23 January 2019
Question: According to MSN: Money, what are five (5) bad money habits you picked up from your parents?
Ebay under pressure for break-up as activist hedge funds take stakes – Pg. 1
– Ebay, founded a year before Amazon, was an ecommerce pioneer and is still known predominantly as an auction site for buying and selling memorabilia and used items, though used goods account for only about 20% of its sales
– The company has been overshadowed by Amazon, which has lured merchants who used to flock to eBay to its own platform. Ebay has far fewer customers and slower growth than its rival and Amazon’s third-party sales have ballooned, helping it capture half of the online retail market in the US
Hong Kong homes retain title of world’s most expensive helped by cheap credit – Pg. 19
– Hong Kong’s housing market has been ranked the least affordable in the world for the ninth successive year, despite a recent drop in prices
– …median prices for a home reaching 21 times annual household income
– Prices have almost tripled during the past decade, buoyed by Chinese buyers and investors from overseas
– A dearth of housing stock and banks offering an abundance of cheap credit have been the two main drivers of prices…
– Vancouver was ranked the second least affordable city in 2018, displacing Sydney, which held the spot the previous year. Property prices in the Australian city fell about 5% last year, …
– Prices in Hong Kong have, however fallen back sharply since August, dropping almost 10%…
– The end of post-financial crisis stimulus measures, in the form of quantitative easing and low interest rates, is set to drain liquidity from the global economic system, which could also weigh on prices in Hong Kong’s property market
Answer: (1) You are wary of investing (Prof Note: You have to get in the game!); (2) You will not use a credit card (Prof Note: Points = rewards); (3) You carry a balance to build credit (Prof Note: This is costing you 18%); (4) It is whole life insurance or nothing; (5) You are fixated on buying a house (Prof Note: A home with a standard mortgage is a forced savings vehicle)