MTGS

I think I saw this news a few months back but I didn't thought much of it, and today, I happened to see this news article on Yahoo, I read about it and found that CPE was trying to sue Ms. Han for defamation. This really kept me thinking, I don't really know much about CPE except that it regulates private schools like Informatics, MDIS and etc, it's like the private school watchdog to ensure they do things correctly, same like how IDA regulates telcos, see the recent record-breaking fine handed to M1 for service outage. CPE was only setup in recent years, I don't really remember which year but when I was studying for my private diploma and advanced diploma at Informatics, they didn't exist, and that was from 2004 to 2007. During that time, many private schools can suddenly close down, leaving many local and foreign students in the lurch, most lost their money and had no way to recover since the school owners went missing. Lucky for me, Informatics was one of t

Quite a while back, I saw a job offer at a restaurant, forgot which restaurant but they pasted this note on the wall beside their entrance which says something like this, "Seeking Service Staff, Filipinos Only", I thought it was very discriminatory, how come a restaurant running their business here in Singapore can post a job offer like that, right in public eyes, I wonder how many Singaporeans saw that. Please note that I have nothing against Filipinos, it could be Thais, Burmese, Indians or any other nationality, what annoyed me was they only choose a specific group of candidates instead of opening the position to anyone capable of doing it. Today I saw this, this one really ultimate, it was a job offer from this recruitment firm called Randstad . Source This position is open to candidates who are not Singaporean Citizens or PR. They actually posted " This position is open to candidates who are not Singaporean Citizens or PR. ", wow, I sure hope MOM is

Source As expected, they managed to come up with an agreement before the 17 Oct deadline when the US would hit the debt ceiling limit. And also as expected, they did not completely solve the problem, this deal merely funds the government until 15 Jan 2014, this is when they will face another government shutdown if they cannot resolve their differences. Another date was also set for the debt ceiling limit, it's on 07 Feb 2014, basically what this means is we will see another drama if they cannot resolve their differences before 15 Jan 2014. 01 Oct 2013 - Government Shutdown In between - Fight between Democrats and Republicans over Obamacare 17 Oct 2013 - Debt Ceiling Limit 15 Jan 2014 - Government Shutdown In between - Fight between Democrats and Republicans over Obamacare 07 Feb 2014 - Debt Ceiling Limit I know where the Republicans are coming from, they wanted to save money for Americans, they see Obamacare as general waste of money, I also know where the Democrats a

Seems like investors here and the US are not very affected by the debt ceiling issue, me too, I have confidence that the Democrats and Republicans can come to an agreement, just like what Warren Buffet said, "We will go right up to the point of extreme idiocy, but we won't cross it", he predicted a last minute deal that will solve the debt ceiling crisis. I just find the whole thing too dramatic, they are like arguing over something that needs to be done no matter what, why not just do the necessary and negotiate later? If the Republicans have problem with Obamacare, attack it bit by bit instead of putting their economy at risk, and Democrats should be nicer to them, I know standing firm is good, but not in the face of a potential recession. I think the shutdown is more of a problem now, federal workers don't get paid, their families suffer un-necessarily, even affecting US war veterans, these are people who have put their lives on the line for their country, how ca

Just noticed they actually give interest for money parked inside the CPF Investment Account, seems like it's given on the last day of the month, mine was credited on 30 Sep 2013. I had S$20,476.70 inside, now there is S$20,476.87, S$0.17 difference, how many percent is that? 0.17 / 20,476.70 * 100 = 0.0008% Very pathetic, but better than nothing since the money has to go through there anyway.

Initially wanted to buy 19 lots, but unfortunately there was a hiccup, my buy limit is only S$15,000, DBS Vickers suggested that I use up my buy limit first, then request a temporary increase to purchase the rest, but that will mean extra charges. The commission, clearing and trading fees are negligible, the problem was with the CPF buy charge, for every 1000 shares, there will be a S$2.50 charge, up to a maximum of S$25. You can get the full CPF Investment Charges here . Let's see the total cost of buying 19 lots at one go versus buying 12 and then 7. 19 Lots: S$22,239.85 19 Lots 12 then 7 Lots: 14,056.27 + 8,205.15 = S$22261.42 12 then 7 Lots Difference: 22261.42 - 22,239.85 = S$21.57 Hmmm... not a huge difference, actually this amount is negligible, assuming I have 19 lots and if there is a S$0.005 change in the share price, I'm looking at almost S$100 difference, but well, market is closed now, too bad. But today I was aiming for Cambridge, the s

Source The result is for 01 Sep 2012 to 31 Aug 2013. Profit after taxation (S$000) 2013 434,302 2012 586,648 Dividend 2013 Final S$0.08 Special S$0.07 Total S$0.15 Dividend 2012 Final S$0.09 Special S$0.08 Total S$0.17 Total Debt 2013 (S$000) 2,721 + 872,495 + 865,727 = 1,740,943 Total Debt 2012 (S$000) 3,293 + 301,582 + 978,740 = 1,283,615 Long-Term Debt 2013 (S$000) 872,495 + 865,727 = 1,738,222 Long-Term Debt 2012 (S$000) 301,582 + 978,740 = 1,280,322 Total Asset (S$000) 2013 6,373,354 2012 5,485,359 Total Liability (S$000) 2013 2,157,648 2012 1,732,183 Total Equity (S$000) 2013 4,215,706 2012 3,753,176 Gearing Ratio 2013 Total Debt / Total Asset = 0.27 Total Debt / Total Equity = 0.41 Long-Term Debt / Total Equity =  0.41 Gearing Ratio 2012 Total Debt / Total Asset = 0.23 Total Debt / Total Equity = 0.34 Long-Term Debt / Total Equity =  0.34 Their foundation is still very strong, but their newspaper and magazine revenue is declini

If you surf the internet while researching on your favourite stocks, no doubt you will eventually come across this term "Gearing Ratio", so what is it? Basically this tells people how much the company is borrowing to fund its business, too high means the company is at risk because it is over-leveraging, one good example is Lehman Brothers, before their collapse, they were owing way more than they were owning, so when they went bankrupt, there was nothing left to give back to shareholders, a lot of people lost their life savings. In the first place if they didn't over-leverage so much, they probably wouldn't have collapsed. If you do a Google search on "lehman brother over-leverage", sources say they leverage from 30-35 to 1, that means for every $1 they own, they owe $30 to $35. There are also a few ways to calculate a company's gearing ratio, but let's look at the Debt-to-Equity Ratio, where Equity means Shareholder's Equity. We will use the