There are more and more wealthy people in Singapore.
The number of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) increased by 32.7% to 81,600 according to the latest Asia-Pacific Wealth Report 2010 by Capgemini and Merill Lynch. This is also reported in Todayonline.
In the Asia Pacific region, the increase is less steep, at 25.8%.
This tells us two things.
First, Singapore is increasingly becoming a magnet for rich people.
We have the 2 IRs catering to the luxurious lifestyle of the rich.
And most recently, we held the F1 night race for the 3rd time, which (as someone said to me) inconvenienced thousands of not-so-rich car drivers and commoner commuters for the benefit of a relatively small number of people indulging in rich man’s sports.
The second and perhaps more important observation is this: It is in times of financial crisis that some people get rich and some rich people get richer.
They must have taken advantage of the low valuations during the troughs and bought shares & properties with opportunity funds they saved up during the good times.
The smart investors know that stock and property markets run in cycles and are always ready to take the plunge to exploit recessions (though not without taking some risks).
It is little wonder that news reports say that the number of HNWIs has risen “on the back of the strong performance of domestic equity markets.”
3 Comments
yup, i made a couple of 100k from the lehman crisis, but as you said, it was risky. i was pretty worried about the crisis turning into a prolonged depression.
A corollary to “It is in times of financial crisis that some people get rich and some rich people get richer.” is that some people and in fact a whole lot of people also get poorer, otherwise why not have a crisis every year, month, and day? Heck, it may as well be that crisis is the way to economic wealth for everyone!!!
I may look foolish now, but give it 2 or 3 years, you may not recognize Singapore then after most of the prosperity is gone (a lot of them permanently).
then the lesson for us is to avoid being one of those who get poorer during a crisis.
saving up for crisis investment is one good way to do that. the money saved can both be used as a cushion and as an opportunity fund.
also, do not over stretch oneself in financial commitments, eg don’t borrow too much to “invest” in properties or to start a business.
simple strategies, but you still see many people getting burnt all the time crisis or otherwise, cos an idiot is born every minute. if you aren’t an idiot, it’s quite easy to be comfortable financially. to be really filthy rich, you need to have that something special, or some special help from somewhere.