Finding Success for the Young Singaporean

For the young Singaporean adult, times are a little bit different now in order to be "successful" in life. And this is even more so being in a place like Singapore, where the scarcity of land limits the career options we could have, as compared to places like America, where you could buy a restaurant with its land at just USD30k in certain states.

Gone are the days in the 60's-90's where you could have a new idea, or copy an idea, and just replicate it and expect to do well in life as long as you put your heart and soul in it. In those days, our parents could start a brick and mortar business and it would have done well. Just take a drive around Tuas Industrial Estate and you would find examples of these companies sitting on large plots of land with a not-so-modern commercial building. And please, don't' put down these companies so fast just because they don't look like your Takashimaya's, or that many of their chinese sounding names sound foreign to you. These are the very businessman that started something from scratch with a very low capital base back then, and are living very comfortable lives now and just handing the deceptively lucrative family businesses down the family lineage.

So back to the main point, given that its tough to do well in our society today, how else can we succeed? How do we make it bigger than the very schoolmates we went to university with? How do we own that Condo earlier (if at all), or buy that luxury sports car that we've been eyeing for the longest time since we were kids? And for some, how do we ensure we won't end up like certain netizens whose comments are so comically full of jealousy when they are always degrading the more affluent people in society (including foreign talents)?

Step 1: 

Realize and understand the fact that if you don't' do something about it, you are just going to end up and progress at a pace (career wise) similar to your peers around you. Average promotions are every 3-5 years, average pay increments are approximately 2-5 percent per annum (if you are lucky at all) -> Assuming you start with SGD3k at the age of 25, that would put you on SGD13k at 55 years of age. To each his own if thats enough for you. 

Step 2: 

Learn to invest in something out of work in your spare time. It could be an entrepreneurial idea or a simple one, such as starting a blog shop or trading iPhones etc. There are plentiful opportunities out there if you would only start to seek them. Everyone has friends that are starting something, or friends who are stock brokers, etc.  Learn to invest in stocks (blue chips with good dividends for example, such as SPH with annual dividends of ~5%), or corporate bonds (good companies with yields of 2-6%). F&B + Restaurants are a bad idea given the mortality rate of restaurants in Singapore are abysmal. These additional "investments" on your savings are important, especially if you look at them in a long run perspective. You could also punt in stocks and make a 100 fold return (i.e. Blumont, Asiason, Liongold stocks on SGX recently) 

Step 3:

Consider your options. There are always opportunity costs. What you save for investments could have gone into your housing deposit for your marriage, etc. Nonetheless, make a commitment that this is for the long haul. And once you do, don't think twice but go ahead with it. Find investment opportunities and take the plunge. After all, it beats procrastination. 

Investment Ideas: 

1. Equities/Stocks - For the risk averse person, it would be wise to invest in dividend counters such as SPH, Singtel, M1, Any property/healthcare REITS, etc ... These give quarterly or if not annual dividends which lets you to "reap" on your investments. If you feel you have more spare cash, and are willing to punt, there are tons of penny stocks on SGX. Rule of thumb, try to invest in companies that you KNOW of, hence the subtle advise to advice in local counters listed on SGX, rather than buying companies in the USA/Europe markets (unless of course you are talking about the big boys like apple/google/citibank stocks).
2. Corporate Bonds - this is a huge market in Europe and USA, and its true that asian investors are not as exposed to the bond markets. If you visit your stock broker or client relationship manager in a bank, you would find opportunities to purchase bonds issued by many top notch companies which are worth the consideration. I purchased Ascendas bonds a while ago which recently matured. That gave me a healthy 6.25% return per annum for 4 years, plus of course, my principal back at maturity. Fyi? Thats almost twice the return on purchasing a property in singapore and renting it out. 
3. Businesses - a lot of arbitrage opportunities are around these days. Thats why you see websites like qoo100.com.sg doing so well. A lot of people are realizing its quite easy to buy stuff in bulk from developing countries, and just simply using these easy online selling/marketing websites to sell them off. I bought iPhone 4s from ebay.com and sold them in local forums, flipping these phones for $100 per piece.

Summary:

There are a ton of other investment opportunities out there. Look at the 2 Chinese Aussies who started groupon in Singapore? Or the tailoring sisters who have made millions in a span of 2 years just by selling $50 shirts? 

As they say, the world is your oyster. And the sky's the limit. 

VB

Legend:

"Successful" = In a financial manner