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Showing posts from April, 2007

Buying Property 2 - what my uncle told me

My uncle is a very successful man. He retired as a CEO and is now sitting on the board of directors of a few companies due to his expertise. So when I told him I was looking for a place to buy, he gave me some advice and to be sure, I listened! He said that first, you have to work out what you can afford. Sounds simple and basic common sense, right? But don't be surprised that a lot of people never do that, then get themselves in Heap Big Trouble, Kimosabe when the bills start adding up. THEN, he said, after you've figured out what is affordable, you should stretch yourself (!) and try to buy something a little bit beyond your capability. Now that is counter-intuitive to what he just said earlier, right? So I was like, duh? And he was like, there are 2 reasons: Firstly - you are very unlikely to be 'in love' with a property that is 'affordable' (mind you, this only applies to the purchase of your home, not investment property), so why make yourself feel like yo

Bank service sucks? Maybe not....

A lot of people complain about the bad service they get from their banks. I've always wondered about that because I've always gotten pretty decent service and at times, very good service too! And this is not at the bank where I work but at other places. After having a bit of think about it - I believe it really boils down to the customers themselves. Looking back at the type of customers who complain a lot - I'm sorry to say that most of them are really a clueless lot. The unfortunate thing is these are the type of people who THINK they know everything but in reality, ahem..., don't know very much. So they ASSUME that things should be done this way and they ASSUME that the poor customer service officer can read their minds. They ASSUME that they are right and everyone else (especially the bank that is 'out to cheat their money') is wrong. See the pattern? Really, a bank is just a business. The people who work there are just salaried employees. Policy and procedu