How to be Rich, Happy and Free from Scams

By  Shawn Langlois Published: Oct 31, 2017 1:35 p.m. ET SHARE   101 ‘If you stick your head in the sand and pretend that this isn’t anything to be concerned about, you aren’t going to like what comes next.’ Reuters Warren Buffett participates in the newspaper tossing challenge. Warren Buffett once described his favorite market indicator as “the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment” and that when the metric exceeds certain levels, like it did back in 2000, “you are playing with fire.” If that’s the case, investors might want to blow out that candle. Put simply, the Buffett indicator is the total market capitalization of all U.S. stocks relative to the country’s gross domestic product. When it’s in the 70% to 80% range, it’s go time. When it moves well above 100%, it’s time to tap the brakes. The metric sits at almost 139% at the moment, which is getting awfully close to the record 145% it hit during the peak of the dot-com bubble in ...

By  Philip van Doorn Published: Oct 31, 2017 1:49 p.m. ET SHARE   ‘I would take some money off now because ... there are clear signs of deranged valuations,’ says Gabelli fund manager Lawrence Haverty Getty Images A trader on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 19, 1987 — Black Monday. When the stock market crashed on Oct. 19, 1987, investors panicked. It was an unfamiliar event — the previous decline of a similar magnitude occurred 58 years earlier, in 1929. Now, 30 years after Black Monday in 1987, there are professional investors still at work who lived through that fateful day. In interviews, three of them talked about their experiences, offered insights into warning signs and gave advice on how to handle major downturns. They are: •  Lewis Altfest , president of Altfest Personal Wealth Management, which manages about $1.3 billion for private clients. Altfest founded the firm in 1983 after working as a general partner and director of research at Lord, A...

The futility of naysaying the stock market is well-documented over the last several years. Maybe the stock market is “overvalued” according to someone’s pet metric, but a crash never seems to transpire. Maybe political crises create the risk of chaos in Europe or Asia, but the global economy soldiers on without a hitch. Regardless of investor trepidation, the S&P 500 index  SPX, -0.41%    keeps setting new records. In fact, Wall Street has recorded its longest streak of record closes in two decades. So why worry? After all, the economy looks good.  Consumer confidence is up against the highest level in 16 years , and the headline unemployment rate is back to pre-recession lows. It’s logical that the stock market would rally strongly on this data. Of course, markets simply don’t go up forever. I’m not saying a crash is around the corner. But as the old saying goes, if you look around the poker table and can’t f...

Singapore is one of the most important financial centres in the world. A significant percentage of its working population works in banking and finance. At 97%, its literacy ratesare among the highest in the world. Despite these facts, many Singaporeans regularly fall prey to investment scams of various types. A company that offers impossibly high returns often finds many takers. Investment schemes that are blatantly fraudulent attract hundreds, even thousands of people. How can you spot an investment scam? Here is what you should look out for.   Is the entity regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore? You are unlikely to be cheated by a company that is supervised by Singapore’s regulator and central bank. MAS imposes a strict set of guidelines for the firms that it regulates. Financial companies that are required to adhere to the rules imposed by MAS must disclose important details about the investment opportunity that they are offering. These firms also ne...

U.S. equity markets keep reaching all-time highs. Bonds income is low and rising rates will make bonds less attractive in the near term. We are living in historic times: major U.S. stock markets are up over 260 percent since 2009. In the past 50 years, only two rallies were better. But rallies do not just die of old age. Economic data points towards continued expansion, if somewhat tepid, and unemployment is low. Tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to be measured and gradual – dovish – as global and U.S. inflation continue on low trajectories.  This has led to complacency among many investors, who generally need exposure to growth stocks in their portfolios to keep up with inflation and meet their investment targets. What can investors near or at retirement do to increase the certainty of meeting their retirement needs? There are six big reasons to be cautious in their approach to investing in equities: Greed & Fear: Many inv...

Do you smell a global recession coming?

Here are the 10 steps that will guarantee you will become a millionaire by 30. 1. Follow the money. In today’s economic environment you cannot save your way to millionaire status. The first step is to focus on increasing your income in increments and repeating that. My income was $3,000 a month and nine years later it was $20,000 a month. Start following the money and it will force you to control revenue and see opportunities. 2. Don’t show off -- show up! I didn’t buy my first luxury watch or car until my businesses and investments were producing multiple secure flows of income. I was still driving a Toyota Camry when I had become a millionaire. Be known for your work ethic, not the trinkets that you buy. 3. Save to invest, don’t save to save. The only reason to save money is to invest it.  Put your saved money into secured, sacred (untouchable) accounts. Never use these accounts for anything, not even an emergency. This will force you to continue to follow step one (increas...

Shell isn’t alone in trying to grapple with cheap oil. This week Chevron said it would cut 1,500 jobs in an effort to cut costs by $1 billion. Likewise, ConocoPhillips said it’s continuing layoffs as it tries to reduce spending by $1 billion over two years. Graves & Co., an energy consulting firm, estimates that the energy sector has lost 50,000 in the past three months—that’s on top of the 100,000 layoffs since oil prices began to tumble last fall.

More than 20 investors who put around $7 million into a gold buyback scheme run by local firm Suisse International are now worried that they cannot get their money back. Not only is its owner uncontactable, they said, but the company's office at Keypoint in Beach Road has also been closed. The last message the investors received was from the firm's vice-president Belinda Hah in the first week of January. That was when she informed them via SMS that their money was stuck in a transfer to the firm's Hong Kong branch - Suisse HK. "After we joined, we also brought our friends in because (Suisse) promised to give us better returns and sell us gold at a cheaper rate if we recommended others," said operations manager Louis Tan, 36, who put in $40,000 last June. It was easy to convince their friends to join because the company promised them about $1,000 a month, which worked out to a 20 per cent return, for every kilogram of gold they bought. The i...

The group says they are representing more than 260 victims. It is believed that there are more than 8,000 victims from all around the world who have taken part in this scheme, with total losses of more than S$80 million.   SINGAPORE: More than 100 people who had invested in a gold buyback scheme gathered on Monday (Feb 2) at the Commercial Affairs Division in Police Cantonment Complex to lodge a report against investment company Suisse International.   They said they represented about 260 investors in total, adding that 8,000 people around the world are believed to have been scammed, with losses of more than S$80 million. The company allegedly told investors that it bought and sold gold to turn into novelty coins, which were then sold at a profit overseas. To participate, investors had to purchase at least 1kg worth of gold bars costing between S$10,000 and S$20,000. In return, they were told they would receive S$5,400 in monthly payouts. Investors ...

According to latest data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, total loans and advances fell to S$607.47 billion last month, compared to S$607.91 billion in December 2014.  SINGAPORE: Bank lending in the Republic continued to fall in January from December last year, in yet another sign that economic activity may be slowing down.   According to the latest data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, total loans and advances fell to S$607.47 billion last month, compared to S$607.91 billion in December 2014. However, bank lending grew 4.3 per cent in January from S$582.24 billion a year earlier. A slowdown in business activity could account for the decline in total loans to businesses, which fell 0.3 per cent on-month to S$370.28 billion. Contributing to the decline is bank lending to the building and construction sector, which fell 0.16 per cent to S$103.54 billion. In the consumer segment, credit card loans fell 1.9 per cent to S$10.22 bil...

As Shire announces that it will buy U.S. company NPS Pharmaceuticals, Richard Gnodde, co-CEO of Goldman Sachs International, discusses the outlook for mergers and acquisitions in 2015, and says this deal is an Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in healthcare looks set to be strong again this year, Goldman Sachs said on Monday, following deal announcements from pharmaceutical giants Shire and Roche Holdings .    And the co-CEO of Goldman Sachs International, Richard Gnodde, also said that energy—a quieter sector for activity last year—was set to shine in 2015. Over the weekend, Shire announced it would buy the...