The myth about leverage / debt being bad

The late Dennis Ng Kah Wan likes to emphasize that not all debt is bad. There’s "good debt and bad debt".

Bad debt is car loan, credit card debt, among others.
Good debt is your housing loan, investment property mortgage loan, and business debt, especially those obtained with without collateral!  (See, that is why perpetual bonds is really good for companies but bad for you!)

I hold the same view as well, but such view is not common because you would more often hear people saying that you should try to be debt free earliest possible.  May be people who are like that should take note and ask themselves: Which multi-millionaire has no bank debt?  That will help them to expel all those myths...

CPF Life Annuity return calculation [for WOMEN]

Does the CPF Life Standard Plan or the Basic Plan give better payout for WOMEN? 

Well, based on existing data given by CPF at this URL...

   
We can do some estimations......

Below you can see 2 tables for Women's CPF Life annuity, 1 for Standard Plan and 1 for Basic Plan, assuming the woman has $155,000 in her retirement account at 55 years old :

CPF Life Annuity return calculation [for WOMEN] - Standard Plan

 

CPF Life Annuity return calculation [for WOMEN] - Basic Plan

For Women's CPF Life Standard Plan:
If you die at 85 years old, your return range from 0.84% to 1.93% (based on lower payout & lower bequest to higher payout & higher bequest).  .
If you die at 75 years old, your return range from -4.67% to -2.94%.
If you die at 65 years old, your return range from -30.66% to -27.48%.

For Women's CPF Life Basic Plan:
If you die at 85 years old, your return range from 2.63% to 3.52%.
If you die at 75 years old, your return range from 2.27% to 3.35%.
If you die at 65 years old, your return range from -9.65% to -4.63%.

It seems that only when you live to 85 years old and choosing the Basic Plan will you stand to obtain maximum return of 3.52% !!!
This is provided these figures do not get changed by CPF Board in future! 
However, WHO told us that Singapore's women average age is only 85 years old, so most of you women going to lose out because you are 50% unlikely to live past 85 years old! 

And the above figures show that you are better off choosing the CPF Life Basic Plan than Standard Plan !!!

Doing yourself great disfavor to invest in perpetual bonds!

Recently, perpetual bonds issuance by companies have been the rage.  What is so good for these companies getting such dirt cheap perpetually long-term forever financing, obviously is very detrimental for you and me! 

So my advise is, never ever invest perpetual bonds!
If you understand how perpetual bonds operate, you would never want to "invest" in such bonds! 

CPF Life Annuity return calculation [for MEN]

Does the CPF Life Standard Plan or the Basic Plan give better payout for men? 

Well, based on existing data given by CPF at this URL...
   
We can do some estimations......

Below you can see 2 tables for Men's CPF Life annuity, 1 for Standard Plan and 1 for Basic Plan, assuming the man has $155,000 in his retirement account at 55 years old :

CPF Life Annuity return calculation [for MEN] - Standard Plan

CPF Life Annuity return calculation [for MEN] - Basic Plan

For Men's CPF Life Standard Plan:
If you die at 85 years old, your return range from 1.84% to 2.94% (based on lower payout & lower bequest to higher payout & higher bequest).  .
If you die at 75 years old, your return range from -4.19% to -2.80%.
If you die at 65 years old, your return range from -30.74% to -27.55%.

For Men's CPF Life Basic Plan:
If you die at 85 years old, your return range from -3.97% to 3.80%.
If you die at 75 years old, your return range from 2.57% to 3.67%.
If you die at 65 years old, your return range from -8.18% to -3.20%.

It seems that only when you live to 85 years old and choosing the Basic Plan will you stand to obtain maximum return of 3.80% !!!
This is provided these figures do not get changed by CPF Board in future! 
However, WHO told us that Singapore's men average age is only 80 years old, so most of you men going to lose out because you can't live till 85 years old or more! 

And the above figures show that you are better off choosing the CPF Life Basic Plan than Standard Plan !!!

What about women?  Does CPF Life Standard Plan or the Basic Plan give better payout for women?    
I will try to answer this in a future post.

Introducing Corning (GLW)

Corning is a rather strange company - strange in that most of the people in the world are using their products, and yet most have never heard of "Corning"! 

Regardless of whether you are using an iPhone, an iPad, a Samsung smartphone, or Samsung tablet, all uses a Corning product, called Gorilla Glass.  Corning basically has a big chunk of the market in the glasses for smartphones and tablets!  Not only that, it also has a growing optical fibre networking and life science business.  

Company Profile:
Corning Incorporated (US stock quote GLW) manufactures and sells specialty glasses, ceramics, and related materials worldwide. The company operates through five segments: Display Technologies, Optical Communications, Environmental Technologies, Specialty Materials, and Life Sciences. The Display Technologies segment manufactures glass substrates for active matrix liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that are used primarily in notebook computers, flat panel desktop monitors, and LCD televisions. The Optical Communications segment manufactures optical fiber and cable, and hardware and equipment products comprising cable assemblies, fiber optic hardware and connectors, optical components and couplers, closures, network interface devices, and other accessories. The Environmental Technologies segment manufactures ceramic substrates and filter products for emissions control in mobile and stationary, and gasoline and diesel applications. The Specialty Materials segment manufactures products that provide approximately 150 material formulations for glass, glass ceramics, and fluoride crystals. The Life Sciences segment develops, manufactures, and supplies scientific laboratory products, such as general labware and equipment, as well as specialty surfaces, media, and reagents for cell culture research, bioprocessing, genomics, drug discovery, microbiology, and chemistry. This segment also develops and produces various technologies, including the Corning Epic technology for screening; the Corning HYPER platform of vessels for cell yields; Corning Microcarriers for cell scale-up, therapy, and vaccine applications; Corning CellBIND, Matrigel, BioCoat, and Synthemax II surfaces; and Corning stemgro media. Corning Incorporated has strategic collaboration agreement with World Kitchen, LLC.

Financials & Outlook:
Last traded = US$20.92
Market Capital = US$27.02
Current P/E = 23.18
P/S = 3.03
Dividend Yield = 1.94%
Beta = 1.63
Debt/Equity    = 0.19
P/B    = 1.38
P/Cash = 4.52
P/FCF = 10.15
ROE    = 6.1%
Profit Margin = 14.3%
Div Payout ratio = 44.4%

The technicals show strong support at about US$14 (BUT doesn't mean the stock will fall to this price). 

News: S&P500 index just passed 2,000 mark!

S&P500 index just passed 2,000 mark!
If this 2,000 level can be sustained, there is still more room for gain for some selected stocks! 

CPF Life annuity payout - Difference between men and women

Recently, I saw on newspapers that according to WHO, Singapore's women can expect to live to 85 years old and men to the age of 80. (and not 86 years old that I quoted previously). 

Because the average lifespan of women are expected to be longer, hence their CPF Life annuity payout is expected to be lower per month, and you can see the difference from the table I have attached below:

 

 

Does the CPF Life Standard Plan or the Basic Plan give better payout for men?  

Does the CPF Life Standard Plan or the Basic Plan give better payout for women?  

I am now trying to make calculations to assess this... Stay tuned!