Once in a while you get these great gems from reading the papers. In a Business Times interview, David Lawrence practically whacked the greedy banks and at the same time dished out an excellent investment advice. It’s never been so clear.
In the words of the Wheelock Properties CEO,
“A lot of this crap was sold by so-called relationship managers in the heartlands, in the HDB estates. The banks use pretty girls to sell to the uncles and pretty boys to sell to the aunties. All they are interested in is their commission. They know nothing, these people.”
As for the right way to invest, Mr Lawrence said,
“Personally, I never buy any structured product. I only buy stocks… There are very good stocks, with good boards of directors, that pay good dividends. So don’t be greedy. Just invest in Singapore companies (such as the three local banks, Keppel, Fraser & Neave, Singapore Press Holdings, SingTel and Singapore Technologies) … with boards of directors – executive and independent directors – with proven integrity.”
The basic idea is to buy blue chips and hold them (see also market cycle investing), like what Mr Lawrence said:
“Even if you buy high and they go low, you just keep them and live off the dividend. Don’t buy unless you’re going to hold them for the long term.”
Reference: Wanted: A cheap platform to trade in local stocks (BT article, July 5, 2009)