Conversation with my (very developmental) RO

1. Be clear about the jobs that will help further my development as a specialist and to fight for them
2. Be strategic about the use of time on projects that develop my expertise
3. Be aggresive in jobs that will help me

Learning points from watching "Richest Female Entertainers by Forbes"

For Richest female entertainer:

#1: Oprah Winfrey: Related businesses that market each other; syndicated (??) shows
#2 JK Rowling: Royalties from books (Passive income!!!), related merchandise (e.g movies, things...)
#4: Madonna: Inking endorsement deals that promote her primary income producers of music tours, and music recordings
Others: Mainly for their highly skilled, highly marketable skills...

Tactics of Housing Agents

Today, I met up an agent to do a rough viewing of the house. She was speaking about how other agents steal her clients, bad-mouthing them until goodness knows when.

However, when she knew that my mom liked another house, she asked for the unit, looked through her notebook to discover who the agent is, then told me, "I can let you see the house. You know ah, you're my client. You cannot go through the original agent ok?" Diaoz....

Her promises to my mother on the unit were that "it is fully furnished! Just renovated 2 years ago. Wonderful view."

And all that we see are the condo facilities (which in truth has a view that is really not bad, just that higher floors are probably needed so that the reservoir can be seen) and a house that is repainted and its kitchen cabinet changed (objectively, this does represent the bulk of the costs.) However, in my mind, this is only 1/2 renovated (and I'd have to remove everything anyway), yet it is 1.13 times more expensive per sq foot than a bigger unit. Definitely not a good buy.

What are wealthcomes lessons to be learned here:

1. Be price sensitive. If you are willing to pay more than the usual price, be really sure about the reasons why you would pay a higher sum.
2. Have good standards. The housing agent in trying to foist things off us said "Look, the bathroom is renovated." but it has the same design of furnishings as my mom's house - they're original condition stuff, not renovated stuff.
3. And if possible, be sceptical about what agents say. If possible, check their information sources against a few other information sources, do your own independent information search to compare what they are saying with what's happening on the market.
4. She was quite pushy about selling the more expensive unit to me. Probably because she is the sole agent and thus able to gain higher commissions from that sale? Have a criteria and stick to it. And be analytical, systematic and objective in the comparison of houses

SIBOR linked mortgages

http://www.luxurysingaporehomes.com/blog/?p=22

Questions to ask when taking a mortgage

You would definitely need to know how much loan you can get(70 or 80% of price of the property), how long is the lock-in period, loan repayment is accepted without penalty. others small details like whether legal fees, fire insurance are subsidised.

One analysis of Maybank's Newest Housing Loan

http://www.sgclub.com/singapore/home_loan_review_138880.html

Interesting articles on reducing mortgage payments and mortgages as a whole

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/02/12/mortgage-prepayment-made-easy-own-your-home-in-half-the-time/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/realestate/19mort.html