Learn from Mr Tan Kin Lian

Mr Tan Kin Lian is the ex-CEO of NTUC Income and currently, leveraging on his vast experience in the insurance industry, he is teaching the public about personal finance, insurance and investment. His investment philosophy lies in low cost index funds. You can visit his blog:

http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/

OR his personal website:

http://www.tankinlian.com/index.html

If you need advice on managing your finances, he is definitely a person to go to.




photo credit: Wesley Fryer

What I learned from his blog:

From his post titled, "Biggest gamble in history - Credit default swaps"

Credit Default Swap (CDS) - USD 45 trillion
Stock market - USD 22 trillion
Housing market (mortgages) - USD 7 trillion
US Treasuries - USD 4 trillion

I was alarmed to see CDS to be valued at US$45 trillion. Let me expand into numbers... US$45 trillion = $45,000,000,000,000. If you think stock market is big, it is only worth half of CDS market!

US govt recently released US$700 billion to help the failing financial system. Compare with the CDS value, it is nowhere near. Prepare for the worst!

This is just a sample of what one can learn and there are much more articles and blog posts to read from his websites. If only you have the patience and enthusiasm to learn, you will level up your financial intelligence tremendously.