I have always wanted to buy a house of my own. I guess it will add up on my sense of independence and liberality.

Now the problem is, I don’t have enough savings to go about it. Two of my brothers have their own landed properties already and they have apartments that they rent out to people.

But come to think about it, they didn’t use their savings to buy their houses. They mortgaged it. For them, it was pretty simple. Their company are both tied up in a local bank so they got the mortgage from there.

Although it is convenient, I think they could still have a better deal if they look around more. Here in Singapore properties have been shooting up. There will always be people getting married who would need a new apartment, or people like me who’s only reason for buying a house would be for investment.

No matter what the reason for buying though, you still need to consider different options and do an in-dept comparison to get cheap mortgages. It will all depend on how you want to make your payments and according to how money comes in from your bread and butter.

There are a lot of available resources online. You can also try to contact a mortgages consultant to give you quotations.

Recently I appreciate internet more and more. It just makes life easier. When I were in college, I didn’t imagine I can just go online and have my mortgage computed for me.

Anyway, for those people considering on investing or just having a place to call home, I hope this helped.

And for those people who are already have a mortgage and having difficulties with the payment. Especially now, that the market has been really busy, rates change. For you guys, there will be always an option for you to deal with adverse credit remortgages. This way, you can still be able to salvage your credit rating.

Aaaah. Come to think of it. Mortgage is so tricky. Maybe this is one of the reasons why people apply for a mortgage when they’re married. So there will be two of them to decide. hahahaa!

- This post is sponsored.

For years now I have been planning to go into business with my friends. I have always wanted to own my own business so I can be my own boss. But the thing is, it takes a large amount of capital.

Recent events and new friends made me realize otherwise. There is actually a way to do business without actually putting up a store or something tangible. There is always the virtual market. Everyday, a lot of transactions are being done via internet.

Makes things so much easier and takes less capital. There are a lot of providers of hosted shopping cart software available now in the market. These are called ecommerce software. There are still a lot there but so far, this is the only one I know of right now.

One of these days I might actually try it out. Just as soon as I finish flirting with fate, I’ll try to boost up my momentum and use my brain cells to start up on my own. Of course with friends still, but I can’t really separate myself from them can I?

Guess what….

I am now making dollars and cents from blogging.

When I first started writing, Princessa introduced PayPerPost to me as well. She told me that nowadays, bloggers can get paid for ‘advertorial’ write ups through PayPerPost.

It took me a long time to actually digest the idea. It’s just that I know so little in online activities like this. Normally, I would think that advertisements are only for magazines, TV or newspapers.

My education was during the time when e-commerce was just beginning to take advertising and marketing into the next higher level.

The thing is, I always write things about everything and anything under the sun. But I normally write it down in a notebook, and then eventually I would lose it.

Not only do I have all my entries in a clean organized site and in which I can access any time I want. Now I’m actually gonna be able to have my own advertisers. All thanks to my good friend Princessa and not to mention of course, PayPerPost!!

So now I know what they meant when people say you get paid doing something you like doing. And don’t forget the part that now, I am beginning to know more about online business.

All my traditional notions of reaching the market is now beginning to take a revolutionary change.

So to all the people there who are thinking of making their own website and start blogging and making money at the same time….

Use PayPerPost!!!

Less hassle… more opportunities…and adds the topping in your innate love for writing.

Take it as your reward for taking your time, and actually sharing a part of yourself to people out there who are willing to partake.

Note: Receiving comments and knowing that there are people actually taking time to read what I have to say makes me glad….

So I parked my pen and paper, and use instead the world wide web to publish my thoughts. So much easier!! (not to mention rewarding)

Making money trading stocks, options and other exotic derivatives is not as easy as 1, 2 3! It takes careful analysis, a good background in finance and economics and a very keen eye for winners. And of course factor in some luck and then maybe you’ll be able to make a 5-10%% return from your investment.

And I am being specific because the other day, a friend of a friend gave this comment that ‘he will start trading again’. He said he lost 2000 sing dollars before, so he stopped for a while.

So i asked him, why do you think you wouldn’t lose money again this time around? His response to me was… because now, he knows something that he doesn’t know before.

I was quite curious of course. For someone who had studied valuation of stocks and derivatives and is not able to practice it for a long time, it would be nice to learn something new.

So I insisted that he tell me what it was.

He told me that this time around, he’ll be buying warrants instead of stocks. Finally, he said it’s just a matter of… (and I quote)

“If I buy at .2 and then I sell at .3, then I make .1.”

When I heard this, I almost fell on the floor laughing!!

Great!

If trading warrants is this easy, then I much rather invest everything I have and wait for my agent to give me the returns.

The reason why I’m writing about this is because I have a feeling that he will tell everybody he knows about this theory of his, and I feel obliged to extend a little bit of light regarding the topic.

A warrant is merely a right to buy or sell stock.

There are two types of warrants. A Call warrant which gives the owner the right to buy stocks at a stated price and time. The next is a Put warrant which is the right to sell stocks at a stated price and time.

(But please note that there are other kinds of warrants. It’s a kind of derivative which means there’s an underlying asset on which the price of the warrant would depend. It’s just that this particular one is the warrant that the “friend-of-a-friend” highlighted.)

Now, the price of the warrants when issued would depend on speculations on the market value of the stocks at the stated time on the warrant. If for example, the stated price of stocks in the warrant is S$1 on Dec. 1, 2007. This means that the company is assuming that the price of their stocks would be S$1 on Dec. 1, 2007.

Here is where the speculation begins. Actually this is the combination of the company’s performance as well as the economy, and how the market reacts. So if you buy a Call warrant today, and the price of the stocks became S$1.50 on December , that means you earned S$.50 on every warrant you bought.

Then it would be best that you actually exercise your rights and buy the stocks. There would still be a lot of scenarios, on which you can earn money from trading warrants, and the same number of reasons in which to lose.

This kind of investment have the potential to give you very high returns. But at the other end of the spectrum would be a very high loss for you as well.

This is one of the reasons why speculators like to play with it. Warrants can give you astronomical returns. And you can also lose everything you invested.

Look at it this way…

Now you see it… Now you don’t!! haha! I know, lame.

Not my fault though. Because of that guys bloody idea, I had to write this long narrative on warrants. Arg!! And to think I’m in Marketing now and not Finance. Geez!

To be serious again…

Word of advice, before you decide to trade using your hard earned money, make sure you have covered the essentials first.

READ!!

What I have given you is a VERY simplified view of warrants.

Just imagine how it is in real life. Wah lao!!

Although if anybody really wants to know more, I’d be happy to discuss further. The explanation I gave is like kids’ stuff.

My parents have always wanted me to be a CPA. Actually, I used to be a double major student. I was taking Business Administration and Accountancy. I’m quite enjoying Accounting and Finance, but then again it’s troublesome as well.

I sat for 10 hour long exams for my auditing courses, and for the advanced accounting subjects during college. We normally held it during Sundays to make sure that it will not have any conflict with our other classes.

I endured the stress and the hardwork needed to be able to keep up with having a double degree. After all, in just 5 years, I’ll have two degrees already. In my last year, I had to drop my Accountancy degree and just go for the Business Administration major.

It’s not really a ‘no choice, i have to settle for this’ kind of thing. It was more of a decision I had to make. During that time, I was having trouble with my accounting subjects.

I have a firm grasp of the concepts. I just can’t figure out why I can’t seem to show it during examinations. Then it got me thinking. Is accountancy really for me? At the end of the day, do I want to be an accountant or an auditor?

Probably not! See the thing is… I like the concepts of accountancy. It is very rational and quite direct to the point. The only problem is that I do not want to do the tedious process of doing accounts everyday for the rest of my life.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) program. This program will allow me to practice Finance and be allow me to make use of my accounting background.

And because I can go to the banking industry, I will have the option to either Market and Sell Financial products or work in the back end and do financial statement analysis of the clients.

Another very interesting line that the CFA program will open up is trading. I have done FX trading before but I also want to try and trade derivatives and stocks.

Bottom line is… In my point of view, if you’re boring and you just want to do the same thing over and over then by all means, be a CPA.

BUT!! if you have a vision and you are able to sell that vision and a keen sense of numbers and accounts then CFA is a MUST!!

I’m supposed to be studying right now for my CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exam, but yet as always I’m procrastinating.

I received my review materials months ago and I haven’t finished reading one book out of the 5 more than I haven’t touched.

These WHOLE STACK is what I have to read. Looks small right? Wait until you actually hold all the books in one box.

What’s great about these materials though is that they provide learning outcome statements. These would tell you which areas to focus on.

Throughout the book, there will be tags of which articles will actually be included in the exam and which are just there for the sake of knowing. Since I paid for the entire book, of course I will read everything.

There will be 240 multiple choice questions for the 6 hour long exam. I guess I’m hoping that stored knowledge will actually save my ass.

My plan is to master first my calculator.

This is my precious. haha! It’s a HP 12C calculator. I was thinking of getting the financial calculator from Texas Instrument. (BA II PLUS)

But I like the design of HP. I didn’t really bothered on the functionality. I figured if both are good enough for the CFA exam, then it wouldn’t be a problem. My focus is on the aesthetics.

Okay, shallow. I know. But whenever I’m reviewing. May it be marketing, finance, accounting or even law, I should always be surrounded by nice things.

Otherwise, I’ll be distracted and lose my focus.

Anyway, I should start my review now. Or else, I’ll be wasting the 350USD I spent for the books and the other 400++USD I spent for the exam registration.

The reason why I signed up though is not just for the certification. I have always liked finance and numbers. My tendency is that when I learned something, I would normally remember it.

I am nervous now about my exam. Excited at the same time. Contrary to normal belief, Finance is an exciting and fulfilling subject. It is very logical and can be precise. That’s what I like about this subject.

It can be ambiguous and crystal clear all at the same time, depending on how you look at it. I can’t wait to pass my CFA exam!!! Wish me luck!