Tuesday, July 8, 2014

So what even if we (Singapore Investors) top the financial literacy survey?

Financial literacy
Last Sunday, there was an article in The Sunday Times, under "Invest" segment with the headline of "S'pore investors top financial literacy survey".  
 
The survey was conducted by Centre for Applied Research (an independent think-tank set-up by US financial services company, State Street Corporation) through 13 questions to retail investors in 16 countries (there were 180 investors from Singapore). Following are the Top 3 ranking :
 
1. Singapore (average score of 70%)
2. Australia (average score of 67%)
3. British (average score of 66%)
 
France fared the poorest, among the 16 countries with a barely-passing score of 55% and Netherland ranked the second last with 56%.
 
Besides the small sampling size which might not be representative enough for the overall local retail investors, such survey results can only proof a few things :
 
a. Retail Investors here are better in studying (or to the minimal, remembering what they have studied).
 
b. There are more than enough of financial resources available here, mostly free (both online and offline) which the retail investors can tap on at their fingertips.
 
In short, I don't buy the idea (or the result of the survey in this case). What about you?
 
Having said that, I am happy to read another news from CDP that they are seeing the highest surge of new accounts for the past 12-months. Majority of the new account holders are from those in their early 20s. This piece of news is more inspiring to me. ;-)
 
Cheers!   

10 comments:

  1. Oh no, more people seeking financial freedom is bad for the economy ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi B,

      Errrr... Why is that so? I thought the more people going into the market, it will make a more vibrant economy/market? No ah? ;-)

      Delete
    2. Savings are bad for the economy. We need people to spend spend and spend.

      Y = C + I + G + X - M

      :)

      Delete
    3. The formula looks interesting, do you mind explains more or expand it ? ;-)

      Delete
    4. Let me help B:

      https://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=Hd28U_P1G4KjugSN9YGADw&url=http://www.mindtools.net/GlobCourse/formula.shtml&cd=1&ved=0CBwQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNHJ8-kP3j0BghqXs2K24O8UI7B9SA&sig2=r2LinPO8XeQDbsTyhkVgAQ

      Savers are not contributing to C, so it's bad for the economy.

      Delete
    5. la Papillion, Thanks for the link. Now I see liao... ;-)

      Delete
  2. Really bad news!

    We need more employees and workers to work harder.

    :-)






    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think you need to be worry about that as not everyone can be as financially free as they like to be. Also, they might work even harder to accumulate the war chest for a considerable period first ;-)

      Delete
  3. Actually more people getting stock accounts is not a good sign. Usually they are lured by the late stages of the bull, just like I once was. Hmm, we shall see if history repeats itself again.

    ReplyDelete

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