Government direction again

A few weeks ago the HK government, once again, pronounced that it would consider giving resources to boost the growth of six different trades. It is just a repetition of the same mistake made years ago when the ex-CE claimed that HK would be a hub of Chinese medicine or IT or whatever. We now know that those ideas were built on sand. Again? Please don't.

Government giving directions never work. Those who work for the HK government are just people who know nothing but bureaucracy, probably they know one thing - how not to do it. You ask them to lead us? The performance of our government in the last 12 years speaks for itself.

The government should only provide the rule of law, respect its people, give us justice as well as beneficence and we should be doing fine. We know what we need. Give us the tools and we will finish the job. This is not North Korea, we don't need non-stop directions.

Donation

As the economy is getting worse, more social organizations require donations from the public. We may donate a few dollars on street, but how can we know whether an organization is worth to donate if we want to donate more say a hundred dollars?

I think a simple way is to know the background of the charity you want to donate. We can go to see the website of the charity and see whether you like to support the services provided by the charity. In addition, you need to see the annual report to find out how the charity has spent its donations. If a charity has spent a substantial amount of donations to its staff salary, you should be careful. A good charity should, from my point of view, spends 90% of its income to its services. Anything between 80% and 89% is acceptable. Lower than 80% is not a good charity. If a charity cannot even provide a financial statement in its annual report, don't donate.

Be competitive

In the last 15 years, more people received post-secondary education. The result is that more educated people go to the job market. The market becomes more competitive in terms of education background.

20 years ago, you could assure yourself that you would get a decent job if you had a bachelor degree. 10 years ago, you could assure yourself that you were ahead of others if you had a master degree; and for those with a bachelor degree only, they had to work hard to find a good job. Now, you can assure yourself that you will have a good chance to get a job if you have a doctorate degree; and for those with a master degree only, they are not so sure and for the poor ones who only have a bachelor degree, tough life ahead.

If you still have years before retirement and want to be competitive, keep studying.

2009 Financial Budget

Have you read about the budget 2009 which is just released this week? I only know some of the key suggestions but they are heading to failure.

The government wants to create jobs for people. It is the right direction, but the internship programme for students means the government is extending the unemployability of students. The only purpose of internship programme is for reducing the unemployment rate, not for enhancing students' abilities for employment. Many students show their discontent by only getting several thousands a month in the internship program, they want to make big money. Unfortunately, they do not know that some of them are unemployable. If they were smart, they should get a job without assistance from government. The government should have enhanced their employability before pushing them to the market.

Adult Education

Our economy is getting worse so many working adults who want to do better than others are eager to enrol in adult education. The question is: what do you want to study?

Adult education is a big market and many institutions are offering various courses for working adults. However, having taken some of these courses does not mean that you job is secure. You need to know what an employer really wants.

Based on my experience in job interviews, I think most of the employers want three basic skills:-

1. above average spoken and written language skills, both English and Chinese;
2. logical problem solving skills; and
3. interpersonal skills to face difficult persons.

Go for courses that help you to enhance these skills and you should be doing fine with you job.

投資之道

很多人都喜歡投資，但不少人在過往都有損失，此情况在去年尤甚。究竟投資是否有穩賺之法？

答案是否定的。投資是由我們的不同決定而有不同後果，正如我們在工作上所作的決定一樣，都會有錯對，那在投資上又豈能只賺不蝕？

如要正確投資，應注意以下事項：

一、多看高質素財經報刋如Financial Times 及信報/明報；
二、只選擇自己熟悉的行業的頭兩位股票，而且最好是藍籌股。大家只要對比去年藍籌股跌幅與其他股票跌幅便知損失一半與九成實在有很大分別；
三、不要持有多於五隻股票而且毎天都應該留意自己所持股票的公司是否穩當；
四、絕不沾手任何衍生工具，從無人能用買衍生工具產品而賺大錢；
五、每月只能買賣一次。

2009

From all I read I realize that 2009 should be a difficult year. Although we are not heading to depression but we are in a recession and it could last for a couple of years.

Is it possible for us to do better in this recession?

Since the recession affects the whole world, there is no way that you can avoid it. That means no matter where you go, you would still feel the heat of recession. There is no place to hide.

For those who want to do better, you should prepare yourself to be able to find a living wherever you are. If you are managed to do it, then you definitely are much better than others. The question is how one can prepare himself to be able to find a living globally. The answers may be found in a book written by Kenichi Ohmae. He suggests that you need three abilities: language, finance, and problem solving. Language means excellent English, finance means knowledge of investment, and problem solving means logic. Kenichi comments that if you have the above abilities, you can go anywhere.

From my personal experience, I agree with what Kenichi said. There is no question that English helps you to communicate with others, investment knowledge leads you to affluence, and logic makes you excel at work. If you do not know much about the three abilities, learn them. They may save you in the coming few years.