Dissonance

CLIMBING, OR MY LACK THEREOF

After much reflection, I realised that I was at my happiest in the final year of university. No, the reason was not getting FYP out of the way, nor getting over two traumatic failed relationships. The reason was because I finally fulfilled my dream of living the life of a pro-athlete. I overloaded on academic modules in the earlier semesters with the view of enjoying a lighter load in my final semester, timing it to coincide with the bouldering competition season. The earlier semesters were hell, but as a result I was granted the time to put climbing at the top of my priority list. Priceless.

Banal

One of my favourite columns in The Sunday Times is the Me and My Money feature. The articles typically involve rags-to-riches stories, inspiring ordinary people with 'if-I-can-do-it-so-can-you' anecdotes. These are stories of hard work, financial prudence, fiscal discipline, steely determination and shrewd business sense, revealing much about the myriad of strategies successful people have adopted to rise to the top or escape from the rat race.

But recent features have become increasingly mundane, even to the point of being plain senseless. Are the journalists running out of people to interview? Take this weekend's (18 Nov 2012) feature for example.

I'm a Big Kid now

My manager requested that I let the intern tag along with me while going on my daily rounds. At first I was concerned that she will slow me down. I do, after all, work at a blistering pace. But after a moment's consideration I decided that I was game. It was not too long ago that I was an intern. And I remembered how being brought out of the office and onto the field was a real treat for me back then!

And so she tagged along for the afternoon. Partly for her benefit, I only arranged for 3 inspections that afternoon. I didn't want to inflict mental trauma, you see. The day passed smoothly, but on the drive back to office, I knew the inevitable question was looming. I should know, it used to be one of my favourite questions too. Is this your typical day? Adopting the 'honesty is the best policy' approach, I informed her that a more typical day involves 4-5 inspections. On more busy periods, you can do upwards of 10 cases per day. "My personal record is 12 inspections in 6 hours", I smiled broadly. "What we did today was a walk in the park", I added.

"You have to run so many cases, where do you find the time to type the reports?", she countered. Ah hah. There we have it, the elephant in the room nobody could bring themselves to talk about.

Rich Singaporeans

I read with incredulity a Strait's Times article (dated 2 June, 2012) about how a recent study by BCG has found that one in six Singaporean households are millionaires. That is to say, 17% of Singaporean households have investible assets of US$1million or more. Do note that property and other non-financial assets are excluded from consideration, which means that the number of rich in Singapore can only be more mind-boggling. Is the study credible? I find it such statistics hard to believe.

My eyes were opened not long after embarking on the job.

Mortgage Valuation

Where do you work?

I work in the mortgage valuation department. For the benefit of friends who want to know more, I shall elaborate. 

What is Mortgage Valuation?

When a buyer is interested in buying a property, he will need to approach the bank for a mortgage. Because property transactions are capital intensive, buyers typically only put up 20-40% equity (depending on your credit rating), borrowing the remainder from the bank. 

When the buyer applies for a mortgage, the bank will commission a property valuation firm to conduct a mortgage valuation. The report is used to establish whether the property is worth the value that the buyer is proposing to buy it for. The bank requires it to protect itself in the event that the borrower defaults, i.e. fails to pay up. Should the borrower default, the bank will have to sell the property, and they need to know that if they do sell the property the proceeds can cover the loan. 

Here you might ask, why doesn't the bank just hold onto the property for capital appreciation, while renting it out to derive income in the meantime? The short answer to that is that banks prefer to focus on their core business of banking, not property investment.