Originally Posted by ptader

TBH realistically for sinkies besides betting on property what else can they invest to make it big? Even if property got cycle, not ideal, depend on timing etc... What other alternatives are there? Property is still the surest way to make money compare to all others.

Fix Deposit, Bank Savings, Strucutred Deposit etc - All pathetic interest guaranteed to lose to inflation

Stocks - Full of consters, scandal, crappy IPOs. Stocks is the kind you always hear about someone somewhere make big money, but its never you. Besdies the money you can borrow for stock punting is much lower and higher interest rate than whacking property. You look at the Sunday Times invest section where they interview rich people, most tycoons are either start own business or play property, stock people are like super rare

Bonds - Retail bonds are now a joke with maturty yields averaging 1.5-2.5%. Those with higher yields are either open only to accreditied investors or trade at blocks of $250,000.

Unit Trust - All those professional manage funds charge high fees, pay this pay that and in the end most underperform and even if you lucky to get some better ones, they are only slightly better, not enough to make it big.

ETF - Supposedly safer because of diversification, but returns are so so, cannot really borrow money. Most expose to USD which keep depreciating against SGD. Probably a good way if people are discipline and invest regulary, but very hard to get rich or retire early.

Endowment / ILP - Always hear of people selling these junk, but never heard of anyone getting rich through a ILP except for the insurance agent

Commodities like gold, silver, diamond - Really just high volatile price. Pure 100% gambling, again compared to property cannot borrow as much, sometimes high sometimes low. Property is more like 80% of the time high and 20% low.

Forex / Option / Future trading - Just like stock, always hear rumor about someone somewhere make it big, but those who make it big super rare. This is the favorite of newbie fresh grads with little money but want to dream of retire at 40. Usually loose money through leverage until blur blur then give up and go back to a 9-5 job.

Alternative Investment - Wine, art, farm, gold rebate scheme, land banking, MLM whatever. Most require special expertise or just con jobs waiting to explode.