.

Looking back, it was really lucky that I didn't make that investment, otherwise, my money might be gone by now.

The moral of the story is that:  If you want to invest in something, make sure you have some good knowledge about what you are investing, and must know the company that you are dealing with.  Well, you can never be 100% sure, but then at least it will help you minimize your potential loss.

Happy investing! 

Invest Wisely in 2012 with Dr Alexander Elder

This morning, I attended an investment seminar with Dr Alexander Elder at Marina Bay Sands Convention Center.

Dr Elder shared with the audience some interesting perspectives.

1. Valuing  shares is like valuing your house.  How do you know what price your apartment can command?  Probably you will look at the price of the one above your floor, the one below your floor, and then you take an average of the two.  Moving average is like the average of your house price.  If share price is above the moving average, then you know now it is above its value.  Quite an interesting analogy.

2. When looking at a stock, always look at it in 2 time frames, for example, weekly & daily charts.  Use weekly chart to get the big picture, then daily chart for buy/sell decision.

3. Risks:  Information risk vs money risk.  Information risk refers to information on which direction the stock will go; money risk refers to your target price and stop-loss price and size.

4. We are now in the early phase of the 3rd stage of the recovery story.  This is the best stage and stock prices will soar.

There were other presenters at the seminar too.  One is Mr Joshua Tan from Phillip's Security.  He depicted a gloomy picture of 2012, reason being Euro Zone's debt crisis, China's slow down, and the fake American recovery.  In Mr Tan's opinion, the good news coming out from USA has already peaked.  QE3 will come no matter what.

The seminar came at a price of S$48 at the door, S$38 if you purchased the ticket online.  There are many other options, including a bring-a-friend price of S$18.  For me, I paid S$28 after a S$10 discount by Phillip's Security.

This seminar definitely is interesting, but at S$28, it is slightly on the high side of cost.  Anyway, my objective is just to see Dr Elder in person and listen to his talk.  Objective achieved :)

Microstock: Photo in Use

When I was reading some financial blog today, I chanced upon an advertisement for male hair removal.  Somehow it looks a bit familiar to me.  At a close look, the photo was actually taken by me.  It is one of my microstock photos done many years ago.

This is the advertisement:

This is my original photo:

Now you know how 'true' those advertisements are.  The model didn't do any hair removal, just naturally hairless.  Anyway, it is interesting to your own photo in use, and you will just admire how creative some people are in this wonderful world :)