Nikko STI ETF RSP (Oct 2013)

I bought 1 lot of Nikko STI ETF at $3.22 today for my regular savings plan for the month of October 2013. Details of all transactions for my rsp are logged here:
 http://madstranger.blogspot.sg/2013/07/nikko-sti-etf.html

Snap shot of current units:

Total Units	Total Cost	Average cost	Last Done	Profit/ Loss	% Gain / Loss
400	$1289.84	$3.2246	$3.23	$2.16	0.17%

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Other notes:
1) I have included the dividend payout that is to be paid out on 31 Oct as Nikko STI ETF has already ex-div. The current price has already taken into consideration for this dividend payout.
Details of the dividend is as follows:
Ex-date: 10 Oct 2013
Payable date::31 Oct 2013
Amount: $0.045 per unit.

As I held 300 units at the point of ex-div, I will be getting $13.50. Since SCB is usually 1 working day late in dividends, the dividend payout should be credited on 1st Nov.
The next dividend payout is around May next year.

Average wealth in Singapore up 6.8% to $351,998: Credit Suisse

In a news article today, it was reported that the average wealth per adult has increased by 6.8% over the past year to US$282,000 (S$351,998). The report defines wealth as the value of financial assets plus real assets - mainly real estate - minus household debt.

see article:
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/money/story/average-wealth-singapore-68-351998-credit-suisse-20131009

Of course, "average wealth" is meaningless in a country with a high Gini coefficient. Singapore's gini coefficient stands at 0.478 in 2012. The gini coefficient is a measure of "income inequality" in a country. The coefficient is a number between 0 and 1 where 0 correspond to perfect equality and 1 correspond to perfect inequality.

I was more interested in the MEDIAN wealth and tried to dig further for more info. The report provided a nice little summary for each county. The summary for Singapore is as follows:

The median Singapore wealth is US$90,466. This works out to $112,921. The median data is much more useful. At the very least, we now know that 50% of the Singapore population has a net worth of more than $112,921. It brings a second question: How much increase was it from the previous year?

A further search for last year (2012) 's data shows the following:

The median Singapore wealth in 2012 was US$95,542. The median wealth is 5.31% lower this year!

Recalling that the average wealth has increased by 6.8%, we can see that the gap between the rich and poor has yet again widen. Comparing the 2 year's data, we also see that the number of millionaires has increased from 156000 to 174000. The percentage of global wealth holders has also increased. 

Other thoughts

I feel that the article is very misleading. The article tried to paint a picture where Singaporeans has increased in wealth over the past year. But in reality, even though the average wealth has increased, the median wealth has dropped by 5.3%. The article should have provided the median wealth information as well to provide a more complete picture.

"Working poor" in Singapore can't make ends meet: NUS

Earlier last week, there was a news article on "working poor" in Singapore.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/working-poor-in-singapore/824408.html

The article say that a new study has shown that the working poor in Singapore are not getting enough pay to make ends meet. The term "working poor" puzzled me and I read on. According to the article, "working poor" is defined as someone whose income per household member is less than half of the national median per capita household income of Singapore, which now stands at S$1,920.

Based on this definition, someone whose income per household member is less than $960 per member is considered as "working poor". Extrapolating this further, if you have the following household income for the corresponding number of household members, you are considered to be "working poor".

no. of household members	income
1	$960
2	$1920
3	$2880
4	$3840
5	$4800
6	$5760
and so on....

Interestingly, a similar definition is used by Hong Kong for "poverty".

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/hong-kong-implements/829688.html

An extract of the article: Hong Kong on Saturday announced its first benchmark to measure poverty and found almost 20 percent of residents live in such conditions, a move hailed as a step towards tackling worsening inequality. The poverty line, marked at half of the median household income, showed 1.31 million people in the city were living in poverty, a rate of 19.6 percent, based on official data from 2012.

The study in the 1st article also stated that "more than 300,000 Singaporeans and Permanent Residents who earn less than S$1,500 a month, excluding employer CPF contributions, despite working full-time."

If these household have 2 or more members, they would have been considered as "working poor".

With rising cost of living, it makes us wonder how the poorer residents struggle to make ends meet in Singapore. 

I will end off this post with a few questions we we can ask ourselves:

1) Is the workfare income supplement (WIS) scheme sufficient? Are workers really being trained to increase productivity? 

2) Should we have a minimum wage scheme?

3) Are you willing to pay more taxes so that the government can raise social spending to help the disadvantaged?

REIT Ranking - Sept 2013

REIT Ranking for Sept 2013.

REIT	Mkt	Yield	NAV	Gearing	P/B	Total	P/B score	Gearing score	Yield score
LippoMalls	$0.435	8.552%	$0.567	24.20%	0.767	7	3	2	2
SoilbuildBizREIT	$0.745	7.821%	$0.800	29.90%	0.931	6	2	2	2
Fortune Reit HK$	$6.080	5.921%	$10.010	20.90%	0.607	6	3	2	1
Cambridge	$0.670	7.424%	$0.670	35.80%	1.000	5	2	1	2
OUE HT	$0.885	7.154%	$0.903	33.20%	0.980	5	2	1	2
CapitaRChina	$1.375	6.880%	$1.420	23.50%	0.968	5	2	2	1
SaizenREIT	$0.184	6.848%	$0.250	38.00%	0.736	5	3	1	1
AIMSAMPI Reit	$1.500	6.667%	$1.501	25.40%	0.999	5	2	2	1
Far East HTrust	$0.915	6.251%	$0.963	29.30%	0.950	5	2	2	1
CapitaComm	$1.450	5.579%	$1.650	28.90%	0.879	5	2	2	1
Sabana REIT	$1.075	8.958%	$1.060	37.10%	1.014	4	1	1	2
CACHE	$1.180	7.298%	$0.960	29.20%	1.229	4	0	2	2
AscottREIT	$1.260	7.094%	$1.360	40.20%	0.926	4	2	0	2
Frasers Comm	$1.260	6.968%	$1.450	39.50%	0.869	4	2	1	1
CDL Htrust	$1.630	6.693%	$1.600	29.70%	1.019	4	1	2	1
Ascendasreit	$2.280	6.228%	$1.938	28.60%	1.176	4	1	2	1
Starhill Gbl	$0.795	6.000%	$0.880	30.30%	0.903	4	2	1	1
SuntecReit	$1.635	5.517%	$2.037	36.50%	0.803	4	2	1	1
SPHREIT	$0.975	5.149%	$0.890	27.30%	1.096	4	1	2	1
MapletreeInd	$1.350	7.200%	$1.110	35.80%	1.216	3	0	1	2
AscendasHT	$0.780	6.923%	$0.770	35.40%	1.013	3	1	1	1
MapletreeLog	$1.070	6.729%	$0.920	34.00%	1.163	3	1	1	1
Kep REIT	$1.230	6.423%	$1.270	44.20%	0.969	3	2	0	1
FrasersCT	$1.845	6.179%	$1.540	30.40%	1.198	3	1	1	1
MapletreeGCC	$0.895	6.101%	$0.949	41.50%	0.943	3	2	0	1
CapitaMall	$1.960	5.179%	$1.680	34.90%	1.167	3	1	1	1
First REIT	$1.115	6.493%	$0.897	33.40%	1.243	2	0	1	1
MapletreeCom	$1.215	5.771%	$1.070	40.80%	1.136	2	1	0	1
PLife REIT	$2.350	4.477%	$1.550	31.20%	1.516	1	0	1	0

For how the scores are being calculated:
Reit Rankings - Mad Stranger's scoring system

Disclaimers:

The score system only serves as an indicator on how the REIT is with respect to its yield, P/B and gearing. The ranking is also heavily dependent on the accuracy of the data shown on reitdata.com, investors are advised to do your own cross checking. It is always prudent to do your own research before making any buys or sells.