Notice of Temporary Closure

Dear Readers,

I will be away to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul for a summer program and might not be able to keep up with my weekly Wednesday postings. However, I will keep you guys updated if I come across anything of interest in these Asian financial hubs.

My regular posts will resume in end July!

Jack Read more ...

Keeping it real

Dear Loyal Sense and Cents Readers, Since Mr Jack has gotten the ball rolling with cleaning out closets...I guess I'd have a chat post too... haha...

Well, Mr Jack forgot to intro about what we do!

Mr Jack is an entrepreneurial( I can never get the spelling of the word right!) and enterprising businessman dealing with financial services in Singapore and future economist! Always full of ideas and creativity regarding money and many other things... Always setting the bar higher and making me work harder!( Now I'm obliged to come up with two posts a week too! TT)

And well me, I just graduated with a degree in Commerce(Finance) and have just started work this week at some financial institution in Malaysia =D My business role models/heroes would be Sir Richard Branson and Anthony Robbins, because of soooooooooo many reasons, but mainly because besides being successful financially, they are also successful in other aspects of life and believe in giving back to the community.

Well well, so this site came to fruition about 5 weeks ago because
-research about and souping up my resume and going for interviews was boring and tedious
-I've always had a passion for teaching and sharing my experience
-we wanted people to see the importance of financial planning and create financial awareness and hopefully "savvy-ness".
-we wanted to do this in a fun and interesting way that people could relate
-Mr Jack writes posts that are both engaging and easy to relate to

So yes, Mr Jack and I have been quietly building up this corner of the Blogosphere to achieve a certain quality and quantity of posts in the hopes that it'd be well accepted and gain a loyal following!

Unlike Mr Jack, I don't like following a set formula! haha... oh well.. We'll probably have a chat on that... Creating posts on Sense & Cents has become a part of my life, and I'd always be on the look out for things to put in here with a fun finance perspective!

So... I have quite a many topics coming your way from 'the power of compounding', 'the power of networking'(very Anthony Robbins inspired), my experiences at work, more newspaper cuttings, how i got around the option to ride problem, and of course a post about the hot air balloon for Mr Jack's fan, which I hope will turn he/she into my fan too! So keep in tune and tell your friends about us!

Oh yea... I have high hopes in making this blog a huge success, but I believe in taking things a small step at a time! But hopefully, it'll become as succesful as Bransons' and garner advertising revenue for charities! Big dreams, little baby steps.

" A journey of a thousand steps starts with one"

Okay... This post is getting a bit too big.. but i still have so much to ramble on about... haha.... Well all in all, running this blog with Mr Jack has been a wonderful experience thus far, I've learnt alot about blogging/work/finance, how to get people to contribute posts, learn how to see things from newer perspectives and how to coordinate with people who are not on the same continent with you.

So yes, We're definitely here for the long haul, and we always welcome contributors, in whatever way! Just like how Ms Mabel, Ms Arumugum and Ms Sarah Lim have helped out! And of course, a big thank you to our loyal readers thus far! We've reached 1300 page views without any hardsell and seeing the site visit stats every Sunday makes me feel its worth it! =D

Well, so, please stay with us as we gain more insight and experience in finance/business/economics and sharing our many many ideas and grow with us!

Cheers,
Tau

Credit goes to Ms Sarah Lim for the above banner too! She created a whole series to choose from! Read more ...

Cleaning Out My Closet

This is not a post about Eminem's song, its about the song I will be singing from now on.

For the discerning reader, you would probably have noticed 3 things:
1) That this blog is maintained mainly by 2 main men: Tau and Mr Jack.
2) That Mr Jack is yours truly.
3) That Mr Jack is seriously in need of some organization.
If you have not noticed any of the above, you probably should spend more time reading our posts.

I did a quick run through of my posts so far and I noticed 3 things:
1) That I tend to make analogies that barely 'analogolise'
2) That my humor is only very funny very infrequently.
3) That there is no semblance of any linkage between my posts.
Initially I wanted things to flow naturally and not to restrict myself but it seems like the au naturel way is perhaps not the best way.

This is the post to set things right, if there's anything to read this lazy Sunday, it is this post.

In order to make this post value-for-minute, I will stick to a formula I've conjured after mixing and matching around. There will be 2 types of posts from now on, namely: Reflective and Informative.

Reflective posts will take place on odd Wednesdays (i.e. Wednesdays with odd numerical dates on the calendar like 1st, 15th etc.) and I will either do
1) Personal experience or interpretation of Finance;
2) Review of a Book or Movie that contains insightful financial information.

Informative posts will take place on even Wednesdays (i.e. Wednesdays with even numerical dates on the calendar like 8th, 14th etc.) and I will either do
1) Commentary on recent financial developments in the markets based on me scrutinizing the major news sources including
i)The Straits Times (My local newspaper)
ii) Time Magazine (Print Edition)
iii) Financial Times (Print Edition)
iv) The Economist (Online Edition)
v) International Herald Tribune (Online Edition)
2) Defining jargons that 'jarg' your world

There! My newly formulated blogging method with a fixed structure yet retaining a certain random element to keep me excited enough to keep blogging. Here's a summary of how you will benefit by adding this blog to your Favorites:
1) Humorous musings of my financial experiences;
2) Reviews of useful books and movies so that you can save the trouble of actually reading or watching them;
3) Commentary of major newspapers and magazines around the globe so that you do not have to read them too!
4) Defining jargons to help you make sense of cents!

Most importantly, all of this is absolutely free! Unless you want to include the electricity and broadband fees you incur in which case I would be incurring more of those charges since I need time to plan, edit and draft the posts so essentially... I am indirectly paying you to read this blog! Now you may ask what's in it for me? The kicks of knowing that my writing is being read by another person!

My Closet is Cleaned, stick around for this coming even Wednesday! Why Wednesdays? I just thought most people would be lazing around in the office on Wednesdays looking for blog posts to read and Wednesday fits into my schedule really well. If you really have a problem with me posting on Wednesdays, drop me a message.

I'm told I make a pretty good counselor as well. Read more ...

Banner!

Dear Readers,

Noticed our new swanky banner?
Credit goes to Ms Sarah Lim for giving time-n-effort for its creation!
Sense-n-Cents would like to graciously offer BIG BIG appreciation to our dear banner creator! =D

Interested in her works, or would like her to create something for you?
Just drop a shout or comment and I'll lead you to her!

Cheers~
Tau n Mr Jack Read more ...

Prologue: sense-n-cents.blogspot.com

Ever flipped through the finance segment of a newspaper and found yourself scratching your head in vain trying to make sense of all the technical jargon found in it?

Well, you are not alone. Even with a degree in Finance, I find myself having to read through some reports several times to make sense of it.

There are COUNTLESS other blogs out there who provide good, unbiased reports of the financial world and we're not seeking to barge into their territory, instead, we want to complement their services by helping you better understand their reports.

The purpose of this blog is not to sell financial advise or tell you which financial instrument(investment) will earn you the most money; instead it aims to educate readers about finance and communicate it in layman's terms that everyone can understand, in other words we're trying to make 'sense of cents'. Read more ...