Tag: mistakes
-
Investors lost $3.8 trillion to market timing – Morningstar Mind the Gap 2026
Morningstar’s Mind the Gap Report for 2026 found that investors’ timing of buying and selling of funds cost them 1.2% annualised return a year. That’s a 12% difference in total return. The funds involved held about $29.7 trillion, when they should have been worth $35 trillion. About $3.8 trillion of that difference was due to…
-
The art of spending money
and the tragedy of not doing so. Masashi, 76, and Hisako, 74, are married. They retired with $350,000. They also have a pension of over $2000 per month. They were frugal and they saved for retirement. And they regret it. Morgan Housel writes about why they aren’t the only ones in The Art of Spending…
-
A Singaporean retired at 35. What can we learn from him?
As I was writing another blog post, I saw that someone shared a CNA video. I was stunned. If you haven’t seen the video, you can watch it here: Colin Lau retired at 35. He has financial freedom. And he is not rich. How did he get here? Should we follow him? And what can…
-
AI made me a retirement plan…with some problems
I asked AI if it could make me a retirement plan. Gemini concluded I could retire at 65 with $8560 a month. Was it right? The starting line I gave it an age of 31, a starting amount of $100k, a monthly contribution of $500, and a retirement age of 65. Oh, and I told…
-
Should Singaporeans invest in SpaceX?
SpaceX went public on 12 June 2026, in the largest IPO to date. Over 550 million SpaceX shares were sold at an initial offer price of $135 per share, with the price rising nearly 20% to $160.95 at the end of the trading day. That price values SpaceX at a whopping $2.1 trillion dollars, making…
-
Why you shouldn’t buy a house
So you’ve decided to join the class of homeowners in Singapore. Or at least dream about it. There are 1.62 million houses in Singapore. 1.16 million, or 71.5% of them are HDB flats. The remaining comprise 375 thousand condominium units, and 75 thousand landed properties. I hear many complaints about how housing feels out of…
-
How to deal with unexpected expenses
So your girlfriend or wife wants to fly overseas to see a kpop concert. Or your boyfriend or husband wants to buy the latest Swatch watch or Pokémon card. Let’s say this unexpected expense sets you back by a cool $1500. That’s one thousand five hundred dollars. How can we cover that cost? Strategy 1:…
-
How to outperform everyone in personal finance and investing
For too long, this blog has focused on being average. Here’s how you can be better than everyone. 1. Spend, spend, spend. You Only Live Once. Saving is for those who are scared. Instead, spend like every day is your last. You have to make your days count. What’s the point of saving when you…
-
The Arrival Fallacy or Why You Won’t Be Happy at $1m (or $2m, or $5m…)
Have you ever played the “when-then” game? It’s a pretty good way of instilling self-discipline. When I finish this page of homework, then I’ll reward myself with these M&Ms. When I finish studying, then I’ll watch an episode of Friends. When my exams are over, then I’ll go out with my friends. The problem is…