Den of The Lion Investor

There has been a lack of updates for the past few days as I have fallen sick. Measured a temperature of 38.5°C the other day along with the standard running nose, cough and sore throat.

It is quite amazing how fast medical inflation has come along - a 5 minute consultation at a GP near my house costs me a grand total of $54 including the medicine.

My cough seems to be getting worse, so I will be making another trip to the doctor this afternoon. Getting sick in Singapore can be a pretty costly affair.

Normal blog updates should be expected to resume next week.

NTUC Income’s Capital Plus is a single premium 12 months policy with a guaranteed yield of 2%.

It is only available to existing NTUC Income’s policy holders and can be purchased with cash or SRS savings. The minimum purchase amount is $10,000.

There is also a small death and total and permanent disability (TPD) benefit of 105% of the premium amount.

If you are looking for fixed deposits at the moment and are also an Income policy holder, the Capital Plus with an interest of 2% is a worthwhile alternative.

Please note that the application will close on 31 July 2008 or when the cap of $150 million is reached.

SGAM has decided to postpone the launch of SGAM AsiaPAC Income Plus Fund due to soft market and investor sentiments. The product will be launched at a later date when the market sentiment improves.

Investors who have already invested monies into the fund will have their funds returned. Details on the refund will be announced upon finalisation.

Looks like the current market sentiment is so bad that this fund has failed to attract sufficient interest for the launch to go ahead.

The ATM application for the $50 million second tranche of OCBC preference shares opens from 9am today until noon on 28th July. You can apply for them through the ATM of the 3 local banks - DBS, UOB and OCBC.

Each application requires a minimum subscription of 200 shares priced at $100 each. Additional shares are in multiplies of 100.

Unlike the first tranche which was on a first-come-first-served basis, this ATM tranche will be allocated by balloting if the total subscription exceeds 500,000 shares. That means you do not need to rush down to an ATM machine to apply at 9am today.

However, if you are interested in applying for the shares, it is wise not to wait too long as OCBC might close the tranche anytime if overwhelming demand is received.

The CPF board will be organising a talk to provide some tips for homebuyers on the selection of a home and the use of CPF monies for the financing of their home purchase. Details of the talk are as follows:

Programme Highlights:

(Registration starts from 9am)

09.30am - “Selecting A Suitable Home”
10.30am - Tea Break
11:00am -“Buying A Home with Your CPF”
12:00pm - Q&A
12.30pm - End

Date : 26 Jul 2008
Time : 9:00am to 12:30pm
Venue : 79 Robinson Road, Conference Room Basement 1,
Registration Period : 9 Jul 2008 - 23 Jul 2008
Registration Fee : S$10.00
Contact Information : events@cpf.gov.sg

You can register at this link.