Good $tuff$!!

Despite my criticism of our national media, they do produce rather good stuffs especially the money section.  I usually just skip the political stuff about Singapore as they are totally detached from reality.

One of my favorite stock is StarHub as it gives you really good dividends and it is very safe. They have their subscriber base and nowadays communication devices like mobile phones have become a necessity rather than luxury item. Most people will forsake certain purchases than terminate their mobile lines. And we haven't even talk about the internet yet.

If you have 10k StarHub shares, you will be getting about $498 per quarter or $1992 per year. Doesn't that beat savings or unit trust? Your money is working hard for you instead of just sitting in the bank. StarHub has been very consistent in paying out dividends over the years. I believe it is also where many fund managers put their investment too for lack of ideas to generate returns. It is a no brainer and a sure way for them to answer to their investors. I suppose that's the reason why the stocks have been going up and up. Otherwise, there's no reason for the stock to keep going up as the growth in Singapore is limited. The danger is that the share price could fall as it is at its all time high.

My criteria for stocks are:

1. Safe (primarily blue chips) 
2. High dividends

Other high dividend stocks.

Somewhere in China or Japan?

If you think that this 'iroming' board picture was taken somewhere in China or Japan, you are wrong. It is from right here in Singapore.  Saw this at our NTUC. 

Iskandar a gold rush or just bubble waiting to burst?

This is what i feared most. Everyone is rushing into Iskandar to build something just to sell and capitalizing on our greed (Singaporean's greed). A caption like 'Grow your Wealth' seems to be clear enough the motivation of the developer. There just need to be enough demand for such developments. Who will buy condos in JB? Only the expats or Singaporeans. Malaysian still preferred landed. So i ask myself the following questions:

Is there limited supply of land in JB? No
Is there a huge population explosion in JB? No
Is there an economic boom in JB like in China for manufacturing? No
Is there a big high end expat community in JB like in Singapore including bankers, traders? Definitely NO.
Who can you re-sell to? either Singapore or Expats mainly.

Well, i think moderate growth is good for all but unrealistic or overhyped expectations often resulted in bubble. A real boom needs to be built on some kind of strong economic foundation and not something artificial or made out to be. So far i do not hear of great demand but mainly of initiatives pushed out by governments of both sides as well as developers. Everyone is rushing in to build some kind of condos, including many developers new to Malaysia. That's what happened to Ireland where many estates have become ghost town. It is starting to look like bubble to me and it is starting to look worrying.