What Simply Works!

Not so long ago, I thought of delving into the property market. It was and still is an inviting industry in Singapore with the property prices reaching unbelievable heights. The agent whom we worked with encouraged me, albeit unintentionally, to consider getting into sales. What’s inviting is the working hours flexibility apart from the commission that is relative to the sale one makes.

I didn’t ask the agent though whether she went through sales training or a formal real estate investment school like Nouveau Riche University. This school specializes in teaching the ins and outs of property sales and investment. Their curriculum, listed on their website is very extensive and promises attractive careers to its students.

Seems like a highly specialized school such as Nouveau Riche University can give an aspiring real estate agent or a potential investor a good foundation in the economics involving this type of investment. The school promises a follow-through after the course so that what they learned will be put into action. This is aside from the hands-on training they’ll get as part of their curriculum.

Even buyers can take advantage of selected courses from Nouveau Riche University. This can only equip them with more knowledge before making a life-changing investment.

It is a fact that many families are going through financial crisis today. Here in Sydney alone, many homes were foreclosed by banks and most of the families have left the city to settle in the country side. The increasing oil prices, weak US dollar value and even sickness or accidents in the family can all add up and result to financial setbacks to any family.

Also, along with it are the rising commodity prices that add to everyone’s worries. People are encouraged by the government through various media, to manage their finances, spend wisely and to make it a goal to save.

Even young couples are not spared. With the lures of credit cards, some have declared bankruptcy at their early age. With a combined household income that used to give them freedom to spend for both needs and wants (of course with the help of their credit cards), now they find themselves in major financial trouble.

Good for them, there are many credit consolidation companies that have sprung given the demands for such service. Debt Free 24 is one company that helps people achieve financial freedom by assisting them to manage their loans. All it takes is just a phone call and the company will be ready to provide debt assistance.

It is no doubt very tempting to spend for things and not worry about shelling out cash at that moment. I’m talking about the lures of credit cards. I heard of people go bankrupt because they max-out the credit limits oftentimes of not just one but several cards.

However, credit cards are not all that bad. In fact, we can make them work for us and not against us. If we do maintain timely payments in full and earn points in the process, we can even get airline mileage and receive gifts from the company’s rewards system.

In detail, we can achieve that by: One, spending within our means. Two, avoid paying on installments (because this is where we make those credit card companies rich). Third, keeping one or two credit cards at the most if you know having more than that can only drag you close to bankruptcy.

At one point in my career life, I started receiving pre-approved cards in the mail. If I remember correctly, there were at least five that were sent to me. At that time, I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I was much younger and less mature, I might have kept all those credit cards and used them to my heart’s content.

But knowing how hard it is to earn money, deciding on whether to live credit-free or otherwise was not a tough decision to make. Looking back, I have no regrets.

I wish I am an investment-savvy person. That way, our hard-earned savings will not be ‘sleeping’ in the bank. I have met a few financial consultants in Singapore and they helped a lot by way of explaining the ins and outs of making investments. It was enlightening to know that even for insurance policies there are programs that allow the insured to allot a portion of the premium to a choice investment.

One investment type that is very popular among our circle of friends is Forex. Well, they say that this is pretty high risk but it goes without saying that the gains have high potential, too.

A friend who participated in online foreign currency trading shared with me that one of the downsides is that she has to be up on US time (opposite time zone in Singapore). Despite this, when she got a feel of how online trading works, she immediately got hooked. Also, she had to be up to date with current events and latest business news and was therefore always on the internet day after day.

I think foreign currency trading is for high risk takers. I prefer to be on the ‘safe side’ when investing and therefore Forex trading is not for me.