Cost of parenting

[mintcc]

hee actually it depends on the state and university. But students need to pass quite a difficult german paper to get in and like you say, living expense is quite high and part time jobs can be more difficult to find there.


China will probably be a good option too. However, the better universities will be probably be quite difficult to get in, espcially with the average Singapore kid’s level of chinese.

[kiasu_pig]

kaitlynangelica:

...

My friend is mad. she invests practically all her money into unit trusts and then says that long-term everything should be okay even with such market conditions.

..

it is a common misconception that by investing in unit trusts means buying into the funds and \"forget\" about, thinking that in the long terms (in term of decades), the unit trusts would generate good returns.

to really benefit from unit trusts, it is still \"to sell when price is high\" and \"to buy when price is low\". This is especially true for unit trusts' products that don't give dividend units annually or bi-annually - and what you hold now, on the assumption that you are not buying more, would be the same units in X years later. Conservative investors would probably ague that by selling out of the trusts, they would incur administrative fee or penality - that's like being \"penny-wise but pound foolish\".

The old strategy of a \"regular saving plan based on <b>Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)</b>\" for unit trusts is dated - the new strategy is on <b>\"Value Averaging\"</b>.

No matter what, any investment of unit trusts or shares, it's still good to have some finanical knowledge, and not to invest in any financial products if one is not familiar with.

disclaimer - i am not in the financial sector nor financial planner or whatsoever. i am just a kiasu parent who is worried about saving (investing) enough to make sure my boys can get an overseas tertiary education that i desired myself but unfortunately has neither has the brains to get a PSC scholarship nor a rich parents to pay for one.[/size]
:celebrate:

[ZacK]

super_dad:

So if by the time that you kid reaches time for Uni...and you find yourself with no money. what are the options? If kid not smart enough to get scholarship, any loan scheme etc?


Seems like quite tough to get a degree in future and they can be deprived of it due to financial reasons.

Any thing we can do as parents to prevent this?

If I'm caught in this situation ... I'll ask ds to go find a job and work full time and study part time. Not easy but can be done... hopefully he'll then study hard cos it cost him to finance his studies.

Alternatively get him to start his own biz ... no paper qualifications needed

[nightsky87]

kiasu_pig:

The old strategy of a \"regular saving plan based on average cost investment\" for unit trusts is dated - the new strategy is on \"value cost investment\" - buy more units when economy is slowing down and buy less units when economy is going up.

disclaimer - i am not in the financial sector nor financial planner or whatsoever. i am just a kiasu parent who is worried about saving (investing) enough to make sure my boys can get an overseas tertiary education that i desired myself but unfortunately has neither has the brains to get a PSC scholarship nor a rich parents to pay for one.

:celebrate:

Your 'value cost investment' is generally known as DCA, or Dollar Cost Averaging. In simple terms, this means spending a FIXED amount of money per time frame (monthly/quarterly), and if the economy is good (prices are high) you will tend to buy less, similarly if the economy is bad (ie prices are low), with the same amount of money you will get more units. As time passes you will find that the 'cost' of shares is averaged out, since you buy less shares at a higher price and more shares at lower prices hence the term 'averaging'. Not exactly viable for everyone for a number of reasons and hence by the same token not highly recommended, though a very legitimate and sound strategy.

[kiasu_pig]

nightsky87:

Your 'value cost investment' is generally known as DCA, or Dollar Cost Averaging. In simple terms, this means spending a FIXED amount of money per time frame (monthly/quarterly), and if the economy is good (prices are high) you will tend to buy less, similarly if the economy is bad (ie prices are low), with the same amount of money you will get more units. As time passes you will find that the 'cost' of shares is averaged out, since you buy less shares at a higher price and more shares at lower prices hence the term 'averaging'. Not exactly viable for everyone for a number of reasons and hence by the same token not highly recommended, though a very legitimate and sound strategy.

I used to practise \"Dollar cost averaging (DCA)\" but had since discarded it. You are right - DCA is the practice of investing the same amount of money at regular intervals (such as monthly) in a particular investment or portfolio, regardless of its share price. In this way, for the same amount of money, more shares are purchased when prices are low and fewer shares are bought when prices are high.

I had since adopted \"Value averaging (VA)\" strategy which is a formula-based strategy for making periodic investments. It is similar to DCA, except that the \"expected rate of returns\" is used in the formulaes. In layman term, it's merely investing more amount of money in \"good\" times, and less amount of money in \"not-so-good \" times, objective is to meet the desired \"internal rate of returns (IRR)\".

Kekeke.... unfortunately a/c still in the red ...

[sashimi]

Oh please, let’s just admit it: the world is built by the rich, to exploit the poor, in order to make the rich richer. If you are not rich, you are only there to serve the rich.


Things like insurance, banks, provident funds, "the economy", etc are all inventions made by the rich. And guess what? None of it is guaranteed, as shown by the latest crisis (which won’t be the last btw).

Sure I know I sound very bitter about this, but it’s the plain simple truth: money makes the world go round; and greed is its catalyst. The more money you make, the more you think you need. The sooner one realizes this, the sooner one can prepare.

One of the greatest ironies in life is that children are perhaps the best reason for accumulating (and spending) wealth - but parenting earns no money (eg. SAHMs).

I’m afraid the highest and most painful cost of parenting is: reality.


Sigh. Many apologies, everyone, kinda in a bad mood. I’m still trying to get over a very bad long weekend.

[buds]

Heyya sashimi,


Sad to know you didn't have a
very good long weekend..

[sashimi]

Thank you. I’m really sorry for posting something so depressing; it’s just that some days I don’t see parenting as bringing me any hint of joy. Some days. Please ignore me and go on with your regular programme, fellow KSPs. I’ll come back later…

[ZacK]

sashimi:

Thank you. I'm really sorry for posting something so depressing; it's just that some days I don't see parenting as bringing me any hint of joy. Some days. Please ignore me and go on with your regular programme, fellow KSPs. I'll come back later.....

Hope you recover soon ... On days when I am down... I would go on a drive alone, windows down, wind in my hair and music at full blast.... Some of my drives have taken me to Lim Chu Kang, Kranji dams, TPE, SLE etc ... Sometimes the relief comes from the adrenalin rush :!: ... Ok enuf info hehe...

Hear from you soon :celebrate:

[buds]

sashimi:

Thank you. I'm really sorry for posting something so depressing; it's just that some days I don't see parenting as bringing me any hint of joy. Some days. Please ignore me and go on with your regular programme, fellow KSPs. I'll come back later.....

It happens, sashimi.

Don't fret.

We all go through bad days like that sometimes.

Hope things will be better soon.