Did you watch the 2017 National Day Rally last Sunday evening?
No, our Prime Minister didn’t mention the master plan or the property market. Nor did he cover any schedule to relax the cooling measures. As expected, there’s no mention of MRT either.
He only talked about e-payments, diabetes and pre-school education.
Tay Kah Poh, Executive Director & Head of Residential Services at Knight Frank, told me this recently:
“In Singapore, there are only 3 things that people really care: education, wealth and health. And we talk about them all the time.”
I couldn’t agree with him more.
Education, wealth and health are all that matters – nearby schools, PSLE, overseas education, stocks, properties, CPF, retirement, diseases, diet, etc.
When we are below 20, we talk about our grades in schools.
When we are in our 20s, we talk about our salaries at work.
When we are in our 30s, we talk about our homes and cars.
When we are in our 40s, we talk about our children’s grades, our homes and cars.
When we are in our 50s, we talk about our savings and retirement plan.
When we are in our 60s, we talk about how many pills we take every day.
When we are over 70, we talk about how many grandchildren we have and which schools they go.
You see, our whole life revolves around education, wealth and health.
That’s why our PM talked about pre-school education, e-payments and diabetes.
And don’t be disappointed that he didn’t mention properties in his speech. This is a property blog. I can always relate anything to our favorite topic.
Below are 3 very important lessons I picked up from our PM’s speech.
1. It is precisely because you are not worried, that I am worried.
The average life expectancy of Singaporeans is 82, but we have an average of 8 years of ill health in our final years. Above all, 3 in 10 Singaporeans over the age of 60 have diabetes.
Despite this, we continue to top up our meals with sugary drinks whenever we eat outside … until one day we become diabetes or pre-diabetes.
The problem is: Most Singaporeans are not worried about diabetes. This is exactly what the government is worried. Last year, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said it has declared war on diabetes – one of the biggest drains on Singapore’s healthcare system.
Isn’t the government doing the same for properties?
From 2009, buyers and investors continued to snap up properties despite spiraling prices. Despite repeated warnings from the government to buy or invest prudently, property-obsessed Singaporeans still rushed to upgrade their homes or buy their second property.
According to the Ascendant Assets’ Property Investor Profile Survey, a typical Singapore property investor is 46 years old, married and have an average of $100,000 to $400,000 spare cash.
Can the family’s breadwinner with school-going kids continue to service his mortgage if he loses his job? Does he have enough spare cash to top up the difference if the value of his property drops below his outstanding loan?
It is precisely because the buyers are not worried, that the government is worried.
To ensure that the property market is sustainable, the government introduced eight rounds of cooling measures from 2009 to 2013 in order to slowdown an overheated market.
2. It’s not what you know. It’s what you don’t know that costs you the most.
The PM suggested that the solution for high diabetes rate is to make it mandatory for soft drink manufacturers to reduce the sugar level in all their drinks selling in Singapore.
But from a young age, we have been brainwashed by all the advertisements marketing different types of sugary drinks. The celebrities all look cool and healthy in the ads.
Similarly, the newspaper and TV ads of new launch are all projecting a middle-class lifestyle with loving couples and blissful families. They are selling us the Singapore dream. Who will think of toiling for a 30-year mortgage when we submit the cheque?
The project brochure shows ‘artist’s impressions’ of infinite blue sky, lush greenery, beautiful beach or breathtaking seaview. The showflat displays modern renovation and designer fittings. Who will think of, after collecting the key to your new home, the flyover is right outside your bare unit which has countless developer defects waiting the longest time to be fixed?
American writer Josh Billings said it best:
“It ain’t so much the thing we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things we know that just ain’t so.”
3. Those who care the least are the ones who need help the most.
From next month onwards, for those above the age of 40, MOH will offer them S$100 health check-ups at S$5 only.
Unless the government makes it compulsory, even if it is free of charge, how many will go?
People go for health check-ups for three reasons: 1) they are very health conscious; 2) they are required to do so for employment; or 3) they are asked by their doctors to do so to confirm the bad news.
Many years ago, NKF came to our office to do free health check-ups. Those who signed up were all young and healthy ones. The “overweight never exercise” colleagues put up all sorts of excuses not to go.
What for? To confirm that they have high cholesterol or pre-diabetes?
Do you notice most joggers passing by you look really fit? Most people in the gym don’t look like they need to work so hard?
That reminds me of the National Steps Challenge organized by Health Promotion Board. After the campaign ends, many are still using the pedometer to ensure that they walk 10,000 steps a day, even if they are no longer rewarded with shopping vouchers.
Are they health conscious and physically active people in the first place?
I am running a full day workshop on Home Defects Inspection tomorrow. I can imagine people who signed up are serious people who will learn everything they care about.
Those who drop me email – saying they have made regrettable mistakes and wish they could have read my book earlier or attended my workshops before – are most likely not members of Property Club Singapore and have never joined our events.
And please don’t ask me what you should do now with your regretted purchase or wrong property.
Sorry, I am not a doctor. I can only play my part on the prevention, not the cure.
Another good article, thank you, thank you.
Yes, if only there are real crystal balls that foretell future to avoid mistakes…
Glad that you like this article.
We don’t need a crystal ball if we can put our greed and fear aside and look back in time. Many things are not new because history keeps repeating itself. It is us who haven’t learned our lessons.
Warren buffett’s quote “Our favourite holding period is forever.”
Phil Fisher preferred a holding period of almost forever (e.g., Fisher bought Motorola in 1955 and held it until 2004).
Have you ever regretted liquidating all your 4 properties in less than 7 years, losing substantial capital appreciation and lots of income yield in anticipation of the next financial crisis which we won’t know for certain when it’s coming?
I don’t know much about stocks. But value investors still need the discipline to sell once any stock in their portfolio is overvalued.
Unlike stocks, holding residential properties for a long period of time have to deal with rental fluctuations, maintenance, refinancing, cooling measures, etc. I would rather cash out, enjoy peace of mind and spend precious time with my young family. But don’t follow me. I am lucky that I am not the family breadwinner. I don’t have to pay bills.
Honestly, as inexperienced as me when I bought my first property portfolio during those younger days, I should be grateful that I have made that kind of profit for my first try. Above all, I have learned something.
But will I still be proud of myself one day when I tell my children or grandchildren that I used to buy “that type of properties”, I don’t think so.
Yes, I miss it every time I pass by my old properties – not about that negligible amount of money, but memories of that young girl who was once overjoyed that she found a “good buy” many years ago … oh no, I’d better move on.
Thanks for sharing… Looking forward to the next “GSS”…
Thanks for asking. Just remember two things:
1) Amateurs are worried that they aren’t making enough, but pros are worried that they are making too much. (Jim Cramer)
2) People lose money not by failing to beat inflation, but by investing in the wrong thing at the wrong time.(Property Soul)