The Wrong and Right Way to Invest: Wheelock CEO

[Salary.sg]

Once in a while you get these great gems from reading the papers. In a Business Times interview, David Lawrence practically whacked the greedy banks and at the same time dished out an excellent investment advice. It’s never been so clear.

In the words of the Wheelock Properties CEO,

“A lot of this crap was sold by so-called relationship managers in the heartlands, in the HDB estates. The banks use pretty girls to sell to the uncles and pretty boys to sell to the aunties. All they are interested in is their commission. They know nothing, these people.”

As for the right way to invest, Mr Lawrence said,

“Personally, I never buy any structured product. I only buy stocks… There are very good stocks, with good boards of directors, that pay good dividends. So don’t be greedy. Just invest in Singapore companies (such as the three local banks, Keppel, Fraser & Neave, Singapore Press Holdings, SingTel and Singapore Technologies) … with boards of directors - executive and independent directors - with proven integrity.”

The basic idea is to buy blue chips and hold them (see also market cycle investing), like what Mr Lawrence said:

“Even if you buy high and they go low, you just keep them and live off the dividend. Don’t buy unless you’re going to hold them for the long term.”

Reference: Wanted: A cheap platform to trade in local stocks (BT article, July 5, 2009)

Agree but if one look at the dividends to price for blue chips, one still needs to hold quite a number of blue chips shares to earn a decent income from dividends. The annual income of Wheelock Properties CEO is most probably enough to buy more of blue chips to earn decent dividends income.

While most average Singaporeans especially lower-middle and even middle-middle income with bills here, there and everywhere, will not have enough to buy substantial blue chips for a decent dividends income.

As a result, still need to make the first pot of gold from somewhere else, like high income of a CEO for the Wheelock CEO case.

Anyway, if anyone wants, can download famous author of Rich Dad Poor Dad latest book for free at his own website, conspiracyoftherich.com, by 07 July 2007.

Free reading of book ends on 07 July 2009, after which it will be published as hardcopy and selling for more than $20.

It is very informative and readable, like Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Well said!

Most so called "financial advisers" go for commission based products so normally they will intro u financial product that will pay them more commission ,they dun really care how much your money will grow/loss, so is better to invest in bonds and stocks, even in fixed deposit that can earn guarantee earning(though lower)but more safer and better than those products that "promise" to give better earning than fixed deposit.

How knowledgeable a adviser is depend on how much financial knowledge u have.

[Husky]

Originally Posted by Investor Citi

Well said!
Most so called "financial advisers" go for commission based products so normally they will intro u financial product that will pay them more commission ,they dun really care how much your money will grow/loss, so is better to invest in bonds and stocks, even in fixed deposit that can earn guarantee earning(though lower)but more safer and better than those products that "promise" to give better earning than fixed deposit.

How knowledgeable a adviser is depend on how much financial knowledge u have.

Since we are on this topic, may I just share a personal story. I recently celebrated my 30th birthday and was reminded again by a good friend of mine to "go get an insurance policy for God's sake!"

No offence to anyone here working as FAs or FCs (or whatever terms your company uses). I never had a good impression of them for the same reason listed above. I told my girlfriend about my concerns, and she arranged for me to meet her friend whom she thinks is quite "honest".

So we arranged to meet at a coffee joint for a "chat". While our friend the FA went to get drinks for us, he passed me some "reading materials".

1) Some article on dollar cost averaging
2) Some prospectus on a structured product his company was selling and

the best part of all? 3) an email purportedly from a department head stating that the product in 2 is going to be withdrawn in a few days time.

Needless to say, I didn't get anything from him at all. I mean that was really a cheap stunt he tried to pull off. I thought he was really really unprofessional. I may not be a banker but I dare say I have a pretty good knowledge about the various investment vehicles available in the market. The last thing I am going to do is to sign up for some structured product that "did well last well" and "very likely" will do well this year.

Futhermore, I wasn't exactly pleased that he didn't even bother to find out my actual needs at all, starting straightaway with his sales pitch. I think that's it. I am not ever going to buy a policy from an agent.

Anyone here knows about any policies that I can DIY? At this point, I just need a health and surgical insurance to cover for unexpected illness.

Originally Posted by Husky

So we arranged to meet at a coffee joint for a "chat". While our friend the FA went to get drinks for us, he passed me some "reading materials".

1) Some article on dollar cost averaging
2) Some prospectus on a structured product his company was selling and

the best part of all? 3) an email purportedly from a department head stating that the product in 2 is going to be withdrawn in a few days time.

Was he trying to tell you that better buy (2) quickly cos it's going to be withdrawn soon?

Or let's give benefit of doubt. Could he be trying to say "see... our company is honest - we won't be dealing in structured products any more" ??

For H&S insurance, I think you can DIY through the list of insurance companies that replaced Medishield... should be linked in CPF somewhere. Or you can walk in to an NTUC Insurance office and ask for a quotation from the counter staff, like what you would normally do for motor insurance quotations (they are not agents).

[Husky]

Originally Posted by Curious

Was he trying to tell you that better buy (2) quickly cos it's going to be withdrawn soon?

Or let's give benefit of doubt. Could he be trying to say "see... our company is honest - we won't be dealing in structured products any more" ??

For H&S insurance, I think you can DIY through the list of insurance companies that replaced Medishield... should be linked in CPF somewhere. Or you can walk in to an NTUC Insurance office and ask for a quotation from the counter staff, like what you would normally do for motor insurance quotations (they are not agents).

I have reasons to believe he was trying to tell me "Buy now! Last day of promo!" The last time I checked, his company is still selling (other) structured products.

Thanks! Will check out NTUC and CPF website later.

Hi husky,u can visit this link for more info on insurance. Very informative site.

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Originally Posted by Investor Citi

Hi husky,u can visit this link for more info on insurance. Very informative site.

Home Page

Yes I enjoyed Dr Money's articles in The New Paper. Agree that the above is an informative site.

[Husky]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I like reading his articles in the new paper too.